When Summer Ends

by Isabelle Rae

  A horn blasted from out the front. I smiled, grateful for the fact that I didn’t have to force down the rest of my waffles. I jumped up quickly, scraping my plate into the trash before kissing my mom on the cheek. “See you after school,” I called over my shoulder, grabbing my bag and running from the house to Amy’s waiting car.

  As soon as I was inside, she was talking. She was ridiculously eager for school to start again; she wanted to find a new boyfriend. “So what do you think, will there be any hot transfer students this year?” she asked excitedly as she drove the fifteen minutes to school.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. If there is you’d better get in there quick before I do,” I joked, winking at her.

  She smirked at me. “And what would Mr Perfect say if he heard you talking like that?”

  I grinned, I didn’t even need to think about how to answer that question, I already knew what his answer would be. “He’d say; ‘damn, Cutie, I must need to step up my game if you’re looking at other guys’ or something like that anyway,” I said, grinning as I tried to do an impression of his silky voice.

  Amy laughed and shook her head. “I can’t wait to meet him. I love that he calls you Cutie, that’s so sweet.” She sighed dreamily. “I want my own Mr Perfect.”

  “Maybe you’ll meet yours today,” I suggested as we pulled into the parking lot.

  “I hope so.” She cut the engine, grabbed her bag from the back and swung her long legs out of the car. As soon as we were out we were both attacked into hugs by friends and people that we hadn’t seen for weeks. Excited chatter started as everyone exchanged summer stories.

  After a few minutes, Amy and I excused ourselves and went to get our schedules from the office. I cast my eyes over mine quickly. Everything looked all right, apart from the fact that I had gym first and calculus last, which totally sucked. I hated calculus and was seriously failing last year, actually to the point where I had to be buddied with someone to help me. To say that was an embarrassing experience would be a massive understatement. Some people just weren’t meant to learn math, and I was undeniably one of them.

  A quick glance at Amy’s schedule showed that we had exactly the same. I squealed with excitement that I would at least have her there too. Hmm, maybe she can help me with the stupid math. “We have the exact same schedule!” I cried.

  She grinned. “Awesome! See, senior year is going to be great, I can feel it.” She linked her arm through mine as we made our way to the gym.

  Luckily, as it was our first day and no one had their gym uniform, we were to ‘discuss our expectations of the subject and what we wanted to achieve this year in gym class’ which essentially meant a free period to hang out and catch up with all of the gossip over the summer.

  At lunchtime, I headed over to the table of my friends and spotted Nick, my ex-boyfriend, standing there chatting to Matt, one of my other friends. Nick had gotten cuter over the summer; his face had lost some of the roundness. He looked like he’d grown up a lot. His light brown hair was longer and a little scruffy around the neck, but looked stylishly messy. His brown eyes still held that little twinkle that I remembered so well. If I hadn’t met Will, I would totally be thinking twice about breaking up with him at the start of the summer.

  “Hey, Chloe,” he greeted, pulling me into a hug. “You look good,” he said as he pulled back, letting his eyes drag down me slowly.

  I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. “Hey, Nick. How was your summer?”

  He shrugged, a frown lining his forehead. “It was okay, you know,” he replied, seeming a little sad.

  Guilt flowed through my body because I was obviously responsible for his sad expression. Nick was a genuinely nice guy, but he just wasn’t right for me. We’d been friends for a few years, then started dating last year. The relationship lasted just over six months before I realised it wasn’t working for me and broke it off at the start of summer. He was actually extremely upset about it at the time, and obviously still was.

  “Yeah,” I gulped. Man this is awkward. Please let us get past this uncomfortable stage! “We can sit together, right?” I asked, hoping he would say yes. I didn’t want to chase him off out of our group of friends, and I didn’t want to have to leave either.

  He nodded quickly, pulling out a chair for me, and then sitting in the one next to it. “Yeah, of course,” he answered. I smiled and felt my body relax. “I was just telling Matt about my disastrous morning,” he stated, turning his nose up distastefully.

