No One Knows You Like I Do

Madison pulled on her dress and looked at herself in the mirror. “Nick!” She called. She heard him sigh and make his way to her from the living room.
“Yes?”
“Can you zip me up, please?” She smiled sweetly. She knew he was still mad about her going to the dance with Jake. He reluctantly zipped her and quickly started back toward the stairs.
“Nick, wait.” She sighed and he turned around slowly to face her. He looked at her, waiting for her to speak. “Please stop with this. I love you, not him. I’m coming home to you, not him. I need you to get that.” She stepped toward him and placed her hands on his cheeks. She forced him to look her in the eyes. “Please.” Nick closed his eyes and sighed before opening them again. “I’m sorry. It’s just….I’m worried about what he wants.”
“I know, but I won’t let anything happen, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.” He leaned forward and pecked her lips gently.
“Trust me when I say I’d rather be dancing with you.”
“At least I have you to myself right now.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body into his. He pressed his lips to her again with more passion. Madison pulled away sadly after a moment.
“I have to leave for Mackenzie’s now. That’s where Jake’s picking me up.”
“Why can’t he just pick you up here?”
“Nick, are you crazy? What happens if he finds out that you live here, too? That can’t happen.”
Nick sighed. “Alright, but after the dance, you’re all mine.”
“Duh.” She chuckled.
“Tell Garrett I said hi.”
“Will do.”
“He’s coming over here tonight, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Nick. Now, I have to go.” She pecked his lips once more before turning to the closet. She stepped into her shoes, grabbed her purse and headed up the stairs.

******

Nick arrived at the dance a half hour later than he was supposed to. He didn’t really care about being on time. He snuck in the side door unseen and he pretended that he had been there since the beginning. His eyes quickly darted around the room, looking for Madison.
“Don’t worry. No one noticed, except me. But I won’t tell.” Nick turned to face another English teacher in the department. Her name was Anna Shaefer. She taught sophomore English and was new this year, although she planned on staying for a while, unlike Nick.
“Uh, thanks.” He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck.
“Your mind seems to be elsewhere.” Her attempts at making small talk were distracting him from finding Madison, but maybe that was good for him.
“I was….just looking for someone.” He turned to face her for the first time. She was average height, but with her heels on, she was almost as tall as Nick. Her long blonde hair was curled and fell down her back beautifully.
“Another teacher? Does someone have a crush, Mr. Santino?” She smirked.
“Please, call me Nick. And no, never mind what I said.” He sighed.
“Okay, Nick.” She giggled. It didn’t take a genius to notice that Miss Shaefer was beautiful and it also didn’t take a genius to notice that she was attracted to Nick. Madison finally came into Nick’s line of vision and he smiled. However, Jake’s hand on her waist caused his smile to drop.
“Nick, are you okay?” He heard from beside him. He glared at Jake a moment longer before returning his focus onto Miss Shaefer.
“I’m fine. Just, uh, excuse me for a minute.” He turned on his heel and headed toward Madison and Jake. Miss Shaefer frowned as he walked away, but said nothing about it.
Nick stood behind Madison and took a deep breath before clearing his throat. The noise caused Madison to turn around and face him. She smiled at him. “Hi Nick.” He grinned back at her.
“You call you teacher Nick?” Jake chuckled.
“I like to keep things casual.” He said through gritted teeth.
“I guess that’s cool.” He shrugged. “By the way, I’m Jake.”
“I know.”
“What? How? I don’t have you as a teacher.”
“I’m a teacher at the school you attend, I know who people are.”
“Oh-kay. Well, uh, nice to meet you. Let’s go Madison.” He tugged at her arm.
“I’ll be there in a sec.” Jake looked between Nick and Madison and shrugged. He mumbled a barely audible “whatever” before leaving them alone.
“Don’t be so creepy!” Madison scolded.
“I wasn’t being creepy, I was just telling him I knew his name.”
“Well, it sounded creepy, okay? Leave him alone.”
“Geeze, Madison, I really wish you hadn’t come with him.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to say no to the guy. He’s nice. And I didn’t realize it would affect you this much.”
“I’m jealous, okay? There, I said it. I am jealous of him. I want to be the one that gets to take you to dances and stuff like that.”
“Nick…I wish you would have said that before. I would have just come alone.”
“But…I want you to be able to have fun with your friends.
“It doesn’t matter. If it hurts you this much, I shouldn’t have agreed to come with him. I’m sorry.”
Nick sighed. “Don’t be sorry. I just gotta let you do your thing. I’ll see you later.” He smiled at her half-heartedly and turned to go back to Miss Shaefer.
Madison returned to Jake. “There you are.” He smiled. “Nick wouldn’t shut up about homework or something, huh?”
“Just…let’s not talk about it.”
“Do you…have a crush on your teacher?” Madison’s cheeks turned a light pink, but due to the dimly lit room, Jake couldn’t tell.
“Of course not.”
“Okay, good.” He smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. His arms made her feel uncomfortable. She shrugged it off as best as she could without making things too awkward. She looked across the room and her eyes landed on Nick immediately. He was talking to Miss Shaefer, which caused Madison’s chest to tighten. She knew how he had felt now. She was regretting saying yes and she wished she could go back in time and tell Jake that she couldn’t go to the dance with him.

