Teacher's Pet

“She found enough time to have an inappropriate relationship with you. And the papers she’s written so far have been quite good. So it looks like I wasn’t wrong about her being able to handle that.”

“You might not have been wrong, but your son should really handle his own shit. That’s the sort of example you want to set? That’s what you want him to think is okay?”

Carla closed her eyes. “This is obviously not going how I had envisioned it.”

“I understand how you feel,” I said. “I wasn’t exactly planning on getting blackmailed, either. So what would you like to do about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“I take it you haven’t seen the article that Tessa wrote.”

“I was going to check that email later tonight, when I finally had a minute to myself.”

“It might not be something that you want published. It’s quite good, but I think it’ll be fairly obvious that Seth didn’t write it.”

“What is it?” Carla asked suspiciously.

“It’s an expose, of sorts. Names have been changed, all that shit, but it’s obvious that what she’s writing about actually happened. Inappropriate relationships between students and their professors, other faculty finding out yet choosing not to go to the dean but to rather use their knowledge to their own advantage . . . that sort of thing.”

Carla cringed. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. So if it’s really Seth’s dream of seeing his name in print, he might just have to write an article himself. Or maybe you could do it for him.”

She was quiet for a moment. I think she was realizing that it would be best, for everyone involved, to just walk away from it all, pretend like she had never figured it out in the first place. Because though she could get both Tessa and me into a world of trouble, she herself would also get into trouble, too.

“I think there’s really only one clear option here,” she said.

“And that would be?”

“To just put this all behind us. I’m willing to do that if you are.”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say. I think that would be best, too. In fact, we don’t ever have to talk about this again.”

She hesitated, her mouth set into a thin line. Clearly, she wasn’t happy, but we both knew this was the best deal either of us was going to get. And she was far more attached to this job than I was; I didn’t really give a shit whether I got fired or not.

I held out my hand. “Should we shake on it?”

She reached over and took my hand. “Fine,” she said.

23.

Tessa

I was heading toward the student parking lot when I heard someone calling my name. I stopped and turned. It was my mother.

“Mom!” I said. “What are you doing here?”

How long had it been since we’d last talked? Since she’d walked in on me and Leo. In a way, it was hard to believe that so much time had gone by; I’d never gone that long without speaking to either of my parents. My mother was wearing dark sunglasses and a sun hat; I had the sneaking suspicion she was trying to disguise herself.

“Tessa,” she said, hurrying over. She paused when she got to me, but then opened her arms and pulled me into a hug. “Things have gotten way too out of control, with all of this. I never thought that things would get like this. Where are you staying? I’ve stopped by your apartment several times, and you haven’t been there.”

“It’s not my apartment, remember?” I said. “There was no way I was going to be able to pay rent and stay on top of my schoolwork, Mom, so I moved out.”

“And you didn’t think about telling us?”

“Honestly? You guys haven’t made it seem like you really wanted to talk to me.”

My mother shook her head. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I really am. I’ve missed you so much, and I’ve been worried about how you’ve been doing. Your father didn’t want me coming here to talk to you, but I’m not just going to cut you out of my life completely. That’s crazy.”