Unexpected Encounters [B.H.M.]

17

With two glasses of water in my hand I returned to the living room where Brian was sitting on the couch, staring at his hands. I felt bad for him, he seemed miserable. This was the worst I had seen him at so far, and that said a lot because he hadn't been in a particularly good state so far either.

Shaking my head a little I walked over to him and sat beside him. He slowly lifted his head and looked at me, so I handed him one of the glasses. "Here you go," I said, giving him a smile. Maybe I would get some positive emotion out of him tonight if I tried.

"Thank you," he replied with a very faint smile. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said softly.

I shook my head and crossed my legs. "No, not really. I just finished dinner and I was watching TV but that's it. I don't have very exciting plans most days, usually just work."

"Am I keeping you from something?" He sounded worried.

Again I shook my head. "No, don't worry, It's fine, really. I was just grading some tests but that can wait. It's nothing urgent."

He nodded a little but didn't say anything else. He was a strange one. I really wanted to ask what had happened, why he was here even though he had cancelled earlier this afternoon? That wasn't making sense to me, because if he had changed his mind - if I had been in his position I would have called and informed whoever I was meeting up with that I would be coming over anyway now. But he just showed up. Maybe that was part of him being a rockstar. I didn't know. And somehow I didn't really dare to ask. It wasn't really my place to poke around his feelings, was it?

"Do you have a lot to do this time of the year?" Brian asked, surprising me a little. I hadn't expected him to take the initiative at all. It was nice though. As hard as it was to believe that he actually wanted to know stuff about me. Hadn't I been crushed just a few hours that he had cancelled? Okay, maybe crushed was a bit too much - maybe - but I had been very disappointed. And now he was here on my couch, and considering that I was impressively calm.

But also very distracted by my thoughts as I just realised. I shook my head in reply to his questions. "No, the year just started so I just have a few placement tests to look through and prepare quite a bit. But so far I've always managed. It gets more to do later on in the term."

"Yes, that makes sense. You said you teach science, right?"

"Yeah," I confirmed. "Science and maths, this year I have years 3 to 6, it's an interesting mix. The interests differ quite a lot."

"I can imagine," Brian agreed. "Jimmy just started year 6... I always find it hard to believe how quickly they grow up. Louisa is already in year 3. Before I know it Emily will be off to school as well.." He shook his head a little and took a sip of water. "And sometimes it feels like I just left Imperial."

"Time is a strange thing," I agreed, not sure how he would react if I asked more about his kids. His mood seemed to be so fragile that it seemed if I took the conversation even just a bit in the wrong direction he might snap. Or become even more apathetic. I didn't know what he would do and I wasn't that keen on finding out if I was honest. So I stayed away from touchy topics.

He, however, didn't seem to have a problem with asking me things and because I wasn't keen on awkward silence between us I answered his questions. He didn't ask very personal things, just about my job, so that was okay. And maybe if I told him about me he'd feel more comfortable telling me about himself. Eventually. Possibly. It was worth the effort, at least I hoped so.

It didn't immediately seem like that though, because when I'd shared a bunch of things about myself with him, leading to some pretty interesting conversations, he didn't tell me about himself, no. Instead he suggested that we play Scrabble. And somehow I was okay with that suggestion. I didn't mind. He had gotten a bit more relaxed when we had played the night before so I was hoping for the same to happen again.