by HK Carlton
“You’ll figure it out. And it won’t take twenty years this time.” Jill turned on her heel, taking her laptop and leaving Lainey staring after her. What did she mean? Lainey really didn’t know anything about Jason. Maybe she was jumping into this too fast. She wasn’t thinking with her brain—her body had taken over and it was leading the charge. But for once she didn’t want to lead with her brain. She wanted Jason Westlake. And maybe for once she’d worry about the consequences later.
* * * *
Jason turned over and punched his pillow. He couldn’t sleep and it wasn’t just the raging desire that pumped through his veins that kept him from resting. Lainey hadn’t called. Why hadn’t she? Jill had told her. That’s what had happened. Jill had told her who he was and now she never wanted to see him again. She figured he was no better than her lousy ex.
Jason got up, showered and dressed for the day. It was casual Monday whether they liked it or not. It didn’t feel like a three-piece suit kind of day. He dressed in his favorite worn jeans and a school T-shirt. He gathered up all the papers he’d neglected over the weekend and headed out of the door.
He stopped for coffee but Lainey didn’t. Exiting the shop, he looked across the road but the store was in darkness. Neither was her car parked down the street. He went to school and faced the much dreaded razing from the pubescent throngs.
Chapter Eight
Jason walked into his classroom. Jill wasn’t seated at her desk. That was different. She was always in class. Always there before he was. He tossed his briefcase on his bureau and put the coffee he didn’t even want off to the side.
“Hey, Dub, how was your weekend?” Boyd called from the back of the room.
“I believe you already know how my weekend went, Mr Tanner, and then with all the class that you possess you tweeted all about it.”
“Yeah, buddy! Saw your weekend with my own eyes. How’d it go after we left?”
“None of your business. My life outside of this school is off limits.”
“Struck out, huh?”
Jason threw himself into the chair behind the desk and waited for the bell to ring—tuning out the giggling and the jokes they were making at his expense.
Henry strode into class, past the desk and started down the aisle to his seat. “Good morning, Henry,” Jason said.
Henry turned, gave him a cool once-over. “Hey,” he replied. He sat down in his seat in a defiant slump. This day just kept getting better and better.
The bell rang. “Books. Open,” Jason barked. “Two-oh-three.”
If the stories buzzing around the classroom were only true, he’d made out a whole lot better over the weekend than he really had. The conversation died down, but when he looked up all the shining little faces smirked at him just waiting for the next off word so that they could nail him again.
“This is a different chapter. No more breasts, Mr Westlake?” Boyd snorted.
“Fuck off, Boyd,” Henry lashed out. “Grow the fuck up.”
“Guess who else didn’t get any this weekend?” Boyd retorted.
“Watch your mouth in my classroom and let’s get to work,” Jason roared.
All quieted.
Just then there was a small tap on the closed door and Jill let herself in. She had a pink late slip in her hand and her cheeks were just as colorful as the piece of paper.
After gliding over to Jason’s desk, she then tossed the piece of paper on it.
“Thank you, Miss Markham.”
She didn’t even look at him, turning to make her way to her own desk. But it didn’t stop the snickering and lewd remarks.
“She can get away with anything now that her mother’s banging the teacher.”
“Told ya they were bumpin’ uglies, Jill,” Lisa said.
“There’s no way his is ugly!” Tammy sighed.
“Okay, people, let’s quit acting like a room full of teenagers and let’s get to work.”
“We are a room full of teenagers. What’d ya expect?”
“Yeah, and I’d appreciate it if for once you’d act like the young adults that you pretend to be. Page two-oh-three. Now. Mr Tanner you have lots to say today. Start reading.”
“Jesus, Jill, tell your mom to give it up already before J-Dub goes completely mental.”
Jason slammed his textbook down on his desk. Henry, who evidently had also had about all he could take, pushed Boyd right out of his chair and onto the floor. And Jill, who was plainly mortified, fled the room.
Jason was torn—he didn’t know whether to go after Jill or stay and keep hold of his classroom. Boyd stood and made the decision for him.
“What the fuck’s the matter with you, Henry? You’ve gone and lost your fuckin’ mind too!” As he got up, Boyd gave Henry’s shoulder a push in retaliation.
Jason strode down the aisle toward the combatants.
“Henry, take a walk. Take your books. Take Jill’s stuff too.” He hoped the kid would take the hint and go find and talk to Jill.
“You!” Jason pointed to Boyd as Henry stalked from the room. “Sit your ass down and keep your mouth shut until the end of class. Can you do that?”
“Yeah but—”
“Zip it!”
Jason walked to the front of the class and looked around the room, making eye contact with several of the students. “Page two-oh-three,” he snarled. “Start there and read. Silently.”
* * * *
Henry found Jill sitting by her locker, her knees drawn up and her face buried in her hands.
“Hey.”
She raised her head. “Hey.” He was glad to see she was dry-eyed.
“Westlake wanted me to bring you your stuff.” He dropped her bag next to her and slid down the lockers to sit on the floor beside her.
“Thanks. You’d better get back to class.”
“He told me to take a walk.”
“Then take a walk.”
