Growth: Part 1 by Jamiesstories2

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A/N: It’s been pouring for days, which has been a great excuse to write. Coming at y’all with another novel, oops.

Mild to moderate homophobia warning, if that’s something you don’t like reading about, take care of yourself and skip this one out.

This is a continuation of Growth. Please read the previous parts before reading this.

Growth: Part 1

Four years. It seemed that in that time both too much and too little had happened. He had graduated college with a degree in Classical Studies, an event that had his parents proud and disappointed, at the same time. Corey was a professional photographer, and experiencing the disappointment of their parents together had made the two brothers much closer. Catherine was the one pride and joy of the family… almost. She went to the college her father had chosen for her and even studied architecture, her father’s chosen career, but she lived her days in a sorority, partying and bringing home boys. Alex was entertained by this new Catherine, confident and proud of her sexuality, but Alex’s father was not. When Catherine came home one summer with a small tattoo on her arm, her father nearly exploded. Despite these changes, however, Alex was still a fairly similar person to the one he was four years ago. Which is why it would surprise no one that, right now, Alex was pacing up and down his living room in fear.

It was around three in the afternoon on a Sunday. Alex would usually be spending time with his roommates, Jeff and Andrew, but he had something else on his mind. Jeff walked into the living room to grab his phone, but noticing Alex’s strange behavior he stopped.

"Alex, buddy, you really gotta lighten up about this job," Jeff said, casually.

"Please explain to me how I’m supposed to ‘lighten up,’" Alex retorted, "This job is my last chance before the school year starts! If I don’t get it, I’ll be proving my dad right."

"Daddy issues," Jeff jokingly muttered under his breath.

Alex glared at him.

"Not helpful."

"Just seems like you’d be a lot less worried if you stopped thinking about your dad and started thinking about yourself," Jeff explained, before staring at Alex with a triumphant smirk.

"Ugh," was all Alex could say in response, unable to contend with the fact that Jeff might be right.

Suddenly, as if waiting for the most awkward moment, Alex’s phone chimed.

"This is it…" Alex said, almost at a whisper.

Even Jeff was caught up in the anticipation, losing focus on the point he was trying to make. Alex opened the email and life seemed to move in slow motion for a moment.

"I GOT IT!" Alex screamed. He hugged Jeff, the closest possible living thing, before letting go and laughing. He had really done it, he had really gotten the job, he had really proved, once and for all, that he was on the right path.

XXXXX

Alex now had his first meeting in a few days and he felt utterly unprepared. He had a grand total of three work-appropriate outfits, due to the fact that he was a newly-graduated college student. That was not the biggest problem, though. He could go shopping for new clothes, but there was very little he could do about his hair.

He had continued growing it out through college with trims from Catherine whenever he saw her, but, after his college graduation, he’d moved in with Jeff and Andrew, far from his home state, and even further from the city where Catherine now attended college.

Both his roommates had short hair, Jeff sporting a short back and sides and Andrew wearing a classic crew cut, in stark contrast to Alex’s hair, which now fell about an inch above his shoulder blades. Since both of his roommates knew next to nothing about long hair, neither of them could give him advice on where to get his haircut. The one time Alex had asked Andrew, he had jokingly responded, "Why don’t you come down to my barber and he’ll show you a proper haircut?" But upon discovering how uncomfortable his joke made Alex, neither roommate ever joked about Alex’s long hair again.

The only other option would be going in blind, but Alex sure as hell wasn’t taking his chances with a Yelp guessing game, which left him with no place to get his haircut. He could see the split ends growing every day, but he did his best to ignore them and get on with his life. He would just have to put his hair in a bun for school.

Alex bought a few more dress shirts, though he could never shake the feeling that any kind of professional wear, especially blazers or sweaters over dress shirts, made him look thinner than he actually was, and he was already very thin. He felt most comfortable without layers accentuating his lanky figure, and always looked forward to summer, however he would simply have to overcome any issues he had with the look as he certainly could not wear T-Shirts to work.

