Meant to Be (The Saving Angels 1)

When we entered the room, he was already there. I noticed that he was missing his usual smile. I looked at him questionably. He shook his head slightly. I sighed, ugh. This whole secrecy thing was becoming a big old pain in the butt. I hated waiting on things and hated surprises even more. The next hour stretched out endlessly ahead of me.

“What’s up with him?” Sam whispered, leaning toward me.

I shrugged my shoulders, trying to act blasé about it. Something was obviously bothering him, but I would have to wait until later to find out, and we didn’t want to give the gossip hounds anything new to talk about.

The next fifty minutes crawled by. I checked my watch almost every minute and it seemed to be moving backwards.

I gnawed on my thumbnail as I waited for class to end. Maybe he had decided to break off the relationship with me, and that was why he had not taken our relationship to the kissing stage.

Briiiiiiiiiing

“Finally!” I mumbled to Sam. “I never thought the class would end. I’m going to try to talk to him once everyone leaves the room.”

I gathered my stuff slowly as I waited for the room to empty. Finally, the last student left the room.

I approached Mark, noting that he still wore the same grave expression.

“What’s the matter?” I asked concerned.

“I had a meeting with the Dean this morning. It appears Matt followed up with his threat.”

I gasped. “What did he tell him?” I asked, disgust rimming my voice.

“Well, Mr. Peterson asked me point blank if I was interested in a student. I couldn’t lie to him. At first I was going to deny it, but I decided to come clean. He was unhappy with my answer, and expressed that was why he had qualms about letting me pursue my thesis here in the first place. He feels that the age gap between me and the students is too narrow. I tried to explain that it wasn’t a problem, there was just something special about you.”

“He didn’t buy it. He gave me the whole, ‘It’s not professional to think about students that way.’ The bottom line is, I’m supposed to stay away from you and finish my thesis up in a timely manner. He did tell me that he didn’t feel comfortable writing me a letter of recommendation. Without a letter, it will be harder for me to get my thesis published.” He ended his statement with a sigh.

I reached out a comforting hand.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, feeling bad for the trouble I was causing him.

“So, we have to stay away from each other?” I said with a quiver in my voice. Just the thought of staying away from him sent my heart spinning in panic.

“No, he said he would prefer that I stay away from you. I would rather stop breathing than be away from you. My thesis is almost done anyway, I only needed to observe students’ behavior’s for a couple of weeks to gather enough data for my study. I should be done by next week and I don’t think he’s going to revoke my internship before I finish,” he said, holding onto my hand.

My heart swelled as I comprehended his words. He wasn’t breaking up with me. So what if we hadn’t kissed yet, at least I wasn’t losing him.

“You are the only thing that matters,” he continued as he raised my hand to his chest and placed it over his heart. “Can’t you feel what you do to me?” I could feel his heart racing under my palm. “It races like that anytime I’m near you, or anytime I think about you,” he smiled. “Sam’s right, we belong together, and nothing is going to keep us apart,” he said with earnest.

I looked up into his eyes, he was right. When put like that, everything else seemed trivial. All that mattered is that we had found each other. The rest of the details, we could work out together.

I changed the subject.

“Will you still come over tonight? Sam’s spending the night and we were going to search the Internet some more. Shawn will be coming over too for a little while.

“I’ll be there as soon as the staff meeting ends. Do you want me to pick up some dinner?” he asked, handing me my customary chocolate.

“That would be great. I’m so excited it’s Friday, and that we get to spend all day together tomorrow,” I said. Throwing caution to the wind, I reached up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Before he could comment on the kiss, I sidled toward the door.

“I better go, the bells going to ring and I don’t want to be tardy,” I said in a hurry, feeling a little embarrassed over my impulsive act.

I did it, I kissed him; sure, not on the lips, but close enough. I closed the classroom door behind me, feeling a little smug from my bravery. Lost in thought, I was startled when I heard a voice behind me.

“Well, what did teacherpoo think about his talk with the Dean?” a snide voice asked behind me.

Turning around, I saw Matt leaning against the wall with an evil smile on his face. I was filled with an uncharacteristic urge to sock him, which was strange because I had always been the type to avoid any kind of conflict. Ever since I had met Mark and Sam, I just felt somewhat empowered and had more self-confidence. Still, I decided I would rather walk away than give this creep the satisfaction of seeing me upset.

I was jerked back as his hand wrapped around my left arm. He increased the pressure making me wince in pain. I didn’t know what shocked me more-- the fact that he was touching me, or the pain. As a rule, I usually avoided contact with people to escape a rush from their emotions. Contact seemed to intensify the emotions someone was feeling, and Matt’s negativity made my knees want to buckle.