Interesting Possibilities

Claire watched in shocked fascination as the skinny twenty year old slammed his cock in and out of the much larger black woman, causing her to wrap her legs around him while at the same time loudly and quite descriptively exhorting him to fuck her harder and faster. Strangely enough, that her fellow teacher was royally screwing her half-her-age assistant didn't seem as out of place to the art teacher as the discovery that despite a masters degree in English, Patricia reverted, in the throes of passion, to a vocabulary more common to a dockside streetwalker.

The brunette was sure she had been standing there watching for minutes, yet in reality barely a full one had passed since she first turned the corner. As quietly as she could, Claire backtracked her steps and carefully put the two chairs back where she had found them. When she was well on her way back to the bus stop, she wondered why she had been so shocked. After all, despite his junior status, Timothy was of legal age, while Patricia was certainly twice that and more. Also, Pat wasn't involved with anyone else at the time, Benjamin Brown being several months still in her future. By the time she was safely on the bus and headed home, Claire finally realized what it was she had actually felt. It had been envy. Despite being in the good years of her relationship with David at the time, Claire felt a bit of envy at her friend's sense of adventure.

"Well, that's all the time we have for tonight," Madeline said, much too soon. "As I mentioned last week, we have to wrap it up a bit early tonight."

Few of the students felt that even an abbreviated class hadn't been well worth it and if any did, they didn't express the thought verbally. Across the room they began to clean up their stations and gather up their tools. Clark had already exited once the class once it had been declared over, so with no further distraction it didn't take long for most of them to finish.

"A few of us are going over to the Blue Room to have a drink," Patricia said as she helped Claire finish her clean up. "Want to come along?"

"No, I think I'll just take the bus home and call it a night," Claire said after thinking about it for a moment. "I'm a bit tired."

"Are you sure?" Patricia asked.

"Yeah," Claire assured her.

All right, suit yourself," Patricia smiled, thinking it would've been nice if Claire had come along, but also knowing when not to push.

Claire walked out of the school with Patricia and watched as she and a few other classmates climbed into the borrowed car. She wondered for a few moments if maybe she should change her mind and go with them; after all, what was she going home to? Then she decided to go with her original decision and merely waved goodnight to them all as Patricia drove the car past her. Once they were out of sight, Claire headed off in the other direction towards the bus stop.

-=-=-=-

As luck would have it, Claire just missed the bus and according to the schedule on the kiosk, it would be a half hour before the next one. Still, it was a relatively pleasant night, and there was plenty of light from the overhead lamp to read by. So she just took her book from her bag and made herself comfortable on the bench. Quickly involved in her book, the first ten minutes passed quickly.

"Mrs. Ryan?"

Concentrating on her book, Claire didn't hear, at least not at first, the young man who had walked up to the edge of the bus stop kiosk. Especially since he had called her by a name she hadn't gone by in the last few years.

"Mrs. Ryan?" he repeated once he had moved to only a few feet away.

Claire finally looked up to see, dressed in jeans, sneakers, a t-shirt and a windbreaker, a much more fully dressed Clark Stuart standing before her.

"Excuse me, but you are Mrs. Ryan, aren't you," he asked again, a slight hesitation in his voice as he wondered if perhaps he'd made a mistake. "Mrs. Claire Ryan from the Pine Ridge School?"

Embarrassed at the thought that he might have caught her staring at him during the class, Claire considered the idea of saying he had indeed been mistaken. Then she realized that would be the coward's way out and unfair to a young man who obviously had gone out of his way to say hello.

"Not for a number of years," she smiled and said instead, recalling that it was only after she had begun seeing David, or more precisely started sleeping with him, that she had gone back to her maiden name. Once people at the school became aware of their relationship, the last thing she wanted anyone thinking was that she was still a married woman, fooling around on an absent husband. "I mean I haven't been Mrs. Ryan for a number of years," she clarified. "I'm still at the Pine Ridge School. It's Miss Roselli now I'm no longer married."

