Brett?
I bite down my delight in seeing my old friend for the first time in years. He used to sit in the seat next to me instead of standing behind the lectern. He speaks and the familiar deep rumble of his voice sounds slightly more gravelly since I last heard it. His boyishly warm, handsome features have sharpened and matured in the way most men’s do in their twenties, but I can tell by his open, deep-honey coloured eyes and the way a smile falls to his lips so easilythat he’s still the kind, funny guy I befriended in this very hall.
Something else stirs within me as I take Brett in. How easily recognisable he is after six years without laying eyes on him, when I didn’t recognise Zayn after a decade. Granted, Zayn was still a boy when I last laid eyes on him. A boy I tried hard to forget, to completely wipe from my mind to the point I could barely conjure up a picture of him if I had tried. Brett was already a man when I knew him.
I spend the first five minutes not taking in a word he’s saying, staring at him with a Cheshire-cat grin, waiting for him to notice me sitting here. He flicks the slide on the PowerPoint behind him, casts his gaze across the second row and stops mid-sentence when he finally spots me. Surprise registers on his face briefly before his grin spreads to mirror mine. The moment lasts only a couple of seconds before he looks away, shaking his head. “Er, where was I?” he asks, muddled, glancing back at the screen. “Oh, yes, right, we will be building your leadership capability by developing intrapersonal and interpersonal skills,” he continues, not before sending a wink my way.
In the front row, a pretty blonde girl turns back to eye me with a frown marring her delicate brows, forcing a smile to play about my lips. It’s not surprising Brett already has a student admirer. He’s handsome in a ruffled, careless kind of way. I bet he even still skateboards here in the mornings.
Over the next hour, I take notes while simultaneously marvelling at the fact that Brett, my closest friend for the two years I was at university, is now the oneteachingmy classes instead of being the disruptive student distracting me while I try to concentrate. Having Brett be apart of this experience just adds on a whole new level of weirdlycomforting nostalgia. Or if I dare say it, it feels like fate that I’m back here.
When the lecture’s over, I pack my stuff and head down to the podium, where Brett’s disconnecting his laptop and grinning at me like a loon.
“Gia! What the heck?” he greets me, wrapping his massive arms around my waist and lifting me off the floor.
“Put me down you idiot,” I giggle in delight. “What are you doing on this side of the podium?”
“Tell me about it!” he places me down and rubs a hand through his stubble. “Never thought I’d be a stuffy professor, but here I am every Monday and Wednesday morning. I’m so happy to see you here, though.”
The last few rows of students filter past us to the door, leaving the lecture hall almost empty apart from me and Brett.
“What areyoudoing here? What happened to you? You just dropped out one day and stopped answering your phone.”
Brett cocks his head to the side and stares at me with concern etched into his face. I glance past his shoulder to see a young guy slam dunk a banana peel into the trash on his way out, thinking about how to explain to Brett what happened six years ago when I just disappeared from here without a trace.
“Look,” he says, lowering his voice, obviously reading the disconcerting look on my face, “I have a pretty good idea what happened.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I put a few things together that didn’t seem right at the time. Plus a, um,visitfrom Daniel really painted the picture for me.”
My mouth drops to the floor as a hot flush stains mycheeks. “Daniel came to see you?” I whisper, wide-eyed. I had absolutely no idea about this.
“Yeah,” he says slowly, checking his watch. “I have an hour before I have to be at the office. Wanna grab a coffee? We can chat then.”
I hike my tote bag higher on my shoulder. “Sure, my next class isn’t til eleven.”
“Bean & Cup?”
“Where else?” I grin at him.
Five minutes later, we take our favourite table near the front window of the cafe that hasn’t changed at all since I was last here. The exposed brickwork on the back wall, black hardware, polished concrete floors and hanging copper pendants that round off the industrial fit out look all too familiar to me as Brett goes to order our lattes at the counter. The cafe is pretty busy, which isn’t unusual at this time of the morning. It’s a mostly student crowd, with professors preferring the more expensive but less busy cafe on the other side of campus.
Before long, Brett strides back over with our coffees, placing mine in front of me as he takes a seat.
“Feels like no time’s passed at all,” I say as I take a sip. “The only difference is your beard’s finally joined us.”
“Ha ha ha,” Brett says as he stirs two sugars into his coffee. “Still think you’re funny, huh?”
“I don’t think, I know.”
We slip back into the friendly banter Brett and I always shared, and I can’t help but smile at the unexpected turn of events this morning.
“So,” I say, my smile sliding away, “tell me what happened with Daniel.” My stomach clenches uncomfortably as Brett sighs and runs a hand through his thick, chocolate hair.
“He cornered me coming out of a lecture,” Brett starts, looking down at his cup and sliding his coffee between his hands. “Told me to stay away from you. Stop calling you-”
“Wait. How did he know you were calling me?”
