Her Teacher's Temptation (5 page)

Chapter Seven

"Tell me.
Tell me. Tell me," Meg was gushing as soon as she laid eyes on me. "I
expect every detail of what happened on Saturday night."

I was forced to
chuckle. "I know," I assured her, still confused as to whether I was
feeling guilty or fond about the memories I’d made with Ollie. "Don't
worry, there's plenty of time."

"I want to
know now,” she whined, making me laugh again.

 "Okay,
well, I'm guessing you didn't see who happened to be stood behind me when you
left the club," I baited her in. It was too fun to mess with her like
this: she was so excitable.

Meg groaned.
"Just get on with it."

"It might
have been a certain teacher," I smirked at her reaction.

"No way.
You slept with Mr. Wright? And you said nothing would ever happen.” The smugness
as she crossed her arms was almost too much to bear.  

Her face fell
again when I said my next words, though. "I didn't sleep with Mr.
Wright." Then I grinned. "Not to say I didn't come particularly close
to it."

"Maddie!"
Meg exclaimed. "You know he has a girlfriend." She'd clearly not
expected me to have even come close when she exclaimed I'd slept with him
earlier. It was good to know that I could still genuinely surprise her.

I flushed.
"I know. I was high. It's his fault more than mine. Thankfully, I ran into
an old friend. Not that Ollie and I would have had sex anyway,” I said
seriously. "But yeah, I might have seen Connor."

Meg looked even
more shocked now. "You really did have an eventful night, didn't
you?" She joked.

I giggled
slightly. "I guess I did," I agreed. "But yeah, I left Ollie all
riled up and horny and slept with Connor." Saying it so bluntly made it
sound more impressive, though the guilt weighed down on me slightly.

"I am
impressed," Meg declared seriously. "So, seeing Mr. Wright this
morning is going to be awkward, right?"

"Definitely,"
I whined, dreading seeing his pissed off face when I walked into class.
"I'm tempted to just ditch again."

Meg chuckled.
"Even you might actually fail if you don't go to any of his lessons."

"I know. I
just really don't want to do this. I wish I was still drunk."

Flashing a grin
at me, Meg stumped out her cigarette and gestured for us to head inside. We'd
had to find a new place to smoke in and this one was significantly further away
from the main doorway - actually just outside campus this time (though we
weren't supposed to be seen by anyone smoking in our uniforms at all) which
meant we had to hurry up.

"That
tattooed guy is the dad, by the way," I informed Meg with a slight
grimace. She seemed happy enough, though, which was what spurred me to keep
talking about the things I was classing as misfortunes.

"No way,"
Meg breathed. "I wasn't even serious about that."

"Yeah, I
know. Neither was I. Apparently my mum was, though."

"Impressive."

I paled
slightly as we got to Ollie's door. Though it had been easy to tease him
mercilessly when I had been off my head, walking into his classroom sober, when
he was the person most definitely in charge, was much harder. I almost backed
out. "Let's go," Meg taunted, opening the door and sauntering in as
though nothing was amiss. I took back what I'd said about teasing her. She was
enjoying this far too much.

"You're
late," Ollie's flat voice snapped at us as we sat down.

"Sorry
sir," Meg answered immediately, the tone of voice giving away that she
knew the situation entirely. Ollie grimaced at her, and then doubly at me,
before starting the lesson.

"He doesn't
look impressed," Meg chimed in a whisper. Her cheeks must have been
hurting from smiling so much.

I almost buried
my head in my arms when he glared at me. "Stop talking," his voice
was just as angry as his gaze and I felt sure that the rest of the class must
be aware something was wrong with him. He could have been a bit more subtle.

"I just
want this to be over," I muttered when his back was turned to write
something on the board.

The lesson did
not pass without more incidents. I was forced to read the character with the
most lines, which I stumbled over many times due to the harsh look I was
receiving from him. I hadn't thought he'd be this angry. He asked me all the
hardest questions - I was sure he'd come up with some of them just to attempt
to embarrass me. And it worked.