Very soon, he was prepared for his first day. He dressed, put his hair in a bun and looked in the mirror one final time. He couldn’t help but laugh-- he looked exactly like an Oxford professor: a blazer with elbow pads, circular tortoiseshell glasses, and a leather satchel on his shoulder. He left the apartment in a hurry, he couldn’t be late to his first day, even if there were not going to be any kids there.

Then there he was: Standing at the bottom of a tall flight of stairs, he saw the entrance to his new job, his new life, and his dream. He walked into the building and was greeted at the front desk.

"Name please?" She asked, pleasantly.

"Alex Lee," Alex responded, sounding slightly unsure of his own name.

"Mr. Lee, nice to meet the new Latin teacher," the woman held out a hand for him to shake, Alex took it.

"Nice to meet you, as well," Alex replied, "Do you know where I’m supposed to go?"

The woman consulted her computer before reaching into a drawer to her right and retrieving a small envelope.

"You’ll be in room 217, up the stairs and all the way down the hall to the right, you can’t miss it," she explained, "This is your key, you’ll need to return it at the end of the school year."

And with that, Alex was set free to explore his new domain. His classroom was small and bright, with a row of windows along the back wall. There were two large whiteboards and a number of desks facing towards the front of the room, with a single, larger, desk at the very back that was clearly intended to be his. Having made some impulsive Amazon purchases when he received the news of his gainful employment, he was stocked with decorations for his new classroom, and began to fill time by unrolling posters and organizing Expo markers.

Finally, his phone buzzed a reminder of the time, and Alex made his way from his classroom to his first meeting of the day: a seventh grade team meeting. He entered the room where a few teachers were milling about. The classroom seemed to be dedicated to English, with posters lining the walls correcting grammatical errors, supplemented by some cheesy puns. There were three adults in the room besides him: a man and two women. Alex stood in the corner quite awkwardly, but none of the teachers even seemed to notice his entrance, the two women being engaged in friendly conversation and the man hard at work. He sat down at a desk like the other man, but instead of pulling out any work, he watched the other adults enter and exchange greetings, trying, and failing, to make note of their names. After a few more staff members entered the room, the man who’d been in the room from the very beginning looked up at the crowd forming.

"We’re missing one," he said, "but it’s not worth waiting so let’s start."

All the teachers then did as Alex and he had done and sat down at desks. The tables were in a U-shaped pattern so they could all see each other easily.

"I believe we have one new face," the man said, smiling, and looked at Alex, "do you mind introducing yourself and then we’ll go around the circle?"

Alex felt a surge of stage fright, but it quickly dissipated.

"Hi, I’m Alex Lee, and I’m the new Latin teacher. I just graduated from university last year and I’m excited to start teaching." Alex smiled, still feeling slightly shy.

Everyone then followed suit, introducing themselves, one by one. The group was about to get into the meat of the meeting when a man suddenly burst into the room.

Everyone seemed quite unfazed by this sudden entrance, well, everyone besides Alex, who was plenty surprised. Alex took a moment to overcome his shock at the arrival before being thrown head-first into another round, since the man that had just burst through the door was one of the most attractive men he had ever seen.

He was about the same height as Alex, maybe an inch taller, with golden-brown hair in a slightly overgrown short back and sides and piercing green eyes. He was thin like Alex, but in a lean, attractive way that hinted he was familiar with the inside of a gym. Alex could sense a playfulness in his demeanor, and felt drawn to the natural charisma the man exuded. A few of the teachers seemed thoroughly unimpressed by his entrance, while another tried to hold back a giggle. The leader of the meeting, whose name Alex had learned was Joe, was the last to react-- grinning and lifting his eyebrows in a slightly incredulous expression.

"Nice of you to join us, Dan."

"Hi, everyone," Dan responded, seemingly uncaring of the drama his entrance had caused, "I would claim I got stuck in traffic, but I’m pretty sure every one of-" Dan stopped for a millisecond as he and met Alex's shocked gaze with his own. Dan raised his eyebrows, moving in slow motion before Alex’s eyes, before continuing, "you knows that to be a lie."

