by Isabelle Rae
Money and homework, okay I can do that.
“I won’t say anything because I actually like Mr Morris, he’s a good teacher. But just know this, Chloe; I really dislike you and your cocky little understated good looks that draw attention from the popular guys. One step out of line, one thing you refuse to do for me, and I’m heading straight to the Principal’s office to report you.”
I gulped and nodded. “Okay, just please don’t tell anyone, even your friends, please?” I requested, looking at her hopefully.
She smiled at something behind my shoulder. I turned to see Will walking up the hallway, his face was hard, but he was obviously trying not to show any emotions. She leant in closer to me. “He’s so hot. How did he kiss? Maybe I’ll give him a try,” she whispered, with her eyes still firmly fixed on Will.
I felt my hands tighten on her book that I was holding. The mere thought of her anywhere near him made my blood boil. What on earth do I do if she blackmails Will and makes him kiss her or something? She wouldn’t though, would she?
Will stopped next to me. “Can we all just talk about this?” he asked, looking at Erika hopefully.
She smiled and shrugged. “It’s all sorted. Chloe and I have talked about it, and I’ve decided not to say anything about it… for now.” The mischievous glint to her eyes showed that she was enjoying having the power over both of us.
Will looked between us, clearly shocked by her revelation. He actually looked like he’d already accepted his fate and that he was in big trouble. He was looking at her like she’d just suggested that a pig flew past our heads or something.
“Really?” he gulped.
She nodded. “Yep. Just so you know though, Mr Morris, from now on I ace your class and don’t need to turn in assignments,” she said, raising one eyebrow challengingly.
He frowned and looked at me accusingly, as if this was something I’d agreed; he clearly didn’t like the idea of that at all. I nodded encouragingly, begging him with my eyes to go along with it. He sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his neck, looking extremely annoyed about it. “Fine,” he grumbled eventually.
“Will?”
We all turned to see Miss Teller walking up the hallway, her perfect locks swaying as she sashayed her way over. Erika leant in close to my ear. “I think his girlfriend would be especially pissed if she found out what you two were doing on the desk, don’t you?” she whispered.
I cringed away from her, glowering and trying to kill her with my eyes. One good thing about that statement though was that she believed me when I said that I’d just kissed him, she hadn’t worked out everything. I was incredibly grateful for that.
“Er… hey,” Will mumbled as Miss Teller stopped at our group, smiling sweetly.
“Hi girls, what are you two still doing here? Not sick of this place already?” Miss Teller asked, smiling.
I shrugged and opened my mouth to answer, but Erika spoke first, “We were just talking to Mr Morris about the extra tuition that he’s been giving to Chloe after class. I was wondering if I could maybe get in on those, you know, boost my grades and all that,” Erika said, twisting her hair around one finger, a knowing smile on her lips.
Will frowned in her direction; I smiled inside at how much he hated that suggestion. “I don’t think you need extra tuition, Miss Dennison, you’re already acing my class, as you well know,” he chimed in uncomfortably.
Miss Teller smiled, turning to Will. “Are we about ready to go? I know you have somewhere important to be, you said that you needed to leave as quickly as possible.”
I bit my lip. ‘Somewhere important to be’, that was me. Will looked between me and Erika hesitantly, silently asking what he should do. “I’m not sure if we’re done talking. Maybe you should wait in the car, Caroline?” he suggested, digging in his pocket and passing her his keys.
Erika shifted on her feet. “We’re done talking. I need to go anyway. See you tomorrow, Mr Morris, Miss Teller,” she stated, gripping my arm and turning me around quickly. I smiled and nodded a goodbye to Will and allowed Erika to guide me up the hallway. “Keep Saturday free. I have chores that you can do. My car needs valeting, and I have some shoes that need cleaning.” She shrugged and let go of my arm, looking at her hand distastefully, as if she’d just touched something dirty.
I almost choked on my disbelief. Cleaning her car and doing her chores? Is that some kind of joke? “Really?” I asked, praying she would just laugh it off and tell me she was kidding around. She didn’t though.
“Absolutely.”
What a witch! “Fine, but then that’s it, right?” I asked.
She laughed. “Oh no, Ice Princess, your ass is mine now. You want me to keep your secret then you’ll do what I say, when I say it. You’re like my own personal bitch now.”
My hand curled into a fist, and I could feel my temper rising. I wasn’t a violent person usually. I grabbed her hair and smashed her face into the lockers as hard as I could, hearing the satisfying crack of her nose as she screamed and cupped it. Blood overflowed her hand and ruined her slutty top.
“Chloe?”
I blinked a couple of times and looked at Erika; she was staring at me as if waiting for me to answer something. Huh, was I daydreaming? She clicked her fingers in front of my face a couple of times, looking more pissed off with each passing second.
“I said, give me your cell phone number, I’ll text you my breakfast order in the morning!” she growled, impatiently shaking her cell phone in my face. I took the phone she was offering and punched in my number. I really should act on that daydream and smash her face.
I handed the phone back to her. She immediately turned on her expensive stiletto heels and marched off, leaving me standing there watching her with a scowl on my face. I had never wished anyone harm in my life, but if she stepped out of the building and a herd of stray cattle stampeded her, I would laugh my ass off.
