A Hard Place to Breathe by Barbara C. Doyle

Author:Barbara C. Doyle [Doyle, Barbara C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Barbara C. Doyle
Published: 2017-03-31T18:30:00+00:00

11

I was half asleep by the time Monday morning rolled around since I was up late every night texting Ezra. We’d gone to a movie, an action one that we both enjoyed, shared some popcorn, and then he walked me to my door like a gentleman in the movies.

Although, his door happened to be right there too, so it was more of a convenience than anything else.

Nonetheless, I was happy. Actually happy.

Except this morning. This morning I felt like I was drug out of my grave and brought back to life by some would-be scientist and half of my body didn’t work from the failed experiment. I was like a Frankenstein reject.

Monday’s sucked. Monday’s could kiss my ass.

When the professor called on me to answer something in my world history class, I was pretty sure I was drooling and in my own la-la land. Needless to say, I didn’t know the answer. Per usual, my lack of conscious understanding of the history of our world made my peers laugh. I didn’t care though. The fact that there was a guy in the back of my class who had his face down and was snoring, just like during every class, made me feel better about my less than impressive state of mind today.

I blamed Ezra.

I’d have to punish him later.

And that thought woke me up.

“Ms. Morgen,” Professor White called as the other students were piling out for their next class. “I would like to speak with you for a moment.”

I grumbled to myself as I stuffed my notebook and textbook into my bag, throwing it over my shoulder and walking up to his podium.

“I was very impressed with the paper you turned in,” he told me, taking me by surprise.

“Oh.” I smiled. “Well, thanks.”

“It made me realize that you’re much smarter than you let on in class,” he added, giving me the professor eye. It’s the type of look that makes you feel guilty for not speaking up more in class, or listening when you know you should be.

I squirmed a little where I stood. “Well I’ve had a lot going on lately…”

It wasn’t a lie. Not totally. And I wasn’t about to admit that the reason I was zoning out today was because of a guy, because why would he care?

“I’m not interested in excuses,” he informed me calmly. “I’m interested in seeing improvement. That paper proved that you know your stuff, but you’re not putting in any effort. Remember that participation is worth twenty percent of your grade. Whatever young adult angst that’s making you believe you can’t do better is bullshit, and you know it.”

Well damn.

I cleared my throat. “Well, I’ll try better.”

He nodded once. “Good. Now I expect you to bring up your grade by midterms, because I know what you’re capable of now. You were the only student who received an A on that paper.”

My eyes widened. An A? That grade was foreign to me at this point.

He passed me the paper, with an A+ circled in red ink at the top of it.

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