"Clark Stuart," the young man said, relieved that he hadn't been wrong after all. "I don't think you'd remember me, but I was in your art appreciation class a few years back."

"Of course I remember you, Clark," Claire said, wondering as she did so if he'd noticed her in class or just happened to recognize her as he walked past and saw her sitting there. "It's nice to see you again," she added, thinking afterwards how odd that might've sounded if his recognition had been from the latter.

The answer to her unspoken question came a moment later when Clark said he'd noticed her in the class, but since it was impossible to get a good look at her he hadn't been sure. By the time he'd gotten dressed and come back into the classroom, she was already gone. It was only luck that he'd seen her sitting on the bench as he passed it on the way to his car in the parking lot beyond.

Reasoning that if he hadn't gotten a good look at her in class, it was doubtful that he had any idea how much time she had spent staring at him, Claire decided to just take it from here and move forward. She said it was a small world and asked if he was taking classes here at the college.

"No, I'm over at State now," Clark said, alluding to the senior school just a few miles away. "I graduated from here last year."

"And you still come back here just to model?" Claire asked out of curiosity.

"Not really, I mean I used to do it when I was a student, it beat all hell out of working over at the local Burger Barn. Mrs. Petrowski was good to me when I was here, and when she called and asked if I could do it for a few nights I really couldn't say no."

"That was very nice of you," Claire said.

"It's no big thing," Clark insisted. "It's just a couple of hours a week and I pick up a few extra dollars."

Realizing that the bus would be along soon, Claire said that it was indeed nice to see him again but that she didn't want to keep him from wherever he was on his way to when he spotted her on the bench.

"I really had no plans other than to grab a cup of coffee at the diner down the road," Clark replied. "My roommate sort of has our dorm room reserved for the evening."

Claire smiled, remembering what that was all about from her own college years.

"You know, I just had a thought," Clark said. "If you don't have any plans at the moment, why don't you join me for that cup of coffee? I'd be more than happy to drive you home afterwards."

The offer took Claire by surprise, so much so that she didn't say no right away, as she normally would have. As a general rule of thumb, teachers didn't socialize with students. Still, there was no reason why that should apply to former ones. It might be interesting, she considered, to hear how one of her former charges was making out. What happens to students after they moved on was a question teachers often asked but rarely got an answer to.

"You might not believe it," Claire smiled, "but that's the best offer I've gotten all week."

"I find that hard to believe," Clark smiled back, "but I'm glad you said yes."

It was a short walk to Clark's car, and an even shorter ride to the diner. Once there, however, they discovered that the establishment was closed for reasons not stated on the sign on the front door.

"Well, that's just great," Clark said as saw the sign, a measure of disappointment in his tone.

"I guess there's nothing we can do about it," Claire said, remembering that there was not another place to get coffee at this time of the night anywhere in the area. "Why don't you just give me a ride back to the bus stop?"

"You have to have missed the bus you were waiting for by now," Clark replied, "and I'm not going to just leave you to wait for the next one. I said I'd give you a lift home and I will."

Claire hadn't wanted to admit it, but she hadn't been looking forward to going back to the bus stop and waiting another half hour or more. So she was relieved to hear that his offer of a ride home still stood.

Since the diner had only been five minutes in the other direction, it took just that much longer for Claire to get home than it did to get to the college in the first place. Clark pulled up right in front of the door and was lucky enough to find a parking spot that someone must've just pulled out of.

"Thank you once again for the ride," Claire said as she picked up her purse from the floor below her seat.

"Think nothing of it," Clark smiled. "I'm just sorry that we didn't have a chance to get that cup of coffee and talk."

Claire was about to say that, yes, it was indeed a shame, but somehow it came out that if he'd like to come up, she'd be happy to make them both a cup of coffee.

"Are you sure?" Clark asked, genuinely surprised at the offer. "I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble."

"No trouble at all," Claire replied, the smile on her face not reflecting the fact that she was more surprised that she had made the offer than Clark was to have received it.

