Breaking Noah

Startling me in my seat, the door flings open and my classroom begins to fill with students. “Well, thanks for the chat, Mr. B., but I need to get to my first class. Lots of stuff to learn today.” Zara struts out of the classroom, her backpack slung across one arm and purse dangling from the other. Before she’s completely out of sight, she turns her head slightly and winks.

I really need to get a grip. I shouldn’t be staring at my student’s behind, but more important, I can’t get caught staring. This is going to end badly. So much for redefining boundaries. If anything, I’ve crossed even more. God help me.

—

Actually getting to hang out with my friends during the school year is nearly impossible, but after a brief dinner with Shannon, a few of my old high school buddies and I meet up at a bar just outside town. Thankful for the reprieve of the day, I sit between Lance and Clay, listening to them as they drown their sorrows over a few cold beers.

“You’re fucking dumb. I’ll put my money on the Ravens before the damn Forty-niners,” Lance hollers, sloshing his beer around in his glass.

“Morons. All of you,” Clay mumbles, taking a bite of his burger.

“Okay, tiebreaker. Noah. Who’s going to the playoffs?” I nearly miss Lance’s question, as my mind is somewhere totally different. As hard as I try, I’m still stuck on Zara.

“I’ll take the Lions,” I jeer.

Both men huff loudly, slamming their glasses down on the bar top and throwing their hands in the air.

“Have you lost your damn mind? The Lions? I’ll shit my pants if they win enough games to be considered for a wild-card pick. If they do, I’m buying rounds all night.” Laughing along with Clay, I take a swig of my drink, letting the bitterness of the beer hit hard in my stomach.

The rest of the conversation is casual until Lance brings up our other friends. “Do we know what day Derrick and Rick are coming in so we can get started on Rick’s bachelor party?” Getting all of us together at one time proves to be more and more difficult the older we get. Rick moved to Michigan a few years ago and Derrick travels for business at least twice a month.

“Next week or the week after, I think.”

“I can’t believe the poor bastard is actually going through with it. First Jake and now Rick? Who’s next? Probably Noah over here,” Lance jokes, nudging me in the ribs with his elbow.

“I wouldn’t put money on it,” I say snidely. Not that I wouldn’t marry Shannon, I just know she isn’t the one, but it’s easier to stay with her than to leave her, I guess.

“Things not going good with Shannon?” Clay asks, a little too interested in my response. He’s always had a thing for her. Throughout college, he was pissed that it was me she chose and not him. How I wish it would have been the other way around.

“No, things are fine….I don’t know, something’s just off. It?

??s like she hasn’t changed at all since we graduated. I don’t know if she has any drive left.”

“Fuck her drive, how about the sex? Still good?” Leave it to Lance to bring up the only topic he’s well versed in…sex. I’ve known him since we were ten, and it appears that his train of thought hasn’t reached maturity like the rest of us.

“Not cool, bro.” Clay looks down, shaking his head.

“Seriously. You can’t still be with her if she’s a lousy lay. She’s gotta bring something to the table. We’re friends, have been for a long time, but let me just disrespect you for a moment and say Shannon’s fine as hell. When you guys stayed with me last Fourth of July and she was prancing around in those tight-ass little shorts, it took everything in me to not bend her over my knee and spank her.”

“Lance, really? That’s his girlfriend. Grow up,” Clay says, disgusted with Lance’s behavior, even though he’s probably thinking the same thing. Shit, I’m remembering that weekend, and in fact I did take her over my knee and mark that little ass of hers. That was the first and only time she let me try anything out of the ordinary. Probably because she’d been drinking Lance’s concoction of margaritas all day; with that and the sun, she was more than a little wasted. It was a good time. I only wish it would have lasted until we got home. Maybe Shannon’s a bit too boring for me. Shoving the thought aside, needing to ponder it when I don’t have two of my best buddies staring me down, I jump back into the conversation.

“Thanks, man,” I say to Clay, slapping him on the back. “I’d also appreciate if you’d refrain from commenting on Shannon’s spankable ass. But if you’d like to continue, we can talk about how much your sister liked her hair pulled when I was fucking her from behind.”

It’s still a sore subject, even nearly a decade later. After we graduated, the summer between high school and college, Lance’s sister and I had a brief fling. It was some of the best sex of my life, and the girl liked it rough. Of course, Lance didn’t know this until he walked in on us one night. In his bed, no less. A few weeks after closing the door on our affair, she met her current husband and the rest is history. But giving Lance a hard time about it still cracks me up. Especially when he’s being a dick, like he is today.

Lance’s facial expression changes drastically and his cheeks instantly turn red—not with embarrassment, more so with the look that tells me that I’m about to get my ass kicked.

“Dude,” Lance says, placing his hands over his ears and shaking his head like he’s trying to get the thought out of his mind.

“Exactly my point.” I laugh.

“Okay, change of subject. How’s work, Noah? I still don’t know how you do it…getting up at the ass crack of dawn to go and try to teach a bunch of little shits about the language they’re supposed to know backward and forward.” There’s a reason this kid went to law school and became one of the best mediators in the state. Clay knows how to diffuse a situation like no other.

“First, I don’t teach grammar and shit. It’s literature. You know, books? I’m sure you’ve heard of them before. But it’s all right. Got a transfer student in a few days ago…army brat. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was much older than she actually is. I haven’t met any students yet that have read Pride and Prejudice for fun.”

“Does anyone read that shit for fun? There aren’t even any pictures,” Lance jokes, and I roll my eyes.

“You might actually have a good year, then. At least one of your students will be paying attention.” Little does Clay know that my year is going to be anything but good. If I’m thinking about Zara this much now, what’s going to happen when the term progresses and I learn more about her? I really should talk to the dean or her counselor about having her class switched. Having her with me for a few hours a day three times a week is going to be hell.