Dan took the seat in front of him, the seat that just happened to be right next to Alex.

"Do you mind?" He asked casually, a cheeky smile on his face.

"Uh, no," Alex said quietly. He felt Dan’s gaze rest on him, and couldn’t help but turn red.

Dan opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it, seemingly not wanting to tease more than necessary. There would be plenty of time for that later.

The meeting continued without any more surprise entrances, and Alex probably would’ve found the whole thing quite boring if it wasn’t for the constant reminder that an extremely attractive man was sitting next to him. Alex hoped Dan couldn’t tell just how hard he had fallen for him, but, deep down, he knew it was just wishful thinking.

After the meeting, Alex scurried back to his classroom as fast as possible in order to avoid an uncomfortable confrontation with Dan, but it seemed someone, whether it be the universe or Dan, had different plans. About thirty minutes later, there was a knock on his door, and Alex looked up to see Dan through the window. They made eye contact and Alex could only smile, accepting his fate.

"Come in."

"Hi," Dan started as he entered and closed the door, "I didn’t get a chance to properly introduce myself today at the meeting. You kinda… disappeared."

Alex blushed at this comment and looked away.

"I’m Dan, but you’ll hear the kids call me Mr. Wells," the man said, "And you?"

Alex began to freak out, realizing it was now his turn to form a full, English sentence in front of this demi-god.

"I’m, uh, Alex," Alex smiled shyly, "or, uh, Mr. Lee, I guess."

"Still feels strange to call yourself ‘Mr,’ right?"

"Yeah," Alex smiled. At least Dan seemed to understand the struggles of being new to teaching.

"Don’t worry, you’ll get over it soon enough. The real hard part is learning your damn student’s names," Dan joked, causing both men to chuckle.

Alex sat on the first hard surface he could find, which happened to be the desk behind him and Dan took a seat facing him.

"So," Dan finally prompted after an anxious silence, "I see you’re the new Latin teacher."

"I am," Alex replied, "What do you teach?"

"Biology," Dan responded before sarcastically commenting, "a real subject."

Alex pretended to be offended.

"Latin is just as much a subject as Biology. And less boring," he joked.

Dan laughed in response, before deciding to take a leap.

"You want to tell me why you’ve been so shy? Can’t have that much stage fright if you want a job like this."

Alex, who had been calming down in the flow of steady conversation, freaked out again. What was he supposed to say? ‘Actually, I find you extremely attractive?’

"Um, your entrance was quite something." Alex lied.

"Ahh," Dan responded. Alex couldn’t tell if he bought it, but, either way, he dropped the topic for now, for which Alex was grateful.

The men exchanged more casual conversation for a while longer before Alex had to go to his second meeting. However Alex, both men knew, would be back for more.

As he walked downstairs for his second meeting, Alex started getting anxious for the millionth time that day. This meeting was The Meeting, the meeting where he met his boss-- Brendon Clark. He knew little about the man, but only hoped to make a good impression.

When he entered the room, there were two teachers already there. One was a woman with bright red hair in a pixie cut and hazel eyes, the other was a man about Alex’s height with thinning brown hair in a longer buzz cut and light brown eyes. The first thing that Alex caught sight of, though, was the prominent cross necklace he wore.

Alex had nothing against organized religion, in general, but his closest contact with it was his homophobic parents, which hadn’t been a great introduction. He tried to ignore the accessory, but it was difficult to keep his eyes away from the center of the man’s chest. Alex didn’t have much time to think on the merits of this man’s religion, though, since the man had caught sight of him and was now walking over to introduce himself. Alex was unsure how to ask a question like ‘do you hate gay people?’ So he decided to try and forget about it and allow the question to answer itself. The man was now directly in front of him, holding out his hand.

"Hello, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Brendon Clark. I assume you’re Alex Lee?"

"Yep, that’s me," Alex responded, shaking the outstretched hand, "You’re the director of the classics department, right?"

"How astute, Alex, I am indeed your boss," Brendon said, with a jovial tone. Both men chuckled, but Brendon continued, "and as your boss I have to say, I don’t much like the hair."

