Chapter Twenty-Six

Jeff was humming quietly in the shower, minding his own business and drenching his curly nest of dry hair with conditioner when Katherine barged in and threw the curtain aside.

“Jeff!” she shouted. “I did it!”

“Do you mind?” Jeff screamed, covering up his unmentionables with the bottom of the curtain and tilting his head back to keep conditioner out of his eyes.

Katherine waved him off. Her hair was a ratty mess and there was a large unidentified stain down the front of her t-shirt. She looked like she hadn’t slept a wink last night, but her eyes were still sharp and alert.

“I used to babysit you and change your diapers. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

Jeff rolled his eyes.

“What are you so worked up about you freaking weirdo?”

“I just got you your job back,” Katherine said with a smug smirk.

Jeff wiped conditioner off his forehead and stared at her.

“Really? How’d you do it?”

“Well, first I read all of the materials I could find on the state’s anti-discrimination laws and cross referenced them with the school’s code of conduct, and I found several discrepancies that I brought to the school board’s attention. There’s a whole section in both about not discriminating on someone based on sex. I called about a dozen different state legislatures until I finally got confirmation that that rule is supposed to extend to sexual orientation as well as gender identity. After I got that settled, I had to address the interacting with students outside of class issue. I ended up calling the superintendent and pretending to be a teacher from one of the other high schools in the district. I asked him if it was okay for me to start a book club with my students on the weekends and he had no problems with it at all. In fact, he thought that it was a great idea. I recorded the whole conversation and presented it to the school board. There wasn’t really much else they could do except push the idea that you were hitting on Luke inappropriately. I wasn’t there for this part, but this was when Principal Mallory stepped up and reminded everyone that these claims were unsubstantiated. He even went as far as digging into student records for Luke’s number and calling him to confirm that you hadn’t been harassing him. The board still tried to argue that having you there was going to be too big of a distraction to the students, but not having you there is just as much of a distraction, so they agreed to let you come back. I just got the call right now.”

Jeff, as usual where Katherine was concerned, was amazed.

“Wow,” he said. He didn’t really know what else to say.

Katherine narrowed her eyes at him.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

Jeff bit his lip and attempted to casually lean back against the shower tiles.

“What? Nothing’s wrong. I’m happy. Really.”

He gave her a paper-thin smile that made his lips go white.

“Bullshit. Tell me what’s wrong, you little homo catastrophe.”

Jeff let his falsely cheerful demeanor drop. He knew that he should have been ecstatic, but his time away from teaching had really put a lot of things into perspective for him.

“Fine,” Jeff admitted. “It’s just that...I don’t know if I really want to go back anymore.”

Jeff leaned back and held on tightly to the shower curtain, bracing himself for the worst. Katherine just looked at him dumbfounded for a couple of seconds.

“Is it because you’re naked?” she asked finally. “I can leave and we can try this again once you’re dressed.”

Jeff shook his head. God, how was he supposed to explain this?

“It’s just like, I kind of got used to the idea of not teaching anymore, and I had all these plans in my head of things I could do with my new cult following or whatever you want to call it…”

Once he said the words out loud, he was even more sure that it was the right decision. As much as he loved teaching, his experience with Cam had taught him that he could make a huge difference outside of the classroom as well.

Katherine dropped her arms to her sides and shook her head.

“Un-fucking-believable. You couldn’t have told me any of this before you made me waste three and a half weeks of my life?”

Jeff shrank back.

“I didn’t make you. You offered.”

She grabbed a bar of soap off the counter and threw it at him.

“I can’t believe you, Jefferson!”

“I’m sorry!” he shouted. “But teaching was never my true passion, Kat. You know that. I want to create things, and now I might finally be able to.”

He paused and then looked up at his big sister with worried eyes. 

“Do you think I’m making a huge mistake?” he asked.

Katherine sighed and squinched her eyebrows together.

“No,” she admitted. “That’s probably what I would do in your situation too.”

Jeff gave her a relieved smile.

“Thanks Kat. You’re the best.”

“Shut up, asshole. I’m still mad at you.”

Jeff wracked his brain for something he could do that might make it up to her.

“Okay,” he said, turning around and running his thoroughly conditioned hair through the now cold water. “Since you came all this way and did all this work for me, I suppose I can introduce you to my boyfriend now.”

Katherine perked up immediately.

“What? For real? Can we go right now?”

Jeff laughed and reclosed the shower curtain between them. Then he resumed running his fingers along his scalp.

“Hold on,” he said. “At least let me finish rinsing off first.”