Her Teacher's Temptation (9 page)

Chapter Fourteen

The next two
weeks were disappointingly uneventful. Ollie and I hardly spoke out of class
and he didn't come into the restaurant at all when I was working. Apart from
the occasional Madeleine to make me blush, there was no sign of anything more
than a professional relationship between us.

A familiar face
was stood at the school gates when my day ended and it beamed when it saw me
approaching. "Maddie!" She exclaimed with a grin. "I suppose I
should've expected to see you."

"Hey,
Annabel." I greeted. "I didn't realise you'd meant you were coming to
visit so soon. This is Meg," I introduced her. "This is Annabel,
Ollie's sister."

"You know
his sister?" Meg demanded, looking offended I'd missed out some information
about time I'd spent with Mr. Wright.

I rolled my
eyes. "Annabel goes to uni in Newcastle. I met her at the writing
thing."

"Oh,
right."

"So, what
plans have you made with Ollie?" I inquired. 

Annabel pouted,
taking into stride the fact Meg apparently knew all about Ollie and me. “I have
to go out for dinner with him and Jemma,” she whined. Then her eyes widened
with a mischievous sparkle. “You should come too.”

I snorted.
“Yeah, right,” I returned sarcastically. “Me and Jemma will play happy families.”

“See!” Annabel
exclaimed. “It’d be so funny.”

“Ollie’d never
let me come.” I said, more seriously now. “I’d feel kind of mean anyway. It
wouldn’t exactly be ideal for him.”

Our
conversation was cut short when the man himself appeared. “Oh, well this can’t
be good,” he teased as he approached, giving Annabel a quick hug. “You’re ready
to get off? We won’t be eating for a few hours, but I’m guessing you want to
just go and hang out before I make you put up with Jemma.”

Annabel was
grinning though. “Can I bring someone with me to dinner?”

“Maddie isn’t
coming to dinner,” Ollie deadpanned.

“I can get you
a discount,” I teased. I assumed they were going to my restaurant, considering
it appeared to be Jemma’s favourite with how often she ate there. Or maybe she
just had enough money to eat out every night.

Ollie sighed.
“I’m fairly sure it would be an awful idea.”

I bit my lip.
He was actually going to cave. I wasn’t sure if this was for my benefit or
Annabel’s and I was quite sure I didn’t want to go. If he offered I’d be unable
to resist, though. Getting to experience Jemma in her entirety and make a
proper judgment on the woman Ollie was so committed to was too tempting. I’d be
annoyed if she turned out to be nice and everyone else was just being judgmental.

“But it’d be
fun,” Annabel tried to assure him. Ollie had no idea that Annabel knew what was
going on between us. As far as he was concerned, she just wanted a friend. “I
like Maddie. And since I don’t really know Jemma that well it’d be nice to have
her there.” I didn’t bother to mention that I’d literally only spoken to
Annabel twice, ever.

“It’s fine, I’m
really not expecting you to invite me,” I told Ollie seriously. It would be the
most awkward situation for him I could imagine. “Annabel is probably only
joking.”

He shrugged.
“You can come if you want,” he finally allowed, though he didn’t look
particularly convinced that he’d made the right decision.

“Sure?” I
double checked sceptically.

“Why not?” I
could think of plenty very good reasons, but it would be interesting to see
where he was planning on going with this. There had to be some ulterior motive for
going to dinner with his girlfriend and the person he’d cheated on her with.
“I’ll pick you up at like six. That okay?”

“Yeah,” I agreed,
frown not letting up.

After they’d
left, Meg fixed with me a calculating look. “You’re definitely going to be
telling me about this later.”

***

In the
restaurant, it was actually less awkward than I’d anticipated; probably just
because of how well Annabel and Ollie got on. Their banter made it impossible
for there to be a moment too awkward.

I was sat next
to Annabel and opposite Ollie, which I was grateful for. I really didn’t want
to have to avoid staring at Jemma all night. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, I
was more uncomfortable than I’d thought I’d be having to talk to her normally
and stuff. The guilt was weighing on me a lot more than I’d anticipated. She
really didn’t deserve this.

