Chimera

Page 6

The day goes like normal till Timothy's father shows up just before noon. I take him down to get his son.

"How do you know he did this, just his ID and some bruise?"

"Well there are the sixty seven notes he's sent Tyler. I have them in my office if you'd like to read them. I have enough evidence to deem him a threat and send his ass home."

"I'll be reporting my dissatisfaction over this to the council."

"I'll look forward to that." Once they were gone I went to assure Tyler that he was gone. He seemed alright the rest of the day and I didn't see him that night. Part of me was glad. Part of me was annoyed. I tried not to notice how I watched for him during the day. Enjoyed our eating together more than before. I managed to go several weeks before I went to Simon's room one night. He chuckled as he let me in.

"If you are hoping to get in my pants, while I will have fun I don't think you will." He says teasing me.

"At this point I don't know what else to do." I pour myself some of his vodka. He slowly comes over to me.

"I can help you scratch the itch but it won't do you any good. We both know that." I sigh.

"While I'm tempted to take you up on it I don't think it's fair to you." He chuckles.

"I'm a little bruised but not so bruised I don't have a date for Saturday." I chuckled.

"Got right back on that horse. Tell me about them." I hear all about the red head he met at the shooting range before I went back to bed.

Another couple weeks goes by and I find myself reduced to pacing the halls at night to burn off the energy that I have pent up from my desire for Tyler. I round a corner heading for the end of one of the halls of dorm rooms when I hear sound. I sigh.

"It's three hours past curfew." I click on my flash light and shine it at the window seat. My light hits a very startled Tyler who is trying to quickly wipe tears from his cheeks. I dash for him. "Tyler? What happened? Why are you crying? Why aren't you in bed. Did the dreams come back?" He sobbed.

"They never stopped." He said. I pulled him in to hold him as he cried. Weeks. He'd gone weeks alone with the dreams because of what happened. He didn't come come back to my room because of what happened between us.

"You should have told me. I'd help."

"I didn't want to make you feel obligated."

"Obligated?"

"To be nice to me after turning away from me. You do okay during the day I didn't want to take up your nights too."

"Tyler, I wanted to help you."

"You don't have to be nice now. It's just us." He tried to pull away. "I'll go back to bed." I held his arms and kept him in place.

"Tyler. I'm not just being nice. I want to help. Why wouldn't I want to help?" I didn't understand.

"It's not the first time. I understand that as a teacher you want to be nice and helpful but I don't need a teacher for this. I thought when I kissed you you'd be able to make all the bad go away. I've misinterpreted before. It's okay. I'll just go back to bed and it'll be fine." Somewhere along the way he'd flirted with someone who'd just been nice and they rejected him. Because I pulled from the kiss he thought it was happening again. He thought I was just being nice to some kid I taught.

"Tyler, you don't understand." I pulled him into step.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere to talk."