“I’m so sorry, I just—” he said, but I stopped him.
“Not here,” I fired back, glaring at him as he winced. “There wasplentyof time for us to talk before you broke my heart. If we do talk, it’ll be when I want to. If I ever want to.”
He hung his head and nodded before he opened his mouth again. Nothing came out, and thank God for Larissa because she marched into my room, not bothering to apologize to Christopher.
I updated her on the turn of events with my buddy teacher, and like she always, she had my back.
“Girl,girl.You will not believe what I just heard.”
She wrapped me in a hug, and I melted into it, hating that I’d kept her out of everything until recently. We shared all our teaching ups and downs, but this entire thing felt like a private battle. However, the gossip destroyed any sense of privacy. “You good? You got blackmailed from someone’s ex? Is that the truth? This is like straight out of a movie.”
“Fritz’s ex, yeah.” I sighed, letting my attention move to Christopher’s broken expression for a beat. “I’m not proud of it, but yeah, she blackmailed me all month, and when I finally put my foot down, she stole from a kid.”
“I knew something was up with her.” Larissa pursed her lips. “She would always change her opinion based on who she was talking to. It was weird, you know? But dang, I didn’t realize she was your brother’s almost fiancé. Your brother istrouble.Sexy, but trouble.”
I snorted, needing the humor, and just the gesture of smiling made my face feel tight and awkward. Without meaning to, I sneaked a glance back at Christopher and regretted it. He looked so broken and sad, but it was his own damn fault. “Is there anything else?”
He flinched and shook his head before leaving my classroom, and Larissa raised her brows, a question already on her lips.
I shook my head. “Not yet. Too soon.”
“You got it. Just tell me what you need because the rumors are insane. One of the PE teachers was saying you were part of a scam robbing teachers out of thousands and the other was going on about you being into blackmailed for porn?”
“Good lord, both are false. Also,” I said, pausing before putting my hand on her wrist, “I should tell you before you hear a rumor. My brother and I come from money. We don’t talk about it a lot, but we’re…wealthy.”
“Okay,” she said, laughing. Not a single dark look crossed her eyes, and I was so grateful for that. “I mean, if you think we’re not still going for half-priced margaritas, then you’re wrong.”
It was the right thing to say, and I finally felt at ease in my own classroom. Samantha had taken that away from me for too long, and it was about time. The kids arrived twenty minutes later, and Larissa stayed the entire time, catching me up on all the latest drama during the time I’d been sucked into the Samantha-Fritz-Christopher world, and I welcomed the escape.
One teacher was on an improvement plan and was fighting it, even though we all knew she wasn’t great. Another staff member was caught having an affair with a teacher at the high school. Major yikes.
And of course, Larissa informed me all about her new man.
It was the perfect way to get back to normalcy at my job, and soon enough, the students arrived all excited about the Fall Parade the next weekend. Today was the kickoff assembly for the event, and my stomach clenched remembering how Christopher and I partnered on it.
It would be so fun to work together!I said, weeks ago when I was a fool. But no matter. I’d get through it. That’s what I did.
Thank God for kids because the second they walked into my room and starting rambling about elephants and toilets, I got sucked into their questions. One after another, all stemming around what the sub told them in my absence. I wasdealing with family stuff.
“What kind of family stuff? Like messes?”
“Or someone cried? My sister cries a lot.”
“Stuffed pizza? I want to miss school for stuff.”
My smile was real again, and by the time the assembly started in the afternoon, I almost forgot about the tightness in my chest. Our classes were expected to pair up together and enter the gym at our specific time. It was madness trying to get hundreds of kids into the gym at once, and I got them all in single file, ready to march out the door. Tyler was our line leader, who was always in the front and led the way. He beamed when I announced the classroom jobs for the first quarter and stood in the front of the room as we all got lined up. I went row by row, ensuring our door holder, Jaime, was at the door with a smile.
Our light saver job went to Patty, who had to double-check we shut the lights off in the room every time we left, and she had yet to miss. Our caboose, the last student in line, was in charge of making sure everyone stayed in order and did their job. Ethan was our caboose, and after we were lined up, Tyler started our walk to the gym. Jaime stood at the door, checking that we all walked through before she found her position in front of Ethan. It took weeks to get it down, but damn, I was proud of my kiddos.
Christopher was in the hall with his students, and our eyes met for a second before I forced myself to focus on the little ones. They were excited and talked loudly as we made our way, and a deep soft voice stopped me.
“Hey, can we talk after school,please?”
Maybe it was the absolute desperation in his eyes or the way his voice seemed to shake a little bit, but I nodded without thinking it through. “I guess. We need to talk about the float anyway,” I said, keeping my posture straight and not looking into his welcoming blue eyes. They were deep pools of emotion, and a trap.
He gave a tight smile and reached his hand out, like he wanted to touch me, but he stilled it and rested it against his thigh.
Deep breath.
