The Professor - Ch. 18.1

The next day, Aurelia received the worst news of her life. Her little brother suddenly took ill and had to be rushed to the hospital. Thankfully it wasn’t Trent’s diabetes. But the fact that it was appendicitis ravished her nerves in an equally bad way.

Like any other science geek, Aurelia was quite aware of the risk of leaving appendicitis untreated. She knew that her brother had to have emergency surgery lest he die.

Since her family had no medical insurance, Aurelia emptied her savings and wired the money home to help out. Although it still wasn’t enough to pay for everything, it would convince the right doctors to perform the necessary surgery and be more conducive to put them on a payment plan for the rest.

The next morning, Aurelia made her way to school after getting only three hours of sleep. She’d spent most of the night on the phone with her mother, checking on Trent every other hour. Now she was tired, sleepy, depressed on multiple levels, and in no mood for two hours of interrogatory questions from Baron.

Had it not been so close to finals, Aurelia would have simply stayed home today and rested. But she needed to be here. She needed to take as many notes as she could in order to pass the whopper of an exam that Baron prepared for them. An exam that would show whether or not they’d truly grasped the material he presented to them in great detail throughout the semester.

If only Aurelia could have stayed awake long enough to take those notes.

“Miss Bunting, if you nod off one more time, I’m going to ask you to leave my class,” Baron said, incensed that she wasn’t paying attention today. Only an hour of class had passed and she’d dozed off at least three times. The last time she even released a loud snore.

Aurelia stirred awake again. “I apologize, Professor. I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she said, holding her head upright again. Her right palm and elbow had been supporting her head.

“Tell your boyfriend to go home a little earlier next time,” Baron replied sternly, his cheeks flushed with emotion that he wouldn’t allow his eyes to show. He made himself not look in Claude’s direction, whom he suspected had kept her up so late last night…having sex.

Aurelia’s eyes bucked. She was wide awake now. Had she just detected a bit of jealousy in Baron’s voice?

Oh, yes.

How dare he be jealous, when he was the one that gave up on them first?!

“I don’t have a boyfriend, Professor. Wha I have is ah sick brotha who gone hospital yesterday and had surgery last night,” Aurelia retorted. “As for remaining in yur class, I tink eh be ah good idea dat I leave befor I seh someting we both will regret,” she continued, gathering her things as she talked.

Aurelia knew herself. She knew how blunt and brutally honest she could get when angry or in high emotion. How not even a convenient lie could slip through at times like these. How the wrong word spoken to her in this moment could cause her to tell Baron off, possibly even question him openly about why he was really giving her a hard time today. Which made leaving all the more wise now.

“Everyone else is dismissed, too. The rest of today’s lecture will be put in bulleted note form and emailed to you later,” Baron said, immediately taking control of the situation. When he heard Aurelia’s island accent kick in, he knew he’d pushed her too far. Now he had to make things right. “Miss Bunting, I need to see you in my office ASAP,” he added in a curt tone that broached no argument as she stomped towards the door.

Aurelia glared at him, biting back another sharp retort. Then after quickly reminding herself that Baron held the power to fail her and prolong her graduation, she nodded her consent. Exiting the classroom seconds later, she reluctantly turned right instead of left.

Did she just say that she didn’t have a boyfriend?! Baron mused with hope leaping in his heart. If he heard right, he was going to do a little bit more than apologize for his insensitivity today. He was finally going to make everything right between them.

© 2009 by Mi’Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier