Sunshine (Student/Teacher Romance) 18+

4

Ari

This day has been brutal, to say the least. I think all the anticipation of it made it suck a lot less than it could have had I not mentally prepared myself beforehand.

Kaliyah and the other two that follow her around campus haven't given me more than a period alone. It's like in honor of this being the last year, they're making every minute count. I've heard the word stray so often, I'm actually answering to it now.

But I've made it to lunch, which means only two more periods and I can literally run out of here and to my safe Haven which is Rocket Rudy's. I didn't even bother to pick up lunch from the cafeteria, so I'm really craving fries from work.

Last year, I spent most of my lunches in the bathroom, locked in a stall, hoping no-one would recognize my feet underneath the door, and no one ever looked. So that's where I'm headed.

Coming down the English building, I tense up as Mr. Caswell's room door opens and three giggly girls come trickling out.

"Enjoy the rest of your lunch!" Ella says before noticing the others have stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, and I'm the target.

"Stray." Kaliyah smiles warmly, almost like she's talking to some timid animal she doesn't want to scare away. She begins walking toward me and two thoughts occur to me. I can run off the opposite way and hope she doesn't chase me the way she did once last year, or I can stand still and see what kind of mood she's in.

So I stay. "Kaliyah."

"Mr. C isn't interested in you, if that's where you were headed."

"It's not." But that tells me she clearly thinks he'd possibly be interested in her. She's obviously one of those girls who peak in high school, as are the others who are attached to her by the hips, but she can keep dreaming if she thinks a man like that would risk his career for someone who's father will probably bribe her choice university into admitting her.

"Good, because just like everything else I want, I'm entitled to his attention. That means don't even raise your hand in class, hear me?"

I grit my teeth, bothered by the smell of her sweet pea perfume. "I'll do whatever I want. You're not going to stop me from talking to my own teacher."

The girls behind her scoff and I know what that means. I've said too much for someone who's been trying to lay low today.

I see her eyes darken. "Stray grew a pair this year, huh?"

"Leave me alone, Kaliyah."

"Say you'll ignore Mr. Caswell."

"No. That's just stupid."

"Are you calling me stupid?" She scoffs. "I'm in a good mood since I've got a hot new teacher, but I'd stop talking if I were you before you kill it."

And then a laugh huffs out of me before I can even decide whether or not I want to censor myself. "You're ridiculous."

Kaliyah's arms shoot out at me, and her hands wrap around my throat, making me stumble back in her grip until my shoulder blades smack the cement wall.

I reach out for her, but all I can manage as my breath is slipping away is a nice handful of her brown extensions. If they weren't so unnecessarily long, maybe I wouldn't have been able to save myself.

She screams and it echos through the hall, but I don't let go. Even after she's removed her grip from around my neck, prompting me to suck up a gasp as she grabs a fist full of my curls.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" A man's voice fills the space around us, intermixing with our grunts and Kaliyah's growls as we continue our back and forth hair yanking in the middle of the hall.

I hear a couple more doors opening until a pair of hands wrap around my wrist and squeeze to the point that my muscles weaken and I release her.

When I look up, Mr. Caswell's still got a grip on my wrist, but lets me go as soon as he's pulled me away from Kaliyah, who's yanking her arm from Mr. Cross's hold.

"Kaliyah, head to Principal Morgan's," Mr. Cross demands.

She challenges him by holding her malicious glare on me, like she isn't finished with me. Like this is only the beginning, and I'm sure it is. But it felt good to do that. It felt like some type of release to have her expensive, silky, extensions in my grasp, and even more so to see all the straight brown hair on the floor in between us. My scalp is sore, but at least my hair's still in my head.

"Now, Kaliyah!"

Mr. Cross had a voice suitable for teaching P.E., or coaching a sport. It was deep, distinct, and bellowed so loudly, I'm sure the group of kids standing outside the doors of the hall were brought there once they heard him yelling.

As Kaliyah huffs, giving me one last look before they head the opposite way, I see Mr. Cross nod at Mr. Caswell as if he's dismissed and he leaves us there in the hall.

Mr. Cross sighs, giving me that pitiful stare that I absolutely hate, and says, "Go finish your lunch, Ari."