The TA and the Tease

I think he can definitely tell at least kylie has a crush on him now

hamr

GOOD.

maybe he'll actually do something about it

Ashley

ok so i thought we said the whole point of this was that nothing was going to happen

so theres no harm in talking about it

Daivd

hamr*

Ashley

so were you lying?

Daivd

or maybe she changed her mind and now shes okay with it

None of the girls typed for a little bit. Kylie could feel a lot of the eyes on the room on her, and calmly looked forward and started typing on her computer. The three dots on the chat screen lit up next to her profile. Seconds felt like minutes. I expected her to say no, but I wanted her to say yes.

hamr

Im not just okay with it.

Im going to make it happen.

One or two girls gasped, and one turned pink. Ryan finally noticed something was up on everyone's phones and rolled his eyes. "Okay, sharing memes is fun and all, but you do need to finish those outlines, and this is the only time I'm available to help you with it, unless you need to book my office hours. So use your time well, okay?"

Kylie raised her hand again. "Actually, yeah, can I talk with you about my outline? But, um, it's kind of personal, so could I book some time with you?"

Ryan nodded. "Yeah, totally. Does tomorrow at..." He looked at his screen. "1:30 work for you? PM, obviously."

"Uh, totally, thanks," Kylie replied with a beaming smile. The rest of the room went back to their devices.

Daivd

YOU ARE GOING TO GET EXPELLED I STG

Janelle

its not like shes going to lock the door and start kissing him lol calm down

shes obviously trying to talk to him but like

I feel like youre not that weird about it

hamr

Hell no, Im gonna be respectful about it, of course

Im not stupid

Im not going to do something until he makes the first move

I read that last message from Kylie and the cogs started turning. My heart started beating faster. I realized what the best play was. Ryan would have never ever made the first move. Some of the things the students said were obvious as all hell and he still didn't notice. So, suppose a girl actually made the first move. Suppose the girl he least suspected got to know him a little better and played her cards right.

Nearly shaking with nervousness, I raised my hand. Ryan saw it, realized its source, and hesitated. I never even said "here" when he called my name for attendance; I just waved. "Um, yeah, Jessica?" he asked, a little off guard.

"Um," I began. "Yeah, could I do the same thing? I have an idea for my outline, but I..." I blushed, looking around the room. This was the first time he even heard my voice.

Ryan sensed my unease at talking in public and took it from there. "Uh, yeah, totally. My next availability tomorrow is... 4pm. Does that work?"

I nodded and turned back to my computer. You could practically hear the vibrating in the room with how many messages were flooding the chat.

Janelle

OH SHIIIIIIIT

Daivd

KYLIE YOU GOT COMPETITION

Ashley

calm down you idiots, its jessica

she's not trying anything

Georgia

she was the second one to admit she wanted him

Daivd

are we all just going to ask him for office hours now

Janelle

lmao "no, I'm spartacus"

A few of the girls giggled. Ryan looked at the room inquisitively and said nothing, though he did lock eyes with me again, this time making a comical shrugging motion. I laughed.

***

Maya Schroeder has entered the chat.

Maya

Okay so

I tried asking Maddie at a party pretending I heard they were a couple

And she said they weren't a couple, and told me to keep it a secret (oops) but like

They fucked?? A lot????

hamr

ATTA BOY RYAN

Georgia

this chat is so cursed lmao

Daivd

so they were fwbs?

Maya

Haha yupppp

apparently he's hung

hamr

duh

biggest case of big dick energy on the planet

Georgia

sorry

hold on

you were at a party with your fucking TA???

Maya

yup

sorry I'm popular? ;) 

they still fool around from time to time

Georgia

WHY IS A TA TELLING YOU THIS

hamr

morel ike 'why arent more TAs like this'

Georgia

YES OK THANK YOU FOR YOUR OPINION KYLIE

Daivd changed hamr's nickname to "morel ike"

Even if the chat could be a bit juvenile at times, it was definitely getting bolder, and hornier. I loved it. I couldn't not sneak a hand into my jeans and rub circles around my clit while reading those messages as they came in. I was so glad the news hit while I was at home and not in class.

I had a lot of time to think about it, and I decided I liked it. I liked how many of the girls were into Ryan. I liked how we were just horny for him with no shame. And I loved how we fed each others' obsessions. 