I also felt
slightly out of place since I didn’t really have any reason to be here. Annabel
didn’t exactly know me that well and it was more like Jemma was third-wheeling
than Annabel. “Ollie said you came second in the writing competition,” Jemma
told me with a small smile. Maybe she felt uncomfortable too. I wonder if she
knew that Ollie’s friends didn’t like her. “He was pretty annoyed you didn’t
win.”

I laughed
softly. “He just wanted to take all the credit.”

“What was your
piece on?”

I bit the
inside of my cheek. I glanced at Ollie to get some hint as to whether I should
lie or not, but I didn’t really see the point, and his face didn’t change. If
someone at the university thought it was acceptable, then there was no reason
Jemma shouldn’t. “Well the prompt was ‘journey’, so I did mine about tripping
on acid,” I explained, taking a quick sip of my drink as her eyes widened.

“Oh, really?”
Her tone had turned distasteful, which is almost what I’d expected. “Did you
just research it a lot, or was it from experience?”

“Erm, from
experience,” I admitted, glancing at Annabel, who looked fairly happy about
this conversation. Ollie had done plenty of drugs by the sound of it. I
wondered if Jemma knew that.

“It seems a bit
excessive, to do a drug like that just for a writing competition,” She
commented with a frown, taking a bite of the unfulfilling salad she’d ordered.

I couldn’t help
but chuckle. “I’d done the LSD before and when I saw the prompt I just thought
of it. The other way round probably would have been excessive.”

“Isn’t that a
bit dangerous? Do you do drugs often?” She queried further, as Ollie appeared
to be dying to interrupt the conversation.

“I don’t do
them often.” Which I didn’t, I wasn’t an idiot. “And you can’t die from doing
LSD. There’s basically no bad side effects of just doing it once.” I explained
seriously. “Unless you go overboard with the amount and have a really bad trip,
I guess.”

“I’m pretty
sure it’s illegal for a reason.”

I scowled.
“Well, I don’t know why, considering that it’s significantly better for you
than drinking alcohol and smoking is.” I was sorely tempted to gesture to her
glass of wine – her second of the evening – but I resisted.

Jemma returned
a glare at me. “I don’t know why you think you know more about drugs than the
people who set the laws.”

“I don’t know
why you’re pretending to have an opinion when you clearly know nothing about
it,” I retorted, narrowing my eyes. Annabel covered her mouth to hide a smile
and Ollie looked like he’d rather be anywhere else right now.

“I’m going to
use the bathroom. It looks like you need to calm down,” she stated, standing up
and straightening her expensive skirt.

Annabel looked
particularly smug as she stood up. “I actually need the toilet too. Be right
back.”

I was reluctant
to turn around and face Ollie’s disapproving glare. “This wasn’t my fault,” I
complained. “She definitely started it. She was rude to me first, I’m sure I
haven’t just imagined that.”

“Couldn’t you
have just been the bigger person? You must know how awkward this is for me
already.”

“You didn’t have
to invite me,” I shot back. “I gave you several opportunities to say no.”

He ran a hand
through his hair. “I know. But I really didn’t think either of you would kick
off. In fact, I thought it was more likely to be Annabel that said something.”

“I’m sorry.” I
apologised, unsure how sincere it really was. “I didn’t want to make it even
more awkward for you, but she did deserve it.”

Ollie chuckled.
“And it was quite amusing.”

I watched him
carefully as he took a long gulp of his beer. “Why did you invite me?” I
questioned. “Literally nothing good could have come from this. Even I feel
guilty sitting here, like, I don’t know, I didn’t think I would.”

Ollie rested
his chin on his fist and avoided my eyes. “Actually, it was a pretty shitty
thing to do. I can’t really explain without sounding like a complete dick.”

My eyes widened
slightly. He really did have an ulterior motive.

“Well, you have
to try now. Tell me.”

“Because I
wanted to see whether I actually liked you, when I could directly compare you
to Jemma, or because I liked the idea that I couldn’t really be with you,
because you were there and you were hot.” His cheeks flamed. “Sorry, that
sounds really awful, I should have just said it was for Annabel’s benefit.”

“Huh, that is a
pretty shitty thing to do. So, what conclusion did you come to?” I had to ask,
even if I was mildly offended by his reasoning.

“What
conclusion do you think I came to?” He muttered, taking another long gulp as
both of our cheeks turned the same shade of red. So Ollie really did like me. I
wasn’t sure if I was over the moon, or it was a harsh kick in the gut that it
could never happen between us.

I didn’t have
time to think too long though, because Annabel and Jemma returned. I prayed
that I didn’t still look too flushed, but Annabel’s curious glance made me
think I probably was. “Sorry for being rude,” I forced myself to say to Jemma.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I wanted to relieve the tension, or because I
wanted to reaffirm what I assumed was Ollie’s view that I was the better
person.

“It’s fine.”
Jemma assured me, surprising me slightly. “I always like people who can accept
when they’re wrong.” I had to really bite my cheek at the implication she was
making in her snotty voice so that I didn’t snap at her again.

Annabel and
Ollie looked seriously impressed that I managed to stay quiet and I was
absolutely grateful when we could leave. As much as confirming that Jemma was
indeed awful and that Ollie apparently did like me, it didn’t really solve any
of my problems. I still couldn’t have him. I was just going to be thinking
about him, if possible, even more now.

Chapter Fifteen

“You’re looking
particularly happy today,” I teased Meg as she slipped into the chair beside
me. I only realised afterwards that I might only be reminding her of why she
wasn’t always on top of the world lately. This was the last lesson of the day,
Meg had free periods this morning, so it was the first time I’d seen her.

She grinned wider
at me. “I’m feeling it. And I have something to tell you.”

I raised a
curious eyebrow. “Go on.”

“I might be
kind of seeing Rob,” she confessed, beaming. “Well, I mean, we like hang out a
lot together and we sleep together. I think we’re kind of friends with
benefits,” she explained further, bouncing up and down in her seat slightly. “I
know it’s kind of stupid, since I actually really like him, but it’s better
than nothing, right? And we’re friends, so I’m not sure whether he like likes
me or not.”

I had to
chuckle at her enthusiasm. “Sure. It’ll probably work out fine. So, tell me
what he’s like?” I prompted, glancing at the clock and realising that Ollie was
uncharacteristically five minutes late.

“He’s amazing,”
she gushed. “He’s so nice to me all the time and we just get on so well.
There’s always something to talk about and we watch films and listen to music
and everything. And obviously the sex is amazing. And he’s just really
brilliant.”

“Wow,” I
replied, trying desperately to keep the scepticism from my voice. That all
seemed a bit too good to be true. “He sounds amazing.” Meg giggled and that was
when I cottoned on. "You're high," I accused, really hoping that she
was going to find some way to tell me I was wrong.

"Maybe,"
she drawled with a smirk. "You should try it sometime. It makes school way
more fun."

I sighed. I
guess I couldn't convince myself that it had just been a coincidental few weeks
in a row that Meg had gone out and gotten high. "Yeah," I tried not
to show how worried I was. There was no point in ruining her mood now. My thumbs
hurt from so much twiddling.

I wasn't sure
if Meg was doing so many drugs because of this Rob guy that she was seeing, or
if she was seeing him because she was doing drugs so often. Either way, I
didn't think he was a good influence. He probably had no idea about the
problems in her life right now.

It had only
been a month since the night we'd gone out and I felt sure that she'd done it
every weekend since then. Did that mean she was addicted? Or just was she
making the choice to do it because she was miserable the rest of the time?

Whatever the
case, this definitely wasn’t a good thing.

Thankfully
Ollie entering the room stopped me having to converse with Meg any more. I just
hoped she wouldn't make it too obvious that she was completely out of it. Ollie
sat down at his desk with tired movements and big black circles under his eyes.
Was I allowed to stay at the end and ask what was wrong with him?

I was surprised
by how normal Meg managed to act throughout the lesson. Though her tapping
became increasingly irritating and she kept attempting to talk to me in what
wasn’t quite quiet enough of a whisper, she managed to answer any questions
Ollie gave her without looking out of the ordinary.

At the end of
the lesson, I realised that I really didn’t want to go with Meg. It felt
awkward being around her when I was tempted to explain what an awful decision
she was making the whole time. “I just have to stay and talk to Ollie about
something,” I excused myself with a small smile.

“No problem,”
Meg beamed. “I’m going to meet Rob anyway. He’s picking me up.”

