A hush came over the table our four teachers as Mr. Yont walked into the teacher’s lounge. He looked their direction, giving them a polite smile and nod. The table responded with “Hello”, “Hey”, “Hi”, and “Hiya”; each greeting him a different way as Mr. Yont made his way to get his lunch out the work refrigerator. The four teachers giggled and leaned in to talk quietly about the handsome teacher.

“I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since he came to Boston…” the 6th and 7th grade math teacher said.

The Biology Honors teacher took a sip of his coffee. “I know! It’s been nice having him around but he still just seems so…”

“Lonely,” the three other teachers replied in unison. Mr. Yont hadn’t heard them because by now he had his earbuds in, listening to music.

“Has anyone hung out with him outside of school?” asked the 8th grade Writing teacher.

The other three teachers shook their head and then all four sighed together. They all took a sip together as they looked in his direction. Mr. Yont was too busy subtly playing air drums against the counter as he waited for his food to finish in the microwave. Cute. 

“Wait, no. I remember this one time he had stopped the Irish pub off Fourth and Haven Str,” the Art teacher.

“Yeah, but he only came by for, like… 30 minutes to be polite,” the math teacher reminded everyone. The other three teachers all said,” Ohhhh.”

They all fell quiet again as they all either took a sip or a bite and glanced over at the English teacher again. “To be fair, he went through a lot. I don’t know what I would have done if I came home and my three kids and husband were murdered,” said the art teacher. “It’s tragic.”

“My boyfriend and I couldn’t help but follow along with the trial….” said the Biology teacher.

One of the other teachers was about to say something when the art teacher spoke up first. “Look… We really shouldn’t be gossiping. He’s right there. He’s a nice guy. I think he just needs a little nudge in the social direction. We should really try to hang out with him and include him more.”

“And he’s easy on the eyes,” the Writing teacher chimed in. All four teachers laughed as they nodded to agree. Mr. Yont took his plate of food and was about to walk past the teachers when the Writing teacher called out to him,” Monty! Come take a seat!”

Noticing the Writing teacher waving in his direction, Mr. Yont took out an earbud and smiled as he was invited over. “Oh thank you.” He walked over and took a seat with everyone. “Thank you. My sub is a little smelly because of the onion on it, so I was going to sit alone.  Thanks for not discriminating against me and my sub,” he offered a chuckle, the other teachers chuckling along with him.