Pay Attention, Mr. Iero (Frerard)

4 - Flirting Or Just Being Friendly?

Walking side by side with your teacher across campus certainly didn't feel normal. As Professor Way droned on about how art was clearly one of the most important subjects, I couldn't help but feel as though every pair of nearby eyes was fixated on us. We were just walking together, so why did it feel so wrong? No one knew how I felt about him... or how he may or may not have felt about me.

Luckily, it didn't take us long to get to the coffee shop. I hurried to rush inside to hide my embarrassment, but when I reached for the door, I was surprised when Professor Way had stepped in my way to open it for me. I blushed at the polite gesture.

Once we had ordered our drinks, Prof. Way and I found a little table near the back to sit down at. It was away from all of the other students and their conversations taking place in the shop, so that helped me relax a bit.

Immediately after taking a sip of his coffee, Prof. Way took out his paperwork and starting looking through it, writing stuff down. Presumably, he was grading his students' work. Thankfully though, he just continued to talk to me about art-related things as he did so. 

"I don't understand some of these students. They've been studying art for years and want to pursue it in their futures, yet some of them still give me garbage work. I expect so much more out of them".

As he kept himself busy at his work and his basically one-sided conversation, I couldn't help but to take the time to admire the little things about him. His expression looked so stern yet cute while he focused, with his furrowed eyebrows and the occasional lip bite. Even his odd pinky finger that stuck out slightly as he held his pen was adorable. 

As I continued to stare, I didn't even notice when he ceased his ranting.

"Mr. Iero," he said without stopping what he was writing, "Is there a reason you're intensely watching me without saying anything?"

As my face flushed with embarrassment, I struggled to think of a response, "Sorry I- I just think you're really... nice-looking". I was an absolute idiot. I should've just kept my mouth shut.

Finally, Prof. Way looked up from his work, and I immediately tore my eyes off of him. I could still tell he was smirking at me though.

He chuckled, "Thank you. You're very 'nice-looking' yourself". It seemed like such an innocent thing to say, yet when my eyes traveled back to him, the look he was giving me told me otherwise. It really appeared as though my teacher was never really being innocent with me.

There was no way he actually like me that way though, right? He sure did act like it... But my feelings had to have been getting the best of me. I was making things up in my head. 

"Anyways, I asked you what you were studying in school," Prof. Way clarified what I had missed when I spaced out. "I mean, career-wise, what do you want to do?"

Of course, my first thought was to lie to him. I had only come to school to get away from home. For the parties and the drinking and the girls. So far, I hadn't had luck with any of those. I guess I had been taking the whole school thing more serious than I originally planned to though.

In truth, I didn't really want to be anything. I guess I didn't really care all too much.

"Well, I don't-," I started, before noticing he was now focusing solely on me instead of his work. This made me struggle more. "I don't really know... I don't really want to do anything I guess. I hadn't planned on actually accomplishing much at school. I just kinda wanted to hang out and have fun until I was forced to drop out". I couldn't believe I was telling Prof. Way all this. Especially after he had just been complaining about how his students didn't seem to try very hard.