Stripped

by Mia Archer

  Ashley walked down the row talking to the other people who’d partnered up. There were eight people in our row and she stopped to ask each of them if they needed help with anything.

  I needed help. I needed a lab partner who wasn’t going to spill something on my hand the first time he got distracted by a smiling face and a killer body that didn’t belong on someone who was supposed to be teaching us.

  Shit. Now I was doing it. Staring. That wasn’t good. She was coming right for us and I was staring like a goofball with a crush.

  I hadn’t gotten it this bad since the time I had a crush on Karen Davis back in high school sophomore English and I think we all know the disaster that turned out to be. It began with me confessing my feelings over a study session at my house where I thought we were sharing something special and ended with “dyke” scrawled in lipstick all over my locker the next day at school.

  I shook those unpleasant memories away. Karen Davis got hers. Turns out people these days were less cool with haters than they were with so-called dykes. Even in the social jungle that was high school.

  Ashley was moving closer. Any minute now she’d be standing right in front of me and I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle it. I felt like I was back in middle school staring at my first crush and I hated that I was acting this way even as I loved it.

  I hadn’t felt that rush in a long time. I’d gotten so used to playing the game on campus that it was just that: a game.

  This somehow felt more real than that though, and that scared me just a little.

  “You’re staring at the hottie teacher lady,” Craig said. “Don’t think she’s going to appreciate you doing that.”

  “Shut up Craig,” I hissed.

  “Come on, I don’t hold it against you. Have you seen the ass on that girl? I wouldn’t mind spending a little time after the lab with her if you know what I mean!”

  I turned and gaped at him. I couldn’t believe he was talking to me like this. It was at the other extreme of the whole “admit you’re a lesbian to the guy who’s hitting on you” spectrum. Either they thought that meant they got a one way ticket to threesomeville or they acted like I was just as disgusting about women as they were.

  I mean I could perv out with the best of them if I saw a girl I really liked, but I wasn’t going to perv out with some random guy I just met. This guy obviously had boundary issues.

  “Everything going okay over here?”

  I jumped as I felt Ashley’s hand come to rest on my back. She hadn’t done that with anyone else in the room. Had she? I’d been so busy staring at her that I hadn’t actually paid attention to what she was doing. Was that just a friendly hand on my back or did that mean something more?

  “We’re doing fine,” I finally managed to get out.

  I shot a warning glance to Craig to let him know he needed to sit down and shut the hell up, though I wasn’t sure if it was going to work.

  “Yeah, everything’s great here,” Craig said. The way he looked her up and down made it clear exactly how great everything was and exactly why everything was great. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

  Men. There were times when I was so glad that a quirk of biology or whatever the hell it was made me into girls and not guys. It was a miracle women ever put up with them long enough to continue the species.

  I also noticed that Ashley didn’t put her hand on Craig’s back.

  “Good to know,” Ashley said. “No incidents or anything?”

  She glanced at me again. I wondered if she’d seen that thing with Craig pouring water on my hand. I decided I wasn’t going to throw him under the bus though. Not on the first day.

  “Nothing wrong so far,” I said.

  “Also good to hear!” she said.

  She was way too cheery for being in the middle of a class. Then again she was the one teaching the class so maybe that made all the difference.

  She turned to Craig and fixed him with a smile that took my breath away. I was jealous he got that smile and not me, but the jealousy didn’t last too long.

  “Oh, and I could totally hear what you were saying. I’m flattered that you think my ass is so nice, but if you want to get a good grade this semester it’d be a good idea for you to keep it in your pants and keep your mouth shut. I’m here to teach you, and I will never in a million years consider fucking you, so get it out of your head now,” she whispered just loud enough that the two of us could hear her but low enough that it wouldn’t carry anywhere else in the room.

  “Um…”

  Ashley held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care how smart you are or anything like that. You’re in my world now, and you’ll be in a world of hurt if you screw up again. Got it?”

  He looked down and blushed. “Sorry. I’ll try.”

  “Do or do not,” she said. “There is no try.”

  Craig looked up. Stared at her with a blank look as she stared right back at him with an expectant look. Finally she rolled her eyes. “Come on, you’re not picking up on that?”

  “Picking up on what?” he asked.

  I stared at Craig as though I was regarding some strange new species that wasn’t quite human. Sure he was obviously younger than both of us, but Star Wars was one of those things that had been evergreen in pop culture since the late ‘90s when those abominations that were the prequel trilogy started. I could still remember how excited my dad was when he took me to see Phantom Menace as a little girl and how quiet he’d been on the ride home.

  “Star Wars?” I prompted him.

  “Oh. I never really watched those movies. Always seemed like a nerd thing,” he said.

  “I can’t believe you’ve never seen Star Wars,” I said.

  “Amen,” Ashley said. “That’s like a crime or something. Someone should turn your parents in for child abuse.”

