You're Driving Me Crazy

The Dark Side

Edited: Carol opened her eyes as the alarm went on. 7:00, showed the clock. She shut it off in one smack of her hand, glancing at the body lying next to her. The body moved a bit with a light whimper, meaning the clock hadn't woken him up. She sighed of relief and lied on her back to just take a moment.

  The night had passed slowly, Carol not getting any sleep. She had spent most of her time just watching him; the body lying next to her. She couldn't remember how did she get there. Lying next to a man, whom she had spent years of her life with, frightened of him loosing his temper. He had a tough time though; long nights at the police department struggling with exhausting cases and Carol was his boxing heavy bag. She could only watch him sleep soundly, taking in all the pain, not just physically, but emotionally as well.

  She looked over at the alarm clock next to her one more time. 7:15 meant that she had to get ready for a school day. She pulled the sheets off of herself playfully, trying to not wake her husband. She got out of bed, watching him with every step she took towards the bathroom. She closed the door of the bathroom trying to take a deep breath; damn it!

She stared at her reflection in the mirror" You look like crap" She whispered.

  After failing at too many tries of getting a single deep breath, she changed into a leather pencil skirt, sitting perfectly on her body, and a V neck long sleeve red velvet blouse. She had her hair in a ponytail, did her light make up with smokey eyes, and opened the door carefully. Grabbed her coat and her stuff, and went out of the house.

The fresh air hit her warm face as she walked to her car. She sat in her car for a moment to let her thoughts go away."New day, new me!"

.....

  As she walked through the hallways to get to her room, she held her tough figure for any one who dared to pass her by. This was strange. The school made her forget about her life as a wife, she was becoming a new person.

As she reached at her door, she heard the principal calling her name"Good morning Mrs. Smith, How was your first day?" He had a wide smile.

"Pretty good." She said with a light smile, knowing what he meant by first day.

"That's awesome, I.. I need to get some hand in the interscholastic football games for the next week, could you ask your class?" He looked away to check something in the middle of the crowd.

"Sure." She responded. He gave her a light nod and walked to a group of students.

 She placed her hand on the door knob and suddenly a hand covered her hand. She knew those hands. She looked up at the gym teacher standing next to her with a smirk.

"Adam" She said with smirk on. "Hey Carol." She opened the door and entered, waiting for him to step in. As she got busy with her stuff, he glanced all over her body. That woman was something else. The tight pencil skirt sitting perfectly on her body, the v neck blouse showing her chest as her olive skin was showing off under the red velvet color.

He walked to her, examining her face, then her chest"The bruises have gone away"

"Uhum" She responded turning her back to him."Is he beating you again?" He asked quietly.

  She tried to breath deeply. He came to stand before her to face her" Answer me Carol!" His tone was a bit harsher."No, he stopped!" She answered calmly, with her husky voice."I knew it had worked" He walked around the room then grabbed a seat."For God's sake, leave him be" She said, crossing her arms."Let him be and treat you like his kick boxing heavy bag?" He got up in anger."You are putting yourself in danger. He's a cop, you know that." She raised her voice. "I'll do anything for you" He moved a little closer to her, stroking her cheek. She looked up at him"I need to get to my class" and moved away, grabbed her stuff, walking towards the door.

  It had been five years of a friendship. Them working together and Adam, the gym teacher getting attracted to her more and more each day; it was more of a friendzone thing. He had imagined them together for so long, and tried to reach her. And when her husband came standing in the way, the blurred line got brighter between them. He had tried to scare her husband off to prevent him from beating his wife. He had succeeded, kind of.

  She walked to the English class, threw her stuff at her desk, waiting for the students to enter the class, as the bell rang. The first student to enter the class, was that nerd with glasses again. This time, she greeted him with a light smile. He returned and said hi. As he got into his chair, groups of students began to fill the room. There was less tension as the students were talking in whispers.

  As she glanced over the class room, she realized those two boys were late, again. She knew how to deal with that kind of people; but in this case, everything was different. They had reputation for knocking anyone down who would've messed with them. Carol always thought they had problems going on in their personal lives; and she compared them with herself, always. She had problems, real ones, but that was never a reason for her to act like that.

  "Okay  guys, today we're gonna read and discuss some of the best poems of famous poets from around the world."She said as she handed books to each student."Who wants to read the first poem?"She called out as she reached the bottom row."Hm?anyone?" 

"I can read!" said a blonde girl from the front row, with hesitation in her voice. Carol could hear whispers and chuckles as she walked to the girl, and bent forward, facing her"Read it out loud, with confidence" The girl cleared her throat and began to read the first page. Chuckles got loud and turned to laughs  while everyone began to talk outloud. Carol clapped to get attention"Did I say you're free to do anything?" The class got silent, as the girl continued reading. Meanwhile, the door opened and the two guys stepped in. Carol looked up at them while the blond girl stopped reading. 

"You're late again!" Carol said, more to herself. Peter shrugged and walked towards the seats. "Did I let you go?" Carol said in a calm voice. That was the calmness before storm. They turned to look at her. She looked straight into his eyes. There was a secret hiding behind his chocolate brown eyes. There was an uncomfortable silence. He had his smirk still. "Why are you late?" She broke the silence. Peter looked at his friend, then said to Carol" Cause we can be!?" He said in a know it all tone. "Is that so?" Carol got up from her chair. She couldn't sit still. She was getting nervous. Why would a kid like him make her that uncomfortable." I don't have a good feeling about him"She said in her mind. 

"Go grab your seats. We'll discuss this later" She said sitting again. 

"Now why would we do that?" His friend spoke up.

"Excuse me?" Carol raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You heard us." Peter talked in  a serious tone.

"Oh..Now you let yourselves to talk to a teacher like that?! You think this makes you cool?"She said getting up from her seat, in an angry tone"You think this is a way to spend your years at high school while everyone is talking about your heroic behavior with the deputy head?While something that no one knows is that you cry and cut your hands in your alone time because life sucks ! You think you're gonna survive just making fun of everyone to hide your innocent figure?" She was now yelling at the two guys standing infront of her" You think you're the best?Who are you?huh?" She stopped for a moment. Looking at them filled with anger."Answer me!" She yelled."Who are you?"

She stopped for a second to hear their answer. Peter rushed out of door, his friend following him. Carol took a moment to take in whatever she had said. She had sounded so harsh to them. She tried to take a deep breath but she failed as always. 

  As she sat down, she could hear whispers from every corner of class. She had always been frightened of her husband loosing his temper; but was she worst?

What did you just do?