by Isabelle Rae
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me; pushing me down on the bed and pinning me down, blowing raspberries on my neck, ticking my sides, making me scream and squeal under him.
After a couple of minutes he pulled back and put his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry about all of this, Cutie. I hope you think I’m worth it. Are you regretting having anything to do with me?” he asked quietly, looking a little unsure about himself.
I shook my head and wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer to me, gripping my hands in the back of his hair. “Will, I love you. I’ll never regret anything that involves you being in my life. This will all blow over soon, and life can go back to normal. We just need to agree not to do anything on school grounds, ever again.” I looked at him sternly.
He nodded. “Definitely.” He kissed me again, running his hand down my side, gripping the waistband of my sweats I was wearing. “Maybe you could stop with the skirts at school too, so I don’t have to fight the urge to jump you every time I’m within a few feet of you?”
I giggled and blushed like crazy as I pressed my face into the side of his neck and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll throw them out,” I confirmed.
He pulled back and grinned, shaking his head. “Don’t throw them out, I like them. Just don’t wear them at school. Deal?”
I nodded and pulled his mouth to mine again, kissing him softly. “Deal,” I mumbled against his lips.
He kissed me for a few more minutes then pulled back, sitting up next to me and pulling me up too. He looked down at the papers I had spread on my bed. “You’re really doing her homework?” he asked, scowling angrily at it.
I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, so I don’t think I’ll have time to come to yours tonight. I have two of hers to do, and then I have my own homework too.” I smiled at him apologetically.
He shook his head and grabbed all of the papers and books, piling them up. “You’re coming to mine; I’m not letting her ruin anything for us. I’ll help you do her work and yours, and then we might get time to hang out and get a takeout or something.”
I looked at him gratefully. I couldn’t help the little “Aww,” that escaped my lips. That’s so adorable!
He rolled his eyes as if he knew what I was thinking and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. “Let’s go before your parents come home,” he suggested.
I nodded and looked down at myself in my baggy sweatpants. Wow, I look a mess! “I just need to change,” I said, heading over to my closet.
He laughed and pulled on my hand making me stop. “Don’t change, I like the sweats,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at them as he looked me over slowly.
I slapped his arm. “You’re such a weird boy, Will!” I scolded playfully.
“Yeah, but you love me,” he countered, looking at me confidently.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I do.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“Remind me again, why we’re getting her breakfast order?” Will moaned as we pulled up outside Starbucks on the other side of town.
I sighed. “So you don’t lose your job, or worse. And so I don’t get expelled,” I replied, rolling my eyes. We’d been through this and through this. He wanted to speak to her and tell her to ‘shove it up her ass’, those were his exact words. Apparently he would like to hear them again because those were the words I said to Olly when we broke up.
Will was convinced that the Principal wouldn’t believe her anyway. He suggested that we could say something like she was jealous of me and just lashing out because I’d hooked up with a guy Erika wanted or something. In the end we decided just to go with her plan for now, and hope that she got bored after a couple of weeks. I wasn’t convinced she would, but I just didn’t want to take the risk of the Principal believing her story.
I jumped out of his car and ran in to Starbucks, buying her ‘tall, half-skinny, half-one percent, split quad shot latte, with whip,’ and an energy bar.
Once I had her complicated order, I sighed, and climbed back into his car. Today was going a long day no doubt. She’d already text me her breakfast order and told me to make sure I didn’t let it get cold. Then I was supposed to meet her at her locker at exactly 8:40 to give her the assignments that I did for her, and of course, the two hundred bucks that I had promised her. Stupid devil woman.
As we were driving down the road, my cell phone started to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket and smiled, it was Sam. I smirked in Will’s direction; he was still whining that I was seeing his brother instead of him tonight.
“Hey, Sam,” I chirped, grinning as Will groaned.
“Hey, Foxy. Still up for tonight?”
“Yep. Are you gonna carry on with that story about when Will was at school?” I joked, trying not to laugh as Will frowned in my direction.
Sam laughed. “Is he there with you right now?”
“Abso-freaking-lutely,” I confirmed, laughing quietly to myself.
“Mention something about summer camp,” he suggested.
I smiled wickedly. “Summer camp? No, what did he do at summer camp?” I asked, playing along.
Will gasped and reached out to grab my phone while shouting at Sam, “Stop telling her stuff about me! I swear, Sam, you’re gonna get it when I see you next!”
I laughed and held the phone away, pushing his hand away from the phone. “Drive the car, Mr Morris!” I joked, smirking at him. I leant away and started talking to Sam again. “Are you coming to get me from school?”
“Yeah, saves me waiting around. I thought we could go grab some dinner then go bowling. You up for that?” he asked.
“Sure thing. Hey, you know, you could do me an awesome favour while you’re at my school,” I said, shifting the devil woman’s drink in my hands.
“What’s that, Foxy?”
“Seduce a student and make her fall in love with you so she’ll leave me alone,” I stated, only half joking.