Alex felt his heart drop; his interviewer had said nothing about a dress code, but if he really had to cut his hair for the job he... would. At the same time he felt the telltale tug at the bottom of his gut that hinted at arousal. His hair fetish, with whom he now unhappily coexisted, always came up at the worst times! And how the hell was he going to respond if Brendon asked him to cut his hair right then and there?

Luckily, that question was left unanswered since the red haired woman came to his rescue.

"Seriously, Brendon?" She turned to Alex, "Alex, right?" Alex nodded, "don’t worry about Brendon here, he hates my hair too," she then turned to smile playfully at Brendon.

She walked through the maze of desks to join the conversation.

"You have been uncharacteristically fast though," she said to Brendon, "he’s been here, what? A minute?"

"What can I say?" Brendon joked, "I just don’t like long hair on guys." The two teachers laughed at how much of a stickler Brendon was (at least he was able to laugh at himself?), while Alex nervously tried to laugh with them. After what felt like an eternity, Brendon left the conversation and it was just Alex and the woman.

"Hi," she started, "I’m Jane, or Ms. Doyle."

"Doyle?" He asked, "So the red hair’s real then?"

"Very real," she chuckled and rolled her eyes, as if she had gotten that question a lot, "Sorry about Brendon, by the way, but his bark is way worse than his bite, he won’t make you cut your hair or anything, in case you were wondering. He’s been begging for me to grow mine out for years and it clearly hasn’t worked yet."

"Probably good to know," Alex responded, feeling relieved, but with a telltale twinge of disappointment radiating from the bottom of his gut, "Thanks."

"Of course," she replied smiling, Alex thought this was the end of the conversation, but she also continued, "Since you asked me about my red hair, it’s now time for me to ask an equally annoying question that you probably get all the time."

‘Oh no,’ Alex thought. He knew what was coming.

"How long is your hair?"

Alex chuckled at the predictability of people. ‘Only a question a man would get,’ he thought, but he took a deep breath and braced himself for the attention he was about to draw. He took the two rubber bands from his hair in successive fluid motions and let his hair flow to his shoulder blades, a chestnut waterfall.

"Holy cow," Alex heard a man’s voice from behind him, "who knew any of the Latin teachers could grow such a mane in one summer."

Alex felt his face burn bright red, and slowly turned to face whoever had made the comment. He came face to face with a shorter man with salt and pepper hair in a short back and sides (‘do all the guys at this school have short hair?’) and bright blue eyes.

"None of the current teachers, I guess. I’m new," Alex responded and stretched out his hand, trying to ignore the fact that three pairs of eyes were pointed directly at him. The man took it, still staring at his hair.

"This is a very strange introduction," the man commented in a slightly humorous tone, "I’m Tim York, the Latin teacher for 10th grade."

"Alex Lee," Alex responded, somewhat uncomfortably, "the new seventh grade Latin teacher." He pulled his hand from the handshake.

"If you don’t mind, I’m going to put my hair back up now," Alex continued, pulling one hair tie down, onto his wrist, and beginning to wrangle his mane back into a bun.

"Oh yeah," Tim responded, "that’s fine. It’s just… really long."

Alex nodded in response.

"I get that a lot."

Unbeknownst to Alex, Brendon was staring at his hair with quite a bit of contempt.

"You have some split ends there too," Brendon started, walking up to the group to rejoin the conversation, "I can clean them up for you if you’d like," he joked, smiling maniacally.

Alex was trying to think of an appropriate response, but the sudden tightness of his pants was quite distracting. He realized, with dread, that he felt like he was under his father’s thumb once again. Luckily, Jane was by his side.

"Just drop it Brendon," she said, "It’s clear he’s too nervous to tell you to be quiet, but I’m not."

Alex turned more red than he had all day and suddenly wished his hair was back down so he could cover his face. Thankfully for Alex, the group’s attention was suddenly turned back towards the door as another woman entered.