I sighed and shook my head. What on earth had I got myself into? She was going to make my life hell from now on, and I had another six months of school left too. I guess it didn’t matter though; I would do anything to protect Will, even if I had to kiss her feet for a few months. Everything would be fine, things would settle down once she got bored of playing with me. Some small part of me knew that wasn’t true though.
I shifted her books in my arms and headed round to where I knew Amy would be waiting for me. When I saw her leaning up against the lockers, picking her nails impatiently, I sighed. When I got to her side, I dropped all of Erika’s books on the floor, not caring if the pages got messed up. I pulled my best friend into a hug, just needing her comfort.
It took her a couple of seconds to get over the shock and then she hugged me back. “What’s happened?” she asked quickly.
I groaned and shook my head. “I’ll tell you in the car.” I couldn’t exactly talk about this in school, from now on I would take no more risks.
She nodded, frowning and looking at me concerned as she bent to help me pick up the books from the floor. “Why do you have Erika’s books?” she asked, frowning at the history textbook in her hand that had her name scrawled on the front cover.
“Amy, we’ll talk about it in the car,” I moaned, closing my eyes and just wishing I would wake up and this all be a horrible nightmare. She nodded and together we walked silently to her car. I was barely inside before she turned to me, obviously wanting an explanation.
I put my head in my hands. “Erika just walked in on while I was in the classroom with Will,” I explained, hating myself all over again for wearing the stupid skirt and pushing his buttons. Why didn’t I just stop him? Why didn’t one of us think to lock the door before doing that? Everything would have been fine if we had just cooled down and broke away long enough to lock the damn door!
Amy looked at me with wide eyes. “What were you doing?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
I groaned again. Oh man, this is so bad! Where was the giant hole that I could jump into when I
needed one? “Full on making out,” I admitted.
She gasped. “Holy shit, Chloe. What are you going to do? You’ll both be in so much trouble!” she cried, looking at me horrified. “You’ll be expelled, and he’ll be fired… and, oh my God, what if they send him to jail?”
I shook my head; I would never let that happen. If it all came out then I would just say that I kissed him, and he responded, neither of us would admit to anything more than one kiss. The most he’d get was fired. I’d never let him go to jail for me, never.
“I’ve done something really stupid,” I whined, shaking my head in disbelief at the open-ended agreement that I’d made with Erika.
“What?” Amy asked, taking my hand and squeezing gently.
“I’ve made a deal with the devil.”
She drove us home at a snail’s pace, but frankly I was glad she didn’t drive too fast because she was barely even looking at the road. I told her everything. Will and I making out on the desk, that Erika had walked in when his shirt was almost off, I told her about the deals and agreements that I’d made with her. The whole time she just drove and watched me with her mouth hanging open in shock and disbelief.
When we pulled up at my house, she suddenly rounded on me. “I freaking hate Erika, freaking, Dennison! You know what we should do? We should go round to her house and kidnap her cat and send her little ransom notes!” she growled, slamming her hand down on the steering wheel.
I laughed at her half-assed plan. “Does she even have a cat?” I asked, shaking my head.
Amy frowned. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Well we’ll find something of hers to ransom. Maybe we could steal her cell phone and send out loads of bitchy texts to her friends?”
I rolled my eyes. How exactly would we get hold of her phone in the first place? “Amy, let’s just play nice and see how it goes. I’m hoping she’ll get bored of playing with me after a couple of weeks and move onto torturing someone else,” I suggested, trying to convince myself at the same time.
She frowned, obviously not liking the idea of just taking her abuse. “I hate her,” she grumbled.
I nodded and hugged her again. “Me too. Look I’d better go, I need to pee before Will comes to get me,” I said quietly.
Would Will even come to collect me after what just happened? Would he totally blame me for wearing the skirt and now he wanted nothing more to do with me because we’d been caught? How would I cope with that if he broke it off with me? I didn’t think I’d cope particularly well at all. He was probably really angry with me right now for encouraging that to happen. He probably hated me and wanted nothing to do with me ever again.
“Okay, well if you need help with her assignments then call me, all right?” she offered, nodding at the books on the seat in the back.
I groaned in frustration. How on earth was I going to do her English and History assignments tonight, and do my own work, and see Will? There just wasn’t enough hours in the day for it all!
“Thanks, Amy, you really are the best friend a girl could ask for, you know that?” I gushed, looking at her gratefully.
She nodded, pushing a strand of her long hair out of her face. “I know. So you are you.”
I sighed and pushed myself out of her car, heading inside the house. As soon as I was in solitude of my bedroom I immediately changed out of the stupid skirt, throwing it in the trash angrily. I pulled on a pair of baggy sweats and sat on the edge of my bed playing with my cell phone. Will was due here any minute. Would he call and tell me that he wasn’t coming, or would he just not show up?
I felt like crying. This had messed everything up, he was going to decide that a stupid high school girl wasn’t worth risking his career over, and he’d break it off for sure. I looked at Erika’s books, deciding to make a start on her English assignment.
