Forums » General Roleplay » Profs and Pretties (1x1)

Anna just gave a nod. "Um..okay, Sebastian." His first name was Sebastian? She vaguely recalled that towards the beginning of the semester, but otherwise he was Mr. Winters or Professor Winters. She worked on her assignment, and after a bit she gave a light sigh. She leaned back. She needed a break. She was standing up and stretching just as Sebastian came in with a tray. "Oh. Thanks. I was just thinking that I needed a break." She looked at all her papers and scribbles spread over the desk, and cleaned it up and organized it a little bit so she had room for a teacup.

And then suddenly her cellphone started buzzing on the desk. She sighed and and looked at it for a few long moments, debating how angry they would be if she didn't pick up. Reluctantly, she flipped the cellphone open and held it to her ear. "..yeah?" She flinched slightly, and the yelling on the other end could probably be heard by Sebastian. "No, chill, I'm at a teacher's. No, I'm not in trouble. I'm..I'm getting some tutoring, that's all. No, it doesn't cost any extra. No, she's very nice. Mom, seriously.." She glanced at Sebastian, not wanting to have this conversation in front of him, so she stepped past him and went out into the hall, lowering her voice. "Mom, there's no way I could get any homework done at home. You want me to get good grades and stuff, right? Then just let me alone for a bit to do my work, okay? Yeah, I'll be back before curfew, whatever. Yeah. Whatever. Bye." She hung up and sighed, walking back into the room. She didn't say anything about her phonecall, putting the cell down so she could sit and eat some of the snacks. "I hope I'm not bothering you."

She had skirted around him before he'd had a chance to leave her be, so he stood with his hands in his pockets while she dealt with her parents. He'd heard it all of course, but he tried to tread lightly through this scenario. It was all news to him, and rather infuriating at that. Still he offered up half a smile when she entered.

"Well...you aren't." It was difficult to know what to say, but silence couldn't be an option. Yet he couldn't get worked up before he knew the situation. "Did you not tell anyone you were coming here?"

Anna sat down. She had lied to her parents about his gender so that they wouldn't freak out. She hoped he definitely hadn't noticed that. "..they were busy." She shrugged and just kept nibbling at the snacks, taking a sip from her tea. Silence wasn't an option to him, but it certainly was to her. Maybe if she didn't talk about it he'd forget about it. "So I guess you really fit your profession, huh? You've got a ton of books." She was trying to subtly nudge the conversation away so it might be easier for him to forget about the interrupting phonecall. Until her phone started vibrating again. Anna didn't even look at it, except to turn the phone off completely and get back to her snacks. She definitely wasn't going to deal with her stupid parents right now.

He raised an eyebrow and watched her munch before glancing around when she changed the subject. Telling her mother that he was a she was Anna's business, as the whole mess was. Still he knew if things were abusive, it would be better to have her mad at him for probing than...well, the alternative.

"I guess you could say that. They've been pretty neglected though. I kind of...inherited most of them. The woodwork here is all my brother's doing, his late wife filled the shelves." He paused to run his hand through his hair and look away. "She uh, kind of influenced my own college studies. Teaching just made the most sense when I had an English degree in my hands." Before he could spill anymore of his personal beans, he idly plucked one from the nearest row and opened its cover. In eloquent curls was his former lover turned sister-in-law's signature, though over the years it had faded into what looked like a fanciful series of decorative loops. The same mark adorned each and every cover in the room.

"You know...I wasn't always such an intellect. Books helped me escape what I didn't want to face, and all that reading...taught me a lot." He made eye contact to emphasize how much he was really saying next. "The books are always here for you, when you need to get away."

Anna listened to him explain. "Inherited? Is your brother still around?" Obviously the 'late' part said the wife was no longer there. "..hm. I don't think I could do teaching." She shook her head a bit and kept eating. When he forced eye contact, well... Anna didn't really want eye contact at the moment. She looked away and shrugged. "Yeah. Sure. Thanks. They'll be helpful with my work and all." She didn't WANT him to know that she had come here to get away. She wanted him to think that she had come here to study, to do work.

