Chasing Miss Conner •OLD VERSION•

Twenty Five

|Song: Two Poor Kids By Ruth B.|

Twenty Five

My tears have been soaking through my pillow for the last hour but I didn't really care. How could things have gotten so messed up? How did she find out about us? I couldn't really wrap my head around the situation at the moment. I knew it was bad, and I knew my mom was most likely going to move us again. Which frankly terrified me. I loathed moving. I mean I loved seeing new places, but now that I've come here and met the people I have and actually lived, I never wanted to leave again.

I could hear Juliette and my mom yelling at each other downstairs and it only made me cry harder. Maybe I was stupid for allowing this to go on. Juliette was my teacher! Was I honestly naïve enough to believe that this can work? There will always be people who will look at us with disgust or disapproval. But as these thoughts tried to worm themselves into my head, I was reminded of the way she looked at me, the soft gentle kisses and sweet words. She really saw me. She didn't just see the awkward girl with the weird line down her chest, she didn't see me as a charity case, she saw me as someone she wanted to be with. She....wanted....me.

This high-class sophisticated woman with a career and life already planned out whereas mine was just beginning, wanted me. Perhaps that's why I felt the way I did. All these years I had been trying to shove it out of my head that my father had left me and never looked back, I had buried the pain so deep that I didn't think it'd existed anymore. For the longest time I wondered if there was something I could've done differently, I wondered if there was a way I could bring him back to us. I didn't understand. I blamed myself for being sick.

I still did.

Well, I was done. I was done feeling sorry for myself. I was done feeling hopeless and broken. Because I wasn't. I was strong and capable and no shriveled up stupid heart is going to mess that up. I will fight until I can't. I laid in bed for a while after my tears dried up, trying not to listen to the conversation below me while at the same time hoping my mom didn't smash my girlfriend's head in. Finally the sound ceased along with the slam of a door and I heard the quiet patter of footsteps on the stairs.

A timid knock sounded at the door. "Shay?" Juliette's voice sounded devoid of hope. I scrambled off the bed and hurriedly wiped at my face. I hadn't expected her, I'd expected my mother to come in and tell me she was calling the school and the police and moving us out of town to like, the Bermuda Triangle or something.

I threw open the door and immediately tugged her into my arms. "You're still here!" I breathed, burying my face in her neck. Her arms immediately came around me and I felt her release a sigh of relief and plant a kiss to the side of my neck. "I'm still here. Did you really think I'd leave?" I pulled back and looked at the ground. "Well for a minute there yeah. I thought she'd broken through you."

Her hair swung as she shook her head, her hands framed my face and pulled me to her gaze. Her warm blue eyes were full of adoration and determination. " No. I'm sure you heard, but we sort of went at it and I made sure she understood that my feelings for you weren't a joke or me trying to take advantage of you. She was extremely angry but after a while she actually calmed down quite a bit. I think I made it very clear that I was completely and utterly in love with you, and there is nothing she could do to me that would make me deny it or stop loving you."

My eyes burned at her fierce declaration. "Say it again." I demanded.

A smile spread across her face, filling the deepest parts of me with warmth and deepening her dimples. She pulled her face to mine and breathed a puff of air onto my lips. I held my breath in hesitation. "I. Love. You." She punctuated the end of each word with kisses that she placed all over my face. My lashes fluttered in ecstasy of the sound of those three words rolling off her lips.