Professor's Favorite Student

13

It was 27th of November already, which meant, Thanksgiving.

Elizabeth wasn't planning anything special for it, she'd only face-time her brother like always, her parents, and probably eat something out of the usual, but nothing more. She even wanted to go out so Mia and Amber could have the room for themselves, this was only if they hadn't decided to go on a restaurant date or something like this. Whatever it was, the least thing she wanted was to go in their way and ruin such a beautiful day for them.

A new message draw her attention from the book she was studying for her upcoming exam. It was Alex.

"I'll come pick you up at 5." He had written and she actually wondered if this message was sent to her by mistake. But she couldn't even process in her head the meaning of it when some other messages popped in her screen. "Sorry but you're doing the cooking. Both me and Jasper suck, Olivia isn't around and Mia and Amber have disappeared."

"Mind explaining what you're talking about?" She responded and the answer came in two seconds.

"You'll do the cooking for tonight. There's no denying." She blinked several times, not sure what to believe. Was he talking about celebrating Thanksgiving together? "Hasn't Mia told you anything? We're celebrating together tonight at my and Jasper's place, all six of us."

She frowned after reading the last message, why didn't she know anything? However, she couldn't deny this made her so happy out of the sudden, spending a whole night with her best friends was the definition of happiness and joy to her.

"Why would Mia and Amber or Jasper and Olivia want to celebrate with us?" She asked, surprised.

"Bc they love us :D." Was his replay that made her chuckle and replay as fast as she could.

"Come pick me up now. We're already late." She wrote, starting to get ready as the big smile never left her face.

                                      ***  

9 a.m and everything was ready. This only because of Elizabeth though, because Alex and Jasper had only caused her more damage trying to help in the kitchen, while Olivia, Jasper's girlfriend and the newest friend in the group was running late because she had to spend the afternoon with her already upset parents because their daughter would celebrate Thanksgiving away from them, and the other couple which would do anything to escape from responsibilities and have fun instead. This was mainly Amber's work, Elizabeth knew for sure. But even though she wanted to act mad, she wasn't even a bit. She liked cooking, besides as long as her friends were happy, she was happy.

"I'm starving!" Amber announced the first second she set foot into the house and it was enough for the others to bust in laughter and forget the scoldings they were planning just some minutes ago. Everyone helped with the table and it came out even prettier than Elizabeth had first thought. Nothing was missing, starting with the traditional dishes, to the dessert and the wines and champagnes. They were all speechlessly looking at Liz who only smiled shyly at them and waved it with her hand to let it go.

"How did you do all of these, alone?" Olivia said with a shocked expression as Liz shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile.

"I wasn't alone though. My best friend and your boyfriend were a great help." And with that the boys started laughing to the point their stomach was hurting.

"I can imagine," Mia continued and this time they all laughed.

As they were now gathered around the table, a silence fell between them. "How do our parents start this?" Jasper asked chuckling.

"I think our literature students should go first," Amber pointed out as Mia and Alex started shaking their heads, declining the offer.

"It's okay, we don't have to give speeches or anything like that," Liz cut them off as all the attention was at her now as she took the glass filled with red wine in her hand. "Let's just be grateful to people who make us happy and to each other for bringing the best out of ourselves. Thank you everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!" She finished it off and they all gave her some emotional warm smiles.

"That's what I was talking about," Amber said and they all started thanking and wishing a happy Thanksgiving to each other before starting to enjoy everything Liz had prepared. Their joyful and nosy conversations were interrupted by the message that came in Liz's, Alex's and Mia's phone all in the same time.

It was a message in their Novel Course w******p group, from their professor, the one Elizabeth was trying her best not to think about, at least not tonight. "I wish all my students the happiest Thanksgiving with the people you love and make you happy." He had written and Liz tried her best not to smile. For a moment, it looked like he had written it especially for her but she shook that idea out of her head as fast as it came. It was a w******p group with almost a hundred students, why would he write it for her?

"I wished I'd have a professor like this too," Olivia said after Mia read it out loud but Alex rolled his eyes annoyed.

"Yeah, if only he wouldn't start hitting on his students would be much better," he mumbled between his teeth but everyone heard, including Elizabeth.

"Or we shouldn't judge people out of nowhere," she said in her serious tone before getting up and leaving the table, upset. No one except Alex was understanding anything but after seeing how irritated Alex looked, they didn't ask.

He ran after her and it took him a lot of time to bring back her lost humor, by asking for forgiveness and promising he wouldn't bring that topic again. She soon gave up and returned to the table and this time the others tried to make things less awkward. They started playing truth or drink and after that Jasper brought from his room a Ouija Board and that was enough to make everything even more exciting, associated with alcohol and scary jumps.

Elizabeth's phone, which was now on the silent mode, started ringing and no one noticed but her. She excused herself to the balcony so she could talk in peace and only then she realized it was no one but Mr. Ambrose and that was enough to make her heart start beating faster and faster.

What would he want in the middle of the night?

She hesitantly opened it and brought it in her ear, but no one was speaking in the first few seconds. It's like, only hearing each other's breathing was enough to realize how much they had missed each other.

"Mr. Ambrose?" She mumbled, her voice tiny and shaky. She couldn't understand if she was happy, scared or excited. Maybe a mix of all three.

"Elizabeth," he said with his usual calm and deep voice that was enough to make a shiver run down her spine, her full name in his lips sounding foreign and beautiful like always.

After another pause, she decided to say something. "How is Thanksgiving going?"

A smile appeared on his face, a smile she couldn't see, but she could imagine it quite clearly. "Well, my best friend basically dragged me to celebrate it with him and his girlfriend and to say I'm third wheeling would be an understatement."

Liz couldn't contain herself from laughing softly and that was enough to make his heart jump out from his chest. "At least you aren't third wheeling between two couples, unlike me," she said and this time he was the one chuckling as she closed her eyes, longing to hear it once again. She had no idea she was missing him this much, at least until now. "Did every other student get a special call or was it only me?" Elizabeth continued as Daniel smirked and her successful attempts to flirt with him. She was going to be the death of him real soon, he was sure of it.

"I don't know, can you guess?"

But before she was able to respond, she felt a warm thing in her shoulders and in a split of second, she realized it was Alex, putting a cardigan in her shoulders because he had probably seen her from the glass door of the balcony trying to warm herself by brushing her arms with her hands. "I thought you were cold," he explained to her and she gave him a small smile, praying her professor hadn't heard his voice but it was quite the opposite.

Daniel was ready to throw his phone in the wall and watch it break into tiny little pieces, but he contained himself from doing so. So she was even spending Thanksgiving with the blondie? That thought only made him want to punch the guy, again.

"It seems you're quite busy so I'm going now," he forced himself to say so he wouldn't say anything else he'd regret afterwards.

Alex was still there so she unfortunately couldn't explain anything to him. "Goodnight and happy Thanksgiving," she mumbled sadly and he closed up after a dry "goodnight".

Elizabeth spent the rest of the night thinking about her professor, what was going on in his mind and how were things supposed to go between them from now on.

********

A/N:

Hello my beautiful readers!