Madrigalian

Chp 20

While the insolent boy in his class had kept him mouth shut, someone else had voiced their concern, which lead to Damon sitting in front of the school board, the principal, the mayor and a government official.

"Mr. Salvatore," Mr. Dumas a round, red-face man with curly hair and a mustachio, addressed him, "Am I to understand correctly that you are in a homosexual relationship with a student of this school, in which you teach?"

Damon nodded, "Yes."

"And this student is also a member of the football team that you coach?"

"Yes."

Mr. Dumas raised a brow, "And you saw no ethical reasons for this not to happen?"

"Many," Damon replied, "Well, more problematic issues than moral ones," he corrected himself.

"I want you to know that I am not in favour of this-" he gestured, "'relationship' as you call it and had not the boys parents and the principal pleaded your case, you would have been fired and possibly charged with sexual relations with a minor. However, I will give you a change to explain yourself."

"Thanks..." Damon replied dryly. He wanted to be pretty much anywhere but here right now. His head was pounding and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed with Tyler and sleep for at least half a century. "Firstly, Tyler is eighteen, so not a minor. Secondly, Tyler and I met and started our relationship before I began working here-"

"When and for what reason did you move to Mystic Falls?"

"The Salvatores are a founding Family of Mystic Falls," Damon replied. "I left many years ago, but returned a little over a year ago."

"So until a year ago you did not know Tyler Lockwood?"

"No. Not personally."

"Explain," Mr. Dumas said in a bored voice.

"Our families go back over 150 years, so of course I knew of him. But we'd never met."

"Ok Mr. Salvatore, please continue."

"As I said, Tyler and I got together before I started working here. I had no intention of working here at that point. I was approached by Alaric Saltzman and the principal, to stand in for him as history teacher and part time coach for the duration of his research project in Bulgaria. I told them both straight away that I was involved with a student here, but Tyler is of age and I will not be grading any papers that are important towards his final grade..."

"So how did you meet, if not in school related hours?"

"At a charity event, probably."

"Probably?"

"It was over a year ago. At the time he was 'the mayor kid' I didn't pay much attention to anything other than getting my brother settled, taking up my responsibilities as the head of a founding family at the city council. Aside from my brother's girlfriend and her family I didn't socialise much..."

"No girlfriend?"

"Caroline Forbes... for a few weeks but I didn't feel like subjecting myself to the laws of sexual relations with minors so it didn't last long..." he added dryly.