Living (RedRibbon13) **Complete**

3. The Ugly Truth

Chapter 3

The Ugly Truth

The final bell rang and unlike the happy yelps and chatters of her classmates, Amanda groaned in frustration. Everyone wanted a piece of her this day. Right before final period, Ryan had told her that he would be at her place in the evening. He wanted to know everything about her and deep down she knew he deserved the truth.

And she had to go see Mr. Jacob Crosby in his classroom. To her dismay, his class-room was just the adjacent one to her Biology class that just ended.  She didn’t get up from her seat till all her class-mates filed out of there, and the teacher stood there, tapping her foot impatiently.

She picked up her bag slowly and waved good bye to the teacher who gave her a disapproving look. It was crystal clear that today’s health class had been a matter of discussion in the staff room.

For what seemed like forever, she stood outside his class-room next door, her bag slung around her shoulder. She tried to control her frantically beating heart and tried pushing away the dread that filled her heart. By instinct, she knew something terrible was going to happen.

She hoped that he had forgotten about her and left already. But she knew that he would stay there for hours before haunting her down to her place if she didn’t go in.

Her hand was shaking badly as she reached for the handle. She pushed the door slightly but it was wrenched opened from inside, and she heard him murmuring, “I can’t believe her”, as she fell forward into his chest.

“Oh, thank god!” Jake mumbled putting his arms around her torso and steadied her. Amanda froze in his arms. She had never been this close to him and couldn’t make sense of the way she felt at the moment. His smell seemed to intoxicate her as she lost any trace of rational thought for a few seconds. She looked up at him slowly and couldn’t move away fast enough when their eyes met. The look in his eyes scared her, but what scared her most was that, right there in his arms, it felt like home.

He cleared his throat and took a step back, creating the much needed distance between a student and a teacher.

“So, you decided to show up.” he said shoving his hands deep in his pant pockets, sounding very sheepish.

“Yes, Sir. Didn’t want you to break down my door this evening.” Her voice didn’t give away the fluttering in her stomach. She smirked and moved into the class-room.

“Alright, fair enough.”  Jake chuckled as he followed her in but his laughter died in his throat when she turned to him with raised brows then turned her back to him.

She heard his deep intake of breath before he moved forward and pulled out two chairs. Without a word, they took the seats opposite each-other. She looked down at her sneakers, wondering how that dark stain got there on the tip, while he studied her face.

“So about today, what do you have to say for that?” he asked softly after several moments of silence.

Amanda let out a relieved breath, and looked up with a smile. She had rehearsed for this part the whole day, “I would like to say I am sorry, Mr. Crosby. It wasn’t my place to tell you those things. It’s your class and you are our teacher.” she said going back to examining her sneakers.

Jake’s eyes widened in surprise. An apology was the last thing he was expecting from her.

“You want to say sorry, but do you really feel sorry for saying those things, Amanda?” Jake asked, eyes sparkling with amusement again.

She looked up from her sneakers, and studied his face. “Do you not want me to feel sorry for saying those things, Jacob?”

Her hands immediately flew to her mouth as she gasped realizing what she just did. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Crosby it just came… uh… I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking. That was really rude of me.” she said standing up from her seat.