Her Teacher's Temptation (22 page)

I held down the
urge, only barely, but my gaze still stayed transfixed on his mouth. Only being
with Ollie could have made me forget all the horrible things that had happened
the last few days. He was too consuming for my mind to wander to anything else.

“Maddie?”

I blinked and
returned my focus to his face, own cheeks burning. “Yes?”

“I… don’t really
know. I just, I don’t know.” He put down his chip and sighed. “I’m full. Are
you done?”

I was rapidly
losing my appetite and didn’t complain when Ollie chucked the chips and we
headed back to the car. I wasn’t expecting to be pushed against it and for his
lips to be assaulting mine with all the desperation I’d been feeling.

Heat blossomed
through my body, setting me on fire as my hands wrapped through those brown
curls I loved so much. The metal on my back was cold, but Ollie at my front was
burning, sending pangs straight to my core as we kissed in earnest.

 We only
stopped when we were breathless, but a chuckle fell from my lips and I rested
my nose against Ollie’s. “We’re such morons.” I wanted to tell him I loved him,
but I also didn’t want to make the moment sad.

“I want you to
know that I’m holding out for the end of the year and hoping you don’t find
someone else by then,” he was deadly serious, eyebrows knitting together
slightly. “I want to be with you more than anything and I can deal with the
long distance, I can deal with the judgements. I want to at least see how the
end of the year goes, if we can get that far without something going horribly
wrong.”

My words were
trapped in my throat for a moment, but I threw my arms around his neck in the
tightest hug I’d ever given without hesitation. “Of course I want that.” I
pulled back and kissed him again with such a big grin that the actual kissing
was difficult. “I know it’s ages away, but I’m positive I’m not going to have
gotten over you by then.”

There was the
understanding that every now and then I’d stop back at the end of class and
we’d talk, and that he’d come to the restaurant and we’d get to talk. We
wouldn’t be completely apart and it would be enough to see us through. I had to
hope that was true.

Nothing was
going to stop the yearning that spread through me every time he was near, but I
had fingers and they’d have to do.

We kissed again
and it was laced with relief and hope. Maybe it could work out, even if it
seemed like the whole world was against us.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Just drop me
off around the corner or something, my mum will never know the difference.”

“Sure thing,”
Ollie had to push it, pressing the smallest of pecks to my lips with the
biggest of grins. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow, even if I’ve got to resist
talking to you. You can expect a few Madeleine’s.”

My cheeks
flamed even when he said it now, that posh, southern accent wrapping around me
in the most perfect way. “I’ll see you then.”

I walked back
into my house with the biggest smile on my face, though it quickly dimmed when
I heard shouting. I’d opened the door quietly enough that there’d been no
interruption and when I heard china smashing, I ran back onto my front garden,
catching Ollie driving up my road. I hailed him down.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s
inside smashing plates. It’s got to be Nick,” I explained, already rushing back
to my door. “I don’t want my mum to get hurt.” I didn’t want to get hurt,
either, which was why bringing Ollie back in was worth the risk. He’d be better
equipped than me to stop this arsehole.

I barged into
the kitchen with Ollie right behind me, disgusted to see that Lily was still in
the room. My mum was backed into a wall, Nick towering above her and the remains
of a shattered plate on the floor. Nick’s head snapped towards me at the sound
of the door, but my mum couldn’t drag her eyes away from Nick’s looming figure.

“I think you
should come back later,” he snarled at me, fist quivering by his side.

“This is my
house, not yours. I think you should piss off.” I felt brave with Ollie behind
me, even though I wasn’t sure he’d be much help. Ollie worked out, that much
was obvious, but I didn’t think he was much of the fighting type. Nick looked
like a through and through skinhead that got into fights with people who simply
looked the wrong way at him.

