by A. E. Murphy
“Exactly,” he agrees and scratches at his neck. “Okay, well I guess you can go.”
He slides off the desk and holds out his hand. I accept his assistance, even though it’s not necessary, and instantly regret that decision. My hand remains in his for far longer than it should and the urge to kiss him and wrap myself around him is unbearable.
“You should go,” he says, his heated eyes on mine.
“I’m going.” My legs don’t move as we stare at each other. I can’t pull myself away, no matter how hard I try.
“Are you going to my mum’s?”
“I was planning to.”
He looks out through the window. “Can I give you a lift?”
My mind goes back to the way he carried me from the bedroom to the bathroom and my thighs automatically press together again. “Is that allowed?”
“I don’t see why not.” He shrugs and looks towards the door. “Can you wait while I pack up?”
“Is there anything I can help you with?” He finally lets go of my hand. I flex my fingers and wait while he moves around his desk.
“No, I’ve got it.” He stuffs books from his drawer into his bag.
“Are you sure? You’re not very organised for a teacher, are you?”
Blinking, he looks at me, torn between amusement and annoyance. “And for a teenager, you’re far too tidy.”
“We should swap places.”
“I’ve got it,” he tells me, still stuffing books into his bag. “You can rearrange it when we’re at my parents’. Deal?”
“Don’t you have more? You have like three hundred students in different years, right?”
He stands to his full height and rests the strap of the heavy bag on one shoulder. “Did you not see the boxes under my bed?”
I shake my head. “There was no way I was venturing under there after what I discovered in your living room.” He opens his mouth to defend himself, but I cut him off. “There were breeds of germs and insects unknown to science. It was messed up.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
I love how adorably petulant he sounds. “The mould was moulding.”
“So you say.”
“You’re lucky I was there.” My voice is low as we step into the hall. “My dad is doing an inspection next week. If he’d seen it like that, he would have been keeping his deposit.”
“Well in that case you might need to come around again.” He winks and then blanches. “I’m sorry… I didn’t… I just meant because you did such a good job and I’m a bit of a…”
“Slob.” I finish for him, grinning cheekily.
“I work.”
“I work and I go to college. You should see my bedroom.” Now it’s my turn to blanch.
This is so awkward.
“We can be friends,” he says, the second we step outside. “It doesn’t mean we can suddenly start going for coffee together or watching movies and having pillow fights, but I enjoy your company. I don’t want to lose the ease we have together because of what happened. My mother loves you, maybe more than she does me.”
My heart just got very warm. “I doubt that, but thank you. I’d like to be friends.”
“Good.” He presses the button on his keys and his car beeps in the almost empty carpark.
I climb in the back, worried somebody will see and assume the worst. It’s ridiculous because he’s driven me home quite a few times and I’ve been in Mr Price’s car with and without Judith. I think now that something has happened between me and Isaac, the paranoia is going to come down on us hard.
Before it was innocent, so we never worried, but now it’s not and I’m petrified somebody will see straight through us.
I am putting way too much thought into this.
“You’re quiet,” Isaac says and the image of his naked body attacks my brain in the best way.
“Sorry, I was day dreaming.”
He looks at me in the rear-view mirror. “Anything good?”
My eyes widen and my mouth falls open before snapping shut. “Nope.”
“Do you feel uncomfortable?” He asks, catching my eyes again in the mirror.
I shake my head and unbuckle my belt. When we stop at a traffic light, I quickly climb into the passenger seat. “Nope. It’s just a bit weird.”
“Yeah.” He lets out a breath. “It’ll get less weird.”
“You’ve had practise?”
“Not with students, that’s for sure.”
“I may be your student, but I’m not a child. I’m two years over legal age and I’m not technically in school.”
His sigh is long. “It’s still illegal.”
“I know, but it’s not like it’s terrible. I’m not young and naïve and unable to choose who I sleep with.”
“Let’s just stop talking about this. I think the best thing we can do at this point is pretend it never happened.”
Ouch. “Right.”
“And now you’re upset,” he says this like it’s annoying him.
“I’m not upset.” Okay maybe I am a little, but I don’t want to pretend it never happened.
“I thought we agreed to be friends?”
“We did, but…”
He places his hand on mine, effectively silencing me. “Then just forget about it. Move on. It’s the only way this will work.”
I pull my hand away and fold my arms over my chest. “Whatever you say. Don’t worry, I won’t bring it up again.”
“Girls are so infuriating. Don’t you want to try to at least move past it?”
“You’re the one who keeps going on,” I snap and turn to look out of the window. “Just drop it. It’s not a big deal.”
I see his jaw clench and his hands tighten on the steering wheel, but he doesn’t say anything more and neither do I.
The second we pull up outside of his mum’s house, I climb from the car and head inside.
“Hi Judith, I’ll make tea,” I say as I pass the living room.
“Coffee with cinnamon,” she calls after me. “It’s good to see you, dear.”
Isaac follows shortly after, but goes straight to his mum to greet her.
