Her Teacher's Temptation Read online

  “Right, of course. So, um, about your dad-”

  “Look, it's really not a big deal.” This was the last thing I wanted to talk about. “He's just wound up because he found out my mum had a kid with someone else. He never stays in England for more than a couple of days, I don't see why this time would be any different. And he wouldn't do anything,” I explained. “My mum would have told me if I was in any danger.”

  Mr. Wright seemed to weigh this up before nodding. “Okay,” he conceded. “He just looked like he wasn't afraid to manhandle you. I guess there isn’t really anything I could have done anyway.”

  “It's fine. I probably won't even see him again before he leaves.”

  “Okay,” he repeated, sounding equally as unconvinced the second time. I supposed that it was understandable he was so sceptical, but I doubted my safety would have even crossed his mind had he not just run into me, so it wasn't a big deal either way.

  “How was your first day?” I changed the subject successfully.

  “All right, I guess. The classes all seem nice.”

  “We are.” I assured him with a smirk. “Only you did replace the best teacher ever, so, I mean, don't be offended if people seem underwhelmed,” I taunted.

  “You're kidding?” He demanded instantly, grumbling something under his breath. “I can't believe it. I was hoping I'd replace some old bat and so everyone would think I was cool and young,” he whined, causing me to giggle slightly.

  “Yeah,” I crooned. “Shame.”

  “This sucks.”

  “It sucks for me too!” I retaliated just as quickly. “You replaced my favourite teacher, and it's weird, and you don't feel like my teacher.”

  “Yeah. I know what you mean. And then I have to keep running into you, to top it all off.”

  I laughed. “Pretty unlucky.”

  The next couple of minutes were spent in slightly awkward silence until we reached the shop. I looked up at him pleadingly, in what I hoped was an undeniably cute way. “Would you grab me a few bags of super noodles?” I asked silkily, trying not to be too obvious in the way I leaned slightly closer towards him. “So that I don't have to tie the dog up.”

  Mr. Wright rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Sure,” he agreed, allowing me to give him some money. “Any particular flavour?”

  “Surprise me.”

  I frowned and knelt down beside the dog, allowing him to lick my discontented countenance. It was odd, being here. Going for a stroll with my teacher. I supposed it was because I'd only had one lesson. When it came to the point where he was demanding homework off me and scolding me for listening to my iPod in class I was sure that the whole teacher thing would sink in and it'd stop being so weird.

  I couldn't help but let my mind drift back to that night when I saw him, though, especially when Meg was there giving me suggestive looks. She'd been right, absolutely, in thinking I was still attracted to him. It was only expected, though, I told myself. I'd had sex with this man, obviously I thought he was good looking. And something about him being that much older than me made it oddly more appealing. It was different. And thrilling.

  And I may have already imagined him fucking me over a school desk once.

  Letting out a displeased sigh, I tried to stop my thoughts turning obscene. To be expected, I reminded myself once more. It had only been two days.

  “Here you go,” Ollie's voice broke through my mental reverie and I found heat rising unbidden to my cheeks.

  Standing up and giving the dog another affectionate scratch, I took the bag and change with a small smile. “Thanks,” I refused to meet his eyes. “I'm guessing you're walking back again.” It was more of a statement than a question. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to walk home with him or not.

  “Erm, yeah.”

  “How old is he? Or she,” he asked, glancing down at the dog with a soft quirk in his lips.

  “Two,” I replied proudly. “He's cute, isn't he?” I smirked at Ollie and he chuckled.

  “Yeah, he is very pretty. He's yours?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I saved up for like three birthdays for him.” I confessed with a grin. “He's great. Though it sucks having to walk him sometimes. Especially after work and school. Normally my mum takes him in the day, though. I go running with him every morning.”

  I could almost feel his eyes as they appraised my body, as if searching for evidence of my exercise, causing a slight shiver to travel up my spine. “I always wanted a dog. My parents would never let me have one when I was younger. They always said there'd be too many hairs around and that I'd get bored with looking after it too quickly.”

  I laughed, pulling out my cigarettes from my pocket. Since I didn't really want my mum knowing that I'd taken up the dirty habit, I normally smoked when I took the dog out. “You want one?” I offered, interrupting the conversation slightly.

  I frowned when he shook his head, clearly remembering how we'd smoked in bed after being too physically exhausted to continue our intimate activities. “I quit,” he offered by way of explanation.

  “How come?”

  “I figured I probably should since I wanted to take this teaching thing seriously. I don't think sneaking out of the back and ending up smoking with the naughty students,” he gave me a pointed look, “would do much for my whole 'responsible adult' image.”

  I snorted, but could understand his point. “But yeah, anyway, about the dog,” I returned to the original topic before lighting up and making sure I breathed away from Ollie. It would be cruel to smoke in his face completely – this was probably hard enough for him already. “You live by yourself now, you could get one.”