Almost all of the girls in his seminar knew he had a habit of fucking around. They knew he was hung, too. And he was either oblivious to it or the best actor on the planet. Fuck... both of those scenarios were hot. I rubbed faster, panting out loud, imagining Ryan being fully aware of what he was doing and just using his seminar to tease us. Using his seminar like he would use us...

I shuddered, giving myself a silent orgasm. Even with my secret horny side, I didn't want to weird out my housemates, and the walls were thin. Plus, my housemates didn't know how horny I was. But these girls... I mean, they were pretty honest with each other, even if that honestness sometimes came in the form of being honestly judgmental. I could handle being honestly judged, and I wanted to stir the pot a little more.

Jessica

tbh I have an idea

My cheeks burned. I bit my lower lip. It was such a naughty idea, yet one where we could still have plausible deniability.

Daivd

we're listening

Georgia

yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

morel ike

does this have to do with your upcoming appointment jessica 🤔 

I closed my eyes and slowly breathed out, my heartbeat quickening again. This was addictive. I didn't know I could be this bold about anything, and yet, here I was, typing out my messages.

Jessica

so

we were given a personal essay assignment. Ryan outright encouraged us to make it as personal as possible. What if we... test that, and see how it lands with him. We won't make our essays x-rated or anything, but just include some sexual innuendos here and there. Enough to make him notice something. But if we all do it, he can't just meet with one of us and tell that person to stop it or something. It could be fun to watch him squirm.

I waited, holding my breath when I watched the first person reply. It helped that it was Ash. I could trust her.

Ashley

wtf

this has gone from silly to... I think that's literally sexual harassment

I am not doing that, and no one else should do that either. I think we seriously need to touch grass or something because this is getting creepy.

This chat has gone too far and I think we should all stop and really think about what we're doing.

Ashley Hildebrand has left the chat.

My heart sank. I thought this was fine. It seemed to all be normal and make sense in my head. Was it really all that bad? The profile pictures of girls that had read it were piling up, and no one said anything for... what felt like hours. When I checked the clock, seven minutes had gone by since Ash left. Eventually, a speech bubble formed. Sydney.

Daivd

talk about an overreaction

it's not "sexual harassment" to make a few sex jokes in your essay

like???

Slowly, other girls gave their two cents too.

Janelle

yeah tbh that was kinda a cunt move. We already talk so openly in seminar

you know what? Ill do it. I think it sounds both sexy and funny

Georgia

yea, we just gotta be tasteful about it

just wait until we find out Kylie writes a sex story about her fucking Ryan and just submits that

Janelle

I bet she would even write the bullshit kind where it takes like three thousand words before you even get to the sex

Daivd

its called "buildup" Janelle

Janelle

it's called "I'm reading this to get off, not to get updates on fifteen different backstories, literally just read a normal book"

Daivd

can normal books not be sexy 🤔

Janelle

sex stories arent literature

cry about it

Georgia

gatekeeping alertttt

morel ike

HEY STOP BULLYING ME IM NOT GOING TO WRITE A SEX STORY

anyway, fuck yes. but be SUBTLE. just like a passing reference to something sexual and move on like you didnt just say that

Maya

Im jealous haha. I wish I was in the class, Id love to write a personal essay on like my first time and have ryan read it 😆 

Daivd

switch into the class maya! or just write it anyway and slip it under his door 😏 

Georgia

omg were going to make ryan hard reading our essays

Janelle

I bet its soooo noticeable when hes hard. 😳 is that why he wears jeans and not sweats

Daivd

he has to wear sweats to the gym

morel ike

OKAY WE NEED TO HAND IN OUR ESSAYS ON A GYM DAY AND MAKE HIM READ IT ON THE SPOT

Maya

lmao Kylie calm down

Under any other circumstances, I'd be both elated and turned on with how receptive the other girls were to my suggestion, but I couldn't take my mind off of Ash and her reaction. Really quickly, I switched chats to a private one with her, and sent her a message.

Hey, are we okay? I didn't mean to upset you. I'm really sorry, I was just trying to be part of the group.

Luckily for me, she responded pretty quickly.

Yeah, we're fine. I'm not angry with you, but idk, it just feels a bit far, you know? It's fine to joke around and point out that he's hot, but we shouldn't actually jeopardize our place in the class or his job. Plus it is kind of creepy. You can see that, right?

