Waiting for a Star to Fall

What Are We

Erin laughed as she and Brian discussed the days' lecture from the afternoon class. "And how about when Dr. Gaines was talking about low orbital projectiles and the citation in the text was fifty years off in the research." Brian added, only making Erin laugh further. She slapped another grade over one of Brian's student papers. She had proved to be an unbelievable graduate assistant. Erin was everything that Brian pined to fall in love with. She was lovely, she had a radiant smile and was quite intelligent. Erin was articulate and charming. Quite the extrovert and she had many friends around campus.

She was frightening to Brian because she had so many qualities he yearned for. Erin had never turned anything in late to him; in fact most of it was early. She had deep, intellectual conversations with him over his thesis work or over advanced equations and postulates from their classes. However, Brian was relieved that she had a boyfriend. Otherwise, there was no way in hell he would be able to be as comfortable around her as he was. As comfortable as Brian was with Erin when he met up with her on Fridays, he couldn't keep his mind from thinking about how wonderful it would be if she were his girlfriend instead. Sometimes, when he would listen to her talk; he would rehearse it all in his mind: the way he would take her stargazing outside of London, make her tea at his flat and watch the telly on a Saturday afternoon. The way he would put his arms around her and kiss her neck and hold her hand during walks around the lake. The way they would eat dinner together at his place and talk for hours before he would throw her down in his bed and give her the best sex she'd ever...

"Brian!" Erin repeated, seeing as he was in a trance, sweating and on the verge of breaking the pencil in his hand.

"Huh?" he asked, looking up to her with enormous eyes and a pale face. She laughed again.

"I said the girl in your math section writes Dr. May on all of her papers. Does she know you are a professor?" Erin asked.

"Oh, um....oh I...I don't guess she does." Brian laughed nervously. "Is it a bit hot in here?" He asked. Erin smiled that perfect smile of hers.

"No. I think it must only be you. You know, your hair's a lot longer than it was at the beginning of the semester." She said.

"Yeah, yeah it's um...it's taken on a mind of it's own really." He answered, signing off on a student permission form to add his class to their fall schedule. It was then that the phone rang, Brian answered it only to get yelled at on the other end. He held the receiver out from his ear, knowing Erin could hear it.

"Fr...Fre...Freddie! Calm down! I'm not....I'm..." he sighed. "I'm not bailing on practice! I know it's 4:30! Can you please give me twenty minutes? Fre...Freddie stop yellin'." And then it dawned on Brian. "Fred, how did you get this office number? You...you what? You can't call the university and ask for me! O...okay. Okay, Freddie. I promise. Twenty minutes. Yes. Okay. Yes, I'll bring beer. Okay, well I'll bring vodka too. Okay, goodbye!" Brian hung the phone up again and shook his head.

"Who on earth?" Erin questioned.

"Oh it's my bandmate. He's afraid I'm blowin' off practice for, in his words, 'science and stuff'." He answered laughing at Freddie's antics. "I told him to give me twenty minutes and then I would be on my way. Erin smiled.

"So you're in a band that actually takes the time to practice and those sorts of things?" she asked. Brian shook his head.

"Yes. I'm um, I'm starting to come with these...I don't know....these guitar riffs in my head and sometimes I have to record myself singing them back so I don't forget them. Or...or something else. I'll have these words that come to me and I have to write them down so I don't forget them." Brian explained with shining eyes.