After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 15

Acacia

I nearly dreaded having lunch with Matt. I felt like he knew too much already, and I knew he was uncomfortable about having asked me out in the presence of a student. Maybe it was a good thing; we both had a little dirt on each other that would be kept to ourselves unless something should get ugly. I hoped it never did.

Still, I took my lunch and headed to his classroom during 6th period like I promised, hoping we would just pretend as if the whole thing never happened.

"Can I come in?" I knocked on the door.

"Yeah, it's open."

He was already getting his lunch out, a salad with chicken. I stopped to look at his figure; not once since we'd been eating lunch together has he ever packed something even remotely unhealthy. His muscle definition was completely visible through his crisp white button-up, and his forearms were riddled with thick veins that crawled beneath his skin like tree roots. He was so fit.

"Do you work out?" He asked me, noticing that I'd been admiring his physique for a little too long. I turned bright red.

"I try to, and I hate it. But I'm so insecure, there's no way I couldn't exercise at least sometimes. Lord knows I can barely control what I put in my mouth, so I gotta make up for it."

"What could you possibly be insecure about?" He seemed taken aback.

I played with the stem on my apple. I could feel him watching my fingers as I did this, and his stare made me want to jump out of my skin, but not in a bad way.

"What am I not insecure about is the better question." I chuckled it off. But it was really a big issue that hung over my head like a bad storm cloud these days.

"Are you serious? Why?"

"I don't know, I've always just kind of been really self-critical, it's nothing though."

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. For one, there's nothing for you to worry about in the first place, but it makes it really hard to enjoy life that way."

I glanced up at him, unsure of what to say.

We were quiet for a while.

"You never struck me as the type to be really insecure," he added.

"How am I supposed to act?"

"Well, not like that, it's just, you're not hiding behind anything, or terribly shy. You carry yourself so confidently."

"Oh, thank you."

"I can't believe Aaliyah was in there when I was trying to ask you out," Matt blurted. My body got hot.

"Don't worry about it, she's cool. If you'd like, I'll ask her to keep it to herself."

"No, no, that's okay," he rushed. "I was just embarrassed."

"Just because we're teachers doesn't mean we don't have lives, I mean, we're both still young, it's natural."

He cleared his throat, becoming a little more convinced. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"How many times is a couple taking up the whole hallway making out?"

"I know, right? They have no shame. I won't lie though, that was me in high school."

"That was all of us, I think."

"That makes me feel a little better."

I smiled sweetly at him. It seemed underneath all of those muscles was a really sensitive and private man. I could appreciate that because I was the same way, although I wore it on my sleeve all the time.