Location, Location, Location
"As you know, midterms are coming up next week and then off you kids go to Thanksgiving break, two weeks later." Erik lectured to his class as he leaned on his desk. Half of them nodded and half of them were asleep. He hated Monday morning classes. "It's strange to think that it's already October." Erik mused to himself, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Have you already written the midterm, Teacher?" Erik tapped his nose with a warm smile, pointing to the young brunette in the second row, earning a more than flirtatious giggle.
"Yes I have! Let's take some time to talk about the midterm, shall we?" His students groaned harmoniously. Turning towards the desk, he grabbed a stack of papers and began to hand a pile to each person in the front of the row. "Take one and pass it down, kids. This is your midterm study guide. I'm not saying that these topics will not be on the midterm, I'm not saying that they will be on the midterm. I would just go over the study guide copiously and diligently if I were you." Raoul de Chagny scratched his head at the unfamiliar vocabulary words. As the students began flipping through the study guides, Erik noticed that Christine had not opened her guide.
"Teacher?" Another girl asked rather loudly.
"Yes, Ms. Lee?" Erik focused his attention towards her, tilting his head from side to side, just for the fun of it.
"Will we have to memorize any of the passages from the three books we've read?" Erik shook his head rapidly like a child. With a grin, he walked back up to his desk.
"No, ma'am. I will provide everything you will need. All you need to bring is your pretty little self and what you suppose you'll be using to analyze quotes, passages, characters, character arcs, time periods... You know, all that jazz." Erik had met eyes with Christine, smiling towards her direction. "All you'll need to bring... Is yourself." He breathed out as he watched the green eyes beauty chew on her pen.
"Is the midterm-" Erik's phone went off, making the students happier than he usually sees them. He repeated the importance of the study guides as he gathered his belongings, making sure he locked the classroom door behind him. Turning around, he was met with big brown eyes and batting eyelashes.
"Hi, Professor Lantier!" A very giddy voice chirped up, waving at Erik. The masked man was startled, stumbling backwards into the door.
"Ms. Cooper, how can I help you?" His voice was smooth as he ushered her into the hallway, beginning to walk with the five foot six brunette girl. She was hyper, an average student. She tested well, but almost never did her homework. If it wasn't for her excellent test taking skills, she probably wouldn't be passing his class.
"I was just wondering about your, uh, midterm, sir." She nodded slightly, clinging to her books.
"What about it?" He opened the door for her, leading down the narrow stairwell. "Is there a subject about it that you are having difficulty with, Ms. Cooper?"
"Ummmmm... I know that I have a decent grade, but for some reason I'm really nervous about the midterm." She began, flitting down the stairs. "I'm not that good at writing essays... Well, you would know that... You read my essays and mark them up a lot..." She was blushing. Erik exhaled nervously, opening the next door for her that leaded out to the quad.
"You test well, my dear. You shouldn't have a problem with the midterm." He reassured her, glancing at his watch. "How about I meet with you after class this week and we can talk about your essay writing? I must go to my music theory class, but I would love to help you if you're feeling worried about your essay." Erik smiled widely, patting her on the shoulder. The girl beamed up at the teacher, her brown eyes glittering in the California sun.
"Oh! That would be marvelous, thank you!" She clapped excitedly, holding out her hand. "I'll see you tomorrow, Teacher." Erik let out a small laugh, shaking her hand. As she left, Erik turned around and made his way across the large quad. Finally reaching the A. Giry's Music Hall, he smiled to himself, knowing that music theory was his favorite class. Making his way to the third floor, he unlocked his classroom and began preparing for his next class, which started in twenty minutes. Soon, the vibration in his phone interrupted his routine preparations.
"Erik Lantier." He spoke into the phone, completely distracted by the sheet music in front of him.
"Erik, it's Bailey!" She screamed into the phone, more excited than anything. He smiled slightly, placing the phone atop the piano. Putting the phone on speaker, he continued to organized his notes. "Guess what?!" She screamed again.
"You won the lottery?" He replied with a dry tone.
"Ha ha, very funny. No, this is better than the lottery!" Erik nodded, marking down something on the sheet music in front of him, totally devoid of his fiancées elation.
"Go on, dear." He flatly responded, engulfed in his music. With a pause, his fiancée took a deep breath and announced a breaking story that he should have been happier hearing, but something within him just made his response quite linear.
"You know the location we wanted for our wedding; the one with the beautiful view that was going to take another two years to get, but we decided on the church instead, because we didn't want to wait?" Erik hummed along, grazing his fingertips over the white keys in harmony. "Well..." She paused in suspense. "We got the cliff side wedding, Erik!" She was clapping and, 'Woohoo-ing,' very loudly. "This one couple decided last minute to make their wedding a destination wedding and our planner called me this morning to tell us that we got the opening slot!"
