Everything

  “We need to talk,” he demanded, as he entered the classroom, the door automatically closing behind him. “Now.”

  “I, uh, I don’t…” My words dissipated into thin air as he grew incredibly near, stopping less than a foot in front of me. The clean, mountain-fresh scent of his soap filled my nostrils and I squeezed my eyes closed, mustering up all of the willpower I had so I could say what needed to be said. Why is this so hard?

  A gentle stroke from his thumb over my cheek triggered my lids to fly open, and when I saw the same yearning I felt reflecting in his dark brown eyes, I instinctively leaned into his touch. Sweeping his soft lips across mine once, twice, three times, he whispered against my mouth, “So much better than good, beautiful Belle.”

  It wasn’t until he murmured my name did my self-control kick in and deliver a forceful roundhouse to the gut.

  Stumbling backward in my ballet flats, I caught myself on a nearby desk before twisting my ankle again and tumbling to the ground. What is my problem all of a sudden with staying upright on my feet around attractive males? Everett reached forward to help steady me, but I held my hands up in the air and shook my head, not allowing him to get close again.

  “N-no, I-I’m fine,” I stammered, while shuffling over behind my desk to put my messenger bag down and put some distance between us. “And you’re right, we do need to talk. Please sit down, Mr. Templeton. Maybe over there, where you and your girlfriend sat yesterday.” God, I sound like a jealous freak.

  “Belle, don’t,” he warned, as if he knew exactly what I was going to say. “It’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

  “It’s Ms. Sloan to you, and you have nothing to explain. I think Jayla took care of that yesterday,” I snapped, the anger from his deceit resurfacing. A real fucking jealous freak.

  Instead of sitting down like I’d instructed, he stalked up to my desk and leaned forward, resting his fists on top of the wooden surface. “It’s Belle,” he gritted out, “and yes, I do. Fuck Jayla.”

  “I’m sure you do that plenty,” I seethed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Now, let’s just chalk up what happened Friday night to an error of judgment on both of our parts. I understandably had no clue you were still in high school, seeing that you were at a bar and all, and you obviously forgot that you had a girlfriend, seeing that… well, I guess because you’re just a lying, cheating teenager. But that’s totally irrelevant at this point. As long as neither of us says a word to anyone, I can go on keeping this job that I really need, and you can continue screwing other chicks behind Jayla’s back without her finding out about it. It’s a win-win for both of us.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend!” he fumed, furiously slamming his palms down against my desk. The loud boom startled me, but I was more taken aback by the conviction in his tone, and wondered if I’d read the situation wrong. “Never has been, never will be. I’m not a liar or a cheater, and what happened last weekend wasn’t an error of judgment either. I know you felt the same draw I did.” His heated gaze fell to my boobs that were perfectly framed with my angry crossed arms and he smirked as I dropped them to my sides, then peered back up at me. “I know your body did too, Belle.”

  The moment my name left his mouth, there was another knock at the door. Apparently, I’d forgotten to unlock it from the inside with my key when I first came in, so it remained locked on the outside. Both of our heads snapped to the small rectangular window in the door to find Liam’s friendly smile waiting to greet us. My nerves went on the fritz as I scurried around my desk, completely ignoring Everett’s comments, to let him inside. Oh, my God! What did he see? Could he hear us? How long has he been out there?

  I swung open the door with an overly cheerful smile on my face. “Good morning, Mr. Carroll!” I exclaimed, my voice teetering on the borderline of unnatural as I ushered him inside.

  “Good morning indeed, Ms. Sloan,” he greeted, as he took in the cream cashmere sweater I wore along with the gray slacks and matching flats. Luckily, he was too busy checking me out to notice my awkwardness. “It’ll take you a while to get used to locking and unlocking the door,” he continued, with his focus directed straight at me. “I still forget sometimes. They say it makes us safer, but it’s just a pain in the arse if you ask me.”

  “Hey, Mr. Carroll.” Everett strolled up next to us appearing casual as ever, exchanging some guy handshake thing with Liam. I glowered over at him, silently warning him to keep his mouth shut.

