Authors: Isabelle Rae
I crept over to the door and rested my forehead against the
cold wood for a couple of seconds, trying to soothe my throbbing head, but I
knew nothing would touch the pain except pills. I headed out quietly, trying
not to wake Amy; I needed to know the cover story before she quizzed me about
it.
As I stepped into the lounge my eyes instantly found the
sofa, but he wasn’t there. It looked like he’d slept there though. The mess
that was probably from his sofa, was piled on the floor instead, and there was
a throw and pillow there all scrunched up. I headed over to the only other room
in the apartment.
As I walked into the kitchen his eyes snapped up to mine as
he jumped out of the chair looking at me worriedly. He grabbed my arm quickly.
“Are you okay?” he asked, bending to look at me as he guided me over to one of
the two kitchen stools.
I frowned. “Yeah, I have a headache, but I’m okay.” I nodded,
pulling my arm from his grasp. I didn’t like him touching me, even a casual
touch like that was making my stomach flutter. I didn’t need anything else
making me feel sick, the alcohol was doing a pretty decent job of that on its
own.
“I’ll get you some pills. Sit down.” He headed over to the
cupboard and I couldn’t stop myself from watching his toned back as he reached
up and grabbed the little first aid box he had.
Why on earth does he have to
be shirtless? Is he trying to tease me to death; a little reminder of something
that I couldn’t have?
He passed me a glass of water and two pills, sitting down
opposite me, still looking concerned. I swallowed them gratefully, silently
praying that I wouldn’t throw them back up again in five minutes.
“Thanks Will. So er… why are we here?” I asked nervously as
I looked around his kitchen. Everything still looked the same, and I’d missed
it so much. I missed hanging out at his place with him. I missed him flicking
water at me as we washed up the plates and stuff we’d used; I missed the smell
of this place. I even missed the stack of newspapers that he still hadn’t gotten
around to taking to the recycling like he said he was going to. Just little
things but I missed them all.
He looked at me quizzically. “You don’t remember what
happened last night?” he asked, recoiling.
Something happened last night? Oh no, please don’t tell
me I threw up all over Jack’s place or broke something expensive!
I shook
my head, looking at him curiously, waiting for him to hit me with the bad news.
He sighed and ran a hand through his already messy bed hair making
it stick up everywhere. “Chloe, someone put something in your drink last night.
You don’t remember almost being… attacked?” he asked, his hand making a tight
fist on the table.
Attacked? What on earth is that about?
I closed my
eyes and thought about it, suddenly little pieces of it started to come back.
It was like a dream; the more I tried to think about it, the further away it
seemed to get, but there were some things coming back. Like how I’d danced with
a guy and he led me into the bedroom instead of outside, I couldn’t quite
remember his face, but I remember feeling scared and that I couldn’t move
properly. I remember Will punching the guy and shouting at him.
Oh God, was
I almost raped last night?
I gasped and snapped my eyes to his face to see
if I was remembering right, Based on the sombre, sympathetic look on his face I
knew it was true.
Holy crap, I owe him a lot for that!
“I got there in time, everything’s fine. He didn’t….” he
trailed off, looking like he was in pain.
“Thank you,” I whispered trying not to cry about it.
He smiled weakly and shook his head. “You don’t need to
thank me, Chloe. Just please don’t ever take a drink from someone you don’t know
again, I can’t even think about what could have happened. I just-” He groaned, squeezing
his eyes shut and clenching his jaw tightly.
I pushed myself off of the stool and moved to his side,
wrapping my arms around his neck tightly, hugging him as if my life depended on
it. He really was a hero. I didn’t know what to say or how to show him how
grateful I was to him for saving me. His arms snaked around my waist and he
pulled me onto his lap, holding me tightly. I tucked my head under his chin. I
could hear his heart beating steadily in his chest. I smiled because of how
close he was. His naked torso was pressed against me, he smelt so delicious and
mouth-watering. He stroked my hair softly, and we just sat there like that,
neither of us speaking or moving until I heard the bedroom door open again and
I knew that Amy was now up.
