Unexpected Rendezvous

Chapter 40

Leigh's POV

Amid Swirling Rumours, Embattled Charlton Teacher Resigns.

I sit at my kitchen table on Saturday morning, almost a month after Coach Purcell tried to kill me in Andre's garage, staring at the headline on London.com and wondering if I'll ever get used to being a swirling rumour.

I thought it was cut-and-dried, what happened between Andre and me. But the only thing he'll admit to is becoming "overly close" with me, to the point of exchanging text messages and seeing me outside of school. He turned over his phone to investigators, and when I read back through our messages to brace myself for what they'd be seeing, I realised how careful he always was. I come off like a lovesick teenager, which to be fair, I was, and Andre comes off like a caring but ultimately boundary-respecting adult.

My parents believe me though. One hundred percent, and they're furious.

Mum sits across from me with a steaming mug of coffee, wearing the kind of thoughtful look that tells me she's carefully gauging my reaction to the article. "I can't believe they let predators roam around like they're innocent," she finally says.

That's what she keeps calling Andre, and even though I resisted the term at first, I get it now. Especially the way he keeps twisting the truth to suit the image of himself that he's trying to present: the helpful witness, relieved and grateful to finally be away from his domineering ex-fiancé, doing everything he can to make up for her crimes.

"At least he resigned," I say.

For a while, my Mum and Dad talked about bringing corruption-of-minor charges or something similar against Andre. Maybe that's the right call, but the idea of having our relationship dissected even more than it already had been horrified me so much that they backed off. Ultimately, at least for now, they decided to focus on getting his teaching degree revoked. Charlton High had already suspended him, pending investigation, when he quit.

I read through the article again, but there's nothing much new there. Andre has admitted that he was having multiple affairs while engaged to Coach Purcell, but he's refusing to give names, and since they're not involved in the investigation, police aren't forcing him. So I guess we might never know who J is, and I remind myself that I'm okay with that.

Mum frowns, wrapping her hands around her coffee mug. "I know he's providing the police with valuable information, but I wish that wasn't quite as much of a shield as it's turning out to be," she says.

I don't answer, because I could really use a subject change. We've already discussed this at length. Multiple times. And while I appreciate her support, both my parents have been great, considering how much I lied to them, sometimes I need a break from being part of the news cycle. I flick the article away and pull up my messages, opening one that Perrie sent at 2 o'clock in the morning. "Did you know, the average person spends six months of their life waiting for red lights to turn green?" I ask Mum.

She accepts the conversational shift with a smile. "Is that a Perrie factoid?"

"It is." She's sending them to me constantly again, which I enjoy. I send her back panels of my latest web comic, The Shittiest Day Ever, which is by far the darkest, angriest, most emotional thing I've ever created. It's also, at least according to Perrie, the best.

"It's nice to see you reconnecting with your old friends," Mum says, taking a long sip of coffee. "And making new ones."

I wasn't sure how people would treat me when I went back to school that first week after being released from the hospital. Whether I'd be viewed as a hero for making it out of the garage alive, even though I got my arse kicked in the process, or a weirdo thanks to Andre's denials about what happened between us. I found out pretty fast when I walked down the hallway towards my form room and a couple of lads in my class started singing "Hot for Teacher" at the top of their lungs. Everyone laughed, and my face burned with the realisation of just how much the rest of my last year was going to be shit. Then I felt an arm sling around my neck.