I boil the milk in a pan on the stove and add the coffee and cinnamon as it heats. I’m not really sure why I’m so irritated at Isaac. Maybe it’s because I can tell he’s trying to brush the situation off like it didn’t mean anything. That hurts because it might not have meant something huge, but it definitely meant something to me.
I’m not in love with the guy or anything. It’s not that now we’ve done the deed I suddenly want a wedding ring.
Screw that.
All I want is just… gah… I don’t even know what my point is.
“Do you need help?” Susanna asks, stepping into the kitchen. She’s young, probably mid-twenties, and very pretty in a cute sort of way. Her hair is tied into the usual bun atop her head and her clothes are white with blue seams, her carer uniform. I’m sure I recognise her from somewhere; I just can’t put my finger on where. She’s so familiar.
I’ve probably seen her in Crystal’s café or something.
“I’ve got it,” I respond kindly and start filling the mugs I’d already set out on a tray. “How is she today?”
She hesitates. “I shouldn’t say because you’re not technically family, but she’s having a good day today.”
“Her condition is getting worse.”
“As expected, but the new trial medication she’s on is slowing it down.”
“What’re we talking about?” Isaac steps into the room and immediately grabs the tin of biscuits from on top of the cupboard.
“Everything and nothing,” I lift the tray, but Isaac places the tin on top of the cups and takes it from my hands. I roll my eyes as he flashes me with an infuriatingly charming smile.
Susanna giggles at his display.
“After you, my lady.” He bows slightly to Susanna, still with that stupid smile on his face.
“Why, thank you.” Susanna, still gigglin
g, steps by him and skips into the room.
“After you…” He nods for me to go through, but I stand insulted.
“No ‘my lady’?”
His grin turns wicked. “Ladies don’t do the stuff you did last night.”
“Oh!” My mouth remains open. I can’t believe he just said that. I have no idea what to say right now. “You…”
Smiling wider, he struts out of the room, whistling.
Wasn’t it just fifteen minutes ago that he told me to forget it ever happened?
Men!
I stomp into the living room, growling under my breath. I don’t know what the hell has him so chipper and I don’t want to know.
I can’t believe he just said that to me.
“Everything alright, Elle?” Judith smiles a warm smile and sips her drink with a hum of appreciation.
“Don’t mind her, she’s grumpy.” Isaac answers for me, winking at Susanna who is going to giggle herself into a coma if she doesn’t stop it. He looks at me smugly.
“Aww, no, what’s wrong, Elle?” Judith reaches her hand to mine and gives me a squeeze.
“She’s female; there doesn’t have to be something wrong.”
I throw a biscuit at him, happy when it hits him in the temple. Susanna’s giggling only gets louder and this time it’s mixed with Judith’s.
Isaac picks up the biscuit from his lap and places it on the arm of the chair. “See? That actually hurt. I could give you a detention.”
“You can’t give sixth formers detention, Mr Price.” It’s true; you can’t. They either behave and stay or play up and leave.
“My dad runs the school. I could get him to make an exception.”
I sip my drink. It tastes so good. I notice Isaac’s eyes go to my lips when I lick them clean. “If he was going to give me detention, he would have done so already. I did apparently steal the contents of his wallet during our last chess match, remember?”
“I do love watching you two play chess.” Judith pushes her new glasses up her nose.
“I’ve heard it gets more aggressive than a room full of men watching a football match.” Susanna isn’t wrong.
“Yeah, I get accused of being a cheater and then, when he does win, I get accused of going easy on him.”
Isaac places his cup on the tray and I notice that the biscuit that was on the arm of the sofa is no longer there. I scan the tray and cup for it, but it’s not there.
When I finish my cup and Susanna and Judith do the same, Isaac nods at the tray. “Take that out for me. We’ll start on dinner in a minute.”
“Okay.” I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, but I can’t see what his game is.
When I step back into the room, something crumbles on my head and his hand starts rubbing at my hair.
I stand in shock, unsure of how to react to what he just did.
My hands ball into fists by my sides as a rage comes over me, too powerful to suppress. “You do not ever mess with a girl’s hair!” I turn on my heel and stomp into the kitchen.
“Men are stupid,” I hear Judith sigh.
“I was just playing,” Isaac grunts and I hear his footsteps follow me into the kitchen.
It’s then I turn with a handful of flour and release it from my grasp only an inch from his face. He freezes, much like I did when he crumbled the biscuit in my hair. The flour clings to his long eyelashes and brows, settling in the front of his hair and across his lips.
He moves quickly, too quickly. I feel granules fall over my bra and chest before I realise he’s holding my top open and is pouring instant coffee into it.
I squeal and grab the only thing available on the side. It’s Susanna’s leftover coffee and it hits him in the neck, turning his white shirt transparent and slightly brown. I don’t feel an ounce of remorse.
“Oh, you are so dead.” He hisses and pulls an egg from the egg basket on the side. I shriek and race around the table, but he’s too fast. The egg cracks on my head and slithers down my forehead and through my hair as the shell tumbles to the ground.
