When Mr Lee walked back into school on Monday, he was still tired. When he walked in, he still stopped by the faculty lounge to get a cup of coffee. When he walked through the halls, even though it was late spring, Mr Lee was still cold enough that he clutched his mug tightly as he took the first sip.

All of those things were the same, but there was one old fact missing, and a new one that had arrived.

What was missing was a wish to forget the weekend that had ended and a hangover headache. It had not just been Friday that he didn’t drink, it was Saturday and Sunday too. He still ate horribly unhealthy microwave meals and still got far too little sleep, his mind kept awake by that same man– but he didn’t pair those meals with a glass, then three more glasses of wine. Nor did he quell those lingering thoughts with Nyquill and another glass of wine.

As for that new fact, well… It wasn’t very long-lasting, and not nearly as important as the prior fact; when he unlocked the door to his classroom, after setting his cup of coffee down, and grabbing the whiteboard erase rag but before he wiped the schedule away, Mr Lee took a moment to look out his window. To look overtop the trees, and watch for but five seconds as the sun peaked its head slowly up. It only lasted a moment before he turned to wipe the schedule from last Friday away and he rewrote it all again, and looking at that sunrise hadn’t even made him smile– but it hadn’t ticked him off like it usually did.

Monday, May 10th, Mr Lee wrote at the top of the board, putting more flair into the two capital ‘M’s than he usually did. In exactly four weeks, the first end-of-year exam would take place. In exactly four weeks, Mr Lee would be free from teaching for three months. ‘The extra pay won’t hurt’ he thought over the responsibilities this ceramics program would bring him over the summer. 

Mr Lee scolded himself for thinking of teaching with such cynicism as if he hadn’t been doing so for months. To think, it’d only been a few months since winter break… Mr Lee had probably spent half of all his waking hours since then thinking of that day, and the other half was spent lifelessly going through the motions he’d found pride in as recently as the semester before.

Modern World History was the first class he taught today, it wasn’t a bad group of kids; a Junior class. Mr Lee taught two sections of this class, he used to enjoy comparing what students in either class brought up during discussions– but recently he’d only appreciated that fact as it meant less lesson planning for him. ‘Today should be a relaxing morning then’, Mr Lee thought to himself as he took another sip of his coffee before pulling out his laptop and looking over the slides for today. 

They were the same things he’d taught on the Friday before, they were the same things that had sightly ticked him off last week– but with a slightly more rested pair of eyes, Mr Lee didn’t mind them. He was wrapping up the globalization unit, the last unit of new information before review and then the class’s final exam. 

As Mr Lee shut his laptop once more, he grabbed his coffee mug, drank it down, and then stood up to get another cup. At least today wouldn’t be too bad, a class in the morning, two free periods and then a class in the afternoon– oh, and Mr Lee would have his official meeting with Skyler after classes.

Walking through the hallways, Clare somehow came up beside him again.

“You look better today!” Mr Lee jumped a little at her sudden appearance but smiled when he saw who spoke to him.

“Oh, do I really?” Mr Lee asked, looking away from her once more. Had not drinking made that much of a difference? “How was your weekend?”

“Ahh, same old same old. But you, you must have had a nicer weekend than usual, did you visit the beach or something?” She looked Mr Lee up and down and grabbed his cheek. “Your face is a little fuller too, what’s up with that Mr skin-and-bones?”

“No, no. I stayed at home same as usual, just did some grading and watched a little TV.” For as much as Mr Lee had told Clare, his relationship with liquor had been excluded. He used to talk with her about everything from the happy times with Jason, to what he’d had for breakfast, but since winter break… Mr Lee was a little more closed off.

“Did he come by to visit you? Did Mr Buisness man find time away from his job far away to visit his school teacher lover?” Clare asked, bumping shoulders with Mr Lee as they walked.

“N-no. He’s so busy, he calls though…” Lies. Mr Lee lied to her, his closest friend, the same as he had been for so long. “And don’t be so loud, we're in a school. You can’t talk about that stuff so boldly.”