  She turned to me and hit me with that thousand-watt smile next. I felt a little weak in the knees and I had to lean against the fume hood to keep my balance. I guess it was my turn. I wondered how much she’d heard. If she had any idea that I was interested in her as well.

  One thing was for sure. I wasn’t going to make a move on her. Not when she’d just made it abundantly clear to Craig that she wasn’t interested in that sort of attention from her students. She was off limits. It was a damn shame, but I’d respect that.

  “You’re sure there are no problems on your end?”

  I had a feeling she was asking about Craig, but again, I wasn’t going to throw him under the bus on the first day. He could still improve, after all.

  “Nothing wrong here,” I said. “We’ve got the tools, and we’ve got the talent.”

  Ashley grinned. “That’s good to know, because we really haven’t had a successful test of this equipment.”

  “What are you talking about? You haven’t tested this stuff? Isn’t that dangerous?”

  Ashley and I both turned and stared at him. This was just another reminder of how dangerously young he was. Then again this movie was before my time as well, but my parents were into it so they’d shown me.

  “Are you seriously telling me you haven’t seen the classic that is Ghostbusters?” Ashley asked.

  “You mean the movie with the chicks that all those nerds on the Internet hated or something?” Craig asked.

  “You watch your mouth,” I said. “Ghostbusters is a classic and I won’t hear you say anything bad about it. Even the new one.”

  Craig shrugged and went back to the lab work. “Whatever.”

  Ashley grinned at me. “It’s been fun talking with you Keri.”

  I blinked. She knew my name. Then again she had to know my name. She had access to campus records and my picture would be in there right next to my name. I smiled right back at her.

  “Nice to meet you too Ashley.”

  She stayed there for a moment longer even though there was another row for her to visit. She opened her mouth as though she was going to say something but then she shook her head an
d disappeared.

  Which was probably a good thing. My legs were so rubbery that I was about to collapse. I threw myself into the lab work to distract me from the walking sexy bomb that was my new TA.

  6

  Keri

  I marched into Charlie’s office and slammed a hand down on her desk. I didn’t care about the class I was supposed to be sprinting for. This was a time for griping at my friend for trying to pull a fast one on me.

  She didn’t even look up. She had a pair of noise canceling headphones on and the only illumination in the office came from light leaking in from the curtains she’d drawn over her window and the glow of her computer monitor playing over her face.

  I frowned. Either she was really that engrossed in whatever was on her screen or she was purposely ignoring me. We couldn’t have that. I reached out and waved a hand in front of her face and she finally looked up in annoyance and then smiled as recognition dawned on her face.

  She clicked a couple of times then pulled her headphones off, but not before I got a chance to look at her screen.

  “You’re playing video games in your office?” I said, not quite believing it even as I could totally believe it.

  “That’s not important. Did you have fun in your lab today?” she asked. “I saw your TA got there a little late. I hope you didn’t have too much trouble.”

  “You knew exactly what was going to happen when I walked into that lab, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “I might have known that Ashley has a reputation as the hottie of the department,” Charlie said, her voice maintaining a playful tone. “Why? Did you have trouble concentrating on your lab work with her strutting around in those tight jeans?”

  “You knew exactly what I was walking into and you didn’t warn me,” I said. “You said there weren’t any hot people in your department.”

  “Correction. I said there weren’t any hot guys. Come on Keri,” she sighed. “What was I supposed to warn you about? That there was a hot girl teaching your class? So what. There are lots of sexy teaching types on campus. It’s not like you’re the first person to ever have a crush on a prof or something.”

  “I guess you’re right,” I said. “But damn. There’s something about that girl.”

  “She gets that a lot,” Charlie said. “But so far she hasn’t been interested in any of the guys who went after her.”

  I perked up at that. I searched Charlie’s face to see if she was trying to tell me something, but she only returned my look with a smirk of her own.

  “She’s a real stickler for the rules,” Charlie said. “Doesn’t want to do something that might get her in trouble like date one of her students. You know how it is.”

  “Oh,” I said, not bothering to keep the disappointment from my voice. For a moment I’d dared to hope that the delicious Ashley was into girls, but of course I wasn’t that lucky. Not that it would’ve mattered if she was into girls if she was really such a stickler about the whole not dating students thing.

  “Come on,” Charlie said. “You don’t have to look so sad. You’re acting like I just told you the biggest box under your tree on Christmas morning was full of a bunch of coal.”

  “That would be a great gift if it was the nineteenth century you know,” I said. “I don’t know why people always talked about that like it’s a terrible gift.”

  Charlie stare at me for a long moment. Blinked a couple of times before shaking her head. “You’re such a dork sometimes, you know that?”

  “Says the girl who’s going for her doctorate in chemistry?” I shot back at her.

  “There’s a difference between being an academic and being a dork. I’m sure you and Ashley would really get along if you got a chance to geek out around each other,” she said.

  “Actually we might’ve already done that just a little in the lab today,” I said.

  “Yup. I knew it. The two of you were made for each other,” Charlie said.