Flour flies, syrup joins it, milk and water get thrown and it doesn’t stop until we hear a loud booming voice from the doorway. It belongs to his father and he is pissed off. “CLEAN THIS UP NOW!”
We both stop, dripping with different textures and colours. “Yes, Sir.”
I glare at Isaac before taking in the mess around us.
Oh shit.
“She started it,” Isaac decides to call two minutes later, but his dad doesn’t respond.
Isaac sits on a chair by the fridge as I start by sweeping the mess from the ground. He pulls a packet of crisps from a nearby cupboard, opens them and proceeds to eat whilst his eyes linger on me.
Using my wrist, I push my sticky hair from my forehead. “Are you going to help?”
“Nope.” He pushes another crisp into his mouth.
I stop, the broom in hand and a squirt bottle in the other. I decided I’d spray the sides as I went along, giving the mess time to soak and loosen. “So you’re going to make me do this all by myself?”
He grins, still crunching on a crisp. “Yep.”
“I used to wonder why you weren’t married yet,” I lie. I’ve never wondered that. Mostly I was happy he wasn’t married, because then I wouldn’t have to ever feel jealous over him fawning over another woman. “Now I know why.”
I crouch on the ground and scrape the mess onto the dustpan before tipping it in the bin. Something small hits me on the back of the head. I ignore him and his crisp flicking ways.
“I’m an eligible bachelor.” He says this smugly and I can’t help the laugh that bubbles up from my chest.
“You’re only an eligible bachelor for another year or so and then you’re just the old guy that won’t settle down.”
His face drops quicker than a boulder from the sky. “I’m only twenty nine and I could settle down if I wanted.”
“Don’t sound so grumpy. I was just kidding.”
“No you weren’t. You’re spending too much time with my mother. She thinks I should have a litter of kids and a mansion by now.”
“Kids are overrated.” I stand by my statement. I don’t think I’ll ever have kids. I don’t feel an urge to become a parent one day. I don’t feel like I’m failing as a woman because I don’t have that urge either. It just doesn’t seem like something I could ever do.
“Amen to that.” He’s smiling again. “You don’t like kids?”
Tough question. “Meh.”
He laughs and nods his agreement before standing and finally helping me with the cleaning. “Yeah, take them or leave them, right?”
“Better when you can give them back.”
“You’re young. You’ll change your mind.”
I shrug. “I doubt it, but if I ever do, it’ll be when I’m ready.”
Smiling warmly, almost in awe at me, he reaches out and pulls a piece of egg shell from my hair. That one simple touch does more than I ever thought it would. “You’re old before your time, Elle.”
I smile back, but the tension is too much. “You have flour on your face.”
And just like that I ruined the moment.
“This looks better, but neither of you are leaving until it is spotless,” Mr Price Senior states, entering the kitchen once more. “I’m appalled at the both of you. Especially you, Isaac.”
I’ve never seen Isaac look so vulnerable and uncomfortable. “Sorry, Dad.”
“Sorry, Mr Price.”
The old man winks at me and walks away chuckling.
I turn to Isaac and mimic in a babyish voice, “Sorry Daddy… I fix it Daddy.”
“You’re not funny.”
“Aww, don’t cry little baby.” I pat him on the head, but seconds later I feel teeth sink into my wrist and shriek, smacking him on the head with the spray bottle in an effort to get him to release me. “Arsehole.”
“Detention.”
Eye roll. “That again?”
“This tim
e I’m serious.”
I look at the ring of teeth marks embedded in my flesh. “Then I’ll just report you for assault.”
“Two days of detention.”
Sigh…
Isaac
I think back to the food fight and it still brings a smile to my face. I don’t ever remember a time where I had that much fun.
What’s even more fun is sitting at the top end of the hall monitoring the twelve or so students who are currently writing lines on blank pieces of paper. Eloise is among them and she looks extremely pissed.
I wander around, checking to make sure everybody is writing the lines assigned to them. They usually receive lines based on their punishment.
‘I must not play on my phone during lesson.’
Is one of them.
‘I must not argue with my teacher during lesson.’
Is another.
My favourite, however, is this…
‘I must not throw eggs in kitchens and proceed to beat someone over the head with a bottle of any kind.’
Although she hasn’t quite written what I’ve told her to.
‘Next time I’ll just hit harder.’
I laugh, causing the students to look my way, but shift it to a glare. They quickly turn back to their own work.
The thing is, I didn’t actually manage to get Elle into detention. My dad decided that, as punishment for our fight, she’d be in detention and I’d be supervising. So basically I’m also in detention, I’m just not writing lines. I haven’t told that to Elle though. She thinks I’m here to gloat.
And that’s what I’ll continue to let her think for the next forty minutes.
I’m so hungry. Normally I’d grab something on my way home on the nights I don’t go to my parents, but this detention has kept me in an hour too long. I need to eat.
When the hour is up, the students file out one by one. I smile when Eloise waits behind for me. She looks unsure about whether or not I want her here. I’m not a mind reader, but Eloise isn’t hard to figure out.
“Did you have a good weekend?” I start pushing the tables to the corner and, with her help, we stack them properly.