"I think I
have to stay and talk to him." My stomach was doing flips as I packed my
things away and stared at Ollie, who was hunched over his desk marking papers.  

"Good
luck." Meg had sat smug throughout the lesson. It almost annoyed me how
much she fed off my misfortune. But I supposed I'd have been the same if the
situation had been reversed. 

"What do
you want?" Ollie demanded when I lagged behind and approached his desk
warily.

"You know
you could have been a bit more subtle." I tried not to show much I didn't
want to have this conversation. "I'm pretty sure the whole class thinks
you have some vendetta against me."

Ollie rolled
his eyes. "I'm sure no one cares."

"Professional."
I'd commented before I could help myself.

Ollie finally
looked up from the paper he was marking. "What do you want, Maddie?"
He repeated, sounding even more unimpressed.

I flushed.
"I kind of wanted to apologise.” Clasping my hands together, I resisted
the urge to use my sad face on him. If he really hated me that might destroy me
a little bit.

Ollie didn't
look particularly like he forgave me. "Right," he stated, apparently
still wanting me to leave.

I scowled, my
temper flaring. "Not that it's really me who should be apologising. You
have a girlfriend, remember? I made the right decision and you know it, so stop
being stroppy about it."

With a sigh,
Ollie gestured to the table in front of my desk for me to sit down. "I
know," he conceded, running a hand through his hair and looking at me
properly for the first time. There were bags under his tired eyes that I hadn’t
noticed during the lesson. How men got by without make-up I had no idea. "I'm
not really angry at you, I'm more angry at myself. I don't think being drunk
excuses me at all for what I did."

I was surprised
by his admission, and struggled to think of what to say. "It's not really
a big deal," I tried to tell him. "I only stayed behind because I
felt bad about how annoyed you were."

"I was
completely ready to cheat on my girlfriend, Maddie," Ollie deadpanned.
"Obviously I'm feeling a bit guilty and seeing you didn't really
help."

I twiddled my
thumbs whilst I considered a response. "There's no need to beat yourself
up about it," I attempted to console him, though really, he was completely
right in everything he was saying. "It's not like anything actually did
happen. Not really. Plus, I was really high, so it was probably my fault."

Ollie snorted.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still annoyed at you too," he commented with
a slight smirk. "You were quite a bitch."

I gasped
comically. "But Mr. Wright, how could you say that?" I teased.

Ollie only
groaned. "This whole situation is so stupid. Look at us." Then his
eyes narrowed further. "Oh yeah, I was supposed to tell you that you got
into the finals for some writing competition you entered."

My eyes
widened. "Really?" I couldn't help my grin. During the summer, I'd
entered a competition hosted by the University of Newcastle where you had to
write a 2,000 word short story titled 'Journey'. I of course hadn't expected to
get anywhere with it. "That's so cool."

He gave me the
first genuine smile of the day. "Yeah, only I'm the one who has to go with
you to the finals,” he pouted. "I get stuck with all the rubbish jobs
since I'm new."

"It's
going to be so fun," I chimed. "And what, is it just a day thing? I
thought it'd take too long to drive there for that."

"They're
putting all the finalists and the teachers that accompany them up in a hotel
for the night. So at least we get free meals."

I raised an
eyebrow. "But do we get free drinks?" Was what I really needed to
know.

Ollie shook his
head vehemently. "Drinking with you is always going to end badly, I've
realised."

"Oh, come
on. We've only tried it twice. I'm sure we can be civil if we really put our
minds to it," I taunted, glad that I'd managed to cheer him up a bit.

I received a
small smile. "I don't think it's worth risking. I read your piece by the
way. I'm surprised they put it through to the finals. Not that it isn’t good,”
he quickly backtracked. “Just because of what it’s about."

"Me
too." I'd written mine based on the experience I had whilst tripping on
acid. "I wasn't really expecting to hear anything back at all, maybe they
like missed the point, or something."

Ollie shrugged.
"Or maybe they thought it was a clever interpretation of the prompt,"
He suggested, causing me to grin.

"Perhaps,"
I allowed. "So, when is this thing? I hope I didn't have some mad weekend
planned."