No.

yeah, totally. 

So, how did the other girls react? I really hope they agreed with me.

I bit my lip, thinking about the best play to make here. Eventually, I went with my gut.

Kylie was... kylie, lmao

I think the rest of the girls agree tho. They're not leaving the chat but it's not like we're starting anything

As I sent that, I saw on the top of my screen that Kylie basically announced she was going to play with herself thinking of Ryan. She worded it playfully enough that the other girls just laughed her off instead of being weirded out. I bit my lip and popped open my fly. It was like this burgeoning sex cult, with Ryan as our idol. None of us would have dreamt of talking like this when we started the chat, yet here we were, slowly corrupting each other thinking of our hot, jacked, hung, oblivious TA. It was the hottest thing in the world.

***

"Yeah, come on in," Ryan encouraged me. "There is a class going on down the hall, though, so you should probably close the door."

My heart started beating even faster than it already was. I was alone in a closed-off room with Ryan. I diligently closed the door, then sat down at the chair opposite him, not saying a word. Ryan finished some sentence he was writing and then closed the window on his computer.

"Okay, so," he began, spinning in his swivel chair to face me. "Upfront, if you don't feel like talking, at any time, you can just point to what you want on the outline or something. I get these kinds of meetings can seem... you know, stern, so I wanna make this atmosphere as open as it can be."

I gave a small smile, though my internal one was huge. Here I was, thinking about Ryan's dick and how I finally was alone in a room with him, and here he was, thinking about my anxiety and how he could make me feel welcome. It was both so unfortunate and a blessing he was apparently not interested in romance. Unfortunate because if he wanted to, he could make any girl (preferably me) so happy someday. A blessing because any girl that had him would never leave his side, and I wouldn't get another chance again. 

"It's, uh, it's okay," I nervously managed to say before giving an uncomfortable giggle. Ryan nodded sympathetically as I opened my laptop, loading my outline for him. "So, I have an outline here, and I tried to make it personal to me, like you said, but I'm kind of finding it difficult to find a conclusion... I mean, does it make a good enough point?"

Ryan shrugged. "I dunno, but that's half the fun of these things. Lemme take a look-see. If I may..." He motioned to my laptop and I passed it to him. His eyes looked over the outline, his lips moving slowly as he read. He started with a stern-looking, concentrated expression, then slowly, his eyebrows moved back up to their normal position. Then, one of the two eyebrows kept going. When he finished, he stared straight ahead and shook his head before looking at me.

"Wow. You took the challenge of making it personal to you and just said 'Bet,' huh?" He smirked, then lowered one eyebrow at me. His smile broadened and he leaned in. "It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?" he asked in a friendly voice, like we were sharing a joke.

I giggled, but still shifted in my seat. "If it's inappropriate, I can..." I trailed off.

"Nah, it's totally fine. Just as long as you know it's university policy to have a copy of all assignments in the last four or so years in their records. They'll obviously never do anything with it, but you know, it's just information policy." He shrugged. "If you can believe it, Jessica, I've been around those themes before, and I think that..." He paused, choosing his next words carefully. "Themes like that can be seen as inappropriate or not safe for work by some, but... this department understands that when we ask for passion in writing, it can take many forms. Hell, some psych classes will directly ask their students to look at porn. Not for its, uh, intended use, but you know."

He was so frustratingly professional. Speaking of porn, this should have been the time when a weaker-willed guy would just throw me against his desk and have his way with me. It was clear Ryan was going to do no such thing. 

"The theme is fine. Actually, if you wanted solid critique, here, in paragraph three, you kind of hop back and forth between actual events and what's in your head. I get that you're trying to go for a chronological order, but is there a better way to organize it...? I bet there is. If you can find that sweet spot, the essay will flow way better."

Ryan was proving to be a tough egg to crack. This was already the most confident thing I'd ever done in my life, and here he was, critiquing it as if I wasn't trying to make myself irresistible to him. I went a little beyond maybe some subtle innuendos in my essay; after all, I wanted to stand out in the crowd. The moment his shell cracked, I wanted to be the one he desired the most. As the girls astutely observed, Kylie had some serious competition.

