impressed with the student’s persistence. And relieved the letter contained no mention of seeing him at Thorn’s party, if in fact he’d even been there.
If?
Thorn had mentioned Benjamin’s bright green eyes. And Peter couldn’t stop recalling that face in the window...looking back at him right after he shot his load.
He groaned, rubbing his temples. Peter was far from an exhibitionist, but he’d learned to trust that Thorn’s parties were a sanctuary away from the wrong kind of prying eyes. The idea that a student, especially that student, may have watched him have sex was humiliating and made him nauseous. But it was Benjamin’s motivation for doing so that confused him, set his paranoia spinning.
Was it possible that he was there, and it was just an unlucky coincidence? But even if that was the case, why was he watching Peter? Christ, and seeing him like that . His gut lurched. But if the student had seen him, he clearly had no plans to address it. It seemed he was being discreet. Still, there he was again today, sitting on the fountain, looking directly at Peter. Three days ago he was barely aware Benjamin LeClair existed. Now suddenly he was everywhere. Was he toying with Peter? Drawing this out until he decided to use it to his advantage somehow?
I know you have no interest in student sob stories...
Right. Sob stories, like Reggie Cutler’s ailing mother. It didn’t matter. It was at Peter’s discretion to change Benjamin’s grade, and he felt the student had shown enough initiative to have him do so. To put up a fight over this, when he wasn’t even an English major, would be simply cruel, especially after he’d shown such effort to make up for his mistake.
He went through Benjamin’s test and graded it, then logged onto the college intranet and found his student email address. He cracked his knuckles, then typed out a quick, formal message.
Benjamin,
I received your test and the accompanying essay, and will be adjusting your incomplete status. The test will be factored into your final grade as a B minus, so you shouldn’t need to worry about failing the class. If you want the graded test back, see me —
He stopped, and deleted the last sentence. He didn’t want any further personal interactions with Benjamin LeClair. The student was dangerous. If not because he had some nefarious plan to scandalize Peter, he was dangerous in another way. Despite everything, he couldn’t deny he was still terribly and inappropriately attracted to the young man. Taking a deep breath, he retyped the last sentence.
I will leave your graded test in your student mailbox when I get a chance.
- Dr. Coyle
He hit send. There. It was finished. He was done with Benjamin LeClair. He would stop thinking about him. And he would go out of his way not to see him again. It was easy enough to ignore the students during class. He now needed only to avoid the young man for the rest of the semester, which was a matter of weeks.
He allowed himself to feel relief. The knot that had churned in his stomach since Thorn’s visit Saturday morning finally loosened. Everything was going to be all right. As long as Benjamin LeClair stayed the hell away from him.
****
The dean’s house sat up on a hill overlooking the campus, with a sloping back lawn, now lined with food tables. Peter leaned against the patio bar listening to Tim Vale, his best writing student, try to convince Greg Bergeron, a math professor, that algebra was useless.
The sun was setting, the backyard aglow with amber as the sky darkened to dusk. Laughter and chatter filled the air, and all the guests seemed to be enjoying themselves. Peter on the other hand had had enough of the school and his colleagues for one day, and party or not, desperately wanted to go home and enjoy his new house. But he had to put in at least another half hour lest it be considered an insult to Dean Yarboro, who loitered by the food table, a bit of onion dip
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