Teaching Carol, Ch.2

It was definitely getting colder as the evening darkened around us, and we walked with our arms around each other’s waists as we made out way back to the campus dormitory where she lived. I wanted to ask her what she was feeling about what we had just done, but I had the sense that she didn’t want to discuss it, was perhaps ashamed of her part in it. So we talked of other things, as if we were still just two people who had gone on a slightly romantic walk.

As we got closer to her building, though, she began to talk a little more nervously, saying that I didn’t have to see her all the way up to her room, that men weren’t supposed to be in the building after ten P.M., and so forth. I wondered what was bothering her, then it struck me that she was afraid that if I came up to her room I would want more of what we had done by the reservoir. I hadn’t been planning on it, but now that she’d given me the idea I couldn’t resist.

So when we reached the lobby, and kissed and hugged good night, I waited until she was well on her way up the stairs, then turned and ran down the hallway to the end, where there was another set of stairs. Dashing up two flights, I made it to her door well before she had reached the floor. The hallway was dim, with mostly burnt-out ceiling lights, and empty. I tested her doorknob, and, as I’d remembered from previous visits, she hadn’t locked up, so I quickly opened it and slipped inside to wait.

The room was nearly dark, lit only by the moon and distant streetlights, so I simply stepped into the middle as I heard her approaching the door. She stepped in and immediately turned to switch on the light and close the door.