My colleague Roberto

This story begins with a back story of my characters Zaher and Roberto. Please bear with this first chapter so you can fully understand the story to develop.

 The first chapter is based on my true story when I worked as a TA in 2021, I changed the story and ages of the characters to conform with 2015 so there is a flow to the storyline. I may add pictures of the real classroom I worked in which I describe. From chapter 2 the story becomes VERY fictional.

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Chapter 1

Meet cute

(Background story)

 London, 2015:

 Hi my name is Zaher, I was born and raised in South London, and I am an 18-year-old who works as an unqualified Teaching Assistant with an agency. I am 5ft 10, with a light brown complexion, brown eyes, black hair and clean shaven (I struggle to grow a beard which I really want), I am also quite chubby.

I worked across random schools for weeks at a time until I was asked to take up a long-term role in a primary school in South London, working as an Early year’s (reception) TA to a teacher and class. It was February at this point, and school is not out until July, five months away. As this was close to my home, I was happy to take up the post. I remember on my first day I was escorted to the classroom and was told to wait for the teacher to arrive, as usual with any new school job I felt awkward with nothing to do and wondered around the classroom familiarising myself with where the classroom equipment’s were kept. The class was shared with another reception class next door, we were only separated by half a wall, down a small corridor was the nursery classroom, in between us were toilets, coat hooks and other smaller classrooms for group work. I went by the class teachers’ desk and noticed there were photos on the wall beside it. This was when I first learned that the teacher, I will be assisting is a man, and not just any man but a hot man! He was olive skinned, has a nice white smile with dimples. His chin and cheeks were surrounded by a stubble and his eyes looked warm and inviting (grey coloured). He has brown Lucious hair and seemed slightly slender in the photo. My eyes grew wide as I thought to myself - ‘Holy F*ck! I’m working with a hottie!!’ from the picture he looked quite young, maybe 23 or 24 years old.

 It was 8:40am, by now I have met the other teachers and TAs in the department. Kim, the nursery teacher was this bubbly character, an animation of life who greeted me with a cheerful Canadian accent, she was petit, wore glasses and was of Vietnamese descent. Her expressive and welcoming character not only made me feel welcome but I knew from then on that me and her will be quite close, at first, I thought she was a TA due to her height and young features; she was 24. I was astonished to work in such a diverse and young department, it was a breath of fresh air compared to the other schools I have worked at! The children were being let in at 8:50am and the teacher was still not here, until I noticed he stormed through the door, ran to his desk straight past me and started to turn on his computer and take his coat off. He was much hotter in real life and was my height, slightly taller.

 “Hi, I’m Zaher, I’m your new TA!” I said as I reached out my hand for a handshake.

 “Oh, err Hi – I’m Roberto.” He said looking puzzled as he shook my hand. He had a European accent, I couldn’t figure out where it was from but my guess was Spain, also my gaydar instantly turned on as I judged from his voice, he sounded slightly gay, but this was hard to determine as he had a strong yet mellow accent. “We have to go get the children from the gate, follow me!” he said as he escorted me out of the class.

***

 Now, this story itself can go on as there were months, weeks and days of working together but I will give you an overview of several possible chapters within this one. At first, I thought that Roberto did not like me, but this was because Roberto was under the impression that I was his TA for a few days. He had requested a full time TA for a while and the school brought me across to him out of the blue, which was why he had no idea if I was there for a day or not. When he was told I was his permanent TA for the rest of the year he began to slowly open up to me and brought me up to speed with his classroom, management and routine. I would say it took about two weeks for me to become settled and immerse myself into the role. During staff meetings whenever something was said that sounded inappropriate, we both would snigger, once we both couldn’t hold it in and noticed that we both found the same thing funny, the department looked at us and the lead presenter asked what was funny, we both said nothing and apologised as we turned red. It was at this moment we both found a common ground which separated our professional lives and whenever something inappropriate came up (to us) we both glanced over at each other with a smile (one example was when we had to make a volcano with the class, we let it dry and the next day we walked in to what looked like a circumcised penis ready to shoot this afternoon, I had to add more papier-mache to it). At lunchtimes TAs would eat in the staff room and teachers (Roberto and Kim) ate in the nursery kitchen, it was a small square kitchen, which was divided by a door which overlooked the nursery classroom, it had two stools and a small couch inside. Around the fourth week I went to heat up my food in the microwave of the class kitchen and Roberto and Kim were yapping away and as I took my food out Kim said cheerfully “Zaher, sit down with us.” I joined them. At first It felt strange to eat with the teachers as there was this established pecking order but overtime, I felt more relaxed and joined them both regularly, to a point I stopped eating in the staff room with the other TA’s. The other TAs didn’t mind, although I’m not sure if things were said about me, but one TA – Kim’s TA indirectly expressed that she thought it was strange, but she was a bitch so I took no notice. I’m grateful to Kim for inviting me to eat with them that day, because this hour was spent getting to know my colleagues on a deeper level. I learned that they both lived in the UK for five years and found the job here together. Kim was originally from Montreal and Roberto was from central Spain, he has a boyfriend who he was is in a long-distance relationship with. From a few lunches together, this really changed the dynamics of our relationship as professionals, I began staying back late with them (happily) to work on classroom resources and my batch of marking and filing which I find difficult to do during the work day, this hour or two added to our bonding as we continued to get to know each other on a personal level. On Friday, Kim mentioned to me that herself, Roberto, Carla and Hannah (the year four teacher and the school receptionist, whom they are friends with) were going out for dinner, after a while Kim suddenly suggested I join them, I refused but she pretty much forced me and told their group chat that I will be joining them. Again, looking back now I was glad that she did as this further enhanced our bond. At dinner, Roberto shared some funny stories with us which made us all laugh, when he went to the toilet, they spoke about how wonderful he is. Hannah joked that it is a shame that he is gay and Carla joked to Kim if only you two could be together, Kim replied Maybe in another life. I learned then that Kim had a crush on him for so long but knew it is impossible, she eventually accepted this and moved on from having such feelings. Hannah asked me how I found it working with him followed by what I thought of him, which threw me off. But somehow, she instantly worked out from my response and expression that I liked him. ‘We’ve all been there Zaher, don’t worry you will get over it soon’ they joked. ‘So, you are gay?’ Kim asked. She told me that they were not sure but apparently on my first week, Roberto had gone up to Kim and said he was not sure if I was gay or not but his gaydar believed I was.