Will’s arms loosened around me but I noticed with some small
measure of satisfaction that he didn’t push me off of him or anything. I smiled
to myself a little and forced myself out of his lap, looking towards the
kitchen door, waiting for her to come in. Will’s hands dropped down into his
lap as he looked in the other direction, his shoulders hunched.
Amy stopped in the doorway tentatively, looking from me to
Will. “Am I interrupting something?” she asked, blushing. I wanted to say; hell
yeah you are, the best hug I’ve had in three weeks, but luckily I resisted the
urge.
I frowned.
That’s actually a really weird thing to ask. Why
would she think she might be interrupting something?
I smiled and gave her
a quizzical look. “No, why would you be?” I asked confused.
She frowned in disapproval and shook her head. “You can give
up the act now, Chloe. Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, looking a little
hurt as she sat down on the stool that I was sitting on earlier.
Okay this conversation is getting weirder and weirder by
the second!
“Tell you about what?” I questioned, trying to look innocent.
She
can’t know about Will, can she? She was just as drunk as I was last night so
surely she wouldn’t think anything of me knowing his name and talking to him…
She rolled her eyes. “About you… and Will.” She pointed to
Will who was just sitting there tense and uncomfortable, and actually dreadfully
sad looking.
I gasped as I screamed a list of profanities in my head.
How
the hell did she guess that? What on earth do I say? Can I tell her about us?
What does Will want me to do, deny everything or confirm?
I felt sick with
worry. I could feel my hands starting to shake with stress as I questioned
everything. What if Amy saw it as rape too and told someone, what if she went
to the police and Will got into trouble for it? Best case scenario he could
lose his job, worst case scenario he would go to prison.
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
Come on, stupid
brain, think of something to say! Why couldn’t I have been born a witch with
the ability to turn back time?
If I could then I would have never gone to
the stupid party with Sam last night, and then I wouldn’t be sat in Will’s
kitchen, facing Amy who was just looking at me accusingly waiting for my reply.
I gulped and shook my head trying to look innocent. “Amy,
what are you talking about? Are you still drunk?” I asked, my voice breaking
slightly like it always did when I lied.
She raised one eyebrow and gave me the look that said one
thing; ‘I’m your best friend and I know you’re lying’. I gulped again and
looked at Will for help. He’d be able to lie to her; she didn’t know all of his
tell-tale signs like she did mine.
He sighed and leant forward, resting his elbows on the table
as he looked at Amy. “I didn’t know she was seventeen. We met at the club and
when Chloe said she was in school I thought she meant college. She thought I
knew, and I thought she was twenty-one. Another unfortunate thing that happened
is I get assigned to the one school where you both go, I mean, talk about
coincidence.” He laughed humourlessly. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it did.
I don’t know what else to say apart from that.” He shrugged, looking at her
sadly, as if he was waiting for her to shout at him or call the cops from the
kitchen or something.
I just sat there staring at him in shock; did he really just
say all that to my best friend and fellow student? I couldn’t breathe. I literally
couldn’t breathe, and my lungs were starting to burn. It was like I’d forgotten
how to suck in air or something. I started to panic. I couldn’t take my eyes
off of Will, I didn’t want to look in Amy’s direction and see the accusation
there. I had definitely broken the best friend code by not telling her who Will
was, but she’d forgive me, I knew that. Yes, I’d hurt her, but she’d forgive me
anything, the same as she knew I would if this were the other way around.
Will looked up at me a little concerned as he suddenly
gripped my upper arm and stood up, facing me. “Are you all right? You look
really pale,” he said desperately. I swallowed loudly and nodded, trying to
calm my racing heart, but I just couldn’t. He smiled reassuringly and brushed
my hair back from my face softly, the back of one finger lingering on my
flushed cheek. “It’s okay. Amy has a right to know so we couldn’t exactly lie
about it. I’ll take whatever punishment I get, it’s fine, stop stressing about
it.”
I couldn’t look away from his eyes. He did that trapping me
there thing that I both loved and hated at the same time.
“Why would you get punished?” Amy asked suddenly.
