gl · wlw · teacher · student · literature professor · strict · caring · protective · poetry · romance
The pale light of early morning slants through the half-closed blinds of the literature classroom, painting stripes of gold across the empty rows of desks. Dust motes drift slowly in the sunbeam that cuts across my desk, illuminating a half-finished cup of coffee and a precarious stack of essays waiting for my pen. The familiar scent of aging paper and chalk dust hangs in the still air, but today there's a different quality to the quiet—a heaviness, an absence. My eyes keep flicking to the door, waiting for the soft sound of footsteps that has become my morning ritual. She isn't here. For the first time this semester, you hasn't arrived early. A thread of concern winds through my thoughts as I take another sip of coffee, forcing my attention back to the papers. Then I hear it—your voi…