My Professor's Secret

- | epilogue

e p i l o g u e
three months later
one day until the wedding

On some miraculous occasion, Mr. Burner—the other professor that teaches performing arts—decides to let us out of class early this evening. Had it been any other day, I might've marveled at the idea of an early night. Especially when it came to Mr. Burner who always kept us thirty minutes after class, but because I know what tomorrow holds, all that I feel is dread the entire car ride home. At least if Mr. Burner kept us that extra thirty minutes, I would have had something to distract my mind and keep me occupied. Sadly, being home provides the same sense of dread when I walk into Taylor assembling bouquets for the bridesmaids in Meghan's wedding tomorrow.

Taylor and I talked about the evening Trevor and I shared in the Dean's office three months ago, so she knew just how much I wish tomorrow didn't exist, but that didn't change the fact that it did or the fact that Meghan was her sister and she needed help with her impromptu wedding.

From the moment Trevor approached Meghan about rekindling their relationship, she'd been all over him. It was hard to miss and that was saying a lot considering me and Professor Thornton weren't supposed to see each other at all. The first time I saw them together was at the mini-mart not too far from the library.

Thankfully, I made it out without them noticing me but managed to stay hidden long enough to hear Meghan argue about needing a bigger space for the four of them now. The entire situation rubbed me the wrong way. Even the way Trevor absentmindedly agreed to her request to look for a bigger place.

How could she just up and leave her son's father? My brother? My brother whose been nothing but good to her. Not that it mattered anymore. Christian transferred to law school in Dreycott from Winchester before the end of last semester. His main purpose was to help Lorelei take care of Dad, but I knew Chris couldn't stomach the thought of seeing them together either. Especially when Meghan was due any day now and Christian swore that his son would know that his father was there for every milestone he could be as any other co-parent would.

So far, he kept his word, according to Taylor who was spending more and more time with her sister finalizing the rest of the wedding. Taylor told me a day hasn't passed since she was with Meghan that Chris hadn't called to check up on her and the baby. Granted the calls were always brief—I assume like the ones Trevor used to have with her back when he wanted nothing to do with her either. Nonetheless, I commend him on his maturity.

I toss my backpack to my side of the dorm and plop down on my bed before I've started stripping out of my clothing.

"You're here earlier than I expected," Taylor says as she begins to load her supplies into a wooden crate. I knew it was out of courtesy of me because she still had more work to do and it wasn't like she had all the time in the world to get it done. "I would've gone somewhere else to do this if I'd known."

When Meghan asked Taylor to plan her wedding, I was there. Well—Meghan was here, considering she'd made her way to our dorm to do it in person. A part of me still believed she did it out of spite of me, but because she and I weren't on as bad of terms as we once were, I didn't let her presence at our dorm get to me. She didn't know about the Dean's stipulations and I doubt Trevor told her considering had it not been for the Dean, I'd imagine Trevor and I would still be together.

Taylor's reaction to her sister's request was obvious. She'd sunken onto her bed as if she'd been given the worst news ever but agreed to do it anyway because of how excited Meghan was. When her sister left, Taylor couldn't stop apologizing to me for agreeing to plan the wedding which should've never been a thing.