EMERALD LOVE, Elizabeth Olsen

Troubles in paradise

The next morning, I woke up to the warmth of Lizzie's body still laying against mine. I reached for my phone, careful to not wake her up, at look at the time. 9.26 am.

"Shit" I mumbled as this was a school day and we were both unbelievably late. "Lizzie wake up" I gently shook her body until the familiar pair of emerald eye angrily looked at me.

"I'm sure we can have 5 more minutes" she spoke as she started randomly tracing flower like patterns on my chest with her fingertips.

"Actually, it's almost 9.30, we're very late" I said trying to sound calm.

"Shit!" She got up and started to gather her clothes which were spread all over my living room. I choose a casual outfit and quickly dressed up. I grabbed two apples and cereals bar and we went to her car.

The ride was silent, it wasn't a completely comfortable silence but I didn't really know what to say. What we did last night was... amazing. But when Uni rules stated that interactions between teachers and student out of school were completely okay, I'm somehow not sure they were talking about the kind of interaction Lizzie and I had.

"Do you regret it?" I finally gathered the courage to ask.

"Do I look like I regret it?" She turned her face to look at me.

"I don't know you just seem incredibly tensed and I can't quite figure out if it's because of what we did or-"

"What we did was absolutely amazing" she cut off my rambling "I'm tensed because the situation isn't quite normal. I mean we're going to have to just walk in and pretend you weren't sitting on my face last night." She explained, now avoiding to look at me.

"So, you don't regret it but you don't know how to handle it" I spoke more to myself then to her.

"I don't even know what we are or if we should even be something considering how long we've known each other" she said still avoiding to look at me. She parked the car at the same place she did last time.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked sounding a bit more upset than I wanted to.

"Look..." she started, finally facing me. "I like you; I really do..."

"But? There's a but, isn't there?

"Y/n, you're my 21-year-old student I mean... what am I even doing? I know I should have thought of it before last night but-"

"Damn right you should have" I cut her off as I left the car and made my way to the entrance of the building. She didn't come after me or anything, she stayed in her car.

I had missed the entire first hour of class and was 10 minutes late for the second which thankfully was Cobie's literature class. She didn't say anything about me being late, she did ask me to stay after class which I did.

"Are you okay? You didn't seem quite yourself yesterday and, respectfully, you don't seem much better" she carefully spoke, sitting on the edge of her desk while I sat next to her.

"There's someone... I don't know, I thought it was just perfect but it's a lot more complicated than it seemed and I don't know what to do" I sighed.

"What's so complicated about it? If you two like each other then it can't be that hard" she asked.

"Don't be mad alright" I warned her, to which she simply nodded. I knew she had no reason to get mad but I could sense that she wouldn't approve of the situation. "It's... it's Lizzie" I mumbled somehow hoping she wouldn't catch it.

"You mean as in my coworker Lizzie? Damn. You do like them older" She chuckled which slightly made me relax. "Look, what we had was easy because it was just about sex. When feelings get involved it gets way more complicated. But you have this thing with people you just... understand them. If she wasn't the right pick you wouldn't have picked her in the first place. Stop to feel things with this..." she said, placing her fingertip on my temple "and start trusting this..." she gently placed her hand on my heart.

"What if I'm wrong?"

"Then it might hurt for a while but you have amazing people who care for you and who will be there when you need them" she smiled placing a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"Thank you" I whispered. The bell rang, signalling me to go to my next class which was Scarlett's. She looked a bit concerned when she saw me and quickly tried to hide it. Her class was two hours long and it actually went by pretty fast. As I said before, this wasn't my favourite subject but Scarlett always found a way to make it more interesting.

At the end of the class, Florence, Tom and I headed out and tried to find the others for our usual lunch break. We bought our food and sat at the usual table. They all started to talk about pretty much nothing and everything. Hayley noticed that I, for once, wasn't taking much. She leaned a bit closer and asked me if everything was alright in a low tone so that the others wouldn't hear.

"It's nothing really" I shrugged.

"Y/n, don't lie to me please" she insisted.

"I told you; it is nothing that you need to be aware of" I snapped. I quickly got up and left the table.

Brie followed me. "Y/n!" She called me but I ignored it until she was standing right next to me "Y/n, talk to me, please" she begged, placing my hand in hers.

"Brie I... I'm miserable. I just snapped at Hayley for no valid reason I..." I hid my face in my hands.

"Hey, look at me" she said pushing my hands down "whatever you're going through, you can talk to me, I'm here, I'm right here"

"Okay then, I had sex with one of my teachers and she doesn't regret yet she doesn't know how to deal with it" I spoke in one breath.

"Damn, I've heard that before" she giggled earning an unamused eye roll. "Sorry... too soon to joke about it, I get it. Try to talk to her, maybe she just needs some time"

"That's actually where I was heading before you stopped me blondie" I forced a smile.

"Go on then" she pushed me toward the entrance of the building.

I walked to Lizzie's office hoping she'd be there. Her door was closed but I could see the light under it meaning she was probably in there. I knocked once, no answer. Twice, still no answer. I opened the door "Lizzie, I thought we could ta-"