CALLUM
“ Callum Meyers was seen sneaking away with an unidentified female on a night of mystery. Who could this woman be?” was what the lifestyle editor had issued in her newest blog post. Many other Titans were at the same party, but she’d chosen to focus on me.
I’d been livid when I saw it, and the photograph she attached to her page. Thankfully, you couldn’t tell who Nicole was. The tattoos were a stroke of genius. The blonde wig had been, too. Since only the back of her head was seen as we escaped into the hallway, my nerves started to settle. We’d dodged a very big bullet, and one that would’ve never had to have been had I not invited her to the event.
Everything seemed much easier in hindsight. The truth was that I was falling hard for this girl, and it honestly scared me. My mind would remind me that what we were doing was wrong, but my body did no such thing. I ached for her, physically, when she wasn’t around. If I didn’t find a way to control myself, I could even become obsessed with her. I’d then also tell myself that there was more than our teacher/student relationship interfering in our love life. Her uncle would absolutely kill me, and that was if her father didn’t first .
The one and only Logan Courtland called me just a day after the masquerade ball. For a moment, I thought he’d seen the blogs, and recognized his own daughter, but he hadn’t. Or at least, he hadn’t let on that he did. His call was for the same reason, though. After grilling me about my Titan status, and if the things he had heard about me were true, he basically warned me off of his daughter.
“ Nicole is in a delicate frame of mind right now. Not only as her teacher but also as a Titan, I expect you to watch over her as much as you can .”
“ She’s an adult I see for an hour each morning, five days a week ,” I’d told him, making sure to not give anything away.
“ She brought a boy home—”
“ She did?” I’d asked, then caught myself before growling. Nicole had told me nothing about traveling back home with anyone.
“ His name is Trevor, or—”
“ Travis. Travis Harrison ,” I’d answered.
“ Yes, that’s the one. I’m not sure yet whether I like him or not, but his intentions toward her seem valid. This is my baby girl, and I didn’t want to let her attend school so far away to begin with. Please try and keep an eye out for her when possible because I don’t want to get a phone call from someone telling me something has happened to her. ”
“ I’ll do my best ,” I’d promised, then swallowed a mouthful of bile when the call disconnected.
Since I’d never even entertained the possibility of starting a relationship with any of the women in my past, this sense of jealousy was a foreign emotion. I didn’t like it one bit, so when class began and everyone started to file in, I kept my eyes peeled on the door for her. It wasn’t long after when she stepped through. Nicole glanced over at me, and her smile seemed nervous. Travis followed behind her, and I let my disgust be known through my expression.
The two of them were getting way too fucking close for my liking, and as the bell rang, I realized there was nothing I could do about it. Unless I could claim her as mine, Nicole was free to do whatever she wanted. I was, too. Unfortunately, all I wanted to do was her. I stood up, then went to close the door. When I returned to the class, most already had their novel and notebook out. Today, I wanted to go over something that made me feel even more like a hypocrite than I already felt. Pushing that thought away, I took my place in front of the podium, leaning against the heavy wood.
“This week, we’re going to delve further into the morality of the tale. As we know—”
“It’s more immorality,” Travis blurted out, and I leveled him with a glare.
“Yes, it is. This book is full of immoral acts, from lying and cheating all the way to murder,” I said, making sure to look over at Nicole as she sat beside my now nemesis.
Nicole had essentially cheated on me, or at the very least, she’d broken our set agreement. “ She brought a boy home,” her father had told me, and it hadn’t been just anyone. It was him .
Her dark gaze snagged mine, and I could see the guilt reflected in it. Once or twice, she looked as if she wanted to say something, but she stayed unusually quiet. Our bantering had almost become some sort of twisted foreplay between us when in class. To see her silent today was a huge difference from how she was any other day.
“The characters in the book accepted such acts as being normal,” Gregory said, then Rose added her thoughts .
