Isaac had been very good at not thinking about his professors and their private life all day and he had been looking forward to a fun evening, hanging out with Danny and showing him more of the wonders of the night sky. But of course, stargazing brought them back to Professor Hale. But maybe Danny could at least help him with the question if the professor might not be as straight as Isaac had thought. Danny wasn't taking his class but he must have seen him around campus.
"What makes you think that?" Danny asked back. Just like last time his priority was the coffee while Isaac was setting up the telescope.
So Isaac told him how he'd seen Hale with another man at the coffee shop. He left out Allison's reaction, that was a whole different can of worms he did not intend to open right now, but he did mention that Allison knew the other guy.
"Dunno, man." Isaac sat down on the blanket. "According to Allison they have the same last name, they are close in age, and they seemed to have some kind of private conversation."
"Since Allison seems to know them you probably should ask her," Danny pointed out the most obvious solution.
"Haven't seen her since," Isaac said. Not that he'd tried to get in contact with her. Was it really important enough to bother her with this? Isaac didn't want to bring back memories or whatever just for his own curiosity.
"So, Professor Hale," Isaac brought them back on track. "What do you think? Straight or not?"
"If he's gay, he's not flaunting it around," Danny said diplomatically.
"Thanks, I figured that out myself." Isaac threw up his hands but then he turned to the telescope. They were here for a reason and at the moment no clouds were blocking the view, they should make use of that.
"You're in his class," Danny reminded him. "If he's mentioned a husband or a wife you're the one who should know. If he mentioned neither, it's none of your business."
Isaac didn't have to look at him to know that he was grinning. Nobody was taking this seriously. Scott had called him obsessed and if Scott noticed something like that, it had to be bad. He and Allison had been at the coffee shop with Isaac but they hadn't seen the two Hales interacting. It almost felt as if the universe was playing some kind of joke on him, putting him in the right time and place to witness things the others completely missed.
"Okay, what are we looking at tonight?" Danny pulled him out of his thoughts.
Isaac showed Danny more of the night sky but he would have to look up more online, it had been too long to remember all the things there were to see. Maybe he could ask Professor Hale to give him some pointers. The other day the professor had mentioned that he went out to stargaze regularly. In his mind, Isaac started to make a list of things he wanted to ask the professor on Wednesday. He would have loved to add more personal questions, though. Not that he would dare to ask them so he kept his list strictly on the stargazing topic.
Isaac came back to the dorm at three in the morning. He wasn't the only one getting home at this time of the night, and for sure he was not the last one, but he was the only sober one. He dodged a group of people who tried to get him to join them in some after-party partying but he was not in the mood for that. He'd spent the night outside and even if it wasn't that chilly, he felt cold to the bone. And stiff. Next time he should bring one of those foldable chairs.
Isaac did a half-assed job at brushing his teeth before he crawled under the covers. Scott wasn't home either, most likely he was staying over at Allison's, so at least Isaac didn't have to worry about waking his roommate. Out in the park, he'd almost been dozing off but now he was too wired to just drift off to sleep. Besides, it would take a while until the warmth would seep into his body and he doubted that he would be able to sleep before that. But tomorrow was Sunday and Isaac had made sure that he would be able to sleep in so he didn't stress over it and just drew the blanket up to his nose and closed his eyes.
He woke up when Scott stumbled in at seven in the morning.
"What the fuck, man?" Isaac groaned and pulled the blanket over his head to block out the light and the noises.
"Sorry," Scott whispered way too loud. "Allison had to get up early because of that tournament."
It took Isaac way too long to remember that Allison had an archery thing going on today.
"Why are you not with her?" Isaac asked from under the blanket but he knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. "As her boyfriend shouldn't you cheer her on from the sidelines? Instead of waking me?"
"I have work today," Scott said, now rummaging in his closet. "Lydia's with her."
On the weekends Scott helped out at a local vet clinic but why he hadn't brought a change of clothes over to Allison's place to go to work from there was beyond Isaac. They both could have slept longer that way.
Scott left the room about ten minutes later but by then Isaac was wide awake. When the door fell shut behind Scott, Isaac dared to peek out from under the covers to make sure that his friend was truly gone, and then he waited for a few minutes more to make sure that he wasn't coming back because he had forgotten something.
With a huff, Isaac stretched out, and with the blanket down to his chest he folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. He was still tired but wide awake at the same time, stupid Scott.
