Page 10 of Love and Other Chances

“I think even the trace amounts of caffeine in that would keep me awake all night!” Sarah laughs. “I can tell I’m not a college student anymore—I need my beauty sleep, and caffeine after lunch does not jive with that! How do you keep up with the perpetually young students all the time, Teegan?”

I huff a laugh. “Copious amounts of caffeine and sugar, I suppose,” I tease with a wry smile. “I’m sure the day will come when I can’t hang with the night owls anymore, but it’s my natural bent. Well, being around peopleanytime of day is my natural bent.”

In my peripheral vision, I notice the corner of Brooks’ lips twitch before he takes a bite of his gelato.

“So, in addition to caffeine and sugar, extreme extroversion required,” Sarah recaps. “Count me out for college ministry then! I’ll stick with my day job.”

Will speaks up next. “I was recently in the Kansas City area for a work conference.” He motions toward me with his spoon. “What part of the city are you from?”

“I grew up in Lee’s Summit, a suburb on the Missouri side of the metro. I doubt that’s where you would have been for a conference,” I respond, dreading the next question he might ask. And who he might ask.

“Yeah, we were downtown somewhere. What about you, Brooks? You said you’re from KC too,” Wills pivots.

“Actually, I’m also from Lee’s Summit,” Brooks answers. He clears his throat, as though clearing away a bite of gelato. I recognize it as a stall tactic, though. “Believe it or not, Teegan and I went to the same high school.”

“No way!” Sarah exclaims.

“I know! Small world, right?” I say as breezily as possible.

“Did you know each other?” Will asks.

My blood pressure skyrockets. Pretty sure it would blow the cuff right off my arm if I were at the doctor’s office.How should I respond? What do I say?

“Yeah, I was a year older, so we didn’t have any classes together,” Brooks answers. “But Teegan was on the dance team, so we’d always see each other at basketball games and stuff before I graduated.”

It’s a half-truth, but that’s still the truth, right? It’s not like Will and Sarah need to know my entire history with Brooks. It’s not like they’dwantto know every detail about how our souls were so enmeshed that we were practically one person instead of two individuals.

Right up until he ripped our souls apart and shredded mine.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Think about this delish gelato. Ask a new question.

“What was your work conference about?” I ask Will, praying he’ll take the bait and get this conversation going on a different track. Luckily for me (and Brooks), Will launches into a lengthy explanation of the intricacies of a cyber security conference. He’s surprisingly hilarious, totally bursting all of my preconceived notions about tech guys.

Sarah asks Brooks what made him get into teaching, and I want to hug her for giving me this chance to hear his answer without having to be the one showing interest.

“Before I answer, you have to promise not to think less of me,” Brooks starts with a wry grin. I can’t help but laugh along with Sarah and Will. “I started college thinking I’d wind up in some sort of PR or sales role, something with lots of relational time built into my responsibilities. But shortly after I began reading my Bible and going to church, I started rethinking how I could have an impact on people with my career.”

“No judgment so far,” Sarah says.

“Well, here’s where the story takes a turn,” Brooks replies. “I was scrolling social media and saw a viral video.” He pauses for our laughter again. “It was a group of high schoolers celebrating their teacher’s birthday. It had a compilation of clips they had taken of him teaching, mixed with their comments about how much he had changed their lives by caring about them. It blew me away to see a teacher be so engaging with the kids and especially the impact it had. One of my teammates who was a year older than me was an education major—I think because he wanted to become a coach someday. I asked him lots of questions about the classroom experience he’d had so far, and it intrigued me even more. I changed my major to secondary education the next semester. I’ve always been interested in history, so I chose social studies as my emphasis.”

I think about all the historical documentaries Brooks used to watch in high school that I teased him relentlessly about. I fell dead asleep the one time I attempted to watch a World War I docuseries with him. Although, I do remember not being mad when I woke up snuggled against his chest with his arm around me.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, Teegan. Think about the squirrels dropping acorns on students’ heads every year on campus. Think about the AOPi girls pranking the Omega Gamma frat house’s letters last night. Think about slushies with Lana and Amaya.

“I suppose if social media can inspire such a noble career choice, then it can’t be all bad,” Sarah muses.

“Oh, it’s definitely still mostly bad,” Brooks says with an exaggerated grimace. “The very thing that inspired me to become a teacher is now the bane of my existence as an educator. But despite the challenges, I’ve never regretted my decision to pursue education. I love being in the classroom, love making learning fun for moody teenagers.”

Conversation comfortably popcorns between the four of us for the next hour. Lots of belly laughs later, we start to wind down. Aside from those few tense moments when we skirted past Brooks’ and my relationship history, I had a fabulous time tonight. My cup is full, and I’m silently thanking Amaya and Lana for prodding me to pursue some new friendships.

Also, I proved to the whole world that Icanhang out with Brooks Murphy without acting like a psycho. Today absolutely goes in the win bucket.

Chapter five

Look where I am!

LANA

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