I forced out a
smile. “Okay, well, I’ll see you later then.” Meg pulled me into an unexpected
hug and I feared for a moment that she might kiss me on the cheek or something.

Ollie gave me a
wary look when I approached his desk. “What’s up?”

I ran a hand
through my hair. “Can I ask you about something? I don’t really know who else
to talk to.”

Ollie actually
looked nervous and I realised it would have been better to just come straight
out with it without the build-up. “Sure.”

“I’m worried
about Meg. She was high just now. That’s like, really bad, right? What am I
supposed to do about that?”

“Wow, I’m
really not observant. Out of all the teachers I should really be the best at
noticing stuff like that.” He rolled his eyes, before calming down to the
gravity of the situation. “But wow, I mean, I don’t know what to say. You think
she might be addicted? It’s bad, if she is. I mean, it can really mess up your
life. And we’re talking ecstasy, right?”

I sighed
heavily and nodded to his question. “I don’t know, I mean, I think she’s on the
road to, if she isn’t already. She’d never normally do something like this.”

“Does this have
something to do with the day I let you skip school?”

I supposed
there was no point in keeping that a secret anymore and besides, I really did
trust Ollie, even though really I didn’t even know him that well. “Her mum has
breast cancer. And yes, I think it has everything to do with that.”

Ollie ran a
hand through his hair and stayed silent for several minutes, looking up at the
ceiling whilst I decided I may as well take a seat on top of one of the front
desks. “Have you tried talking to her about it?”

“No.” It
sounded awful to say it. “I didn’t think it was a good idea right now since
she’s still kind of out of it,” it was a poor excuse for me having ignored the
situation for this long. “I don’t even know what I’d say.”

“Just be honest
with her,” Ollie advised. “And realistic. Don’t just tell her to stop going out
or anything. I don’t know. I don’t think I’m going to be very helpful. Even
though I’ve always done this kind of thing none of my friends really got
addicted.”

“It’s okay,” I gave
an unenthusiastic chuckle. “I’ll figure something out. Are you okay, by the
way? You look kind of rough.” I wondered if I was overstepping the mark asking
him something like that. But I’d decided we were friends by now, and I was just
looking out for him.

He looked like
he was debating whether to actually tell me or not. “I told Jemma that I cheated
on her,” he finally blurted, averting his gaze.

My eyes
widened. That hadn’t been what I’d expected. I’d pretty much decided that he
was never going to tell her and they’d be together forever, even if he’d
admitted he liked me more. “What did she say?” From the mood he seemed to be
in, I had to presume that she hadn’t taken it well.

“She was okay
with it,” he confessed, standing up and beginning to pace. “I mean, well, when
I say that, she was angry, obviously, but she basically said that it was okay,
that we all make mistakes and that she thought we could get past it.”

“What’s the
problem, then?” Surely it had worked out perfectly for him.

“I don’t know!”
He exclaimed. “I don’t know why I think that’s a bad thing. Maybe it’s that I
think she can’t really care if she’s willing to dismiss it that easily. Maybe
it’s that I was kind of hoping she’d just leave me. I don’t know, but it’s just
put me in this really awful mood.”

“She was
probably just trying to put up a front for you,” I attempted to reassure him,
though again I wasn’t sure why. “I mean, she seems like the kind of person who
wouldn’t want you to know that you’d hurt her, but she’s mature enough to look
past it, or something.”

“Maybe,” Ollie
agreed. “For some reason that still doesn’t make me feel any better, though.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Maybe you should just break up with her then.” I told him bluntly,
saying what I actually wanted for the first time. I knew my tone had been
bitter, too, and I quickly regretted it when Ollie fixed me with a surprised
glance.

“Maybe.” He
repeated. “I don’t know what to do.”

I made myself
laugh. “I guess we’re not going to be much help for each other, then.” I hopped
down off the desk I’d been perched on and Ollie finally ceased his pacing. “I
think I’m going to get going and think about what I can say to Meg tomorrow.”

“Do you want a
lift?” He checked, gathering his own papers up and struggling to fit them all.
“You normally get the bus, right? And I’m going to Jemma’s anyway.”

I hesitated
only briefly before accepting. “You look like you need some help carrying
things anyway,” I teased with a small smirk.

