Dream Catch Me (Student/Teacher)

Dream Catch Me - Chapter Thirty Nine

Well this is a little awkward... I was having some difficulty with wattpad's app where I write, and it was deleting some of my work after I saved it. I had written something important at the end of chapter thirty seven, but it had been deleted. I went back and rewrote it, so if you wanted to go back and read the small paragraph it would be good!

Anyway! Hope you enjoy this chapter and will vote and comment to let me know!

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"Alex!" I squealed out of fright. Joe had broken away from our kiss as soon as he heard Alex shout so loud the party guests would've heard. Alex stood there fuming as Joe and I stayed close to each other on the couch. I refused to move away from him. Joe subtly reached for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Alex started to rant, and nearly every party guest trawled up the stairs to see what the drama was. "I was okay for this to happen!" He started shouting, gesturing wildly towards Joe and I. "For goodness sake! I even told you to go for it Jane, but after what I just heard from Wes, there is no way I would've let this happen." He stuck his head in his hands and took a deep breath.

"Joe! You're her teacher, how can you do this when you know it it's wrong? Come on, tell me!" Alex's voice was gradually getting louder and louder to the point where I knew everyone was listening. Finally Joe stood up and faced Alex and the rest of the guests. "Have you ever had that feeling in the pit of your stomach? The one that never goes away but always gets more intense whenever that someone is around?" I saw the guests, Fletch and Jaz look at each other and Alex glance slightly to his side to where Ellie stood. He didn't answer though, so Joe continued.

"You know what I'm talking about. You try to ignore it, move on, but it seems the more you try to do that, the stronger the feeling gets. That's what it is. That's this feeling I get whenever I see Jane. Whenever she walks into my class, it's as if my day is just ten times brighter. Like she is the light I need." Joe's words were bringing tears to my eyes. I had never thought that he felt like that. When I had that feeling I had just assumed he didn't feel like that, like I was really just another one of his students. Joe was becoming animated and allowed his emotions to pour out with his words.

"I tried to stay away! I swear Alex. But without her I felt awful, and I knew what I was doing was wrong. But it was that deep feeling within me, that even now I can't explain that forced me to kiss her. Yes, Alex. I'm her teacher. I teach her about the relief patterns of China, and I teach her about the urban settlement patterns! But I forgot all about that when she was around. And I don't think I can let her go." Joe finished his speech and I watched as I saw Jaz wipe a tear from her eye, as did Fletch. There were comforting and encouraging smiles around the room, except for Alex.

His was still angry. Even from where I was on the couch I could feel it. Finally he took a deep breath and spoke. "Joe, Jane is my little sister and I'll admit I haven't been the best big brother. But I'm trying now, and because we're out of home I am her guardian for now to up until she leaves high school. I can see what 'that feeling' can do to you, but you have to know what you're doing is wrong. Jane, you can't see Joe until he's not your teacher any more."

I gasped and put my hand over my mouth. "But-"

"No buts Jane. Even you have to know that some of this is wrong. He's your teacher and if you knew any other teachers going out with their students, you'd feel like I am now. Just please, for me, please wait." Silence filled the air, as a tear slipped down my cheek. I thought back to when I first saw Mr Lewis and Shannon together and how wrong I knew it was. I was willing to forget about it with the exception of love, but I doubted anyone else would do the same fI wiped it away and tried to compose myself. Taking a deep breath, I said the word that would kill me for the next couple of months.

"Okay."

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I'm not going to lie. It was hell. Absolutely hell on Earth. Joe and I stayed faithful to our promises to Alex and didn't spend any time together that wasn't under Alex's supervision with our discussions about the shop, and wasn't in class time. It was worse in class time.

Joe wouldn't give me those glances he had before, and wouldn't talk to me unnecessarily. It seemed like he thought I was too much effort and dropped me all together. After one particular last period of geography, I had gone home and cried. We were doing a class activity where each student had to speak aloud, but when he came to me, he purposefully skipped me and continued on to Jaz. If it weren't for Jaz, who knew everything and could see that pain he was causing, if she didn't raise her hand and demand that I had a go, in a way that the class wouldn't understand, he would've never thought about it again.

