Some Day One Day (Maylor AU)

Chapter 57

Finally, what you've all been waiting for! Sorry it took me so long to post. It's crazy how much I struggled to write these next three chapters, but hopefully the rest will come easier! Fingers crossed. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you like it!

Staring at Roger in awe, Brian slid the glasses off his face and set them down on the desk, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind. "Y-You cut your hair."

The blonde chuckled and ran a hand through the shorter, classically disheveled locks. "I did."

"And...and you're really here." The professor took a cautious step in Roger's direction, worried that if he stepped too far, the blonde would vanish and he'd realize that this was all just some dream induced by his insomnia; that all along he'd been asleep at his desk, drool puddling on the exams he was supposed to grade and the clock ticking dangerously close to the time his first class would begin—students filing in at the last minute.

"I really am."

He shook his head in disbelief. "Why?"

"I heard you wanted to see me," the blonde answered, a blush rising in his cheeks as he dared to enter the room, "and I kind of wanted to see you too."

Brian could see it now, darting forward not to embrace Roger like he'd been wanting to for months, but to slam the door shut behind him. He'd keep his back to the startled blonde—hands and forehead pressed against the wooden surface with eyes closed and breaths shaky. Roger would try to speak up in an attempt to alleviate the tension that filled the air, but before he could get a single word out, the professor would turn around, grab him by the shirt, and shove him into the wall next to the door.

Looking him dead in the eyes—their chests rising and falling in sync—his lusty gaze would drift downward to the blonde's parted lips, and temptation would coerce him into meeting them with his own. He would swallow the lump that formed in his throat and try his best to suppress his growing desire, but he knew that, no matter how much he reminded himself of Liz and Chrissie and the promise he made to both of them, he was helpless under Roger's spell. The only way to stay above it was to keep the distance between them, and so, with the blonde's real step forward, the professor took a real step back.

"What about Tim?" Brian wondered.

Roger shrugged his shoulders, continuing his slow, calculated stride into the classroom—the professor mirroring his actions. "He's not here."

Brian bumped into his desk, falling into its edge and watching the distance between him and the former music instructor grow smaller and smaller. His voice got lost in his throat as the blonde inserted himself between his open legs, running his hands up his thighs, over his chest, and behind his neck. A shiver traveled down Brian's spine as Roger leaned in, and just before their lips could touch and send the two of them into a bliss they'd long been deprived of, the professor blurted out, "But Chrissie is."

The blonde instantly pulled back, looking into Brian's guilty eyes that shifted down to his lap, where his hands sat clasped together and his thumbs brushed over one another in a nervous circle. "I'm sorry," he muttered in shame.

"No, I-I'm sorry," Roger stammered, "I just thought that—" His voice trailed off as he reluctantly turned away from the professor and sat down at one of the desks in the front of the classroom—his leg shaking anxiously.

"—that I'd be happy to see you?" Brian attempted to complete the blonde's sentence, keeping his head low and his attention locked on his feet.

The blonde scoffed and crossed his arms. "Well, yeah. I mean, we haven't seen each other in over a year."

With the way Freddie had talked about the professor and his wish to see him again, the blonde wasn't prepared for this kind of reaction, believing that the second they laid eyes on each other, they wouldn't be able to keep themselves apart. Yet there they were, so close to putting an end to their yearlong misery, only to be stopped before it even began.

Roger didn't expect to be rejected. In fact, rejections came so far and few for him—gliding through life on his good looks and charming personality—he was unsure of how to react. He figured by now they'd be stumbling into the shadows, tripping over each other's feet and tugging at one another's clothes as they raced against the clock to fit an entire year apart into however long they had before the bell rang. He didn't think they'd be sitting across the room from each other in awkward silence, feeling as though they were in the company of strangers.

"Well, a lot's happened since then," the professor finally replied, his eyes flickering over to where the blonde sat, "and I hate to break it to you, but I'm not the same guy I was a year ago."

"Clearly," Roger chuckled under his breath.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Brian peeled away from his desk and approached the blonde, towering over him and witnessing the smug expression that slathered his face. If someone were to walk by at that moment, they could easily mistake the situation for a teacher reprimanding his student for misbehaving in class.

Roger smirked, slamming his hands down on the desktop and lifting himself up so that he was eye level with the professor. "It means that the guy I left behind a year ago told me that the distance between us wouldn't change the love he had for me, but clearly, so much has happened that he forgot about that." With lips drawn into a straight line and eyes narrowed, he brushed past Brian and headed for the door, embarrassed that he'd listened to his friend—let alone, believed him—when he said that the professor wanted to see him.

However, just before he could cross the threshold, Brian called out, "Roger, wait!"