-=-=-=-

"Make yourself comfortable while I put the coffee on," Claire said once they were inside the apartment, as she took his jacket, hanging it and her own coat on the rack. Heading for the kitchenette, she pointed out the couch in the living area where he could take a seat. "Regular okay for you?" she asked as she remembered that she had already set up the coffee maker for the next morning, but would have to add a bit to it for her guest. "If not, I think I might still have some specialty blends up in the closet."

"Regular would be just fine," Clark replied as he sat himself down on the sofa, taking a quick look around the tiny apartment as he did. Small as it was, just three and a half rooms, it was nevertheless quite cozy. A lot more than his single room dorm.

"Coffee will be up in a few minutes," Claire announced as she walked into the living area, carrying a small tray of cookies that she placed on the coffee table. "While we wait, I want you to tell me all about what you've been doing since you graduated from Pine Ridge.

Saying at first that there really wasn't all that much to tell, Clark then went into the story of how, after graduating from high school, he really had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. His father had suggested that he take some time to think about it, but also make use of the interlude to take some courses at the local community college. If nothing else, it would let him pick up most of the prerequisites that he would need for any course of study he finally decided on. Somewhere along the way, while attending the junior college, he became interested in sports medicine and that was what he was now studying at State.

His story ended just as the timer on the coffee maker went off and Claire excused herself to take care of it, declining Clark's offer to help. When she sat back down with another tray bearing two steaming mugs, along with milk and sugar, Clark inquired as to what she'd been up to since he'd left the school.

After pouring a small amount of milk and sugar into her coffee - Clark had declined both - Claire let it cool a moment before bringing it to her lips and taking a careful sip. The pause gave her time to consider what she wanted to say. By the time the mug was back on the table, she'd already begun a rather bland account of the last few years, leaving out any mention of her relationship with David Byrnes. The exclusion was noticeable enough to cause Clark to ask if, since she wasn't married anymore, there was anyone special in her life. Not the sort of question she had expected, but one that was understandable enough, given her omission.

"Let's just say that there used to be, but he's gone now too," Claire said after a momentary hesitation. Then she turned the question around and asked the same of him, adding that a good looking young man like him must have half the girls at State chasing after him.

"Well, a few at least," Clark laughed as he helped himself to one of the cookies, "but nothing I'd really consider serious."

"That's probably for the best," Claire remarked as she took a cookie as well, "at least at this point in your life. As your former teacher I probably shouldn't be saying it, but it's good to sow a few wild oats when you're young."

"Oh I do when I can," Clark said with a chuckle, "at least when I can find someone who really interests me."

"Oh really?" Claire replied with the same sort of amusement. "And what sort of girl is it that interests you?"

"I wouldn't say there was any particular sort," Clark answered as he took another sip of coffee. "I've always thought that if you only looked for one particular type you lost out on so many interesting possibilities."

Claire wondered what he considered an interesting possibility but thought it best not to ask.

The clock on the mantle chimed the hour, causing Clark to turn his head in that direction and note the time. Like most of his generation, he didn't wear a watch, relying instead on his cell phone if he needed to know the time.

"It's getting late," he pointed out, "maybe I should get going."

"Nonsense, it's hardly late at all," Claire insisted. "Besides, I don't think it would be exactly fair to your roommate and the young lady he's entertaining for you to show up back at the dorm too early."

What Claire didn't say was that she was remembering a time when her own college roommate had an invited guest and she came home at what she thought was a late enough hour, but instead found herself locked out of the dorm room. She had wound up sleeping on the couch in the common room. Yet, no sooner had that thought passed than she noticed a subtle smile on Clark's face, one that made her wonder as to the cause.

"Did I say something funny?" she asked.

"No, I was just thinking of something," Clark replied.

"Care to share so that I can enjoy the joke too?"

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter if I do because it's not exactly a secret," Clark said after thinking about it a moment. "It's not a girl that my roommate is entertaining."

"Oh?" Claire responding in a tone that stated she didn't understand. "Oh!" she repeated a moment later in a much more knowing tone as understanding hit her.