“And no one ever seems to answer for those immoral acts. It’s part of what’s wrong with the justice system today. The richer you are, the bolder one becomes.”
“The characters are driven by lust, arrogance, and sex. They have no ethics. People in positions of power and influence should’ve known better, but they didn’t, and no one made them answer for their lack of morality, until death.”
Travis was smirking at me, and I knew he knew I was a Titan. It wasn’t some secret society, but a very public group of influential men. We were all plastered across some headline or another, and some of us more often than others, too. There was something about the way he also mentioned a position of power. It was almost as if he knew about...
I shook my head to expel that thought from it. There was no way he could know. Nicole would’ve never told him about that. Would she? I didn’t even give it a moment more of my attention, and instead looked straight ahead at the rest of the class.
“This week, I want everyone to list at least one immoral thing that each character did, and start to think about how it ties into their class and social stature.”
With their assignment given, I returned to my in-classroom desk and spent the rest of the hour sulking. I was never happier to hear the bell than today, and while I usually said something to the students as they left, I stayed where I was. Nicole looked back when she got to the door, and I stared blankly ahead at her. She eventually shook her head, then left with her classmates. The next hour went by just as quickly, and I was honestly considering going for a drink during my free period. Before I could do that or anything else, I heard a knock on my door .
“Come in,” I said, unsure if it was a student or not. I had none scheduled for a meeting. When I looked up to see who it was, Nicole slipped inside. “May I help you with something?”
“I... umm... I just wanted to stop by to see you. My flight was delayed last night, so I didn’t get back to town until really late.”
“I see.” I had known she didn’t call me as she often did, and I had figured as much, so I hadn’t been upset about that. Now, it was a different story.
Nicole came closer, and when I didn’t get up to hug her, she wrinkled her nose in question but took a seat in front of me. “My mother isn’t doing so well.”
All of my anger was still there, but I knew how worried she was about the cancer. I loved my mother, and she wasn’t half the woman Isabella Courtland sounded like she was. If she was diagnosed with something so deadly, I’d be beside myself. Nothing was gone because of it, but I did soften my expression.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Nicole. Have the doctors given you any additional information regarding further treatment options?”
There was no doubt in my mind that Logan would move heaven and earth to heal his wife. No price would be too high if it resulted in a full recovery. As Titans, we often fell into thinking we were invincible, when the reality was that we could go as quickly and as easily as anyone else. In fact, karma was a bitch, and sometimes, we ended up falling harder and faster. I didn’t have to tell Nicole that because she was born and raised in our world.
“They haven’t. And my father’s so worried about—”
“He’s worried about you,” I interjected, and her eyes widened.
“Why do you say that?” she asked me.
“He called me yesterday evening. ”
“He did what?” Nicole rose to her feet.
“He wanted to tell me about you and your boyfriend ,” I told her. I didn’t add what his favor had been because I didn’t want this entire conversation to get back to him. I doubted she’d run and call him just over this. It would draw too much suspicion.
“I don’t have a boy...,” she went to say, then stopped as I narrowed my eyes at her. While we weren’t able to have the conventional type of relationship that most had, it was still something which she realized. “I mean, he doesn’t know about us. Does he?”
“It wasn’t me that he was referring to,” I said matter-of-factly. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were going back home with Travis? And that you took him to meet your parents?”
“It wasn’t like that. I...” Again, she stopped, because it didn’t matter what she said at this point.
I stood up. “I don’t really care what you were doing with Travis. I mean I do, but there’s not much I can say until I’m able to claim you properly. What really hurts me is that you didn’t tell me about it at all. The two of you have gotten way too close, and I don’t like it.”
There! I said it, and I didn’t regret a moment of it, either.
He’s just a friend. I thought you trusted me, but I see that I was wrong. I was also wrong to come here today. Both you and my father can go to Hell.”
I wasn’t used to her responding in this manner, but I didn’t stop her either as she turned and fled from my office. Shaking my head, I just stared at the open door.