The Teacher

THE TEACHER (His Dark Lessons, Part Two)

Ava Claire

Copyright 2012 Ava Claire

****

I flashed my umpteenth smile as I hu
gged another surprise visitor
. I saved the real thing for Alicia, even though she was the rea
son I had
to put on a brave face
for all these random peopl
e
. Just what the doctor ordered—an intervention masquerading as a dinner party.

Half of the girls
she invited
hadn’t even bothered with so much as a Facebook
wall
post when my father died and the others were reall
y just friends by association. Apparently all it took was deli spirals and
mini
cocktails to get the condolences flowing.

I disengaged from some girl named Sophie who called
me Cass like we were BFF’s even though we
’d only taken a biology clas
s together a year ago
and turned
toward the kitchen.
I
drew a deep breath before refilling my wine glass and throwing
it back like a shooter. It was just in time too because some Delta Phi girl let out a squeal as she
shared the best idea yet—a party game.

Alicia pulled up be
side
me
, toying with a napkin. She kept dodging my gaze, which was her tell. She knew she was in trouble.

“This is a great turn-out, right
?” she said brightly, molars and all.

“Uh huh,” I said warily. “Funny thing is
,
I thought
it was just going to be
the two of
us grabbing Cookout and
vegging
out in front of the TV.”

“And we will totally just hang out—right after a round of
Apples to Apples
.”

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “I really just want to go home, Alicia. I don’t know most of these people and the last thing I want-”

“I know you haven’t been out since we went clu
bbing
after we finished finals. Right before…” Her voice
trailed off and her cheeks were rosy with what she didn’t say
.
It had taken me all summer to finally admit he was gone. I could say it out loud now but it still wasn’t any easier to digest.

I wanted to be mad at her, but one of the reasons she
was my best friend was because she knew me better than I knew myself. She’d offered me some time away after I lost my dad
, even though she knew I’d pass,
and she’d set this up because she knew it was the only way I’d be around other huma
n beings outside of class. A
s much as I dreaded awkward smiles and playing games
,
I needed it more than sitting at home alone.

“This was a horrible idea, wasn’t it
?” she said gra
vely, her pretty features souring
as one of her friends called out for us to join them. “I shouldn’t have sprung this on you.”

“
It’s
okay, Alicia,” I said sof
tly, ignoring the tiny voice in my head that said the road to hell was paved with good intentions.
“I appreciate it.”

We walked to the den where the other girls were f
ixed in a circle as one of them,
I think he
r name was Lauren,
unloaded the game from the box. She winked up at me. “
Wanna
judge the first round, Cassandra?”

I arched a brow
, surprised someone actually brought a board game
.
"Apples to Apples?
Really?"

It seemed impossible that Apples to Apples could be the cause of the fever pitch of excitement
that built around us
.
Even if I was feeling sociable, playing that game would be the absolute last thing on my to-do list.

Alicia's voice rose
over the clamor. "Maybe we should just hang out..."

Sophia's head perked up, a pout on her squirrely face. "But party games-"

"How about truth or dare?"
Delta Phi grinned from ear to ear.

We officially
reverted back to the third grade. Everyone else was noddin
g like it was sheer genius
and even Alicia was mulling it over.

I conceded, tugging a side of my mouth upward
half-heartedly
. "Sounds like fun."

I tried to tell myself it would be
as they began going around the circle
. It could be. I really did need a bit of escapism. A few minutes where I was too busy holding my smile and rolling my eyes to think about Chance's piercing eyes.
Or how right his hands felt on me.

I blushed when all eyes turned toward me. I guess it was my turn. Even though the dares were mostly harmless tasks like taking a shot or singing some silly song, I decided to go with truth.

Sophia rubbed her hands together with barely contained glee. She didn't even wait for someone else to quiz me. "Is it true that you and Blaine
Connolly
ended things
last semester because
he still hung up on his ex?”

I frowned, immediately seeing right through her eer
ily specific question.
I rea
lized I didn’t remember her from Biology at all. Blaine
and I'd only dated for a blink of an eye bu
t he did seem hung up on an ex—b
ut not for the s
mug reason that glittered in Sophia’s
eyes. He claimed she ended up being crazy obsessed and
because he cared about her once,
he humored her.
When we broke up,
I'd claimed the baggage was too heavy to b
ear, but the truth was I had a
crapload
of my own.

All roads led back to Chance. E
ven some stupid truth or dare game.

"Yeah that's why we broke up," I answered with a shrug. I turned to Alicia, ready for the spotlight to be on someone else.

Alicia cleared her throat, cutting through the awkward silence as the other girls looked at me and Sophie, weaving some fictional showdown. If they only knew of the real, flesh and blood affair I was having with the new English professor...

