Chapter 7 Gracie
GRACIE
Glowing, I smooth my skirt as he steps through the door and heads for his office. The muscles on his back are bulging through his shirt. Once wasn’t enough. I want more of him. Tonight I know I’ll be desperate for his touch, but I’ll hold out.
I won’t touch myself until I see him again.
My body is for him.
The way he told me he loved me this time…it felt so casual. So natural. To me, it feels like a turning point in our relationship. Despite our relationship being a secret, we can freely express our love for each other.
I’m absolutely glowing.
I open the door and step outside. Thankfully, there’s a nice breeze to help cool me down as I head for my car, but as I round the corner to the parking lot, someone moves in front of me. My nose bounces off her shoulder, knocking me backwards.
“Ow,” I grumble. I hear a slight giggle and look up to see Regina smirking at me, a look on her face that I really don’t like.
“Sorry about that,” she says in a tone that’s totally not sorry. “Didn’t see you there.”
“No problem.” I try to step around her, but she moves with me, blocking my way. “Um, can I help you?”
There’s something not nice in her eyes. She looks at me like she’s a bird of prey and I’m a tiny little mouse just waiting for her claws.
“What school did you transfer from?” Her question rattles me for a second. Who even is this girl, and why is she asking me this?
And why now?
My body is still buzzing from my fun with Chris in the stairwell. I just want to be left alone so I can relish it in peace.
“Central,” I lie. How’s she even going to know?
Again, I try to brush past her, but again, she blocks my way.
“Uh-huh. Why transfer mid-year? Teacher problems?”
My defensive instincts kick in, and I back away. There’s something familiar about this girl. But what is it?
A long, uncomfortable moment hangs between us as I stare at her.
Then it comes to me.
I’ve seen her a bunch of times pestering Chris in the hallway, obnoxiously flirting. He even pointed her out to me once too. “That’s the girl who was knocking on my office door when I was licking your pussy.”
Now I get it.
Regina has a mega-crush on Chris and has somehow noticed what’s going on between us. Maybe she picked up on the way he looks at me or even the way he intentionally avoids me at times, and she’s grown suspicious.
I shift my weight from one foot to the other, and a warm, sticky strand of Chris’s spend drips out of me, sliding down my thigh. Normally, this kind of thing would turn me right back on, and I’d snap a pic and send it to him. But right now, with this girl in my face, it’s the last thing I need.
“Why I transferred is my business,” I say, ducking around her to walk down the sidewalk, but she follows, pressing me like a stalker, hissing in my ear.
“I know you’re not a real student! And I know what you’re up to with Mr. Davis!”
“I’m not up to anything!” I’m trying to play it cool, but my heart is racing. I’m fighting as hard as I can to keep a somewhat normal expression on my face while my body screams at me to run for the hills.
“You think I’m stupid, Gracie?”
My cheeks are burning as I spin to face Regina. “What do you want from me? Huh?”
Her upper lip twists into a cruel smile, and she crosses her arms over her chest. “Break it off.”
My heart skips a beat. “What!?”
“Tell Chris it’s over, or I go to the administration. Maybe even the police.” She sneers defiantly. “See how they feel about a fraud sneaking into their high school.”
“Go ahead.” I shrug. “See if I care.”
I actually do care. Being here at Pine Hills, roleplaying teacher-student with Chris every day, is amazing. But even if I’m forced to leave, I’ll find other ways to see him.
There’s no way I’ll ever not have Chris in my life.
But Regina has another ace up her sleeve. “Then I’ll go to your father.” My body tightens. “What do you think he’d have to say about his daughter dating his best friend?”
Instant goosebumps. And not the good kind.
How does this girl know so much about me? How does she know that Chris and my dad are even friends, let alone best friends?
“You’re creepy, you know that?” I ask her, but she just smiles and twirls a piece of hair around her finger.
“And you’re a fake,” she counters. “An obsessive, lying little tramp. You think you’re good enough for Mr. Davis?”
