Teacher's Pet

XXV

Mollie

I squatted down and peeked through the crack in the door to see him sitting on the edge of his bed. It looked like a small piece of paper was in his hand, while his other raked through and gripped his hair. I could see that he muttered something, but it was inaudible to me. I was too far away. Just ever so slightly, I tilted my head to the side so my ear faced the door. Curiosity was coursing through me to know what was going on. We were okay just a little while ago, and now something was clearly bothering him. It tugged at my chest to know that whatever it was, he wouldn't come to me about it. Our relationship was out of balance, and he had claimed all of the power.

"I don't know what to do Steph." I heard him sigh. His voice was strained, like he was trying to hold back from crying. Who's Steph? I lost my balance, and planted my hand on the door frame to keep myself from falling. A gasp flew from me when I turned to see Mr. Thomas looking at the door. Shit. I heard a drawer slam, causing me to bolt up and tip-toe a sprint to my room. I grasped onto the doorknob and flung the door open before running to my bathroom and locking myself in.

Curiosity killed the cat. What would it do to a mouse?

That was the last thought that ran through my head as I turned on the shower.

***

I cracked open my bedroom door, and slipped a foot out onto the hardwood in the hallway. Very carefully, I tiptoed down the hall to Mr. Thomas' room so the floorboards wouldn't creek. For as luxurious as this house was, you'd think the floor wouldn't make a noise, but whenever I needed to be sneaky, it had to groan with each step I took. I came to a halt to look around for him. I made it far enough to glance down the staircase, and he was nowhere to be seen. That should've been obvious, though, because when he's in his office to grade lab reports, exams, and whatever else he had assigned to his students, he could be stuck in there for hours.

I sucked in a deep breath of relief when I realized I was in the clear, and continued my mission. What was he looking at? I knew I had no right to snoop through his things, but I had to know, it was eating away at me. My gut told me to turn around and go to bed when I grabbed onto the doorknob, but I couldn't stop myself. I loved him, but I barely knew him other than his age and where he worked. No friends or family came around, not even colleagues. Then again, I supposed me being here didn't allow for that to happen given our situation. But that didn't mean I shouldn't be able to get to know him, or know intimate or insignificant details of his life.

I reached the shedua wood nightstand, grazing my fingertips along the sleek finish. The dark furniture in here looked magnificent with the grey walls. When it was daytime, the sun peeking through his window lit everything up, bringing life to the dark accents. I slipped my fingers around around the tiny knob to pull it open, but the drawer was locked. That's not weird or anything. I wondered what could be so bad he would have to lock his nightstand drawer. Maybe he has a nudey magazine in there. The thought made me chuckle, it would seem so unlike him to use one of those. "It seems so unlike you to snoop through Mr. Thomas' belongings." I couldn't refrain from scolding myself.

Taking a look around his room, I found his dresser I didn't even consider paying any attention to. I quietly walked over to it, noticing there was some mail stacked on top of it along with a few other items. Watch? No. Pen? No. Letter opener? Yes, that'll work. I remembered seeing in movies how people could jimmy doors open with a letter opener, I was sure it would work on this. I slipped the metal into the crack where the drawer met the top of the table and shimmied it around until I heard a click. Yay! I wasn't sure it would work at first, but I was lucky and grateful that it did.