"Two weeks.
You get to miss a whole day of school. We go on Friday morning, when school
should start. Then we have to listen to a seminar," he fake yawned,
"about creative writing."

I snorted.
"Aren't you supposed to be all for the education?"

"I would
be, but I know the person who's lecturing, he's the most monotonous person
ever. We're going to die," he told me bluntly. "Then the readings and
final are on the Saturday. Then we drive home Saturday night. I'm pretty sure
you have to sign a letter," he began rustling about on his desk, "to
say that I'm allowed to drive you and stuff."

Nodding, I took
it from him. "How many other finalists are there?"

"6. I
think they give out prizes for the top 3."

"Sweet,"
I breathed, though really I knew that I didn't have much of a chance. I was
sure most of the other finalists were probably from private schools and had had
theirs written by their teachers.

"I could
think of better ways to spend my weekend," he taunted, though I got the
feeling he was pretty happy I'd done this well. His dead eyes had come back to
life a bit during our conversation.

"Yeah,
yeah," I replied. "Sure you can. I hope you're not just going to
bring essays to mark. I'm sure part of this whole chaperoning thing is keeping
me entertained."

Ollie raised an
eyebrow at me. "That's definitely not part of it. You'd better bring a
book, or something." Then he ran a hand through his hair. "You should
probably go and get some lunch."

Glancing at the
clock, my eyes widened. I hadn't realised how long we'd spent talking. Time
just seemed to fly when we were in this teasing mood. "Right," I
agreed. "I'm glad you don't hate me."

I received a
chuckle in response. "I don't hate you,” he admitted. "But I am still
annoyed at you, even if it doesn't seem like it." His attempt at a scowl
failed.

I smirked and
leaned slightly closer to him. "I did almost scream your name, if that
makes you feel any better."

I turned and
walked out the door before he could give a proper response, but I didn't miss
just how red his cheeks had gone before I did.

Chapter Eight

Meg sighed
wistfully. "I can't believe you're going to Newcastle with Mr. Wright
tomorrow. How'd you get so lucky?"

I chuckled.
"We're going to listen to some boring lecture. And it's not like we're
staying in the same room or anything. In fact, they probably have like separate
teachers and students’ wings or something.” Not that that should have made any
difference. I wasn’t going to be going into his room for anything. “Plus, he
said he's bringing loads of marking."

Meg was looking
sceptical. "You really don't think anything is going to happen? Even after
when we went out?"

I shook my
head. The last two weeks had been surprisingly normal. Ollie and I hadn't
conversed at all out of the classroom except the time he'd shown up at the
restaurant with Jemma. It had been slightly awkward for both of us, but nothing
noticeable.

I'd realised
that he was actually a pretty good teacher, once I'd gotten over Miss Taylor
leaving. I still couldn't quite see him as my teacher, though, and it was
probably due to the large percentage of the lesson I spent ogling him.

"Nothing
will happen. We haven't even spoken since then. It was just because we were
both a bit out of it last time, and that situation is never going to arise
again."

I wasn't sure
how Meg could still look so doubtful. I wanted something to happen, but I knew
it wasn't going to. Ollie had been too worked up after the last time to ever go
there again. Never mind the fact it was just wrong on practically every level.
Illegal, the age difference, the fact he had a girlfriend. It just wasn't something
good to be getting into.

"Well, I
got hold of some pills this weekend," Meg chimed. "So I think you're
missing out, even if you are getting to stare at Mr. Wright whilst pretending
to watch a lecture."

I raised an
eyebrow. "You know I wouldn't be doing it anyway." I had a general
rule of waiting three months before doing ecstasy again; it was when you
started doing it regularly that it could mess you up. "How come you're
doing it again?" Meg generally agreed with me on this rule. I didn't want
her to be doing this just because I wasn't going to be there this weekend to
keep her occupied. I also didn't want to sound like I was judging her.

"I know
what you're thinking, but I'm not being stupid, honest. It's just because they
got some really good stuff that's hard to get hold of. I just want to try it
out whilst it's available."