“Seduce a student? Done!” He laughed. I smiled and closed my eyes, resting my head back on the chair as we neared the place where Will would drop me off. I silently wished it would be that easy and that Sam could sort this out for me, but nothing is ever that easy in life. Erika would be on my back for the rest of the school year, and there was nothing I could do about it. “Seriously though, is something wrong? Is someone picking on you or something?” he asked, sounding concerned.
I chewed on my lip and then proceeded to tell Sam the whole story about how Erika saw us kissing, and how she was now blackmailing me. The whole time I was speaking he remained silent; I noticed Will’s hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. He really hated playing along with her, but I just couldn’t take the risk of someone believing her if she said anything about it.
When I was done, Sam blew out a big breath. “Wow, that sucks for you two. I guess you’ll just have to see how it plays out today. I’ll have a think and see if there’s anything I can do to help, all right? Maybe you could break into her house, steal her diary, and find some dirt to blackmail her with?” he suggested.
I laughed. “You sound like Amy; she wanted to ransom her cat.”
“Does she have a cat? I’m up for a little catnapping. We could dress it in a load of stupid outfits and take pictures and threaten to post them all over town if she doesn’t leave you alone.” He chuckled darkly, probably already planning on surfing the net to see if he could find cat dress up outfits.
I rolled my eyes at his lameness and noticed that we’d stopped in the parking lot of the store as usual. I frowned. “I gotta go, Sam. See you after school.” We said our goodbyes and I pushed my phone back into my pocket. I turned to look at Will; he was scowling out of the windshield. “So, I’ll see you in class then I guess,” I muttered, not really wanting to get out of the car.
He sighed and slipped his arm around my shoulder, his other hand stroking the side of my face. “If she takes this too far and you get pissed off, then we just tell her shove it, right?” he said, looking at me sternl
y.
I nodded. “Up her ass, I remember,” I joked, making him laugh. He pressed his lips to mine softly. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the closeness of him, the feel if his lips against mine, the way my stomach fluttered. Kissing Will was out of this world and I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to the intimacy of a single peck on the lips.
He pulled away after a few seconds and put his forehead to mine. “I love you. Just remember that. No matter what happens, I love you. If this gets to the point where we need to do something drastic then I’ll quit my job,” he said, stroking my face lightly with his thumb.
I scoffed at that suggestion. That was something else we talked about last night, we had been through a number of different scenarios, none of which I particularly liked. The one that was the fall back plan that would happen as a last resort - Will would get another job at another school. I didn’t want that to happen though, he was lucky to get his position at our school because of his age. The Principal must have been desperate for a teacher to have employed a graduate with no experience. I had no doubt in my mind that he would find it hard to find another teaching job anywhere near where we lived.
I pulled back and grabbed the handle, juggling everything in my hands as I swung my bag onto my back preparing for the short walk to school. “Chloe,” Will called just as I was about to step out of the car. I turned back to look at him. He was holding out a stack of money to me. I sighed and closed my hand over it, smiling at him gratefully because he had insisted on paying her off.
“Thanks. I’ll pay you back,” I promised.
He shook his head and pressed his lips to mine again, kissing me softly before speaking against my lips, “No, you won’t.”
I smiled weakly and closed my eyes, just wishing that things could be easier and that falling in love wouldn’t be so wrong. Why did everything have to be so difficult? When a person fell in love, it was supposed to be all smiles, flirting and giggling, not sneaking around and stealing little moments in a disused parking lot. I would give anything to just walk down the street and hold his hand, to take him home and introduce him to my parents as my boyfriend.
“Will?” I traced my nose up the side of his as he played with my hair.
“Mmm?” he mumbled, his lips vibrating against mine where they were still so teasingly close.
“After the meal with your parents on Saturday, do you think I could come and stay at yours?” I asked. His hand tightened in my hair, so I quickly continued, “Not to do anything. I just want to wake up with you holding me, nothing more. Please? I really need that, please?” I begged. My voice was barely above a whisper.
He sighed, his warm breath blowing across my face, making my mouth water and my skin break out in goosebumps. “I really need that too,” he admitted, kissing me softly again.
I felt my heart start to fly in my chest at the mere thought of going to sleep with his arms wrapped around me. I could cope with the non-sex stuff, but I just needed a little more intimacy, a little more private time with him where we weren’t stressed and having heavy conversations about hiding our relationship and what to do if things turned sour. I just needed one night of just Will and Chloe, together, and alone.
“I’d better take this coffee to her before it gets cold,” I said somewhat reluctantly.
“I’ll text you through the day.” He smiled sadly and pulled back into his seat, watching as I climbed out of the car and waved weakly at him.
I pulled my jacket tighter around me and hunched my shoulders against the cold wind. A quick glance at my watch told me I had a couple of minutes left before I had to meet her, but I headed straight to her locker anyway, wanting to get this over and done with as quick as possible. She was leaning against her locker, a guy leaning in, obviously flirting with her as she laughed and slapped his shoulder, all the while shooting him a seductive look. Tramp!
I cleared my throat as I stopped by her side, not wanting this to take a second longer than necessary. She looked at me, a distasteful expression on her face before she rearranged it and smirked at me wickedly. “Kevin, I just need a minute. I’ll see you in class, okay?” she said to him, but her eyes not leaving me.