“Why are you being like this? I didn’t do anything to you, Jill. I thought we had something going then all of sudden you’ve turned into a sulky little, well, I don’t even know.”
“I just don’t need what you’re trying to offer right now. I’ve got my own stuff to deal with.”
“What is it you think I’m trying to offer you?”
“Oh, come on. You just want to get in my pants, just like every other boy, just like every other man,” she sneered.
“Yeah, because before when we were hanging out, I was forever putting the moves on you. I was perpetually pressuring you. Forcing you to do things you didn’t wanna do. Forcing myself on you. Right? I’m such a dog.”
She glanced down the hall.
“And we’ve known each other for, what, three or four years now and you’ve seen me go through how many girlfriends? And I’ve hurt every single one of them,” he continued sarcastically. “Treated them all like shit. Got every single one of them knocked up and left them high and dry. I’m such a fucker.”
“You done?” she asked.
“No, I’m not fuckin’ done! I’m pissed. What the hell’s wrong with you? Is it ‘cause I made the team? Is that it?”
She didn’t answer. She wouldn’t even look his way.
He stood up. “Forget it. I don’t need what you’re offering either.” He started to walk down the hall.
“Henry?” Jill called. He just kept walking. “Henry!” she called louder and the sound of her voice made him stop and turn around. This time she was crying. His chest hurt to see her tears.
She walked toward him. He picked up his pace, and when she got to him she threw herself against his chest. “Oh, Henry, everything just sucks!”
He put his arms around her and held her. When she calmed he said, “It’s going to get better, Jill. I promise. When my folks got divorced, it took a while, but honestly things are so much better now for everybody. I think my parents actually get along better now than they ever did when they were together.”
Henry coaxed her back to the lockers, and they sat d
own.
“That’s never going to happen with my parents. My mother hates my father for what he did. And so do I. But he’s still my father and I just keep remembering what it was like before and I just can’t understand why he would throw her away like that.” Pausing, she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“My mom is the greatest. And now this thing with Westlake. I just don’t want her to get hurt like that again. She’d come out even more bitter than she already is. How do I know he’s not going to do the same thing to her? We all know what he was like when he was Jase West.” Jill tossed her hands up in the air. “My mom doesn’t even know about his past. And I know that I should tell her the truth but I don’t want to tell her. I want her to be happy, but I don’t know if she can be with him. What if I don’t tell her what I know about him and then when she does find out, she’s going to blame me for keeping it from her? And then I’ll be just as bad as my dad, lying and hiding things from her. And what if I tell her and she doesn’t even give this a chance and then maybe I screwed her out of having something really great with him? Gawd!” She elbowed the locker. “And they were making out on my front porch. I mean seriously going at it.” She shuddered.
“Yeah, they were pretty, uh, uh, close when Boyd and I saw them in the park too.”
“You were with him?”
“Yeah, I kept him from tweeting right away, but I knew as soon as he was out of my sight that he was going to post something. I’m sorry. I wanted to warn you too, but, well, we haven’t been that close lately and I was afraid you might think I was just calling you up out of the blue to stir up shit.”
“Not your fault. They were the ones carrying on in public for everyone to see. I feel like maybe it’s my fault that she’s even seeing him. I suggested she ask him out. But now that it really looks like it’s happening, I wish I hadn’t. What do you think of him? Westlake. Do you think he’s changed?”
Henry shrugged. He’d suggested the same thing to Westlake. Before he answered that question he needed to talk to him. “I don’t know. But I think you have to let your mom make her own mistakes. Just like parents have to do with us. You can’t protect her from everything. And soon you’ll be going off to school somewhere.”
“I know.”
The bell rang and other kids started to file out of the classrooms spilling into the hall.
“You goin’ to second class?” Henry asked Jill.
“I should. But I don’t want to hear what everyone has to say about my mom and Westlake.”
“Well, maybe some other scandal will break out and they’ll forget all about them. I guess I’ll see you later,” Henry said giving her a nod.
“Henry?” she called to him. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
He got about halfway down the hall when she yelled his name again. Pausing he waited for her to catch up. She looked up at him, then away. She swallowed. “You have my father’s number.”
“What?”
“The jersey they gave you, it was my father’s number. When he was in high school. When he and my mom met.”
“That’s why you stopped wanting to be around me?”
“Yeah, I know it sounds stupid and crazy. But, I just…” She shrugged. “I know in my head that it doesn’t even make any sense. But I can’t help what I feel, Henry.”
Westlake was right.
“So where does that leave us now, Jill? Do you want me to quit?”
“You’d do that? For me?”
“Yeah, I would. But even if I did and you still think that I could hurt you that way, things still aren’t going to work out. Because you’re never going to trust me regardless of whether I’m on the football team or not. It has nothing to do with the team or the number. It has to do with what you think of me. And it can’t be too highly if that’s what you think. And I can’t figure out why, because I have done nothing to you that would ever lead you to believe that I’m like that. Like your dad. Or Westlake?”
Jill looked away again. Henry sighed and shook his head. He thought they’d had a breakthrough. She’d opened up in a big way.
She grabbed onto his arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What?”
