A Forbidden Finale (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

No matter how tired my body had been, I hadn't had a good night's sleep by any stretch of the imagination and I'd been paying for it all day. Liliana had had to poke me out of my sleep-deprived trances every five minutes and it was lucky that I'd been in two out of three lessons with her, otherwise I'd probably have been back on my way to Newcastle for sleeping in class.

At lunchtime, Amber sent me plenty of smug looks that I had to hold my tongue on responding to. I didn't bother explaining to Liliana what had happened—the embarrassment was too much to handle. Amber also hadn't told anyone what had happened; she'd probably have gotten into trouble, even if she was the golden girl.

My arms and stomach bore the dull pain of the bruises sustained last night and every now and then when I leant forward in my tired haze I'd bash them against the table. I was surprised I'd had enough perception to hold in my groans every time it happened.

Someone in my dorm had reported the broken beam today, now that my things had had time to dry, and the school would never know why exactly the beam had broken.

For once, I really wasn't in the mood to go to my ballet lesson with Mr. Langley. We didn't have a normal lesson during the daytime, so I had no idea whether my body could cope with this. I was tired and miserable and I really didn't want to end up antagonising Mr. Langley now it seemed like we'd reached some kind of truce.

I walked through the door with a scowl on my face that hopefully warned him that he should be wary.

"You okay?" He checked, pulling a face at my face. "You look rough."

I scowled harder. Commenting on the fact I was looking particularly grotesque today was never the best way to cheer me up. "I'm knackered."

"We don't have to have the lesson if you don't want." He shrugged with a small smile. Of course he wanted to get out of it at all costs.

"No, that's quite all right. I am here to learn, as always."

Mr. Langley nodded and we were down to business. I wondered if he had real conversation with anyone. "Let's start where we left off yesterday, then."

It was the combination he'd praised me on, but I knew I wasn't going to be hitting the same standard as yesterday. Still, I followed his instructions and tried not to let my addled brain get too distracted as he demonstrated the movements himself and expected me to copy.

At some point, we'd dance together.

It was the natural progression of the lessons, it had to be. He'd teach me the basic moves and then he'd teach me choreography. At some point, I was going to have to learn to dance in a partnership.

Thoughts like that were what kept me going even as my body begged me to stop. My back was in some serious pain after sleeping at an awful angle in my desk chair last night and Mr. Langley didn't hesitate to point out that I needed to stand straighter.

I bore the pain of keeping my posture and hoped my jaw wasn't grinding too much in pent up anger. Amber was going to pay for this. There had to be some way to make her pay. It was some fuel to make my way through this agonisingly long hour and a half session, anyway.

"Good," Mr. Langley praised again after I repeated the combination a few more times. "Not quite as good as yesterday, but I'll let you off since you're so knackered." He mocked my accent and I found myself holding back a smirk. It was as close to teasing as I'd ever seen him come before. Maybe I was cute when I was sleep deprived. That would be a fortunate turn of events. "Let's try something different."