The guy frowned at me as he walked off, obviously a little put out that she was sending him away. As soon as we were on our own I handed her the coffee and energy bar. She frowned as she took it. “You got my order right? If this is wrong then you’re skipping first period to get me another,” she warned, eyeing me sceptically.
I frowned and bit back my angry retort. “Yes, it’s exactly like you asked for,” I hissed, putting on a fake smile as someone walked past, looking at us curiously.
“My work?” she prompted, snapping her fingers impatiently, looking around as if bored or something. I sighed and handed her the printed sheets that I’d managed to complete for her last night before Will and I had a Chinese takeout. “If this is below a B, then it’s bye bye hottie teacher.” She smirked at me as she scanned over it. I was secretly glad that I didn’t just go with Will’s suggestion of adding a cuss word to every line because he didn’t think she’d notice.
I grabbed the money from my back pocket and thrust it at her, shoving it against her chest. “Just stay away from me from now on,” I snapped, trying to make my voice sound stronger than I felt.
She smiled evilly at me. “Tomorrow, you come to mine just after lunch; you can do my chores while my parents are out. You might want to wear something old, I have a couple of horses that need mucking out,” she stated, laughing to herself.
Horses, what on earth? I felt my face flush with anger, and my hands itch to punch her in her smug face. “You aren’t seriously expecting me to shovel shi-” I stopped talking abruptly as Mrs Halston walked past. Wow, that was close, almost got myself a detention then I’m betting!
Erika laughed and tossed her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “Definitely. Unless you’d rather just back out of this whole deal? If you’re not going to keep up with your end, then I won’t have to keep up with mine. I wonder if the Principal is free right now.” She looked up the hallway towards his office with mock interest.
I couldn’t stop the angry growl that escaped my lips. “Fine! You’ll need to give me your address or something,” I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief. What a little witch!
“Oh don’t worry, we’ll be speaking a lot over the course of the day,” she mused. She waved her hand in a buzz off gesture. “Run along now, little doggie. Just remember to come when you’re called.” She sneered at me one last time before I turned on my heel and marched off to where I knew Amy would be at this time of the morning.
The day passed unbelievably slowly. Erika was right, I definitely saw her a lot over the course of the day. I had to buy her lunch, lend her my gym kit, and get her books for her so that she could spend precious extra minutes reapplying her already overdone make-up. I had to deliver messages to her friends, and at one point I even had to pick a piece of gum from the bottom of her shoe because she’d stepped in it. I thought I did quite well by not flicking it into her hair as payback, though quite how I refrained myself I had no idea. By the time calculus came, I was exhausted both physically and mentally. All I wanted to do was curl into a ball on Will’s lap and sleep.
Amy tried to help when she could, coming with me to run her errands, making herself late for classes too. The whole time she was ranting out little plans of revenge and payback. Her favourite one by far wouldn’t be easy to pull off, for one thing, where would you even find the Batmobile and midgets with horns anyway?
We headed for the back row in Will’s class. I ignored Olly shooting me a small scowl as we walked past him, he still wasn’t talking to me, but I just couldn’t bring myself to feel bad about it, he was the one that forced the breakup by being a possessive jerk, not me.
Will smiled as the bell rang, signalling the beginning of class. His eyes scanned the room for a couple of seconds, looking a little confused and that got me curious. I looked around the stude
nts, trying to see what had him so confused, only to see that Erika wasn’t here. I smiled weakly to myself. Maybe there is a God after all and she was going to leave Will alone, skip his class and still get the pass. One could only hope.
Everything was going smoothly. I tried my best to concentrate on what he was saying and not the way he was saying it. I took notes; I even understood some of what he was saying, which would please Nick immensely. Fifteen minutes into the class the door opened, and everyone turned to watch Erika saunter in with a smirk on her face.
I groaned. Maybe it isn’t going to be that easy for Will after all!
“Miss Dennison, you’re late! Do you have a late slip?” Will asked, frowning at her angrily. I winced. I’d have to tell him to ease up on the death glares otherwise people might get suspicious; he shouldn’t really look at a student that way.
Erika smiled and waved her hand dismissively, ignoring his comment and just headed to a free desk, immediately pulling out her iPod, making a show of putting it on. My mouth dropped open in shock.
Will marched over to her desk and held out his hand. “That’s now confiscated. You can pick it up from the office at the end of next week,” he growled. Wow, he really needs to ease up on the anger!
She laughed, not turning it off, raising one eyebrow at him innocently. “I don’t think so, do you, Mr Morris?” she purred, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Turn it off now!” Will ordered, shaking his hand for it again. The whole class was watching him, and I felt sick. Why was she doing this? He was giving her the pass, I was running around after her at her beck and call, and she still felt the need to push him in front of his students?
She smiled and slowly pulled the earphones from her ear, making a show of winding the wire up around it, knowing that all eyes were on her. “You can take it for the lesson, but I’ll want it back for the weekend. I don’t think it’s right that you can confiscate something over a weekend. Maybe I should the matter up with the Principal?” she suggested, smiling sweetly at him.
