the minor details

strictly teacher-student

"i've received evidence from an anonymous source regarding your relationship with your english teacher, miss james." i think my heart actually stopped beating. why can't i breathe? oh god, i forgot how to breathe. why are my ears ringing?

"miss nicks?" i stopped myself from spiraling and made eye contact with the principal.

"yes sir?"

"do you care to tell me why i have a concerned teacher coming to me with evidence that your relationship with miss james goes beyond teacher-student?" he questioned.

"i'm sorry, i have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." he sighed and took off his glasses to rub his eyes.

"sara, you are aware that any...sexual relationship you have with miss james is strictly forbidden and extremely illegal?"

"yes of course, but i can promise you sir i am not sleeping with miss james" i mumble, trying to save gwendolyn from prison.

"i have a staff member who has reported that shes seen you in miss james' car on several occasions, and that you spend a lot of your free time in her classroom. you can see why i'm concerned."

i just sigh and close my eyes as i try to contain my nerves.

"are you alright miss nicks?"

"regardless of how many times i tell you that my relationship with miss james is strictly professional, you aren't going to believe me so what the point" i mutter. he takes a moment before saying,

"perhaps i jumped to conclusions. i had a staff member come to me concerned about an inappropriate relationship between you and your english teacher and i presumptuously assumed it was true. was i wrong in assuming it was the truth?"

"sir, i'm telling you, that couldn't be farther from the truth. miss james has been there for me a few times this year when i was dealing with issues at home. i can promise you our relationship is strictly teacher-student."

"alright then. i believe you. thank you for clearing that up. you may go back to class." i let out a breath i didn't know i had been holding, gave him a polite smile, and dismissed myself. i pulled my phone out of my back pocket and saw i had a text from gwen. all it said was,

are you okay?

i smiled slightly. even with her career on the line she still put me before herself.

i'm good. he doesn't know anything.

the bell had rung and i felt way too shaken up to even think about returning to classes, so I decided i'd walk home since i don't have a fucking car and rhi's in class.

i walked out of the school and stared at the grey sky that threatened to soak me. my hands were still shaking and i felt like i could throw up. normally i would go over to gwen's house and burrow in the variety of pillows and blankets on her bed, but i missed my own bed and i really wanted to be alone for a couple hours.

by the time i got home, id gotten soaked by the rain and my converse made a squeaky sound every time i stepped. i let myself into my house, kicked off my damp shoes, ran upstairs, peeled my wet clothes off my body and drew myself a bath. no surprise, there was no trace of my mother in the house.

once i added bath salts, i stepped into the steamy water and sighed as i sat down. now that i think about it, my relationship with gwen will probably never be normal. regardless of my age, or anything, she'll still have been my teacher and several years older than me. if we were to go out in public in a few years, it wouldn't take many brain cells to figure out that we didn't randomly start screwing after i graduated. i groaned and sank deeper into the bath, the nerves still making my stomach hurt.

i finished my bath, got dressed in my clothes, and lied in my bed. gwen's bed was nice and all, but i had somewhat missed this bed. it's always been so comforting and safe for me. i looked around my room and noticed the dusty fleetwood mac record sitting on the record player with the needle still on it, i must've turned it off abruptly. a lot of my plants were dead or dying and dust was on every surface possible. i guess it really has been awhile since i've been here. but living with gwendolyn always brought me more joy than living here ever did.

GWENS POV

"sara? sara?!" i yelled as i entered my home. "you can't just walk out of the school and flake on your classes!" i had heard from another teacher that she saw sara leave school earlier and she didn't return. i would understand if she needed to go rest, today has been nerve wracking.

i started getting more nervous when i realized that sara wasn't anywhere to be found.

"fuck" i mumbled to myself. i flopped onto my couch, still in my teacher clothes, and wracked my brain trying to figure out where she could've gone. finally i realized she probably went back to her own house, wanting to be alone. well fuck that, i'm not letting her wallow in her sadness.

i pulled up to sara's house, praying to god her mother didn't come back home. i walked faster than usual as i let myself into sara's house and went up the stairs. i hadn't been here before, but hopefully her room wasn't too hard to find. the house is extremely dull, it almost looks like no one's ever lived here. i tried the door at the end of the hallway and sure enough, there was sara, passed out in her bed with a stuffed bear gripped tightly in her arms. i smiled at the sight and shut the door behind me as i looked around. the room was definitely hers, it was like her personality translated into a room. the walls were filled with band posters, and plants were everywhere. they were dying, but they still looked nice.

she looked so peaceful when she slept, i always hated waking her up. i quietly slipped off my heels and set them by the door. i tiptoed to her bed and crawled up right next to her. i lightly slipped my arm around her waist and put my head by her neck. i felt uncomfortable in my skirt and blouse, but i didn't care enough to change. she moved a little, then mumbled,

"it's you, isn't it?" i smiled and placed a soft kiss on her jawline. she turned around and reciprocated my embrace. i rested my forehead against hers and intertwined our fingers.

"are you okay?" i asked. she just nodded and moved closer to me. "i'm sorry today happened" i mumbled.

"gwendolyn i knew what i was getting myself into when i kissed you for the first time in your kitchen. don't you dare apologize." we just lied in comfortable silence for awhile until i commented,

"i like your room" with a small laugh. she chuckled and sat up, smiling.

"shut up! can we go home now?" my heart fluttered at her use of "home" like we both lived together. i nodded and got up, grabbing my shoes.

"do you need to grab anything?" i asked. she looked around her room and quickly grabbed a few records, 7 books, and some clothes.

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SARAS POV

we got back to gwen's awhile ago, and now
i was laying on her couch with her, our limbs tangled under the thin blanket on top of us. the flames in the fireplace made the room have a soft, romantic aura and i found myself almost drifting off to sleep. her record with classics like unchained melody and can't help falling in love played quietly in the background.

"sara" she whispers. i just hum in response, too tired to open my eyes.

"do you think you can have rhiannon start taking you to school again? i think for now we should keep a low profile."

"yeah of course. it won't be a problem." i say, now sitting up at looking into her deep blue eyes.

"second thing, what do you think about taking a little trip sometime? somewhere far so no one from school sees us?"

i squealed like a happy pig and aggressively pecked her lips while repeating "yes yes yes". the only trip we'd gone on together was school related. she giggled at my reaction and we went back to laying together on her couch. today absolutely sucked, but this moment with gwen caused my heart to swell and almost made me forget all of todays anxieties.

SORRY I HAVENT UPDATED IN SO LONG! LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER<3