  “Everett! Already at tutoring on the second day of the semester?” he teased, playfully jabbing his elbow into Everett’s arm.

  Everett grinned his charming grin and shook his head. “Nah, just clearing up a misunderstanding from yesterday.” He cut his eyes over to me and chuckled softly. “But all’s good now. We worked it out. Right, Ms. Sloan?”

  “Yep, sure did. Everything is A-Okay,” I agreed, making a mental note if I ever did see his dick again to cut it off.

  “Perfect,” Everett said, then shifted his attention from me to Liam. “Mr. Carroll, I also planned to stop by and ask you something about the Poetry syllabus. Do you mind walking with me down to your class so I can pull it out?”

  Liam glanced over at me and offered an apologetic smile. “We’ll catch up later, okay? If you need me, you know where my room is.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I replied with a stunned nod as the two of them strolled out of my classroom, Everett asking Liam some bullshit question just to get him away from me. I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what he was doing. And if he continued to do it, Liam would catch on too. Which was exactly why nothing else could happen between us, even if he wasn’t the unfaithful piece of shit I’d thought he was. Or that he’d admitted that he felt that same pull when we met.

  That just made it harder. At least the other way I could hate him. Now, I’d just have to be strong.

  And be the adult I was supposed to be.

  THE TALK HADN’T gone as planned. But it wasn’t necessarily a failure either. We’d cleared up the Jayla-issue — well, sort of — and I managed to steal a quick kiss from her pink pouty lips. It wasn’t the toe-curling, dick-swelling kind of kiss from Friday night, but it served as a reminder to her of what we’d shared. And for a fleeting moment, she’d done just that — remembered. A fleeting moment that told me I still had a chance.

  In all honesty, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. Belle Sloan was so far out of my league it wasn’t even funny, but for whatever reason, I just couldn’t let it go. I didn’t know much about her other than her name, the car she drove, where she worked, and how her body fit perfectly pressed up against mine, despite the vast height difference. But she did something to me, stirred up emotions I wasn’t used to, feelings I refused to ignore.

  A firm believer that everything happened for a reason, I wouldn’t accept our first meeting at Empty’s and then her turning out to be my teacher as pure coincidence. She showed up in my life for a reason, and I was determined to figure out what it was. Hopefully, it involved her being naked. A lot.

  “Hey, man, you off the rag yet or what?” Billy laughed as he caught up with me in the lunch line. “I thought for sure you were gonna pop Scott in the face yesterday. What in the hell happened?”

  I shrugged, paid for my cheeseburger and fries, and then strode across the cafeteria to the table I always sat at by the windows, all with Billy hot on my heels. Claiming my usual seat on the end, Billy did the same and plopped down across from me, still waiting for my answer.

  “Just had a shitty afternoon yesterday dealing with Jayla’s typical drama, acting like we’re together and pouting if I’m not up her ass, and I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him spout off a bunch of bullshit,” I finally replied.

  “Yeah, but that’s just Scott.” He snickered. “You know that. He’s always been that way, just like his dad.”

  I scoffed, shoving a fry in my mouth. “Yeah, and his dad’s known for being a conniving, deviant, slimeball attorney. He’s the biggest fucking tool I’v
e ever met.”

  Billy considered me for a minute then went back to inhaling his two pieces of pizza. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just the only other times I’ve seen you that pissed is when Ashlynn’s involved, so I didn’t know if something had happened with her to set you off.”

  Shaking my head, I paused briefly when I thought I saw Belle across the room, but it turned out to be a false alarm. “Nah, I’m just ready to graduate and get the fuck out of here. Tired of all the immature crap and self-absorbed assholes.”

  “Dude, you’re gonna be in the music business. You’ll be surrounded with a bunch of self-absorbed assholes,” he contended with a snort. “The only difference will be they’ve got years of practice at it and the money in their bank account to support their behavior.”

  “Is my dad one?” I argued, raising my eyebrows.

