29. Evelyn
EVELYN
I t had been about a month since Elliot and I had started seeing each other on a regular basis.
We said we’d move into a relationship slowly, but we jumped in headfirst. It was like neither of us knew how to move slowly.
We collided into one another like two asteroids barreling toward the same planet.
When we crashed into one another, the impact was significant enough to change not only us, but the world around us.
I still met him in his office. He still bent me over his desk and fucked into my body with wild abandon.
The excitement of possibly getting caught was still alive and strong, but the force that pulled us together was growing stronger. I knew I was in love, but I didn’t know how to say the words to him. Maybe I was afraid he didn’t feel the same, but everything he did seemed to scream he loved me too.
Eventually, it got to the point where I stayed at his place more than my own.
I kept a few items there: an extra toothbrush so I didn’t have to pack mine back and forth, a few clothing items just in case I forgot to pack something, and the teddy bear that my dad gave me before he passed away.
I couldn’t sleep without it unless I were utterly exhausted.
We were about six weeks in when he gave me a key, so that I could let myself in if I beat him home.
He had been to my apartment a couple of times, too, but he didn’t like to take the risk of going there since my friends or brother could drop by at any time and catch us in a compromising position.
But that was okay by me. I liked his place better anyway.
I had a tiny apartment that was barely big enough to move around in.
His was much bigger and nicer, plus he had better water pressure and a fridge that he kept fully stocked.
For the first time in what felt like forever, I was happy with my life.
School was great, and my grades were as high as ever.
My friendships stayed strong, and my nights were no longer lonely.
I didn’t think about my dead parents as much.
I didn’t think about how I was a burden to my older brother, who stepped up to take care of me when I didn’t have anyone else.
And I had Elliot, the boy I’d fallen for when I was still just a kid.
I didn’t want things to end, even though that voice that was always in the back of my head was telling me I wasn’t good enough for a guy like him.
When I arrived at his apartment, I rode the elevator up to the eighth floor and then walked down the quiet hallway to his door.
I knew that he wouldn’t be home for another hour or so, as he had a few meetings that other students had requested.
I thought I had to work that evening, but once I arrived at the restaurant, I realized that the shift had been overfilled, so I volunteered to go home, wanting as much time with Elliot as I could get.
Instead of going all the way home to turn around and come back an hour later, I figured I’d put my key to good use and let myself in.
The key slid into the knob easily, and I twisted, causing the door to open.
I stepped in, the only light coming from the small lamp on the end table next to the couch.
I locked the door behind me and put my keys in my pocket before dropping my bag on the floor and sliding out of my coat.
I hung it on the back of the door rather than putting it into the coat closet.
I kicked off my shoes and pushed them closer toward my bag so they wouldn’t be tripped over.
I wandered through his apartment mindlessly, unsure of what to do without him there. I considered watching TV, but I decided against it. I wanted to surprise him.
I went to his bedroom and opened the closet. I was going to get one of his white dress shirts, but as I was reaching for it, something else caught my eye.
A wool sweater that opened in the front. I smiled as I picked it up from the shelf. I hadn’t ever seen him wear it, but it definitely gave off teacher vibes more than the white dress shirt that screamed corporate.
I removed all of my clothes and pulled on the sweater, buttoning the three buttons at the bottom.
It kept the sides closed just enough that you could see the swell of my breasts and the center of my stomach all the way down to my belly button.
I had a pair of heels that I’d left behind from one of our nicer dinners, so I slid my feet into them.
There was a pair of black framed glasses on the bedside table that blocked blue light.
He would wear them when he’d read in bed.
I put them on and looked at myself in the mirror.
I defiantly had the naughty teacher vibe going.
I snapped a picture and sent it to him, telling him to come home quickly.
He texted back almost instantly.
ELLIOT: Are you trying to kill me?
I smiled at his response, giddy to see him.
EVE: I just want you to know that I’m waiting. I would hate to have to start without you.
ELLIOT: Are we switching roles tonight? I’m the student, and you’re the naughty professor?
His text gave me an idea. I turned and rushed toward his home office. What kind of professor would I be if I didn’t have a ruler?
Inside, I sat behind his desk and opened the top drawer, looking for a ruler. When I came up empty-handed, I closed it and moved on to the next.
In my attempt to hurry, I closed the drawer on the corner of a stack of papers that were standing upright in the bottom filing drawer. I quickly yanked it open, pushed the papers down, and once again attempted to close the drawer.
This time, the drawer closed, but I was a little too rough and it caused the desk to shake. The screen of his computer lit up, waking it from its slumber.
My eyes landed on an open document down in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. I’d never been the kind of person to snoop around someone else’s personal space, but for some reason, curiosity got the best of me.
I reached out and took the mouse in my hand.
For a moment, I considered not opening the document.
I knew it would be like Pandora’s Box. It could’ve been nothing, but it could’ve been something.
And whatever it was, I couldn’t unsee. If I crossed that line, I had to be willing to deal with whatever it was.
I wasn’t ready for that. Things had been so good between us.
I didn’t want to go looking for trouble.
