Chapter Six

As the weeks wore on and winter break came and went, Jeff continued teaching during the day, working on the play at night, and tutoring Cam on the weekends: only now he always made sure to leave before Luke got home from work.

There were two reasons for this choice. One, he was still embarrassed about throwing himself at one of his student’s fathers. And two, he couldn’t stop picturing Luke as he’d looked the very first time he saw him, all hot and covered in grime, and the thought of seeing him like that again made Jeff’s stomach flip. He was sure that there’d be even more embarrassment to be had the next time the two of them crossed paths. Better to just avoid the situation altogether for as long as he possibly could.

The bright side was that Cam’s performance had improved dramatically in all of his classes. He wasn’t on the honor roll or anything, but he was passing everything with a “C” average. Jeff was confident that he could get it up to a B if he passed all of his midterms. That combined with athletic and theater experience was bound to look good on any last-minute college applications he wanted to send out. They just had to get a move-on if they wanted to make the application deadlines for the fall. If not, Cam could just wait until the spring semester, but Jeff didn’t want him to get that idea in his head. He wanted Cam to graduate feeling accomplished and knowing he already had at least one school lined up and waiting for him.

But that conversation, and the subsequent begging for fee-waivers and deadline extensions, would have to wait a few more days. For right now, Jeff had an open house which he needed to attend. It was something that Apollo High liked to do at least once per semester. Jeff thought the practice was a little bit excessive for high school kids; his parents had stopped knowing any of his teachers’ names when he was like eleven or twelve, but if this school board cared about anything more than test scores and football, it was tradition.

During these open houses, the students were encouraged to bring their guardians along through a sped-up version of their regular class schedule, meet with all their teachers, and show off any extracurricular stuff they were currently working on. That put Jeff in a pretty unique spot since he was both a full-time teacher and club sponsor—he was technically a department chair, but only by default. Basically it meant that he spent the majority of his evening near the entrance of the auditorium, graciously shaking hands with the parents of his English students while his drama kids walked their families through the maze of half-built set pieces up on stage.

It was tiresome, and a great way to catch a nasty cold, but all-in-all, Jeff thought things were going well. Of course, there were still the occasional terrible parents who bad mouthed their kid right in front of them or wanted him to go over every little discrepancy in their otherwise perfect grades, but for the most part he was feeling pretty good.

About halfway through the event when the refreshments started dying out, and the crowd started dwindling accordingly, Jeff sneaked away to say hi to the theater families.

Danielle’s mom greeted him warmly as she always did while Danielle was animatedly talking with Jessica, Leanne, and Enrique off in the corner. Valerie was standing somewhat nearby them, taking turns carefully dangling her younger cousins off the edge of the stage. Kendra was talking animatedly with her parents in Korean, no doubt boasting about the set, props, and the part she was playing in the musical. Her dad looked mildly impressed, although Jeff could never really tell with him, and her mom looked like she’d rather be anywhere else. Tariq was very carefully guiding his grandma backstage and Rin’s very stoic parents were having a hushed conversation with Leslie’s mom while their children looked on uncomfortably.

Jeff said hi to them all one by one. He had to admit that he was a bit disappointed by the lack of unfamiliar faces. He was hoping that Ruby or Sophia might show, or even Eddie. He’d only known the kid for a few months, but already he’d cemented himself as a core part of the drama club. He was everyone’s favorite little pet freshman and it would have been nice to see where he got that sense of humor from. Plus, he just felt a lot more comfortable directing the kids once he knew their parents’ names and a little bit about what their home life was like. It was a good way to avoid obstinance and unintentional triggers.

Nevertheless, Jeff soldiered on. Laughing and making jokes with the families and watching his kids interact with each other in their little subunits. It was fascinating to watch. You’d think drama kids would all just meld together as one clique, and they did to a certain extent, but it was far more complicated than one would think.

Suddenly, as Jeff was looking, Danielle lifted up her head and glanced over in his general direction. Jeff got ready to avert his gaze, lest he be chided for staring, but it quickly became clear that she was not looking at him, but at someone standing directly behind him.

“Hello, Mr. Martin,” said a familiar, slightly bemused voice. “Long time no see.”

Jefferson pivoted, a knot already forming in the pit of his stomach.