  “Is your dad a what?” Jayla purred, as she slid onto the chair next to me, kissing me on the cheek in the process. “A hot-ass piece of man-meat? Abso-fucking-lutely.”

  Billy rolled his eyes and stood up with his already-empty tray. “No, he’s not, but your dad’s a rare cat. He gave it all up because he loved his family more than he loved himself,” he answered my original question, then quickly glanced over at Jayla before pinning me with his icy blue stare. “And you need to take care of that shit before it gets out of hand. Don’t spend your last semester of high school always pissed off over something you can control.”

  I pondered his words as he walked away, especially the part about what I could control. And as if on cue, Jayla scooted her chair closer to mine and wrapped her arms around my neck as she laid her head on my shoulder.

  “I told Ashlynn this morning I wanted to come over and hang out tonight,” she whispered in my ear. “You’re gonna be home, right? I’ve missed you, babe.”

  Time to control this shit, Everett.

  Ducking my head to slip out of her grasp, I pushed up to standing and shook my head resolutely. “I’m not your babe or your baby or anything else, Jayla,” I ground out in a low, menacing voice, careful not to make a scene. “Stop acting like we’re in some kind of relationship and stop using my sister to get to me. If I’d been interested in pursuing anything with you, it would’ve happened a long time ago. I wasn’t fucking joking with you when I told you it wasn’t gonna happen. You and me will never be a we. Not ever.”

  Her glossy red lips opened and closed several times as her beady black eyes narrowed on me. “B-b-but what about all those nights I snuck in your room?” she asked, finally finding her voice. “And what about this whole time I’ve been faithful to you, waiting for you to be ready? That doesn’t mean anything to you?”

  “I never asked you to be faithful or to wait for me,” I retorted, my irritation building rapidly. “I told you flat out where I stood from the very beginning, yet you continued to show up in my room. What, did you think if you made me come enough, I’d change my mind?”

  “Well, yeah!” she exclaimed, as she leapt to her feet, garnering the attention of people at the tables close by. “You didn’t seem to mind when you had your cock shoved down my throat and I rode your face every night last summer and each weekend since then. Sorry, I don’t read mixed signals very well!”

  Groaning, I scrubbed my hands over my face. I could not fucking believe she was doing this. Actually, scratch that; I could totally believe she was doing this. Which was exactly why I had to put a stop to it. Now.

  “Jayla,” I spit out her name like a bad taste in my mouth, “you’re embarrassing yourself. Whatever happened between us in the past is the past. It’s over and I’m not interested. Go find someone else to sink your greedy claws into and leave me the fuck alone. Is that a clear enough signal for you?”

  I heard a chorus of gasps from the small audience we had thanks to her first outburst. My goal wasn’t to publicly humiliate her, but she’d brought it on herself, so she’d have to live with the fallout. Grabbing my half-eaten lunch off the table, I spun around and marched out of the cafeteria, ignoring her as she yelled, “You’re a fucking asshole, Everett Templeton! I’ll make you pay for this!”

  Of course she would. Because that’s what crazy bitches did. And why I swore I’d never get involved with one.

  THE REST OF the afternoon passed without incident, though when Billy walked up to my locker before sixth period, he’d obviously heard about the Jayla-showdown based on the shit-eating grin spread wide across his face.

  “Dude, I didn’t expect you to do it right then! Maybe I should’ve gone over how to let someone down easy too,” he chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief.

  I tossed my text and spiral into my locker and grabbed another. “She was the one who wanted to make a scene,” I grumbled, as I zipped up my backpack and shut my locker, “so she got a scene. I’m not playing her fucking games anymore.”

  “Yeah, I think she got the message loud and… clear.” He smirked as we turned to head down the hall.

  With each step I took toward Belle’s classroom, my heart began to beat just a little bit faster, a little bit harder. A dueling bass line made up of equal parts eagerness and dread.