“Ahh, sorry sorry. It’s so early anyone here is too tired to eavesdrop, don't worry… So, you got a meeting for that ceramics class today?”

“Yeah, the ‘Formal Re-Meeting’, as Mr Hayer has decided to call it.” Mr Lee’s hands found themselves picking at the skin of his thumb again. Their informal re-meeting had gone so well, so why would today stress him so much?

“I’m excited for that program to start up next year, I’ll have a good excuse to stop by the classroom since you’ll be there.” Clare nodded politely to Mr Lee as he opened the teachers’ lounge door and let her walk in first. “Will you try to learn the craft?”

“Ahh, maybe I’ll play with clay in my hands sometimes but I don’t think I’ll learn much.” Mr Lee said as he poured another cup of coffee into his mug, watching with disgust as Clare grabbed a small package of French Vanilla creamer and downed it in one gulp. 

“Why wouldn’t you?” She asked him, genuine wonder on her face as she wiped a dribble of French Vanilla from her lip. “You’ll be working beside a world class artist but won’t try to learn a thing? You need some hobbies Mr Lee, leste your life become a true tragedy.”

“Do I now?” He sighed, as he took a sip and the two left the teachers’ lounge, Clare opening the door this time.

“You do, I mean you’ve been busy this semester so we never chat much–” Clare elbowed Mr Lee as she playfully muttered ‘Asshole’ under her breath. “But you used to only ever talk about him. You need more in your life besides him and work, a life like that will drive you mad before you’re thirty, and you– you’re almost thirty aren’t you!?”

“Ahh, yes. Only a few months away.” Mr Lee didn’t mind she got distracted from her topic, because had they discussed it anymore his mind would have wandered to the question ‘How fast will a life without him, one with work only– how fast will that drive me crazy?’

“Well, you’ve got to do something fun for it don’t you? It’ll be in November right?” She paused for a moment raising a hand in front of Mr Lee’s face as to stop him from revealing the answer. “The twenty… fif– NO! The twenty-fourth, right?” 

Mr Lee nodded with a chuckle as his fingers let up on themselves. He was too distracted by Clare now to feel those unnecessary nerves.

“That’ll be over break, you should definitely do something fun for your birthday then!” Clare walked with Mr Lee back to his classroom, no students were there when they arrived. “What’d you do last year, you and Jason went to a casino or something right?”

Mr Lee smiled for a moment at the memory, before taking a sip of coffee to mask the frown which formed soon after. “Mhm, it was nice.” He answered plainly, turning away from Clare to meaninglessly fiddle with papers on his desk as they spoke.

“I’ll plan something better this year, you tell him, okay? It’s party master Clare in charge this year. We’ll take you, me and some other of your friends on a little trip, oh! This’ll be so much fun. Okay– get ready for your class, I’ll see you at lunch then!” Clare tapped the side of Mr Lee’s classroom as she giddily made her way down the hall and to her library. Mr Lee’d never agreed to her plan for his birthday, and maybe a trip like that would’ve sounded fun a few months ago, but these days?

Mr Lee took another sip of his coffee and waved as the first student for his class walked in, that was months away, too far ahead to worry about. Clare would probably forget by then, hopefully she would.

“Good morning Mr Lee,” Tim said as he walked in. Plopping his bag atop his desk with a thud, he too thudded down into his chair.

“You doing okay Tim?” Mr Lee set down his coffee cup and watched as Tim slouched onto his desk, ignoring the question he’d just been asked.

He thought about going over, about sitting beside Tim and asking him again, with more heart in his words– but as the thought crossed his mind, two more students walked in, and that idea quickly faded past.

Mr Lee neatened the papers he’d messed up in his ruse while talking to Clare while waiting for his class to arrive. Once the bell rang, he began teaching not a second later.

“Can you pass these out–” He said handing the stack of –now quite neat– papers to a student near the front. “Today we’re going to go over some of the institutions that shaped the modern world…”