Okay, now I’m actually getting pissed off, and the way she’s raising her voice is making my stomach clench. Her face is like a painting of amused arrogance, but there’s something else beneath it.
Fear. Regina is afraid of me. No, not me. She’s afraid I’ll steal Chris from her.
As if he’s hers to steal.
“And I suppose you’re good enough for him?” I ask.
Her arrogant mask slips, and she lashes out. “He’s mine, bitch! I’ve been in Mr. Davis’s class for a year. What do you know about him?”
What irony.
I’ve known Chris for years, and not just as a student. He means the world to me. He’s why I came to Pine Hill in the first place. Why I took such a risk. “I know more about him than you’ll ever know!” I smile.
Regina lunges forward like a snake about to strike, causing me to flinch. “Oh, yeah?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “You know he’s still married?”
There’s hatred in her eyes, but I hold my ground.
She’s lying. Trying to goad me. Trying to get me to doubt Daddy.
“Bullshit.” My pulse increases, ringing in my ears, pulsing in my fingertips. I run my tongue along the backs of my teeth, feeling the ridges.
The look on Regina’s face is wild, like flames consuming a forest. My insides flare, and my cheeks start to prickle.
“Oh, you don’t believe me?”
“Of course not,” I reply firmly. If Chris was married, I would know about it. I would have met her. He would have told me by now.
There’s just no way.
I’ve had enough of this conversation. I move to step past her, but she quickly reaches into her purse and pulls out her phone. She holds it out to me, and what I see nearly causes me to vomit.
A photo of Chris and another woman. A gorgeous woman with fiery red curls and flawless skin.
She’s wearing…a bridal gown…and he’s in a tux, and they’re holding each other, smiling like they own the world, as people spray champagne and cheer.
My heart shrivels as I realize what I’m seeing.
“A…wedding…”
A chill runs through my chest like my soul leaving my body. I stare, frozen as Regina swipes through photo after photo, each like a knife stabbing me all over.
I might actually throw up.
“Found them on his wife’s Instagram,” she tells me, not hiding the pride in her voice.
“It’s private, but I made a fake account and told her I was a photographer and asked if she wanted to model for me.
” Laughing, she puts away her phone. “Would have thought the love of your life would tell you about that, no?”
My vision tunnels, and I just sort of zone out, staring at the ground in front of me.
No…it can’t be…
I hear Regina laughing, but I can’t focus. All I see are those wedding photos, a poisonous slideshow raking away at my mind and spirit.
Regina’s voice is a dull thrum from somewhere nearby. “Just have some dignity and leave now. Don’t make yourself look more pathetic than you already have.”
I’m conscious of her walking away and somehow manage to stay upright until she’s gone. That’s when my legs go out, and I fall to my knees. Coarse sand and stones grind into my skin, but I barely feel it.
No. It can’t be…
Chris told me he loved me. So many times. He came inside of me. Talked about getting me pregnant… Why would he do that if he was married?
No. Regina must be lying. But if she is, how could she have those photos?
I realize I haven’t been breathing and collapse forward onto my hands, gasping for breath.
I have to find out the truth.
Summoning every ounce of strength I have in me, I rush over to my car and drive home, fighting back tears as they pool in my eyes. The world feels like it’s collapsing around me, but I manage to make it to the house without crashing.
On the verge of a heart attack, I race upstairs to my laptop and type Chris’s name into Google. His faculty page at Pine Hills comes up, along with some old articles from when he used to play football—
And then beneath it. A headline that nearly levels me.
Chris Davis to wed Jacquelin Connors…
And like that, I crumble.
Tears pour from my face. I slide off my chair onto the floor into a twisted heap, my lungs burning as I gasp for the slightest breath between my sobs.
The world feels black. Nothing but a frozen void.
I trusted you, Chris. How could you keep this from me?
I don’t know how long I lie there before I hear the sound of the door downstairs. Must just be Dad coming home from work.
I hear his voice, but then another along with it that causes me to rocket to my feet.
Chris. Chris is here!