I own nothing except Scouser, Geordie, Kieran and Archie.
Please review!
Chapter 11
Archie strolled through the hallways, making sure to go to the toilet to make sure Regina's red lipstick hadn't smudged on his face. He rubbed it off and went to class, there were twenty minutes left before class started. As he walked outside, putting a cigarette to his lips and lighting it, he pulled his phone out.
TeachersPet: Ruby you in class today?
Wolfgirl: Yeah two seconds away from Starbucks
TeachersPet: Grab me a PSL with two extra shots, please?
Wolfgirl: got it, babe!
TeachersPet: Thanks babe x
Archie took a long drag from his cigarette and stared out at the grey sky and exhaled as the smoke danced in the wind. Staring out at the sky he heard the breeze whistling around, the murmurings of people who walk by and the swirling of rustling leaves. Once he finished his cigarette and threw the bud away and walked to the class, checking the time as he did so. Twelve minutes left of waiting.
He opened the door to the lecture hall, catching the eye of Ruby.
"Alright teacher's pet, you look like shit." Ruby all but shouted, catching the attention of their professor and a few other students.
"Cheers for that melt." Archie laughed and walked over to Ruby, sitting down next to her in the middle row. It was different to where he normally sat at the front. He grabbed the to-go cup from Ruby and took a sip from the cup.
"I noticed you cleaned the living room," Ruby told him, pulling out her laptop from her bag.
Archie rolled his eyes and grabbed his MacBook and started it up, pulling up a new word document. Taking a gulp of his coffee and typed up the title of 'lesson three' before leaning back in his chair and looking at the board. "That's because you lot do fuck all in cleaning."
Ruby put her hand on her chest and faked a wounded expression. "Fuck off, I don't even eat at home."
Archie rolled his eyes. "That's a fucking lie."
"Mr McCall, Miss Lucas, language!" Professor Mills asserted, giving the duo a pointed look. Almost bordering on the scalding glare.
"Sorry Professor Mills." The two grumbled and sat dejectedly.
Soon the class filled up with people and Archie picked up his MacBook and propped his feet up on his table and placed his laptop on his legs. He ignored Ruby's snort and refused to look up at the more than likely scalding glare that was aimed at him.
The lesson started and Professor Mills went around the class, talking about the importance to capture the audience within a few lines. She gave the prompt of 'The future.' and told the class to write a short story, poem, screenplay - anything.
The class was silent except for the keyboard strokes and pencils scribbling on paper notebooks. There was tapping on the table from the pencils. There was a tense atmosphere that hung in the air, and the stress leaked out onto more students.
Professor Mills cleared her throat after half an hour and everyone looked up at her. "Let's share, I'll pick a few people to read out part of what they have."
Everyone seemed to shrink behind their desks, it was still the first week of university and no one wanted to be judged that early in the year by their peers. No one held their hands up to be picked but that wouldn't matter to Regina, if she wanted to read, then you would read.
"Mr McCall." Regina suddenly spoke, a twisted smirk on her lips as she looked at the young Brit who still had his legs on his table.
"Hello, Professor Mills," Archie replied, smirking back at her. It wouldn't be easy to get him to read and she would know that.
Regina shook her head. "What have you written?"
"I wrote a poem, I thought I'd push myself," Archie told her, positioning himself to sit a bit more upright in his seat as he shuffled his laptop on his lap.
There was silence and Regina gave him a pointed look. "Read it out, Mr McCall."
"I'm shy." Archie deadpanned with no emotion behind his voice, tilting the screen back slightly to be able to read it clearly.
Regina placed her hands on her hips, her mouth in a straight line as she waited. There were a few snickers from around the room.
"This is called A stream of words spat into a logical order in a tale of the Great Time War." Archie began, speaking clearly and without a stutter as his eyes worked along the lines.
"They gave us two days warning,
The men in useless grey boxes.
Kieran and I had planned ahead, we had masks.
