Author's Note:
From the "Writing Prompts" list, prompt 49: "I may be an idiot, but I'm your idiot."; prompt 12: "Say it!"; prompt 31: "You weren't supposed to laugh!"; and prompt 88: "See, now, was that so bad?"
Beware, this one's a touch more adult than the others.
From the seats directly behind Toni's came the voices. Third time in the last fifteen minutes, according to her laptop. She closed her eyes in annoyance for a few seconds, then opened them to find her place in the notes she was currently taking. At the front of the hall, Cheryl Blossom―Toni's girlfriend and the ambitious young professor of Sidewalk Chalk: Murder and the Small Town Psyche―continued the lecture. It was just her third in the elective one-semester Criminology course, yet Cheryl's class had filled after word spread about her thrilling first presentation; telling the story of the time she'd shot the Black Hood serial killer with an arrow really put butts in seats. Toni already showed up early, but lately she'd had to defend her territory with implied aggression, slinging her Serpents jacket over her chair with the symbol visible to all and her combat boots propped heavily on the back of the chair one tier down from her in the auditorium.
Today, however, it wasn't space she felt the need to defend as much as Professor Blossom up at the front, animated and commanding as ever, while the jerks behind Toni fucking whispered and muttered through their instructor's brilliant and surprising insights.
"It was her brother," the one guy hissed to his buddy. "This chic's got some kind of complex 'cause her brother got wacked."
"He didn't get wacked, dumbass," the other kid replied―finally, Toni thought, the gossiping was coming to an end. "That's like in the mob. It was the dad."
Toni ground her teeth together, fingers stilling over her keys.
"Huh?" Apparently the first boy hadn't been listening. Possibly paying attention to the lecture for a brief second. How fucking novel. Toni tilted her head to the side sharply, cracking her neck. "The dad was in the mob?"
"No, the dad did it. Total psycho." He snorted in laughter. With almost painful concentration, Toni saved the document she'd been typing her notes into. "Makes you wonder how close the school checked the daughter out before hiring her."
"Alright, asshole," Toni snapped, twisting around in her seat. "Time to shut your mouth before I climb over this chair and shut it for you."
The pair exchanged glances, then the cockier of the two crossed his arms and smirked down at her.
"Get your hearing checked. The only one talking is you, so quit disrupting my education."
"I heard you, you piece of shit," Toni hissed, barely noticing that heads were starting to turn in her direction. "You better start showing Professor Blossom some respect."
"Gee, Dan," the moron joked, looking to his brainless companion, "what're we supposed to do? Stand up and applaud every five minutes?"
"I heard what you said," she repeated, feeling like her eyeballs were about to catch fire, so powerful was the hatred of her gaze.
"Didn't say anything." Condescending eyes. Arrogant shrug.
"No," Toni goaded, "go ahead. Say something else about her. Go on. Say it," she spat, then, "SAY IT!"
All little sounds in the room died. Wincing, Toni heard Cheryl's clear, strong voice trail off. She rotated back in her seat and snapped her laptop shut.
"Please leave," the professor spoke firmly, but calmly.
Cheeks burning with embarrassment and anger, Toni stuffed her things into her bag and rose quickly. She whipped her jacket from the back of her chair to drape it over her shoulder. In motion, Toni heard the zipper connect with something with a click and a scrape and hoped she'd just scratched the screen of the dickhead's laptop. It would have to do, she thought, booting the door at the top of the lecture hall open with her foot while she felt everyone's stares. It would have to do because she had better things to do besides wait around until class ended and kick the kid's ass up and down the foot court.
An hour and a quarter later, sitting in the Crim professors' hallway with her bag at her side and her knees bent up in front of her, Toni listened to Cheryl's heels approaching. Without looking up, she followed her girlfriend's movements. The zip of her purse. The extraction of office door keys. The key in the lock. The squeak of old wood being forced open. Toni got to her feet and trailed Cheryl in, catching the door as fingers with red nails released it.
For a full minute, they sat across the desk from each other and stared. Toni felt like she was back in the principal's office in public school, one of the many times she'd taken the blame for something Fangs or Sweet Pea had done; it was to even things out, since they were punished much more often than she was. Honestly, this situation didn't feel so different. It had been those two bastards behind her, not her.
