Sweet, Adorable You • •

[huxley trenton smyth]

In Huxley’s experience, the parents were sometimes worse than the kids he taught. They were either the entitled influences on their offspring’s life, or they had no interest at all, or sometimes, they were a little too keen to keep talking to the physics teacher. The third category was a rare one, but it was sometimes the worst one, too. He had encountered one mother who just always phoned to discuss her son’s grades when the kid had gotten nothing less than a B in the whole year. It was hard to be polite to them when he really wanted to find out if the school had some kind of procedure for restraining orders. It was even worse when he bumped into them outside of the school. The kids were always cool about it, even pretending he wasn’t there or leaving it at a quick greeting as they passed by each other. Huxley didn’t mind that, but he didn’t need to be standing in the vegetable aisle of his local grocery store explaining standardised testing to a confused parent. He tried to keep his social life outside of the locality of the school at which he taught for that very reason.

When it came to nights out, he didn’t think to worry. The teenagers he taught would never be able to get a decent fake ID, and even more of them looked like the teenagers they were, rather than any college kid Huxley had ever met. The parents, he had always assumed, were more interested in nights in, or quiet evenings out that saw them home before midnight. He didn’t expect to be at a club, celebrating his best friend’s birthday, and have his arm grabbed by the inebriated mother of one of his juniors. Apparently, there was a bachelorette party for someone or so and so, and that was why she was drunk on shots of tequila and adorned in glow-in-the-dark jewellery. She was a little handsy, trying to get Huxley onto the dance floor, saying things she could only regret in the morning if she remembered them. Huxley couldn’t remember if she was married or not, trying to recall the faces from the parent-teacher-conferences they were obliged to hold every semester.

Prying himself away he headed in the direction of the bar, squeezing himself into a gap left by another man who had walked off balancing shot glasses in his hands. There was a pretty blonde standing to his right and hearing – even over the music – the sound of one approaching cougar, he acted fast. “I promise I’m not a creep, or a weirdo, but I’m about to be mauled to death by the mother of someone I teach. Be my girlfriend?” The desperation was evident in his voice, and while Huxley had this plan in mind it could backfire horrifically if he didn’t explain himself first or ask for permission before flinging his arm around this complete stranger. “I will buy your drinks for the rest of the night and you don’t even have to stay with me for more than the next five minutes. Maybe ten actually, she’s been very insistent so far.” Huxley knew she’d be at the bar very soon – too soon for his liking. He honestly couldn’t believe something like this was happening.

• • •

TAGGED! Hartley Amelia Fitz
WORDS! 554!
LYRICS! You’re the Cream in my Coffee - - - Ruth Etting
NOTES!

[Hartley Amelia Fitz]

Fitz enjoyed going out for drinks with the girls whenever they could all get together. With everyone doing their own thing, schedules were hectic and finding the time to grab drinks was difficult at the best of times. Fitz, as well as a couple of others from their college group of friends, travelled for work and weren't always in the country. They'd been the only friends on her side and there for her when shit hit the fan at work. Aside from a couple of people from the HR department at work and her boss, she'd been left out and made to look the fool. She refused to give her hateful ex-boyfriend the satisfaction of seeing her fail in any capacity. She had what he'd considered a remedial position in the company and yet, she knew for a fact that she made twice the amount of money than him. She was not petty about it or lorded it over people. She smiled at everyone except him, greeted them all kindly, except him and moved on whenever she felt like he was about to say something stupid. Fitz knew that with one word, she could have had him fired. However, she didn't mind the whispered lies spread about her because she knew they were lies. And besides which, people were going to think what they wanted and she just didn't have time to dwell on that, she had more important things to think about; like which colour she was going to paint her toes the next time she indulged in a pedicure or if those clouds looked like rain.

Tonight's outing was just another girl's night out where they could all dance away the troubles of the week, indulge in too much alcohol and laughter and see how many of the eight of them could pull the most numbers. Fitz always started as a good prospect but of the group she was with, she was most definitely not the most stunning. Charlie was a model for Christ's sake and while Nadine wasn't a model, she could have easily been one. Fitz had always joked that she was their tiny little mascot but she'd never minded that and none of them made her feel like a shrimp. It was her turn to get the drinks so she hollered over the music that she would be back and slipped through the crowd. The place was packed with at least two birthday parties and bachelorette party, as well as the usual crowd of people just wanting a night out. They'd been getting the same drinks pretty much since they were old enough to do so and found their favourite cocktails so Fitz knew what she was ordering without having to ask. It was looking like a long wait, not that she was fussed by that. Fitz loved these nights out so she didn't mind having to wait at the bar. She'd not been lucky enough to work a bar but she'd been a waitress before she'd been hired by Vic and that had been stressful so she could just imagine.

