Chapter 23 A Bad Influence
A Bad Influence
Silvia: sooo… how was it?
I usually had no problem telling my best friend—in gory detail—about the men I hooked up with.
There had been Craig from the bar whose dick was so bent it looked broken, Aiden from the gym who hummed All I Do Is Win while he bent me over a table, and quick-draw Kevin from my organic chemistry lab who blew his load before he even got the condom on.
Something stopped me from talking about Jack.
It wasn’t just that he was physically the most gorgeous human I had ever seen—Michelangelo’s David had nothing on him.
No. There was also a vibe. He saw me. And he was obsessed with my pleasure.
He seemed infinitely more interested in making me come than getting off himself.
The feeling was potent and intensely erotic.
Mel: It doesn’t matter. We agreed it would be a one-time thing.
Silvia: Bullshit. How many times did you do it??
I sighed and raked a hand through my hair. Five hundred miles away, and Silvia could read me like a book.
Mel: Six
Silvia: Six does not equal one!!!!!!!!
Mel: It’s fine. We did the math.
Silvia: So this is it? You’re not going to see him again?
Mel: I’ll see him around campus, but yeah. We agreed to stop… fraternizing.
Silvia: You don’t want to stop fraternizing.
No. The answer came to me before I even finished reading the message.
I had known I shouldn’t do anything months before anything ever happened.
I knew I should stay away from him after the first kiss.
And the second. I shouldn’t have rolled around with him in the wrestling room, and I definitely shouldn’t have propositioned him.
But that didn’t mean I had to like it.
Mel: I need to focus on the students. Midterms are coming up.
Silvia: That’s not an answer.
It wasn’t, but it was as close as I could get to one. And, it was the truth. Two things could be true. I could be drawn to Jack while also understanding that starting something with him was a bad idea—a distraction at best and a career-ending offense at worst.
But I liked how I felt when he looked at me.
And I wanted him to look at me like that all the time.
I sighed and put my phone down.
There were plenty of other things to do that did not involve Jack Cooper. But that didn’t mean I was able to keep my mind totally off him.
***
The first few days of the school-week passed with painful slowness. My classes went well enough—I was still following Jack’s lesson plans—but that did little to help keep my mind off of him. Us. And seeing him every time we traded off between our sections only exacerbated my yearning.
I was fucking pitiful.
The first time he had walked in the room, my breath had caught in my chest. I didn’t know what to do.
Should I try to act friendly? Or would he prefer to keep our interactions one hundred percent professional?
I settled for a friendly smile, but I chickened out and looked down at my papers when he smirked back at me.
I had butterflies in my stomach for company as I hurried out of the room.
Seeing him had gotten easier as the week wore on. By the time I reached Thursday and I was passing out the midterm exams to my classes, Jack was firmly pushed to the back of my mind.
My anxiety was completely focused on the students now.
I had done everything I could to help them learn the material, including three days of review via Jeopardy and Family Feud style games that I designed myself.
Now, as I watched Matt vigorously erase something on his exam only to begin scratching back over it immediately, I wondered if it had been enough.
I loved this subject, and I loved this school since the minute I first stepped on campus. I wanted so badly to stay, but I doubted I had done enough—prepared the students enough—to earn that place.
I spent Thursday afternoon furiously grading exams, and then anxiously waiting to exchange them with Jack for a peer check.
It seemed like my classes had performed better overall than the first exam.
However, it wasn’t just about how my classes did.
It was about how they did versus the expectation, and unfortunately, versus Jack’s sections.
On Friday, Jack spoke to me as he was packing up from his second period class. “How did the midterms go for you?”
I swallowed as I met his gaze. It was the first time he’d said more than a polite “hello” to me since leaving my bed Saturday night. “Good, I think. It’s hard to tell until all of the scores are posted. When do you think you’ll be done grading?”
He shrugged and slipped some papers into his bag. “Probably this afternoon. I’m a little over halfway done.”
My answering smile felt strained. “Right. Sounds good.”
“Is that a problem?” One of his brows lifted as he regarded me.
“No! It’s just… after the first exam… and my sections didn’t do as well… I’m just curious how your sections did. That’s all.”