“I didn’t tell
her it was you,” Ollie told me when we’d set off driving, after checking no one
had witnessed me getting into his car. It was bad enough having these feelings
at all, but rumours definitely wouldn’t help anything. “I just told her it
happened when I went out that time I ran into you. I couldn’t exactly tell her
I went out in Newcastle.”

“Maybe that’s
another factor, then,” I suggested. “If she thought it was quite a while ago.
And I’m glad, because she really does tip me well, even if she’s rude to me.”

“Perhaps. Anyway,
I don’t really want to talk about it anymore. Have you heard back from any universities
yet? Actually, have you even sent off your application yet? Which universities
did you apply for, and what courses?”

“I sent it off
this weekend. I applied for Law, to Leeds, Nottingham, York, Newcastle and then
Keele as my back up,” I ticked off the five I’d made. “I guess it’s just waiting
now then.”

“Which is your
favourite?”

“Actually, I
haven’t really been to any open days. I didn’t want to pester my mum since it
was when Lily was really small when most of them were happening last summer.
Plus, I’m probably just going to Nottingham anyway, since it’s closest.”

Ollie frowned.
“You should go and look round them. I think they probably have some open days
coming up. I’ll take you if you can’t get there any other way. You can’t pick
without having been to them.”

My eyes widened
at his offer. “Thanks!” I couldn’t stop myself from beaming at him. “I wouldn’t
ask you unless it was as like a last resort,” I assured him. “But I might, if I
can’t get somewhere, or the trains are too expensive. I don’t mind paying you
for petrol.” I chuckled. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be impressed by the idea
of taking me to Newcastle again, though.

“Okay, well,
look at their websites and let me know if you want me to become your personal
taxi,” he teased.

“I will, don’t
worry.”

“And you should
try looking online for stuff about Meg. There’ll be tons of people who have
been through similar stuff. You can talk to me about it if it doesn’t improve,
though, I don’t mind.”

I gave him a
grateful smile. “Thanks, Ollie,” I murmured. “That actually makes me feel a bit
better about it. I’m sure I’ll be able to talk to her.”

“Good luck.” He
supplied as we pulled up beside my house. I really hoped that my mum wouldn’t
make the random decision to come outside. I didn’t want to have to explain this
to her.

I chuckled.
“And good luck with sorting your problem out, too.” I really hoped he settled
on the breaking up with her option. “Thanks for the lift.” Undoing my seatbelt,
I gave him a final smile before shutting the door and watching as he drove down
the street, only to pull up again outside his girlfriend’s house. I wondered if
Jemma would care that he was offering to drive me to universities. She probably
wouldn’t care. He was only being friendly, after all. I was the one who’d
established us as friends.

But he was the
one who’d said he liked me. On two occasions, now, too. I supposed I couldn’t
kid myself into thinking he was just my friend any more. We were just in the
kind of awkward phase of knowing we liked each other without being able to do
anything about it. We were pretending to be friends when there was obviously
something more there.

Sighing
heavily, I pushed open the door and was met with a surprising amount of noise.
Two voices, one of them my mum’s, were shouting loudly, but I could barely hear
that over Lily’s loud crying. “I don’t want you to see her!” My mother
exclaimed as I pinpointed their voices to the kitchen. “I just want to keep
living my life the way it was. You don’t even know she’s yours!”

“Of course
she’s mine,” the man hissed in response. “I’m not stupid, Ruth. I just want to
get to know my daughter, is that not acceptable?”

Deciding I
really didn’t want this conversation to go on any longer, I strolled into the
kitchen as casually as I could and tried not to glare too hard at the tattooed
man who was aggressively leaning towards my mother as she tried to calm Lily
down. I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to do, other than to greet them
with an awkward “hi, mum.”

“Hi honey,” she
responded warily as I set my bag down on the table, fixing the man with a look
that said she really didn’t want to continue this conversation in front of me.

“I’ll get
going,” he ground out. “I’ll see you again soon, Ruth.”

Lily finally
calmed down after he’d slammed the door and I watched my mum carefully. “Want
to talk about it?” I finally asked.

“I don’t know,”
she sounded utterly deflated. “He’s not the kind of man I want in my daughter’s
life. I don’t want anyone in my life right now. It was all going so well.”