Mr. Mendes

chapter 13 - chasing pavements

After another "encounter" with Jack, you could say I was feeling a little confused. Why would he suddenly want me? Why not any of the popular girls? I'm sure they would be glad of the attention, but instead he asks me out? What kind of upside down world am I living in?

After the first four lessons of the day, I finally was able to attend English with Mr. Mendes. If I had it my way, I'd spend the whole day in there, looking at his perfectly formed face, cheeky smile and loose curls.

But this is the real world, where jocks feel entitled and it's illegal to date your teacher.

Class soon finished and the pupils poured out of the English classroom and onto the corridor. Hannah waved me goodbye as she left, not without a sultry wiggle of her eyebrows of course as I was now the only one in the room with Mr. Mendes.

It was now just me and him. I felt his steaming hot stare on my body and it made me feel flushed and flattered. When I glanced over to him, he was draped lazily on his chair, his long legs stretched out and his muscular arms hanging loose from either side of the arm rests. He always looked so effortlessly gorgeous.

Snapping out of my dazzled state, I realised we only had a short time left together, so I filled it with my news.

"You'll never guess what happened with Jack."

"What? Tell me!" He swivelled round in his chair to face me as if this were the most important piece of news on the planet. He watched and waited expectantly for the answer.

"He apologised!" I said, a smile beaming through my features.

"No, never!" He said sarcastically, "it's not like I had anything to do with that."

"Be quiet you." I tapped his nose and turned back towards my books, in order to pack them away in preparation for walking home.

I decided not to mention the whole 'Jack asked me out on a date thing'. That was his conversation with me and despite how much uproar he's caused in my life, I'm not going to talk behind his back. Plus, it just wouldn't be helpful to mine and Shawn's relationship. I think he'd get jealous, since we've already kissed twice and he's saved my ass more times than necessary. I don't need anymore bad blood in my life at all.

After packing my things away, I walked slowly towards the door.

Mr. Mendes got up.

"Don't be a stranger okay?" He asked while looking down to make eye contact.

"Sure, you too, text me tonight." I said, trying to remain cool.

As a reply, he walked over to me and placed a sudden yet very welcome kiss on my lips. It was only short, not filled with passion like our previous two, but it was extremely sweet and spontaneous, almost like a little goodbye gesture.

He pulled away and gave me a small yet cheeky smile and a relaxed wave goodbye. I felt that as my queue to leave, so I did.

Not much happened the rest of the night. I'd been waiting for Shawn to text me the whole evening but nothing ever came of it. I sat there, pulling down on the screen with my finger to refresh the messages.

Refresh

Nothing

Refresh

Nothing

Where could he be?

I soon gave up and decided to go downstairs instead and make myself a cup of tea. It solves all the problems in the world and would definitely help me destress about Shawn and his seemingly sudden disappearance from the face of the Earth.

I would have done this, except we were out of milk.

Great.

After mulling the idea over in my head, I reached the conclusion that this was the only way I could entertain my tea obsession. I decided that I would to go to the shop and pick some up. It wasn't far away and I knew I could walk. To be honest it would do me good, hopefully taking my mind off boys and their unreliability for a while.

I slipped on my converse, grabbed my purse and keys and locked the door behind me as I went out. I looked presentable, which is not a very often sight in the UK when on a milk run. I was wearing black leggings and a pastel pink hoodie, my hair being tied up in a cute messy bun as it was extremely windy.

As I walked down my street and nearer to main high street, I noticed a girl coming out of one of the shops laughing her head off. It made me smile. Her boyfriend walked out behind her, laughing too. His hood was up so I couldn't see his face from where I was standing. The girl had long, sleek brown hair and a slender body. She wore a tightly fitting grey crop top and blue skinny jeans, her toned abs being visible from my distant vantage point. She was beautiful, but then again, so was he. He was tall and muscular, his tight hoodie gripping in all the right places.

The pair seemed happy. They were laughing and touching each other the way you only do if you've known each other for a while. They bounced off each other's vibe and made what looked like the kind of jokes that make your stomach hurt from laughter.

Just as I began to near them on the opposite side of the street, the girl took out her phone and passed it to the boy for his long arms to stretch out and take the selfie. The wind suddenly picked up and he dropped his girlfriend's phone. When he immediately bent down to pick it up off the pavement, the wind blew again, pulling down the boyfriend's hood and revealing his face for me to see.

My heart sunk.

When he came back up to give the phone back to his girlfriend, he was looking directly across the street. Exactly where I stood. We met eyes, his filled with shock and mine with tears. He stood in awe, trying to process the situation, figuring out whether it was actually me that he saw there. I however did not. I knew what I saw. I saw Mr. Mendes, stood across from me on the other side of the street, with another girl.

There was no chance I was staying there. I had to go somewhere, anywhere but here, away from Shawn and his loving female companion.

I started to run, tears now streaming like rivers down the side of my face. I heard Shawn behind me calling out my name, over and over. It only made me push harder. His strained voice became quieter as my distance furthered from him. I turned onto my street and then up my drive. I became frustrated while fumbling with my keys, trying to find the right one and place it in the lock, my teary eyes making the simplest of jobs impossible to do.

I could hear Shawn's heavy footsteps coming nearer, pounding the pavement more loudly with every stride he took. I wiped my eyes, continuing to struggle with my door. I glanced back at Shawn and saw that he was now on my street, looking directly at my house as his destination. I turned around and finally slipped the right key into the lock. I stepped inside my house as fast as I could, feeling Shawn's presence become nearer. I turned around to close my door when I saw Shawn sprinting up the driveway. I quickly slammed the door in his face, without letting him give any justification to what he'd done.

The tears began burst in torrents from my eyes, making them burn and me feel even more awful. How could he do that to me? How could he cheat already? It's barely been two weeks! The questions kept swirling in my mind, creating a maelstrom of sadness and anger in my body.

After a few moments of gushing out my feelings in the form of tears and hitting whatever soft nearby object I could find, I realised the worse thing about this whole situation:

I didn't even manage to pick up the milk.