She duplicated Clark's smile with the thought that things certainly had changed since she was in college.

"Isn't that a bit awkward?" she asked, saying the first thing that came to mind. "I mean the two of you having such opposite interests, as it were."

"What you really mean is, don't I find it awkward rooming with a guy who's gay," Clark said, "and don't I worry that people will figure that I'm into guys too?"

Claire didn't want to admit it, but as soon as the words had come out of her mouth she knew that was exactly what she had been thinking. She apologized and said that she had no business asking anything like that.

"It's okay, people are always thinking that, even if they don't come out and ask, but if they do, I don't mind," Clark replied. "First of all, Bobby, that's his name by the way, and I had been sharing a room for almost a year before he decided to come out of the closet. He told me of his decision a month before he did it, in case I wanted to get out ahead of the storm and request alternate accommodation. I did think about it, but decided in the end that the two of us had been getting along great and in my mind his revelation wasn't going to change that. If someone has a problem with it, well, it's on them, not me."

"You're a good man, Clark Stuart," Claire said, her opinion of him rising a few notches.

Without any decision actually having been made that he would stay longer, Claire excused herself and picked up both empty mugs, carrying them back to the countertop. As she refilled them with what was left in the carafe, she found herself thinking that it was a pity that Clark wasn't a few years older and herself a few younger.

"I have to give you a lot of credit, Clark," Claire said as she sat back down with the refilled mugs. "Not for what you just told me, although I am impressed by that, but also by how you can just get up in front of so many people like you did tonight. I was never that self-confident, not even back in college. Especially wearing not much of anything."

"It's nothing more than what anyone would wear to the beach," Clark pointed out as he took a sip from the new cup.

"I think we have a very different opinion of what's proper beach wear," Claire smiled. "I'd look pretty ridiculous in some of the swim suits I've seem young ladies wear nowadays."

"Well, I think you'd look great no matter what you wore," Clark retorted with an equally wide smile.

"Flattering an old lady like that could be dangerous," Claire laughed, wondering as she did if she felt the need to again point out the difference in their ages was for him or for herself.

"Well, if I see one anytime soon I'll be sure to remember that," Clark grinned.

"Keep talking like that and I'll begin to think you're trying to flirt with me," Claire said in the same whimsical tone.

"Would it be such a bad thing if I was?" Clark said without pause, in a voice just a bit more serious than he's been using.

If Claire noticed the difference, she let it pass without comment.

The conversation went on in different directions and before long they were trading jokes and observations about people they remembered or those merely common to the experience of both. Thinking back, she didn't remember Clark as being this bright and witty in her class, but then again, it really wasn't the sort of thing a teacher might have noticed. Especially with her attention divided among a classroom full of students.

The ease in which they moved from topic to topic made Claire relax even more. So much so that when the discussion again wound its way back to what she'd been doing the last few years, her answers became much more forthcoming, this time including her relationship with David Byrd and its disastrous outcome.

"I don't remember Mr. Byrd," Clark said as he put his now empty mug down on the table. "I mean I remember him as a teacher, but I wasn't in any of his classes. So I really don't remember what he was like. But from what you've said, he must've been a real asshole."

Claire's surprise at the level of resentment in the young man's tone must've been reflected in her face, because Clark was quick to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," he offered. "Regardless of what I think, he was someone you cared about."

"No, he was an asshole," Claire assured him, "and trust me, I've thought of him since in much less flattering terms since he walked out on me."

"I just can't imagine anyone giving up a woman as smart and beautiful as you," Clark said, causing Claire to blush.

Another change Claire had become aware of over the course of their discourse was that she no longer thought of Clark as that boy from her class. It was now impossible to think of him as anything but a man, younger yes, but a grown man. That admission caused her to remember the image of him in his swimming trucks back in class, along with Patricia's comment about it. A comment that now brought curiosity rather than embarrassment. As she swirled Patricia's observation around in her thoughts, Claire also found herself remembering the mental picture of her friend and the student teacher in quite graphic detail.