The anger Nick
was feeling was turned on me immediately. Hearing about him had been one thing,
but being faced down by someone almost twice my size was something else. It was
no wonder my mum was terrified to do anything. I took a step backwards. “I
said
,
I think you should come back some other time. Your mother and I have got some
stuff we need to discuss.” I was almost surprised by the lack of slang and
swearing.

Nick turned
back to my mum and Lily sniffled in the corner. I was surprised she wasn’t all
out wailing, but no doubt she’d gotten some telling off by Nick too. He was
clearly just expecting me to leave.

“No, you can
get out of here. Go away and leave my mum alone,” I felt childish, sticking my
chin out and trying to look brave. If I’d had my phone, I would have texted my
dad to get over here. “Nobody wants you here.”

Nick strode
towards me with intention, ugly grimace covering his face, but Ollie had taken
a calculated step in front of me. “She’s serious. Just fuck off and leave her
alone.” Ollie was stood tall, squaring his own shoulders against Nick. I
couldn’t see his face, but part of me desperately wanted to know what his
protective scowl looked like.

Nick wasn’t
fazed. “You want to make me get out, you tool? I remember what I did to you
last time.” I wasn’t about to forget it, either, and I didn’t want Ollie to get
hurt now, either.

This had been a
mistake.

But I couldn’t
let my mum get hurt either.

What eventually
came of the situation wasn’t what I’d been expecting at all. My mother whacking
Nick on the side of his head with a saucepan was almost funny, but Nick didn’t
think so. He swayed, the clang of metal on bone reverberating around the room,
before falling to the floor with an even bigger thud.

We stood in
silence, watching Nick with uncertainty for a few moments, before my mum placed
down the pan. “I probably shouldn’t have done that. Shit, do you think he’s all
right? Shit. Shit. Shit.”

I didn’t
hesitate before grabbing the landline phone and calling my dad. “You need to
get to mum’s now. She kind of knocked Nick out. With a pan.”

“I’ll only be a
few minutes. I’m already in Sheffield,” he’d been wanting to get the Nick
situation over and done with anyway, then. “See you soon.”

I turned to
Ollie, who was assessing the situation with an awkward gaze, watching my mum
fuss around Nick and not having a clue what to do. “You should probably go. My
dad’s coming round.”

My mum hadn’t
protested me calling my dad, so I knew it was all serious. “You’re sure? What
if he wakes up before your dad gets here?”

“You’re my
teacher, I really think you should just go. I don’t want you to somehow end up
getting into trouble about this.” There was a chance the police would end up
involved in this down the line and I didn’t want Ollie to get caught up in
that. It was the last thing either of us needed.

He was still
uncertain, but my mother was listening in on the conversation, as if she’d
suddenly realised that Ollie was actually here. “Okay. I’ll, erm, see you in
class then.”

Ollie slipped
out of the door with a final, withering glance at Nick’s unconscious body. I
felt the need to check his pulse, even though I could hear his soft breaths in
the now silent room. He was definitely alive, just out cold. We maybe should
have been ringing the ambulance, but my mum was pale and shaking and I felt
sure Nick was going to be fine.

“Are you okay?”
I checked, taking the pan from her hand and placing it on the counter.

“I can’t
believe I did that,” she wanted to bend down to fuss around him again, but I
kept a secure arm around her shoulder. “I’ve never hurt anyone before.”

“He deserved
it. Just wait until dad gets here, he’ll know what to do.”

“What were you
doing with your teacher?” She couldn’t bring herself to leave it until all this
had been sorted out. “I thought you were at work.”

“I needed him
to give me a lift to see dad to sort out this idiot on the floor.” Part of me
was tempted to give him a nice black eye whilst I had the opportunity. “I just
needed to get to Nottingham.”

“You shouldn’t
be seeing him at all.”

“I don’t know
why you have such a big problem with it.” I
did
, of course, but there
was no point in acknowledging that. I was quite happy to argue this to death. “Anyway,
I’m sure you don’t want dad to know anything about it so maybe we can chat
about it later.”

