The Teacher's Pet

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kat Claire:
The weekend has never passed so quickly, I spend almost all weekend in bed with James. The most perfect weekend I have had in a while. I thought I would just have to push through this weekend to get to Monday and finally go back to school. But actually, I wish that this weekend would've lasted longer. This whole weekend I didn't have a single moment alone, meaning I didn't have to spend a single second being trapped in my thoughts.
I wish that I could spend more time in James's arms. Reading my favorite book while he just stares at me and brushes his fingers through my hair. Or taking a nice, warm, but way too long shower together. When I was younger, I thought these things only happened in movies, and now my life has turned into one of those movies. If I could, I would ask this boy to marry me already, but that's too soon, he would say no for sure, we've only been together for a week now. But if it was only me, I would have planned our wedding already.
The whole car ride Tyler hasn't stopped talking about how happy he is that his eldest brother got a girlfriend, he thought James would end up lonely in the streets, or worse, he wouldn't ever get to feel emotions, but now that he is with me, Tyler has never seen James feel more.
Tyler told me how happy he was that James finally asked for his help. Because he is 22 he is still too young to be doing what he says 'the real deal' in the society.
He also told me that there are 2 other brothers, but according to Tyler, 'they're idiots', it sounded more like a jealousy issue to me than an actual family issue. Besides all Tyler's talking, he seems like a really cool person, James picked out the exact right person to go to school with me today.
Now in class, Tyler doesn't sit directly next to me, just close enough that if Liam would try anything, Tyler would be able to get to me first.
James has been having a close eye on him for the past couple of days. He says he hasn't shown up all week, but if he got any light that I would be coming to school today, he would come too. And clearly, he heard something from someone, because he is here, very present, and only a couple of chairs away. It's hard to keep my attention in class with someone who keeps looking at me very creepily.
The ringing of school bells in my ears brings my attention back to earth. Liam is the first person to get up, me and Tyler are the last. He told me to get up at last so he could keep a better eye on me between all these students, so I obey. Everything for my safety.
Directly in the cafeteria, my friends are sitting together at a table, all 3 of them. I can't help but feel bad, they look so happy all 3 together without me, did they even miss me at all?
My question gets answered immediately when Hazel runs up to me, screaming in a high tone and hugging me until the air gets pushed out of me. Next are Mary and Cassidy.
"Oh my God, where have you been girl?! We were so worried! You can't just disappear like that for a whole week and leave us worried sick!" Mary is rambling on, but then her mouth falls shut before dropping open to the floor, her eyes fall upon Tyler. The pale face after seeing me is long gone, replaced by the cutest bit of blush. Suddenly, all the questions she was so desperate to get her answers to, have disappeared into thin air. But I know the questions will get back to me after school. I will have to explain every single word over a coffee, and I am more than willing to. The time I spend with my girls is the most valuable time that I can get. I'm glad to spend the rest of the night with them talking about James and everything that happened.
"Who's that?" She then says to Tyler standing next to me. "Please don't tell me he is your boyfriend." She whispers in a tone so only I can hear it. I just shake my head and say nothing so I don't have to embarrass her.
Mary looks like her head is about to have an explosion and nothing can save her from this hopeless doom.
"Believe it or not, my hearing is better than most human beings, but no, I am not her boyfriend. My brother is though, I'm Tyler, nice to meet you." He holds out a friendly hand to Mary, which she shakes, her hands are completely trembling, I bet they're sweaty too. This brings a slight laugh above in me.
"I'm Mary." She says after she starts repeating the name Tyler a million times in her head.
Cass lifts her eyebrows in full surprise. "I'm guessing that's why you were so absent this whole week, you were just hooking up with that boyfriend of yours." There is some truth in that, but not the whole truth. "Come on, spill it, who is it?" To my surprise, they can't guess James is the brother of Tyler, even though Tyler looks a lot like James.
"You guys are not going to be happy about this one." I don't even have to say his name, the disappointment is visible on their faces.
"No, don't say his name."
I look everywhere in the cafeteria, everywhere but at the faces of my friends. They must be pale, full of shock, complete terror, anger maybe.
