Top in the Class Page 2

  Terry trudged to his Exposition and Argumentation class the next afternoon, wondering if he could skip it and call Kyle. Everything had been so basic thus far. Professors handed out syllabi, people went around the room and introduced themselves, they were sternly warned not to plagiarize their work; regardless of the course, it was all the same. The best Terry could hope for was that this professor let them go early once they finished reviewing the material.

  The seats at the back of the room filled up quickly, but Terry managed to squeeze in to the second-to-last row. A few people scooted their desks closer to their neighboring friends, blocking Terry’s view of the front of the room, but he was fine with that. It meant that if Kyle texted him, the professor might not see Terry writing back.

  Two minutes after the class was supposed to begin, the students were still the only ones in the room. Some began arguing over how long you had to wait before class was unofficially cancelled. Terry joined in their optimism. They stared at the clock at the back of the room, delighting in every tick of the minute hand that the professor wasn’t there.

  About five minutes later, the door opened again and a few of the students groaned under their breath. Terry rolled his eyes and turned back to the front of the classroom. When he saw who was standing behind the podium, he froze, heart in his throat.

  Kyle.

  “Hello, everyone. Sorry I’m late. I’m in two different classrooms this year and I showed up at the wrong one.” Kyle adjusted his tie and looked around the room. “Fortunately it looks like most, if not all of you, found the right one, although I want to be sure.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his notebook. “This is our roster for the semester, and I’m going to send it around the room so you can mark your initials next to your name. If your name isn’t on the list but you enrolled, write your full name at the bottom and I’ll see what I can do to fix it. Oh, and if you know someone in the class who isn’t here today, do not write their initials for them. Just tell them to be here next time.”

  Terry shifted uncomfortably in his chair, trying to suppress the semi he got just from hearing Kyle’s commanding voice. When Terry had told Kyle that he was going back to school, Kyle had sympathized because he was a teacher, but Terry had pictured him as a middle school gym teacher, or maybe a history professor. Never would he have guessed that Kyle was his professor. Terry wanted to thump his head on his desk for not inquiring more about Kyle’s personal life. Most of their conversations quickly progressed to a sexual nature, so Terry only had the basic details. The worst part was that Kyle hadn’t noticed him yet, or so it seemed. Terry slumped in his chair and hoped he wouldn’t be seen.

  Kyle introduced himself to the class as Professor Weiman and, just like all the other professors, gave a brief introduction to the course while the roster made its way around the desks. “This class is going to teach you how to build a strong argument for both written and oral presentations. At the end of every class we’ll argue something small, like which is the best season or whether men should leave the seat down, just to practice what you’ve learned and sharpen your skills for later. If anyone wants to argue with me mano-a-mano, my office hours are listed on the syllabus.”

  That was something. If Terry could meet with Kyle privately, he thought perhaps they could sort this whole thing out. Kyle was as sexy in his button-up and tie as he had been in a T-shirt and jeans at the club, except Terry’s gaze repeatedly fell to his professor’s crotch as he remembered the thick cock hiding behind the zipper. Terry could walk into Kyle’s office, lock the door behind him, slide into Kyle’s lap…

  The roster fluttered onto his desk, nearly falling off the edge as the person next to him lightly tossed it in his direction. Terry slapped his hand down to catch it. His eyes darted to the front of the room to make sure he hadn’t caught Kyle’s attention as well. Kyle was reading directly from the syllabus, though, telling students to highlight important paper due dates and exams. Terry scribbled his initials next to his name, then stared at the paper. He thought about adding something else, something to indicate who he was and what he thought about Kyle. Half the names still needed initialing, however, and he didn’t want half the class to suspect what was going on, if anything would be going on later.

  When the roster finally made it back to the front of the room, Kyle picked it up and skimmed it. “Okay, seems like we’re missing a few people, but we’ll see if they show up later or if…if they dropped out…” He trailed off and stared at the paper. Terry tried to swallow the knot in his throat. Kyle glanced around the room casually, straining his neck a little until he spotted Terry. They both froze momentarily, eyes locked for a few heartbeats that stretched on in uncomfortable silence.

  Kyle cleared his throat. “Yes, we’ll wait and see if they dropped out. In the meantime, let’s go over the rest of the syllabus, then unless you have questions for me, you can all leave.”

  The class was happy to hear it, but Terry remained mortified. Kyle hadn’t smiled or given any indication that he was pleased to see him. If anything, his eyes had narrowed briefly in irritation. Terry was dying to ask him what that was about and to apologize for the awkward coincidence, but he would have to wait until everyone else had left.

  Predictably, no one raised any questions. As Kyle read from the last page, his voice competed with the sound of books being shoved back into bags and feet tapping impatiently. A few people were on the move the second he said, “You can go now.” Terry remained behind, taking his time to put away his things. When he finished zipping up his bag, Kyle had already gathered his notes and was on his way out the door with the rest of the class.

  * * * *

  Terry slumped into his living room after work that evening, still nursing his annoyance from earlier that day so he could properly bitch about it to Paul.

  Paul, home from his own day of hard labor, put down two beers and popped off the caps. “So, how was your first day of classes and work? Did you make it to your shift on time?”