The other teachers began talking among themselves and Alex was finally able to slip away and relax by himself. He spent the rest of the time pre-meeting thinking about his interaction with Dan before. No one else had come to his room, no one else had talked to him for so long, was it possible that there was some mutual attraction?

After the meeting was over, he left the room and was greeted by Dan, of all people. Alex was surprised, but happy, had Dan sought him out specifically?

Dan smiled at Alex and approached him.

"I felt like our conversation didn’t go on long enough, also I wanted to make sure you’re okay. The rumors are that your boss is kind of a d***."

Alex chuckled in response, although he was slightly saddened at how true that statement seemed to be. He sighed in response, and Dan, sensing Alex needed a break, decided to take charge a bit more.

"Let's head back to my room, we can chat a bit more privately there."

Alex noticed that Dan emphasized "privately." Were they thinking the same thing?

The pair entered a part of the school Alex was unfamiliar with, and eventually made their way to Dan’s room. Alex took a moment to survey the room, it being quite different from his own, clearly made for labs instead of lectures. There was a singular tall desk in the right hand corner that appeared to be Dan’s, while the rest of the room was filled with two-person tables in a U-shaped pattern. Dan climbed up and sat on his desk while Alex sat on the table edge facing Dan. Dan’s desk was so much higher than Alex’s that he could place his feet against the table on which Alex was perched. Alex felt even more shy with Dan sitting over him the way he was, but said nothing, not wanting to make Dan self-conscious.

"So," Dan started, "What is the deal with your boss? I barely ever see him, but I hear stories."

"Stories?" Alex asked. Brendon was a bit frustrating, especially for someone in Alex’s situation, but awful he was not.

"Mostly from one guy, on the ninth grade team, we’re friends." Alex couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at the mention of another man Dan was friends with.

"What does he say? Nothing much happened to me, he was just a bit annoying about my hair. Super Christian people-" Alex stopped himself; Dan was so easy to talk to, it was hard not to share all your problems, "Well," Alex said, trying to set his train of thought straight, "it’s complicated."

Dan smiled with understanding. Alex sensed there was experience behind the expression, but decided not to push it.

"Well, Alex," Dan started, "I must warn you that my friend, Ben, is in a different situation than us…"

"Different how?"

"He’s out."

"Out?"

"Openly gay. Apparently that’s caused him some problems with Brendon."

Alex took a moment to process all that had just happened. First, if Brendon was homophobic, would that mean staying in the closet? Second, Dan said "us." Does that mean…

"I- I’m not-," Alex was trying to form a sentence, and failing.

"You’re not what, Alex? I never said you were anything." Dan responded cheekily.

"I was going to say, I’m not gay."

"And again, Alex, I never said you were." Alex admitted defeat, he had officially outed himself in the worst possible way.

"I was going to say I’m not gay," Alex started again, "but I think we’d both know I’d be lying if I did."

Dan smiled and Alex reciprocated. After a moment of silence, both men began to laugh at Alex’s monumental lack of chill. Eventually, though, Alex began to realize the wider implications of having a homophobic boss.

"What kind of problems does Ben have?"

"It’s best not to worry about specifics, but you’ll see soon enough that Brendon has quite a bit of power at this school."

"How much power?" Alex asked, already anticipating a less-than-positive answer.

"Enough to keep…" Dan trailed off and then picked back up again, "to keep me in the closet," he paused, "well, mostly."

Alex instinctually smiled at the fact that Dan was gay, and Dan seemed to pick up on it, but the inevitability of the situation closed in on Alex. If Brendon’s power was enough to keep Dan in the closet, a man who had no immediate relations to Brendon, Alex had no choice-- that part of himself would have to stay hidden.

Alex let his head fall into his hands. Dan, sensing his vulnerability, came down from his desk and sat next to Alex, putting an arm around his shoulders. Alex came up and removed the hands from his head, pulling many locks of hair from his bun in the process. Dan removed his arm, but Alex, craving his touch, rested his head on Dan’s shoulder.

"I thought-" Alex started, trying to articulate his words, "I’ve been in the closet for so many years..."

