Filed to story: Shhh Professor! Please Don’t Tell! Novel Free
I was feeling nervous. We drove up to the front of the house, passing lines of cars parked along the driveway. It was so beautiful. A big beautiful red brick mansion, with turrets, and vines creeping up the sides of it. Two huge stone statues of lions rested on either side of the door.
“Yep, perfect location for Halloween,” Jasmin said as we got out of the car, looking up at the roof. Trees were swaying in the wind above our heads. A gust of wind rushed against us, making the fabric of our costumes billow and flap.
We thanked the driver and went inside.
Wow. Holy wow. All the wow.
The inside was as modern as the outside had been historical. A white staircase, composed of a series of marble slabs extended from the wall like ascending spokes on a wheel, took center stage as soon as we walked inside. A fountain, featuring an oval-shaped modern art sculpture, was running in the center of the foyer.
The room was filled with students in costumes. I recognized most of them, even though their costumes were essentially masquerade disguises. I didn’t see Professor Steele.
Halloween decorations were everywhere. I found it endearing that Professor Steele had gone so all-out for the party. Sparkling purple spiders hung on great swaths of fake cobwebs. Dribbles of fake blood ran down the wall. An uncannily real-looking coffin leaned against the staircase.
The two bouncers at the door checked our purses and asked us to turn out our pockets. Annie revealed her hidden pocket obediently. It would have been easy to smuggle something inside, I thought. I easily could have tucked something into my cleavage. I hoped nothing ended up happening tonight that shouldn’t.
A track of low organ music punctuated with occasional screams and ghoulish laughter was playing over the loudspeakers. The air was filled with the sounds of people laughing and talking. I saw drinks in most people’s hands.
This party must have cost Professor Steele a lot of money, I thought. Probably not that much comparatively, since he was literally a billionaire, but it was an odd thing to invest in. His students already adored him. The college was thrilled with him. It wasn’t like he needed to win anybody over.
Unless that somebody was me.
We stepped into the room, gazing around in admiration. I had a sudden, wild desire to explore the entire house from top to bottom. Maybe we could all play sardines later, I thought with a smirk.
Maybe I’d end up in a closet with Professor Steele.
I still didn’t see him anywhere. I wanted to. I wanted to see his costume, and for him to see me in mine. I wanted to be near him.
“Let’s go into another room,” I said. “I want to explore the house.”
“I second that motion,” Cynthia said. “Wherever those drinks are coming from, it isn’t in here.”
At that moment, I saw movement on the staircase. I turned.
Professor Steele was walking down the stairs. His eyes were fixed on me, with a wide-eyed expression as if he’d been punched in the gut. I suddenly felt more beautiful than I’d ever felt in my life.
True to his word, he was dressed as Pip from
Great Expectations
. He wore a full gentleman’s suit from the early 1800s, complete with top hat and a light blue waistcoat that matched his eyes.
“Oh my god, Ellie, he matches you,” Jasmin whispered in my ear. “Did you coordinate?”
I hadn’t thought about that.
Great Expectations is set in the early 1800s, closer to Jane Austen’s time than that of Dickens. He looked like the hero of a Jane Austen book. He looked like the cover of a romance novel, walking down the staircase like that. He moved with a masculine poise that, now that he wasn’t wearing his usual smile, made him look almost intimidatingly powerful.
I stared at him. I wished he wasn’t staring at me like that, but I couldn’t look away.
“No, Jasmin,” I said, still looking at him. “We did not coordinate.”
“I’ll pay you twenty dollars if you kiss him tonight,” she whispered. “No, fifty.”
I ignored her. Professor Steele reached the bottom of the staircase and approached us.
“Thank you for letting us come to your party,” Cynthia said, extending her hand. “We’re really happy to be here. Your house is insane.”
Professor Steele smiled. “It is right now,” he laughed, gesturing at all the decorations. “Come on in. Make yourselves at home. Drinks are in the library.”
“Drinks are in the library,” repeated Cynthia in a British accent. “That’s the poshest phrase I’ve ever heard.”
Professor Steele seemed to be oblivious to her teasing. His eyes were on me again.
We walked through the foyer and into the first room on the right. I gasped when I saw it.
The walls were bookshelves. This room, unlike the foyer, matched the outside of the house in looking as though it had been designed in the Victorian era. Old leather armchairs and ornately carved tables were scattered across the room.
But the books! Their spines were a tapestry of color. Many of them were edged in gold inlays and glimmered in the light that was coming from the fireplace and various lanterns that had been hung from the ceiling.
This room was also filled with students in costumes. But I hardly noticed any of them. I was just amazed at the sheer number of books. I turned around in a circle, slowly, my lips parted.
Professor Steele was staring at me again, his eyes soft. “I thought you’d like it,” he said.
He turned to Annie. His attitude was entirely different towards her and my other friends friendly, like a mentor. “And how about you, Annie?’ he asked. “I know you’re a history major as well. Do you like the sight of all these books?”
Annie grinned at him. “Definitely,” she said. “I want to take all of them home with me,” she said.
He laughed. “You can absolutely borrow a few if you want. Just drop them off at my office when you’re done reading them. Or maybe Ellie could bring them to class with her.”
“Sure,” Annie said.
I knew parties weren’t her favorite thing. At least, not the kind of parties that college students usually concocted. She was going to be a lot happier pursuing bookshelves than trying to make small talk with tipsy people whose chief passion was money. That wasn’t a fair assessment of business majors, but Annie had said it once.
I wondered if Professor Steele knew that about her somehow. If he knew how kind he was being, or if it was just general politeness. Either way, Annie’s eyes lit up and she dashed over to the shelves without even glancing at the bar.
Jasmin and Cynthia, however, made brief polite conversation about the beautiful library and then started off to get drinks.
“You coming, Ellie?” Jasmin asked over her shoulder as they started walking. She had a wickedly impish gleam in her eye. I knew she was thinking about that dare to kiss Professor Steele for fifty dollars.
I was thinking about it too.