I flopped down on my bed and pulled out my iPod, putting on the headphones and turning it up as high as I could stand as I read through what she had to do. It didn’t look too bad, thankfully I’d covered all of this stuff in my last semester, and I was in AP English so her assignment should be a breeze. I grabbed my notebook and started breaking down the poem, writing out all of the hidden meanings and paying particular attention to the symbolism like she was supposed to.
Suddenly something pressed down hard against my back, squashing me onto the bed on my stomach. I jumped a mile and let out a scream as I tried to get up, but someone was pinning me down with their bodyweight. I could feel the vibrations of laughter, their chest rumbling against my back but I couldn’t hear anything because of the music banging in my ears.
I thrashed trying to throw them off as I started to panic, but one of the earphones was pulled out of my ear and I could hear familiar laughter. I gulped and looked over my shoulder, my heart returning to the normal rate when I realised it was just Will. He was grinning from ear to ear, still laying on me, and pressing me down to the bed.
What on earth is he doing here? And why is he smiling at me? Shouldn’t he be hating me for possibly ruining his life?
“What are you doing here? And how did you even get in my house?” I asked, frowning and trying not to let my emotions get the better of me.
He kissed my cheek softly, rolling off of me and laying against my side. One of his hands played with my hair as he looked at me. “I came to get you, of course,” he replied as if it was obvious. “I called your cell, but it just kept ringing and going to voicemail. As for how I got in, I knew your parents wouldn’t be home yet and you left your front door unlocked.”
I turned to face him. He came to pick me up? After everything that just happened, he still wanted to see me tonight? “You came to get me? Why?” I asked, my voice breaking where I was so close to tears.
He frowned, looking a little confused. “Well, I thought we had a date tonight,” he answered, looking slightly worried. I couldn’t hold my emotions anymore. I burst into tears. He gasped and pulled me close to him, stroking his hand down my back soothingly. “Cutie, what’s wrong?” he whispered.
I cried harder at the sound of his nickname for me. How was I going to cope when he left me for a second time? This was already so painful, and he hadn’t even said the words that I knew would come out of his mouth any minute.
“Chloe?” He pushed me away from him slightly, cupping my face so he could look at me. “What are you crying for?”
I gulped, and he wiped the tears from my face with his thumbs. “I thought you wouldn’t want to see me anymore. I thought you’d hate me because of what happened. It was all my fault. I’m so sorry, Will,” I whispered, shaking my head and looking at him apologetically.
He frowned looking even more confused. “I could never hate you, Chloe. And that wasn’t your fault, it was mine. I was the one that kissed you; I was the one that moved us over to the desk, I’m the adult; I should have known better, and had more restraint.” He kissed a stray tear away as it fell down my cheek.
“It was my fault… the skirt… and now Erika!” I wailed, losing control again.
He sighed and pulled me to his chest again, rocking me gently. “Everything’s fine. I’ll just pass her like she said, and everything will be fine. As for the skirt being to blame… that was one sexy skirt, Cutie, but I was losing my will power long before you chose that to wear today. It would have happened sooner or later, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to keep my hands off of you every day,” he said, looking at me apologetically.
I gulped. “You don’t blame me?”
He shook his head fiercely. “I’m to blame, Cutie. Everything is my fault, and that’s the story we go with if anything ever comes out about us. Okay?” he said sternly.
I frowned and opened my mouth to protest, but he must have known I was about to argue with him because he smiled and pressed his lips to mine, silencing me before I even spoke. He rolled me onto my back, half hovering above me and kissed me deeply while I clung to him for dear life. By the time he pulled away, I was a little breathless.
He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. “Come on then, are you ready?” he asked, pushing himself up and holding down a hand to help me off of the bed.
I looked back at Erika’s assignments on the bed and winced. I really needed to get them done, which meant that I wouldn’t have time to go hang out at his place tonight. “I don’t think I can. I need to do her assignments for tomorrow, and I have to do mine too…” I trailed off, pouting.
“Do who’s assignments?” he asked, frowning at the papers on my bed.
I sighed sadly. I guess he didn’t know about the whole ‘You’re my personal bitch’ agreement I’d made with the devil. As far as he was concerned, she was going to keep quiet in exchange for a free pass in calculus.
I sat up and frowned. He sat down next to me, taking my hand. “She said I had to do her assignments for her, I also have to wash her car on Saturday and do some chores,” I told him, shrugging.
“What the hell?” he roared, jumping off of the bed again, his face hard and angry.
I gulped. “I said I’d do anything and I will. I won’t let her get you into trouble, she’ll get bored in a couple of weeks, and then she’ll leave us alone. I may have to borrow some money from you, I’ll pay you back though,” I said quietly.
“She’s blackmailing you? That little bitch!” he hissed.
I burst out laughing. “Language, Mr Morris! You can’t speak about a student like that!” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
He raised one eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to fall in love with one either, so I think that I just suck at teaching,” he countered, smirking at me.
My heart melted a little when he said he was in love with me. “You don’t suck at teaching; you’re just young and can’t control your hormones.” I patted the top of his head condescendingly, grinning. “Never mind, baby, you’ll grow up soon.”
