I was angry.

Actually, scratch that. I was fuming.

Yesterday's surprise of seeing Harry and then speaking to him and watching him act so... distant had ticked something off inside me. Like he was mad at me. I knew we had ended things, and I was fine with that, but I had at least expected a bit more... well, I don't know exactly what I had expected. Just... more.

The thing was, I had always known I'd see him again one day. When we parted ways last summer, a part of me had known this wasn't the last time I'd laid eyes on Harry Devon. Even if the circumstances wouldn't be the same, I knew somewhere in my heart we would meet again, lock eyes and have words.

But then yesterday happened, and it wasn't what I had expected at all.

The man I had spoken to yesterday hadn't been Harry Devon. He had been a pale imitation, a cheap knock-off of some version he'd never be. Cold, unattached. Granted, he had never been warm and fuzzy to begin with, but the Harry Devon I knew never would've stood before me and lied to my face so blatantly.

Something had to have happened in the past two months. Something had to have changed him, and the only thing I could think of that could've done it was...

Richard Devon. His brother.

Did he finally somehow find a way to get under Harry's skin? Find something to push him into teaching, something that he couldn't get away from, even with all his mighty brains? Nothing less would drive the Harry I knew to this, at least nothing I could think of.

I knew I couldn't be the reason. He had told me to go, so why would he then push himself back into my life again, only to act so cold and distant towards me?

He wasn't here for me, as much as my barely mended heart wanted him to be. But that was fine.

What wasn't fine was the way he had treated me.

He had looked at me as if I was a past memory, a memory he didn't want to come near again, which meant he was over and done with us. A closed chapter. And I would accept that—I had accepted that the day I left his mansion, but then yesterday...

Yesterday, he stood before me and treated me as if I had meant nothing to him, as if the things we had shared had been... nothing.

As if he hadn't kissed me like I was his last kiss and then painstakingly told me to go because we both knew it was for the best.

The man I had talked to yesterday... he didn't even bother to give me a decent lie, let alone trust me enough to tell me what had brought him here, to the last place on earth he wanted to be.

He didn't even acknowledge me as a friend.

And that was wherein my anger lied.

Pacing furiously in my dorm room, I was happy my roommate was out with her friends, probably off on a daybender, partying with some frat house or sorority. It gave me the peace I needed to let out some steam, cursing under my breath as I reviewed yesterday and what had happened.

I didn't know what the truth was yet. All I knew was, something was way off, and I intended to find out why. Harry Devon wasn't here of his own volition, that much was obvious. Harry was many things, and while I had called him an asshole more times than I could count, he wasn't this kind of asshole. The cold, distant and emotionally abusive one. Something had to have pushed him to come here, to become this, and my gut told me to start with Richard.

After all, he was the one who had always craved his brother's gift.

Sitting down in front of my roommate's desk, I logged into her laptop and opened up the web browser. An extensive google search later provided me with an article from two months ago which had me staring in stunned silence.

The article was about Harry's new employment here at St. George Campus. The article, which was postmarked two months ago, told me that it was with great pleasure that the school board had welcomed the renowned mathematician Harold Xavier Devon to Toronto to teach a semester in advanced mathematics back in the start of September.

In other words, Harry had started working for the school about two months ago – the exact same time that I had left for college.

Reading the rest of the article, there was very little detail about anything else regarding why the man who was known for his solitary had finally decided to come out of his hiding and joined society. The article had no personal comments from Harry himself, so it was safe to presume the article had been written more as a formality to the students (and the world) than as an extended formal welcome from the school to him himself.

The article left most of my questions unanswered, which was why I with a defeated sigh closed the laptop down and leaned back in the chair.

Even if I didn't like to admit it, so far Harry's lies were holding up according to the timeline events had happened. In theory, the board could've called him and he could've taken up their offer, just in time to make it to the first semester.

And yet still, I refused to believe a word of it.

If he had known back then he was going to be teaching others, then why didn't he tell me? If he had known we were going to be so close to each other, if he had known that my education wouldn't have been able to tear our lives apart—

"No," I whispered to myself and took a deep breath, cupping my face. "Stop that right now."

I wasn't going to go there. I had spent the last two months trying to convince myself I made the right choice coming here, I wasn't going to start picking it all apart again. He had told me to go, because we both knew it was for the best.

I belonged here and he belonged there.