I barely moved as Alicia quickly ushered them out, citing some exam or last minute assignment.
She was met with a chorus of disapproval but they filed out one by one, tryin
g to plot out some location they could relocate the party to.

Once Alicia and I
were alone, she gave me a conciliatory sigh. "I swear to god
I didn't know Sophie dated Blain
e."

I gave another shrug. "It's no biggie. I'm not secretly still pining for him or anything."

Her blond brows drew together in confusion. "But you went really quiet.
Like you were sad about something."

I busied myself with gathering trash from the coffee
table
. I
was
sad about somet
hing but it was more that Blaine
Connolly and every guy I'd dated since had just been placeholders, distractions from a truth I couldn't escape. No one else compared. No one else
could reduce me to a puddle on the floor
. No one else hurt me so deeply...and there was
no one else I wanted to forgive and start over with more
.

It was
all
insane.
Insane that he was back in my life.
Insane that I let him in.
Insane that all it took was a ‘come hither’ glance and it was as effortless as breathing to do the thing he’d
asked me to do three years ago:
submit.

“That wasn’t horrible?” Alicia asked skeptically.

“Nah,” I said with a noncommittal shrug. “It wasn’t that bad once people
were more concerned with the next dare instead of pretending they cared about my dad.” I bit my lip, realizing my internal filter was faulty and my bitterness was showing.

Alicia let out a groan, gripping her hair with both hands. “I’m
like, the world’s worst best friend.
E
ver.”

“Absolutely,” I smirked. “But I still love you.”

When she gave me an unconvinced look, I looped my arm through hers an
d tugged her back toward the living room
. “How about I give you a han
d cleaning up all of this stuff?”

Alicia turned on her iPod and w
e went to work, some bubbleg
um pop singer belting out a song about
love and love lost. I tried to focus on rounding up the Dixie cups and plastic cocktail plates, but I kept seeing Chance
’s face
.
That
mischievous
smirk.
Those hooded eyes. His dark locks, wild and unruly.
Gooseflesh spread over me at the memory of
his touch
, bringing bac
k the imprint
of what we were. Every caress
confirmed the secret I kept took away all these years
.

I’d never gotten over him at all.

“Are you okay?”

I blinked, shaking off the
memory as I crushed a stack of cups in
my hand. “Sorry, I zoned out.”

“Zoned out? You were standing there, not moving a mus
cle for like, five minutes.” Alicia
crossed her arms. “That’s a little more than being a little out of it.”

I b
reezed past her, swatting
away her questions. She’d nev
er been on Team Cass and Chance. As much as I wanted to lay it out and
get some confirmation of
how big a mistake getting involved with him again was, I didn’t want to deal with Alicia’s brand of tough love.

When Alicia and I
met freshman year, I’d been a mess. It was my first taste of freedom and to say I was making up for eighteen years of being my parent’s model daughter wa
s an understatement. It was
almost mid-term when we were paired togeth
er for a project and
I was barely scraping by in every class on my schedule. But Alicia demanded more of me, saying that she’d be
‘
damned if she didn’t get an A in World History because the English Princess decided to show her parents she was all grown up
’
. She showed me that I could still have fun and not flunk out. She didn’t take crap
f
rom me and helped me pull my C’s and D’s to A’s and B’s.

Just like my
dad, she gave it to me straight,
writing of
f Chance from the start. She thought he was
an o
pportunist,
even though Chance never tried to talk to my dad about his writing
or connections
. She was right about one thing
though
. He broke my heart.

“What’s really going on, Cass?” she probed.

I stuffed the plastic bundle in the trash
then plopped on one of the stools
. “I’m just tired from
classes
and everything
.”

“Oh that’s right!” Alicia exclaimed, sliding onto one of the stools a few feet from me. “You’re taking that hardcore lit class with Dr. Madison, right?”

I toyed with a lock of hair. “Yeah, classes have
been crazy.” Not exactly a lie.

Alicia drummed her nails on the granite top of the island. “I know you were looking forward to it, Cass.” She gave me a smile that made guilt swirl in my stomach. “Busy is good. Especially if you’re busy with something you love.”

I gave her a weak chuckle. I
’d been busy alright. Busy with
someone
I used to love more than
anything. But now there were
just secrets,
suspicions and guilt
raging in my chest
. Guilt was slowly eating me alive, forcing my hand. How could I not tell my best friend, the one person I was supposed to share everything wit
h?

“Chance is back and I think I’m still i
n love with him.” It came out in a
single, blunted confession. It was like pulling teet
h to actually say it out loud a
nd when
Alicia’s face scrunched in confusion, I took a deep breath and prepared to say it again.
“I said-”

“Oh I heard you,” she said quietly. “Chance is back?”

I nodded.
“And he’s, uh, teaching.” I swallowed
.
“Teaching at Thomas.”