"Wow, that's great, Bailey!" Erik smiled shortly, scratching his head in confusion at his student's work. "I'm glad that you'll finally have your dream wedding, my dear." Erik tried to sound more enthused, but he was multi-tasking, really. Thinking about Christine while grading 16 bar arias, while listening to his fiancée yelp about their cliff side wedding was more difficult than he thought it would be. "My class is going to start in seven minutes, dear. I'll call you afterwards?"
"Of course! I love you, Erik." She was full of joy, nothing more and nothing less.
"I love you too, dear." Erik shoved his phone in his brief case, finally focusing on his student's work. He was thoroughly disappointed with this week's homework. Was it so difficult to compose 16 bars of their own symphony? Erik rubbed his temples. "What is he doing putting this chord under this G sharp?! This is an andante not a legato!" Erik roared, trying his hardest not to rip out his hair. This was a simple assignment, really. He didn't understand why a group of audition-only students could not complete it to his standards.
"Excuse me... Are you Professor Lantier?" Erik's head jerked towards the door. He was sure he locked it. A tall man, only about two inches shorter than him stood in the doorway. He had blond hair, just like Bailey. His eyes were curious as he peered into the empty classroom. Erik took a deep breath, straightening out his shirt. With a nod, he approached the stranger.
"I am. May I ask who you might be?" Erik held out his hand for the man, only to be given a strange glare. "Or not..." Erik mumbled, pulling his hand back into his pocket.
"I am Aaron, Aaron Gershwin." He bowed awkwardly in front of Erik. He must be a foreigner. "I am here to sing for you, I hear you are a great composer."
"I am no composer, Mr. Gershwin. I'm just a professor here." Erik reassured him, trying to figure out what exactly was going on at the moment. "Maybe you are looking for a different professor?" He shook his head, fumbling for a piece of paper. Holding it out to Erik, Erik gently grabbed the paper from him.
"No, no. The lady sent me to look for you, Professor Lantier. She said you are a great composer and that you could help me with my singing." Erik eyed the paper. He knew that handwriting. Handing the paper back to the stranger, he cleared his throat.
"Who sent you here?" Erik asked curiously, catching eyes with one of his students. The man smiled widely, a smile Erik would know anywhere.
"Bailey LaFavre, my half sister." Erik's eyes went wide. "She said I could find you here."
"I didn't know Bailey had a brother." Erik said with skepticism. The boy tried to enter the classroom, but Erik swiftly moved to side blocking the doorway. No one was allowed into the sanctuary of music, besides the eight students and Erik himself. "Why do you want to sing for me?"
"I hear you are a great composer, I have listened to your past work. Erik eyed the man strangely, trying to get a grip on the situation at hand. "I am sorry to hear about your accident." The man glanced at the white mask, pointing to it with his index finger. "It is a shame that you stopped composing after your accident." Erik was beginning to get angry. "I hope you listen to this, I worked hard on putting together an audition tape. Until then, Professor Lantier." The man smiled, handing Erik a CD. Turning on his heel, he left Erik in the doorway. Soon, Erik's students began filling the sanctuary, looking at their instructor oddly. Silence fell over the room as Erik stood awkwardly at the piano with the CD in his hand.
"Professor?" Faith questioned, breaking the silence. Erik looked up and towards the tall African American. Dropping the CD to the ground, Erik stomped on it viciously, making his students flinch.
"If someone is to audition for me, they shall audition in the flesh." Erik nodded, proceeding to sit on the piano bench. Clearing his throat he began thinking about Aaron. "Does anybody know that boy?" The eight students shook their heads. Erik sighed in disappointment, grazing the keys with his fingertips. With a final nod, Erik cleared his head and pressed on middle C with a smile, a smile that could break a heart in seconds. "Shall we begin?"
Erik let out a huge sigh, moving his arm behind his head. He couldn't help, but think about Aaron. He hadn't told Bailey about what occurred almost three days ago. At this point, he probably would never tell her. Closing his eyes, he soon felt a smaller body rest upon his chest. She was warm, her sopping wet hair trickling down his torso. It cooled him down. With a long exhale, he opened one eye and smiled at the sight. "Hello, kitten."
"Hi, teacher." Christine turned over on her stomach, moving her leg on top of Erik's. She rested her chin on his sternum, making him inhale sharply. "Sorry." She giggled lightly, tracing swirls on his chest.
"I like Wednesdays." Erik murmured closing his eyes once again. "How was history class?"
"It was fine, I'm good at history. It's just memorizing what event goes with what name, easy stuff." Erik hummed happily, feeling Christine shift beneath him. "Tell me something, teacher... Educate me."
"What do you want to know?" Christine sat up revealing her very naked body. Erik couldn't help, but open his eyes and devour the sight.
