Funny How Love Is (Maylor AU)

Chapter 95

"You can't be serious!" Debbie exclaimed as Veronica nodded her head in assurance that the secondhand gossip she'd just shared with the group of girls who'd returned to Imperial College for another semester was true. "No, there's no way."

"Yeah, why would Professor May have been with Mr. Taylor when he's sleeping with Headmistress Mullen?" Dominique chimed in, lighting a cigarette and getting it promptly taken away by Professor Ray Foster as he passed by. "Hey!" she shouted after him, her exclamation only earning her a narrowed-eyed glance in her direction, followed by an admonishing shake of his head. The girl clenched her jaw.

"I heard he got her pregnant and that her husband left her because of it," Anita added, her voice as low as it could be in the bustling hallway and her lips twitching into a devious grin.

Dominique chuckled, defiantly pulling out another white stick from the box she hid in her coat pocket. "Who knew our little Astrophysics professor was so naughty?"

"I did!" the pretentious blonde beside her announced, as if it were something to be proud of and deserve praise for. She stuck her hand out for a congratulatory cigarette, a glare similar to Ray's crossing the dark-haired French student's face.

"What did Debbie do?" John inquired, joining the cliquey quartet and giving his girlfriend a sweet, quick kiss on the forehead that made the three other girls gag or roll their eyes. He paid their reactions no mind, though, wrapping his arm around Veronica's back and pulling her close, listening for the answer she didn't even have the chance to give as Anita took the responsibility of letting him in on their conversation.

"She knew that professor you get all starry-eyed for wasn't as innocent as he made himself out to be," she replied, her smile growing with John's widening eyes.

"I thought I told you not to tell them!" he whispered into Veronica's ear as angrily as he could, which wasn't very angry at all, for he couldn't get mad at her even if he tried.

She frowned. "I'm sorry, John, I just couldn't help myself. Debbie was seeing who slept with the most guys out of the four of us and, well, I've only slept with you—"

"Oh, come on," Dominique interrupted her, discreetly exhaling the smoke she'd inhaled through her pursed lips, "You two haven't even seen each other topless. There's no way you two have fucked."

"Yeah, no way," Debbie agreed with the bob of her head, her hand carelessly raised with the burning white stick Dominique reluctantly gave her pinched between her fingers. The pair shared an all-too-telling glance that escaped the other girls' attentions, both their cheeks blushing a deep shade of red.

Veronica cleared her throat and redirected the conversation by telling John, while looking at her friends—if she dared even call them that, for she'd only really spoken with Anita prior to last semester—"They don't believe that you saw Professor May and Mr. Taylor together at the hotel."

John clicked his tongue, adjusting the bag over his shoulder and whining, "But I did!"

"And how do we know it's not just another crazy dream you had after you fell asleep at the desk for the millionth time?" the pretentious student with tight, brown curls retorted, "Like the one time you thought you were in Coronation Street dressed as a miserable old lady." The other two girls hummed in agreement.

"Because this wasn't a dream! I was wide awake, trying to work on a few of the pieces Mr. Taylor gave me to do over break, when the two of them rushed in covered in snow and—"

A harsh tug on his sleeve stole John's voice in one breath, the group of students watching with rapt attention as the professor in question walked by, flashing the five of them an uncharacteristically friendly grin and giving them a small wave. The bewitched students found themselves returning the gesture, but they couldn't bring themselves to match his smile, or at least one with as much conviction as the teacher's had. It perplexed the group that he walked the halls in such high spirits considering the rumors circulating about him. After all, his affair with the headmistress seemed to be common knowledge at this point to both faculty and student alike, and her rounding stomach and ring absent from her fourth finger made it difficult for the group or anyone else to believe that Brian didn't have some role to play in it all.

What they didn't know, however, was that Brian's spirits were in fact at an all-time low. His break had dragged dreadfully—the time following his and Roger's escape lasting an agonizing eternity. The thought of a life without Roger severely depressed the professor, and he struggled to part ways with him.

He remembered the morning after their one-night stand, trying to push their departure off for as long as he could and attempting to coax Roger into one last rendezvous before they were due to go back—something to remember him by. However, the blonde was adamant about them having that night and that night only, for even just one more intimate moment would complicate their situation further. Brian surrendered to this with a heavy sigh, Roger trying to comfort him with a kiss on the forehead and the promise that everything would be okay.

Despite the subtle nod of his head and the feigned grin he gave him in return, the professor struggled to believe the music instructor. After all, their painful car ride home hadn't provided him much, if any, solace.