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Monday, September 5, 2022:

"Yeah, I wish!" I heard Luke laughing on the phone shortly after I woke up, "He's too shy for that. I checked his search history though and there's hope for me...Yeah, I'm serious! Why wouldn't I be?...I see. That seems a bit excessive though...Oh, I'll make sure you know when. Later!"

Making sure all my stuff was in order, I walked l into my apartment after sleeping uncomfortably on the balcony and overhearing that strange conversation that Luke had with someone else. I was a bit worried about that, but my priority was getting to my first class on time and I was certain that he was talking to or about his partner before.

"Luke, could you give me a ride?" I yelled.

Only after did I realize why he was laughing as he barked back, "Anytime!" Leave it to Luke to be dirty-minded about that statement. I got on my best suit and tie and readied myself for my first day on the job.

As we got into his electric car, he complimented me, "You look great, Mark."

"Thanks! Do you know the address?"

"Yep. Can I sit in on your class? I have nothing better to do today."

"Fine, but don't distract me, alright?"

"Alright, I won't."

As we traveled, I decided to ask him a question, "Why exactly did you buy me the apartment next to yours? I'm sure there were millions of other options in the area."

"I wanted to. You're an old friend, Mark. I can trust you to be a good neighbor and your company is payment in itself."

"Yeah, yeah. 'The company is payment enough,' my ass."

"Your ass is rather nice, for the record," he teased.

"What?!"

"I didn't say anything..."

A few minutes later, he pulled into the spot reserved in my name as the ceremony for the first day of classes almost concluded. Walking out of the car together, I reached the back of the massive assembled crowd when suddenly the president of the school noticed my arrival and announced, "I almost forgot to mention: we have a new member of our teaching community, Doctor Marcus Canisius! He will be teaching our Physics class and may be your guidance or music director this year, so watch out for him! Would you like the final words, Doctor?"

I shook my head, "No" almost three hundred times, but my contractual obligations told me I needed to get up there. After getting a slap in the butt for motivation by Luke, I walked onto the stage and got to the microphone, "Hello, everybody! I'm only three or four years removed from being a Senior in college like some of you are, so I'm still relatively young. Almost your age, even. Nevertheless, I am still quite qualified to be in my role as Head of the Physics Department and such, but I went through almost everything a college kid ever goes through too. If you ever want to talk about something other than school work, email me, tweet at me, actually speak to me...whatever you want, I'm there for you. All I ever want is for you guys have success in life, so I'll try my best to help you out if you need assistance. Have a great year and I'm sure you're all ready for it. Thank you for the time, sir."

Sweating bullets from the stress, I walked off of stage into the firm grasp of Luke, "Nice speech!"

"Thanks, Luke."

A few kids directed their cameras and snapped pictures of Luke as they passed and I thought it was a good time for a quick conversation.

"Not used to having fans?"

"I'm not comfortable with the attention I'm getting. It used to be easier, but I made a tabloid the other day. Seriously? Isn't that for those celebrity people? I'm just some lucky artist. I don't deserve the popularity."

"That's pretty modest of you. I never expected any less: you were the same way back in college."

"Was I really? Tell me some more about how modest and awesome I am!"

"I take that back," I mumbled before a flash of light blinded me: paparazzi taking a picture of us together. Well that was amazing...

"Luke?"

"Just ignore it. Don't you have a class to teach, wolf?"

"Yeah, follow me, I guess. It should be in this building..."

I walked into the art deco building and set myself up in a small room filled with about ten students. "Hey everyone. I'll be ready to teach in a second. This is my friend, Luke, who'll be sitting in today."

One of my students shouted out, "Luke, like Lucas Thomson?"

I rolled my eyes, "Yep, the one and only... How famous are you?"

"Pretty darn famous."

"Well, anyways. Physics! Since I am much younger than the rest of the staff, I have a different teaching philosophy: If you try, you pass; if you don't, that's on you. I'll be teaching through media too, so your homework might be to listen to a CD or watch a video. Any questions so far?"

"How do you know Lucas Thomson?" a lioness in the back row asked.

"...about the subject? Personal questions can be answered during my office hours."

"Nope."

