Poor kiddo keeps asking what bad things her teacher did.
Just say she fucked around and found out!!
Life lesson, kids: don’t be a slut LOL
Bile rises in my throat. My hands shake as I remove myself from the group chat—something I should’ve done yesterday—and shove my phone into my pocket again, glancing at Gia to make sure she hasn’t noticed.
I rewind the conversation and try to keep my tone even. “How do you not know how the restaurant is pronounced?”
She shrugs. “I don’t get out much. But they have great food. We order from there sometimes.”
Even though I’m nodding, I can’t get those messages from the Everett Academy parents out of my head. Dirtylittle secrets I’d never want anyone to know about, least of all Gia.
I couldn’t stomach her disappointment in me if I told her why I’m here. That I’d been too flattered, too naive, too desperate to feel seen by someone like Christopher. That I’d mistaken attention for affection, mistook manipulation for intimacy.
Long story short, I dated the older, tenured teacher for five underwhelming weeks.Five!I believed him when he said he was separated, in the middle of divorcing his estranged wife. Instead, his very much in-the-picture wife was trying to patch things up with Christopher while he was taking me to dinners across town. And in a fun twist, it turns out she’s one of the more powerful members of the Everett Academy school board.
I became the villain in a story I didn’t want any part of, and in the months that followed, I was painted as a jezebel, some young hussy who seduced a good man and tried to destroy his marriage.
Rumors spread. Whispers that I’d done the same with other men in the community. Administrators, teachers, fathers.
Eventually, the board called a meeting. A witch hunt, really. With raised brows and tight smiles, they asked loaded questions, implying I was some kind of sexual opportunist.
The men at the meeting might as well have pinned a scarletAonto my blouse.
I tried to defend myself, to explain I’d thought it was real, I didn’t know the truth. That I hadn’t set out to hurt anyone. But none of it mattered, their minds were made up.
He kept his job. I was labeled as unprofessional, dramatic, and unstable. A liability.
My contract at Everett Academy wouldn’t be renewed.
And the worst part? Over the holidays, the rumors somehow compounded. Yesterday, the first day after break, parents greeted me withHow dare yous andYou should be ashamed of yourselfs. Even my students snuck horrible notes on the whiteboard, in my lunch, on my chair.
It’s why I was so desperate to leave.
Gia hands me the dutch oven to wash, and I clear my throat. “This was delicious, by the way. Thanks again for having me.”
She pops a top onto the Tupperware. “Don’t thank me, it’ll get old fast. We’re happy to have you, Lizzie was already complaining about you not eating with us tomorrow. I think she’s secretly hoping you’ll bring her with you.”
I smile at that. “I’m not sure she’d want to come, it kind of sounds depressing. Tomorrow’s Woeful Wednesday? Or, no, Wistful Wednesday.”
“Never been,” she says. “I think their most popular night of the week is Taco and Trivia Tursday.”
"Tursday?"
“Yeah. I’ve never been to that either. For obvious reasons.”
My eyebrows shoot to my hairline, eager for this little nugget of information from my big sis. “What reasons?”
She stops what she’s doing and turns to look at me, ticking the reasons off her fingers. “I have a kid. Anyone I loosely keep in touch with also has kids. I’d have to leave the house after 7pm. I’d have to get dressed” —she gestures to her sweats— “and, most compelling of all, they call it TacoTursday.”
“None of those are good reasons,” I say.
She hums her acknowledgment again, though this time it’s laced with disagreement.
I won’t let her off that easy. “Now you have a built-in babysitter.” I point at myself with one hand as I tick my retorts off on the other. “Your friends can also get a babysitter,oryou can make new, childless friends since it’s one of, like, three bars here. Wearing actual clothes and leaving the house after 7pm is good for you sometimes. And ‘Taco Tursday’ is a hilarious name.”
“Agree to disagree,” she says flatly.