Plus, Elliot had never given me a reason not to trust him.
Since we’d been together, he’d been nothing but open and honest with me.
He even told me what happened with him and Gabe all those years ago.
I let go of the mouse and turned to open the drawers on the other side of my chair.
Elliot did have secrets, though. I was one of them.
What if there were more? More secrets? More…
women? More lies? I turned back to the screen as my hand landed on the mouse once again.
In the blink of an eye, I had the document open.
I started reading it, and at first, I was relieved because it was nothing more than a paper that was written for class, but then it felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
It wasn’t just any paper that some student had written for his class.
It was the paper that I bought and submitted as my own, the paper that initiated our arrangement.
It was the exact paper that I had bought months before, the one I had edited and changed to make it my own.
But how would he have that version? A memory washed over me of him telling me that the paper I turned in was the same paper that had been sold on campus for years.
Maybe that’s how he knew that I cheated—he had a copy of the original.
But why did he keep it open? I understand saving it so he’d have it over the years in case a student tried to base their work off it, but why keep it open for easy access?
The computer chimed, and an alert popped up in the top right-hand corner. It was an email notification. I didn’t even think about whether or not I should open it. I just did it. I clicked on the email and read over it.
Prof,
You do not need to worry about anything.
I’ve been doing my job, and the Chase asshole hasn’t gone anywhere near your girl.
I do have to warn you, though: I overheard him telling his friends that he’s been watching her and he thinks she’s seeing someone.
He didn’t say you specifically, but if he’s watching her as he claims, he will eventually catch on to what you two are doing.
Elliot must have seen the email from his phone because his reply popped up on the screen.
32,
Thanks for the warning. Why don’t you do me a favor and toss some whore his way to occupy his attention for a little while? I’ll make it worthwhile. I just sent over this week’s pay. Let me know how much more you want to keep Chase busy.
Another email popped up. This time from PayPal. It was the receipt from where Elliot sent money to wolvesfootball32 . It was a payment of three hundred dollars.
My mouth fell open.
What the fuck?
He was paying someone to make sure that Chase stayed away from me.
For a moment, I forgot all about the paper I’d found only minutes before as I dug deeper and deeper into their emails. I followed the trail to the start of the school year. I’d read through some shady shit.
Elliot had paid this guy not only to watch Chase, but to watch me, too.
My body was burning up from the inside out.
I felt betrayed. I felt lied to. I thought Elliot trusted me, but those emails just proved that he didn’t.
Not really. Not if he had to pay someone to make sure that I wasn’t running to anyone else.
It felt like a punch to the gut when I read the email that started the thread.
32,
Just meet her at the location. When she gives you the cash, give her the paper.
You’re free to keep the money she gives you, and I’ll pay you on top of that for your time.
As for your question about why I’d sell a paper I wrote myself to a student…
To put it simply, I have some unresolved issues with an old friend of mine.
He took something from me, so I’m taking something from him: his little sister.
Finally learning the truth was eye-opening, but it made me sick.
I thought that Elliot was falling in love with me.
He was just trying to get his revenge on my brother all along.
He used me, and I let him. I let him use me over and over and over, all the while falling more and more in love with him.
This made more sense to me than the story he’d been telling me.
Suddenly, it made sense why he seemed to hate me at the beginning of the year.
It was because he did hate me. He hated my brother for sleeping with the woman he thought he was going to marry.
And he hated me because I’m the one who pulled him away from her, giving my brother the opportunity he needed to take what he wanted.
All this time, and I’d been nothing to him but the cause of his pain and the target for his anger.
I didn’t bother closing out of the things I’d opened on his computer. I rushed back to the bedroom, where I changed as quickly as possible. I left the heels, sweater, and glasses lying on the floor. I turned my phone off so he couldn’t call, and I left his apartment before he could get home.
It was cold outside, and the sun had gone down. The wind was picking up, and the temperature continued to fall as the seasons transitioned from fall to full-on winter.
I crossed my arms over my chest and tucked my chin as I walked as quickly as I could back to my place.
I used my anger to push myself to walk faster.
I stayed focused on getting home and getting out of the cold, but the moment I stepped into my warm apartment and pressed my back to the door, the tears flooded my eyes and ran down my cheeks.
I should have listened to the voice in the back of my head.
I never should have trusted him. I never should have accepted his deal to stay in school.
I told myself I was doing it for my dad, to make him proud, but my dad never would have been proud of me for trading my body, and when you get down to it, that’s precisely what I did.
I was so desperate to stay in school that I was willing to give him anything he wanted.
I had given him my mind, my obedience, my virginity, and my heart.
He didn’t cherish it or care for any of it either. He played with me. He broke me. And I knew that when he got home and found everything I left open on his computer, he’d be laughing his ass off, knowing he got exactly what he wanted all along.
He didn’t love me. He never cared about me at all.
All he wanted was to break me so I’d go crying to Gabe about how his actions caused me to get hurt.
But I wasn’t going to do that. If it were up to me, Gabe would never know that I’d been having a secret relationship with the friend he stabbed in the back all those years ago.
I wouldn’t let him win.