"Good. So since it's the first day, I'll give you something easy. Your assignment is to listen to "The 2nd Law" album in preparation for the lesson on thermodynamics since it is named after the Second Law of Thermodynamics."

"Seriously?" the same lioness wondered.

"Well, I wouldn't have passed thermodynamics without it and I have a doctorate, so yes, please do. I'll be in my office down the hall if you need me."

I send my small class of students away, except more than just Luke seem to be following me to my office. Opening the door, hanging my various degrees on the wall, and making sure Luke was comfortable where he was (in the corner of my office), I allowed the group of three kids into my office, "Yeah?"

"You said personal questions?" a wolf reminds me.

"Tell me you're not my guidance group too..."

They nodded in unison and I cleared my seats for them, "Alright. What do you want to talk about?"

A fox steps forth, and I could tell he was a bit nervous about talking, "We just wanted to learn about you, Doctor Canisius."

"First off, call me Mister Canisius or just Mark when I'm not teaching because I'm only like five years older than you guys. Secondly, when do you want me to start?"

They wanted to know from the beginning, so I went through how I fought my way through high school and college without a real social life and how I ended up being their teacher. "So that's the story without any of the cool anecdotes."

"So when did you and Luke start..." the blunt lioness who was giving me sass back in the classroom started slapping her paw against the back of her other paw to signify "having sex."

Luke stepped forth from his corner, "We're just good friends from college. We met freshman year and we never grew apart!"

"Really? Because the Entertainment News Network says you're..." she repeats the action, showing him the tabloid page on her snazzy phone.

"Well if you want proof that we aren't, here's a picture of his girlfriend," the husky pulled out his phone to show them Emilia, my beautiful ex who I fated for four years and actually thought I would marry...until she slept with some random guy at some bar.

On a quick (and somewhat bitter) note about how I found out about her cheating ways, went to some bar (after I was 21, of course) and this guy was bragging about some great one night stand he had with a girl named Emilia the night before. I couldn't believe it, so I thought it had to be some other Emilia until he started passing around a picture of her in one of my own shirts. (I actually bought a ring the day before. I still had it in my guitar bag.)

After learning about her, I went to Luke crying, and he tried to console me, but I was too rash and I left after she didn't return my calls as if it was something that I did. I moved out for grad school three months early, never even reaching out to my old friends or my family. It was the coward's way out and I knew it. She broke my heart beyond repair...or so I thought.

So here I was, sitting uncomfortably and pulling at my collar as they looked at my former girlfriend. It was still hard for me to deal with and it destroyed my self-esteem. The fox told me, "She's good-looking, I think."

"Ten out of ten..." the lioness murmured.

"So, any real questions?" I asked, having sharp pain near my heart.

"Yeah: how do you feel about gay people?" the lioness asked bluntly (again).

"There's nothing that's unnatural about being gay so why discriminate?" I shrugged.

"Aww...how noble!" Luke barked, sitting on the couch with my students.

"Very funny, Luke. Anything else?"

"How did you learn to have such a way with words?" Luke asked.

I blushed, "What was that?"

"I think you heard," he smiled back.

"Err...well, any psychological questions, people?"

The same lioness who was dominating the conversation raised her hand, "How about pack personality types? Can you do those?"

"Yeah: you mean like Alpha, Beta, and Omega personalities? Those are pretty easy to guess at."

"So what am I?"

"Definitively Alpha. The fox you convinced to ask me about myself is an Omega. The wolf that hasn't said a word since the beginning is probably a Beta."

Luke got up and coughed for attention, "What about me?"

"Alpha. I know you too well."

"And you?" he asked, knowing full well that I'll only answer with the truth in front of my students.

"Me? I most closely resemble a Beta. I still have power, but I'm not the most prone to using it or to dominating others."

"Interesting!" the husky paced, "Now how do you go about proving these personality types?"

"You don't: not unless society dissolves into a pack of feral wolves and even that idea is under scrutiny. There are more scientific personality types in place nowadays, but they aren't quite as fun. For instance, the Myers-Briggs test is quite efficient and I think it is a bit more revealing about a person."

"Hmm...have you ever taken that test?"

"Yeah, a bunch of times. I can show you what it looks like..."