My dad made his
entrance a few moments later, accompanied by three brawny guys. He gave Nick a
kick in the ribs with the toe of his boots before appraising my mother. “Good
going. You got him good.”

My mother gave
an exasperated sigh, eyeing up my dad’s friends. “What are we going to do about
this? You don’t think we should take him to the hospital, do you?”

My dad kicked
him again, harder this time, and smirked when he received a groan. “I don’t
think it’ll be necessary. I’m sure he can take himself if he’s troubled,” he
sighed, shaking his head. “What were you doing with this moron?”

My dad was
nothing compared to Nick; he was podgy and balding and twice his age. My mum
could only look at him with masked admiration. “Oh shush, just help me figure
this out.” Lily had calmed down now, cradled in my mum’s arms. She’d be too
young to remember this.

“We wait until
he properly wakes up, I threaten him into properly leaving you alone this time,
and he goes and crawls back to wherever he came from. It seems simple enough to
me.”

My father took
a seat on the sofa where he had direct vision of Nick’s slumped body. Crossing
his arms, his friends joined him in silence. It was almost comical.

It didn’t take
long for Nick to come around, groaning and quickly letting the rage take over
his slack expression. My dad was quicker, placing a large boot on his chest and
stopping him getting up. “Remember me?”

He no doubt
remembered the cronies standing around him more, all looking intimidating and
scary. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in his position right now. “Fuck off, old
man. This is none of your business. I want to see my daughter.”

My dad kicked
him in the ribs a third time, hitting the same spot and drawing a low moan from
Nick’s lips. “Listen here. You are going to leave this woman alone. I meant it
last time, but this time I’m doing it in front of her and we all know that if
you so much as look at her again, I’m going to be coming to show you exactly
where you went wrong. Do you understand me?”

Nick wanted so
badly to argue. His lip was curled and the anger oozed from his expression, but
he simply couldn’t. My dad pressed harder and he submitted. “Fine, just get the
fuck off me you madman.”

He almost fell
over trying to get back up and I held in a chuckle. I almost couldn’t believe
it was really over, but if my mum and dad were willing to cooperate on this,
there was no reason it couldn’t be. Nick wasn’t the kind of person to care
about his daughter; he’d leave this alone now because it was no longer worth
the hassle. It was what I had to hope for.

When he’d
slammed the door behind him, one of my dad’s friends let out a chuckle. “What a
loser.”

Chapter Thirty

“I can’t believe
we’re actually watching this,” I groaned as the opening credits to Bridesmaids
starting playing. “You must know every word off by heart.”

To prove a
point, Meg spoke the lines in exact time with the actors.

Hannah and I
couldn’t help but laugh, stuffing our mouths with popcorn whilst Meg was too
preoccupied to. She slipped up after a minute and we booed her.

Meg rolled her
eyes. “I got my offer from Nottingham yesterday,” she revealed with a small
smile. She’d been out of the hospital two days now. We’d given her the first
night to be with her mum before accosting her with popcorn and plenty of DVDs
that weren’t Bridesmaids. Seeing her out of hospital had all our moods lifted.

“That’s great!”
Hannah and I chorused. I’d begun to get seriously worried when I’d received my
own Nottingham offer a few days ago, but this was perfect.

Meg beamed,
“thanks guys. I was so stressed out about it, but this has just topped
everything off,” she held up her finger when her favourite song started playing
in the background of the film. “And I broke up with Rob. You don’t have to
pretend to be sorry for me, I know I was an idiot.”

I chuckled.
“Well, I for one am glad. I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t the best influence
on you.”

“And you and Mr.
Wright?” She pushed. “It killed me not being able to see you to ask after all
the drama with your mum.”

“My mum is safe
in the knowledge that I’m just a poor teenager crushing after my teacher and
that Mr. Wright is far too concerned about his job to ever come near me again,”
I told her seriously. “Ollie and I have decided to save ourselves for each
other until the end of the year.”

