Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
MILES
I sidle up next to Kip, one of the other student workers for the English department.
“Hey, Kip.” He startles as he whips his head to look at me. I haven’t exactly socialized during my few work-study shifts so far. I push onward and get straight to the point. “I want to pick your brain about something. The topic is… delicate.”
“That isn’t really a great intro, dude.” Kip files away the last paper in his hand and pushes the filing cabinet drawer closed. He flicks his head to push his boy-band style bangs out of his face as he turns to face me. “What’s the topic?”
I made sure no one else was in the English department’s downstairs storage room on my way in, but I glance toward the closed door again for good measure.
“Professor Parks,” I share quietly.
Kip blows a low whistle. “Are you sure that’s a door you want to open?”
“My girlfriend is in his class, and I’m worried about her.” I’m taking a risk sharing this information with Kip but I scoped him out. He seems to have an obvious aversion to Professor Parks. I don’t think I’m in danger of him going to the professor about my concerns.
“If she’s even a moderately attractive woman, you should be worried about her.” Kip leans against the filing cabinet. His whole face scrunches, thick worry lines exposing themselves across his forehead.
“I know the rumors.” Women being attracted to a decent-looking professor isn’t exactly a novel concept. “I took his class last year and thought the guy seemed like a smug prick. And not nearly as good of a teacher as his reputation would indicate. My girlfriend isn’t enamored with him; she seems to loathe the guy.”
Kip taps his fingers in a nervous, offbeat rhythm against the filing cabinet, the sound echoing around us.
“The thing is…” He clears his throat. “Look, Miles, I don’t want to end up in any trouble here. This work-study is a dream for me. If someone finds out I’m gossiping about the professors…”
Shit. Kip works the most hours of all the work-study students in the English department. If anyone is going to have inside information about the professor, it’s him. Plus, Professor MacNamara mentioned he’s the only other work-study student she trusts on staff at the moment.
Her trust means something. I can’t risk him clamming up on me.
“Look, I’m going to share a suspicion I have and all I’ll ask is that you shake your head if I sound like I’m on the right page. How about that?”
He hesitates for long enough that I expect him to say no until he finally says, “Okay.”
I take a deep breath and gather my thoughts. I haven’t yet managed to turn my suspicions into a complete hypothesis but I think I can get close enough to find out if I’m headed in the right direction.
I glance toward the door again just to be sure .
“My girlfriend is a really solid writer. I’ve read her essays and think she should be passing Professor Parks’ class easily. She’s a beautiful woman, and I think that Professor Parks might be failing her on her essays because she’s not throwing herself at him the way some women in his classes tend to do.”
Kip presses his lips together and seems to consider my words carefully before shaking his head no.
“No?”
He shakes his head again.
I try to rack my brain for a different theory. Professor Parks and I butted heads constantly last year—he clearly disliked me—and yet I passed his class with no problems. Blue’s essays are just as good as the ones I turned in, as much as it bruises my ego to admit.
“Is your girlfriend a people pleaser?” Kip asks, his voice flat with dread.
“Absolutely.” To a fault, I’ve noticed.
He nods stoically.
“There are other rumors about Professor Parks.” Kip seems to choose his words carefully as he speaks slowly in a measured tone. “That sometimes an otherwise great student is struggling in his class and he offers them private tutoring to help them catch up. That he insinuates a people pleaser is failing not as punishment but to dangle a carrot, so to speak.”
That son of a bitch.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Kip’s face has paled now that he’s shared more information. He chose to share against his better judgment.
I swallow down the rage building up in my chest. “He insinuates they’re failing? He doesn’t actually fail them?”
“I’m only sharing rumors,” Kip warns me.
“Right.”
I’m grateful as hell that he’s giving me this much. I thought I might not get anything out of him. He almost seems desperate for the truth to come out. I don’t even want to know how long he’s been aware of this. Kip is a senior with a few years of work-study under his belt already.
Tactfully, I muse, “I imagine failing students would be riskier. There’s a paper trail and a process for students who think they’ve been graded unfairly. A student could ask for their grade to be reviewed by someone else in the department.”
Kip nods.
“Someone who’s a regular people pleaser and is afraid of failing would probably be anxious enough to grasp for any way to make things right. They might even let themselves be talked into something fucked up to avoid feeling like they disappointed anyone.”
