Campus King by Miller Mickey

Author:Miller, Mickey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Charlotte

Friday afternoon, I head into Professor Harmon’s office for my one-on-one discussion with her about the preliminary paper I turned in on Wednesday.

“Miss Hiller, come on into my office,” she says with a big smile. “Have a seat.”

She tosses the paper I wrote on her desk in front of me, and I note there’s a lot of red marks on it.

“Great paper,” she says, but holds up a finger. “If this was in a relationship column at a gossip rag.”

I cock my head. “Come again?”

Her smile disappears, and she taps my stapled-together pages as she speaks. “This is completely about Colin West’s views on the concept of being friends with an ex. What does this have to do with the personal profile that I asked you to do?”

“I thought it might be interesting to hear what a guy like Colin’s views are about relationships.”

Her eyes widen. “Wrong!” She tosses the paper at me.

“This is maybe the most unprofessional piece of journalism I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh.”

“You’re intimidated by him.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You didn’t ask him the one question that would be the most interesting, which is ‘Why did you come to the middle of nowhere, Galesburg, to go to Greene State, when you could have moved to Seattle to play for the Seahawks and make millions?! It’s not even in there.”

I tap my pen against the page, trying to keep a civil tongue despite Professor Harmon’s comments. “You know, maybe I should just switch up my assignment. Maybe this isn’t for me.”

“You’re living in the same house as him, that hasn’t changed.”

“Yes.”

“What’s the problem!? This should be a slam dunk for you.”

I purse my lips together, and look out the window. I’ve been awkward and avoiding being alone with Colin since our little one-on-one encounter. It’s not that I don’t want to be around him alone.

It’s that I don’t trust myself alone with him.

In his presence, self-control is difficult to come by. As much as I would love to give in to temptation again and have another session like we did on the steps that night—maybe even go a lot further than we did—I’m scared of what would happen to our dynamic if we had another encounter.

“Let me ask you something, Miss Hiller. What kind of journalist do you want to be?”

“Hard-hitting. Different. Impactful.”

“Right. All the things that this assignment is not. This is what’s known as a puff piece.”

“I think it’s actually deep, in its own way, if I do say so myself.”

“Well, I say you’re wrong.”

I swallow, feeling my face heat. I really did think the whole ‘can you be friends with an ex’ thing would be interesting to read, but I feel like I’m being interrogated by Professor Harmon and no matter what I say, it won’t be good enough for her.

“Question, Miss Hiller. Can you show me that article you wrote for The New York Times?”

“I don’t understand.”

Professor Harmon tilts her head. “That article. You wrote. For The New York Times.”

“What do you mean? I’ve never written an article for The New York Times.

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