Isaac stayed in bed for another half an hour but then he rolled out of bed. A hot shower later he felt somewhat human again but it was still way too early for a Sunday morning.
After a rude awakening like this, he deserved something good for breakfast. And coffee, he needed some good, hot coffee. There was this bakery not far away and just thinking about the baked goods, made Isaac's mouth water. Besides, aside from the snacks Danny had brought for their night out, Isaac hadn't eaten in way too long.
With his hands in his pockets, Isaac walked the short distance to the bakery. It wasn't much more than a hole in the wall but it was kind of an insider's tip among students. This early on a Sunday morning they shouldn't be sold out of the good stuff which was the only perk of being up and about at this time of the day. Still grumbling about Scott, Isaac entered the store.
Isaac ordered his coffee and then he was just looking at all the donuts and other baked goods. One was looking more delicious than the next and his brain was not in decision-making mode just yet. Like predicted he was the only customer in the store and the lady behind the counter just told him to take his time with a warm smile so he didn't feel too bad for not knowing what he wanted.
Of course, that was when somebody did come into the store.
Since he was still waiting for his coffee anyway, Isaac stepped aside to let the other person go first.
Isaac hadn't taken his eyes off the donuts but when the man stepped past him with a thank you, he noticed the familiar face.
He must have made a surprised noise because the man glanced over at him with a questioning look. Isaac hurried to get his features under control but for a moment he was openly staring at the man Allison had identified as Peter Hale. This was the third time Isaac had seen him but never before had they been this close.
"Do I know you?" Peter asked and turned to fully face him. He narrowed his eyes on him as if he was wondering where to put his face.
"No." Isaac shook his head and fought the urge to scratch the back of his head in a nervous gesture. He was acting more than suspicious already and it was not helping that the guy was pinning him down with a hard look.
"No, I don't think we met," Isaac forced himself to say without looking him in the eye. "I'm a student at the university, maybe you've seen me around?" He was rambling but he couldn't help it. The guy was unnerving. Silently Isaac was praying that he didn't remember his face from the restroom at the Jungle. They had looked directly at each other back then but he hoped that the guy had been too busy with getting it on with Professor Stilinski to remember a random dude who'd happened to be washing his hands when they had stumbled in.
The man didn't believe him, that much was obvious, but after a long second, he shrugged it off and turned back to the cashier to place his order. Three large coffees and an assorted box of a dozen donuts.
The three coffee did throw off Isaac, he couldn't help but wonder who those were for. Hale and Stilinski or somebody else entirely? Pretending that he was still looking at the donuts in the glass case Isaac had a closer look at the man. There wasn't anything remarkable about him. A neat goatee, a white v-neck under a dark jacket, and jeans. Somebody to glance over without noticing him. But he held himself with confidence and those eyes …
Those eyes were cold and calculating. The man had looked at Isaac as if he wasn't just trying to figure out if they had met before, no, he'd looked at him as if he wanted to assess if Isaac was a threat. Isaac didn't want to know what he would do if this guy determined that he indeed was a threat.
The man paid for his stuff and without another word or even looking at Isaac, he left the store.
"What a creep," Isaac muttered under his breath. He got his coffee and more donuts than he could possibly eat but he felt like he'd earned them.
Scott would come home from work hungry, he could feed him the rest.
Back in his room, Isaac set up his laptop with his coffee and the box of donuts within easy reach. Munching on the first one while his laptop slowly woke up, he needed a new one at some point, he thought about that guy. Peter Hale.
The other day he'd not dared to google his name, he'd kind of feared that he might find something regarding Allison but now Isaac said fuck it. He'd run into him too often by now, he wanted some answers.
Besides, he'd given him some bad vibes. Isaac was most likely exaggerating but he couldn't shake off the feeling that Peter Hale was dangerous. And not in a dumb bully kind of dangerous.
If Isaac was on the radar of some mobster, he would like to know. Especially if he'd caught him cheating. He might be lucky and Peter would never remember where he'd seen him before but he didn't count on it.
So Isaac stuffed the rest of the donut into his mouth, liked the powdered sugar off his fingers, and typed Peter Hale into the search bar.
Sipping his coffee, Isaac scrolled through the results to get a feeling for what he was seeing here. The first things popping up were decades old, something about a house fire? He had to scroll down quite a bit to find newer results.
"Okay, Mister Hale." He returned to the top of the page and clicked on a link. "Who are you?"