I clenched my teeth and spoke through the pain, not once glancing up to look a Joe. I had to know what was going on, and what his problem was. Did he decided it was too hard? Too much effort to wait two months until school ended? These thought raced around and around in my head, and situations that I never wanted to think of again, of Joe suddenly hating me, all lead to the tear that spilled onto my pillow. I had raced up the stairs and thrown myself down on my bed. I muffled my quiet sobs into the pillow, until I felt like I couldn't cry anymore.

I had never been much of a crier, the insults and name-calling all hardened me up after a year or two and I got used to being called 'fat'. They meant nothing to me and I didn't spend any time I didn't have to crying over it. But it seemed that as soon as a male messed with my heart, that was all it took for it to crack slightly and the waterfall to start. That night Joe was supposed to come over and I couldn't bear to let him see my with red puffy eyes and a quivering lip.

I had to snap myself out of it. I dragged myself off the bed and across the lounge where Ellie and Alex sat engrossed in some television program. I shut the door quietly and fetched a washcloth from the drawer and splashed the icy cold water from the tap onto it. It felt cold on my hands, and as I lay down in the empty bath and placed it over my red yes, I knew it would help in ridding the redness.

Unfortunately, being in that bathroom reminded me of the horror of the night of my party just over a week ago. After Alex had made me promise not to see Joe I had sulked into the bathroom and closed the door, locking it so no one could come in. I listened through the door as I sat there still in shock, as each guest left. I heard Jaz explaining the situation to Fletch and heard as he grumbled his confusion. It was hard to process everything that happened that night.

I had gone from a nice birthday afternoon with Joe, to my party, to Joe kissing me with such emotion that as I sat there on the side of the bath, had made me reach up and touch my lips out of disbelief. I thought I had imagined it, thought I had made up the feel of his soft lips against mine, and the scratchiness of his stubble against my own chin. I knew I left my party too early, but could you blame me? The night was full of intensity and a level of it that I couldn't handle.

All week I had tried to distract myself, take my thoughts away from Joe. It seemed that not being able to have him, made me want him even more. It didn't make it any easier having Joe around almost every night to discuss the shop. Alex didn't notice anything different, to him it was just how it was before. Except only Joe and I noticed the differences; like how Joe wasn't joking around, he wasn't sticking around longer than he needed to and he definitely wasn't speaking to me where it wasn't necessary.

Distracting myself was hard. I had to throw myself into my studies and shopping for the shop. I spent time trawling through websites and buying chairs, tables, mug anything that we'd need. In one of our discussions one night, Alex and Joe had decided that they'd each put in $5000 to the decoration of the book cafe. Needless to say that after trying to distract myself from Joe, I had spent most of that money and was running low for the final piece to the store. Alex had talked to Dad again, who had offered more money, but Alex had kindly refused.

Our Dad had decided to back off, and let us be. He understood that both Alex and I had grown up and didn't need our father as much as we would've ten years ago. We had found out that he was a bit of a bachelor and had a name for sleeping around with the single or even taken females in the university.

Meanwhile, in only just over a week, builders and painters alike had been in and out of the shop sometimes making me think the door was a revolving door. But the rush was worth it, and now we were left with the shell that would be our shop. It two sky blue walls and exposed brick on the other two walls, and the floor the original dark hardwood. I loved the homely feel the shop had, and it was if I could still feel that good vibe from Walton's. June had been kept out of the build and was becoming poorly, but with everything I had ordered being delivered in the next couple of days, we had hoped June would be able to see it when we opened for the opening night party.

Wes had helped out with the business, sorting finances and helping to raise awareness and public curiosity around the new shop. All in all, through my disappointment and pain of Joe becoming distant, I had to power through and do what I had to do to finish. Finish school and finish the shop.