"So how come you don't have a wife? Bachelor life too good to give up? Or does teaching leave you with little opportunity for a spouse?" Yeah, this was a very inappropriate question for a student to ask her teacher, but Anna knew that if anything, THIS would get his mind off of her problems and her family calls.

"We had a...conflict of interests, as it were. So yes, he's around, though not anywhere near here." Under his breath he added, "though the deepest pits of Hell are closer than they appear." He snapped shut the book in his hand and returned it to its place on the shelf, no longer trying for any sort of direct gaze with her, opting to pick at his nails as he spoke.

"Most days I don't think I can do it either, but...every now and then I'm actually the one to learn something." He swiped a carrot from the tray and popped it in his mouth, sort of choking it down with a snicker when her last question came out.

"The only woman in my life was that conflict of interest," he spat. "Any others have found a dead woman's tomes too suffocating to put up with me." Immediately he felt regret at having been short with her, even though he hadn't raised his bitter voice. He left the room with a mumble about grading and having work to do, but when he got back to his papers, all he could do was fling them from the coffee table. Left on the floor, he shut himself in his room.

Anna stared at him as he admitted that the conflict of interests was the woman in his life. His brother's WIFE? Yikes. How's that for a twisted soap opera plot? When he suddenly left, she stood up, a bit worried about him. Especially as she heard papers hitting the floor. Anna hurried from the study. Why was she worried about him? This was none of her business. But it had to suck, it really did. Being surrounded by things your dead love left you, knowing it had broken a brotherly bond.

Anna went to the door and knocked carefully. "Um...Sebastian? Are you...okay? I can leave if you need some time alone..."

His head was hung in his hands even when she knocked. The look on her face when he had stormed out only made him feel worse, and he wanted to explain that he wasn't an adulterer yet his mind was pulsing with the shroud of painful memories that he had failed to censor. Groaning, he stood and opened the door.

"I loved her first," he confessed to his feet. Then before she could say more he answered her initial query.

"Do as you please, I won't demand you return to...whatever was on the other end of that call."

Anna listened to his confession. Oh...that really DID suck. Loving the girl that your brother ended up marrying. She sighed a little bit when he mentioned 'whatever was on the other end of that call'. "Parents. That's all." She looked at him. She was worried. He was in no state for company, but was he really in any state to be left alone? She peered around him to the papers strewn everywhere and sighed. "...'This above all: to thine own self be true'." she quoted, words from Hamlet. She carefully brushed past him and started picking up the papers. She couldn't leave him in this state. Sure she didn't like the class, but that didn't mean she hated Sebastian. Certainly not. In fact, he only seemed more human to her now. He wasn't a snobby, stuck up, stupid teacher. He was a person.

Anna got all the papers picked up and put them on a pile on the table. "They're not sorted. I don't really know how you want them organized."

"'By and by' is easily said.'" He quoted back at her. Somewhat numbed, he half heartedly tried to stop her. "Really you don't have to," was ignored as she piled them up. He took the stack, somewhat ashamed at his behavior. "Don't sweat it. I'm...sure that curfew's coming up anyway."

It had changed so quickly, just a few moments of of words and they'd come to this. From a rather indifferent teacher-student relationship to...whatever these acts of kindness were.

"I'm sorry, Anna. My emotions got the best of me. If you need anymore 'tutoring' you have my email."

Anna grimaced slightly as he mentioned curfew. "Screw curfew...they won't even notice until it's half past two." She shrugged a little bit. "Emotions are a part of life. If you didn't get emotional sometimes, I'd think you were a robot or something." She looked at him for a few moments. "...Yeah." She sighed. "I guess I should go home." Maybe she could hang around the coffee shop for a bit before going home. She didn't want to go home, but she couldn't spend all night at his house. "So um...are you like...feeling better? You're not gonna do any table-flipping or anything?.." A serious question coupled with an attempt at humor as well.

