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“…although England won every major battle and many of the smaller battles during the Hundred Years War, it was still relatively poor in comparison to southern France, which was by far the wealthiest portion of France. It eventually led to the English losing the war.”
Nico presses on the clicker, and the screen to his power point cuts to black. He blinks. “Oh—looks like we finished the lecture today, class, with…twenty minutes to spare.”
There’re some excited Yes!’s shouted amongst the auditorium, but others who stare at him with bated breath, waiting for Nico to call it the end of class.
He pretends not to notice and walks away from his desk. “You guys are actually ahead of my morning class. Does everyone comprehend the material?”
Several students nod their heads eagerly, while others busy themselves on their phones.
“So you’re telling me that if I asked any one of you questions right now, you’d get them right?”
Some students nod.
“Okay…what sparked the Hundred Years War? Yes—you, in the third row with the yellow shirt.”
“A…dispute over who would become King of France?”
“Good. And why was it a dispute…? Okay—you, sir, in the back row with the hoodie.”
“Because King Charles IV died.”
“Good. Now—someone name one of the three major things that England and France fought over. Yes—you, front row?”
“Oh! Um, this is actually a question, Professor Di Angelo.”
“Okay, shoot.”
The girl in Nico’s front row leans over the desk. She looks over her shoulder towards the very back—though who she’s looking for, Nico can’t tell. “Is Professor Grace sick?”
Nico blinks. He frowns, puzzled at the question, but not annoyed for the sudden shift in subject. “I wouldn’t know. Is he?”
“He cancelled class today,” explains a girl in the row second to last. Nico recognizes her from the few times he snuck into Jason’s class. She’s usually on her laptop in his and Jason’s class, but suddenly looks very interested in the conversation.
So do some of the texters.
“He didn’t specify why—just that he’d be gone and to read through the text book,” says another girl in the third row. “He seemed under the weather the other day in class, though.”
“It didn’t get worse since then, did it?” says a boy right next to her. He flashes a look directly at a startled Nico, looking very concerned and invested.
“I…wouldn’t know,” Nico repeats. He stuffs his hands in his hoodie and shrugs. “But it’s probably only for today. I hear that a bug is going around.”
Fortunately, Nico’s never called in sick. Hazel always gets on his case for eating so little or sleeping a minimum amount, but Nico does the minimum of what he needs to function. There are times where he goes on spouts of eating—which are rare. He always paces his lectures well, so once in a while Nico purposefully takes a sick day so his students can take a break.
“But…don’t you two live together?” pipes in one student, who—
Wait a minute. If Nico had been eating something at that moment, he’d be choking. “What?”
“Well it can’t be that bad if Professor Di Angelo thinks it’s okay to teach today,” says a student from across the room. “Unless they had a fight.”
What ?
“Aw—but I like Professor Grace.” The same girl from the first row flashes Nico puppy dog eyes. “Please don’t break up with him, Professor Di Angelo—he might assign extra Latin homework.”
“I—” What? Nico—whose brain is having a hard time processing any of this—stumbles backwards into the desk, cheeks ablaze. “You—you think we’re—what?”
“That you two are having a fight?” says another student. He grimaces. “That must’ve been a really bad fight considering he isn’t even waiting for you today.”
“Waiting for me?” Nico sputters, his mind still climbing out of shock. His face is so red that he can feel his ears burning. “On what planet do you think Professor Grace and I are—are dating?”
“This one,” says the same student.
Nico needs a drink. He ruffles a hand through his own hair, flustered, and shakes it immediately. “We’re not—he and I aren’t—Professor Grace and I are just—”
One deep breath.
Two deep breaths.
Three deep breaths.
“We’re not dating,” Nico says slowly, though his heart is now pounding in his chest. His voice totally cracks. “And I don’t—we do not discuss my personal life in the classroom. Understood?”
He tries not to scowl because Nico’s convinced it’s just a twisted delusion or honest accident. Nico hates discussing his personal life—especially his love life. Though in the past, his students have never understood that.
The class nods solemnly, thankfully putting the subject to rest.
Then a lone hand shoots into the air.
“Yes?” Nico addresses.
“Professor Grace totally likes you,” the student says, and Nico’s ears go back to burning. “Otherwise he wouldn’t be giving you all of those goofy stares and walking you out of class to your car, or hanging out in your office.”
“Professor Grace hangs out in Professor Di Angelo’s office?” one student cocks his head to the back, looking amazed.
The first student nods.
“Or the other way around,” says another student in the far corner. “You two are, like, up to something.”
Nico massages his temples, trying to steer an incoming headache away. “What did I just say?”
“But we’re not talking about your personal life, sir!” shouts one student in the back. “We’re talking about Professor Grace’s!”
Oh, for the love of—
Waving his hands around, Nico gives up. “Class dismissed. Please, just—dismissed.”
*
Once the students are out of Nico’s hair, he walks back to the history building to pick up anything from his office that will go home with him for the night.
First midterms are next week, which Nico can’t believe. It’s already been three weeks since school began, and the days are already melding together.
Fortunately all of his classes are where they need to be this far into the term, so he isn’t stressing about cramming any more information than needed into them. Despite how forward in personality all of his classes are, he can’t deny that they’re a good bunch that he likes to teach.
He sets his briefcase on his desk and pulls papers out of drawers before throwing them into a folder and shoving them in his backpack. It isn’t that Nico can’t wear a backpack to his classes—but he’s been mistaken for a college student way too many times. Some students have actually hit on him—which is an experience Nico refuses to relive.
Nico hesitates in packing his laptop.
His class’s concern comes back to him, and he wonders if Jason really is sick. As attractive as Nico thinks Jason is, Nico has no clue how anyone could mistake them as a couple.
(Jason is attractive and sweet, but Nico’s awkward and…awkward. They’d be the dichotomy to the perfect couple.)
On one hand, Nico has some misplaced anger at Jason because how dare his class think that they’re a couple.
On the other, Jason’s new with very few friends on campus, and Nico is concerned about Jason’s health. Nico knows Jason is good friends with Professor Valdez from the Engineering Department and Professor McLean from English—and then there’s him.
Nico doesn’t know Valdez or McLean very well, so he can’t go up to them and ask about Jason’s condition. He doesn’t have Jason’s number either—which would be ridiculous in the first place because Jason is probably straight with two or three kids and a beautiful wife and, wow, Nico needs to remember it’s okay if they have each other’s number because it’d be nothing more than two colleagues exchanging information and—
—and he sighs before pulling a chair beneath him, turning on the computer, and quickly jotting down an email.
Jason,
Some of the students in my class today were worried about your health. I don’t know what your email to them said, but please take care of yourself.
- Nico di Angelo
He waits a few moments before sending the email before he can regret it.
Not even five minutes later, while Nico is tidying up his office, he gets a response:
Wow, thanks for caring, Nico! Don’t worry. My dog had some stomach pains and I had to take her to the vet last minute. Everything’s okay though.
Attached to the email is a picture file.
When Nico opens it, he sees a picture of Jason laying on a couch—glasses over his head—and a small golden retriever fast asleep on his stomach. Jason is smiling—looking relieved by the tiny thing on him, and light catches in his eyes.
Which are blue, apparently.
Nico’s chest twists in stupid knots.
Thanks for caring, he rereads.
Your students think we’re dating, he thinks. Nico groans and rubs his temples.
He shuts his computer before he can respond with something stupid.