As the Darkness Approaches the Light

Chapter 10

Caroline spent most of her spring "break" working. Not because she had to, necessarily, but because she wanted to. She and Chris had made up and he had stayed with her for the weekend, but then he had to go back to New York to continue working on the album. Caroline did take some of her time off to relax, but that was more so out of a feeling of obligation than out of actually wanting to.

The weeks continued to go by with Chris and Caroline both hard at work, trying to find chances to see each other and talk to one another whenever they could. For the most part, this situation was fine because they still got to see each other a decent amount, whereas the band would be on tour for almost the entire summer. They'd then release the album in the fall, and tour most of the fall and winter for the album.

In the time leading up to the album release, there was also a lot of behind the scenes things to do. The band had to pick out a cover - though Chris had said they'd narrowed it down by now - there were photo shoots, music video shoots, interviews, meetings about all of those things before they happened; there was so much to do. However, Chris and the rest of the band seemed really excited for what this next album cycle would look like.

In the meantime, school started up again at the university and Caroline resumed teaching as normal. It was getting down to the wire, and students were beginning to prep for their final exams. Once the semester was over, Caroline would technically have a week off of work, then she'd begin teaching a summer school class while still continuing her research.

For a long time, Caroline had ignored the whispers amongst her students about the possibility of her dating Chris Motionless. While she and Chris had been together for about five months by now, the Internet still wasn't quite sure what to make of their favorite metal singer's relationship status; there was speculation that he was with someone, but no one was able to say for sure. However, there was a bit more knowledge on Ricky and Noah's relationship since they'd been together for longer, and fans quickly put it together that Ricky's girlfriend had the same last name as the woman that Chris was supposedly dating.

Finally, Caroline had had enough. As she stood at the computer one day bringing up the Power Point for the day, she faces the direction of where she heard the whispers coming from on that particular day.

"You guys know that I can hear you, right?"

A couple of Oooooooh's chorus throughout the classroom, as do a couple of laughs.

"S-Sorry, Dr. Heights," One of the students says, embarrassed.

"You guys don't just like me because I'm dating Chris Motionless, do you?"

Another student gasps, "So you are?!"

"Does it matter?" Caroline asks.

"You're awesome, Dr. Heights; you make this stuff really easy to understand and it's super cool how you're able to do all of this shit blind. You dating a metal singer just adds to the cool points you already had."

Caroline smiles, "Cool," She says, "Now, no more talking about me or my personal life behind my back. I'm blind, not deaf."

Upon informing Chris that she'd done this when they talked on the phone later on, Chris was super excited to hear that she'd stood up for herself.

"Hey, that's awesome! Tell those punk ass kids to fuck off."

"They're my students, Chris, I can't tell them to fuck off."

"Well, still."

"So you're not upset that I basically publicly confirmed our relationship without consulting you first?"