  I sat down in the chair he’d pulled out for me, ripping open my sandwich. “What’s so bad about it?” I asked, eating quickly.

  He sighed dramatically. “My schedule sucks big time. I went to the office to try and change it, which made me late for Biology, so I now have a detention after school. I forgot my locker combination so I didn’t take the right books to English, so now I have to do an essay tonight about ‘the importance of bringing the right reading materials to class’,” he grumbled, crossing his arms in frustration.

  I smiled. “You got a detention from your first class? Surely that’s some type of record for the school,” I teased. “Maybe you’ll have your name immortalised in the book of delinquents. You should be proud.”

  He made a scoffing noise in the back of his throat. “Ha ha. I forgot how funny you were… not.” He jabbed his finger into my ribs playfully. I squealed and jerked away quickly. “At least calculus was okay, we didn’t do anything at all. The new teacher is pretty cool, even though all the girls were drooling over him instead of me,” he said, looking a little put out.

  “Oh are you talking about the new calculus teacher?” Emily interjected. A dreamy expression crossed her face. “Oh my goodness he is so hot I swear I almost climaxed just listening to him talk,” she gushed, fanning her face dramatically. Practically every boy at the table puffed out their chests unconsciously.

  I burst out laughing as other girls started joining in with the hot comments, gossiping about how calculus was now their new favourite subject. Some of the sluttier girls were planning how they could get themselves in trouble just so they could hear him shout at them in his sexy voice. Pathetic.

  Amy groaned. “Oh man, and we don’t have it until the end of the day! I want to look at him too,” she whined, standing up and grabbing her empty food cartons.

  I linked my arm through hers. “Come on, the bells about to ring and I need to get my Spanish books from my locker. You can see the hot new teacher in two classes’ time,” I insisted, rolling my eyes and pulling her away from the table, throwing my bottle and sandwich wrapper in the trash can on the way past.

  The rest of the afternoon passed the same, people were gossiping in the hallways, fantasising about the hot young teacher falling in love with them. I didn’t join in with it, to be honest it all seemed a little ridiculous to me. But then again, maybe I would have been joining in with them if I didn’t have the perfect boyfriend already. I had gotten a little homework already but not too much, so I would still be able to spend an hour on the phone with Will tonight before he met up with Sam.

  For the last lesson of the day, I made my way to calculus and sat in the middle row with Amy. She was practically bouncing in her seat with excitement. I looked around the room, noticing that girls were fixing their hair and applying fresh lipstick. I sighed, slumped down in my seat and waited for the most painful hour of my life to start. Hopefully he wouldn’t single me out for any answers and then I could just speak to him after class about how disastrous this subject was for me. If he was nice, then maybe he would be a little lenient this year.

  After a couple of minutes, the door opened. Immediately the girls in the room sat up straighter, smirking at each other with wide hungry eyes, whispering and giggling. Amy elbowed me roughly in the ribs making me hiss through my teeth at the sudden pain.

  I looked up to the front of the classroom, curious to see what all the fuss was about. My curious eyes landed on Will. He was standing there, smiling, seeming a
little nervous. He looked handsome as ever in black pants and a short sleeve white button down shirt.

  Panic rose in my chest. Why the hell is he here? Has something horrible happened to my parents, and he’s come to collect me and take me to the hospital?

  Just as I started to stand, he spoke. “Okay class, settle down and let’s get this show on the road so you can all go home,” he said in his sexy voice.

  I looked at him, shocked. Class? What the hell? I was half out of my seat, frozen in place as realisation suddenly washed over me like a bucket of cold water. My boyfriend was the hot new teacher that everyone was swooning over. I couldn’t breathe. His eyes roamed the room and met mine. I saw his easy smile fall from his lips. His eyes widened in shock as his whole body tensed up.

  Chapter Five

  I stood there looking at him for hours, well, it felt like hours, but in reality, it was probably only a couple of seconds. This has to be some kind of sick joke or something. He’s a bartender and works as a ski instructor, he isn’t a teacher. He especially can’t be my teacher, that’s impossible. I still hadn’t taken a breath and my lungs started to burn.

