His Revenge, Her Freedom

Chapter 22- 'I. Don't. Care'

"Oh, I know I'm going to Heaven, but I can't go with me like this

I need to pull myself together before then."

Liam POV

"What do you think he deserves, Em? Kick to the throat? Knee to the groin? Say the word, and I'll do it."

Whoever marries Maya will be in for a wild ride. The girl had such an odd personality; it was hard to tell what she was feeling at most times. Although right now, I had a pretty good sense of her feelings.

She loathed me.

"Don't you think you'll get into trouble for assaulting a teacher?" I asked her.

"Compared to how much you'll get into if the dean could see you right now?" She snorted with laughter, and I hated that she was right. I was completely in the wrong here. "Yeah, I think I'll take my chances."

Before I could even respond, although I hadn't thought of anything witty just yet, Ember came around the corner drying her hair with a towel with one hand and pulling down her shirt that read "I did not wake up like this" with the other. And, she looked pissed.

"Was my little conversation with you earlier unclear to you?" She dropped the towel and leaned against the wall, a comfortable distance from me. "Professor, I don't want to talk to you. And showing up on my doorstep past midnight? Highly inappropriate."

"Stop calling me that." I stepped into the apartment, ignoring Maya's protests. "I don't like you saying that."

"Saying what, Professor? What you are? My teacher? Why not? Does it remind you of the fact that I'm your student? Because I am. As you seem to point out every time we speak, this is inappropriate. Apparently like what I do for a living."

"Ember, stop." Her glare faltered when I took a couple of steps forward, but she quickly put it back up again. But, it was clear by her body language that she was aware of my presence. "Just give me a chance to explain."

"No. You already had your chance, and you showed me just how weak you are. I'm not doin-."

"Shut up!" Gasps came from both Maya and Ember, but I ignored them both. I was sick of her speaking to me any kind of way, and I was tired of feeling so powerless in her presence. "I wasn't asking. Let. Me. Talk." She opened her mouth to respond, but I backed her up against the wall, which silenced her immediately. Nice to know I wasn't the only powerless one. "I am sorry for what I said earlier today, Ember. Very. It wasn't nice for me to judge you because of what you do. I know that. The person that I was having lunch with today? His wife used to be a stripper. I have nothing against the profession."

"Oh! Okay." Something about that comment made her mad, but she was still backed against the wall. "So, you just have a problem with it because it's me?"

"No! And, stop interrupting me! That's why you're so pissed all the time. You hear what you want to hear, not the truth. I have a problem with why you're doing it. It just seems like you're doing it for fun rather than to live, like most strippers that I know of. Trinity did it and had to work another job on top of that just to make ends meet. You're a university student with not a lot of responsibilities at the moment. I just feel like you're taking money from the hard-working women that need it. It's a hobby of yours."

"But-."

"I'm not finished. You go to work everyday and are adored by tons of guys. Babe, I'm just one person. Why would you want one person when you could be loved by all of them?"

The air had gotten extremely thick in here, and Maya could tell. After looking back and forth between Ember and myself, she realized that we weren't going to kill each other at the moment, muttered that she was staying at her mum's tonight and walked out of the door.