  He shrugged. “I guess. I just think it'd be a bit mean since I work long hours.”

  “My mum's at home all day looking after Lily, so he's never really in on his own.” I realised then that we were practically back at my house.

  I opened my mouth to say an awkward goodbye, pausing outside my house, but was interrupted by my mum's urgent voice and the slamming of my front door. “I have to go out,” she informed me, fiddling with her car keys and giving Ollie a suspicious glance. “Who's this?”

  “My new English teacher,” I replied, trying not to sound too guilty. I wasn't sure how much my mum knew about my relationships, but I doubted she'd be impressed by the idea of me having a one night stand with someone I'd only just met. “He replaced Miss Taylor.”

  “Oh, that's a shame honey,” she said, frowning slightly and opening the car door. “Grandma wants me to come round because your father is being a bit awkward. Can you just watch Lily for a while?”

  My face fell into a grimace, though I was glad I wasn't the one having to go and face my dad's apparent wrath. “Sure, don't stay too long, though. It might make it worse.”

  She nodded impatiently. “Don't worry, I just want to get this over and done with. See you later!”

  “See you,” I called after her, though she had already shut the door and started the engine running.

  My mouth twitched when I saw Mr. Wright's disgruntled expression. “Was she really that great?”

  Chuckling, I ran a hand through my hair and pretended to ponder it. “She was pretty awesome.”

  Mr. Wright groaned.

  “You're just lucky the majority of people who take English are girls, otherwise you'd have actually been in for a hard time.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at me. “What exactly are you trying to imply?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I'm home.” I ignored his question and tried desperately not to lose my neutral expression. “Goodbye, Ollie.”

  I turned just as my cheeks heated up and pulled the dog down the path towards my house. “See you later Maddie,” I heard his amused reply as I struggled not to hang my head in embarrassment.

  Chapter Four

  I frowned as Meg stamped out the cigarette excessively hard. Her hand trembled slightly as she reached for another. “Let's just stay out a bit longer. I really can't be bothered with school today.�
� Her voice shook, too as she took a long drag and blew out a large cloud of smoke.

  “Are you all right?” I asked hesitantly, noting the dark circles under her eyes and abnormally pallid skin. “Has something happened?”

  “Nothing,” she replied too quickly, gaze not lifting from the ground.

  “Meg,” I began, unsure. I didn't want to push anything she didn't want to talk about, but Meg really did look like she was about to burst into tears. I figured it was the right thing to prompt her into confiding in me. “You know you can talk to me. What's up?”

  She sighed, long and deep, before turning away from me completely. “I don't know if I can talk to anyone about this,” Meg finally mumbled, running a hand through her hair silently.

  I frowned. Something was seriously wrong. “Please?”

  “My mum's got breast cancer,” she finally blurted, facing me again with pleading eyes. “What am I supposed to do, Maddie?”

  I'd been stunned into silence. What was my response to that supposed to be? “Meg, I'm so sorry.” I wasn't sure whether to hug her or not, but she made the decision easy by collapsing against me and releasing choked sobs.

  “I just can't believe it's happening. I didn't think this kind of thing happened to real people. Why me?” Her words were barely comprehensible as she cried into my shoulder.

  “It'll be okay,” I tried to soothe her unsuccessfully. I was struggling to keep my own tears in check as her distraught leaked into me. “It isn't-” I paused, I didn't want to downright ask, but it was an important question.

  “No.” Thankfully Meg understood what I was getting at. “It isn't terminal, but she could still die.” Her voice cracked again there and the sobs continued relentlessly.

  I couldn't really offer any more support than to let her wet my jacket and cling back equally as tightly.

  Eventually, when the shoulder of my coat was dark with tears, she pulled back and wiped at her eyes, completely destroying any of the make-up she had left. I gestured for her to stay still whilst I wiped away the few black marks. “I'm really sorry, Meg. Just tell me if there's anything I can do.”

  She nodded and offered a tiny smile. “Just distract me, please. Tell me anything. Tell me about you and Mr. Wright.”

  I almost snorted. “There definitely isn't a 'me and Mr. Wright',” I assured her.

  “Not that you wouldn't want there to be,” Meg countered instantly, though the joke didn't show in her tone or expression.

  I shrugged. “He has a girlfriend,” I explained grimly.

  “What?” She demanded. “For how long? And how do you know?”

  “I don't know how long,” I replied, trying to keep the sourness from my voice. “They came into the restaurant, and it turns out she lives down the road from me,” I pulled a face. “I saw him when I walked the dog.”

  “And how are you feeling about this?” She seemed to be coming more alive by leeching off my misery, but I couldn't really complain considering the situation.

  I shrugged non-committedly. “I don't really know. It kinda sucks, but it's not like it actually makes a difference to anything. Nothing would have happened anyway.”