  “What are you doing?” Amy hissed, grabbing my hand and pulling me back into my chair, giggling.

  I couldn’t look away from him; he was just staring at me with wide eyes. Suddenly his face tightened, his eyebrows knitted together and his teeth snapped together with an audible click. His eyes turned hard, his stare boring into me making my blood seem to turn to ice in my veins. I flinched. Is he angry at me? What possible reason does he have for being mad at me? This isn’t my fault.

  He composed himself a lot quicker than I did. He looked away from me, moving to his desk. “So I’m Mr Morris, I’ll be taking over from Ms Patterson this year,” he said confidently as he looked over the class. I noticed his eyes skipped over me without so much as a hint of recognition. It made my heart race.

  This really can’t be happening to me, I knew this was too perfect, I knew something would come along to ruin it.

  “Obviously with me being new here, and this being your first day back, we don’t want to actually do any work today, right?” he asked, smirking at the class. Everyone nodded eagerly. The girls were watching him with dreamy expressions, the boys slapping each other high fives. “So, how about we play a little getting to know you game? You each get one question for me, and I get one question for you,” he suggested, perching on the edge of his desk, flicking his head to get his hair away from his eyes. “So who wants to go first, or should we just start at the front and work our way through?” He smiled his sexy little smile, gaining him flirtatious smiles in return. He nodded to a girl who was sitting in the front row who immediately blushed and smiled. I shifted on my seat, fighting the urge to go and rip her head off. “Just tell me your name then ask your question.”

  “I’m Jessica Edmunds, um… where were you teaching before?” she asked, chewing on her lip and looking at him through her eyelashes.

  Slut! Stop looking at him like that.

  Will smiled. “I wasn’t. This is my first teaching job. I graduated college this year and was lucky enough to be offered this position immediately,” he replied. “What’s your favourite movie, Miss Edmunds?”

  I didn’t listen to her answer; I was watching him so intently that it was actually making my eyes sting. What the hell are we going to do? Maybe I’ll have to transfer schools or something or he’ll have to quit his job. Jeez he would be in so much trouble if people find out he’s dating a student.

  I listened to his answers of the class’s questions as they asked them. He was twenty two, he lived alone, his favourite book was sports illustrated - which earned a laugh from the class. His favourite movie was Halloween, the original version. His favourite sport and pastime. The list went on and on of trivial facts that I mostly already knew about him and his family. The class seemed to be hanging on his every word.

  When he got to me, I noticed that his hands gripped the edge of his desk making his muscles in his arms tense. His jaw was tight. He was looking at me angrily but was obviously trying to hide it with a polite smile. “Name?” he asked.

  I shifted in my seat knowing I needed to play along with the whole, ‘I don’t know who you are’ thing. “Chloe Henderson. And um, I don’t have a question,” I mumbled, squirming under his intense gaze.

  He raised one eyebrow. “Okay, well I have one for you, Miss Henderson. Do you like to lie?” he asked. His beautiful grey eyes were hard and burning into mine.

  Do I like to lie? What the hell have I lied about to make him ask that? “No, I don’t lie,” I answered, shaking my head in confusion.

  “Really? Never lied about your age or anything?” he prompted. His voice was tight and harsh. The class had gone quiet and was watching the exchange, obviously interested in where this line of inquiry was going.

  He thinks I’ve lied about how old I was? I’ve never lied to him, ever. “No, I’ve never lied about my age,” I replied confidently as I frowned at him. Why the hell is he looking at me like that? This it isn’t my fault! His hands seemed to tighten on the desk edge as he looked like he wanted to say something else. Instead, he looked away from me, turning his attention to Amy who sat next to me. He nodded for her to ask her question.

  She leant forward in her chair, obviously excited to get her turn at asking him a question. “Okay so I’m Amy Clarke, and I wondered if you had a girlfriend.” Her voice sounded seductive even to my ears.

