After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 61

Acacia

We were losing our minds.

Both of us, or maybe all three of us, simultaneously, all at once. Coming undone and unraveling like a ball of yarn.

In the back of my mind, or maybe it's always been front and center, I knew something like this would happen. The more time Aaliyah and I spent together, the deeper our relationship was becoming, the crazier it was making her to see me with him. The more I had to face Matt, the harder it was to cut him off the way I should have, months ago. The more I saw her outside of class, the harder it was for us to remain professional at school. Everything was coming to blows, just a few days before the end of the semester. I felt like we'd lost control of the entire situation. And we absolutely had.

Too many people had become involved. Too many feelings had been hurt. Too many lies. There would be no easy way out.

I could hardly remember why Matt was in my room in the first place. Whatever surface-level, mundane conversation he'd managed to suck me into lasted all of four minutes before everything else hit the fan. And for once, he really was just an innocent bystander. What happened that morning had almost nothing to do with him at the core of it all.

It was all Aaliyah and I. Aaliyah and her festering jealousy. Me and my festering guilt. Us and our growing love for one another.

I wish I knew what had come over me when I snatched her back into my room. I wish I knew what she was doing, wandering the halls, watching his every move and mine. And I wish, with every fiber of my being, that she wouldn't let it control her that way. It wasn't healthy.

And at the exact same time, something about the way she was literally willing to go to war for about me made me want her even more. The way she cursed my name, the fire in her eyes and in mine...It was sexy on her.

It was so complicated. I'd never felt like this before. It was both agitating and exciting, deplorable yet so endearing.

I had every intention of giving Matt his jacket back much sooner than I had. Honestly, I'd been trying for the last few days, ever since he told me he might be leaving, to avoid him at all costs. I would make myself busy in all of my free periods, leave the campus during lunch, park in an unusual spot, just to try and make it a bit easier to rip the bandage off when I finally had the chance. I didn't think it was stalling, but as I left Dakota in the hallway with the infamous garment draped over her arm, I wondered why I hadn't thought of it sooner.

The group of 11th graders strolling through my classroom door just as the bell rang left me no chance to unpack any of it right now. It would all just sit there, in my head, until the end of the day. I made a split decision once again as I approached my chalkboard to disappear right at the end of 4th period, and not come back again until 6th. I couldn't face him. Not before I faced her.

But the only thing I could think about doing, the next time I saw Aaliyah, was fucking her senseless. Nothing more, nothing less. And God knows she had been asking for it, all day.

So it stood to reason that just as I was grabbing my coat to leave for lunch, Khori's number flashed on the little display of my classroom phone, and all I could do was laugh. God was out to get me for all of this dishonesty. The timing was too perfect.

  I ran to the door and locked it before sitting back in my chair and putting her on speaker, kicking my feet up. Whatever she had to say to me didn't have shit on the morning I'd already had. I was in the the best possible headspace to deal with her now.

  "Khori Dimoni Kalayne, how?" I said, closing my eyes with a sigh.

  "How, what?"

  "You have my work number, you're calling me just as I have a free moment.... That's a little... strange, don't you think?"