  Terry nodded, silently urging Paul to ask more about his classes.

  “Were any of your professors douchelickers who assign homework right off the bat?”

  “No, just gotta look over some of the reading material for my Communications course.” Terry picked up his beer and frowned. Had Kyle’s cock been as thick as this bottle? In their fevered rush, Terry hadn’t had much chance to memorize its measurements relative to his hand. He wondered if he would ever get to see it again and make a proper comparison.

  “Well, you look particularly grouchy,” Paul said. “What happened?”

  Terry took a deep breath, adding a touch of drama before he launched into his tragic tale. “Remember the guy I hooked up with at the club?”

  “Oooh, you mean the older gentleman who doesn’t mind bottoming for a younger guy?” Paul’s expression fell quickly. “Oh, no. Did his wife find out or something?”

  “Worse,” Terry sighed. “He’s one of my English professors.”

  Paul’s jaw dropped. “Oh. My. Fuck. Are you serious?”

  “Yep.”

  “I think I’ve seen that porno.”

  “I’ve definitely seen that porno, but this wasn’t like that.” Terry scowled, mirroring Kyle’s face in his memory. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting him to straddle my dick for half the lecture, but the way he looked at me…” Terry sipped his beer. “He looked pissed off when he saw I was in his class.”

  “Probably mad he couldn’t hop back on your cock right then and there.” Paul shrugged. “Or maybe he is married.”

  Terry had thought about that. That was his next question for Kyle, but since Kyle hadn’t answered the first text Terry had sent him asking if they could talk, he didn’t expect any answers for the time being. “I dunno. I don’t remember a wedding ring, or even a tan-line, and I make sure to at least check for a ring. Plus, pretty sure closeted married dudes go for one-night-stands only, not sexting and flirting and trying to schedule later hook-up dates.”

  The front
door opened and shut. Their other roommate, Olivia, walked in. “Wassup, my gays?”

  “Terry fucked his English professor,” Paul stated.

  Olivia’s jaw dropped the same way Paul’s had. “On your first day? Fuckin’ hell, and they say lesbians take things too quickly. Don’t know any who banged a teacher after one class. That has got to be a record.” She frowned. “Wouldn’t they suspend or expel you for that?”

  “I didn’t know he was my professor when I fucked him, okay?” Terry rolled his eyes. “Don’t try to inject this with more conflict than it needs. This is the guy I met at the club last week. Y’know, the one I’ve been texting all this time and you’ve been snooping over my shoulder to read about? Then this afternoon he walked up in front of my Argumentation class and introduced himself as the teacher.”

  “Damn. That is some grade-A serendipity right there.”

  “That’s not serendipity,” Paul scoffed. “Serendipity is when something random happens that benefits you in the future, like if Professor Sexy gave Terry here all A’s in exchange for one hot night in a parking lot. Sorry, Terry, but I don’t think your skills are that good. You’ll get B’s, at most.”

  Terry dug his fingers into his hair. “I don’t want special treatment just because I fucked him once! If I didn’t need this course as a pre-req I’d drop out and take it next year or whatever.”

  Olivia let out a low whistle. “Damn, was this guy so hot you’d drop his class so you could fuck him without drama?”

  Terry groaned. “You wouldn’t understand. His cock was so—nnngh. I barely even got to play with it.” He turned to face Olivia and gesticulated for emphasis. “Imagine you met a girl with the biggest perkiest boobs you would ever want a girl to have, and you never got a chance to, I dunno, motorboat them, or whatever you do with boobs.”

  Olivia stared wistfully into space and sighed. “Ohh, and if I had a teacher like that, complete with the super-low V-neck sweater and those cute little glasses…” She blinked, snapping out of her fantasy. “I mean, obviously your professor isn’t walking around in a speedo, but you’ve seen it, so you know it’s there.”

  “But I can’t stare at my professor’s crotch all day. I have to learn something.”

  “Then ask him for ‘private tutoring’ and ogle him there.”

  Paul shook his head. “Terry never asked if he was married.”

  “Oh. Terry, you might have fucked up big time.”

  Terry rolled his eyes again. “Tell me something I don’t know. Kyle won’t answer my texts, I don’t have another class with him until Thursday, and you should have seen how pissed he was when he saw I was in his class.”

  Olivia hissed through clenched teeth. “Oooh, he’s probably married then. Best to forget about it and move on.”

  “If only it were that simple.” Terry chugged half his beer. “Like I said, I need to take this class. If I wait until next semester that’s two courses I have to postpone until next year, and I’m aiming for a two-year degree. I don’t make enough to pay for a fifth semester without digging myself deeper into student debt. But if things are going to be awkward, well…”

  “You’re a smart kid,” Olivia said. “You’ll figure it out. In the meantime, don’t do that weird Indiana Jones student thing where you write ‘Love you’ across your eyelids and don’t drool over his ass in public and no one will know the difference.”

  “Yeah, but Kyle does. Sorry, Professor Weiman does. If he gives me special treatment hoping I’ll fuck him for a passing grade, we’ll both get in trouble. If he ignores me because he doesn’t want to be in trouble, then my grades could suffer. Either way, I lose here.”

