pro·pi·tious adjective
giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorably disposed toward someone
Chapter 6
The day of the preview event finally arrives.
Alder doesn't seem that nervous about it, but Cheren sure is. First impressions are important. He doesn't sleep much the night before, and Alder gives him a knowing look as he walks into the kitchen in the morning.
"Here," Alder says, immediately shoving a cup of coffee into his hands.
"Thanks," he mumbles, and sits down at the bar. The milk and sugar are already out, and he adds his usual amount. Once Cheren's feeling slightly more alive, he gets up and looks in the cupboard. "Did you eat already?" he asks Alder, without turning around.
"Sorta."
Cheren makes a noncommittal noise and grabs a Poptart. He's pretty sure he can't stomach anything else at the moment.
Burgh somehow beats them there. He gets up from where he's sitting on the step outside the door and waves as they approach. "Morning. You ready for this?"
"As ready as we'll ever be, I guess," Cheren answers, as Alder unlocks the door.
"Everything will be fine," Burgh reassures him. "You've worked hard for this."
He hopes so.
They go in, and Cheren sits down at his desk near the front. He'll be playing receptionist for today and however long it takes for Alder to find someone else for the job. He taps his foot nervously and wishes he had brought more coffee with him. He gets back up and announces that he's going to the cafe down the street. They have some time before it officially starts, even if people show up early.
"Do you guys want anything?" he asks on his way out.
"Nah."
He walks the couple blocks slowly, hands shoved in his jacket pockets, trying to calm down. The cafe door jingles as he enters. Luckily they're not too busy. It's late enough in the morning that he's missed the rush.
Cheren orders his coffee and stands off to the side as he waits. One of the guys behind the counter, who's waited on him a couple times before, gets his attention.
"Do you work at that new school that's opening up?" he asks, looking interested. "I've seen you over there on my way home."
"Ah… yeah," Cheren confirms, caught a little off guard by the recognition.
"Cool," the guy smiles. "My kid is really interesting in going. I might bring him over later."
"Oh?" Cheren says, surprised. "That'd be great. We'll be there until about 8 I think." His coffee appears on the counter with his name on the cup, and he takes it.
"Then I'm sure we'll be by."
Cheren nods and heads back to the school, suddenly feeling much more optimistic. If nothing else, at least one person will show up. Maybe.
Alder glances at him when he walks back in and raises his eyebrows. "You look much happier than you were 5 minutes ago."
He just shrugs and sets his cup down on his desk, looking at his watch. Still a while to go.
Several hours later, Cheren is overwhelmed.
They've had at least a dozen sign ups already, and several more parents are lined up at his desk. He focuses on taking their information as quickly as possible, though it's difficult when they keep asking questions.
"So Alder will be teaching all the classes?" the woman he's currently helping asks.
"Yes," he confirms for the second time, typing in her child's name. He hands her a class schedule, and she finally walks away so he can move on to the next person.
The first group is completely full, and the second one is getting there by the time Cheren gets a break. He sighs and rubs his forehead as the last of the line walks away. He's getting a headache. He feels a hand on his shoulder, and he glances up.
"I can take over for a while," Burgh says, smiling down at him. "Good job."
"... Alright," he agrees. He gives Burgh a brief rundown of what to do and makes his escape.
Cheren considers slipping into Alder's preview class, but when he peeks in the room, it's packed. He goes outside instead to get away from people for a few minutes, sitting on a nearby bench and closing his eyes. This is going to be a long day. He just hopes everything they've done will be worth it.
Finally he decides he better head back. There's a line again when he walks back in. Cafe guy is there, and Cheren smiles at him when he catches his eye.
Once things finally start dying down, Cheren decides it's safe to leave his desk. There's only a couple people still hanging around in the main room, and they appear to be heading out. He gets up and turns around, noticing Burgh standing by the doorway to the classroom, watching something. He goes over to him and looks in. The room's empty other than Alder talking to some woman.
"Who is that?" he asks Burgh, curious when he realizes she looks somewhat familiar for some reason.
"That's Alder's ex-wife."
"Oh," Cheren says, suddenly feeling uneasy.
Alder notices them standing there and waves them over. Cheren wonders if it would be rude to refuse, but Burgh pushes him along.
"It's nice to see you again," Burgh tells her. His voice sounds a little fake, but maybe Cheren is imagining things.
"Likewise," she says, before glancing at Cheren questioningly.
Cheren opens his mouth to attempt to introduce himself, but Alder beats him to it. "This is Cheren. He's been helping me out. Cheren, this is my ex-wife, Mary."
Recognition flashes across her face. "Ah, I see. Alder's talked about you before. I didn't realize you lived in Castelia…"
Cheren shakes her hand and smiles hesitantly. "It's a fairly recent development."