Confusion speaks the whole bible on Tyler's face, he probably forgot he is just here to protect me and not to hold conversations with my friends when he says. "Why not? What did he do?"
"He," Cassidy starts,
"Was her teacher, he made her so upset for 9 whole days, and then she just disappeared, we are not the biggest fan of him." Mary finishes, giving Cass a dirty and jealous look. Mary has never acted this way about a guy.
"Hopefully your minds change soon, because James, he has changed so much since Kat."
"We will have to see him again someday right?" Hazel speaks, it earns her 2 dirty looks from Cassidy and Mary. It's clear they don't want to meet him again.
"I'll see if he has time," I say specifically to Hazel.
"Fine, if you want to be with an idiot like mister Levine, be my guest, bring him around for our girl dates too." Mary usually doesn't get upset over these things, but this kind of upset sounds more like jealousy than anything.
"Mary, are you... Jealous?" Her cheeks burn bright red, revealing the answer beneath. She pricks her fork into her food, twisting and turning it a bit, trying to find a way out of this conversation.
It's very obvious she is jealous of the fact that I am the first in the group to get a boyfriend, asides from Hazel and her online relationships on Tinder, I don't count those. So I will forgive Mary for being so angry out of nowhere. A sweet smile is what I give her.
"You'll find someone soon enough girl, don't you worry," I tell her with a wink, pointing to Tyler in the slightest way so he doesn't notice. This makes her even more embarrassed, she's red like a tomato. bringing a laugh to my breath.
"I'm going to the bathroom real quick, save a plate of food for me will you?" Hazel nods, I only expected her to nod. Hazel is like the mom of our group, always making sure every single one of us gets enough food.
Tyler stands up to go with me, James told him to follow me everywhere, but does that mean the bathroom too? A bit of privacy is allowed, right?
"Tyler, I appreciate you wanting to do your part of the deal with James, but I'm just going to the bathroom, he..." I make sure not to say his name, but I do look in Liam's direction. "Is sitting right over there, the bathroom is just down the hall, I'll be fine."
There is a long doubting silence, but when his eyes meet Mary, his interest has turned from me to her and I can slip away easily.
Being alone in these large hallways feels unsafe somewhere, but it reminds me of old times. Back at the school, I have been at for 4 years now. And it's my last year here, I am going to miss it here too. But I will go to the hospital and have plenty of memories there too.
A firm hand grabs the back of my neck, cold thin fingers squish my neck, multiple muscles twist as the grips tightens. My first reflex is to turn around, I don't even have to guess who it is. There is only one person who is out to get me right now.
Dammit! Tyler didn't pay attention to where Liam might be going and now he is right in front of me. All of his 6-foot frame standing tall in front of me. The look on his face is deadly and murderous, I know for a fact he is about to kill me. But I can't scream, I want to, please let me scream for help. But I stay frozen in place.
Liam's hand switches from the back of my neck to the front. The pain gets more intense, tears form in my glassy eyes, from the fear and I hope that someone would pass through this hallway now. But of course, as luck would have it, not a single person to be found.
My back hits the lockers, one of the locks burns a bruise in my back, but that's not the thing that hurts the most right now, it's the tight grip around my neck. The grip that causes me to lose my breath. Getting tighter every second, my breath fades away more and more, fear arises. I thought this guy was in love with me once, I thought James was the guy he was mad at not me, I thought all wrong.
I am not as safe from Liam as I thought. James was right, Liam is dangerous.
"Liam..." I manage to get out, but barely, I'm not even sure he hears it.
"No, not Liam." His voice is awfully calm, making this situation even scarier for me.
"And I know what your people did to my brother! That is exactly why. I'm here for revenge." His grip tightens and no more air passes through my body. My vision is starting to blur and dizziness takes over every bit of my body.
How stupid that I was not to think about the fact that Liam could have a twin brother. I should've believed James when he said Liam was dead, now I'm going to be dead in the next 20 seconds.
"Listen, I'm sure we can work something out." Is what I can get out before my vision is fully black.
My body is still on earth, I still hear every tone of his voice, but my vision is all black.
"I will do the same to you that your boyfriend did to my brother!"