Wrapped Around Your Wrist |Virgato|

Chapter 7

Chris has hardly sat down and booted up his computer when Joel barges into his office, "Hey."

Joel is a statue decorating his doorway, gaze cast down and fists hanging at his side.

Chris frowns, "You have a good weekend?"

"Hmm?" Joel's eyes bounce up, "Oh yeah, mostly homework but, still. Good. Did you do anything?" Chris can't place the look in Joel's eyes, "Go somewhere or...?"

"Oh, no, just a quiet weekend," Chris rests forward on his elbows. "Reading and grading for most of it." Joel swallows- it rings in Christopher's ears, "Is something wrong, Joel?"

Joel puts his hands on his hips. Chris is expecting a tired no, or a shrugged off just a lot of homework, but instead, he gets an emphatic, "Yeah, Chris, there is something wrong."

"Okay, do you want to talk about it?" Chris points his pen towards the chair that Joel has adopted as his own.

"You didn't respond to any of my texts," Joel stays standing.

"Hmm?" Chris sits back in his chair, "You texted?" Chris looks at his phone, scrolling to Joel's name and sees the unread messages, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't even see them."

Joel's eyes narrow even further, "You didn't see them?"

Chris shrugs, "Yeah, sorry. I'm not as food with a phone as you are. I must have put it on Do Not Disturb or something."

A wave of peace seems to spread across Joel's face, "Have you ever read Pride and Prejudice?"

"Uh- what? Joel, what is this about?"

"Have you?" Joel asks again, "Or just any Pre-Timer romance?"

"Sure, yes, of course I have," Chris lets out a bitter laugh. "I didn't have a time for 15 years, of course I read love stories without Timers."

Joel crosses his arms, voice tentative and slow, "Do you feel that way about me?"

Chris raises his eyebrows, "I'm sorry?"

"I'd never read one before," Joel's still standing and Chris wants to scream at him to sit down, sit in his chair, Joel's place in the room, in Christopher's life, "I spark-noted books in high school and I never," Joel's shoulders drop, "I'm not romantic. I got my time, and I was just going to be one of those kids who met their Ones their first week of college and everything would be easy - I'd be like everyone else. It was the way it was going to be, I never actually thought about love before."

"What do you mean, Joel?"

"I don't really know you, Chris," Joel looks at Chris for the first time since he really started talking, "I know that you've been waiting for me for half your life, but I know hardly anything about you, and you don't know anything about me."

"You're my One," Chris insists, "That's how it always feels in the beginning. You get to know each other over time."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Joel says. "You told me you'd never date a student. I'm your student, Chris - I'm not the man who you've been waiting for. I'm - I'm a kid."

"Joel-"

"Don't pretend you don't feel that way, too," Joel shakes his head and Christopher's heart stutters because he can't argue with him on this, "You've never- you don't touch me. You can barely look at me when there are other people around. You treat me like I'm your student."

"It's not like I can give you special treatment-"

"God, Chris, that's half the issue!" Joel puts his hands through his hair and keeps his hands on his head, "You're so concerned about some made up boundaries in your head, that you won't actually be in this with me. And how the hell am I supposed to fall in love with someone who doesn't even want to spend time with me?"