My Personal Stalker

Chapter 15: Rumors

As I walked down the hallway towards my classroom, everyone's eyes were lingering on me. Or was I just imagining it? Ever since my little fight with Mrs. Gregory I was on panic mode. I had no idea what would happen next or how she would react the next time I saw her.

My eyes scanned the crowd of students clearing the hallway for me to walk through when suddenly someone bumped into me. "Sorry", I quickly said before I continued walking.

"So, how does it feel competing with a teacher for your boyfriend's attention?" My eyes shot up to see Maggie. She gave me a bitter-sweet smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I tried to act as innocently as possible.

"I'm talking about Mrs. Gregory's affair with F..."

"Would you excuse us for a second?", Joe interrupted her before pulling me towards an empty classroom. He shot the door behind us and took a quick look around. "We have a problem."

"I know. Everybody seems to know about the affair!", I half-screamed which probably wasn't a good idea.

"Okay, calm down." He came closer putting his hands on my shoulders. "It's not only that..."

My eyes widened. He couldn't be serious. "What could possibly be worse than that?"

"They don't think that it's Mark who had the affair with Mrs. Gregory."

"But that's a good thing, right?" I raised my eyebrows at Joe. When he still wasn't answering, I asked him again, "Right?"

"They think it was François..." Joe stared at me probably waiting for any kind of reaction.

"François?" He nodded. "But why would anyone think that? I don't even know if they've met before..."

"Remember what I said about Mrs. Gregory being jealous of your love life? The others must have thought I was talking about François instead of Mark."

I covered my face with both hands. "Please, tell me this is some kind of stupid joke."

"I wish... So, are you gonna tell him about it?"

"If the rumors are really spreading that fast, I bet he knows already." Completely exhausted, I sat down on a table close to the window and took a few deep breaths.

Joe took a seat next to me rubbing my back with his hand. "If you want to shout at me for saying such a stupid thing yesterday, you know you can.", he chuckled. After a few seconds of silence he spoke up again. "Wait, do you see that?"

He was pointing towards a little red car that left the school's parking lot. In it was none other than Mrs. Gregory. "I guess the rumors were overwhelming her too."

"We have to follow her." Joe jumped up from his table, ready to rush out of the door.

"Are you out of your mind? I'm not going to follow a teacher home." I stared at him in disbelief.

"Come on, Chloe. This is your chance... But we don't have much time." Joe took my hand and practically dragged me out of the classroom. After a while I gave up pulling away and just started running beside him.

We practically jumped into Joe's car before he drove of. "There she is." He still kept some distance from her but of course we couldn't lose her again either.

After a few right and left turns Mrs. Gregory's car came to a stop. "Are you ready?", Joe asked as he parked his car right behind her.

I looked back and forth between Joe and Mrs. Gregory as she climbed out of her car. "I guess..."

"You can do this, Chloe." He patted my shoulder slightly before opening his door. I did the same and walked up to my favorite teacher.

"What a nice surprise, my two favorite students...", she stated sarcastically.

"The pleasure is our's.", Joe said smiling brightly.

"What do you want? I was just about to have a nice and relaxing day at home."

I cleared my throat. "I assume that you've heard about the rumors going around at school." She nodded, her jaw tightening. "And I assume you wouldn't want the principal to have any reason to believe that they are true, would you?"

Suddenly, she started to laugh hysterically. Joe and I exchanged a confused look. "Are you really trying to threaten me?" She laughed again. "And what makes you believe the principal would believe any word you say? It's your word against mine. Besides, everyone thinks I slept with François. Do you really want your little friend to go down with me? I don't think you."

"But..."

"Save your breath. You can't hurt me and if you don't leave my property right now, I might even tell the principal that you started those ridiculous rumors and get you suspended." A vicious smile formed on her lips before she went inside and shut the door behind her.

I stared at Joe, my eyes widened. "Could she really do that?"

"She wouldn't. Chloe, you have to remember her career is still on the line. That's why she doesn't want to show any weakness."

"I really hope you're right about this."

We got back into the car and Joe drove me home in silence. I was just about to get out of the car when he grabbed my arm. "Chloe, wait. You can't let her get to you, remember? She can't hurt you... I just won't let her." The last thing he said more to himself than to me.

"Joe, you're a nice guy. Don't get too caught up in all of this. It's still my drama and I have to deal with it. I really don't want to see you getting hurt because of me."

"I will do whatever it takes..."

—

Author's Note:
Hey loves, I'm so glad I managed to update this story more regularly over the last few weeks and I really hope you still like where this story is going.

Do you think François already knows about the rumors? How will he react?
Could Mrs. Gregory really have Chloe suspended for starting the rumors?
And what do think about Chloe and Joe's relationship?

If you like this story so far please vote, comment, add it to a reading list or share it with your friends. It would mean a lot to me ♥️