Hannah whistled.
“That’s going to be one horny graduation night.”

I grinned. “Tell
me about it. It’s been like a week and I’m already dying inside.”

“At least your
mum gave you your laptop back.”

“That was
probably only because she realised I’d actually fail if I couldn’t type up any
of my essays. I’m pretty sure the phone is only because she’s scared of me
leaving the house without one, too. I’m still technically grounded. This is an
exception.”

“I can’t believe
we all have such late birthdays,” Meg groaned. “If only we were eighteen in
September, then we could keep going out despite your fake ID confiscation.”

I wasn’t sure
how Meg could contemplate ever going near substances again, but I wasn’t about
to doubt her. This had been a wake-up call for everyone. “Well, I for one am
going to be going out as often as I can. I need to meet someone new since my
relationships blew up in my face.”

The eyebrows on
mine and Meg’s faces shot up. “What? Where have you been hiding this gossip?”

Hannah chuckled.
“I was too embarrassed to come straight out with it. I’ve been such a moron
about the entire thing. Oh!” She looked at me guiltily. “I guess I should have
told you straight away, since I broke up with Mike. He never mentioned you and
Ollie again, even in the few days before I broke up with him.”

I rested my head
against the headboard. “Thank God. My mum would have had a hissy fit.”

Hannah paused to
munch on her popcorn, a wide smile on her face. “Anyway, Ewan found out I had a
boyfriend so he stopped seeing me and I broke up with Mike off my own back. So
now I’m single and unsure if I’m relieved or miserable. I think I just need
some sex from somewhere, Mike turned out to be awful in the bedroom.”

“I feel your
pain,” Meg agreed.

“Me too.”

The two girls
turned to grimace at me.

“Hey! Just
because I have someone lined up in sixth months doesn’t mean I’m going to be
satisfied that entire time. It’s going to kill me watching you take guys home.”

Hannah smirked,
“there’s literally 0 chance that you and Ollie are going to go the entire year
without slipping up and sleeping together at least once.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen
you two together and you’re gagging for it all the time. I’m definitely betting
you sleep together before graduation.”

“It is his job
at stake you know. We’re not just agreeing to stay each other for the fun of
it.”

“It was his job
at stake the other times you gave in and slept with each other anyway,” Meg
pointed out, holding her hand up to shush us once more.

I rolled my
eyes, but I supposed I couldn’t fault her logic. “I guess.”

“Shush!” She
exclaimed, glaring at me. I chewed on my popcorn extra loud whilst Meg watched
the scene. “Thank you,” she said, exasperated, when it was finished. “I don’t
know why you guys hate this film so much.”

“I don’t even
hate it, I’ve just seen it
so many times
.”

“Pfft, you never
let me watch it as often as I want,” Meg moaned, scraping the bottom of the
empty bowl. “So, where are we going to find guys? Have we scoped out the year
below yet?”

“I haven’t had
chance,” Hannah lamented. “Too much drama with the boyfriends thing. Do you
think I really might have a relationship thing? I really just want to sleep
with people.”

I chuckled.
“You’re seventeen, go out and sleep with as many people as you can find. You’re
going to have a field day at uni.”

“I can’t believe
your mum found out about your fake ID and summer. My mum would be so horrified,
she’d find some way to keep me locked inside even when I’m eighteen,” Hannah
shuddered. “And your mum is never going to let you out of her sight, Meg.”

Meg groaned.
“Please don’t remind me. I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid as it is, now I’m
going to be stranded at home for the rest of my life. I’m such a moron.”

“I’m just glad
you didn’t die, so I’m afraid I don’t have too much sympathy,” I joked, pulling
out my phone and attempting to ignore the text from Ollie. Meg’s doubts were
becoming more and more real by the moment.

It wasn’t even
funny, just a stupid picture of a cat that put a smile on my face anyway.

Meg and Hannah
both peered over my shoulder. “You aren’t going to last more than a week.”