Under His Roof

chapter eleven

"Melitta!" Kimberly ran to her side as soon as she saw her laying in the hospital bed. "Oh my gosh I'm so glad you're okay."

Melitta's eyes grew wide when she saw Kimberly and she sat up in her bed with surprise written clearly on her face. "Kimberly, what are you doing here? I thought you couldn't come to Miami."

Kimberly leaned down and hugged her. "Yeah, I came down just this morning actually." She said.

"With Mr. Millionaire?"

Kimberly could hear the smile in Melitta's voice and she pulled away, rolling her eyes and muttering a small 'maybe'. Melitta wiggled her eyebrows suggestively making Kimberly groan. "Wow, even on a hospital bed you can't keep it pg."

Melitta shrugged. "What can I say? It comes naturally to me, besides I've wanted to meet this man ever since you first talked about him...Julian, right?"

Kimberly pulled the chair closer and sat on it, folding her arms across her chest. "Yes, it's Julian."

"Is he out there?" She pointed to the door.

Kimberly shrugged. "Yeah,  do you wanna meet him?"

"The notorious sex god that got my roommate whipped?" Melitta teased her, "Why of course."

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly got up and walked over to door, peeking her head out. She saw Julian leaning on the wall across from Melitta's room and she motioned for him to follow her inside. Julian chuckled as he walked over to her, "I thought you were doing everything you could to keep us from meeting."

Kimberly laughed, "I think she's on meds, I doubt she'll do anything too crazy right now."

As they entered the room again, Kimberly gasped when she saw Mr. Martinez standing next to Melitta, speaking quietly as he pushed the hair from her face. Kimberly was stunned as she looked at him, he was wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans, such casual clothes, not the kind she ever thought she'd be seeing her teacher in. He looked like a different person, not the smart professor she knew from school, he looked more relaxed and frankly, it felt weirder than she could have even anticipated. 

Obviously she had a feeling that they'd bump into each other over the few days, but actually being in the room and now knowing that he was aware she knew of his relationship with Melitta was so weird. How was she gonna go back to school and act like nothing ever happened?

When he saw Melitta looking their way he turned around and gave Kimberly a forced smile. "Hello Miss VanStromme." He said.

Kimberly looked down and muttered a small 'hey', silently wishing she could disappear from the room and re-appear back at her house. 

Melitta's jaw dropped slightly as she looked at Julian with a smile on her face. "I thought you said he was thirty-one?" She asked Kimberly, raising an eyebrow at her.

"He is." Kimberly said, and the same time Julian said, "I am." They looked at each other, chuckling slightly before Julian stepped forward and reached out a hand to greet Melitta. "Julian Carter," He said, "nice to meet you."

She shook his hand, still looking suspiciously between him and Kimberly. "Uh huh, you too..."

"So Mr. Martinez," Kimberly said, looking awkwardly at her teacher, "Where did you come from?"

"He's been in the bathroom." Melitta said, "There's lots of kids out there, Kim. They came to visit me so he can't just be walking around or sitting bedside."

"Well then why didn't you just not tell anyone about this whole thing? That way he could be out here with you instead of in the bathroom."

"Kimberly, there was an ambulance, people saw it and just came."