Stolen Innocence (Evergreen) [Student/Teacher Love Story]

twenty-three

As the weeks drag on and the semester's end begins to creep up, Michael's behavior has begun to plateau out. He still bombards me with messages but doesn't try to entrap me in conversation all the time in class. I've backed off slightly on shoving Ethan in his face, but behind the scenes we've been seeing each other nonstop.

I'm not really sure if I'm falling for him but whenever I'm with him, everything seems right in the world. Michael is still always in the back of my mind, glaring at us in the back of the class, his lips, his words, his touch forever a nagging reminder and not one that I'm likely to forget anytime soon.

Ethan's only grown more resolute in his decision to stay in the class, regardless of the near failing grades he's receiving on almost every assignment. Michael gives him passing grades sometimes, probably not wanting to risk being too obvious. Yeah, great job there. I can't be positive but I think Ethan is starting to build a case against him, starting to compile evidence of Michael giving him poor grades out of spite. I truly don't know how he plans on proving that, but I'm assuming that's where my testimony comes in. Correction: the testimony he's never going to get from me.

Ethan has begun asking my friends to convince me to "do the right thing" and go after Michael but even they know it's a lost cause, rolling their eyes and woefully shaking their heads at him when he brings it up.

—

"Iris Lund?" My name is called from the back of class and everyone cranes their neck to see why I'm so lucky to get called out of class. A short brunette girl with glasses wearing one of the vests from the front office is holding a slip.

I raise my hand awkwardly and she turns her attention to me.

"What's this about?" Michael intervenes from where he stands at the front of the class, and I try not to cringe.

"Uh, she's needed at the principals office," Without fail as I stand up the class does their classic "ooooh" and snickers.

As I get up to follow her she stops me.

"You might wanna bring your things with you," She gestures toward my backpack and notebook on the desk and I gulp as I realize what that means. This is gonna take a while.

"You mind if I see that slip?" Michael asks as he makes his way to the girl as I pack up my things. I glance around to see most students have broken off into conversation, oblivious to the incident occurring right now. Bianca, Hayden and Ethan have their eyes glued on me, however. I smile at them reassuringly, even though I can feel the grips of panic rising in my stomach.

"Uh, sure," The girl stammers, glancing awkwardly back at me before looking to her shoes. He snatches the note from her hand, reading it over quickly. I doubt it says much on it, probably just my name and the room number. I'm not really sure what he was expecting to find, but he was more than likely looking for some excuse to get me to stay.

"Everything satisfactory?" I ask smugly as I shrug my backpack over my shoulder, joining him and the girl by the door. His eyes are flashing warning signs but I ignore it, brushing past him and following her out.

We don't talk the majority of the long walk to the front of school, and I try supremely hard to ignore the buzzing in my pocket. I'm not sure who's blowing up my phone but it doesn't take a detective to figure it out.

"So what's this about?" I finally pry but she doesn't look back, instead she glances down to her fingers as she picks at her nails anxiously.

"I'm really not sure," She looks back at me knowingly, affirming that she does - in fact - know something, "Sorry,"

My anxiety starts to get the better of me as we enter the main office and as we round the corner and check in, I notice a hush fall over the room, eyes looking to me.