Inferno // dreamnotfound

s i x

George sat at his desk, slumped into his hands as he pondered over the last text Clay had sent. He couldn't focus on anything his job demanded of him as he asked himself is he saying what I think he is? 

He was jolted out his mind by a firm hand seizing onto his shoulder. George felt his panic rising as he shifted under the all too similar clutch. He just froze, eyes wide, unable to form words. "George," the hand of the man pulled back and George let go of a breath and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, before turning in his chair. 

"You have a class waiting outside, what are you doing in here?" an annoyed voice came from Tommy, the teacher in the classroom next to George. The brunette was silent for a moment, not looking at him.

"Oh, I didn't see the time," he lied, badly. 

"The bell went three minutes ago and they are terrorising the hallway!" the man continued, exasperated. George looked up, suddenly the realisation hitting him of where he was. 

"Shit," George grumbled as he stood and followed Tommy out of the room. 

As George stood in front of the crowd of fifteen-year-olds, half of them groaned something about how they couldn't go home now. George almost laughed because he couldn't believe kids still believed that myth. "Uhh, sorry about that guys, in you come," George said, pitching his voice higher at the end.

The students filed in, the boys at the back walking slowly trying to act cool but George could see right through them. "Oi, you three, move," he said in his stern teacher voice. George secretly loved using the voice his teachers had always used on him. They shuffled in and George resumed sitting on his chair to bring up the PowerPoint for the lesson and realised. 

 "Ugh, can one of you tallboys reach up and turn on the projector, please."

"Oh yeah, I got it, Sir," the boy who usually did it stood up. "I forgot how short you are." The class snickered.

"Excuse you, I'm average height," George faked offended. Then the entire class burst out of laughter at this and George smirked proudly. He knew exactly how much of a short person he sounded. "Alright, alright, calm down, guys."

Once they had settled down, with their exercise books out, George began the lesson. They had just started their GCSE courses so he was excited to introduce them to the first topic of Biology. "Ok, wait before I start, does no one have pencil cases anymore? I feel old." The class shrugged.

--

George was sitting down waiting for the kids to finish taking notes from the board and answer the questions with his feet tucked into his chest, resting on the chair. He couldn't shake Clay's ambiguous words and it was hurting, to imagine what he must have-

George snapped the pencil he was holding in his hand and blinked in surprise. Some of his class looked up in confusion from their various conversations. "Sir, you ok?" one of the girls asked kindly.

"Yes, yep, yeah. I'm good," George shook his head a little to wake himself up and sat up properly, absentmindedly opening and closing tabs and emails on his computer with a blank expression to seem busy. The class had turned back to what they were doing but George's mind was racing. He scalded himself on seeming strange to his class so he decided just to continue with the lesson to distract himself.

"Ok, the next sub-cellular structure is the Mitochondria," he said quite suddenly. "You might already think you know that it is the 'powerhouse of the cell'" George used air-quotes. "But do you actually know what that means? Anyone?" he continued. One hand went up.

"Yes, Jessica?"

"It means that the energy a cell uses is produced there through respiration." Jessica looked smug while others looked awed.

"Come, on, year ten, you're top set!" George huffed. He continued teaching, almost like a lecture for the rest of the lesson to keep his mind off his mind.

--

George went to his phone during the five minute changeover period to see if Clay had called him back yet. Last night, George had tried to call Clay but he completely ghosted it after they finished texting. He wasn't worried, he just had a slight bit of excitement thinking about how he might get a call from the guy he liked. Shit, I need to sort out my emotions. It was almost funny how many things he had felt that day. 

Just as George saw that he saw no missed calls, the screen lit up with a green and red button. He picked up.

"Clay?" George spoke into the phone.

"George."

"Why are you calling me?" his smile was evident in his voice.

"My job is actually killing me, George, I need a distraction." George wanted to say something about the text but he didn't feel like that would be the kind of distraction Clay wanted.

"Well, I only have about three minutes before my next class starts, I don't know what I can say-"

"Oh my god! George!" Clay's voice was full of alarm.

"What, what?"

"ArE yOu LiTeRaLlY sTiLl In ScHoOl? OmIgOd," Clay was basically shouting down the line. George just held in the laughter just to see what he would say next.

"I basically called myself a sex god and you're in school?" George couldn't hold it in any longer. His laugh stunned Clay into silence.

"George." More wheezing ensued. "What is so funny, George?"

"I-" George spluttered. "I'm a teacher, dumbass."

"Oh, thank god. George, I just about died right there, I thought I was a pedo!" Clay breathed, a smile now evident on his own face. George looked up to see a crowd of sixteen-year-olds about to walk in and he lunged to slam the door shut so they would wait outside.

"Ok, I really have to go, like right now," George sped up his talking, his cheeks flushing as he could see the children peering in his peripheral.

"Ugh, ok, fine... leave me then," Clay replied dramatically.

"Byeee," George hung up, knowing he was about to be confronted by teens he'd been teaching for the past year, so they had quite the friendship.

"Who was that sir..." One of the guys winked suggestively, seeing the deep crimson upon his face. George just moved away from the door to let them in and covered his face embarrassed.

"Sir, does that mean we can go on our phones now?"

George just shook his head but smiled: Clay had just called him, just to call him.

(1085 words, much shorter but I wanted a bit more of a fluffy one here ya know. It's also kind of a mess but oh well. Unless... if anyone noticed the lil double entendre hidden in there somewhere... hehe)