“You aren’t nervous, are you?”
“No!” I answered way too quickly. If I couldn’t convince myself, there was no chance in me convincing Jack.
He lifted his hand as if he was going to brush a lock of hair back from my face, but he lowered his hand without touching me. “I’m sure you have nothing to worry about, Princess,” he said softly so no one else could hear him.
I didn’t mean to watch him go, but my eyes couldn’t help but track his movements as he walked out of the classroom.
***
On Monday, I was called back into Headmaster Richmond’s office. TJ smiled warmly as I walked past her desk and through the large double doors, left open today.
The steely-haired man smiled warmly as I entered the room. “Please take a seat, my dear. I’m sure you know why I’ve asked for this meeting today.”
I smoothed my hair over my shoulder before clasping my fingers in my lap. “This is to do with the midterm.”
“The midterm—yes—but your performance overall seems to have improved significantly since we last spoke.”
My heart jumped up into my throat. A compliment? We were off to a good start. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
“I’m going to assume you took my advice and reached out to Mr. Cooper to collaborate?”
My cheeks heated as memories of collaborating with Mr. Cooper flooded my brain. “Yes, I’ve been using his lesson plans and trying out his teaching style. He’s very innovative.”
“Quite,” Richmond replied, oblivious to my embarrassment.
“He seems to have made a good impression on you. The midterm exam scores for your sections have improved markedly versus the first exam. You performed at parity with Mr. Stephens’s historical scores and only just below Mr. Cooper’s sections. Well done.”
My chest ballooned with pride and gratitude for Jack. “Thank you, sir.”
“My expectation is that you continue to improve. I have complete confidence that you and Mr. Cooper can perform at the same level.”
“Does this mean I’m still in consideration for the job?”
“Of course! No decisions will be made until the end of term.”
I smiled brightly as I left the meeting. I still had a chance, and I owed it all to Jack. My smile faltered slightly.
Jack.
I would not be in contention for the role without his help, and now I was legitimately at risk for beating him out.
A part of me was excited about the prospect, but another part of me felt guilty, like I was taking something that wasn’t mine.
Jack was clearly the better teacher. He taught me how to teach!
Regardless of what Richmond chose to do, I would be eternally grateful to Jack for his support and mentorship. I would be able to take what I learned from him and bring it to any new school that I ended up at.
Even though we had both kept our distance over the last week, I felt compelled to go see Jack. I needed to thank him—again—for his help, and another LEGO just didn’t feel like enough. It was starting to feel like all I did was thank him lately.
I checked the time on my phone and realized that his fifth period section should be ending in just a few minutes. I hurried back to Franklin Hall, determined to catch him before he disappeared for the afternoon.
Students filed out the door as I reached the room. I slipped past them and found Jack at the whiteboard erasing thermodynamics equations. I approached the front of the room cautiously, not sure what I was going to say now that I was here.
A smile lit his face when he turned and saw me. “Hey, Princess. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
I smiled back at him, joy at seeing him radiating from every atom.
“I was hoping to catch you,” I said. “Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure. A few. What’s on your mind?”
Jack slipped into the office chair, and I took a seat on the edge of the large, wooden desk. If I stretched my leg out, I could have pressed the sole of my pump into his chest. But that didn’t seem like a good idea, so I crossed my ankles underneath the desk.
“I just had a meeting with Richmond,” I started.
“Oh yeah?”
“He wanted to congratulate me on my improvement. He could tell that you’ve been mentoring me.”
My cheeks flushed, and I swung my feet, bumping his knee with the top of my toe.
“That’s fantastic.” Jack leaned forward, resting his forearms on the arms of the chair. “You earned it.”
I leaned forward too, drawn to him like gravity, bringing our faces within a foot of each other. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
He chucked but didn’t pull away. “I’m sure you would have. You’re relentless.”
We were so close. Just a little more and my lips could brush against his.
Bad Melanie.
We agreed we weren’t going to do that again. One day. Twenty-four hours. We agreed. And that ended six days ago.
But something held me there, inches away from him. I couldn’t pull back. My reckless heart was screaming at me to put my mouth on him again—on his mouth, his neck, his chest… and then an idea popped into my head.