Mr. Fischbach • M.F

•chapter 19•

~Neveah's POV~

Liam's agressive demeanor remained regardless of Mr. Fischbach swinging open the door. "Neveah, get your ass out here, now." I now only hear him say, given Mr. Fischbach blocked my view of him. "She's not going anywhere with you Richardson." - "She is if you wanna keep your job." He responds, and my heart pounds in my chest. "I could go to your bosses office right now and let him know just how close you like to get to your student's. Try me motherfucker." He says, and that's when I stand up. "Neveah sit down." Mr. Fischbach says, without even looking back. 

"I'm not letting him do that Mark, he'll fire you without a second thought." - "That's if he believes the schools drug-dealing, class skipping, alcoholic over me. He fails to realize, I'm still a teacher here, regardless of me being new. You're on your last strike William. One utterance of your incapabilitly to keep your fists from colliding with a fellow female student's ribcage to my boss, your ass is being arrested on school grounds. Again." Mr. Fischbach comes back with, making me gasp. "And lemme guess, I don't think your rich daddy is around to bail you out this time, huh?" He adds, and Liam turns a shade of red I've never seen before. "Try me motherfucker." He adds, blowing me out of the water. Goosebumps trail my skin as Liam visibly fights his temper. Liam looks to me, -given I hadn't sat back down-, "You can't hide behind him forever." He nearly growls, before backing up and walking away. 

And I fall so unbelieveably conflicted. There's gonna be a day where he's gonna catch me alone, and he's gonna corner me. Whether he touches me or not, I-I don't want that. I-I can't deal with that. And before I even realize it, tears are blurring my vision. 

I hear the door close, and I try to suck it up before Mr. Fischbach locks it and turns around. He walks up to me, and I try so hard not to show how broken I feel. But, of course, all it took was a just a look from him. A look of worry, and concern. And I broke. 

And it was like the cherry on top. He holds me. He pulls me into his chest, and fucking holds me. And I sob into his chest, wrapping my arms around him. And the man holds me tighter.

 I find myself apologizing, and he shushes me, rubbing my back. I can't help it. This is all my fault. "Just say the word Neveah, and we can leave right now." - "N-No, no. If we leave, and you don't come back, it'll raise suspicion if Liam actually does go to your boss." I say, and the man rests his head on mine, giving me butterflies. "Please hear me when I say I don't care." He tells me, and I shake my head against him. 

"Yes you do." I say, pulling away. "Because if you really didn't care, you wouldn't have stood right over there a month ago, twiddling your thumbs. So don't do that. You care Mark, and I can't possibly handle being upset with you too so, let's just leave it at that." I say, turning away. And it kills a part of me to say that. I know what's happening. I'm not fucking stupid.

 He's feeling guilty for rejecting me and essentially pushing me in Liam's arm. And suddenly, he thinks he feels differently purely from seeing me in the situation I'm in. "I-I know what you're thinking," - "No, you don't know what I'm thinking. Because if you did, you wouldn't be feeling the way you obviously do. Given the growing list of names I want to call you." I say, getting upset. "Please, just hear me out Neveah," - "Why the fuck should I? Mr. Fischbach?" I ask, -exaggerating his name-, crossing my arms and turning around. And for the first time, I have the man stumbling over his words. 

And that alone, cracks me a bit. This is the most poise, proper, and literate man I know. He speaks confidently almost all the time. He stops himself, takes a breath, and shoves his hands into his pockets. "You shouldn't honestly." He says, having his eyes hit his shoes.

 "I have no right to call for your attention, especially after the way I treated you." He goes on, and I clench my jaw. "Then why are you?" I nearly cry, but I save it with a scoff. And I sit there, and wait. And the man simply looks back into my eyes, refusing to speak. And I become so unbelievably angry. It's the look, -the twinkle-, I wanted to see a month ago. 

H-He . . . He cares about me. I wipe a runaway tear, "Swallow those words you're clearly looking for, Mark." I tell him, gathering my stuff from off his desk. "Is staying with you still on the table?" I ask him simply, and immediately he nods. "Of course it is." He says, and I shoulder my bag. "Can you take me there now?" I ask, trying so hard to keep my bottom lip from quivering. 

He nods unhesitantly, and heads to his desk and grabs both his jacket on it and his keys out of it. And I follow behind the man like a duckling to its mother. With the addition of looking around me like an owl. The trip to the car, quiet. The trip to his house, quiet. 

We get to his front door, and he opens it, letting me enter first. And I mutter a simple, "Thank you" just before entering. He comes in and closes the door behind him, before fiddling with his keys. Soon though, I realize he's taking a key off of his keychain. "So you can come and go as you please." He says, before setting the extra key on the side table next to the door. 

He turns to leave with the saddest look on his face and for some reason, my heart hurt. Regardless of him hurting me in the same way, my heart physcially hurt. "Mark, wait." I blurt, and he stops in his tracks, and turns around. "Thank you," I tell him, "For letting me stay here." I add, letting my eyes hit the floor for a second. He smiles at me, "You're welcome Neveah."