  There was that hope flaring up inside me again despite the rational part of me screaming that there wasn’t a chance anything was going to happen with my TA. Charlie kept beating around the bush and hinting at things without coming out and saying it and it was driving me wild.

  “What do you mean when you say we’re made for each other?”

  Another secretive grin and a shrug. “I’m just saying that I think the two of you would really get along.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. “You’re doing that thing where you’re trying to be sneaky and it isn’t going to work now any more than it’s worked before. Why do you think we’re made for each other?”

  “Maybe because Ashley is totally into girls and would be perfect for you if you weren’t stuck in her class?” Charlie asked.

  I sat down on Charlie’s desk. I needed something to help hold me up because otherwise I was going to take a spill and then they’d have to call campus security or something to come and cart me off to the medical clinic and that would be a day wasted. More so than I was already wasting it.

  “How do you know she’s into girls?” I asked.

  “That’s easy,” Charlie said. “There was another grad student last semester who kept hitting on her. Wouldn’t take a hint and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The only way she got him off her back was by screaming at him in the hall that she was into girls and he needed to take a hint and leave her alone already. Plus she might’ve been the one who tried to kiss me over the summer.”

  That reminded me a little too much of what had happened one level up in the lab. Ashley had come down pretty hard on Craig. Maybe she came down on him like that because she had experience with that sort of annoyance and didn’t want to repeat it. I couldn’t say I blamed her.

  “Wait, she tried to kiss you?”

  “Yup. Awkward. I let her down easy though.”

  “How nice of you,” I muttered, thinking that I’d love to be in that awkward situation with her.

  I leaned back on Charlie’s desk, stunned by this revelation. I needed some time to process all of this. Ashley was into girls.

  “Are you sure she wasn’t just trying to get rid of the guy? That she wasn’t just tipsy when she tried to kiss you? I’ve made out with a couple of girls who were tipsy enough to do a little kissy kissy even if they were mostly straight,” I said.

  That had been fun, but it wasn’t exactly a good foundation for a relationship. Or even a one night stand, though one of those situations had resulted in just that and an awkward conversation the next morning when the girl told me she totally wasn’t into girls and the whole night had been a mistake.

  She’d been at the LGBT meetings a couple of months later after she was finally able to admit the truth to herself, but admitting the truth to herself didn’t extend to talking to the girl who helped her learn that truth in what had been a pretty fun night.

  “You still with me Keri?”

  I looked down at Charlie. She was staring up at me as though she expected something.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I zoned out there for a little while. What did you say?”

  Charlie sighed. “I said there’s no doubt she’s into girls. She’s been pretty open about it even if she hasn’t really dated.”

  “She hasn’t? How does a girl like that avoid being in a relationship for so long?”

  “By being so busy trying to get into med school that she doesn’t have time for anything else,” Charlie said. “Not everyone can look at the pages of a textbook and automatically have it memorized like some people in this room.”

  I stuck my tongue out. “I can’t help it I’m a fast learner.”

  “Fast learner my ass,” Charlie said. “You didn’t have to study at all and you still beat me. I’m never going to forgive you for that.”

  I grinned. “Well someone had to be salutatorian. Again, not my fault that I’m good at school work.”

  “Enough about that crap. That was all over and done with years ago.”

  I looked out the window and sighed. “Years
ago. Back when I was dating the quarterback and doing the head cheerleader thing.”

  “You don’t have to remind me how perfect your life was in high school,” Charlie said. “I was there right next to you the entire time on the same ride.”

  I looked down at her and frowned. Shook my head. “That’s the thing. It looked like everything was perfect back then but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I was miserable because I was living a lie. Things didn’t start to get close to perfect until I got to college and started living the life I wanted to live rather than the life my parents wanted me to live.”

  “Oh come on,” Charlie said. “Your parents both love you and support you. You don’t realize how good you have it. There are kids who get kicked out of their houses because they come out of the closet.”

  “Well yeah…”

  “Anyways, enough about high school. That was all in the past. Let’s talk about the here and now and how we’re going to get you together with your hot TA.”

  “What do you mean? It’s not like anything could happen. You just said it yourself. She’s not the kind who would date her students.”

  Charlie gave another one of those fatalistic shrugs she was so good at. “Rules were made to be broken, you know. Especially for true love.”

  “Spare me,” I said. “You know I don’t do the true love thing. I’d have a one night stand with her and then things would be awkward for the rest of the semester. I don’t need that kind of complication in my life.”

  “I’m not saying you have to agree to marry the girl or anything,” Charlie said. “I’m just saying it might be a good idea for the two of you to hang out sometime. I think you’d really get along with each other.”

  “And when are we going to find time for that? I’m busy studying and I’m sure she has a full schedule too. It’s not like we’re going to see each other outside of class.”

  I saw the look on Charlie’s face before she could get anything out. It was the look that said she knew something I didn’t. It was the sort of look that said she was taking her duties as matchmaker very seriously this morning and she was about to drop another surprise on me.