She nods. "Well, I need to be going," she tells Alder, before glancing back to Cheren. "It was nice to meet you. And good to see you, Burgh."
"You too," Cheren says, before she walks out of the room, heels clicking on the hard floor. He turns to Alder and raises his eyebrows.
"She's in town visiting her sister and happened to see one of the fliers," he explains, shrugging. "Not really sure why she came by though."
"Huh," is all Cheren says.
"Well, shall we clean up?" Burgh asks. "It's getting pretty late."
"Let's just leave it for tomorrow."
Cheren gives Alder an exasperated look but can't bring himself to disagree. "I guess we might as well," he admits.
"Fine with me," Burgh agrees.
When they walk back through the main room, everyone's finally gone. Cheren cuts off the lights, and they head out. They stand on the sidewalk while Alder searches for the keys to lock up.
"What time should I come by tomorrow?" asks Burgh. "I should be done at the gym after 12 or so."
"You don't need to do that," Alder protests, patting his pocket and finally pulling his ring of keys out. "Today was more than enough."
"I'll be here anyway. We can go out to dinner after? You two will be free for the next few days, right?"
"Pretty much," Cheren says. At this point, all that's left to do is wait.
"Then it's decided."
Alder finishes locking the door and turns around, shaking his head at his persistence. "Fine, we'll see you tomorrow then. Whenever you can get here is fine. No need to push yourself."
"Alright." Burgh agrees.
They get a couple blocks, and then Burgh has to head off the other way. Cheren waves goodbye as he walks off. As he watches him go, it suddenly occurs to him how much he actually likes Burgh. Who would've guessed.
He and Alder are halfway home when Alder suddenly slings an arm around his shoulder. Cheren jumps, startled, and looks up.
"Thanks for today," Alder says, staring down at him. "It went pretty well, right?"
Cheren scoffs. "Pretty well? Yeah, I'd say so. You're more popular than I thought."
"Well, I don't want to sound too full of myself." He laughs, the sound ringing down the empty sidewalks.
"I never did get to go spy on your class. How was that? You're almost a real teacher now."
"Hmm," Alder thinks aloud. "It was fun?"
"Good."
Alder doesn't remove his arm until they get home. Cheren can't bring himself to push him away.
Cheren's sweeping the classroom when Burgh shows up the next day. He's not sure how it ended up such a mess after a single day, but he supposes he'll be doing a lot of this in the future.
"I'm here," Burgh announces, poking his head through the doorway. "Sorry I'm late. What do you want me to do?"
Cheren glances around. He's pretty much done here. "I think Alder's still finishing up upstairs?"
"Alright," Burgh says, disappearing.
The two come back down after Cheren's finished cleaning up. He glances up from where he's emptying the dust pan. "Done already?"
"Yeah, it wasn't too bad," Alder says, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "You might have to fix your bookshelf though."
He groans. "Already?"
Burgh gives them a confused look.
"They have to be in alphabetical order," Alder clarifies.
"Ah," he says, looking amused. "Good luck with that one."
"Thanks," Cheren responds dryly. He puts the broom and pan away in the corner. "I'm done too, I guess. Where're we going?"
Burgh takes them to some restaurant Cheren's never heard of, but it's obvious from the outside just what kind of place it is.
"This looks… fancy," he says, hesitating as Burgh holds the door open for them.
"A little," he admits. "But we're celebrating, and I'm paying. Come on."
Cheren sighs and reluctantly goes in. He hangs back around the door next to Alder while Burgh gets them a table.
"Right this way," the hostess says after a moment, waiting for them to follow her.
She leads them to their table, and Cheren almost stops dead in his tracks when he realizes who's sitting right next to them.
"Oh. Hello," Alder's ex-wife says, glancing up. Mary, Cheren reminds himself.
The woman across from her turns around and looks past Cheren, eyes lighting up. "Alder."
He supposes this must be the sister. There's definitely a resemblance.
The hostess is about to set their menus down when the sister waves her hand to stop her. "Why don't you just join us?" she suggests cheerfully, gesturing towards their table.
Definitely not, Cheren thinks.
"Sure," Alder says.
Cheren turns around and gives him an incredulous look, but it's already too late. The hostess is already placing their menus on the other table.
He makes sure to sit as far away as possible, using Burgh as a buffer between him and the sister. Alder sits down across from them next to Mary. Cheren sighs and stares down at his menu. He suddenly wants to go home.
Alder introduces them to Mary's sister while they wait to order. Cheren doesn't catch her name over the noise in the restaurant. He doesn't particularly care anyway. He only hopes he'll never need it.