"You thought this was your chance?" Dan filled in for him.

"Yeah…" Alex responded, weakly.

There was silence for a moment, until Dan turned away and sniffed loudly, clearly trying to stop his own tears from coming. Alex had not been looking over at Dan, but when he heard him sniff, Alex sat up from his shoulder and turned to face him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s talk about something else, though," Dan responded weakly.

There was another pause as Dan regained his cool composure, then he turned back to Alex with his usual smirk.

"Let’s talk about how soft your hair is!" Dan said with surprise. He reached out and fingered one of the locks of hair that had fallen out of Alex’s bun, before placing it behind his ear. Alex had to stop himself from instinctually recoiling, but he was glad he did, for the touch caused a tide of euphoric emotions to wash over him. Alex was scared, of course, but he was also insanely aroused, enjoying the warm, somewhat dangerous, feelings Dan was eliciting. Had Alex been a more confident person, he would’ve leaned forward and kissed Dan at that very moment.

"You wanna see all of it?" Alex asked, on an impulse, and immediately regretted. Alex hated being the center of attention and hated, even more, having his hair fawned over like he was an animal, but somehow the idea of the fawner being Dan felt much more okay.

"Sure," Dan said, but sensing some insecurity, he followed it up with, "no pressure though."

"It’s fine," Alex responded, "you’re not some stranger, after all."

He reached up and pulled the two hair ties out once again.

"I probably would’ve had to take it out anyway," Alex justified, "My bun was dying."

"Well, I’m glad you’ve graced me with the opportunity to see it out," Dan joked, smiling.

The man reached out and took a lock that was resting in front of Alex’s shoulder, playing with it for a moment before letting the hair drop back to its original position.

"It’s nice," Dan said, kindly.

"Thanks," Alex mumbled, feeling his cheeks momentarily grow hot again. This was usually when he would gather his locks up into a bun again, but he had some free time and he’d tied it so tight, he was getting a headache.

"Leaving it out, I see," Dan commented.

"My head hurts," Alex responded.

Dan chuckled and then picked up another lock of hair and began to pretend to play with it, while actually examining it.

"What’cha looking for, inspector?" Alex joked.

"Ahh, nothing," Dan dropped the lock a little too quickly to be innocent, though.

Alex raised one eyebrow, to give a look of nonchalant curiosity, but the nervous running of his hand through his hair said differently.

"Oh, Alex." Dan chided, "It’s really nothing."

"Then why won’t you tell me?"

"Because you’re going to get nervous, you already are, I can tell."

Alex figured there would be no point in denying.

"Dan, your reluctance to tell me is not helping anything."

"If you’d really like to know I’ll tell you…" Dan trailed off, allowing for an answer.

"Yes, I would really like to know."

"Okay, I just saw that you have some split ends and thought it was kind of odd, since you seem to care a lot about your hair, that was it."

Alex mentally talked himself down. Of course Dan was not plotting to cut his hair, he just noticed those dastardly split ends.

"Oh," Alex responded, feeling quite silly, "okay, sorry."

"It’s fine," Dan responded, "since you know I’ve noticed them, though," Dan said nodding towards the ends of Alex’s hair, "I’m curious."

"Uh, my younger sister usually cuts my hair, but I live here full time now so I can’t really get the trim I need."

"Really? Who cut it before your sister?"

"Well," Alex paused, becoming slightly uncomfortable, "before I was in college, my dad used to…" Alex trailed off and then made a motion that signaled clippers being pulled over his scalp, not being able to vocalize exactly what his father did.

"Ahh," Dan said with understanding.

"If you know someone here…"

"Unfortunately, I can’t help you there. This," Dan motioned at his own hair, "is the work of a barber, but…" Dan was the one who trailed off this time.

"Anything will do."

"I have, um, some experience cutting hair."

"Are you saying what I think you’re saying?" Alex asked, his interest thoroughly piqued. Could Dan accept his fetish? Could Dan have one of his own?

"I am indeed saying what you think I’m saying," Dan replied.

