Strings (Ryan Gosling × Reader)

Chapter 49 - Class

After I parked close to the school, I walked to the entrance with my bag, fixing my jacket as I near my classmates, grouped up and invested in their own conversations.

I smile as one of the women recognizes me and waves my way. I wave back and greet her.

"Hey, Iris!"

"Hey!" She smiles and crosses her arms, shoulders tensed at the cold as she stepped away from the circle of chattery people.

Iris might be the only one here that talks to me and never once asked me anything about Ryan. From the first day, she realized how uncomfortable I got when the subject was brought up, and so she always made sure to respect my boundaries. 

"So, you okay?" She asks kindly, tilting her head to the side like a puppy.

"Yeah, you know, same old same old."

Small talk with her isn't boring. It's lighthearted and digestible, it doesn't have suffocating, awkward pauses like it has with some other people. A few other classmates join into our conversation so we can all talk and some smoke before the class. When it's time to head inside, some put out their cigarretes and throw them in a garbage can before shoving their hands in their pockets and going in. We all go to our seats in the classroom and greet the teacher, who sits at his desk in front of the class, searching something in his computer. I sit down and set my script on my chair's small table. Everyone would present the scenes and monologues they practiced at home today, but the teacher loves commentary, so we'll do three or four and then the other two thirds of the class are left for the next lessons. 

When everyone settles down, the teacher stands and smiles.

"Good evening, class."

The class responds in unison.

"Good evening, Derek." 

"Woah, what a bunch of robots. Rough thursday?"

The class groans as an answer, me included. Derek chuckles and smiles, leaning his hip on his desk, crossing his arms against his chest.

"Everybody ready to embarrass yourselves in front of the whole class?"

Derek was good at making the stress of the day wear off, making jokes and, while taking the class seriously, also making us feel at ease. 

"Who's gonna be first?" Derek sat himself on his desk completely, his feet dangling as he excidedly skimmed his eyes across the room to see who would volunteer.

I certainly will not raise my arm. How dare I be first.

Fortunately, someone in the back raises their hand.

Derek smiles and clasps his hands together.

"Monica! Come on up here."

Monica gets up and slithers her skinny body through the class.

"I just wanna get this over with, Derek." She chuckles nervously as she pushes her hair from her face.

"What'cha got for us today, Mon?"

"I chose, uh... a monologue from Fleabag... the confession scene."

"Ohh, nice, whenever you're ready." 

Monica stands and faces the whole class, the script in her hand as she reads a few lines before lowering her hand and looking at Derek.

"Okay, ready."

He nods, telling her to begin. 

As I watch, she gives a simple monologue, but with such passion, subtle rage and the failed attempt to mask her submission, desperation to be controlled. In some way, she captures Phoebe Waller-Bridge's mannerisms and ways of talking just perfectly. I don't even know what Monica is so shy about, because she clearly has what it takes to be an award winning actress. Not only that, but she's pretty. 

After Monica finishes, people give her a round of applause, then Derek begins his commentary. 

His commentary is never condescending. He always firstly notes all the good things before getting into the mistakes or things we could do better, and he advises us, he makes us practice there with him so we know exactly what he means. After a while, Monica goes to her seat, Derek smiles at the class, searching for his next victim.

"Who wants to go next?"

"I do," Michael raises his hand, a smug look on his face. 

"Great! What are you bringing to the table, big guy?"

As Michael gets up, he waves his script gently in his hand.

"The "What do you want" scene from The Notebook, but uh... it seems like I'm missing an Allie..." Michael directs his smirk to me, teasingly offering me the script. 

I can only scowl. 

After a few chuckles in the class, Derek waves his hands.

"Alright, get your act together, we're not teenagers here." 

Michael shrugged and walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Fine, whatever, it's not like she merely resembles Rachel McAdams anyway."

"You know what? Give me that." I get up and yank the script from his hands "I'll do it. I bet you won't get more Allie vibes from Derek than from me, will you?"

"How dare you!" Derek playfully gasped "Alright, go on if you'd like."

Michael was my arch nemesis in this classroom, always poking fun at me and acting like a sophomore jock, or a meanie in the sandbox, teasing me because he can't accept my bucket not only is bigger, but much cooler than his. I can't stay adult-like when I'm faced with him, so yeah, we're both children today.

As I stand outside after class, waiting for Iris to finish up with everyone before we start walking away from the school.

"Ugh," I start "I shouldn't have done that."

"Nah, it was cool." Iris giggled and shoved her hands in her pockets. 

"No, I've done cooler things than that, this was just petty." I shook away the thought, embarrassed.

"Like what?" 

"I remember, many months ago, I got angry at a Prada employee because he kept trying to sell me off-white instead of the white I asked for, and off-white is more expensive for like, literally no reason."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you work with those people." She chuckled and shook her head.

"It's not so exciting sometimes." I giggle "It's the movie stuff that's most exciting. Watching Ryan work and live his life..."

Iris looks at me for a few seconds, smiling softly.

"You are together, aren't you?"

I look over at her, a little scared, but then I let myself relax with a soft smile.

"...Yeah. Yeah, we are."

"...Good. I was dying to be able to talk about it."

We laugh together and walk side by side in the chilly winter night.