S E L E C T | Grace Series

Adam, in his Glory.

His eyes
My eyes.
His again.
I can do this all day. "God, you're hot, you know." Discomfort passes through them.
I've won.
Well, I thought.
Our little staring contest continues, the class staring, in what state no one can tell.
I stand and lean in, a cupped hand against his ear, "See you after school." I lean back and give him a big smile. My exit is established.
I grab my bag and I walk out of the room, feeling the eyes of my classmates on me. I had no idea to what triggered him so bad, cussing me and screaming. I had only said one simple thing.

I see Adam a lot in the halls. I never catch his eye. I think he's intentionally avoiding me.

***

"Why would you do that," I hear the door slam and he turns me around. His face is red, and he's absolutely seething.
I laugh.
I should have seen it coming, in a flash he has me by the throat. "Come on... do it," I strain out, "be a man like your daddy." I can feel my face a deep shade of red, any longer and I would be done for. He releases me, suddenly, and turns away. "Here... it comes!" I cough out. He shoves his finger in my face, ready to berate me. "You," he growls, "you are a fucked up woman."
"Huh, so I've heard." A grin begins to creep on my face. He approaches me, looking ready to slap me. Instead of that, he grabs my face. "A kiss?" I ask.
"Fuck you. Leave." He points out the room.
"Sure," I turn to leave, "bitch."

***

"Adam. Talk to me." I follow him down the hallway, feeling like a puppy chasing after it's owner. He stops, mid stride, and faces me.

"Do you know how absolutely serious this is?"
"Ok, I'm sorry, I won't do anything like that again." I admit to my flaws, and his face slackens..
"Grace, I'm your teacher. I will lose my job if they find out, and if I don't I'll be ridiculed out." Softly, sternly he says this to me. I feel my hard heart crack a bit, but I realize he put himself in this situation. I reach forward, for his hand. He accepts my advance, though reluctantly.

His hand is quite soft. You can tell that he's never done hard work before. His daddy is a software developer and he got all of his money from him. "I'm sorry I said those things," I start giving him the pout. His face eases. He lifts his eyes to meet mine, "you are a mean little girl, but I like you." He squeezes my hand and I realize, in that moment, that I had been using him. For a while now. I release his hand and start down the hallway.

"Grace, where are you going," I hear from behind me. I stop for a second, consider his advance, but continue down the hall.
As I'm walking, I hear Adam talking to another man.
I do not care. I do not care about him any longer. I have to break this off.

Actually, it's kind of fun.

I arrive home that day, flustered over my life at the moment. "Hello, anyone home?" I yell into my apartment as I walk in. No one answers so I assume that my roommate is not home. I plop on to my broken sofa and scroll through my phone.

adam: What's up? Why did you walk away from me?
I ignore the text. Several minutes pass when I receive another:

adam: I know you're ignoring me.
I decide to respond:

yeah so what

No more text from him after that. I get up, leaving my phone on the couch, to fetch my self something to drink. I open my fridge to see only water and a few sodas. Nothing else. I put my hand to my forehead. I know what I need to do. I grab myself a can of soda and head back to couch. I am ashamed of what I'm about to do.

"Adam, hey, it's me." I say sweetly.
"Hey, what's up?" He responds, reciprocating the tone.
"I was wondering if you... would like to come over?"
A pause.
"Yeah... ok!" He finishes his sentence with a hint of excitement. "I'll be there in thirty? Yeah." He answers his own question.
I hang up.