Summer

Chapter five

Twenty-nine-year-old Tristian knew that being an obsessive history student wouldn't get him into a field beyond teaching.

He initially did not want to be teaching, however, working an office job or working in a museum was not something he could have seen himself doing.

Graduating with first-class honours in undergrad and then doing a Ph.D. all in his twenties was Tristian's biggest accomplishment and gave him bragging rights in his family. At every family gathering, his family members would gather around him praising him as if he were the second coming of Christ. But he also came from a family with like-minded philosophers and historians who he also could draw his inspiration from.

But despite being academically gifted, Tristan often felt lonely. He often isolated himself and did not socialize a lot with others, even his co-workers. Tristan had known that at his age he should be married with kids and greater goals to accomplish.

Tristan often came home after a long day of work to an empty apartment. He often relished in the silence and filled the void with reading and trying to learn more. But some days it was hard. Not only did he read books, but he obsessed over them- it was almost like they were his best friend.

However, on that particular Wednesday night Tristian could not think about books history, or research. No, he was thinking about a particular history student that had been plaguing his mind for days on end.

At first, it was like a brief nagging in his mind which led him to think about her for hours on end. Now it was a loud nagging. After 'bumping' into her that day, he had begun to daydream about her for hours on end.

I wonder what she likes to read.

I wonder if she had a boyfriend.

I wonder if...

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Having to prepare for the new week was always exciting for the professor.

After spending most of that week and weekend thinking about the girl, he knew that he was most excited about seeing Summer again.

Upon getting to the lecture hall he wrote down the date and title and began his lesson.

"Today we will be covering the Cold War." He said." Whether you are a revisionist a post-revisionist... or both... we will be revising all sides of history. Then we will be analyzing academic sources so I can find the true historians in this room."

Tristan had used that opportunity to survey the room and he had spotted Summer watching him intently. He had wanted to blush but he continued to teach. He would not let himself get blind sighted no matter how distracted he had been.

"I will also be using this opportunity to highlight that at the end of the term, I will be setting a 3500-word coursework on this topic relatively soon and those who get the highest grade will be able to be tutored by me." Tristan had continued. "This would be an amazing opportunity as having me as a tutor will allow you to get a reference from me and better academic help for you to progress further than others in this subject."

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After his lectures for the day, the professor decided to sit in his office and read through his students' submitted work; he had his teacher assistant sitting across from him. They were sitting in complete silence.

Ambrose knew that it would have been polite to spark up some conversation with the assistant in hopes of making the atmosphere more inviting, but he simply did not have it in him to do so.

He had heard his co-workers often speaking about him. How anti-social he was and intimidating. However, he did not understand why he would have to change his personality to satisfy others.

Silently, the duo continued to mark the work however the assistant decided to be the first to break the silence.

"I know this does not relate to this task but do you read the student newspaper here... Townshall paper?"

Tristan had looked up in question, "No."

The assistant, however, carried on, " I think it's good, however, most students don't think to engage in extracurricular activities outside of their degree..." Tristan had begun to space out, "... even some of the history and war studies students have an amazing section."

That had particularly sparked the professor's interest and he had noted to look at the paper in his spare time.

——-

Reading every article that Summer had published in the past two weeks was either obsessive or crazed for Ambrose but he did not care. He was building a para-social relationship with the student that would be doomed to fail.

———

After the week of teaching, Tristan had gone to his parent's house for their weekly Sunday dinner. At first, when Tristan had first moved out he was heavily opposed to spending his evenings doing so but then he fell in love with it.

His parents had the ability to make the best steak and mash, as well as make the best roast dinner.

The professor would have called himself privileged, his family was not rich in the sense that his family had multiple mansions but his family was certainly middle class. Tristian was able to go to private school all throughout his teens which also helped him get into one of the best universities in the country.

Alongside this, his family had helped generously by sending him money every week and ensuring that he had the best tutors to further progress his education.

Many people in his university had detested showing that they came from wealth but it had always confused Tristian, who would not want to show that they were privileged?

"So how was the teaching week?" Tristian's father had asked him whilst plating his roast dinner that Sunday evening.

"Hmm... it was alright. I think that the students are definitely finding the content hard and I can only push them so far," Tristian replied, slightly distracted. His Father had nodded in agreement and his mother was not paying attention to the conversation.

"So Tristan.." his mother had started but Tristan already knew where this conversation was going to allude to, his Mum was going to ask the big questions on whether he was going to settle down and quit his job for something more sustainable. However, Ambrose already knew what his answer was going to be.