Will sighed. “Chloe’s a minor. I’m in a position of
responsibility, as her teacher she’s in my charge. It wasn’t legal for us to…
it’s classed as statutory rape,” he explained effortlessly, as if we were
talking about the weather.
He looked like he’d been thinking about this for a long
time, actually, come to think of it, he didn’t look like he’d slept at all.
There were dark circles under pink, tired looking eyes. Had he laid awake all
night worrying about Amy knowing and had resigned himself to the fact that he
was going to prison or something?
“It wasn’t.” I shook my head fiercely. I hated it when he
said that word; it made what we had feel cheap and dirty. I refused to think of
it that way.
He sighed and his hand dropped from my cheek, hanging
loosely at his side. In that moment I would give anything for him to put it
back on my arm or my face, just any sort of physical contact because I was
seriously freaking out.
“I’ll leave you two to talk, and I’ll go in the shower.” He
smiled sadly again before turning and walking out of the kitchen, leaving me
there with Amy who I still couldn’t look at.
I heard the stool scrape against the floor tiles, and
suddenly her arms wrapped around me. I just stood there shocked for a couple of
seconds before hugging her back. I expected her to be mad at me for not telling
her so I really wasn’t expecting this at all.
“It all makes sense now. How you were so happy then just
kind of freaked out in the middle of his class and ran out, then said he broke
up with you. Oh Chloe, it must have been so hard for you having me keep talking
about how hot he was all the time, when you were so heartbroken over him. I’m
so sorry,” she whispered, stroking my back.
I smiled against her shoulder and hugged her tighter. “I’m
sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to so badly, but I couldn’t risk Will getting
in trouble if someone found out. He would be in so much trouble if this came
out. You’re not going to say anything are you?” I pulled back and looked at her
pleadingly, begging her with my eyes.
She smiled and shook her head. “Of course I won’t.” I smiled
gratefully and felt the last of the tension leave my body. “I can’t believe he’s
the teacher, I mean for goodness sake you find your Mr Perfect, and it turns
out he’s your damn teacher! How unlucky can you get?” she mused, shaking her head
in disbelief.
I laughed humourlessly and pulled away, sitting on Will’s
stool. I rested my forehead on the table, closed my eyes and sighed with relief.
I actually felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders now that I
had someone to talk to about it. Of course I had Sam, but it was hard talking
to him because one, he is Will’s brother so there was only so much bad mouthing
I could do as he was after all his family. And two, he was a guy, so he had no
idea what I was talking about when I mentioned heartbreak and feelings.
“So he just broke up with you when he found out that he was
your teacher?” Amy asked softly.
“Mmm hmm,” I mumbled, not lifting my head from the table.
“Well that sucks! Couldn’t you at least carry on seeing each
other or something and just keep it secret?”
I shrugged. “He doesn’t want to date a minor. I think he’s
still pissed at me because I lied to him about how old I was. Well,
technically, I didn’t lie, but I didn’t exactly tell him I was seventeen
either. We both just kind of assumed things instead of talking about it,” I
said sadly, trying not to cry. It was hard to talk about it, I wasn’t used to
having someone know the truth, and it all seemed to burn my throat as finally I
said the words out loud.
She laughed. “Chloe, he doesn’t look at you like a minor. He
still likes you,” she observed confidently.
I raised my head and propped my chin up on my hand, looking
at her like she was crazy.
What on earth is she talking about, ‘he still
likes you’. He doesn’t still like me; he’s dating the freaking drama teacher
for goodness sake.
I shook my head fiercely. “He’s made it pretty obvious, Amy.
I’m just another student to him, someone he’s bedded, another one of the many
notches on his headboard.”
She looked at me knowingly. “Just another student? Do you
see him touching my face like he did yours? Did you see him that concerned over
me? Did you see him beat the crap out of that guy for me last night, and carry
me through the house? Did you see how sad he was when he was telling me about
you two?” She smirked at me knowingly, but I just wasn’t in the mood for this
at all, my head was pounding. I couldn’t argue about this right now.