A laugh helped ease his tension. "I'm okay, I just don't want you to be uncomfortable. You're more than welcome to stay." Despite his outbursts, he enjoyed her company and enjoyed spending an evening with someone other than himself.

"I mean, I wouldn't want to go home to those kind of parents either."

Anna smiled a bit when he laughed. That was good, he must be feeling better to laugh. When he mentioned 'those kind of parents', she rubbed her neck and sighed a bit. "..how much did you hear?" She went to rubbing at her cheek with a finger now, something she did when she was embarrassed or flustered. She didn't look at him, not really wanting to talk about her parents, but apparently being unable to avoid the situation.

"You're sure I can stay for a little longer? I really won't be offended if you want to kick me out for some privacy, really."

The nervous gesture struck him as rather adorable, though he maintained a bit of the smile she put on his face.

"Nothing specific from the other end, just a volume I sure wouldn't want in my own ear." It hadn't occurred to him until then that the yelling was the precise thing that had brought her here, why the quiet had put her at such peace. His eyes flashed with the connection. "Though I guess I'm not much better. But yes, of course. If you're tired of studying you can even just take it easy. Browse the internet, check Facebook, whatever it is you students do these days."

Anna listened to him and sighed a little. "Yeeeeah..." She really didn't want to explain, but it didn't seem like she could get away with it. "It's just been a bad day for mom. I try to stay out of the way when that happens so I don't make it worse." When he mentioned browsing the internet and stuff, she laughed a little. "Are you insinuating that teachers don't check Facebook or browse the internet?" She paused a moment and glanced around. "I guess with all the books you have, you wouldn't have any movies, would you? But you're an English teacher, so you should at least have Pride & Prejudice."

He laughed again, more dryly than he remembered his laugh being in the past, but still a laugh. "Yeah, I've got it. And Facebook, I just don't really use it. DVDs are...right over here. You can pick." He slid open the cabinet beneath the tv and tossed the remote to the couch once he'd changed channels. He toyed with the idea of grading more papers but opted to grab his tea and take a seat.

Anna went to look through the cabinet of DVDs. She snagged just what she had been looking for, Pride & Prejudice. "..I actually really liked this book." she admitted sheepishly, popping the disc into the tray and going to sit down on the couch. "And the movie's pretty good, too. I like this later version better." She had left her cellphone with her things in his office, which was a good thing since she currently had three missed calls. While the trailers were showing, Anna glanced at him. "So Sebastian, any other skeletons in the closet I should know about?" The tone was light, slightly teasing, but she was curious! "Things like a favorite color or something?"

"A dead love and estranged brother already lose their appeal? I have five children and a horse ranch down south, with four dogs and eight cats. Oh, and a rabbit." He'd said it all with a straight face and sipped his tea, but at her facial expression he smiled. "No, you've heard the worst of it I'm afraid. Although...I can't cook. At all. And I'm dyslexic." He should probably keep things lighthearted, he decided. Real secrets should remain as they were - secret.

Anna stared at him, trying to decide if he was joking or serious. When he revealed it as a joke, she gave a light laugh. When he mentioned his other secrets, she blinked. "...don't tell me you eat microeave meals for a living." She tilted her head a little. "How in the world do you teach if you're dyslexic?" It sounded super complicated.
She paused for a moment. It suddenly seemed unfair that she knew so much about him but he didn't know anything about her. "...I don't want to be in college. It's my parents thing, not mine. If it was up to me, I'd be..." she hesitated. "...i'd be an artist, or a designer..." she never told people her dreams.

On the question of being a teacher he said, "I've learned to manage, plus it's mild. It's why I do Powerpoints instead of white board notes. Anything that slips through spellcheck looks like a typo. And when I grade I try to type up my comments, and only mark the errors." At the mention of disliking college, he smiled again. It hadn't been his thing either and now he was spending his life on campus.

"Do you do any drawing or painting now? What would you work on if you could make anything?"