Lessons From Throne

Chapter Twelve

THE NEXT MORNING

"What are you thinking about," Sev asked me. We were in the cafeteria for breakfast with Shay and her friend Ronnie. "Yesterday," I mumbled as my water bottle that has contained everything but water rested against my lips. They were all talking about some concerts coming to town like Ariana Grande and other artists but I tuned them out. "What happened yesterday," Shay asked. I rolled my eyes and shrugged. Sev jumped up to answer.

"Mr. Stewart was acting weird after th-", I cut her off before she could say anything. If he meant anything by his actions, I didn't want to get him fired. "This bad grade he gave me," I finished for her. Sev gave me a side eye and I shrugged once more. I barely got any sleep last night since I fell asleep too early and woke up two hours later... too late. It gave me extra time to think about Mr. Stewart and the day at the car. We had barely mentioned it, barely hung out even. I really wish we could but there's no way other than school, which is open to everybody's eyes.

I sighed and grabbed my water bottle full of tea as I picked up my backpack. "Where are you going love," Sev asked me. I looked at her, my eyes barely open since I was so tired. I mumbled "the bathroom," and went on my merry way to Mr. Stewart's room.

--

I knocked on the door, seeing that the lights were off and the door was locked, but it often was. The door swung open and he looked at me, he was tired too. I tried hard to hide back a chuckle. I stepped in behind him as he went back to his desk and shut the door quietly. The only light illuminating the room was his computer and due to the red mark on his forehead, he was asleep. I stood next to him as he sat down, peer over to see a half-written email on the screen.

"You're tired," I noted out loud. He looked up at me and nodded. "I got a couple hours," he said as positively as he could. But the cold, hard mask came back over his face like the sea wash over sands and mattes it down to a pretty sheen. I tried giving a meek smile as I pulled up a chair but he just stared.

"Why are you here," he said chillingly. My head slowly tilted towards him and my eyes felt as if they sunk back into their sockets as my shoulders dropped. But I persevered nonetheless. "Well if Shay asks if I was here, it was my grades," I told him. "Then let's check your grades," he mumbled, turning in his chair to type away on the computer at the email. "What," I said concerned, hearing exactly what he said. He shook his head and moved the keyboard away before looking at me.

"Shay likes me," he says to change the subject. I nod as I take in a breath, a small cold over coming me, starting in my stomach. "I know she does," but his disposition quickly changes again. "We aren't here to talk about your 104.86 are we," he asked. I rolled my eyes as I found myself getting extremely annoyed, but I held on to my water bottle harder to calm myself down. The warmth bringing back the sadness that the anger tried to replace. "Why are you mad at me," I peeped out. His eyes softened after I spoke before hardening again.

"Why would I be mad Layla, you're a senior having fun. That's great, isn't it," he said coldly once again. "You're mad," I nearly exclaimed, getting sick of his attitude towards me. "Well I guess I'm mad," he laughed slightly after. It calmed me a little but I could tell he was only masking it to try and not hurt me.

"If you want to flirt with j-" and then I realized it and tuned him out. He was mad over that boy but since that week, he's been distant.

I stood up as the bell rang and put the chair back and my backpack back at my desk. "You're ignoring me because you're jealous," I said harshly. He looked at me and said "students could be outside," as he walked to unlock the door and turn on the lights, but I disregarded him. "You haven't even mentioned last week, barely even talked to me in general. But now that I'm messing with a little juniors' feelings for the fuck ass of it, you think you can be jealous," I went even louder.

"It's your senior year, Layla," he said quietly as a student walked in. Fuck.... I hope she didn't hear anything. "Have fun," he emphasized but all I heard was "goodbye". It had the same number of syllables and that's all I heard. I then stomped over to my chair as he calmly walked to his podium. Soon the class filled in slowly, I didn't even notice when Sev took her seat beside me. I just tapped away at the desk with my nails.

"You are in a college English class," he started off. I looked at him with my head tilted down through my lashes. "I'd like to think my class is pretty easy to get, that I'm pretty easy to get," he said as he made direct contact with me. "But that's not the same with all professors. Yes, some are just as easy as this class, but others will have you writing essay after essay. So, let's experiment just as authors who created great work did. For a month and two weeks, you will be writing essay after essay," he smirked. I heard Sev groan but I groaned inwardly because I knew I'd be writing 2 out of those 6 essays.

"It's only out of the goodness of my heart. I'm explaining this in one sentence because I didn't print out 40 copies for the fuck ass of it, right," He laughed to himself. What a douche bag...

"Pick an author of a classic, write about them, surround it about a specific book of theirs though. No, I don't care about a dog dying unless their classic is about a dead dog," he said as he put the paper on our desks. I snatched the paper and grabbed my backpack, heading towards the door.

"Pick an author, write about an author, and if you want an A, read the book your essay is surrounded by," he says right before I close the door behind me.