Mark glanced at his watch, swearing softly as he stood up. “I have to go, but we’re going to talk about this again later.”
He turned to Sam, “Did you call your foster mom?”
“Yes, she’s on her way. She went home and packed an overnight bag for me. She said she would give us a ride to Krista’s house.”
“Good,” he said.
“I’ll see you both in awhile; make sure she takes it easy until I get there,” he told Sam as he turned and walked away.
After he left, Sam sat down next to me. “Are you mad at me?” she asked, gnawing on the inside of her lip.
I shook my head. “I should have told him the truth earlier, but I thought he would kill Matt. I have never seen someone so mad before. It was radiating off of him. Matt could feel it also. I could tell he was scared of Mark. To tell you the truth, I was glad he was scared, now maybe he will leave us alone.”
Beeeeep!
Sam and I looked up.
“Oh, there’s my foster mom.”
We both grabbed our school bags and headed toward the sleek BMW that was idling at the curb. Sam opened the car door and introduced me.
>“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.
“Not concerned? Maybe I will tell everyone you’re a slut, he threatened. “Maybe that will put you in your place.”