First Crush, My Forever

Chapter 26

  "You heard me Danielle." Gripping my chin a little tighter, Chris leans in and roughly kisses my lips but I keep my lips closed tight. He pulls away laughing and I spit in his face as he lets go of my chin. He wipes my spit off his face and gets right in my face. "The choice is your Danielle. You have until tomorrow at noon to let me know your decision. If I don't hear from you by then I am emailing the pictures to the Dean. I already have his email address and you can keep those pictures since I have them on my phone."

  "I don't care if it's true or not, I will also tell the Dean that is the James girl in the pictures with you since you're close friends with her. I don't care if she gets kicked out but I know you would since she's your friend. I'm the only close friend you need now. You better choose wisely because you can't take care of a kid if you don't have a job." Chris walks away and heads to the door.

  I feel sick to my stomach as I hear the door close behind Chris as he leaves. I run a hand through my hair as I feel my eyes watering. This can't be happening... I was happy and happy I found someone then he had to ruin it. I actually wanted to talk with Taytum about us making this work and how we needed to be careful and strictly professional on campus.

  I glance at the pictures Chris left on the coffee table and suddenly it feels like I can't breathe. With a shaky hand I reach for one of the pictures. It's the one of Taytum and I actually kissing. My phone suddenly buzzes, pulling my attention from the picture. I pick my phone up and see it's a message from my mom. I open the message and see a picture of Kadence and my dad on the swings at the park. I smile at the picture and start typing. "She is having a blast. I need to ask a favor if it's no trouble. Can you and dad possibly keep Kadence the rest of the weekend and bring her back Monday morning? I'm coming down sick and I don't want her to get sick too."

  I feel so guilty for lying to my mom but I cannot be at my best right now for my daughter and I need to figure out what the hell I'm going to do. I stare down at my phone and see the typing bubble appear and wait on my mom's reply. "Of course we can keep her. I'm sorry you're getting sick and please let me know if you need anything. Definitely don't want my precious granddaughter to be sick too. Get you some medicine started and go to bed. Hope you get to feeling better soon and I will let Kadence know you are sick."

  I sigh and quickly reply, "thank you mom. Tell Kadence I love her and will miss her. Love you and dad and see you all Monday morning." I turn my phone on silent and set it on the coffee table. I lay down on the couch and practically curl up in a ball as I finally let the tears fall. Chris's words keep replaying over and over again in my head and I can't think about or do anything else but cry.

  Why do I have to have feelings for someone I shouldn't? I tried lying to myself when I first realized I found Taytum attractive. Everything about her is attractive, from her eyes, her lips, long legs, toned body and her tattoos. More importantly, the warmth and softness of her eyes every time she looks at me. Taytum's words alone have made me feel things I shouldn't feel. She is smart, generous, kind and the way she treats my daughter is what gets me the most and probably what really made me fall for her even more.

  Taytum is perfect and someone I have always been looking for. Come to find out, the right person was in front of me and now that I've had a glimpse of what life could be like with her, I don't want to lose her. I love Taytum and I don't want anything to happen to her. I also love my job and definitely need it. I have a house to take care of, bills to pay and more importantly, a daughter to take care of.

  My phone vibrates against the coffee table so I reach for it to see if it's important. When I look at the screen, I see it's a text message from Taytum and I realize I have been curled up on the couch crying for nearly an hour. I know this is all my fault and I was stupid for acting on my feelings especially at school. I let my want and need take over and look at what it's caused.

  I get up and head to the kitchen, grab a wine glass and the open bottle of wine then head back to the living room. I pour myself a glass of wine and quickly drink it then pour a second glass and sit down on the couch. I sit here in silence with my second glass of wine and my phone. I just stare down at the screen with the text message from Taytum just taunting me. I still haven't read her message even though I want to but I know she will probably say something that will pull at my heartstrings and I don't need that right now.

  I drink my second glass of wine, pour myself a third and quickly gulp it down. I grab the wine bottle to pour another glass but it's already empty since it wasn't a full bottle to begin with. I know gulping down three glasses of wine so quickly on an empty stomach was not the best idea but... what else was I supposed to do? I just wanted to escape and not think for a few minutes. I set my empty wine glass down on the coffee table then lay back down on the couch.

  I could talk to the Dean myself and tell him what happened. If I do that though, he will probably want to know who the student is and Taytum could still get into trouble or be kicked out. I could tell him and offer to resign if it would keep Taytum out of trouble but if I do that then I don't have a job which I need. I could look for another job but no school or university will be hiring in the middle of the school year.

  Maybe, just maybe if I talk to the Dean, offer to resign with nothing happening to Taytum in return, I could ask for severance pay. That would give me time to find a job even if it wasn't until next school year. That's if he would even give me severance pay after what I did. No, I can't go to jail because Taytum is 21 but it was ethically wrong and goes against university policy.

  I feel my eyes watering again as I grab my phone from the coffee table. With shaky hands, I unlock my phone and go to my text messages. A sob escapes me as I start typing my message then hit send without any more thoughts. I just hope I did the right thing. I let my phone fall out of my hands onto the floor and I curl back up as I start crying once again. I wish I would wake up tomorrow and this would have all just been a bad dream.

~Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been on here or been updating, life and work has just been extremely hectic. Hopefully everything has calmed down some for me and I will be able to update weekly again. Thank you all for hanging in there and being patient. 

~Eden Shay