Teacher's Pet

Teacher's Pet: Chapter Fifteen

Harry wasn’t in class the next week.

The only information about his wellbeing came from Liam and Niall, who recounted various things they remembered through phone calls and visits Louis couldn’t risk making.

Charles had been slapped with a sexual assault charge, Harry was healing and in therapy Monday through Thursdays, and Louis and him were still a secret to be kept.

That was all Louis knew, after a week of pretending like everything was fine. A week of pretending Harry’s empty seat in the back of class didn’t send goose bumps running up his back.

A week of pretending he was nothing more than Harry’s teacher.

He went home over the weekend, craving the calming touch of his mother’s hand on his back, and the bubbly happiness of his little sister’s giggles, and unlike his past two visits home, this time, he actually found what he was looking for.

The daytime was spent with as much forced cheeriness and carelessness that Louis could muster, with his mind still drifting to Harry every couple of seconds, playing monopoly with the twins until one of them insisted that the other had cheated while running the bank, and it had ended up with compromising over popsicles Louis had shoved in their mouths, just to shut them up.

After dinner, on Saturday night, which was filled with more of the aimless chatter that Louis had grown to miss, Louis went out to the backyard, sat under the stars and sighed tiredly, rubbing at his sore head, exhausted from the front he’d put up for his family.

Because his family was still recovering too, from the sick blow it’d taken with Lottie and her Maths tutor. The blow Louis had had the knowledge and power to stop. But instead he’d just sat back, and watched it happen, happy to have someone to relate to.

And now he was here.

“Louis,” a quiet whisper came from behind Louis’ shoulder, and Louis whipped his head around, his eyes landing on his oldest sister, huddled up in one of his old school sweatshirts. She smiled tentatively, glancing at the chair next to him, and Louis motioned Lottie over to him.

She curled up in the seat next to him and rested her chin on her knees, staring thoughtfully at Louis, who turned his head back up to look at the stars in the sky.

“Louis,” she whispered quietly, “Are you in love with one of your students?”

Louis’ heart stopped pounding in his chest, and he drew in a sharp breath, turning to glance at Lottie, trying to mask his shock, “What do you-”

“Louis,” Lottie interrupted, giving him a steady look, and raising a brow, as if questioning if he was going to calmly sit there and continue a lie, they all knew to be false.

He sighed and scrubbed a tired hand over his face, still refusing to look anywhere but the brightest star in the sky, “What would possibly make you think that?”

“Well,” Lottie said slowly, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, “You’re usually pretty smart, but recently you’ve kind of been acting like a mental ass-”