"Taylor..."
Mr. Quinn pulls his car over into a lay-by I don't recognise and kills the engine. My heart is beating erratically and I'm not sure if it's due to my earlier encounter with Travis or the fact I'm in a car, in a lay-by with my teacher and he keeps looking at me in a way that makes my skin prickle
"I don't think I need to tell you how disappointed I am to find you in that position with Mr. Kelce after everything that was said between your father and I last week"
I stare out of the windshield and don't make eye contact and don't speak. Travis and I have nothing to do with anyone let alone a teacher at my school but Mr. Quinn seems determined to insert himself into my life so I stay quiet, hoping my silence will keep him out
"I just don't understand after everything he did, taking your virginity just so he had something to joke about with his friends, humiliating you... why would you throw yourself at him the very first opportunity you get"
He's looking across at me and it looks like anger moving over his face
"I didn't throw myself at anybody. He kissed me first" I close my eyes in frustration, wishing desperately I hadn't reacted, wishing I hadn't given him anymore information he could use against me
"He'll be back with his friends laughing at you as we speak. Have you learnt nothing Taylor? I thought you were smarter than this"
I want to ask what makes him think he knows anything about me at all. Up until last week we had never uttered a word to each other and now here he is with me in his car for the second time, following me on social media and becoming the only person my father seems to listen to when it comes to me or Travis
I say nothing. Just continue to stare straight ahead, hoping he will get bored with the one way conversation and take me home
"Look..." I hear him lighting a cigarette and the disgusting smell quickly fills the car causing me to cough loudly "Do you want one?" He asks and I shake my head furiously
"I just want to go home"
"Here's what I will do. I won't mention to your father what I just saw"
"Thank you!"
"If..."
I should have known it wouldn't be so easy
"You follow me back on Instagram"
What the hell?
"And you stop wearing that Goddamn tracksuit when you run in the mornings. Shorts and tank tops from now on, got it?" He winks and I feel my stomach roll and not in the good way, not in the way it did when Travis would wink at me but in a nauseous way. As though I'm being dragged into quicksand and there's no way out.
I nod and he laughs before throwing away his cigarette and then starting the engine.
"Come on, let's get you home before your dad finds out with a naughty little girl you have been.
-***************
I step out of the shower I have been stood under for the last 25 minutes trying to rid myself of the scent of cigarette smoke and clean the dirty feeling that has enveloped my body ever since I left Travis on the promenade.
I wrap a fluffy white towel around my body and then one around my hair and I head into my bedroom, ignoring my reflection in the mirror and sitting down on my bed and allowing my mind to try and process the events of the day.
Travis... my mind won't allow me to think past the feel of his lips and skin on mine. I wonder if it's normal to want another human being as badly as I wanted him in the moment, even after everything he had done.
Mr. Quinn was right, he will probably be laughing about it with his friends right now, as I sit thinking of all the ways he touched me in this very bed.
Mr. Quinn... my skin prickles again and that dirty feeling rolls through me.
'Shorts And tank tops from now on...'
I'm not an idiot, I know why guys want girls in skimpy outfits but he's my teacher...
The sound of my phone vibrating pulls me from my tangled thoughts and I reach over and pick it up.
2 missed calls and 1 text message from Travis.
I open the message and hold my breath as I read the words, unsure if he will be laughing that I fell for it so easily again or...
T: we still need to talk. Properly. No egos, no making out and definitely no dick head drama teachers. Let me know where and when and I will be there (okay, maybe some making out, but only after we talk)
I want to smile at the message but that voice in the back of my head screams at me not to be so stupid, he's just trying to fool me again and if I fall for it this time then I really am a fool.
I set my phone down and then remember my conversation with Mr. Quinn...
I pick it up, go to his Instagram profile and follow him back. Not long after he begins liking my more flirtatious pictures and i turn my phone off, scared at the way he's infiltrating my life and scared of my inability to stop him