***

 It is now late April and things are amazing, I felt that I landed the best job ever, with the most amazing colleagues and amazing department and children. Whenever I got up in the morning, I was happy to get ready and make my way to work, with a smile on my face. My colleagues were no longer just professional beings in my eyes but friends. This friendship was established for a while now, even Kim pointed out once that she can’t do this roleplay in front of a friend (me) for her children as I sat in to cover her as TA, we both just kept laughing throughout, the children were puzzled but laughed with us, eventually I had to step out. The bond between me and Roberto grew even more stronger. He shared many stories with me about his life, relationships – even his sex life (full of funny encounters). I also shared with him my stories and told him about how I feel being gay and finding it difficult to come out, he sympathised and understood me as he came from a conservative family of a religious background like me, he advised me to do what makes me happy and not do something for others or from pressure. Working with Roberto was a breeze, although he was the class teacher and I was his TA the pecking order was fizzled. But I became a fantastic TA for him, almost his PA. I knew what he needed, when he needed it. When he was unwell, I provided him with medication or dark chocolate, which he loved. He treated me to ice creams after work if we both had a stressful day and at times, he would spontaneously massage my shoulders for a moment as I marked work, a cheeky way to thank me as I did his administration. Outside of work we would hang out, go to the cinema, go out to eat or visit an exhibition, most of the times with Kim. I now began to feel deep emotional feelings towards Roberto, many times I would look at his lips and wish to kiss them. At times we would stand or sit close near one another and I can smell the 212 NY perfume coming from his neck and my stomach will flutter whenever he smiled at me. I began masturbating to Roberto, imagining his hands upon me, or fantasizing myself in the sex stories he shared with me or simply just going down on him. They were one of the best solo orgasms I had ever had as I never felt this way about a person.

 Everyone in the school and department knew that we both worked well together, many staff would say it, some would say they envy our relationship and wished they had a teacher or TA to work with like us, others would say that Roberto needed this, a TA like me for such a long time.

Earlier in the year I applied for university and got accepted for September 2016. I was unsure if I wanted to attend this year or not as I wanted to work here with Roberto next year. I knew Kim would be going back to Canada for good, so this is her final year at the school but I then learned that Roberto applied to work in a private school in his hometown and wished to be closer to home, his family and boyfriend. I was upset by this all as I have found new friends, really good friends. I decided to accept my offer for university and the department and headteacher was sad that we were all leaving, they wanted to offer me a job here for next year which I was grateful for, but I see no use in working in a school without Roberto or Kim and I also wished to study and get my degree.

 In July school had finished. We spent a week hanging out one last time as we were unsure when and if we would see each other so soon. I invited Kim and Roberto for a sleepover at my sisters empty flat and we had one last memorable night hanging out, I got to see Roberto in his boxers which was a farewell treat for me and something for the wank bank. The morning after, right after breakfast we hugged Roberto goodbye as he had to go back home and make his way to the airport in the evening. I held on to him tight as I wrapped my arms around his waist and he reciprocated, I began to cry silently. We both stood there hugging for a while, Roberto is not emotional like me so I’m not sure if he was startled by me crying or not but he seemed to manage the situation well. I cried because I was not only saying goodbye to a good friend but my unrequited love. I loved Roberto but I also knew Roberto had a boyfriend so I never made a move or expressed my feelings. Kim, who was standing ahead of me looked on as I cried, I think she could tell. It began raining shortly after and I began tidying up, Kim wanted to help me and asked if I needed to talk but I told her to just chill as I tidy up. A week later Kim left, I dropped her off at the airport and was saddened that the last five months of my life, what felt like eight years of friendship just changed within this week. I felt quite lonely the rest of the summer, and although I knew I would make new friends again, I knew I would never have ones like Kim and Roberto.

 We continued to stay in touch through WhatsApp and Skype/Facetime. Roberto, who applied for his British citizenship through naturalisation was finally granted his citizenship, he came back for a day’s visit in February 2016, we went out to celebrate after attending his ceremony. Kim never came back due to the prices of tickets. Eventually the WhatsApp messages decreased and the video messages were once a month, all three of us who became busy with our personal lives and lived across three time zones were unable to communicate how we used to, but the communication did not cease, it was minimal but it was still there, especially if we needed advice from one another. Over the lockdown of 2020 during the global pandemic, we spoke more frequently and found more time to video chat, I learned that Roberto and his boyfriend were having troubles to keep their relationship going and Kim met a wonderful man during a trip to Vancouver. After the lockdown, the contact reduced once again…

To be continued...