#character texts

That last message had been sent with two hours left in the day. You have two hours to survive and try not to overthink in the time between. 

Really silly scenarios are coming to mind that couldn't possibly be true among other things. Your brain always wants to twist and derive the worst possible meaning and outcome from every interaction. Being self-aware isn't enough to scare that monster away, but everything will settle when you do talk. At least you think it will, so you busy yourself until then. 

It's actually easier to fall back into work than you thought. You've been working with the support students on some term projects and critiquing their work. These periods are some of the few times you actually feel pretty sure of yourself, because these things just...make sense to you. It's a good way to drown the thoughts out too, because these students always have questions and hypotheticals or need help in some way. 

The end of the day comes sooner rather than later. You are gathering some student concept designs to take home and examine. As you leave your classroom, starting to find your way off campus, you begin to wonder if you need to find him. Will he find you? Where would he want you to meet?

You don't have to check with him or answer your phone, because he finds you. He's waiting. His back is turned to you, at the front gate, and he glances at his phone. 

You consider whether to announce your presence and what even to say, but your shoe scuffs lightly on the ground, and his shoulders lift a smidge as he turns to face you. 

"You took your time leaving today."

"I uh...I was grabbing some things to take home." You pat the side of your shoulder tote with a soft smack; your metal binder clanks in response. 

He looks out at the entryway for the school for a moment. "Can I walk with you a bit?"

You nod, swallowing down a golf ball as you do. "Yes!" your voice climbs in pitch as the singular syllable escapes you. How embarrassing! One syllable. "I s'pose you could walk me home. That's where I'm headed."

His lip twitches for a moment and he starts to walk. You want to join him, you do, but naturally you find yourself a little slower than him, maintaining a distance a half step behind him. 

He stops in his tracks. "This might be easier if you're walking with me instead of whatever you're doing right now."

You skip forward, stumble more so, in an attempt to pick up your pace. His strides become shorter, as he meets you halfway. 

Awkward and stiff as you are. There is something about the way he is so responsive and even considerate of you that is not lost on you. It leaves your face warm and your hands sweaty. 

He is surprisingly not direct about the topic, choosing instead to inquire what it is you're bringing home. He listens intently as you bring up the support term project. The words come easier and easier as you talk about your students. Perhaps that's why he asks. 

As you are commenting on one student's proclivity to accidental explosives, it draws another of those micro smiles from him. A twitch of a lip. "I understand what that's like more than you might think."

You chew your lip for a second at his comment. It occurs to you that you have been talking a lot, perhaps even steamrolling him. God. 

He pokes you. "What are you thinking about now?"

"I was worried I was talking too much."

He shrugs, "I asked."

You offer up a faltering smile, and he returns an equally good attempt but far from genuine smile. It occurs to you then that the two of you both aren't great at this sort of thing; that does lighten your weight some. And he's been very thoughtful. Very much so...he's clearly trying to lift your mood. 

"You're very good to your students," he states, "It's something about you I've observed."

You smile in response, a real one this time. "You're pretty good to yours too. Though I have heard about the expulsions."

He runs a hand through his hair, and the shine of their strands mesmerizes you as it catches the evening sun, passing through his fingers like running water. 

"Everyone's got different methods."

And yours are very different! You don't get to respond, however, because he changes the subject as quickly as he has started it. 

"I haven't done this in a while, but I'd like to take you out."

"Like with a gun? Okay, Snipe!" The quip is quick to leave you, a sign of the awkwardness already beginning to soften between the two of you. 

He scoffs. "Like coffee or tea. More walks. Spending time together. That sort of thing."

The stern man you've been mildly terrified of for the last year is actually seriously interested in you. It's a boggling thing to consider. You haven't been on a date in ages either. That front has been kind of messy, and then you just buried your head in the sand and worked, so...nothing much. 

You poke his shoulder, repayment for earlier, "I think I'd like that, Mister."

The corners of his eyes lift, and there's a light in them you never noticed before. You think to yourself that you would like that quite a bit.