Luke and Cam were standing side by side near the steps leading onto the stage. Cam looked as though he was trying his best to dissolve his entire body into his black hoodie and Luke looked even better than Jeff had remembered. He was wearing tight jeans and a striped black and red sweater that gave off an odd combination of youth and sophistication. Although it wasn’t quite as sexy as his sweaty and disheveled look, it ignited a whole new set of fantasies in Jeff’s mind.

“Mr. Davis,” Jeff said, his smile cracking. “H-hi. Good to meet—I mean see you. Good to see you. Cameron didn’t tell me you were coming.”

That last sentence came out a bit more accusatory than he meant it to. Luke just laughed it off and stuck out his hand for a shake. Jeff didn’t know if it was just wishful thinking on his part, but Luke’s handshake seemed firmer and just a tad longer than all the others he’d endured that night.

“Well, you know. I ended up finishing my work early and thought I’d drop by.”

Jeff wiped his sweaty palm on his thigh, hoping nobody would notice. He felt like the rest of the room had suddenly gone silent and all that remained was him and Luke. Jeff’s eyes snagged on a mole on the side of Luke’s neck that he hadn’t noticed before, and it took nearly all his concentration to keep his eyes from darting to it.

“This looks amazing,” Luke continued, looking around. He gave Jeff one of his devastatingly handsome smiles. “Could you give me the grand tour?”

Jeff took a large gulp of air and glanced at the door to the auditorium. The halls outside were still and silent. It seemed that no more of his English students were going to stroll in and save him from this potentially disastrous venture.

“Sure,” he said, voice cracking.

He led Luke and a very reluctant Cameron through the set pieces and described them on autopilot: This is the classroom set, made of ancient slats, extra desks, and a wheel-in chalkboard we stole from the yearbook department. These are the cardboard lockers we just started painting for the scenes that take place in the hallway. Cam made this one right here. He insisted that his character’s would have music note stickers all over it. These are some of the costumes we’ve started pulling. This is the fly rail system that controls the curtain and could possibly hoist your child into the air, although I personally wouldn’t try it…

Jeff continued word vomiting in this fashion for several minutes before Danielle finally came up and introduced herself to Cam’s dad, putting him out of his misery.

“So, Cam,” Danielle said afterward. “Me and the other upperclassmen just decided to have a sleepover at my house tonight. We’re gonna watch movies and run lines and stuff. I know it’s last minute, but you’re welcome to come.” She glanced over at Luke. “If it’s okay with your dad of course.”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

“Is there going to be parental supervision at this sleepover?”

Danielle smiled.

“Yes. Also, my dad’s a cop. So that’s like double supervision.”

“Well I can’t argue with that logic,” Luke said with a grin.

“I don’t know,” said Cam. “It’s a school night, and I don’t have clothes for tomorrow…”

“You can borrow something of my brother’s,” Danielle said without missing a beat. “And we’ll all carpool in the morning. It’ll be fun. We’ll roll up to school as one big posse like in one of those cheesy teen movies.”

Cam looked up at his father skeptically. Luke only nudged him playfully.

“Go,” he said. “Have fun. Be a teenager. Get all that angst out of your system while you still can.”

Cam rolled his eyes, but he made sure to give his dad a quick side hug before walking off with Danielle.

“How much longer are you going to be here?” Luke whispered once the kids were out of earshot.

The soft cadence of his words sent a tingle up Jeff’s spine. He glanced down at his watch.

“I’m supposed to stay at least twenty more minutes,” he said. 

“There’s a bar about two miles from here. It’s called Char’s. You ever heard of it?”

Jeff nodded slowly. He’d drowned his sorrows at that place after many a failed first date.

“Would you like to come get a drink with me after this?”

Jeff blinked rapidly. Surely he didn’t mean…

“Okay,” he found himself saying, barely an exhalation.

Luke leaned in close and placed a hand over Jeff’s shoulder. He smelled like something earthy and sweet, like lemongrass mixed with lava rock.

“Good. I’ll meet you there.”

Luke stepped away from him and gave him a devious look.

“Don’t stand me up, Jefferson.”

At that, Luke turned around and left. Jeff stared at Luke’s perfect backside, dumbfounded. What the hell had just happened?

“Mr. Martin, are you okay?” Kendra asked, snapping him out of it.

Jeff cleared his throat and nodded.

“Of course. It’s just a little too hot in here is all.”