***

Even though Ryan had come to the seminar with his signature smile, it took on a more puzzled look. When he sat down, he didn't say anything for a bit. "So I, uh, marked all your essays here..." He paused, and looked up at us. "There were a few... commonalities amongst your essays. A few of you wrote about the same kind of thing, if you get me. A few themes kept popping up over and over, and it was interesting to see that a lot of you picked the same themes. If you know, you know." He started handing out marked essays to the students.

"What kinds of themes?" One of the boys asked.

Ryan looked him in the eyes and smiled mischievously. "Hey Nik, these are personal essays," he reasoned. "Some of us wrote about things that were pretty private to them. Close stories and all that. I wouldn't want to give it away by saying what the themes were out loud. If everyone wrote about how they wish their mothers would show them more affection, me pointing it out would out half the class."

"So we can guess it wasn't about mothers then, right?" Kylie pointed out teasingly. Ryan only gave her a smile in response that I could only deduce was a warning smile. As he did, he passed her essay back to her. She started reading the notes, her face falling as she did. A few messages hit the chat.

Georgia

he's perfect in every other way, why does he have to be such a hard markerrr

Daivd

tbh? This just makes him more attractive to me. He's a tough man to please

Janelle

lmao, the one time Kylie is silent in this chat

someone got a bad grade

Maya

haha sucks to be you, Maddie gave me a 92 on my personal essay and I wrote it the night before it was due

morel ike

can we kick maya from this chat pls? shes not even in this seminar

Maya

ooh, sour grapes 😏 

As the girls chatted, I got my essay back. I flipped through it a few times, and saw I got an 83. Not terrible, especially for Ryan's standards. He wrote a few things on the sides of my essay in red pen -- a few notes on flow here and there, but my cheeks burned when I saw what he wrote next to one of my, shall I say, more personal points of the essay.

Stop enjoying this so much, this is supposed to be a school assignment ;)

I held my breath to make sure my breathing didn't alert the class. Ryan wrote that. With a drawn winky face and everything. My cheeks burned as I looked back at him, but he was too busy handing more essays around the desks. I read over the note a few more times, then read over every other comment he left -- they were all normal. As always, it was just a one-off thing with Ryan. Nothing concrete enough to seem like an attempt. And I bet he would keep it that way. As slutty as he apparently could be behind the scenes, and as casual as he was, he still kept it professional. How annoying.

Did I have enough guts to make the first move? I didn't know about that, but I knew I should at least keep the momentum going. I whipped out my phone and started an email to Ryan, asking him if he had time to meet with me about my essay's mark this week. When I hit send, his computer loudly dinged, and I turned pink and looked down. He handed out the last of his essays, then mumbled, "One sec, this could be important..." He went to his computer and clicked something, then gave a puzzled look at his screen. He quickly typed out something, then hit the enter key with a stroke as if he finished penning a masterpiece.

I looked at my email inbox. Sure enough, there was an email from Ryan. 

Yeah, asking in person is so boring, isn't it? Sure, I think I'm free tomorrow at 3. I'll be in my office. Ryan

Kylie couldn't resist getting a few more words in. "So, was it important?"

He gave her a patient smile. "Yes," he said simply. "Okay, so for today's seminar..."

***

"Hey, how's it going, Jessica?" he warmly yet casually greeted me as he saw me enter his office. "Please, find a seat. You're saving me from having to work on my bullshit thesis anyway."

I giggled and sat down, sitting at the desk with him. "Thanks for always finding time for me," I told him.

He shrugged. "Thanks for caring about your work so much, you make my job worth it," he told me with that smile of his. "So...?"

I needed to play this cool. That was the game we were playing, since he got to make the rules. "To be honest, I just wanted to know how I could improve my style for the future," I told him, just how I rehearsed. "I thought we could maybe go over each note you gave, maybe talk about it, and..."

Ryan kept silent well after I trailed off. He seemed to hate interrupting people. "Yeah, sure," he replied diplomatically. "So, I remember your essay having a pretty strong opening, actually. I like how..."

He talked for a little bit about the strengths and weaknesses of my writing, all while I waited for the moment he'd come upon that one note. I bet he knew the one. The one that ended with a winky face he drew. And sure enough...

He flipped the page and saw what he wrote, laughing in slight discomfort. "Okay, so this note, obviously, doesn't really have a lot to do with your writing," he quickly said. "We can move past it if you want."