Teacher (Mr Mendes)

Chapter 18

I hid under my hair as I made my way to the back of the class, to an empty seat. I didn't have to look up to know that Shawn was looking at me as the tension spoke for itself. People started whispering around me as I saw a piece of paper being passed around.

This couldn't be good. The snickers and under the breath remarks spread around the class until I finally heard what was going on.

A girl with vibrant blue hair squealed and said, "No way! Mr Mendes?" I frowned upon hearing this and tried to tune out the other conversation around me.

"With Miss Dalis?! Oh my God, just wait until Tess hears about this. She's had a huge crush on Mr Mendes since, like, forever..."

The girl babbled away as I leant back in my chair. I didn't really know what to feel. Pain? Betrayal? Sorrow? After all, we weren't together. Then again, we were never together in the first place. But it still hurt.

I clenched my jaw as I saw Zac looking up, smirking at me. Great, another problem I don't need in my life. I'd have to confront him later. For now. I'd deal with Sha-Mr Mendes. One problem at a time.

Maybe I should just talk to him, after all, I couldn't skip anymore of my 'TA' role, otherwise I couldn't get extra credit. Would I tell him? Would I tell him that I was a cold bitch and slept with Zac, technically cheating on him, and then not having the guts to tell him, resulting in us 'breaking up'?

After an hour of awkward eye contact with him, it was time to talk things out. Or at least attempt to. I slowly packed my things away as the class filtered out.

I approached him even slower, if possible, dragging out the time as much as possible. When I finally made it to him, I looked down at the floor.

"Cassiopeia." Even though his voice was rough, I had missed him rolling my name off his tongue.

It killed a part of me when he didn't lift my chin, or tell me not to look down, as he always did.

"So are you going to tell me what happened or what? Because from my point of view, one minute we were fine and the next we weren't." I could feel the hurt in his voice and it broke me.

I had to do it sooner or later. If I said the one simple word later, it would be worse but at least I wouldn't have to live with the look of his regret ever getting involved with me for a little while longer, as selfish as it sounds.

"I'm so sorry," I took a deep breath and did my best to hold in the tears. I looked into his eyes. "I slept with Zac."

I swear, with the silence between us right now, you could hear a feather drop.

"You slept with him... that manipulative bustard? Zac?!" Anger raised in his voice, as expected.

"Please Shawn let me explain." I pleaded.

"Mr Mendes."

"What?" I prayed to myself that he didn't mean it in the way I thought.

"It's Mr Mendes to you. You're my student and I'm your teacher. That's all."

"Please... Mr Mendes. He blackmailed me. He knows about us." My voice broke as I spoke.

"Blackmailed? What, did he threaten to tell on you? Cass, this isn't preschool. Goddammit!" He knocked off the books from his desk and threw one at the wall.

The silence bounced back as the book landed on the floor with a thud.

A tear slipped. But not from me. I wanted to comfort him and hold him, but I couldn't. I shouldn't.

"Shawn he put your job on the line. I'd rather you hate me than me ruin your career for having an affair with a student!"

His eyes softened as he looked at me. "Cassiopeia, you were never an affair. What we had was real and I know you felt it too so don't try to hide it. I'm sorry, I didn't know. If I had known-"

I cut him off by pulling him into a tight embrace. He returned the gesture and said, "Is he still doing it? Blackmailing you?" I could feel his warm breath on my neck which sent shivers down my spine. I nodded.

"You need to end this Cass. You go to that son of a bitch and make him regret taking your innocence and make him sorry. Make him come back begging for you on him knees when he realises that you're one of a kind but slam that door in his face and send him to hell."

My heart melted at his every word. "But your job."

He shook his head softly, "I don't care Cass. You mean more to me than you'll ever know. Which is why I have to leave. I have to let you go."

I pulled away slightly from him, my vision blurry from the tears welling in my eyes. "No, don't leave me, I need you. Please. If you care, you'll stay."

He took both my hands, covering them with his own. "That's where you're wrong. But if we are meant to be, our goodbye won't mean goodbye, but it will mean 'see you soon'. And I have no doubt in my mind that we will."

"And will it be the same with Miss Dalis?" I couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

He chuckled and said, "Whatever you heard is a lie and whoever you heard it from it a liar."

This brought some closure onto this whole situation. Could I do it? Could I say goodbye?

"Cassiopeia, you're still growing and you're still learning. You wake up and your whole world's flipped, it's just different and you gotta go with it.

That's simply growing up and not see it in a negative way. You have to see it as it's been given to you. I mean, as much as times can be crazy, you're gonna feel like that's where you're supposed to be, you're not gonna feel out of place anymore. You're gonna feel like that's where you are meant to be.

You don't have to pretend that it's easy all the time, you just let it go and grow with it and you can't hold on to the old you or the old this or the old that because you know you change. It's not changing in a bad way, it's just changing because that's what happens in life. You grow up, everyone moves on. You're just learning to stay true to yourself.

Changing isn't a bad thing. It never was, but at the end of the day you're the same person and where your heart is, that doesn't change."

By the end of this I was sobbing into his chest, clinging onto him for as long as possible, absorbing him as much as possible before he was gone.

"Cassiopeia, it would be an honour to have my heart broken by you if you decide to move on, but if not, I'll be waiting at the finish line. I'll wait for you as long as it takes. Because you're worth it all." 

 Hey guys! Sorry for not updating in a while, so here ya go, a nice long chapter, enjoy :)

I've entered this book into the Wattys 2017 so make sure to spam this book with votes and comments!

And don't worry, this isn't quite the end of Shawn and Cassiopeia's story.