It was a warm afternoon for the end of October. The sun reflected dramatically in the leaves of our backyard maple tree, and the fiery red matched the cloaks of our centurion costumes. Though their armor was plastic, they looked reasonably realistic. With the tall wooden fence blocking out the rest of the neighborhood, my two housemates looked a lot like a scene from a gladiator movie, had it not been for the beer bottles in their hands.
"Hey, Alex, do you want another one?" David asked, noting that my bottle was empty. He pointed to a beer-filled cooler.
"Nah, I'm good," I replied. "Better not get drunk before the party starts, hey?"
"It's another hour 'til the guests come, and, for once, we're ready too early," Marco said. "What shall we do, general?"
He referred to me as such because my costume was different from theirs. The cloak was longer, and the helmet had a large plume. We intended to get matching outfits, but the store only carried the officer version in my size, whereas my shorter friends had to settle for the common soldier version. So, to stick to character, I was the general for the day.
"I guess we should go tell Professor Fredriksen about the party and apologize in advance," I said.
"I ran into her yesterday," Marco said. "Her kid is staying with his dad for the weekend, and she said she won't mind some noise."
"Great," I said. "But let's try to keep the music down. I don't want to get on her bad side."
We couldn't believe our luck when we got the lease for our house. Many landlords wouldn't want three male college students as tenants, but ours didn't care one way or the other, as long as we didn't cause any problems. The house was in a great neighborhood, close to our campus but away from busy traffic. It was at the end of the street and had only one neighbor. Less ideal, that one neighbor turned out to be our history professor.
History wasn't what drove me to go to college, but our curriculum required that we took at least one social sciences course. And when we reluctantly went through the list of courses, we stumbled on History of Engineering. It sounded like a loophole but ticked the box. It turned out to be one of my favorite courses, and Professor Fredriksen was no small part of what I liked. Her lectures were always interesting, and she had a charismatic demeanor that made whatever she said interesting.
And, admittedly, she was attractive. I didn't usually have a thing for older women, but there was something very appealing about her. She hada sweet, round face with dimples that deepened every time someone correctly answered one of her questions to the class. Needless to say, I came well prepared to every lecture.
Still, I was nervous to have her as our neighbor, especially since all our friends decided that our place was the best place for big parties—one of which was about to happen tonight.
"Teacher's pet," David teased.
I was just about to retaliate when I heard a strange noise. It sounded like a woman in agony.
"What's that?" I asked, holding up my hand to silence my friends.
"Sounds like it's coming from the neighbor's house," Marco said.
There was a dull smacking sound, followed by a meek yelp. Was someone hurt?
"Are you OK, Mrs. Fredriksen?" I yelled.
There was no reply, but the moaning continued. By now, I was convinced she was in pain. My mind raced, trying to make out what was going on. Maybe a robber had broken in. Or maybe she'd just fallen and hurt herself.
"Kristin!"
In no way was I at first name basis with her, but this was no time for manners. Still, there was no response.
"Come on, let's go!" I commanded and started to climb the fence.
"I don't think..." Marco began, but I didn't care what he had to say. Our neighbor and teacher was in trouble and needed our help.
Taller than my friends, I was the first to make it over the fence. I landed on my feet and scanned around her backyard, searching for signs of an attacker. But instead, my eyes landed on Professor Fredriksen. Her living room had large windows overlooking her backyard. We stared in shock at each other.
And we would have been an unexpected sight to appear on her lawn. There I stood—a roman general—foolishly reaching for the plastic sword at my side, as though it could scare off a potential intruder. Behind me, two more centurions dropped down from the fence.
But her appearance was even more unexpected. She was naked, lying chest down on her couch. The curve of her sizable ass poked to the ceiling, raised by a pillow under her hips. Though there was a voice in the back of my head telling me I shouldn't stare, I didn't have the willpower to look away. One of her arms was wedged beneath her, and her hand had obviously been busy between her legs. Even more shocking, her other hand held a paddle and she seemed to be in the midst of swatting herself. A laptop was open on the coffee table in front of her, and though I couldn't see the screen, I could still hear a woman screaming. Now I recognized it as a mixture of both pleasure and pain. I couldn't tell to what extent the sounds we'd heard came from our neighbor or the porn she was watching. And had there been any doubts about what she was doing, the collection of sextoys next to her computer made it obvious. Her blonde hair partly covered her flustered face.
Kristin was the first to react, and she released a cascade of anger, which her windows did little to mute. "What the fuck are you doing here? Stop staring, you morons! Get the fuck out!"
She did her best to cover her breasts with one arm while using the other to projectile the paddle towards us. It banged against the glass. Collectively, my friends and I apologetically held up our hands.
"We're so sorry!" I shouted. "We thought someone was in trouble!"
With our tails between our legs, we climbed back to our side of the fence.
"I'll fucking report you!", she yelled after us. "Stupid idiots!"
* * *
I walked in anxious circles in our backyard.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I chanted. "This is not good. This is not good."
Sure, the sight of my naked teacher had been nothing but a delight, and the image was forever imprinted in my memory. I had already had more than the occasional impure thought about her. Even though she always dressed conservatively in class, her feminine curves were too apparent to be hidden. She was the ultimate combination of the MILF next door and the hot-for-teacher fantasy. And yet, the erotic sight of her naked form surpassed any fantasy I'd ever had. But all I could think about was how ridiculous I had been, thinking I was going to rescue some maiden in distress.
"I told you they weren't moans of pain," Marco said.
I shot him an angry glance. I vaguely remembered his cautious objection, but this wasn't the time for "I told you so." The way I saw it, our entire futures was at stakes. Could she get us kicked out of the university? And what did she mean by reporting us? To the police? Though our intentions were good, we had broken into her property. I was panicking.
The sound of our doorbell cut me off. I glanced at my watch.
"Shit," David sighed. "Is it too late to cancel the party?"
"Well, it's a bit late if someone's already here," I said, shaking my head in disbelief. I wasn't the slightest in the mood for a party, but maybe a drunken evening could distract me from my worries.
But when I opened the door, any hope to forget about my neighbor and professor vanished. There she stood in a conservative blouse and skirt, much like I knew her from her lectures. I just gaped at her.
"Hi, can I come inside?" she asked and glanced anxiously around her.
"What? Yeah, sorry..." I stuttered. "Of course, please. We're in the backyard."