The Need For Affection

First meeting

After a long night of not being able to sleep, I open my eyes as I hear the harsh sound of my alarm clock. Annoyed, I press on the snooze button. Every second I can spend just staying in my warm bed counts. My bliss is however shorter than I had hoped.

"Hazel! You have to start getting ready for school!" My mom yelled at the bottom of the stairs, not even bothering to come up to my room. I sigh while getting up and start dressing myself. When my curtains open I can see a thick layer of untouched snow on the ground. I giggled to myself, making a silent promise to play in the snow later that day. I put on an extra hoodie to keep me warm and head downstairs.

When I get to the door of the dining room I can hear my parents fighting, as they always do. The smallest of things can make these two fight. I tell myself that I've grown used to it and that everything will be okay, but deep down I know that's a lie. It's tearing me up inside.

My hand lingers on the doorknob for a while, contemplating if I should even enter or not. Eventually I put a fake smile on and enter the room. When my mom looks at me, I can already tell that she's irritated.

"Finally Hazel! You took long enough to get ready. Hurry up and eat some breakfast before you leave for school." I nodded at her, confirming that I'd hurry up. I didn't really want to talk to either of my parents. We never bonded, they were always too busy fighting to care about me anyway. I looked over to where my dad was sitting. He was busy reading the newspaper with a mug full of black coffee in his hand, a frown was very noticeable on his face.

I grabbed a bagel from the table to eat on the go, and went to the front door. My father looked up from his newspaper and actually said something to me. "Good luck with school today" I mumbled a thanks to him before leaving for school. My dad talking to me was a very rare occasion, it left me rather surprised that he actually said something today.

I arrived right on time, the bell rings as I enter through the gates. My best and only friend, Nora, arrived just a couple seconds after me. She was panting from all the running to be on time.

"Hazel," She said loudly as she ran towards me. "have you heard we're getting a substitute teacher for economics?" The expression on her face and the tone of her voice made it very obvious that she was excited. I understand her enthusiasm as our old teacher ms. Jordan really knew how to bore her students. As kind as she was, she wasn't very good at motivating students.

"I hadn't heard of it. Did something happen to ms. Jordan?" I asked Nora, knowing she would be on top of the rumors going around. She very much liked to listen to the latest gossip in the school.

"Well, some students have asked our homeroom teacher and she said that ms. Jordan was just taking a break. I however heard rumors that she's divorcing her husband because he cheated on her with a man and she's so devastated that she's retiring early." She explained to me while still catching her breath from all the running.

"I hope she's doing alright." I said with some concern being audible in my voice. She might not have been the best teacher, but she was always kind and really helped me through a lot of difficult times. Nora nodded her head while saying "Me too."

Nora took my hand and said, "Come on Hazel, we're going to be late for the first period if we don't hurry up!" I laughed as we speed walked to our classroom.

It was a pretty standard day today. I was alone most of the time, while it could be a bit lonely sometimes it was also quite peaceful. While Nora may be my best friend, she also has her own social group which she wants to hang out with so we aren't together all day long. I like it this way, as much as I like her, she can be very chatty. It cheers me up a lot but after a while of being social it gets exhausting as I'm a natural introvert. I meet up with Nora to go to the last class for today, which is economics.

We all sat down and took our stuff. While we were doing that, the new substitute walked in. Some gasps could be heard as he was quite handsome. He had short brown hair that had some waves in it and he wore round glasses that suited his face very well. When I heard some girls whisper about his muscular build and drooling all over the place, I just rolled my eyes.

He put his things down on his desk, took some chalk and started to write his name on the blackboard.

"Good afternoon everyone, I am your new economics teacher. My name is Alexander Smith, you will either call me mr. Smith or sir." His short introduction made the whole class go silent.

"Now, I know it's your last period but hang on for a while longer until this class is over." His voice sounded kind but also stern and confident. 

He looked around the classroom to get a good look at all the students. When his eyes met mine he gave a small smile, I don't know why but it gave me butterflies in my stomach. I quickly shook off that feeling when he started teaching.

The bell rang, signaling that it was the end of the class.

"Alright everyone, that's it for today." he said. Everyone was packing their stuff and leaving the classroom, but not me. Mr. Smith walked towards me and sat down on the desk right in front of mine.

"You're Hazel right? Ms. Jordan told me about your arrangement with her, feel free to continue doing that. I always stay an hour longer at school to finish my paperwork here so I don't have to do it at home." He was right, Ms. Jordan knew about your situation at home and she let you stay in her classroom an hour longer after school finished to do your homework. I had asked her a while back as I didn't really want to go home. The longer I was out, the better my day usually went.

"Thank you mr. Smith, I appreciate that." I said shyly while avoiding eye contact. He reached out and patted my head a couple of times. I looked up to him pretty shocked as I started to blush quite noticeably. He chuckled softly.

"Now be a good girl and start doing your homework." Mr. Smith said as his eyes darkened a bit. It stirred up some feelings inside of me, I couldn't tell for sure what I felt though. Arousal? Happiness? Excitement? Perhaps it was a combination of all of them.

"Y-yes sir." I said while stuttering slightly. He made me very nervous. Right when I said that, he stood up and went to his desk to start his paperwork.

I got very focused on my schoolwork and kept working until I finished everything. When I was done I looked up to Mr. Smith sitting at his desk. He was already done, everything was packed away in his bag and he just sat there watching me. Was he just staring at me? How long was he finished for? I thought to myself. Weirdly enough I wasn't creeped out or anything, I just smiled shyly and got a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.

I packed everything up and got up to leave.

"Goodbye mr. Smith, see you tomorrow."

"Yes, see you tomorrow Y/N." He said as he waved goodbye.