He's My Teacher!

Chapter 15-Angel

Chapter 15

Darrel and I are sitting in an old diner having a very awkward dinner. He seems to be treating me like a frightened animal as if he says the wrong thing I will run for it. I could no longer take the silence that has plagued us since he picked me up.

“So Keith seems like an alright kid,” I said hoping to prompt a conversation from him.

“Yeah, he is a great kid. Had to grow up way to fast but he is responsible and trustworthy if not an ass from time to time,” he said like a proud parent.

“You guys seem close,” I prompted again.

“We are very close. He even lived with me for a little while when I was in college,” he told me.

“I thought he was younger than you?” I questioned.

“Yeah he is. I didn’t live on campus and he needed a place to stay when his parents kicked him out so he crashed with me until he got a job and money for his own place,” he said while his expression took a far off look. He continued on telling me about how he has tried to help Keith along with everything so he didn’t end up on the streets or in with bad people. It gave me a new sense of awe about who he is as a person. After he paid we were walking to the car when opened my door for me I smiled and then he slammed it shut before I could even take a step towards it. I looked up at him in confusion.

“I have been dancing around the subject all night and I won’t do it anymore. The girl I danced with the other night is nothing more than a friend. I have known her for years and never has anything remotely romantic occurred between the two of us. Me going to dance with her was so dumb because I didn’t even consider your feelings about being there with no one other than my friends. But the two of us always dance together when we all go out more so because we usually are the only ones without partners than anything else,” he said nervously but not as desperate as he had been at his house.

“Okay,” I said not sure what to say to him.

“I was a drunk, stuttering, blubbering idiot at my house but I am sober now and I will not be so desperate as to grovel like I did before. I want you to forgive me and if I have to work for it I damn sure will but I won’t be a pansy about it again,” he said. At first I was angered that he said this but I stopped myself to really think about why he would say this. In my opinion he was saying this last part to try and repair his macho image to me; show me he is a manly man. To be honest with myself I knew that the alcohol in his system had a lot to do with the sniveling he had done that morning so I decided to try to appease his ego this one time.

“Could we talk about this in the car?” I asked. He looked even more nervous and he actually looked like he regretted his last words. As he got in the driver’s side I decided to put him out of his misery.

“I forgive you,” I said simply. He let out a sigh of relief and if I had not carefully been waiting for that I would have laughed out loud at the relief on his face.

“That easily?” he asked looking skeptical at the ease of my forgiveness.

“Well to be up front about it, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It pissed me right off so don’t think it didn’t hurt because it did. If you had kissed her or slept with her than you could grovel and beg all you wanted and it wouldn’t have made a difference. If I had known the people we were with it wouldn’t have mattered that you went off to dance with a friend just as if I would drag Keith out on the dance floor, ya know,” I told him. When I mentioned dragging Keith to the dance floor he got a heard edge to his expression, good now he knows how I felt. “And Darrel,” I posed. He looked to me.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Don’t make me regret this,” I said with finality.

“Not a chance in hell Lynnie,” he said smiling at me.