Enough food to last five days.
By then, mother was clearly infected.
Mother is gone,
Her birthing day was two days ago, that was gone like a whirlpool of ashes.
No more birthday candles on a made-with-love cake.
A mask fiercely strapped to my face,
Get to Kieran. Don't stop.
Seconds ticked by, minutes poured into hours,
We needed not the concept anymore; we're to be dead within a week.
3:21 am, 25th July 2019.
Bloodied bodies against flaking cement walls.
Get to Kieran. Don't stop.
It wasn't like on big screens; you can't isolate yourself.
You couldn't hide from these monsters; once they were inside you
You were dead.
Insanity. The first symptom.
Disembodied men, screeching; blood-curdling
Enough to kill anyone. Turn them insane.
Failure of organs… heart attacks, the breaking of your system.
All systems down; dying.
Bones feeling like shattering glass like the hollow cars on concrete pools.
Mother had heart disease; it was worse for her.
I left her.
Bound tightly against a chair, fearing that she'd rip my mind.
I left her; reluctantly.
But I had gone.
Get to Kieran.
Don't. Stop."
Archie looked up as silence filled the air, eyes staring at him as he spoke with a confidence no one had seen him with before. Ruby's mouth was slightly agape.
"Fucking hell Archie," Ruby stated and there were a few chuckles that sounded around the lecture hall. "You need to calm down."
"I will never be calmed," Archie told her, a grin on his face.
"Miss Lucas, language," Regina started with a pointed look in her direction. She nodded to Archie, a small smile on her face and Archie felt himself swell with pride. "Very nice Mr McCall. Captivating and good work on using the prompt. Miss Taylor, you're next."
The rest of the lesson was spent with Professor Mills once again stressing the importance of when writing stories to captivate the reader and to make sure there was a plot when writing a story. After telling everyone to write the notes that were shown on the board she walked around the room collecting the assignments from each student.
When her scent of vanilla and musky wood infiltrated his senses and he looked up at the woman who held her hand out. "Feet off my desk please Mr McCall." The woman's voice was deep and husky, the stern tone she took with him wasn't to be messed with.
Archie reached into his bag without taking his eyes off the woman and pulled the summary out from his bag and handed it to her.
Regina raised an eyebrow. "Feet off the desk." The tone was firmer this time, she didn't take the summary from him.
Archie sighed and moved, taking his feet off the desk and putting his MacBook on the desk with one hand as he held out the summary to the professor with the other.
Regina took the summary from the young man and looked over it as she stood in front of the Brit. "This is looking promising, Mr McCall."
"Thank you, Professor Mills." The young man murmured to her and picked up his forgotten coffee, swirled it around and took a gulp of the now stone cold coffee. When The woman moved to the next person, Ruby who gave her a page of a large font.
Regina shot her a seething look, uttered no words and went to the next student. As she did so Archie positioned himself to have his legs on the desk once more with the laptop on his lap as he finished typing up the rest of his notes.
There were soft murmurs when everyone had finished the notes and then finally Regina spoke. "Good work today everyone, for your weekend assignment I want you to edit and refine your first assignment. Any questions? No? Good. You're dismissed."
People began packing away and Archie yawned, slowly moving to put his laptop in its bag and get up from the desk.
"Geordie's giving me a lift home, coming?" Ruby asked him, shoving her notebook haphazardly into her bag.
"Sorry Rubes, I've got English Lit but I need to find professor Nolan to withdraw and then assistant duties," Archie explained, rubbing his eyes but this time rather than in frustration it was in a way to stay awake.
"You're dropping English Lit?" Ruby asked him, hopping on the desk behind her.
"No, I thought I'd make something up and tell you a lie." The young man deadpanned. "Yes, I'm dropping lit."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "You're cranky when you're sleep deprived."
"I'll become murderous if you throw a party tonight," Archie told her, throwing his bag over his shoulder and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh come on, you know as much as I do that you need to get wasted and fuck some drunk chick."