  I’d been waiting all day to see Belle’s face again, curious to how she’d act after our “talk” this morning. Several times, I’d been tempted to pass by her room, especially during fourth period when I knew she had conference hour, but I didn’t want to smother or pressure her. She’d been enraged because she thought I had a girlfriend, and rightfully so, but I hoped that letting her stew on the fact I wasn’t the cheater she thought I was and that little kiss I’d snuck in would soften her up for the next time we talked. Which would hopefully be after school.

  But before that could happen, I’d have to see Jayla again. In front of Belle. Oh, what joy.

  “Well, I guess I’m about to find out,” I muttered, stopping a short distance from my Art History class. “About to see her for the first time since it happened. Wish me luck.”

  Billy hooted out a laugh and slapped me on the back. “Yeah, good luck with that shit, man. Stay away from her. Far, far away. She’s fucking psycho.”

  “Yeah, thanks for the warning. You’re only about a year late, asshole.”

  I stood there until I could no longer hear his laugh echoing off the walls as he disappeared around the corner, then took a deep breath and went inside to face my impending doom.

  Surprisingly, when I walked in, someone else was sitting in the seat Jayla had claimed as her own yesterday, and immediately I stopped walking and cut my questioning eyes over to where Belle sat behind the old-school, oversized teacher’s desk. Her expression remained impassive as she shrugged. My God, she’s beautiful.

  “Some of your classmates decided this wasn’t the class for them after finding out that Ms. Wallace wouldn’t be teaching the course,” she announced to the entire class as she stood, smoothing down the front of her skirt, “so they’ve gotten their schedules changed and opened up some spots for others who wanted to be in here. You may need to adjust where you sat yesterday. Next week, once all the transfers are finalized, I’ll ask you to choose a permanent seat for the remainder of the semester.”

  Relief flooded through me as I literally felt the weight of dealing with Jayla, in this class of all classes, dissipate with Belle’s words. I didn’t give a shit why she transferred out, as long as I didn’t have her in here watching me like a hawk while I watched the tiny teacher who had me all tied up in knots.

  Choosing an empty desk in the front row that provided an unobstructed view of Belle’s ass when she faced the projection screen and dry erase board, I sat down and got out my spiral and a pen. Art History had never been an interest of mine, but I was about to pay more attention in a class than I ever had before. I was ready to earn my A, and with any luck, I’d later be rewarded with an O.

  For the next fifty minutes, I penned page after page of notes as Belle lectured on art during pre-historic times. Genuine excitement trilled in her voice when she described the different pieces thr
oughout the PowerPoint, each one having its own story, linking it to the culture of the people. I found myself smiling when her voice would enthusiastically speed up; there was no doubt she held a deep appreciation and admiration for the material she taught. I wondered how old she was and if this was her first teaching job. I wanted to ask her where she grew up and went to college, and I was curious if she’d ever seen any of the works of art she loved in person. I’m growing a fucking vagina. Maybe Billy was right about me being on my period.

  A few times I caught her sneaking a peek at me, but she never allowed her eyes to linger longer than a second or two. I tried to keep my thoughts as PG-rated as possible, but she was just too fucking sexy. And in the last ten minutes of class, my willpower failed me.

  The clingy skirt she wore hugged her ass just right, reminding me of how those soft curves had fit perfectly in my hands. Her perky tits sat up high under her sweater, and each time my gaze accidentally fell to them, my mouth watered as I remembered how sweet her milky skin tasted and how her nipples had hardened at the first flick of my tongue. I groaned and adjusted my swelling cock in the chair, not knowing how in the hell I was going to stand up without everyone seeing the massive boner struggling to break free from my jeans. Nope, definitely not a vagina in there.

  As the lecture ended, she flipped the projector off and the lights on then turned to face the class, asking if anyone had any questions. Immediately, like there was a flashing light attached to my crotch, her big brown doe eyes honed in on the bulge beneath my zipper and her lips parted on a sharp inhale. Pink stained her cheeks as she hastily diverted her focus to someone else in the room, and that made me even harder. It was like I was thirteen and checking out online porn for the first time all over again, and I wasn’t sure how in the hell I was going to survive a full semester of this kind of torture. Unless I knew I could get my hands on her the minute we escaped and got somewhere private.