Insufferable Teacher's Pet

Chapter 2

Derek trudged through his Thursday classes, just giving some reading assignments and then basically letting the students do whatever they wanted when they were done. He couldn't concentrate or focus on teaching right now, all he could think about was what he'd done. On Halloween, he didn't know Chris was married. He'd only been at the school a few months, and Chris was basically the only other professor that talked to him like a peer and not as if he was a student himself. So yeah, they went home together. It wasn't until after that Derek found out Chris was married, and had a kid at that, so they agreed it wouldn't ever happen again.

And then it did. Derek was so drunk he didn't even remember until he saw the texts and began to gain consciousness. How could he do this? He wasn't that person. He wasn't Peter, someone who just ran around doing whatever he wanted, not caring who he hurt in the process. He was a good person. But good people don't sleep with married men. Derek had never met Chris's wife and knew very little about his personal life in general, but that didn't matter. What mattered was he'd had sex twice now with a married man. What did that say about him?

Derek didn't have any classes Fridays; he'd lucked out with the schedule and got a three day weekend this semester. He spent the whole weekend just drinking at home and watching tv after grading some assignments, not trusting himself to go to the bar and then end up drunk texting Chris again. And the whole cheating thing wasn't even the only issue burning in his mind: he'd said Stiles during it. Why? Why would he say Stiles? The most obnoxious person on the planet, and his student at that! Derek would be lying if he said Stiles wasn't objectively an attractive guy, he wasn't blind. But he was also incredibly irritating AND HIS STUDENT. Maybe it was just because he was ranting about Stiles to Peter at the bar, so he was just on Derek's stupid, drunk mind. It didn't mean anything. It couldn't mean anything.

The weekend flew by and before he knew it, it was Monday. Which meant his 8 AM class. Which meant dealing with Stiles. He also needed to avoid Chris at all costs; because that was Derek's go-to move, avoiding his problems and just pretending they don't exist. Plus, he knew talking to Chris about things would probably just make it worse. Maybe Peter was right: maybe he should just go back to teaching high school in the fall. He didn't leave on bad terms with Mrs. Johnson, so she'd probably be willing to hire him back.

When Derek arrived in the classroom around 7:45, he didn't even have a chance to start writing on the board before Chris was walking into the room and closing the door. Derek stared at him. "What are you doing?" he asked in a hushed voice and a worried expression. This was the absolute last thing he needed.

Chris held his hands up. "Relax," he said at a normal volume. "I just wanna talk about what happened last week."

Derek turned back to the board to resume writing. "We don't need to. It was a mistake. You're married."

"I know." Chris looked at the floor, voice full of shame. At least Derek wasn't the only one feeling guilty. Though it was stupid to even assume he was. Chris was the one with the wife, of course he'd feel guilty. "I'm married, and my wife...she's a good person."

That made it even worse. "Then we should just stay away from each other," Derek stated.

Chris shook his head. "Derek, I meant it on Halloween when I said I wanted to be your friend. You seem like you could use one."

Derek should be offended by that, but it was true. He should have friends. Normal adults have friends. But between being orphaned at 15, growing up in a group home, then putting himself in a mountain of debt going to college and living on campus in a dorm room with some guy he saw maybe once a week, Derek didn't really develop the best social skills.