The waitress finally comes by, and Cheren glances up at her to give his order. She moves to the other end of the table, and he takes the opportunity to whisper to Burgh while the others are distracted.
"How did this happen?"
He leans over, looks almost as dismayed as Cheren feels. "I am genuinely sorry," he apologizes. The sister says something to him, and he turns back around, pasting a smile on his face.
Cheren stays out of the conversation. Their food arrives eventually, and he picks at it. Food at fancy restaurants like this always seems strange to him. He's only half paying attention when the subject turns to the school.
"It seems like things went well yesterday, from what I saw," Mary says.
Alder smiles at that. "It was great. Mostly thanks to Cheren and Burgh of course," he says, nodding at them.
This seems to remind them that Cheren exists, and Mary glances at him from across the table. "So how did you end up involved in this project, Cheren?" she asks. "If I recall, you were a gym leader in Aspertia…"
"Oh. Um," he stalls, trying to think of a way to explain. "I quit the gym a while ago. I was in the city and just happened to run into Alder one day, and that was it," he shrugs. "I didn't have anything else going on at the time, so I figured I'd help out."
"I see," she says. "Then you've moved here?"
He hesitates. "At least for the time being."
"He's staying with me," Alder clarifies.
She seems taken aback by that and gives Cheren a strange look "Is he?"
There's an awkward pause, and Burgh quickly changes the subject. "How long are you in town for, Mary?"
"I'm not too sure yet," she says. She seems unwilling to elaborate, so her sister does it for her.
"She just split up with her fiancé, so I insisted she come stay with me for a while." Mary shoots her sister an annoyed look, but she seems undeterred and continues anyway. "He was awful! I knew it wouldn't work out."
"Oh stop. He was fine," Mary argues.
"He was not! If you ask me, you should've stayed with Alder."
Cheren freezes. Wasn't the purpose of the divorce mainly so she could get remarried? If she isn't, then… He looks at Alder, but his expression is unreadable. Cheren swallows nervously.
"Knock it off," Mary says, sounding irritated.
"Fine..."
The atmosphere is strained after that. Cheren stares down at his plate, not eating. Finally Burgh asks Mary what their plans are for the next week and gets the conversation going again.
"We might go see a couple shows in Nimbasa. I don't come around this way often, so I'd like to make the best of it while I'm here."
"Oh yes, you definitely should," Burgh agrees. "That's my favorite thing about living in this area. Which ones are you thinking of seeing?"
"We're still trying to decide. There's a few that seem interesting."
"You all ought to come with us," her sister interjects. She smiles at Alder, making her intentions blatantly clear.
"That's not really my thing…" he laughs, seemingly oblivious.
"I'm sure you'd still enjoy it."
Cheren suddenly stands up and excuses himself, feeling ill. Burgh gives him a concerned look. "Bathroom," he mumbles.
He heads to the back of the restaurant trying to find it, finally having to ask a waitress. She points him in the right direction, and he goes in and locks the door behind him, leaning against it.
Damn.
What would he even do if Alder got back with his wife? He'd be out of the picture, that's for sure. He wouldn't need Cheren to help him anymore, and he definitely couldn't live with them. He suddenly realizes that he's taken his current situation very much for granted.
He breathes in, trying to calm down. There's no reason to assume that would happen. Alder told him they were separated long before they even got divorced.
Cheren composes himself and goes back to the table. The waitress is handing Burgh the check when he slips back into his seat.
"Feeling okay?" Alder asks him.
"I'm fine."
They manage to leave the restaurant without further incident. Mary and her sister say goodbye as soon as they get outside and head off into the night.
"Well," Burgh says, once the two are out of earshot. "That was interesting."
Interesting is one word for it.
It's still fairly early when Cheren and Alder get back home.
"Want to watch a movie or something?" Alder asks once they're settled in the living room.
"I guess." Cheren shrugs. He tosses him the remote halfheartedly.
Alder has to lean forward to catch it. He looks at him for a moment but doesn't say anything, turning to the tv and settling on something random.
Cheren slumps on the couch, picking up one of the spare cushions and hugging it in his lap. He isn't really paying attention to the movie at all, still feeling unsettled from what happened at the restaurant. Even though he knows very well that he's probably overreacting, he can't seem to help it. It's ridiculous, actually.
About halfway through, he gives up. "I'm going to sleep," he tells Alder, standing up.
"Okay…" Alder says, sounding unsure. "Goodnight then."
He goes to his room, shutting the door behind him and throwing himself onto his bed. He doesn't bother turning the light on.
Damn it, he thinks, for the second time that night, face smashed in the pillow.
Notes: Not much to say here this time. Editing of chapter 7 is in progress, and I hope to have it out next week. Happy Valentine's Day!