I got up from the bath and removed the cold cloth from my eyes, and sat up in the bath. I hated that I would have to face Joe in less than 20 minutes, and watch him not look at me, and watch him not talk to me. Except this time, I had something to say, something I knew he'd like. I left the bathroom and found Alex and Ellie still watching the tv, so I quickly skipped past them and back into my bedroom. I picked out my skinny jeans, and a tight long sleeve top.

I wasn't trying to dress up to impress him, but I knew it would give me some confidence if he would even glance at me. "Jane! Joe will be here soon.Come out and act like you haven't been in your bedroom all day!" he shouted from the lounge. I mumbled something incoherent back and put a little make-up on, brushing my eyes with a stroke of mascara.

I heard Alex open the door and the mumble of two men's voices. I exited my room and sat on one of the couches, and was shortly joined by Joe. There was no hello, but I saw from the corner of my eye a glance in my direction that lingered longer than I had expected. "So," Joe started. "This is the most important decision, we've had to make and obviously we've been putting it off to the very last minute. But we have to get it done before the opening, only three days away."

He was right, this is the one decision that could change the whole business. We each sat there in silence, before I spoke up. "Walton's." Both looked to me out of surprise of hearing me contribute to the discussion. Mostly I had stayed quiet and gone along with what the boys wanted structure wise, because I knew nothing of it. "You see, it was June's dream for the business to expand.So it makes sense that we keep it as Walton's. Plus it will have the good name from decades ago that will bring in more business."

Both Alex and Joe looked thoughtful and considered the idea. "Thanks Jane, that would mean a lot to Nan," Joe said. He looked straight at me and sent my heart aflutter. I cursed myself at how he could still make me feel like I could melt into a puddle at his feet. But all I was wondering was what he was thinking.

"That sounds good." Alex contributed. "So is that all we had to decide?" He asked. I thought and then nodded, "Yes, but I need you both to be here tomorrow at 9 AM because that's when everything is getting delivered. I made it so we could get everything done at once. That means we can then put everything in place and get the touch ups, the sign in and be all ready for Friday's party." I ha a lot of time on my hands after trying to to obsess over Joe, and I had organised everything down to the last minute.

Alex and Joe both seemed satisfied with my organisation and didn't have much to add. "What about this sign though?" Alex asked. "We need to get one made in the next two days? If I am correct it will take longer than that." After I had organised everything, I felt disappointed that I couldn't have thought about the sign.

"How about.." I trailed off trying to find a solution. "Wait! How about we just use the old sign? Dig it out from the storage and install it in the space between the two shops? It gives the shop more character and still ties to the old store!" By this time I was getting excited and Joe seemed to light up at the idea, it was something I knew he'd like.

"That would make Nan so happy." He commented thoughtfully.

"So it's settled," Alex said in finality. "Tomorrow I'll dig the sign out after practice and get Wes to help me put it up." It seemed all business had been settled and we were all left sitting in the lounge with nothing to talk about. Joe and I definitely weren't going to talk, and Alex was focusing on his beer.

"Well!" Joe suddenly said. "I better be off, I've got some marking to do." Alex wnced slightly at the mention of his teaching, but continued to drink from his beer."Jane, walk him out." he demanded. I huffed as I stood up and lead Joe to the door without a word. I walked down the stairs and through to the front of the shell of our shop. I opened up the front door as Joe walked through. Just s I was going to close it and lock it, he suddenly turned and said, "Thanks Jane."

He spoke solemnly, which made me think he wasn't just thanking me for walking him out, but for the name of Walton's. I smiled sheepishly but didn't say a word. I watched as he spun on his heel and walked away down the street towards his car. I sighed, relieved the awkwardness had ended. I trudged up the stairs and back into the apartment and found Alex right where I left him; still drinking his beer on the couch.

"Jane, I know it's painful. But you'll get through it. I'm sorry I'm doing this but I hope you'll thank me in the long run, when Joe isn't in prison or left without a job." I nodded sadly, slightly embarrassed Alex, of all people, had seen through the facade I was trying to hold up.

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Sorry, pretty boring chapter. Please vote and share!