"Okay."
I decided I'd take her word for it. She'd never overdone the drugs before, so I
trusted her this time. I couldn't stop it nagging me that she was not exactly
in the best mental state right now, though.

"Look who
it is," Meg suddenly chimed. I scowled when I recognised Ollie and his
girlfriend walking towards us.

"Shouldn't
you be working?" Mr. Wright questioned, eyeing my coat which was hiding my
uniform and the cigarette in my hand.

I checked my
watch. "Yeah, my break's just finished,” I realised. Meg had come in for a
discounted meal and a chance to talk to me before it got too busy, but the
restaurant was starting to fill up now. "See you later Meg." I really
hoped she wouldn't say something embarrassing.

She settled for
a smug "have fun," as she stubbed her own cigarette out and began
walking off. She only lived a five minute walk away from the restaurant.

I followed them
inside and my boss decided I would be serving them, naturally. It was still a
bit awkward being around them together. Probably because I still couldn't quite
bring myself to get over Ollie. I knew this was probably fine for him.

Collecting
their menus and taking their orders, I wondered whether Meg was right. I
seriously doubted anything would happen in Newcastle though. And I definitely
shouldn't push for anything to happen. I had to try and control myself if the
temptation occurred.

Work managed to
distract me for the most part, though. Having to constantly serve tables and
concentrate on not dropping the several plates I had on my arm stopped my eyes
being allowed to drift to Ollie's table.

When they'd
finished their meals, I was half curious and half reluctant to go to their
table. I was pretty interested in their relationship, to be honest. From what
I'd seen of Jemma, which wasn't a lot, she didn't really seem like Ollie's cup
of tea. I'd gotten more information from his friends when we were in town that
they all thought she was pretty bitchy.

I was probably
just going along with that opinion because it made me feel better, though.

“Would you like
any desserts?” I inquired as professionally as I could whilst stacking their
empty plates on top of each other. It was kind of comical to be doing this to
Ollie, but I didn't really have a choice.

“Two chocolate
mousses,” Jemma stated, not looking up from her menu.

I would have
teased Ollie for his good choice if Jemma hadn't been there. “Coming right up.”

“Girl.” I had
to really bite my tongue on a sarcastic comment when Jemma called me back with
the derogatory term. I was wearing a name tag. “Can we also have a cappuccino?”

“Of course.” I
was sure the bitterness in my voice was obvious this time, but Jemma didn't
appear to pick up on it. Ollie was skilfully avoiding my gaze.

She leant
forward and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Just nipping to the ladies’.”

Ollie ran an
apologetic hand through his hair when Jemma was out of earshot. “Sorry.”

I shrugged.
“It's fine. You'd be surprised how often it happens.” Which was true. Working
in a fancy restaurant meant that stuck up guests were a frequent occurrence.
The only reason this annoyed me in particular was that someone like her
definitely didn't deserve to be going out with Mr. Wright.

“Yeah, but,” he
shook his head. “Never mind, I guess.”

I gave him a
small smile. “My dad went back to Dubai, by the way.” I doubted he'd even
thought about the incident with my dad since it had happened, but I thought it
was worth letting him know in the rare case that it had been bugging him.

Ollie raised a
slightly surprised eyebrow. “He got over it, then?”

I shrugged. “I
think he probably just had to go back to work,” I admitted. “I don't really
care. I'll be at uni by the time he next comes back probably.” He'd left
without speaking to me again, which I was somewhat grateful for. He had managed
to not cause too much trouble for my mum and I despite his attempts to.

"I'm glad,
anyway," Ollie replied. "He seemed like a complete arsehole."

I chuckled.
"It's weird hearing teachers swear. Though I guess you still don't really
seem like my teacher."

Mr. Wright
grinned. “Yeah, trust me, I know what you mean.”

I noticed that
Jemma was coming back then and repressed the urge to scowl. I was supposed to
retain a certain amount of professionalism. “Well, I'll see you tomorrow.” My
arms were starting to hurt from carrying the plates, anyway.

