Secret Torture (Student/Teacher) - COMPLETED

Chapter Thirty: Disappearances

I was awaken by the gleam of the morning sunlight seeping into the room. My tired eyes opened and slowly adjusted to the brightness. I sat up, holding the crumpled white sheet up to my chest to cover my body. A gentle headache was pulsing in my brain, but I didn't mind. My happiness cancelled out my hangover.

James sat up, too, wrapping an arm around me.

"Good morning," he said.

I smiled over at him. "Thank you for dinner."

"Thank you for last night."

I laughed, stepping out of bed to get dressed back into last night's outfit. James did the same.

"We should get breakfast somewhere before we leave," he suggested. "I saw a few nice cafes on the walk here yesterday. I'm sure it would help with the hangover, as well."

"That sounds brilliant. Somewhere with pancakes, preferably."

He grinned. "What is it with you and pancakes?"

"What? They're delicious!"

We found a small cafe nearby the hotel - a cafe which specialized in pancakes. We took a seat opposite one another, and sipped coffee with our breakfast. James took his coffee black as night. I couldn't take mine like that - so bitter, so dark. 

"We should do this more often," I said.

He nodded his head. "Well, we can do it all the time once you graduate," he smiled, then reached over and took, with his fork, a large chunk out of my pancakes.

"Hey!" I laughed. 

"What's mine is yours," he told me, smirking.

"What are we, married?"

James laughed at that. "No, not yet."

I grinned up at him. "Well, to be fair, you need to give me some of your pancakes."

"With pleasure, Miss Rousseau," he said, pushing his plate towards me. I took a forkful and tasted it. It was so much nicer than mine. I looked up at him, envious.

"Wanna swap?"

He chuckled. "We can share."

"That sounds like a reasonable compromise," I decided.

We shared each others pancakes and drank down our coffee, and left the small cafe soon after. As we walked down the narrow, tree lined streets, James took out a cigarette and lit it in his mouth. He inhaled deeply, then slowly let the smoke waft away from his lips, savoring it.

"That New Years resolution didn't last very long, did it?" I asked, with a smile.

He laughed, shaking his head. "No. But I didn't expect it to. I make a lot of empty promises, don't I?"

I merely smiled politely at his words, linking my arm in his and staring down at the massing ground.

"Are we going to pick up Leo?" I asked.

"Yep. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you again. He loves you, you know. Never shuts up about you. He thinks you're his mommy," he told me.

"So did Ben, for a little while," I admitted. 

"Well, you basically raised him. So that makes sense."

I nodded my head slowly.

"You know," he began, then took another drag from his cigarette. "Growing up, I didn't really have a mother figure. My mom died at a very young age, unfortunately. I never got to know her. It was just me and my dad."