Funny How Love Is (Maylor AU)

Chapter 35

Her eyes doubled in size, only furthering her acceptance of guilt.

Brian scoffed and turned away from her, sulking back over to his desk and moving some of his papers around. "You know, we all thought it was suspicious that this semester we suddenly had a music program when there hadn't been any talk about it prior. I thought it was because you were progressive and wanted to change this school for the better, after all, why else would you have abused your powers?" He slammed some of his books down and looked back at her, eyes stinging with indignant tears.

"You would've done the same thing if you were in my shoes!" she cried, storming up to the opposite side of the desk and slamming her hands down on the surface, "I mean, how would you feel if you came home to your wife sleeping with another woman?"

"Well, I certainly wouldn't have risked my job to give her a made-up title at a prestigious university in exchange for never sleeping with my wife again!" Brian replied, instantly regretting his anger-fueled response when Chrissie pushed herself away from his desk and began pacing back and forth in the front of the classroom, running her fingers through her hair as she attempted to calm herself down. He sighed and murmured, "I just don't understand, Chrissie. We've been seeing each other for six months! Six months, and you've been married the whole time?"

"You know what, Brian? You're right!" the headmistress shouted, throwing her hands in the arm and spinning on her heel towards the professor, "You don't understand, because you're too innocent and naïve to understand! You've lived here your entire life, you've never taken a single risk, and chances are you never will. It's just not who you are, Brian, and you know it."

An uncomfortable moment of silence was shared between the two of them, both unsure of what to say to the other. She wasn't wrong in her accusation, in fact, she was right on the spot, having figured him out to a T, but that didn't make the pill any easier to swallow.

"You don't know what it's like to do everything for someone who couldn't even be bothered with the thought of doing the same for you," Chrissie muttered, tucking her hands underneath her arms and turning away. "For twelve years, I wasted my life on that man. That's twelve years of giving up my dreams and sacrificing my own happiness for his, time and time again without complaint because I loved him. And how does the fucking bloke repay me? By cheating on me with a man! A man, for fuck's sake! Do you know how humiliating that is?"

"I can only imagine," the professor murmured, sitting down in his chair and leaning back, clasping his hands in his lap and tilting his head down in avoidance of her fervid gaze, a wave of guilt washing over him as he realized he was doing the same thing.

"It's very humiliating, Brian," the headmistress retorted sharply, returning to her pace and elaborating, "That's why I didn't tell you; why I didn't tell anyone, for that matter—not even my own family. I mean, didn't it seem strange to you that I didn't want to introduce you to them?"

Brian's eyebrows knit together. "I thought it was because we were taking things slow."

She chuckled, attracting the professor's bewildered gaze. "There you go again, being so pure you can't see what's right in front of you. If it was up to me, Brian, we would've had that weekend we just had a long, long time ago, but we didn't because I knew what it would've meant."

He brought his hands up to rest them on his desk, leaning forward in his chair ever so slightly—the joints creaking underneath his shift in weight. "And what would it have meant, Chrissie? That you would've had to tell me this sooner? Face the consequences of your actions like an adult?"

A frown appeared on the headmistress's face before she sauntered back over to the desk, walking around to the other side and turning the professor to face her. The two of them stared at one another—waiting for the other person to make the next move—when Chrissie fixed herself atop her boyfriend's lap and draped her arms around his neck, weaving her fingers into his hair. "I never wanted to hurt you, Brian," she whispered, twirling one of his curls around her index finger, "I love you."

Brian bit his lip and shook his head in disagreement, the tears that had subsided for a little while returning without remorse. "How am I supposed to believe anything you say anymore?" he croaked.

Chrissie's face dropped at the genuine pain in his voice, bringing her hand down and swiping away the tear that had escaped from his eye. "I'm still the same girl I was when you first met me, Bri. I haven't changed. Nothing's changed."

The professor could only shake his head, the headmistress's words unconvincing and clichéd. "Everything's changed, Chrissie. Everything."