"Are you free this Saturday?"

"All day."

"Do you live alone? My roommates will probably tear me to shreds," Alex said, only now thinking about the logistics.

"I do," Dan replied, before offering his number.

Eventually, Dan was forced to go to a meeting for the science department, and Alex returned to his own room. There was one more meeting, and he was dreading it: the ninth grade team meeting.

XXXXX

As he walked to the bottom floor of the school, Alex’s nerves only increased. Every meeting today felt like another anxiety attack waiting around the corner and, now that he knew more about Brendon, the oncoming attack felt less irrational and more justified.

He entered a room near the end of a long hallway, with only one other teacher. Of course, it was the one Alex was least looking forward to seeing.

"Alex," Brendon started, as soon as he saw Alex enter the room, "You’ll be taking the seventh grade classes this year, correct?"

Alex smiled and nodded the affirmative, wanting to speak as little as possible. Luckily, Brendon was quite good at having a conversation with himself.

"Your taking over those classes is entirely my fault, you see they used to be mine, but I really wanted to work with some older students. The young ones can be a handful." Brendon laughed and Alex uncomfortably chuckled along with him.

"Your hair really is quite long, Alex," Brendon said after a lull in the conversation, giving Alex the most uncomfortable once-over of his life.

Alex looked down at his wrist to find two hair ties sitting there. Crap! Alex had felt so natural with his hair down he had forgotten to put it back up before the meeting! Alex started scrambling to put it back up in a bun and was met with an amused grin from Brendon.

"Oh, Alex, I don’t like it any more when it’s up."

"I’m sorry…" Alex started weakly, "I- I feel more professional when it’s up. I got, um, a bit of a headache from having it up too long and- well, I took it down and totally forgot to, um, put it back up."

Alex flushed crimson and continued to attempt to put up his hair as fast as possible.

"You got a headache, eh?"

Alex knew where this was going, he had dealt with his dad enough.

"You know, I could fix that for you," Brendon continued, "you wouldn’t ever need to put your hair up again."

Brendon wore the grin of a shady, used car salesman. Alex somehow flushed a deeper color and felt a bulge in his pants grow. He was used to the second brain that lived there, but it didn’t make it any less embarrassing.

"Oh, i- it’s fine. I quite like my hair, most of the time," Alex said quietly, "if you’re worried about the split ends, I have a haircut for Saturday."

Brendon’s grin faded a bit, but he kept up his sarcastic personality.

"I hope you chop off quite a bit," he quipped, with an undertone of steel.

"Not as much as you’d probably like," Alex responded, trying (and failing) to make it sound like a casual joke.

"Ah well," Brendon began, "if you’d like to keep looking like a queer that’s fine by me." The color drained from Alex’s face as quickly as it had come, leaving a deep sense of fear within him. He was thankfully saved from this terrible conversation by the entrance of an unfamiliar face, a South Asian man with dark wavy hair. The entrance of this man distracted Brendon long enough to give Alex a much-needed break. The man crossed the room to greet Brendon and then turned to Alex, he walked over and introduced himself.

"Hi, I’m Pallav, the History teacher."

"It’s nice to meet you, I’m Alex. I’ll be teaching one of the Latin classes," Alex explained.

Alex was still thoroughly shaken up and it must’ve come through in his voice because Pallav smiled kindly before returning to talk with Brendon. Alex snuck away and decided to read for a moment to calm his nerves. After a few more new faces entered the room, it was time for the meeting to begin.

Alex quickly identified Ben, as Brendon said his name with ample contempt. He had light brown hair, cut with short sides and an angular fringe, and a soft, kind smile. Alex felt bad for Ben for it became abundantly clear Brendon had a strong dislike of him, but knew that if he stuck his neck out in the moment, very little would come of it besides more pain for himself. He could always talk to Ben after the meeting.

By the time the meeting was over, it was nearly five pm, meaning it was time to lock the classroom and return home. Alex would have a lot to tell his roommates, he was sure, but he was thinking less about what he would tell Jeff and Andrew, and more about Saturday.

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