Chapter 5
Sophia
Sociology 1001. My second class of the day. I’d been so nervous about my first day of college I’d skipped breakfast which I now realized had been a terrible mistake. Now my stomach was beginning to grumble, luckily lunchtime was quickly approaching.
Entering the massive theatre room classroom with a few hundred seats inside, I made my way to the front of the class. I was going to make the most of this experience and was aiming for the Dean’s list so that meant being front row center for every class. Luckily, most people weren’t so anxious to be in the line of fire.
Finding the perfect seat right in the center in front of the podium that that professor would presumably use, I set up my laptop and waited as the rest of the class filled the room. I’d read and taken notes of the first two chapters of the textbook already so was confident I’d have an answer to any question on the contents.
The quiet of the room quickly turned to a loud rumble as students chattered among themselves. Though the rumble immediately ceased when the side door to the front of the room opened and a man walked inside.
“Sorry, I’m late class. First day craziness as usual.” He announced as he strode across the room in several strong, power strides until he reached the podium. I watched him, my mouth agape as he unloaded his leather briefcase onto the podium and set up for class. “The class syllabus was sent out yesterday, I apologize for the delay on that as well.”
I knew that voice, that body, that face…
Oh my God!
“Partying hard over the weekend, Professor Von,” a male voice at the back of the room asked.
“Nah, not really. I had a lot of work to do to prepare to enlighten young minds,” he joked finally looking up and immediately catching my gaze. The shock in his eyes mimicked what I was feeling inside.
There were questions being thrown at him by a number of students, but I didn’t hear what they were saying and doubted he did either. Unbeknownst to the others, we were locked in an ‘oh fuck’ kind of moment. What do I do now? Do we pretend the other night never happened? Do I just drop the course? But this was a required course and there was no guarantee there were any other seats open anywhere else.
Panic gripped me.
Did my potential sorority sisters know who he was?
Surely, they did. They were seniors, unless he was a new professor they knew damned well. Probably set it all up to really fuck with me.
They did, I decided. Of course, they did.
Did I even want to be part of a group of women who were such…. Such… Bitches! Had my roommate known as well? I’d be severely disappointed in her if she did. I wanted to have at least one person on campus who had my back. I was in such desperate need of friends I could trust, it would hurt my heart if Tabitha had been in cahoots with them.
Professor Von cleared his throat breaking eye contact and pulling me from my ponderings. Giving my head a shake, I blocked the night we had together from my mind. It didn’t matter right now. This class mattered. This didn’t have to be strange or awkward. We just had to pretend it didn’t happen.
The class today was light, basically going through the syllabus and expectations for the class so I was able to space out a little. Towards the end he did a roll call of all the students, each of us calling out and confirming our presence for the first day.
“Sophia Marinotti.” His eyes went to me for the first time since the beginning of the class.
“Present.” Raising my hand, I pretended that his eyes piercing into mine didn’t faze me, but they did. In fact, a shiver ran through me as I thought about our night together. It had been so good – so damned sweet. His being my professor was certainly going to guarantee that would never happen again.
“Good to meet you, Miss Marinotti.”
“You as well.”
“Do I know you from somewhere?” He asked, throwing me off as I looked around us hoping no one else was tipped off by that peculiar question. A question he hadn’t asked anyone else.
I opened my mouth to speak, but words seemed to fail me. What did he expect me to say? He knew who I was. Was he just trying to get some sort of rise from me?
“I don’t know…” I shrugged, feeling the heat rushing to my cheeks as my insides felt like they were turning to jelly. “Maybe around campus. I’m new here.”
“Hmm.” We stared at each other another moment before he tore his gaze from mine and continued with role call.
Letting out a sigh of relief I sank back into the hard plastic chair grateful for it to be over. I decided I was going to try and transfer out of the course this afternoon. Maybe I’d even skip lunch and go straight to the registrar’s office.
Class wrapped up with the calling of the final name. Thank God for that! Jumping from my chair, I made my way down the row doing everything possible to keep my gaze from shifting to the man who’d made me scream like no one had done before, but as I reached the end of the row a broad chest covered in a black button-down shirt blocked my path.
“Miss Marinotti, could you please come with me for a moment? I have some questions about your… Registration.”