She was still waiting, just thinking she should text her friends that the bar was insane and that their drinks would be a little longer except she knew none of her friends would hear a phone or feel one with the thumping bass. She did pull her phone free for a split second to see if any of them had messaged her but no one had and she was just stuffing it back into her pocket when someone stepped up to the bar beside her with an intriguing proposition. She listened to his entire speech, though she'd immediately decided to help him. Good stories always started at the bar, at least hers did, so she wasn't opposed to adding another one. "Alright, Cupcake, I'm game." She said with a positively wicked grin. She had no idea where this was heading, but she would see it through.

♦ ♦ ♦

 
TAG; huxley trenton smyth
WORDS; 662
LYRICS; Written in the Sand --Old Dominion
NOTES; <3

[huxley trenton smyth]

Huxley had always been a little bit hesitant about getting into relationships. He had grown up hearing his parents arguing, watching the marriage crumble until they were living entirely separate lives, eventual cemented with a divorce. Eleven years had passed from when the fighting had started to when the divorce was finally settled. Eleven years of mommy and daddy fighting definitely had an impact on a kid. Huxley had found solace in video games and fantasy worlds where he could escape from the reality of screaming fights and smashed plates in the kitchen. When he was old enough to start dating, those memories unfortunately came to the forefront of his mind, reminding him that something good could quickly turn into something bad, something regretful.

He didn’t want a relationship like that of his parents. He wanted to spend time with someone who kept him feeling good, kept him excited and who didn’t try to change him. Huxley had dated in the past, but most of them were bored of how slow he wanted things, or because he wasn’t immediately invested in some dreamy future together. He wasn’t in a rush to settle down, and while he watched friends fall in love and get married, he was always fearful that heartbreak would cloud their happiness someday. It was a crazy fear, one he had been told he should talk to a shrink about, but Huxley didn’t think it was too great of a worry. He didn’t stop doing things entirely because of it, and he didn’t avoid dating because of it; it just made him cautious, and definitely not likely to be the type to elope to Vegas on a whim with someone whose family he had never even seen photographs of.

Huxley also definitely wasn’t the type to mix business with pleasure. He didn’t date other teachers in the school and he certainly had no interest in dating the parent of one of the kids he taught. In his mind, that was just asking for trouble – and Huxley liked his job so much that he’d prefer to keep it. He was relieved when the girl besides him didn’t recoil or scream for a friend – or boyfriend – to come and rescue her. He grinned, slipping his arm around her waist to hold her a little closer. He needed this to appear authentic or he doubted the woman hunting him would actually leave him alone. All he wanted was for her to skulk back to her table and let him enjoy his night far away from her. “Thank fuck.” He said before pressing a soft kiss that was a little less than chaste against this stranger’s lips. He wasn’t one for random hook ups normally, but this was more of an act than picking a girl up in the bar. And Huxley was desperate to be free of the cougar eyeing him up like a small, nocturnal mammal. “So, what am I buying you?” He asked the girl whose name he didn’t yet know, keeping his forehead against hers as he smiled, hoping it would look more like love than a quickly arranged, extremely casual business deal.

• • •

TAGGED! Hartley Amelia Fitz
WORDS! 529!
LYRICS! You’re the Cream in my Coffee - - - Ruth Etting
NOTES!

[Hartley Amelia Fitz]

There were things that Fitz thought seriously about in her life. They were mostly things with work, and shoes but relationships, though few and far between, were at the top of the list. She worked so much, was her boss's right hand and tried to do everything before it was actually asked of her, reading her boss's mind. There was rarely time to meet up with her friends, so she really needed a man in her life that could understand that at any time, she might be called away to solve a problem. She'd foolishly thought her ex had potential. That just proved to her that she needed to stay as far away from work whilst looking in the dating pool as she could get. In fact, she was seriously contemplating an entirely different country. It was a serious consideration because up until now, New York had failed her in only thing way. It didn't help that she was truly always on call. Vic had a habit of not realising what time it was and calling her at all hours of the night and day and surprising her with a work trip that she only had two hours to plan before they were on the company jet heading off to well, Fitz rarely knew where. She'd been such good friends with her boss for so long that she habitually hung up on him when he called her up in the wee hours of the morning. That was his clue to realise it wasn't the time for calls. They'd developed a bit of a rule that if he called twice in a row, someone had better be dying but at least she would actually talk to him.

