Ready or Not

Chapter 32

The first week of January, you decide that you want to meet with Marissa outside of her home. So, you reserve a group study room at the university library and arrange to meet with her for a geometry marathon session. Your reason for this is so that you can have a private chat about her and Mr. Faraday, away from her mother and to give yourselves more than an hour. You are already at the group study room and are awaiting Marissa's arrival. You prepare the study/tutoring material and when you hear the door open, you turn to see Marissa walking in. You say, "Hi Marissa! Long time no see. How have you been?"

Marissa replies, "Clearly better than you. What happened to you exactly?"

"I was at a party and on my way out, fell down a flight of stairs."

"Jesus. Are you alright?"

"Yea. I'm a couple of weeks away from getting my casts removed and feeling great otherwise. So, how was your holiday vacation?"

Marissa replies, "It was good. I had a good time."

"So, how is Geometry coming along?"

"It's alright. I'm maintaining a C+ average."

You ask, "Okay, then let's go over your homework and the lesson for the rest of this week."

The two of you tackle the material and as usual, Marissa's grasp of geometry is complete. You say, "I cannot recall where we left off the last time we talked, but what I do remember is us talking about Mr. Faraday, Derek."

"Yea. I remember."

"I would like to pick up that discussion now if you are okay with it."

"Yea. Sure."

"Do you remember what the last thing we talked about was?"

"I told you about meeting him in the park that one night. He was having some complications with an ex-girlfriend resurfacing and I felt so bad for him. One thing led to another, and we were making out in the dark."

Clear alarm bells are now going off in your head. A teacher and a sixteen-year-old student making out in a park at night. You know that the white pages identified Faraday as 26 years old. You have no idea what the age of consent is in this state, but you are pretty sure that even if it was 16, there is clear issue with the man being in a position of authority. Then you think, "Is kissing one of those things that are covered by the statutory rape law?"

Not wanting to let Marissa know of your concerns, you try to keep your facial expression neutral. Then you ask, "Marissa, did something like that happened again since?"

She does not make eye contact and keeps her gaze on the table. You ask again, "Marissa?"

"A few times. After the first time, he tried to put a stop to it. He said what we did was inappropriate, and he apologized for taking advantage of me."

"So, how did you guys end up making out a few more times?"

"When I went to him for extra help, we would often be alone."

"Did Derek arrange it to be that way?"

"No, my after-school activities just made it so that other kids going to him for extra help were all gone by the time I got there."

"So, the two of you would make out at the school, in the classroom? That seems really risky."

"We didn't in the beginning. One day after extra help, he asked me if I wanted to get a cup of coffee with him. So, we did. Got coffee and found a quiet spot to park the car and talked."

You ask, "That's when it happened again? In the car?"

"We were just talking about everyday things like my friends and future plans. Then he asked me if there was anyone that I liked, you know, a boy. I told him that I wasn't interested in any of the boys at school. Then he asked me if I was interested in anyone outside of school. At the time, there wasn't anyone I was interested in, so I told him no. Then he told me that he couldn't stop thinking about me and what we did that night in the park. Derek said he knew we shouldn't be doing those things again, but doing those things was all he could think about. Then he apologized to me again and started up the car. He said he'd bring me back to school so that my mom can come get me. But I wanted to do those things again too. So, I told him to stop the car and I just went for it and kissed him. He kissed me back initially but pushed me away. Then he said it didn't matter how much either one of us wanted it, that we couldn't do it again and that because he was the adult, he would need to be the one to put a stop to it."