"Where did you meet your fiancée?" Erik felt an awkward stirring in his stomach as he coughed slightly, trying to think of the answer. It was very difficult seeing that there was a naked Christine in front of him. "I mean does she do music like you do music?"
"I was very young, so was Bailey..." He began with an uneasy blink. Erik adjusted his mask, sitting up to clear his mind. "We met in college, you see. She was studying cosmetology and I was studying to be a music major, with a minor in English. I was at a different school than her, but she just so happen to be at the dermatology office I went to that day. She helped me with... My disfigurement." Erik shrugged his shoulders, looking at Christine whose expression he could not read. "She was kind to me, gentle. She did not judge me, she helped me. I guess we just bonded and next thing I knew... I proposed to her." Erik shrugged again, showing no sigh of enthusiasm. Erik was stoic, dispassionate by his story of finding love. Christine was thoroughly mystified at the way he illuminated his true aloof feelings towards his fiancée.
"How long did you two date before you proposed to her?" Christine tried to sound as interested as possible.
"Maybe four or five years on and off, I don't quite remember. I was in enrolled in two schools, striving to get my dual masters degree in Musical Eduaction - a MMEd - when I proposed to her." Christine sat in awe of him, the most brilliant man she had ever met. She thought to herself, 'What was a girl like Bailey LaFavre doing with someone like Erik?' Certainly he could have any woman in the world! "I was also trying to achieve my MA." Christine was stunned, floored.
"Jesus, Erik... How many degrees do you have?" Erik chuckled to himself, pulling the green eyed on top of him once more. Resting her body on his torso, she stared at her teacher in complete veneration. "Don't tell me you're a doctor, too." Gradually, a large grin appeared on his face.
"I received my Ph.D in Music Composition from NYU by the time I was 26-" Christine's jaw dropped as she shook her head in utter disbelief.
Her eyes were irradiated, sparkling; her smile radiant as ever. She covered her mouth with her tiny hands in incredulity, her excitement rising. She began viciously pointing at the masked man as he slowly began to blush. She suddenly realized that he was that man that everyone talked about four years ago, the man who had composed his first symphony by age five - a child prodigy. He when he finally shot to fortune and fame, something tragic happened to him and he disappeared and no one heard from him. He disappeared like a phantom in the shadows. Four years later, a man who bore a mask became a teacher a local university in California who had an uncanny resemblance to the phantom composer, but he denied it many times, over and over again. The teacher denied profusely that he was not the phantom composer, he was just a man, just a teacher. Suddenly, the rumors of the phantom composer disappeared and everyone seemed to forget about him, everyone but one person.
"Erik Lantier... Otherwise known as Kian Literré, your nom de plum." Erik nodded, placing his large hands on her waist. "I can't believe I'm sitting naked on top of the great Literré..." She breathed out, placing her hands on top of his chest in astonishment. "Does Bailey know about this?" He nodded once more.
"She helped me after the accident, I felt like we connected in some way. I needed to start over and she knew that too. She's been with me ever since then." Christine smiled softly, finally understanding the reason behind his indifference towards his engagement.
"How did you finish all this schooling in such a short amount of time? Usually a doctorate degree takes forever..." Christine pondered, trying to comprehend the genius that lay beneath her.
"I finished college in three years, I finished by the time I was twenty. I got my MMEd when I was twenty two, my MA the following winter. At twenty four, I received my masters in Music Theory and Composition. By the time I was twenty six, I had gotten my Ph.D. I love learning, I love school. I would have gone on, if it weren't for the accident." Erik's expression turned melancholy, his tone gravelly and dismal. He shook his head clear of the tragedy.
"How long have you been a teacher?" Christine yawned, her eyes growing sleepy. She was tired from the activities she and her teacher had followed through with that afternoon, but the growing stress of midterms coming up was a greater weight to bear.
"Almost eleven years. I began teaching when I was twenty four. Christine, you must understand that I am almost thirty five. I'm much older than you are, sweetheart." Christine shrugged, leaning down towards the masked man. With her breasts pressed against his chest, his fingertips trailed her spine lightly, barely grazing the skin.
"Well, I don't care how old you are, Erik. You're still my teacher and I'm still your kitten." She lazily laid a kiss on his neck, sliding comfortably next to him. Burrowing underneath his arm, she sighed happily and closed her eyes. "Erik..." She mumbled half asleep, half awake.
"Yes?" His eyes were closed at this point. Christine's tone turned sad, her grip tight across his chest. She sounded as if she was about to cry. She had processed all of the information that he had relayed to her and truly, only one thing mattered. There was only one thing standing in Christine's way and she had no idea of how to go about it without showing obvious signs of emotional attachment. This was just a hook up, between a teacher and a student; it isn't uncommon.
"Do you really want to marry her, Erik?"