  "Would nothing definitely happen?" Meg teased. I wasn't sure if she was just rubbing in the fact that the guy I currently couldn't stop thinking about could never actually be mine, or she genuinely thought I had a chance.

  I rolled my eyes and tried not to show how much the facts hurt. "Obviously not. He's my teacher. He has a girlfriend. It's not even worth thinking about."

  Meg smirked and it made the red rings that framed her eyes stand out even more. "Doesn't mean you're not going to be thinking about it."

  "Meg," I groaned. "Please stop."

  She opened her mouth to give me a snarky reply when a figure walked around the corner. It took all I had not to just run away as Mr. Wright's face appeared. As it was, I turned a very unattractive shade of red at the possibility he'd heard what I'd said about him. I tried to ignore my guilty blush and smirked at him. "I thought you'd quit."

  "I have. I'm here to make sure no one is smoking round the back of here," he explained, giving me a pointed look.

  I held my hands up innocently. "I'm sure you can see that we're not smoking at all."

  "Right, well it's time for lessons anyway. And you have English next."

  I scowled, then glanced at Meg automatically. I'd kind of assumed we were going to just ditch school today and do something that would make her feel better about the whole situation. Ollie followed my eyes and his face fell slightly from the teasing smile I realised he'd been wearing. "Is everything okay?" He checked, concern lacing his voice as he refocused his attention on me, knowing I'd be more likely to give him an answer.

  "Erm," I paused, meeting Meg's eyes. "Look, can you just pretend you didn't see us here, please?" I begged, smiling up at him hopefully and trying to channel as much 'lost puppy' as I could.

  Mr. Wright sighed. "No, Maddie, I can't just do that and you know it."

  Sighing, I tapped my foot whilst I considered what to say. "Meg got some, well, pretty horrid news," I told him bluntly. "She shouldn't even be here anyway." I meant that, she shouldn't be at school whilst having to deal with having just found about something that dreadful. "I really just want to make her feel better and go and shop with her or something," I explained, hoping I wasn't upsetting Meg with anything I said.

  Ollie ran an exasperated hand through his hair. "Maddie..." He trailed off, before grimacing. "Fine, but you have to stop smoking round the back of here, the teachers know about it. And if you miss more than one day of school, I'll find some way of getting back at you."

  I beamed. "Thank you. We really appreciate it."

  He waved me off. "I hope you feel better soon Meg. You'd better not mention this to anyone,” he warned me seriously as he walked away.

  I bit my lip softly. "I won't," I called after him, before turning to Meg, who was watching our exchange with a raised eyebrow.

  "I can't believe he caved to your big eyes. You're never going to convince me that nothing is going to happen between you now."

  Grimacing, I flushed with horror that he might still be close enough to have heard her comment. "You weren't ever going to believe me anyway," I replied, refusing to get into this argument again. It was surprisingly depressing. “Where do you want to go?” I asked her, knowing we needed to get away from school before someone else found us and wasn't so lenient.

  Meg pondered it for a moment before her face fell completely, the distraction of teasing me apparently dissipated. “I don't really mind. Let's just go wander around town for a while. Go to Costa or something.”

  I nodded and glanced around before following her around the side of the building. Thankfully, we timed it so that the bell was just ringing and so people were everywhere for us to mix in with as we snuck onto the street.

  When we reached Costa, I pulled a face at Meg's large coffee. “I don't know how you can drink that stuff,” I said seriously. “It just tastes bitter.”

  She shrugged. “I just got into the habit of it I guess. I drank so much it tastes all right now.”

  “I really hope I never do that.” I didn't understand why so many drank the awful stuff. I took a sip of my mango and passion fruit cooler.

  I didn't really know what to say now. I'd never been someone who was good at cheering people up or knowing what to do in awkward situations. I was lucky that Meg broke the silence, otherwise I'd have probably ended up saying the wrong thing.

  “Guess what I got my hands on for this weekend.” Her tone improved significantly with this sentence and I raised an eyebrow.

  “What?” I never bothered to guess in these situations, and Meg knew that. She was just teasing me.

  “Some MDMA,” she chimed, grinning ear to ear now.

  I chuckled and shook my head, though inside I was frowning slightly. “Is that really the best way to deal with this news?” I was forced to ask, though I was rewarded with Meg's face falli
ng instantly.

  She shrugged. “I don't see why it wouldn't be. It's not like I'm ever going to be silly with it. It's been three months since we last took it so it's not really a problem. I just happened to be able to get hold of it for this weekend.”

  Despite the foreboding feeling I had about the situation, I couldn't help but grin in excitement. “It's gonna be good,” I told her seriously. “Is Hannah coming out with us?”

  Meg shook her head. “I don't think so, she's seeing Mike all weekend.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How long do you think it'll be before she realises being with him is nowhere near as good as she was expecting?”