Tina's Secret

The process was beginning to frustrate me. I really liked her. Despite the
fact that she was so shy, I was able to learn a few things about her. She
was 18, a freshman, and she was from New Hampshire where she lived with her
parents, two brothers, and one sister. She also also very bright, funny
when she worked up the courage to make a joke, and an excellent writer. Her
specialty was poetry. Her stuff was amazing, much better than mine. She
hated to read in front of the class but, when she did, everyone was blown
away. Especially me.

Meanwhile, my talent for writing short fiction was growing, and the
professor was impressed. Tina always gave me positive feedback on my
writing and encouraged me whenever she could. There wasn't much positive
feedback to give on my poetry, though. I stank. Tina, on the other hand,
had the opposite problem. She was great with language and images, but had
trouble with things like plot and characterization. On Friday, a week
before Halloween, our professor assigned everyone in the class to bring one
poem and one story to class the following Friday, then dismissed us.

"Hey Tina," I said, catching up to her as she walked towards the bus.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"I was thinking and I wanted to ask you something."

"OK?"

"Do you want to come over to my place on Thursday and read each other's
stuff? I've been struggling with my poems and I was hoping maybe you could
give me some pointers. I could try to give you some pointers too."

"Uh, yeah, that sounds alright."

"Awesome. We'll work out the details later. I think that's your bus
coming."

"Oh yeah. Umm, see ya."

"Bye."

The next Thursday, as we had planned, Tina came over at 7:00 PM with her new
poem and her new story. My roommate was gone so we had the place to
ourselves to read and talk about our work. It was an unseasonably warm
night so Tina had showed up in a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a
peach-colored tanktop which showed off her lithe body, pleasantly round
butt, and c-cup breasts. I actually found it a little hard to concentrate
since every time she leaned over, I got a nice view of her cleavage.