Fitz had told Vic when she left the office earlier that day that she was going out with the girls and that she would not be answering his calls because the chances she would even hear them were slim. The business would not croak if he spent one night away from it. She had suggested he go out for drinks with his friends or just sit at home and read a damn book but she knew it was useless, he would do whatever he wanted anyway. Fitz was going to enjoy her rare night out because she never knew when the next night would happen. They were all so busy with their jobs and their lives away from each other that it was so difficult sometimes to get a night when they were all available. They tried to clear their schedules at least once a week but surprising things happened and it was more like once a month instead. It would do for Fitz. The petite blonde was usually the one who cancelled short notice so she tried to make up for it with a few rounds on her, though they did take turns.

It would probably surprise most of the office to hear that Fitz could be very laidback and happily let things go on around her as they would. She might have been the office Ice Queen but outside those walls, she was an entirely different person. She laughed and joked around for starters! She didn't fit entirely under any single label, though the office gossips tried. And because of her real personality, she was actually ready for the hands-on approach this façade would be taking. She was ready for something more than just hands around her waist though she would admit that the kiss, however quick it might have been, had shown more potential than she'd expected. Fitz smiled, one hand around wrapped around the stranger's waist. If this was an elaborate pickup, she was quite impressed and if it really was a save, she felt bad for the woman who apparently hadn't learnt the less that no meant no and not just for their shared gender. "Oh, Sweetcheeks, haven't you learned yet? You're dating a very independent woman here." She teased. "This round is on me. You can get the next Whiskey Sour." She lifted up a bit more so her lips reached his ear so she didn't have to yell quite so loudly over the music just in case the woman he may or may not have been hiding from was closer than she knew. "I don't expect you to buy my girls a round, though I will happily let you keep me swimming in whiskey." She said, lightly nipping at his earlobe for any onlookers. She took up her current job seriously and wanted to make this look at real as possible, though the terribly cheesy pet names she kept coming out with were just her bit of fun.

♦ ♦ ♦

 
TAG; huxley trenton smyth
WORDS; 781
LYRICS; Written in the Sand --Old Dominion
NOTES; <3

[huxley trenton smyth]

Huxley’s job didn’t finish when the final bell rang for the day. He needed to grade tests, examine projects, plan classes for the upcoming weeks. There were evenings when he was eating heated up leftovers, watching Star Wars, and scribbling down notes on how to make Newton’s Third Law a more interactive and engaging class. Huxley was aware that Physics was not for everyone. He knew the majority of his students had little interest in what he was scribbling on the board, but he wanted to change just a few of their minds by showing them that his field of science could be just as fun as one where they made things explode or where they got to look at the insides of a frog. He needed it to be more engaging, more exciting for them to want to come back into his classroom week after week. For the most part they didn’t have a choice since his was a required class, but Huxley would prefer it if they could enjoy being there for at least a few of his lessons.

Right now he was more concerned that the parents might be more interested in what he had to offer than his students. Huxley didn’t enjoy complications, he didn’t want the drama of a TV show to become the life he lived. He felt like he might have been one of the few people who just wanted it to be simple, for a relationship to feel easy. He knew nothing was ever that way, but Huxley had seen the volatile side of marriage, the fights and anger that could build up between two people and he wanted the complete opposite of that for himself. He’d lived through one divorce and he didn’t want to go through another where he was old enough to be hiring the lawyer. Huxley just wanted something easy, a love that didn’t need grand gestures or big dreams to be real. He wanted the quiet house, the family, and the summer vacations that would sit framed on the mantle. Let someone else have the fame and fortune, the gossip and the second looks. It wasn’t for him.

Keeping up with their little charade, Huxley rested his head against the forehead against this stranger’s, a smirk dancing across his lips. “I would buy everyone in this club a drink if it would save my ass like you just have.” He dared a glance, acting as though he was scanning the crowd for a familiar face. He was, sort of. He wanted to make sure there wasn’t about to be a dramatic scene before him that he wanted no part of. Thankfully, his student’s mother was turning around, walking back to her group. “But I will keep your glass full for the rest of the night, I mean it.” He stole one final kiss, just in case the mother did glance back and think there was room for an opening. Huxley, for all his words right now, lived on a teacher’s salary. He could afford one woman’s drinks for the night, but there was no feasible way he was buying for the entire club. Not unless he wanted to be living off ramen noodles and credit cards for the next year.

• • •

TAGGED! Hartley Amelia Fitz
WORDS! 547!
LYRICS! You’re the Cream in my Coffee - - - Ruth Etting
NOTES!