My Professor's Secret Obsession

ACIR HILLS Ever since I was in high school, I was never the type to draw attention to myself. I was the kind of student who would bury her nose in a book and made sure to get straight A’s in all of her classes. I can’t, for the life of me, have any failing grades or else I would be in huge trouble. A lot would say I’m the grade conscious and a teacher’s pet back then. I definitely agree and wouldn’t say otherwise. It’s not due to the fact that I like being on top of class because I consider everyone as a competition. Never did I think of such a thing. It was more of the reason that I love challenging myself to be better than I was before—to learn and excel in topics I’m interested in. Most students would befriend me because I was very gullible before. I would let them copy my assignments. At that time, I didn’t think that they only wanted to be friends because I was smart. Moreover, I was a huge people pleaser back then so I was more concerned of the thought of the quantity of my friends than the quality. But things got worse when I ended up doing their homeworks for them just so I could be part of the friend group. Younger me should’ve known better. I should’ve put a line and told them not to cross it. Although, I didn’t know better. The people-pleaser part of me overpowered all logic that would come to mind. Eventually, all these experiences have turned into lessons. I was still a little bit grade conscious now that I’m in college, but I was not as strict as I was when it came to studying. Now, I let myself have fun from time to time. My alarm went off, reminding me that I have at least an hour left to get ready for the party. The one that I’ve been dreading coming to. It hast even been a week since I attended a party by a common friend and schoolmate, but the next month was making it harder for me to actually socialize even with my friends. Turning the alarm off, I heaved out a deep sigh. I stared at my apartment’s white ceiling. The fluorescent lights in the center were on and it was blinding my eyes. Although, I didn’t bother averting my eyes. My phone dinged a notification, forcing me to abruptly cast my eyes away. A bright halo messed up with my vision as I stared on the wall. I waited for it to fully go away before I reached for my phone. Cherry messaged me and as I was about to type a reply, she was already calling me. “Hey,” I hollered as I accepted the call. A loud music blasted from the other side, making me barely hear what she was saying. “I can’t hear you, Cherry. The music’s too loud.” “Ugh. Hold on a second, girly pops, I’ll head out.” Her voice faded, the thundering music almost damaging my eardrum, then more voices of raucous on the other end of the line. Just imagining myself in that place, I could feel a headache coming. Soon after I could only hear the faint music and her voice was more clear. “Where are you, Acir?” Based on the tone of her voice, it seemed like she was freaking out already. Averting my eyes to my wall clock, I double checked if I’m already running late. “What? The party doesn’t start in an hour, Cherry.” “Yeah, but Ryan’s the one hosting the party, I need to be here before the guests start coming,” she informed in a matter-of-factly tone. I imagined that she rolled her eyes as she spoke. Ryan’s her boyfriend and it does make sense that she’s there already at this hour. It became a norm that whenever someone in the group would host a party, we’d always be an hour early to help set up all the things needed. But I didn’t see me coming in the picture so I asked since she’s the girlfriend. “And I should be there because?” Annoyed, she spat. “Wesley is already here, girl! Are you really going to make him just lurk around without you?” Her statement should make me jump my ass off of the bed, but I remained lying down… not an ounce of energy to even stand up. I purposely chose to ignore his messages earlier because I didn’t know how to tell him that I suddenly didn’t want to go. Ugh. This sucks. My mind automatically came up with a reason as I answered. “I’m on dish duty today. I still need to tidy up the apartment since Onda left for three days. I didn’t want her to come home to a messy place.” “Girl, that can wait later on. You’re not a janitor. You have a party to attend to!” But that was the problem—I didn’t want to go. Telling her that right off the bat was the most logical thing to do. It would save me from all the hassle of thinking about more reasons on why I was delaying my attendance. So I did. “Cherry, I think I’ll have a rain check—” I was about to tell her that I wasn’t feeling good, but she interjected. “Woah, woah, woah. Hold your horses up, girl.” Her tone is now a pitch higher, clearly indicating that she didn’t like what I said. “This party was planned for a week, and Ryan told us about it two weeks ago. When we invited you, you said you’ll be there. I even asked you again three days ago. And now, on the day of the party—just an hour before it starts, you’re backing out?” She exhaled loudly, annoyed. “You can’t do that to us, Acir.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I closed my eyes, trying to calm down my nerves. Telling her that I wasn’t feeling well would only make her more annoyed. At the back of my head, I knew that she wouldn’t let this go. Having them as my classmates doesn’t help that fact either. So I did the dumbest thing I did today, I said yes before she forced me out of my apartment . “Alright, I’ll get ready now.” I caved in, rolling my eyes then pouted. Cherry squealed, causing me to move my ears away from the phone. “Yay! See you, girl! Mwah!” she ended the call, giving me no room to take back my mindless agreement. The mood swings go crazy from this girl, one that I noticed just days after I met her. I exhaled through my mouth, bracing myself. Standing up from my bed, I stared at my reflection on my full body mirror. My face was dull and I looked lifeless—but nothing a makeup and dress up won’t fix. What could possibly go wrong tonight, right? ~ Being thirty minutes late to the party sounds incredibly inconsiderate of me considering it was my friends who organized and hosted the party. The only thing I could contribute was my attendance—but I was already slacking on that part. Wesley was already bombarding me with tons of messages and calls. I didn’t bother responding to any of them even though I knew that he wouldn’t like that. I could almost see his pissed off face as I continued to ignore his messages. When the booze gets to his head, that isn’t a really nice occurrence. Loud booming music blared my ears as I exited the cab in front of Ryan’s house. The fact that I was late meant that a lot of guests had already arrived and the party had started. Of course, they wouldn’t wait for me–not that I even wanted to. I actually prefer it this way, everyone might’ve already felt tipsy from all the alcohol so most of them wouldn’t even notice that I was late. An incoming call flashed on my phone. Wesley’s calling… again. I didn’t bother answering the call since I was already outside and just sent a short message. ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ It took me just three steps before my phone pinged, notifying me of a message. ‘I’m by the pool, babe. Ryan, Cherry and Brittany’s also here. See ya!’ Wesley’s reply almost made me roll my eyes. Getting through the place seemed harder than I thought. I underestimated the amount of people Ryan invited for this party. There almost wasn’t enough space to pass through the halls. Besides that, every girl was wearing bikini outfits and the men were wearing trunks and a sando, while some didn’t so they were topless. Therefore, students were mostly having skin to skin contact every now and then. I decided to swing by the kitchen area first before I go to the pool area. A lot of familiar faces swarm the throng of people and despite the unwillingness to socialize, I forced a smile at everyone who said hi to me. “Hey Acir! You’re finally here.” Vince greeted me with a huge smile, two red cups on both hands. He quickly passed one to me, decreasing the space between us. He was topless and was only wearing trunks. I took a step back, putting some proximity, not liking that we're close to each other. “Hi, Vince!” I greeted back, trying to be friendly. “Everyone’s waiting for you by the pool,” he chirped, staring at me intently. Scoffing, I replied. “I’ve been told.” I raised a hand showing him my phone. “Wesley had been messaging me.” I instantly scrunched my nose by the heavy smell of the liquor that he handed to me. “Is this whiskey?” Vince laughed at my expression. “Yeah, you look like you need some alcohol in your system. You are freakingly sober unlike all of us here.” He took a full swig and drank almost the entire cup in just a second. I should be doing the same and having fun since this is the last day before senior year starts, but seeing all these people party their hearts out and drink like there’s no tomorrow… there was an empty feeling boiling in the pit of my stomach. Grabbing a much lighter drink at the table, I one-shot it since my throat grew dry. “That’s more like it!” Vince cheered on and I forced a laugh “Wanna hang out with the boys by the couch?” I raised a brow. “My friends are waiting for me outside.” “You can go to them later. Just hang out with us for a while.” Shaking my head, I dropped his offer. “My friends are waiting.” My phone vibrated in my hands. I saw Wesley’s caller ID flashing through the screen for the tenth time today. Showing it to Vince, I yelled at him through the loud music. “Right in time. Duty calls! I’m going to head out. Have fun here!” Vince frowned, still he replied. “You too, Acir! You know where to find us when things get boring.” The second I left through the back door, the cold breeze of the night engulfed me. Hugging my denim jacket tighter, I head closer to the pool area. I was almost blinded by the numerous part lights blaring through the backyard. Tons of students in bikini outfits were partying and dancing together. There was also a huge bubble machine set up, people gathered under it while the machine blew an inadequate amount of bubbles all over their bodies. I quickly saw Wesley by the pool area. He was laying on a white sun lounger while looking at his phone. Sticking to the dress code, he wore a short-sleeved shirt and trunks that were navy blue Hawaiian print sets. His abs and deep V-line attract almost all the girls who drool at his physique. There were about four girls swarming near him, trying to hand him some more booze even though he already has one on his other hand. All of them were almost practically naked, wearing thin and small two-piece bikinis. He wasn’t exactly paying any attention to them as he was just busily looking at his phone. Brittany was sitting on the other reclining chair next to him and was looking admirably at him without his knowledge. When Brittany saw my figure nearing them, her expression changed. His eyes almost glimmered when she saw me, then waved a hand beckoning me towards them. “Acir! You’ve made it!” She hollered, about to pull me into a hug when Wesley abruptly jumped out of the chair and tugged me close to him. “Babe, I’ve been waiting for you.” Wesley took me by the waist and pulled me in for a deep passionate kiss for everyone to see. His left hand was at my nape while his right hand was caressing my waist. I closed my eyes and returned the kiss even though I could taste the liquor in his mouth. The time that we were done kissing, the girls nearby audibly whined and glared at me as if I was ruining something special for them. All of them even snickered for what I was wearing before they all went away. Brittany scoffed. “You really know how to make the bitches leave, Acir.” Her snide remark made Wesley laugh. “They just can’t accept the fact that I have the most beautiful and sexy girlfriend in the world.” he winked at me. “Wearing this?” I pointed a finger at my jeans, black shirt, and a denim jacket. “You call this sexy?” “Of course, babe.” he gave me a chaste kiss on the lips before pulling me, stumbling onto him as he sat on the reclining chair and me on top of him. While doing so, I caught a glimpse of Brittany who was looking at her outfit. She was wearing a white button down blouse which was unbuttoned all the way down, showing an ample amount of cleavage and her red bikini. She was also wearing a white tassel net knitted skirt, her bikini underwear visible underneath the sea-through fabric. Brittany looked really pretty and more so in her outfit for the party, but there was something with what Wesley said that made her frown. It was just for a fraction of second, however, I was certain that I saw it. Before I could ask her if she was alright, Wesley pulled me in for another kiss.