My Heart Is Open

Give A Little More

*Lacey's pov

"Lacey, wake up, it's 6" Adam's voice annoyingly sing songed as my door hit the wall. "I. Hate. You" I groaned. "No, you hate the 3 extra large bottles of wine you finished off yourself last night" he laughed. "Ugh, never again" I groaned, my head pounding. "Come on you have work" he laughed and pushed open the curtains blinding me. I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut until I heard my door shut again and Adam's footsteps retreated downstairs. I sighed and pushed my way out of bed and into the shower. The hot water felt nice and eased my sore hungover muscles. I stepped out and brushed my teeth and applied my make up. I searched for a "teacher" dress, a thin sweater, and a pair of flats. I smiled and dressed before going downstairs for a cup of coffee and a banana. "Well hello Miss teacher" Adam grinned. "Oh stop Adam, please for the love of God stop" I begged. His smirk never faltered, it was annoying. I went back upstairs and blow dried my hair. I finished my coffee and went downstairs. 6:45, "alright, see ya Adam" I said and stopped, "wait my car" I sighed. "Take this one" he said tossing me a set of keys. "Seriously? Thanks. It will only be until I can get to a dealer" I assured him. He waved it off, "don't worry about it" he said. I smiled and went out to the car. I stared at the car in the garage, it was beautiful. "Adam I can't drive a stick" I yelled back into the house. "Hmm well that's a shame, your poor ex" he smirked standing in the door way. "Shut up" I said rolling my eyes. "I'll drive you and pick you up" he said. I started to protest but he shut me down and we got in. "I'm out at 3:00" I said and shut the door. "See you then" he smiled and pulled away.

1:00. I sighed as my last class of the day walked in. "Sit down, phones away" I said. "Come on Ms. Winters it's been a long day" they complained. "Stop, if we get through this easily you can have the rest of the period" I said. They sat quickly and I went to the board. "Iambic Pentameter" I said as I wrote, "what does it mean?" I asked. They stared at me blankly. "Guys I know today is long and boring and no one wants to be here. Vacation just finished and your tired, so am I, work with me" I said. They continued to stare and there was a knock on the door. I looked over as it opened. "No, go" I said seeing Adam. The class got quiet. "Wow, I'm hurt. I just wanted to observe" he said. "No you want to be a distraction" I said. "Me never" he smirked and sat at my desk. I rolled my eyes, "okay focus what is iambic pentameter?" I asked again. A hand raised, "why is Adam Levine in our classroom?" A girl asked overly excited. "To annoy me" I said, "now focus" I said. "Uh can I try?" Adam asked. "No I need my class to answer" I said staring at him. "Well think of me as a student, I blocked all this out in class" he smirked. That smirk is going to kill me. "Fine what Levine?" I asked. "Penta means 5 right? Like pentagon a 5 sided shape." I nodded, "meter, feet right, 5 feet" he said. I nodded, "very good Adam" I said and turned my attention back to my class. "Iambic" I said. "A type of foot, it's two syllables. The first is stressed the second unstressed" a voice from the back said. "Thank you Jennifer but put your phone away" I said. "Iambic pentameter a line of 5 feet, 10 syllables where the first is stressed and the second unstressed" I wrote on the board. "Give me an example" I said.

Nothing. "Okay someone play a song, any song" I said giving up on teaching by the book. A song I'd come to know as she will be loved played. Adam smiled brightly. "Tell me one line in this song in iambic pentameter" I said. Nothing. "The first line" Adam said. "Well yes actually, good job" I said. Everyone started shouting out answers then and I smiled. "Yes, iambic pentameter is the sing-song way we naturally speak" I said. I talked a few more minutes about iambic pentameter and then they had the rest of the class to talk. "Thank you" I said softly. Adam smiled, "anytime" he said and got up, "I'll meet you in the car" he started and I stopped him, "you can stay if you want" I offered. "Only if you want me to" he said. "Sit, I'm not worth the hour and a half worth of gas you'll waste sitting down there" I said. "I think you are" he said suddenly and it seemed to catch him by surprise too. "Ooh are you guys dating?!" Jennifer asked. Seriously did no one pick up a magazine? "Actually we're technically married" he corrected. "What?!" My class shouted. "Settle down, yes technically we're married" I said. "I thought you hated him" Bobby said staring. "I do, I mean I did, I mean" I stopped, you're an English teacher Lacey act like one! I mentally shook myself and started again, "I did hate him but I realized I didn't really know him. We got married on the 15th, and well a week stuck in the same house as someone else to tend to get to know them."

They took it in when Becky raised her hand, "yes Becky." "Wait what happened to Michael though? I thought you were engaged" she asked. "We were, Adam and I had what's called an arranged marriage so I had to call off my engagement to Michael " I explained. "Wait so you gave up a happy marriage for a miserable one?" Ashley asked. "I didn't have a choice" I said. "That's messed up" Ashley said. "That's what an arranged marriage is, you don't get a choice of who you marry" I told them. They were quiet and I looked back at Adam. "So do you like love him now?" Jessica asked. "No Jess you don't go from hate to love in one week." "But you like him?" She asked again. "There's great potential to be good friends" I said. The bell rang then and I was never so happy for class to end. "Read over that packet I gave you there will be a quiz tomorrow" I said and they left. "Something tells me that was not a normal class period" Adam said and I finally looked at him. "No that wasn't. Sorry about all the marriage talk" I said. He waved it off, "wanna get some frozen yogurt?" He asked. "Sure I just need a couple minutes, I didn't really plan anything for this week" I said and grabbed my planner from the desk. He got up and walked around the room looking at the posters and through the stack of books in the back. I sat and filled out the planner for the week and decided to keep it simple. I finished quickly and I looked up. Adam was reading taming of the shrew. I smiled and closed the planner and tossed it on the desk. He jumped and stuck the book back quickly.

I smiled, "so frozen yogurt?" I asked. He smiled, "come on" he said walking toward me his hand out to me. I hesitated but took his hand and led him out. "You're an amazing teacher" he said as he opened the door to the car for me. "Thanks" I smiled. He shut the door and walked around. I watched him as he got in. "You're so enthusiastic" he continued. "Thanks" I said again, "you have to be enthusiastic with this job" I said. "I'm sorry for disrupting your class" he said. "It's okay, I didn't mind it that much." "But you did mind it." I sighed, "only a little at first. But then I realized what you were doing" I said looking at him. "And what was that?" He asked. "You were trying to find a way to connect with me so we could talk all the time and like each other and date and so on" I said confidently. "Am I that transparent?" He asked. I laughed a little, "yes" I said. "Don't mean to be. It would be nice though" he shrugged pulling into a spot. "What would be nice?" I asked. "Dating" he said simply getting out of car. "Adam we both just broke up with our fiancés" I said. "So I'm not saying let's date now. I'm saying it would be nice eventually, and uh the more I learn about you the more I like" he smiled. "We've only known each other a week" I said. "So over the weekend we learned a lot about each other" he said. I nodded and we went in and placed our orders.