  Olivia patted Terry on the shoulder. “Like I said, you’ll figure it out.” She ruffled his hair and headed for her room.

  Paul called after her, “I take it that means, ‘Shit, I’m out of ideas, gonna go watch Game of Thrones, good luck kiddo’?”

  “Yeah-huh!” Olivia closed the door behind her.

  Terry rolled his eyes and leaned forward to rest his head in his hands. He sighed. “I’m an adult. I can handle this like an adult. If he wants to pretend we’ve never met, fine. That’s his business. I’ll be the best student in his class. I’ll answer every question perfectly. I’ll be charming as fuck. I’ll be someone everyone in the class admires. Might even flirt with a few of the other guys in front of him, just to see what he does…”

  “Yes, as any adult would,” Paul said facetiously. “If you get another guy’s number, are you gonna stick your tongue out at Professor Sexy and make some kind of passive aggressive remark? Y’know, like, ‘At least some men know a good thing when they have it’?”

  All Terry could do was sneer. The thought had crossed his mind. Kyle had either withheld the truth when they met, or he was so worried Terry would make passes at him in class that it had soured his affections. Either way, that was all on Kyle. Terry’s objective, for now, was to be the kind of guy Kyle would beg for a second chance. Whether or not Terry would give him one, he still hadn’t decided.

  Chapter 3

  Professor Weiman’s Exposition and Argumentation class was, thankfully, only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they were an hour and half long, whereas Terry’s triweekly classes were an hour apiece. All in all, it was the same amount of time Terry would have to spend in Kyle’s presence. He liked having the extra day away from Kyle regardless. Getting back into the swing of school was more difficult than he imagined, and he had better things to do than worry about keeping a low yet active profile.

  The good news what that, since Terry had already earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree, he didn’t have to take general education courses, which meant he could take five courses per semester and still finish in two years with some wiggle room to take non-required courses he found interesting. The bad news was that his travels had left him with barely enough to keep up with rent and food. He worked a night job to save up for student loan payments, but that gave him very little time for homework.

  Despite this, Terry had elected to take Swimming as a course during his first semester back. The only requirements to get the class credit were to sign into the pool twice a week for half an hour at a time and record how many laps he could swim. It would have been easy to make something up, but Terry knew he needed the exercise. He had loved swimming on his travels, whether it was in the ocean, a lake, a river, or even a hotel pool. Having an activity he enjoyed like this would keep him in shape and help him relax. On top of that, he was looking forward to how much he would improve over the semester.

  His first personal session came with a surprise. There were only so few time slots between classes and work that were long enough for him to go to the pool, do his half-hour of swimming, rinse off, and go home to properly shower and change, and half of them were after sunset. Therefore, he decided to schedule his swim time after his classes for the day on Mondays and Wednesdays. After handing his student ID to the lifeguard to prove he wasn’t a random person off the street trying to use the pool for free, he dived in and took off as fast as he could.

  A few laps later, Terry noticed someone had taken the lane two over from his. He didn’t care; there were people in the lanes directly next to his and Terry was challenging himself to swim faster than them. There was something about this newcomer that curdled his insides, something familiar about the features obscured by the swimmer’s cap and goggles. Terry only had passing glimpses as the face popped in and out of the water, but it only took a couple hard glances to recognize that grizzled beard. It was Kyle.

  “Shit,” Terry hissed to himself. He turned and buried his own face in the water as he resumed his laps, hoping his presence would go unnoticed.

  It did not. The lane between Terry and Kyle emptied. Terry did his best to remain inconspicuous, but twenty minutes into his session, he had to pause at the wall for a breath, and Kyle was waiting there on the other side of the floating plastic divider.

  “What are you doing here?” Kyle asked in a quie
t snarl.

  “Swimming.”

  “Did you follow me here?”

  “What? No. I was here first, you spaz.”

  Kyle’s forehead clenched around his goggles in a scowl. “How did you know this is my swimming time?”

  “How did you know it was mine?”

  “Come again?”

  “I’ve had three classes today, so this is the only time I have between school and work to earn the credit. Can’t do it Tuesdays and Thursdays because, since I’m only signed up for two classes, I opted for longer work shifts that start shortly after my class with you. I didn’t even know you were a swimmer.”

  Although, Terry thought to himself, he should have suspected. Kyle was built excellently for swimming. Not too bulky, not too bony, and what little fat he had on his body would keep him afloat without slowing him down.

  “Well, stay out of my way.”

  Terry stared at Kyle with incredulity. “You’re the one holding me up. Excuse me.” Without another word, Terry pushed both feet against the wall and shot off into his eleventh lap.

  Kyle was a faster swimmer, which made Terry’s mood towards him even worse. It was bad enough that he was dooming Terry back into his previous dry spell, how dare he be fitter than a man nearly thirty years younger than he is? Terry pushed himself to his limits. Unfortunately, this led to him inhaling a noseful of water. He had to stop and cough to clear his lungs. Kyle also paused long enough to make sure Terry wasn’t going to die, but he did so silently and continued his laps after a mere second of observation. Terry accepted the consolation that at least Kyle wasn’t completely callous towards him.