So, he was fifteen minutes early. Big deal.
Okay, so it was a big deal. He had no idea how today was going to go, and he was nervous as hell about the whole thing. When he’d first begun to record and sing professionally, he’d thought that teaching was never going to happen for him. Now, though, while he was glad it was happening, he was terrified. What if the students didn’t like him? What if they thought he was horrible? What if he started cracking lame jokes?
“Please, God, not the lame jokes,” he muttered to himself. He had the worst habit of making bad jokes when he was uncomfortable, and he knew his students would definitely think he was awful if he said some stupid joke about something. Being a celebrity did not excuse him from sounding like a fool.
His only class for the semester was a beginner’s music theory class, and he figured it would probably consist of mostly freshmen who were looking to major in Music or Fine Arts as the class was a prerequisite for those majors. The freshmen were likely to still be in awe of the fact that they were in college, but he knew that they could still be vicious when they began to get comfortable.
After all, who knew better than him how the freshmen could be? He’d been a TA for the class when he was a junior, and he figured he could probably teach it with his eyes closed. Unfortunately, once they’d gotten settled, the freshmen tended to develop attitudes about everything, and he didn’t want himself to become a butt of their crazy pranks.
“Just gotta be on the lookout,” he told himself as a young woman walked in the door. She gave him a weird look when she heard him talking to himself, and Brian sighed. Great, he thought. Class hadn’t even begun, and he’d already made an idiot of himself. “Good morning,” he greeted her cheerfully, hoping to smooth over the awkwardness of the moment before.
She rolled her dark eyes, flipped her straight blonde hair over her shoulder, and slid into a seat. “Yeah, hi.”
Problem student number one, Brian thought, and then reminded himself that he shouldn’t base his impression of anyone just on one moment. So, he managed a smile and began to rifle through the papers he had brought with him. He read through the list of forty-three students who had registered for the class—even though he’d practically memorized the names by this point. Then, he pulled out his pen and capped and uncapped it as he studied over the syllabus he’d painstakingly written. By the time he moved onto skimming over his notes for the day, half of the seats in the room had filled up without him ever realizing.
“Excuse me?”
Brian flipped to the next page of his class notes and furrowed his brow when he realized he couldn’t read his handwriting. Great, now I’m going to mess up some more just because I have illegible writing powers, he scolded himself. Great way to start the semester, Littrell.
“Um, Mr. Littrell? Professor Littrell!”
Finally, he realized that someone was trying to get his attention, and he jerked his head up and around to find a young man watching him expectantly. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, knowing there was a red blush staining his cheeks. “What can I do for you?”
His student pointed at the wall clock and lifted a brow. “Class should’ve started five minutes ago. We were just wondering if you were planning on doing that, or if we could just leave, since nothing’s happening.”
Embarrassed beyond belief at the fact that he’d actually lost track of time, Brian shook his head. “No, no! Just, uh, have a seat. And, I’ll pass out the syllabus. Uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“Whatever.” The young man turned and took his seat without waiting for Brian to finish his apology.
“Man, they’re really disrespectful these days,” Brian muttered to himself before smiling at the group of students staring at him expectantly. Some looked bored while others seemed excited. “Should be a fun semester,” he whispered before raising his voice. “Sorry about the delay. My name is Brian Littrell, and I will be your professor for Introduction to Music Theory I. There’s a stack of syllabi going around, which I will go over today. Then, we’ll go around and get everyone’s names, explain a little bit about this class’s procedures, and then you’ll be free to go.”
The young woman he handed the pile of stapled syllabi to, huffed out a breath. “Man, I wish I could get out of here now,” she muttered under her breath, and Brian ignored it, smiling at her instead.
“So, if you’ll look at page one of the syllabus,” he began, and, mentally crossing his fingers, he hoped he’d make it through the next hour and a half with little more attitude.
So, overall, he had to admit that his first class hadn’t gone as badly as he’d thought it would. By the end of it, the students, who had initially seemed bored, had warmed up enough to smile sincerely at him when he accidentally let one of his horrible jokes slip out. Though it must not have been so horrible if he’d elicited some smiles and chuckling, Brian decided. The young woman, who had walked into the class first, had actually smiled at him as she left.
“See you on Wednesday, Professor,” she’d said cheerfully, and Brian knew the grin creasing his face looked foolish, but he couldn’t help it. Somebody was actually looking forward to his class.
