Don't screw this up.
It wasn't as if that was the only thought going through his head tonight. It was his last day of 'vacation' (as if he'd spent the preceding days doing nothing but relaxing, a ridiculous thought) before he officially returned to his work tomorrow. Before he went back to the post secondary institution that employed him; just another state university where eager young minds went to funnel money into it, and leave as educated adults ready for the work force. It was his chance to make a mark on society, to be one of the privileged few tasked with molding tomorrow's leaders, changers, and thinkers.
Don't screw this up.
It was the dreaded night before classes for many of his ilk; if he'd bothered to log onto his facebook account, he'd see more then one image spreading around the not entirely untrue rumor of teachers dreading the first day of classes. And while there was a certain amount of anticipation to it, that was not the predominant theme for him. Indeed, while he shared certain attributes with his lower paid and higher en burdened brethren at the lower grade levels, one of them was not an angst for what his charges would bring to him. He was a teacher of sorts, to be certain, but he was more then that; a professor, someone of higher learning, higher responsibility...and higher risks.
Don't screw this up.
Professor Jason Randall, at the relatively young age of 42, was a fully tenured professor. He was a lifer at the school, his first and only real employment there even as he'd gotten his PHD and other academic credentials elsewhere. And he was young to have tenure, which was recognition of his considerable teaching skills and noteworthy publishing accomplishments. To many it would seem his life had been given to the pursuit of his craft, of reminding all, young and old, that remembering and analyzing the past helped prepare one for the future, and that there was always a new angle to bring to an old event.
Don't screw this up.
It was a lesson he himself had failed to learn, it seemed. His performance had slipped over the past few months, but not due to his skills suddenly diminishing or by bringing too much focus to a paper or critique. It was because there were few who knew about who he really was, or what he really loved, a secret hidden by the fact that he still hadn't married despite getting more then his fair share of suitors.
The problem had been a particular suitor of a particular age...and the fact that she'd been in one of his classes.
Don't screw this up.
In the end, he'd played the victim card, an overworked faculty member being taken advantage of by a grad student looking to up her grades, or find some companionship, or whatever...Jason had tried to play it as a bit of everything, and in the end, while a relationship between consenting adults, the Board had decided, in their infinite wisdom, that quietly pushing a student to another professor and academic track was far more convienent then replacing one of its most beloved instructors and teachers.
To say he had gotten off easily would be an exaggeration.
Don't screw this up.
In the end, it was that very thought that kept him from lingering on his computer, from seeking one of his usual sources of stress relief. A source that many went to in some form, even if he kept it to a rather 'academic' form of it (in a manner of speaking); finding the power of the written word usually more tangible then a picture or video. Still, whether you called it erotica or smut, it was still the same thing: pornography, just in a different form.
He knew that going there tonight, in the state he was in, would lead his thoughts astray tomorrow. So he kept there, near his television, not even drinking to take off the edge as he clenched his fist in anger and frustration; the words still lingering in his mind, spoken in his boss's understanding yet firm tone:
Don't screw this up.
If he did, there'd be no tomorrow for him, as an affair with a student was a huge black mark in his line of work. And he wasn't sure there was anything that could get him to risk his career like that again.
Of course, when tempted like that, fate had a way of obliging.
It wasn't as if that was the only thought going through his head tonight. It was his last day of 'vacation' (as if he'd spent the preceding days doing nothing but relaxing, a ridiculous thought) before he officially returned to his work tomorrow. Before he went back to the post secondary institution that employed him; just another state university where eager young minds went to funnel money into it, and leave as educated adults ready for the work force. It was his chance to make a mark on society, to be one of the privileged few tasked with molding tomorrow's leaders, changers, and thinkers.
Don't screw this up.
It was the dreaded night before classes for many of his ilk; if he'd bothered to log onto his facebook account, he'd see more then one image spreading around the not entirely untrue rumor of teachers dreading the first day of classes. And while there was a certain amount of anticipation to it, that was not the predominant theme for him. Indeed, while he shared certain attributes with his lower paid and higher en burdened brethren at the lower grade levels, one of them was not an angst for what his charges would bring to him. He was a teacher of sorts, to be certain, but he was more then that; a professor, someone of higher learning, higher responsibility...and higher risks.
Don't screw this up.
Professor Jason Randall, at the relatively young age of 42, was a fully tenured professor. He was a lifer at the school, his first and only real employment there even as he'd gotten his PHD and other academic credentials elsewhere. And he was young to have tenure, which was recognition of his considerable teaching skills and noteworthy publishing accomplishments. To many it would seem his life had been given to the pursuit of his craft, of reminding all, young and old, that remembering and analyzing the past helped prepare one for the future, and that there was always a new angle to bring to an old event.
Don't screw this up.
It was a lesson he himself had failed to learn, it seemed. His performance had slipped over the past few months, but not due to his skills suddenly diminishing or by bringing too much focus to a paper or critique. It was because there were few who knew about who he really was, or what he really loved, a secret hidden by the fact that he still hadn't married despite getting more then his fair share of suitors.
The problem had been a particular suitor of a particular age...and the fact that she'd been in one of his classes.
Don't screw this up.
In the end, he'd played the victim card, an overworked faculty member being taken advantage of by a grad student looking to up her grades, or find some companionship, or whatever...Jason had tried to play it as a bit of everything, and in the end, while a relationship between consenting adults, the Board had decided, in their infinite wisdom, that quietly pushing a student to another professor and academic track was far more convienent then replacing one of its most beloved instructors and teachers.
To say he had gotten off easily would be an exaggeration.
Don't screw this up.
In the end, it was that very thought that kept him from lingering on his computer, from seeking one of his usual sources of stress relief. A source that many went to in some form, even if he kept it to a rather 'academic' form of it (in a manner of speaking); finding the power of the written word usually more tangible then a picture or video. Still, whether you called it erotica or smut, it was still the same thing: pornography, just in a different form.
He knew that going there tonight, in the state he was in, would lead his thoughts astray tomorrow. So he kept there, near his television, not even drinking to take off the edge as he clenched his fist in anger and frustration; the words still lingering in his mind, spoken in his boss's understanding yet firm tone:
Don't screw this up.
If he did, there'd be no tomorrow for him, as an affair with a student was a huge black mark in his line of work. And he wasn't sure there was anything that could get him to risk his career like that again.
Of course, when tempted like that, fate had a way of obliging.