"So," Cheryl finally began, "you were an idiot in my class."
Toni exhaled hard through her nose.
"I may be an idiot, but I'm your idiot. I was defending you."
"I can defend myself," Cheryl insisted, smoothing her hair over her shoulder.
"They'll just come back to the next class and do it again. Talk about you like you're a freak, nothing but a headline. Or somebody else will." Toni gripped the edge of the desk hard, leaning towards her girlfriend as she tried to make her understand. Sometimes you had to stand up to these people. It was the Serpent way.
"They probably will," Cheryl tranquilly conceded. "And the next class, and the next, and the next, and then they'll get back their exam results and find they scored a good 15% below what they'd thought." She gave Toni a little frown of fake disappointment. Toni raised her eyebrows.
"That's unethical."
"What's unethical is the mandate in this program to weigh the exam so highly that a grade below 50 means you fail the whole course. Pair that with the university-wide bell curving system and, well," Cheryl shrugged heartlessly, "those poor boys really don't stand a chance."
Toni grinned and threw herself back in the stiff chair reserved for office hour visitors.
"How silly of me to forget you always play the long game. I'm impressed."
Cheryl sent her a critical glance.
"Perhaps not as much as you should be. You caused a disturbance in my class today, Miss Topaz. I can't have you so ardently devoting yourself to my protection. It's bad enough the faculty knows we're friends. More than that and we could be in serious trouble."
Rising from her seat, Cheryl circled the desk and sat on its edge, legs crossed in front of Toni.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Toni asked slyly, eyeing her girlfriend's legs.
"Since having you write lines presents the problem of chalk never quite rubbing off of a blackboard, you will instead repeat what I say."
Toni waved a hand to signal she was ready. Cheryl straightened up, but stretched her leg out, letting the toe of her shoe trace up Toni's shin.
"Say, 'I will not interrupt Ms. Blossom's class again.'"
Toni repeated.
"Say, 'I will remain calm and trust in Ms. Blossom to dole out punishment to those who deserve it.'"
Toni repeated.
"Say, 'If I fail to obey Ms. Blossom, I recognize that I too will deserve to be punished and will submit to her completely at the time and in the manner of her choosing.'"
Toni started to repeat, but giggles bubbled up her throat, devolving into uncontrolled cackles.
"You weren't supposed to laugh!" Cheryl complained, giving Toni's shin a quick kick.
"Oh, come on!" she protested. "The dirty teacher/student routine? A little obvious, don't you think?"
"You can't expect me to be in this position and not take advantage of its potential applications for our sex life," Cheryl argued, tossing her long hair. "I know you let me win our fights, but how many times in our lives am I going to have legitimate authority over you. Doesn't it turn you on? Even a little?"
Toni narrowed her eyes skeptically.
"It's dated."
"I'm not." Locking eyes with her girlfriend, Cheryl began to unbutton her red blouse. Toni rolled her eyes.
"This is too much for me." She rose from her chair, grabbing her bag. Staring hard at the closed door, Toni wanted to reach for the knob, turn it, and exit. She wanted to prove Cheryl wrong. Her arms remained lowered.
"Is it?" Cheryl wondered, coming up behind her and grabbing one of Toni's wrists. With a gentle pull, she turned Toni to face her. Aggressively, Cheryl backed her into the door. Toni forgot what she was supposed to be arguing and kissed her, sliding her hands into her girlfriend's open top.
"Is this too much?" Cheryl asked again, drawing out of their kiss, her face still close to Toni's.
"No," Toni admitted quietly, running her fingers through Cheryl's hair as her girlfriend moved to kiss her neck.
"Is this?"
"No," Toni gasped when she felt teeth.
"This?" Cheryl's hands leapt up to cup Toni's breasts through her t-shirt. Her chest heaved.
"No."
"So this 'dated' teacher/student thing…" Cheryl spoke against Toni's neck, "… it might be something you could enjoy?"
Toni nodded, running her hands around to Cheryl's back, looking for the clasp of her bra.
"See, now, was that so bad?" Her girlfriend wondered.
"Feels a lot better than flunking my exam would," Toni agreed with a grin, nudging her lips to Cheryl's.