So why was he here now?

~~~

The next morning, I had tried my best to prepare for the day, knowing what would come. For the next three months, I was going to have to suffer being in the same room as the man who broke my heart two months ago, watching him do a job he absolutely hated.

The same man who for some reason had turned against me and frozen me out of his life without explanation.

Following the stream of students who were hauling their own tired bodies to class, I managed to make my way to the classroom with the rest of them. A bunch of students had already found their seats, so I followed their lead and picked a seat in the back. Slumping into my chair, I got out my notebook and pen. Around me, I saw people doing the same, following his ridiculous rule about no electronics. I couldn't help but snort softly, watching a guy on my right sharpening a pen manually.

They did know mechanical pens existed, right?

Watching as the class got out their last century equipment, I swallowed my smiles when several of them complained about how stupid this was. I agreed, slightly. Harry was nothing if not old-fashioned, and I was glad to see that at least that hadn't changed. Even if it didn't exactly make him more likable.

"If it wasn't because he's so stupid hot, I probably would've filed a complaint," A girl student to my left now spoke. I saw her sit down and plop a notepad and a pencil case down on her table with an irritated grunt.

"I know, right?" Her friend said, taking the seat beside her. "I had such a hard time focusing the last time. I kept thinking about ripping off that shirt and licking his abs. I wonder if he would be into that."

He is, my mind silently answered for her. I didn't bother saying that out loud, though.

Just as well, that same second, the room grew eerily tense and began shushing down. The elicitor of this reaction walked in calmly with his usual pressed suit, only this time he had opted for a gray sweater-west instead of a jacket. His white shirt underneath was tucked neatly into his black slacks that hugged his long legs perfectly. As ever, his brown hair was combed and his jaw was shaved clean and taut.

"Good morning, class," He bid the room.

The whole room muttered a collective 'morning' back, but I swore I heard a few of the girls whisper it almost breathlessly. Just like me, I suspected they were still drinking up his stupidly handsome shape, just as he opened his suitcase and dug out some papers.

"We continue from last," He announced, taking out his glasses from his case as well and sliding them onto his face. "Today we're going to be doing the test I talked about last class. This won't make any impact on your final grades, but do bear in mind that your answers will be judged as your current upkeep in the curriculum. Please do your best and be eloquent about your answers. Do you mind passing these around?" He turned to a student in the front row.

The student got up reproachfully and then did as told, passing along the test after grabbing one himself. The papers made their way around the room until everyone had gotten one. I grabbed one as well before passing it along, laying it down on my table before sighing deeply.

This was going to be a hard semester, wasn't it?

"Has everyone gotten one?" Harry finally asked after a couple of minutes. Overlooking the class, he then gave a curt nod. "You'll have forty-five minutes to complete the test. Please write your name at the top right corner in ink before you begin. Your time starts now."

Everyone, including myself, turned the first page and opened the test to be met by questionnaires and equations. The headache that had been brewing in my head since this morning now began to throb as my heart sank with defeat at the sight of all those numbers. Carefully looking up at Harry, I saw him take a seat behind his desk and procure a book from his bag. Opening it where it was bookmarked, he begun writing into the book, scribbling down what I knew was more math. Exactly like he always did.

Pressing my lips together, I finally turned my eyes down to my test and sighed deeply again.

A very hard semester indeed.

~~~

Exactly like predicted, a few hours later I was camped out in the school library with most of my homework and a bagel sandwich in front of me. Harry's test had left the whole classroom groaning, but that was to be expected. I tried to calm myself with the fact that I would only have to survive it for three more months.

And in the meantime, I had a lot of assignments and studying to distract myself with.

Leafing through a thick book, I rubbed my temple as I scribbled down a few things into my notes, before turning back to the school's stationary computer to work on the assignment for my biochemistry class that was due in a few days.

Trying to understand the material I was reading, it was right around 6pm my concentration was broken when noisy voices behind me suddenly caught my ear. I was just about to turn around and take on the role of the uptight librarian and shush them, when suddenly, I caught a name I couldn't miss.

"...heard the only reason he's here teaching is because he owed some friend a favor. Why else would the infamous Harry Devon come out of his hiding?"

When two giggles followed, I carefully turned my head over my shoulder to see who were gossiping. No surprise, I discovered it was the girls from class, who had slung down in one of the library couches with their bags and laptops.

"I don't know, but I'm so not loving his classes already," Girl One gave a disgruntled huff of annoyance. "We have to write all our assignments by hand and he expects us to be able to focus at the same time? I mean, come on, the guy's like a total dilf."

Looking past her last comment that I was quickly realizing was a common opinion, I focused my attention on the piece of dubious information she had somehow collected and let drop.

Harry Devon was here to follow up on a favor?

I usually never listened to gossip. It was bullshit most of the time, that was a known fact, but in this case... could there be any truth behind it? And if so, was that really all there was to it?

Harry didn't have many friends. At least not many he acknowledged as more than just colleagues, but from my brief time living with him, I came to realize that in the name of friendship, Harry would do a lot.

Like pass up on a million dollars, just so a friend wouldn't get insulted.

The homework in front of me was quickly forgotten as I started to go over the possibilities in my head of this being true.

Harry did say the board had asked him. He also said he always asked him every year, so why was this year different?

And if Harry truly had come here just as a favor to a friend... then why wouldn't he just come out and say it? Why lie, and more specifically, why lie to me?

Unless... Unless the favor somehow involved me.

Feeling a strange stirring in my stomach, I swallowed hard and looked down into my notes, seeing the numbers jump around as my brain began to boil.

In the blink of an eye, I was taken back to that day in his study. That day where he had been on the phone. He had been speaking to the board... yes, about my spot here. What if... what if he had only secured my admittance through this favor? What if the board had demanded him for me?

Had Harry Devon sacrificed all his morals just to get me emitted into college?

The guilt build up inside me like a wildfire as I looked into my messy notes and papers, as realization struck me.

He couldn't have done it... could he? He couldn't possibly have agreed to this... just for me?

Was that why he was angry with me?

As I swallowed dryly again and started to gather up my notes, I ignored the chatty chicks behind me as they blabbered on about Harry's supposed dilf-ness. I grabbed my stuff and arose quickly, trying to walk out of the library as calmly as I could while my whole world was culminating inside me.

This would explain his different behavior. Why he had seemed cold and distant towards me. Why he seemed to be angry with me. Maybe he regretted what he had done. Maybe he was stuck here for a whole semester and it was making him miserable, and with the very sight of the person who he had sacrificed himself for staring him in the face through it all...

God.

I couldn't bear it. If he had sacrificed himself like that for me, I couldn't let him do that. His words last time we spoke had seemed off, and maybe now I finally knew why. Maybe the board hadn't just asked him to come teach, they had demanded it; An eye for an eye. His knowledge for my education.

And if that was the case, that was ending tomorrow. I vowed this to myself as I mounted my bike and felt the cold nibble at me through my coat.

Harry Devon had done me enough favors.

• • •

You think that's why Harry's there?