Funny How Love Is (Maylor AU)

Chapter 75

The end of the semester arrived sooner than anyone at the university could be prepared for. The days blurred together, one week's end merging with the next week's beginning and finals creeping up like a shadow in the night. In all the chaos that ensued, Brian and Roger's paths crossed less and less—even with the professor's consistent effort to catch the blonde with every chance he could get.

He found it best just to stand in his classroom's doorway, sipping his morning cup of tea and waiting for the blonde to come stomping down the halls. Most days he'd already changed out of the feminine attire he adorned himself with around Nana to keep the façade alive and well, and all that would remain from his disguise would be faint traces of makeup or a bit of his wig peeking out from his bag. However, as the semester drew on, the less he seemed to care—strutting down the halls like he was one of the students, dressed in Liz's signature skirt and button-down with a growing frown on his painted face. Some of the boys even whistled at the blonde, thinking he was a new classmate, only to get the biggest shock of their young adult lives when Roger flipped them off or cursed them out.

Brian wanted to approach him on several occasions and ask what was going on, but part of him already had a good idea, and the other part kept getting dragged away by Chrissie.

The headmistress's behavior took a sudden change after the incident with Timothée. For a little while, it seemed like she wanted nothing to do with the professor—ducking out of sight whenever they'd see one another and coming up with excuses whenever Brian would try and confront her. Then, out of nowhere, she couldn't get enough of him. She'd pull him aside as soon as the bell rang—indicating class was over—and dismiss him when it rang again, over and over and over again, unconcerned with who saw them or what whispered rumors floated around about them.

The professor spent hours—days, even—trying to decipher Chrissie's logic behind her sporadic decisions, but she gave no such inclination as to why, impatiently and painfully waiting to reveal the true reason at the faculty's highly-anticipated Christmas party.

"Are you going tomorrow?" Brian asked Roger, the two of them miraculously finding themselves together at one of the tables in the teachers' lounge. Snow sprinkled the sky outside and the hands on the clock above the door sat at the ten and eight.

"To what?" the music instructor groaned, his back hunched and his head buried in his folded arms that rested on the tabletop.

"The annual faculty Christmas party."

Roger refused to lift his head, continuing to entertain the professor's frankly undesired conversation by replying in a muffled voice, "What the fuck is that?"

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory, Rog," Brian chuckled, wrapping his hands around the warm mug in front of him and smiling at the blonde even though he couldn't see it. The professor's grin only lingered for a second or two, the music instructor remaining silent and still. He cleared his throat and added, "I hope you consider coming." The enduring silence filled the small gap in Brian's attempt to get Roger to open up, or at least sit up and look at him. "They have an open bar, you know; it's a real big hit."

Roger let out a deep, irritated sigh and leaned back in the chair, a bitterness to his seemingly unrelated answer as he crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I'm sick of drinking."

A faint, embarrassed blush appeared in Brian's cheeks, his grip on the mug tightening ever so slightly. "Yeah, I-I'm kind of over it too. Besides, it's just weird...drinking with colleagues."

"Yet you came to a bar with me," the younger of the two reminded the older, his tired eyes shifting to meet Brian's wide ones.

"Th-That was different."

"Oh, yeah?"

The rosy touch in Brian's cheeks intensified as he scrambled for an answer; something to say that would take the edge off Roger's sharp interrogation. "Yeah, it...it was a special occasion. You asked me to come and celebrate with you."

"You should've said no," the blonde grumbled.

His use of should've instead of could've stuck out the professor, but he only realized it after he instinctively replied, "Well I tried, remember? But you insisted I go!"

By now the pair had attracted the attention of the other two professors in the room. Luckily it was during a class period, which both Brian and Roger had free—the former not having a class while the latter still only had his weekly lessons with John. He'd hoped Freddie would try to reclaim his fake status as a student and visit him once a week too, even if his goal was just to see that stupid janitor, Paul, but he hadn't spoken to the dark-haired man since their encounter at his flat. He wanted to and tried to, reaching for the phone every night and sometimes even going so far as to pick the phone off the receiver and bring it up to his ear, but he always slammed it back down before getting the chance to dial his number.

"What about when you invited me to your house?" Roger mentioned, his voice flat.

The corner of Brian's lips perked up into a disbelieving smirk, amused by the music instructor's distorted memories. "Again, you insisted on it."

The blonde groaned and dropped his head back, his noticeably longer locks scraping the back of the chair and his hands finding their way to his face. The pair sat in silence, the quietness disturbed only by the footsteps of the other professors as they left the room, maintaining their judgmental looks directed at the professor and music instructor until the door closed behind them.

Roger's hands fell into his lap and his eyes trailed across the table, climbing Brian's chest to capture his hazel ones.

The blonde would be lying if he said he hadn't gone a day without wishing the curly-haired professor would actually do something about his feelings towards him. His future with Tim looked bleak—the brunette's promise to let Roger be himself seeming more and more unlikely with each passing day. Their car seemed to have more problems now than it did just from the accident, and Nana's residence in their bedroom bordered a threatening line of permanence. Things really came to a head, though, when Tim proposed they get married.