Kip nods again.
“Then magically they didn’t fail and they feel like they owe this asshole for passing them without knowing they weren’t ever actually failing in the first place.”
I don’t need to see Kip nod again. I squeeze my eyes shut as I grind my teeth together.
My gut is churning. I gave Blue so much shit about the tutoring because I assumed the worst of her. All along she genuinely believed she was doing something wrong in her essays.
Her ungraded essays.
All those unnecessarily nitpicking notes in the margins but no sign of an actual grade. Professor Parks set Annie up.
The signs pointed to Annie being a competent writer with no need to cheat and no interest in impressing me. I didn’t want to see that before because I was pissed about Luca sticking me in the tutoring center in the first place.
Well, that and the fact that I can be kind of an asshole in general.
I didn’t need to be such an asshole to Annie, and I don’t want to be an asshole to Kip after all of his help either.
“This is all very helpful,” I say sincerely. “I owe you one.”
Kip drops his gaze to stare down at his feet and clears his throat before unconvincingly declaring, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude.”
Right.
“See you around, Kip.” I turn to leave and make it halfway to the door.
“Miles?” Kip calls after me.
I glance back at him and quirk an eyebrow, waiting for him to be the one to speak.
“My sister was a freshman here last year too. She tried to take the same class you did but dropped out—not just from the class but out of college completely. She went home and wanted to forget anything even happened.” His fists clench by his sides and his voice is stronger with his next words: “I hope you fucking bury that asshole.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Annie’s eyes narrow suspiciously.
I can’t help but laugh. She has every right to be suspicious. Even my mom used to give me shit about being moody as a kid. I like to think I’m growing into the dark and broody thing, but I recognize that sometimes I’m just an asshole.
“Figured I better balance out the dickishness before you run for the hills.” I wink at her as I sneak another bite of the beef dish she ordered.
I let her pick anything for dinner and she wanted the cheap Chinese food around the corner. She’s certainly not a gold digger. My father has introduced enough of those into my life that I know the signs.
Annie’s only red flag is her weirdly codependent relationship with her mom. And as far as red flags go… I find myself a little jealous of their connection.
I miss my mom all the time.
“This is a good way to balance out the… what you said ,” Annie agrees thoughtfully. She doesn’t dare repeat my vulgar word choice, I note.
I smirk. We’re an odd pairing, the two of us. If her douchebag ex paid more attention he would realize Annie and I couldn’t be more opposite. He would be far more suspicious of her rebounding to me.
Based on what Seth tells me he hears around campus, there’s a little chatter about Annie and me. Courtesy of Cameron paying attention.
No one would give a shit who Annie or I date otherwise. We’ve simply managed to rock the status quo by knocking a golden boy down a peg for the moment. As soon as he moves on to some unfortunate new girl, the tides will turn and no one will give a shit about us.
And then could any of this be real?
I’m having a hard time not getting lost in the fantasy of this being real life. Eating Chinese food in bed with Annie as we dissect the original movie adaptation of Dune and compare it to the Timothée Chalamet version.
“I can’t believe I ever doubted your intelligence,” I muse as I study Annie while her attention is on the movie.
Her gaze is drawn over to me, and she gives me a tight smile. “You’re a real pessimist, expecting the worst.”
“And you proved me wrong.”
My voice is light with sincerity, and her gaze softens. I lean toward her on the bed and she meets me halfway.
I kiss her languidly, feeling like we have all the time in the world. She tastes like fried rice and sweetness. I like Annie. I like her a lot. I deepen the kiss until her phone goes off with The Golden Girls theme song.
I pull away as she giggles against my lips. “Why the fuck is your ringtone The Golden Girls?”
“Why not?” She shrugs and grabs her phone from the nightstand that used to be mine. “This is my mom. Do you mind…?”
“No, go ahead. I’ll clean up the food if you’re done.”
“Yeah, thanks.” She smiles at me as she answers her phone. “Hey, Mom!” After a moment of silence, she gasps and says, “You’re kidding!”
I gather up our dinner containers on the lap tray and pick the whole thing up to take back to the kitchen. I pause in the doorway to look back at Blue just as she settles back against the headboard with a big grin, relaxing further into my bed as she makes herself comfortable.
She looks good in my bed. She looks like she belongs there.