“I don’t want to be here. Can we just go somewhere?” In that moment, he would’ve done anything for her.
He scrounged around in his pocket. “Here. Take my truck keys. I’ve got something I gotta see to. And I’ll meet you out there.”
He ran down the hall, dodging and jumping around other students.
“Slow down, Henry!” Coach Anderson yelled. “Why can’t you dangle like that out on the field?”
Henry ignored him and kept on going.
By the time he got to Westlake’s classroom he was out of breath. Luckily, none of the second class students had filed in yet. He stepped in and closed the door.
Westlake looked up. “Henry. Did you find Jill?”
“Yeah. She’s fine. I need to know if you’re still going after this other woman. The one here at school? As well as seeing Mrs Markham, er, Clarkson.”
“I’m not.”
“Because I didn’t mean to put that thought in your head by telling you to keep her in mind and that she was hot and all that. Jill’s mom doesn’t need to be jerked around again. If you’re just playing with her while you’re wheeling some other babe—”
“I’m not, Henry.”
“Because I’ll go over there and tell her myself exactly who you are and—”
“Henry! There is no one else.”
“What?”
“It was always her. When I told the class that it was someone here at school, it was Lainey—Mrs Markham. I just wanted to throw everyone off because I knew that Jill was already taking some flak because someone saw us together at the coffee shop. But I met Lainey during Jill’s interview. And I’ve been tied up in knots ever since. I didn’t mean to upset Jill or have the whole school talking about us. I know that’s not what either of them need right now. But I have no intention of hurting her.”
“Yeah, must be a family trait. Jill’s got me all tied up in knots too.”
“You two talked?”
“Yeah, but we still need to do some more. But she told me what’s eating at her.”
“That’s good, Henry. I’m glad to hear it.”
“You’re not going to ask me what she said?”
“No, that’s between you and her.”
He nodded. “I gotta go.”
“Thanks for going after Jill.”
“No problem. Thanks for letting me.” He walked toward the door then turned back around. “She’s not too sure about you, Teach.”
“I know. She has her reasons. I get that. And she loves her mother and doesn’t want her to get hurt. But we all have that in common. I don’t want that either.”
“Boy, can we pick ‘em, eh, Dub? Couldn’t pick simple women. No. Gotta go for the complex ones.”
“I’ve come to the realization that the complex ones are the only ones that are worth it.”
“Yeah, and you’ve tried them all out, one at a time, to come to that realization. And when Mrs Markham finds that out, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”
“Well, hopefully by the time she finds out, she’ll be too into me to just turn her back on me. I’m not Jase West anymore.”
“Don’t you think it’d be better just to come clean with her upfront? Just be honest? She needs honesty now after all Markham put her through. Not to mention, you’re putting Jill in a helluva bad spot here, J-Dub. She knows who you are too and she doesn’t know what to do. Should she tell her mom and ruin what might be a good thing between you two or just wait and let it ride and hope she’s okay with it when she does find out?”
“She didn’t tell Lainey last night?”
Henry shook his head.
Jason let that sink in. “Yeah, I know you’re right. I guess that would be the right thing to do.”
“It would also show that you’re no
t Jase West anymore, that you have evolved.”
“You’re pretty smart, kid.”
Henry grinned, for the first time since he’d walked in. “Yeah, the ladies love an intelligent guy.”
The kids for second class started filing in. “Get outta here, I’ve got a class to teach.”
“Later, Teach.” Henry ran back down the hall and right out of the doors sprinting toward the parking lot.
Chapter Nine
Jason checked in at the office for any messages. It was three thirty and still not a word from Lainey. So if Jill hadn’t ratted him out why hadn’t she called? Had she changed her mind? She’d cooled off and realized she wasn’t ready?
Jason slammed the file cabinet on his way past, causing the ladies in the office to jump. “Sorry, ladies.”
Lainey was ready—more than ready. She was practically jumping him on the porch last night. So what the fuck had changed? Why hadn’t she called?
“Hey, ladies, got a phone book?”
They rushed to find it for him, bumping into one another in their haste.
Jase gave them a smile. “Thank you.”
Back in his classroom he threw it on his desk. He flipped through it. “Markham, Markham.”
“Nothing. Probably unlisted. What about Clarkson?”
“Nope. I’ll try the store.”
“H, I, J.” Jason ran his finger down the page. “There we go, Jillian’s Boutique.
Jason pulled out his cell and dialed.
“Jillian’s.” When Lainey answered he closed his eyes at the sound of her cheery voice. “Lainey speaking. How may I help you?”
“You could tell me why you didn’t call?”
“I was thinking the same thing about you. You said you would call me.”
“No, you were supposed to call me.”
“No, you said can I call you later? And I said yes.”
“I did? No, I couldn’t have, I don’t have your numbers.”
“I don’t have yours either.”
“You could have called the school.”
“I wouldn’t bother you at work, Mr Westlake. And you have access to Jill’s file if you needed contact numbers.”
“I cannot go into a student’s file for personal reasons.” He rolled his eyes heavenward. As if he hadn’t gone into her file once before. As if he hadn’t thought of looking in her file, again.