“Right,” Ollie
agreed, sounding almost wary. “This weekend is going to be fun.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Try not to sound too enthusiastic,” was my last comment before Jemma
returned and I set my face back into a mask of indifference.

*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

“You're only
going for a night,” my mum said sceptically as I rolled my small suitcase out
towards Ollie's car.

“I have a
different outfit for my reading, and I brought some homework to do,” I
explained, conveniently failing to mention the vodka and coke, going out
clothes and shoes I'd stuffed into the cramped bag. Even if Ollie wasn't going
to have fun with me, I'd heard how good the nightlife in Newcastle was and I
really wanted to see if the rumours were true.

Ollie also
raised an eyebrow at my bag, but I ignored him. “Good luck honey.” She gave me
a quick hug and I gave my dog an affectionate scratch as he pottered around the
front garden, hoping that he was about to be taken on a walk. “I'm sure you'll
do really well.”

I'd written a
different piece for my mum to read, which involved someone coming home from
war, so that she wouldn't be suspicious about my drug use. I figured it was
safer that way. She'd been impressed with it even if it hadn't been my actual
entry. “Thanks mum.”

“See you
tomorrow evening!” I called as I slipped into the passenger seat of Ollie's
car, giving her a small wave.

“See you soon,”
she replied, waving back and blowing a cheesy kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I grinned as
Ollie started up his engine and pulled away from the kerb. These two days were
either going to be really good or horribly bad. I was surprisingly optimistic
it would be the first one.

“You have got
everything, haven't you?” He checked just before we reached the end of my
street. “I'm definitely not coming all the way back to Sheffield if you've done
something stupid like forgotten your writing.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Yes, I've got everything. Do I really seem that clumsy to you?”

Ollie glanced
at me sceptically. “Yes,” he deadpanned. “Mind you, with that suitcase I don't
think it'd be possible for you to have forgotten anything.”

I refused to
comment on that, in case he sniffed out my plan. I had to hope everyone else at
the competition wasn’t as studious as I was imagining them to be. “I've never
been to Newcastle. Have you?”

“Yeah, my
sister goes to uni there. She's in her second year, so I've been quite a few
times. It's nice up there.”

“I'm glad I'm
getting to go now, I'm thinking of putting it down as one of my uni choices,” I
explained. “What's she studying?”

“Journalism.”

“Oh cool,” I
beamed. “That's what I want to do too. Does she like it?”

“Yeah, but she
failed her May exams because she went out drinking too much and had to resit in
August,” he told me with a chuckle.

I smirked. “We
both know I'm more sensible than that, though.”

He rolled his
eyes. “Sure.”

“I don't think
I'll end up going there anyway.” I figured I may as well explain my reasoning,
since we had two and half hours of driving time to pass. “I think I should stay
closer to home, though, to help out my mum if she ever needs it. I definitely don't
want to stay in Sheffield. But Nottingham looks pretty good. Or Leeds maybe.”

“If you want to
go further away from home, you should just do it.” Ollie gave me a serious
sideways glance. “My parents really wanted me to stay closer to home, even when
I got into Oxford, but I really wanted to just have some time away. I
definitely made the right decision. You should just do what you want to do.”

I considered
this. “Maybe. I really like Nottingham anyway, though.”

“Are you
thinking of applying to Oxbridge? Because I'm fairly sure you could get in.
Especially with this writing competition and stuff. You've got more to put on
your CV than I did.”

“I used to
really want to do maths and Cambridge,” I admitted with a slight chuckle. “But
then when it came to A-levels I way preferred the English side of things. And
in terms of Oxbridge, I don't like the whole posh thing they have going on.
Formal dinners and stuff really isn't my thing.”

He shrugged.
“Me neither,” he admitted. “I think I was pretty lucky to make friends who had
the same kind of interests as me and weren't bothered about the posh stuff. I
can see what you mean, though. Sometimes I wish I'd gone to a bigger city;
especially since now I'm not supposed to go out and stuff.” Then he snorted.
“And really, are you just good at everything?”

I flushed
slightly. “I can't draw,” I offered with a small smirk.

Ollie rolled
his eyes. “You could definitely get into Cambridge.”