"Ruby, I am going home after my job as an assistant, and I am going to sleep. I don't need to fuck a drunk chick, I am perfectly fine with how I am.
"You need to loosen up."
"No, I needed to make a good impression. Now, fuck off. I need to find Professor Nolan." Archie waved her away and rolled his eyes as he picked his phone up from the desk
"Is there a reason you were having a gossip session in my lecture hall, Archibald?"
Archie jumped at the deep voice that came from the olive-skinned goddess in front of him. "Fuck!" Archie held his hand on his chest and took a deep breath in order to not have a full on panic attack from the scare."Sweet baby Jesus, Regina you need to stop scaring me. Sorry, disoriented."
Regina let out a laugh, a beautiful melody of richness that only the most indulgent chocolate could hold. "So you're dropping English Literature?" With a raised brow, Regina interrogated him, as she leant on her desk.
Archie shrugged, closing his eyes. "Yeah, I can't deal with a double Major and minor." Copying her movements to lean against the desk. He looked down at the empty to-go cup that was held in an awkward position as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I just want to have a nap."
"Almost home time, we're leaving the office early tonight," Regina informed him, a smile over her lips. "I'm meeting Professor Nolan for coffee in ten minutes, she should be in Starbucks."
"Arr, you're a star. Thank you. For both pieces of information." Archie beamed at her. "Also gives me an excuse to down two double espressos."
"Try not to drink too much coffee," Regina suggested and picked up her laptop. As she did so she saw Archie come to her desk, she looked up to see him picking up the stack of papers that had been on the desk. "Thank you." The words were uttered softly and she saw him smile at her.
"What kind of assistant would I be if I didn't help you?" Archie told her, a playful smirk etched over his face as he followed her out.
Regina had a powerful strut, she walked through hallways and the students parted like the red sea, the look that dared people to defy her was prominent on her features. Her mouth set in a thin line as she made her way through the red sea of students.
When they finally arrived at the Professor's office and when she unlocked it, Archie waited for her to walk in before he entered. He made his way to the desk and placed the stack of papers neatly on the desk.
"So I heard from your gossip session you're having a party," Regina stated, setting her own laptop on her desk.
"More like they're having a party and I'm going to have a shot of tequila in my room to knock myself out," Archie confessed. "Don't get me wrong, I love to party, but I'm exhausted and I don't plan on joining them"
"Do you have a habit of 'fucking drunk chicks' Mr McCall?" Regina asked and there was something that Archie couldn't place in her eyes. Was the woman jealous? Whatever professional relationship they had was no more after the moment they shared after dinner and what had happened only hours before. At least outside of the lecture hall, where they had creative writing classes.
Archie scoffed. "I'd like to think you had more faith in me to not be so crass," Archie told her and looked around before chucking his empty to-go cup into a nearby bin. "No, I don't. As much as I loathe to admit it, I haven't had sex in two years."
After his messy break up with his ex where he had ended up in the hospital that made his long-term friends, Scouser and Kieran visit him - Scouser had lived in Liverpool so the four-hour train journey to see him was something he would cherish for a long time - Archie hadn't had sex. He didn't like the idea and hadn't been ready to give himself so freely to someone else for a long time.
Whatever the Professor was expecting, it wasn't that, having heard that Archie had been out of the toxic and abusive relationship two years ago she came to her own conclusion that whatever happened was the reason behind why he hadn't had sex with someone in two years.
They looked at each other with a mutual look, one that said they understood each other. Regina nodded to the young man, it was agreed upon that they wouldn't speak about it until Archie was ready.
Regina picked up her blazer from her swivel chair, throwing it on she began walking to the door. "Come along dear, I have a friend to see and you have an addiction to feed," Regina smirked, strutting her way to the door and holding it open for the young man who walked out without much of a fuss or hesitation.
