BARE SOULS: A STEAMY TEACHER/STUDENT ROMANCE

CHAPTER 27 | HARPER

I don't even know why those tears that I held and hid for so many years started flowing so easily in his presence.

I didn't want him to see. I didn't want him to know. But it just happened. Even though I was mad at him for having sex with someone else than me. Even if I hated his guts for not even feeling bad that I ended up finding out. I still cried on his shoulder like a little girl. Immature. Desperate. But his arm holding me against him and hearing him whispering repeatedly "it's OK... It's OK" to my ears was the most soothing gesture someone ever did since my life dramatically changed.

I finally dried these stupid tears and calmed down a bit after a good minute. "I'm sorry..." I wiped the remaining tears off and moved away from his arms. "I didn't mean to cry... Sorry" I kept apologizing.

He looked at me, and moved a strand of hair from my face. "Don't apologize..."

    "No... I mean... It's really embarrassing. You probably think it was completely immature and..."

    "No..." He interrupted. "I'm not thinking anything like that..." He said without looking away. "I kind of felt there was sadness inside of you... In the way you write. In the way you always seem lost in your thoughts... When I read your last piece... To be honest, it kind of surprised me"

I looked at him, puzzled.

    "It was... It was deep, Harper. Like a powerful and deep pain that is eating you from inside. That's how I felt when I read it. And what surprised me is the fact that I never saw that pain in you outside of your texts... Ever"

I smiled. Yeah... I was always good at pretending. Of course he wouldn't see it.

     "What I'm saying is... Bottling up whatever pain you have inside won't ever make it go away... That pain... It will only keep growing and growing... Until one day it gets so big that you will not be able to handle it..."

Yeah... Well... It was hurting less to keep it inside than to actually talk about it.

     "I... I'm not bottling anything... I'm OK. Whatever I wrote was just... Just memories... That is not how I feel now..."

He looked at me, dubious. "Then why these tears then?" He said while softly rubbing my cheek, still a little humid.

     "I... I just had a bad week... This have nothing to do with that..." I lied.

    "Yeah?" He asked, clearly showing he didn't believe a word I said.

    "Yeah..." I said while looking away.

He smirked, which was clearly not reassuring.

I heard him smile and after a few endless seconds of silence, he said "Then, tell me about your parents, Harper... I wanna know about them"

My heart stopped. My body froze. My muscles stiffened and the air suddenly got thick. No... He had no rights to play that card... Absolutely no rights. Because it was not fair... Because he already knew the reason I was crying earlier was about that subject I didn't want to mention.

I looked at his smiling face. He knew it... He knew that he already won... And I hated him for that. I hated him for even mentioning my parents...

I lowered my head, trying to catch some air... Inhale... Exhale out... Everything will be alright...

   "Why suddenly so silent?" He added as to hurt me even more.

Horrible... Unfair... Rotten... That's all I could think about him. The only person who was able to make me feel better suddenly turned into the only person who could also make me feel worse.