  His eyes tightened, his whole body tensed he didn’t even look at me as he spoke. “No I don’t. What’s your favourite colour?”

  I felt my heart break at his words. No? How can he say no? My eyes prickled with tears. I couldn’t be here; I couldn’t sit here any longer and pretend like I wasn’t dying inside. I stood up quickly and grabbed my bag from the floor, throwing my books in it angrily. Class was almost over now anyway.

  “And where exactly are you going, Miss Henderson?” he questioned, sounding so much like a teacher that it hurt my insides.

  “I need to be excused,” I croaked as I walked to the door. I could practically feel everyone’s eyes on me. Shocked silence filled the room.

  “Sit down, Miss Henderson,” Will barked.

  I ignored him as the tears started to flow down my face. I swiped them angrily and threw the door open. As soon as I was in the hallway I ran, not knowing where I was going but just needing to be away from here and alone before I broke down completely. Suddenly fingers wrapped around my hand, and I was yanked to a rough stop. I looked around to see Will standing there. His expression was incredibly angry.

  “Where the hell are you going? You can’t just run out of a class like that! I’ll have to give you a detention or something for that,” he berated, shaking his head and letting go of me as he stepped back and ran a hand through his hair.

  I was still hurting from the ‘I don’t have a girlfriend’ answer in class, and I could feel the tears trying to force themselves out again. I knew I needed to get away from here quickly. “Just do whatever you want,” I muttered, shrugging, trying to appear unconcerned. I turned to walk away, but his words stopped me.

  “For fuck sake, Chloe, what the hell else am I supposed to do? Let you walk all over me in class?” he spat venomously.

  That’s all that’s bothering him? The fact that I'd made him look like a pushover by walking out of his class? Nothing else about this whole situation is affecting him at all?

  I turned round and gave him my best drop dead glare. “If you’re that worried about what your precious class think of you, then give me a month of detentions; make me scrub whiteboards for the rest of the school year, see if I care. Do whatever you want, just don’t ever talk to me again,” I growled angrily.

  The bell rang signalling the end of class. He grabbed my arm and pushed me into the nearest bathrooms roughly, locking the door behind him. “You think all I’m bothered about is my reputation for being a soft teacher? Trust me that’s the least of my w
orries,” he snapped. “I slept with a fucking minor! Do you know how much trouble I’m in right now? Do you know how freaking long I’m going to jail for because you lied to me?” His hands gripped into his hair roughly as he glared at me accusingly.

  “I didn’t lie to you. You knew how old I was.” I lost my battle against the tears and slumped down to the floor, sobbing and hugging my hugging my knees to my chest.

  He made an angry snorting sound in his throat. “I met you in a club, Chloe! How am I supposed to gain that you’re a minor from that?” he countered, kicking the wall in frustration.

  I shook my head. “I told you that night that I was in school.” This wasn’t my fault, I definitely told him.

  “I thought you meant college not pissing high school! You have to be twenty-one to get into the club! You should have told me. Damn it, Chloe, I’ve been sleeping with you for two weeks!” he raged, looking at me disgusted.

  I pressed my face into my knees and sobbed until I couldn’t breathe. This was my fault he was right. I could see his point, I was underage in a club, and I’d never specifically told him how old I was, I just assumed he was all right with it. We’d never specifically spoken about school or his jobs or anything because we always had better things to talk about.

  “I’m sorry,” I croaked. “I thought you knew, I honestly thought you knew and didn’t care.”

  He groaned. “How the hell could I not care that I was raping a minor? Is that the type of guy you think I am? A paedophile?” he asked angrily. He slid down the wall next to me and put his head in his hands. I could feel his body heat crashing into me and his aftershave filling my lungs.

  “It wasn’t rape,” I correct adamantly, shaking my head, raising my eyes to look at him. He was pale and clearly shocked. His whole body looked defeated and sad. His shoulders were slumped forwards; his perfect angels face tight with worry and stress.