Though no one had asked any questions about his celebrity status and famous career, he’d seen quite a few speculative glances thrown his way. Ignoring them, he’d continued to talk about the textbooks they’d need to buy and the projects that would be due over the course of the semester. In time, he knew they’d ask him what they wanted to know and then move on and focus on the goal at hand, which was the class.
Pushing open the door of his brand-new office, he set his files aside and walked over to the window. Hensley on its first day of classes was teeming with students and professors hurrying from one building to the next for their classes. Though the clothing fashions, hairstyles, and cliques may have changed, the scene before him was exactly the same as it had always been when he’d been a student himself. Now, though, he was in the position of educator, not the one being educated.
God, he’d never known how much scarier it was to be on this side, though.
“Brian Littrell?”
He turned, hearing his name, and the smile lit up his face. “Jenny!”
The woman standing in his doorway wore a smile identical to his and laughed when he rushed over, picked her up, and squished her to him in a huge hug. “Well, it’s nice to see you, too,” she managed to say as all air was forced out of her lungs.
Brian set her down and grinned at her foolishly. “I can’t believe you’re here! It’s been years since I’ve seen you!”
“I know, and whose fault was that? Because, I assure you, it wasn’t mine.” She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and pushed the sunglasses she wore to the top of her head, exposing warm brown eyes. “I’ve been watching you for the last ten years, though, and then I heard you were heading back to our neck of the woods. Imagine my surprise.”
“I’m so glad you’re here. I thought you’d moved back to Chicago.” He grabbed her hand as he spoke and pulled her over to the chairs next to his desk. “If I’d known you were still living here, I would’ve come to see you by now.”
Jenny settled into one of his cushy armchairs and, reaching out, squeezed his hand. “I moved here after two years of living in the windy city,” she told him. “I realized that I wanted to be in Maine more than anywhere else. I guess we’re alike in that, huh?”
“Definitely. So, tell me, Jenny Shore, what have you been up to around here?” He still couldn’t believe that she was still near Hensley. So sure that the woman, who’d once been his closest confidante at school, had long since moved on with her life, he hadn’t been sure of how to find her. And, now, here she was, having found him.
“I’ve been doing well. I’m a history teacher at the high school in town, and I love it. It’s really great, and I always find it amusing when students find out that I was once best friends with you.” She grinned. “They ask so many questions about you that, sometimes, it’s like I’m teaching a Brian Littrell history class.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’m glad I’ve been haunting you. Now that I’m back, maybe they’ll leave you alone and come find me instead.”
“Well, considering you’re very accessible here, I wouldn’t doubt that they will. Have you gotten any fans show up here?”
“No, not really. Hensley’s got a restraining order against all the paparazzi, so I’m free of that once I’m inside the gates.” He let himself wonder, for a moment, what life would’ve been like without the reporters and cameras following him. “But, it’s the life I chose, so I can’t really complain.”
Jenny patted his hand. “No one likes to live as a caged animal.”
“No. You’re right, and I am glad Hensley’s being so accomodating. I’m happy to be home.”
She could tell, and, though he was cheerful at the moment, she knew her next question would probably change that. “So, have you seen Isabella?”
Several moments of silence followed her question before he finally answered. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ve seen her.”
“And?”
“And nothing.” He ran a hand distractedly through his hair. “We’re not who were a decade ago, and there’s no point in rehashing the past. Whatever either of us may or may not feel about each other now, has nothing to do with anything anymore. What’s done is done.”
“Is it?” she asked, her eyes gleaming with sympathy. “Because, the way I remember it, the way she ended things, a lot was left unsaid. Unresolved.”
Brian shrugged, not wanting to talk about this. Think about it. “Usually, letters do leave a lot unresolved. Isabella’s letter didn’t. She told me that she’d been thinking about it, and she didn’t want to have a long-distance relationship. In fact, she didn’t even think she felt as strongly about me as I did about her. Jenny.” He looked up at her. “I think that’s pretty resolved right there.”
She didn’t think so, but she didn’t want to see the misery in his eyes either. “Okay. It’s okay. I didn’t come here to do this, to make you sad.” She smiled a little. “I came to see if you wanted to have lunch with me. Like the old days.”
He managed to smile back, knowing she was changing the subject to help him. “Sure, yeah. I have time.”
“Great!” Jenny stood and held out a hand to help him up. “There’s this great place in town that opened up a year ago. You’re going to love it!”
Grabbing his keys to lock up the office, he followed her out. “Hey, Jenny?”
She turned to look back at him as he locked up. “Yeah?”
“I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.”
