Ecie & Esme III: Forever and a Day

Seven

'So what's been going on with you?' Holly asked as she and Ecie walked back to Chêne de Pois from Starbucks.

'School and work pretty much,' Ecie replied. 'I don't really have time for anything else. I've been spending so much time in the library recently.'

Holly nodded. 'You've been going home like every weekend.'

'Yeah,' Ecie nodded. 'It's so good being able to go home. When was the last time you went back?'

'I can't remember,' Holly replied. 'I honestly don't have the time to go back as often as I'd like. The store is my life and I'm just so busy.'

Ecie nodded. 'Has Kyra been to the Bu?'

'Oh yeah,' Holly grinned. 'She loves it out there. You should see her paddling in the sea and everything, it's so cute.'

'Aww,' Ecie said. 'She is so adorable.'

Holly nodded. 'So is there any news on the guy front from you? I remember a time when your love life was in a pickle.'

'Oh,' Ecie laughed. 'I think times have improved since then.'

'So no guys for you?' Holly asked looking at Ecie. 'Be honest.'

'Well,' Ecie said grinning. 'There is this one guy...'

'Oh yeah,' Holly laughed. 'Tell me more.'

'I don't even know where to start,' Ecie said sucking her bottom lip. 'It's like I've never felt this way about any guy I've been with before. I mean I've always loved my other boyfriends and stuff, but I think I'm actually in love with this guy. It's so crazy; I can't stop thinking about him and our future and everything.'

Holly nodded understandable. 'What are you going to do?'

'I don't know,' Ecie said looking down at her cup. 'The relationship is kind of complicated because we shouldn't really be together.'

'Oh?'

'He's thirty,' Ecie gulped. 'And he's my professor at college.'

Holly stared at Ecie with her mouth open. 'Oh Ecie, honey.'

'I know,' Ecie said sadly. 'It's totally doomed.'

'You're not supposed to get involved with your teachers,' Holly said. 'You're only supposed to sleep with them so they'll bump your grades up.'

'Well we met in Palm Springs while I was still at Malibu Crest and it was right after everything with Ellis,' Ecie replied. 'I don't know, Carole told me not to meet any guys, but I guess Landon just found me.'

'What's it like in class?'

'Completely normal,' Ecie replied. 'Sometimes I feel like it's just a total slap in the face because he doesn't grade my papers properly and either picks on me constantly or he'll completely blank me. This one time he embarrassed me so much in class because I didn't know the answer to a question he had asked. To make things worse, he'd even said the answer before he had asked the question, but I was spaced out. He started laughing and so did the rest of the class.'

'That must suck,' Holly said sympathetically. 'It must be really hard trying to get the balance with everything. Do your parents know?'

'Yeah,' Ecie sighed. 'Dad said I should be honest about it and mom just sympathized with me for falling for him too.'

'Does Lauren know?' Holly asked. 'You're both in the same class, right?'

'She doesn't know,' Ecie replied. 'I want to tell her, but it'd be so weird because she's turned out to be my best friend out here. I don't want to alienate her.'