"It's fine, Mark. You kids all done?" he looked down at a pager in his pocket.

"Yep."

I reminded them, "Don't forget about my homework!"

They waved as they moved away, leaving me and Luke by ourselves.

"So can we go?"

"Yeah, I guess. You didn't have to come if you didn't want to..."

"No, I really did want to. Don't get me wrong: I'm just hungry!"

I smiled, "Alright. Where did you want to have lunch?"

The husky smiled deviously, "I have a few ideas."

"Like?"

"Don't you worry. It'll be a nice surprise. Let's just say I made sure it would be fun for you."

I blushed, "Luke, I told you I felt bad enough as it is. You paid for my apartment, now all of this?"

"It's fine, Mark. I promise I didn't pay a cent. You feel a bit better now?"

I nodded, "I guess."

"Good. Let's get started!"

---

Throwing me into his car, he drove down to a fancy looking restaurant overlooking the ocean. Finally finding a place to park, he walked me in. The workers at the restaurant seemed to know him personally and he had no trouble getting great a great deal of food within seconds. "So Mark? What do you want to drink?"

"Umm...a soda?"

"Okay! Take one! Hungry?" he asked as he ate an entire tray full of stuff.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks," I blushed, knowing he was trying to be nice to me for some reason.

"C'mon, man! It's not everyday when my best friend reappears after four years!"

"Wait...you still consider me your best friend?" I drank my soda quickly.

"Surprised? You helped me a lot in college, Mark. This is the first time that I'm able to return the favor," he finished up his tray of food.

"I'm a jerk, Luke. I left this city behind just because of one mistake. I left you, my family, the rest of my friends: everyone. I was stupid. I'm sorry."

He patted me on the back, "It's alright, Mark. I understand. Hey, I have another surprise for you back at home. Let's move!"

Not even giving me time to leave a tip, Luke gave some sort of signal to the guy at the door and pulled me away from my seat.

"Why the rush?"

"I have a lot planned for you. It's getting late already!"

"It's 2 o'clock!"

"That's what I said!"

He sped off in his small electric vehicle back to his "apartment building" and we soon arrived at my door.

---

"Uhh...this is my apartment, Luke."

"Yeah, I know. Open it."

"Alright..."

Opening the door, I discovered a treasure trove of CDs by my favorite artists and random paintings alongside them. I picked up one of the paintings, recognizing myself as the subject, "Luke?"

"Yes?"

"This is me. On a painting. With your signature on it."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I know."

"And all these CDs?"

"They're yours. I just got them to celebrate. A friend owed me a favor. Oh, check the envelope too!"

Now even more embarrassed by his generosity, I reluctantly opened the envelope to find tickets to a show in two hours that featured one of my favorite bands in a card that read, "It's great to have you back."

"Luke! I...I...what?! I honestly don't understand. Why?"

He shrugged in an unusually serious way, "Why not? Can't you read my mind, Mr. Psychology Minor?"

"I know what you're thinking! That's what I'm asking about!" I answered nervously.

"Because I care about you, Mark."

At that point, my head stopped working. I was in shock, "You care...about me? I left you alone: I'm not a good person!"

"The fact that you recognize that you might've hurt me by leaving is a reason in itself. I never told you how I got popular, did I? It was because of a painting I made of you, Mark. You were crying after that whole business with Emilia and you looked so...vulnerable. I wanted to help, but you had already left the city. I made that painting to remember you and one of those random eccentric millionaires gave me hundreds of thousands of dollars for it when it caught his eye at the studio. I was a no-name, but then I was an instant superstar. I could literally splash black paint on a black wall and people would call me visionary. But after I sold the painting, I felt like I was missing a part of myself. Now that you're back, I realize that it's you... Now I'm not asking you to love me, but just give me a chance. Let's go, Mark. I don't want you to miss the performance. It's VIP, by the way. Backstage and all."

I had no where to turn. I couldn't just deny my best friend, but I also couldn't just start being gay at the drop of a hat. He was really nice...and cute, but I never thought of us being a couple before. This was just way too confusing. I needed time to think, but there was no place I could go. "What am I going to do?" I asked myself in a whisper, "Only I could end up in a situation like this."