How to Get Caught Sleeping With Your Teacher

Chapter 14 - Atê

When I was a little girl, I loved sweets. I would eat them as much as I could, to the point of making myself throw up. It wasn't often when I got them, so when I did I completely took advantage. I remember one day when my father came home from work, he brought me a whole dozen of cupcakes. They were so pretty, little red velvet cakes with luscious cream icing swirled on top. In that moment, I was the happiest I had ever been as a child.

Now, sweets make me sick.

Practice was long, it lasted until nearly 6:30. After it was over, I left the gym promptly and walked out to the parking lot. At this point, there was nearly no one left at school. I was searching for Gloria in the SUV when I heard a yell call out from behind me, and I turned around to see none other than Mr. Gillian jogging towards my position in his heavy coat.

I knew what he wanted; he wanted to finish talking about Micky. I stood there waiting for him to approach, trying to think of a way to avoid talking about it any further. I knew I had already said too much.

"Nikita," He pleaded. As much as I hated to admit it, he had such a nice voice. It was confident, yet soft. I loved the way my name sounded against his lips..

"Nikita?" He asked again, this time snapping me out of my own mind.

"Yes?" I quickly piped up, not wanting to let him know I was daydreaming. I really hoped he didn't want to talk about Micky.

"I think you may have left your purse in the gym. I thought I had already missed you, so I just locked it up in the gym office and was going to give it to you tomorrow. But I figure there's probably some important stuff in there, so the sooner the better." I looked down to my side and realized my purse wasn't around my shoulder. I quietly cursed to myself in my native tongue, but I think he heard me because he let out a giggle.

"It's no big deal, I'll take you back down to the office and we you can grab it." He insisted as he pulled the keys out of his pocket, and started walking before I agreed.

We walked back through the parking lot, up the steps, and to the glass hallway that lead to the gyms. It was still too cold to host practice outdoors, so they were practicing in the auxiliary gym for the time being. The auxiliary gym was large, and always very drafty, but it had a small office attached to it which housed two of everything. There were two desks, two couches, two tvs and two fans. I never really understood why there was two of everything when there was only one coach, but I also didn't really ever care enough to ask.

As we entered the gym, we both kept our coats on, because it was still pretty cold. He walked quickly across the shiny floors and directly to the large double doors of the office. He turned the key a quick half turn before strutting inside and towards the desk. I followed him to the desk as he fumbled with his keys to find the key to open the desk. As he finally pulled out a rounded and small gold key, a large clang rung out from behind us. Without turning around, a look of fear came across his face.

"I...forgot to tell you to hold the door." He sighed and turned around, only to see his theory was correct.

I paused for a moment, trying to take in what he had just said. I walked over to the door and tried to open it, only to find that the handle was stiff and unmoving.

"Please don't tell me we're locked in this office." I leaned my forehead against the door and jiggled the handle once more for reassurance.

"We're locked in this office." He stammered, knowing it was 6:30 and there was nearly no one left at the school to let them out. "But," His voice chirped up. "I can call someone to come unlock the door." He pulled out his phone and his face quickly dropped, confirming what I already knew to be true.

"This gym is in the lowest level of the school. No one gets service down here." I could feel myself start to panic. I was already having a long day, and this seemed to make it much much worse. My mind began finding the worse case scenario, wondering if we would be stuck in here all night.

He cursed under his breath. Gillian wasn't the worst company to keep, but I also wasn't the type of person to enjoy being in small confined areas.

"The janitors are still probably here. We can wait for one of them to pass by." He suggested, trying to stay optimistic. I wasn't optimistic, but I was mildly claustrophobic.

"Might as well take a seat, it's going to be a while." I tried to calm myself as I walked over to the couch, but I knew it wasn't working. Gillian followed me over to the couches and sat one cushion over from me.

There was a silence between us, and I knew why. He was building up the courage to ask me about Micky again. I could feel it coming and I hoped it wouldn't.

"Nikita?" He looked dead at me and I winced at the strength of his eyes. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to you more about Micky." I felt my heart skip a beat at his words, because now I would have to make something up, and I was too stressed out to lie right then.

I sighed heavily. "What about him?"

"Where did you say he was again?"

"Overseas on business."

"You said his business is dangerous. Where does he work?"

"He's in the FBI." I blurted out the first thing I could muster up to explain Mikhails 'dangerous business.'

He paused for a moment and thought hard. "The FBI doesn't work internationally." He gave me a disappointed look. "I told you Nikita, you can tell me, whatever it is. You don't have to lie to me. No matter what it is, the school won't find out. It won't be the first time I've broken the rules here for you and I'm sure it won't be the last."

"Mikhail is...he's dangerous. I mean, not to me, but to other people I mean."

"What do you mean he's dangerous?"

"I mean, I don't know what he does for work, but I know it's bad and most likely illegal. That's why I can't get the cops involved. I'm just worried about him. For all I know he could be buried in a ditch some-"

"Hey, hey." He scooted closer to me and looked into my eyes. "Don't think like that, okay?" His eyes were soft now, caring.

"He's all I have left. If something were to happen to him I'd be on my own and then..." I stopped myself before I could reveal any more about my family. I felt a tear forming at the corner of my eye and I quickly wiped it away before he could see. Although I think he did see, because at that point he pulled me into a hug. The smell of his cologne warmed my nose and-

I stopped myself from thinking any further into it.

"I'm sure he's just fine." He said in a somber tone, in an attempt to comfort me. It was kind of working, I had almost forgotten that we were trapped together in this small office with no cell phone service, after everyone at the school had already left. "He'll come back soon and everything will go back to normal." He was close to me now, the type of close where I could smell his sweet breath. The type of close where I could see his unruly eyebrow hairs and the formation of his widow peak.

And his eyes.
His eyes were mossy and natural, small brown flecks lining the outer rim of his iris. His pupils dilated heavily, giving him the look of a loving puppy who had just gotten adopted. He had lovable eyes, the kind that could never hurt anyone, but at the same time couldn't be told no. Small creases lined the inner corner of his luring gaze, leaving to the imagination the cause of those small lines of stress.

At this point I was staring into his eyes, a mere inches from his face. My cheeks were a rosy warm, indicating the blush that had come to my skin. I had a crush on him and I knew I did, I only hoped that he didn't notice my affection.

Gillian was staring back at me, and for the briefest second I watched his eyes flash down to my lips in a sneaky fashion.

In every great story, there's a point in which the hero crosses the rubicon. There is a point of no return for everyone in life, whether it be having a child or going to jail, there's always a rubicon moment. And no, I wasn't really sure what happened in my rubicon moment, and to this day I'm still not. I don't know why I did what I did, and looking back it was the most destructive thing I could have possibly done. But here we are, rubicon crossed.

So I leaned in, and kissed him.