Walking side by side with your teacher across campus certainly didn't feel normal. As Professor Way droned on about how art was clearly one of the most important subjects, I couldn't help but feel as though every pair of nearby eyes was fixated on us. We were just walking together, so why did it feel so wrong? No one knew how I felt about him... or how he may or may not have felt about me.
Luckily, it didn't take us long to get to the coffee shop. I hurried to rush inside to hide my embarrassment, but when I reached for the door, I was surprised when Professor Way had stepped in my way to open it for me. I blushed at the polite gesture.
Once we had ordered our drinks, Prof. Way and I found a little table near the back to sit down at. It was away from all of the other students and their conversations taking place in the shop, so that helped me relax a bit.
Immediately after taking a sip of his coffee, Prof. Way took out his paperwork and starting looking through it, writing stuff down. Presumably, he was grading his students' work. Thankfully though, he just continued to talk to me about art-related things as he did so.
"I don't understand some of these students. They've been studying art for years and want to pursue it in their futures, yet some of them still give me garbage work. I expect so much more out of them".
As he kept himself busy at his work and his basically one-sided conversation, I couldn't help but to take the time to admire the little things about him. His expression looked so stern yet cute while he focused, with his furrowed eyebrows and the occasional lip bite. Even his odd pinky finger that stuck out slightly as he held his pen was adorable.
As I continued to stare, I didn't even notice when he ceased his ranting.
"Mr. Iero," he said without stopping what he was writing, "Is there a reason you're intensely watching me without saying anything?"
As my face flushed with embarrassment, I struggled to think of a response, "Sorry I- I just think you're really... nice-looking". I was an absolute idiot. I should've just kept my mouth shut.
Finally, Prof. Way looked up from his work, and I immediately tore my eyes off of him. I could still tell he was smirking at me though.
He chuckled, "Thank you. You're very 'nice-looking' yourself". It seemed like such an innocent thing to say, yet when my eyes traveled back to him, the look he was giving me told me otherwise. It really appeared as though my teacher was never really being innocent with me.
There was no way he actually like me that way though, right? He sure did act like it... But my feelings had to have been getting the best of me. I was making things up in my head.
"Anyways, I asked you what you were studying in school," Prof. Way clarified what I had missed when I spaced out. "I mean, career-wise, what do you want to do?"
Of course, my first thought was to lie to him. I had only come to school to get away from home. For the parties and the drinking and the girls. So far, I hadn't had luck with any of those. I guess I had been taking the whole school thing more serious than I originally planned to though.
In truth, I didn't really want to be anything. I guess I didn't really care all too much.
"Well, I don't-," I started, before noticing he was now focusing solely on me instead of his work. This made me struggle more. "I don't really know... I don't really want to do anything I guess. I hadn't planned on actually accomplishing much at school. I just kinda wanted to hang out and have fun until I was forced to drop out". I couldn't believe I was telling Prof. Way all this. Especially after he had just been complaining about how his students didn't seem to try very hard.
I was surprised by his response to me though, "I used to be that way too, Frank. Except I didn't even go to college at first. I wasn't doing much with my life. I spent my days sitting around drawing and painting. That is, until I realized I could do something I loved for a living."
Reaching across the table, he gently grabbed my hand that I had resting on the table and held it in his. I blushed, looking back and forth from our hands to his eyes.
"I'm sure you'll realize what you want to do in life," he continued. "It may take some time, but you'll get on the right path to your perfect future eventually. Everything will fall into place."
I nodded, not sure if I should comment on his advice or the hand-holding.
Luckily, I ended up not having to say anything about either, because suddenly, Professor Way's phone started ringing. I watched sadly as he took his hand away to grab his phone from his pocket.
"Hey, what's up?" he talked into his phone. "Oh really? Yeah, that's fine. I'll be right over. Okay, yeah. Alright, love you, bye".
Love you.
After his brief chat on the phone, he turned back to me. "I'm going to have to head out now, but thank you for coming with me for coffee. I enjoyed your company".
Who was this "you" that Prof. Way loved?
"I'll see you in class Monday," he said as he packed up his paperwork. "I apologize we didn't have time to go over the lesson early, but I'll gladly help you if you need it in class".
A wife? A girlfriend?
As he was in a rush to leave, Professor Way didn't take notice that I had gone silent. After he had gathered everything up and was about to walk past my seat to leave, he surprisingly stopped to say something again.
"I'd really love to do something again with you sometime".
And with that he was out the door.
I was left confused, yet with butterflies fluttering around inside my stomach. Was Prof. Way already in a relationship? Maybe he never had been flirting with me in the first place. Surely, I was just taking his attentions the wrong way... but would a teacher really hold my hand? Or say he wanted to hang out again with me?
I left the coffee shop not long after that, deciding it was best for me to head back to my dorm. Disregarding the "flirting" that occurred between us, I thought about my professor's advice. I really didn't care much when it came to school and my future, but would that eventually change? I was doing a pretty decent job of finishing all my work and showing up to class lately. Maybe he was right. Maybe things would all work out.
On my way back, I just so happened to run into Ray. He was walking with someone I didn't recognize. It didn't take him long to see me.
"Hey Frank, I was wondering when I'd see you again today," he approached me. "This is my friend Mikey. We have our chemistry lab together".
The tall, lanky guy sporting straight blonde hair and thin glasses waved at me, "Hi, nice to meet you".
"This is my roommate, Frank, I was telling you about," Ray turned to Mikey.
Mikey offered a shy smile, "Oh right!"
Ray walked between the two of us, "We should all hang out sometime! Are you free tonight Mikey? Maybe we could all watch a movie or something?"
"Aw, that sounds fun, but I actually have to run," Mikey replied. "I asked my brother for help with something, and he promised he'd meet me at the library in a couple of minutes. I'm probably already late enough as it is. I wouldn't want to keep him waiting. Especially because he always has a lot of work to do".
So, with that, we all agreed to meet up another time, and Mikey took off, leaving just Ray and I. Glancing over to Ray, I noticed he looked pretty disappointed.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, nudging him playfully. "You looked awfully sad to see him go."
He blushed, looking down at his shoes, "I was just hoping I'd get to spend more time with him today. He's really cool, and super sweet and... geez I don't know".
I chuckled, "Kinda sounds like you've got a crush on someone".
"I- no! Well... maybe!" he spat out. "But I don't think he likes me like that. He's probably already with someone... and with my luck it's probably a girl or something".
"You and me both, Ray. You and me both".
He raised an eyebrow at me, "Wait what? You like someone?"
I kept on laughing and began walking back towards the dorm.
Ray just chased after me, desperate for answers, "Wait! Frank who is it?!"