******

“Talking to one of your students?” Miss Shaefer said upon Nick’s return.
“Yeah, one of my best.” He smiled, but quickly pulled it back to make things seem less awkward. He cleared his throat to fill the awkward silence.
“So…Nick. Are you doing anything after the dance?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, well, what about tomorrow?”
“Look, uh…” He paused, because he realized he didn’t know her first name. She caught on quickly and said, “Anna.”
“Right, Anna. I actually have a girlfriend.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Are you two…serious?”
“Very, actually. We live together.”
“Oh, well then…”
“Yeah, sorry if I said something that made you think I was…interested or something. I have to go.” Nick headed for the door, ready to go home. He didn’t care what anyone wanted to say. He wasn’t a full-time teacher here anyway and he just wanted to leave.
“Nick, wait.” Anna grabbed his arm.” She doesn’t have to know.” She winked.

******

Madison pushed through the crowd of dancing people. She was looking for Mackenzie and Garrett and was having a little trouble, that is, until she saw a guy in the middle of the dance floor throwing out some…interesting moves. She chuckled to herself and pushed past a few more people before reaching them.
“MC!” She shouted over the loud music. Mackenzie turned away from Garrett and smiled at Madison’s presence.
“Hey! What’s going on?” She was somewhat out of breath because she and Garrett had been dancing since they arrived. Garrett worked his way over to the girls and joined the conversation. He wrapped his arms around both girls’ shoulders.
“Okay, well, I’m just…well, regretting coming here with Jake. Nick’s over there with Miss Shaefer and she’s surely putting the moves on him.” She frowned.
“I’m sure what you’re feeling now is what he’s been feeling ever since you said yes to Jake.” Mackenzie said.
“Well, what do I do?”
“Just dance with Jake. Just once.”
“But…I don’t want to.”
“Then you shouldn’t have said yes. You’re gonna hurt his feelings.”
“But, she cares more about Nick’s feelings and she knows that he’s feeling jealous, confused, and, honestly, sad.” Garrett said. The girls both turned to face Garrett and he shrugged. “Hey, I know what I’m talking about.” He turned and started dancing again.
“Just go dance with him once, okay?”
“Fine.” She sighed, giving up. Mackenzie went back to dancing with Garrett and Madison went to find Jake.
“You keep disappearing on me.” Jake chuckled once she returned. “Hey, uh, let’s dance?”
“Sure.” She smiled a fake smile, not that Jake knew the difference. The song playing ended and quickly changed into a slower song. Great. Madison thought. Jake pulled her onto the dance floor and wrapped his arms around her waist. Madison reluctantly wrapped hers around his neck.

******

“Excuse me?” Nick was shocked that she had just said that. “I love her. You clearly don’t know the meaning of that.” He pulled his arm out of her grasp and turned back toward the door. On his way out, he noticed Jake and Madison dancing together, to a slow song. He sighed to himself and decided he’d say goodbye to her, causing their slow dance to end prematurely. As he made his way over, he watched as Jake pulled Madison’s body closer to his and before he knew it, he lips were on hers. Nick felt like his heart had stopped beating. He quickly made his way back to the door and left.

Madison pushed Jake away from her quickly. “Jake, get off me.” She jumped back so they were no longer near each other.
“It was a slow dance…I thought it’d be okay.”
“No! Not even close to okay. I have to go.” She turned toward the crowd to grab Mackenzie and Garrett.
“Wait! I thought you liked me.”
“I did. But now…I don’t.”
“It’s that teacher of yours, huh? You’re so obsessed with him that you can’t be with anyone.”
“No. You don’t even know what you’re talking about, Jake. God, you’re such a jerk. And to think I said yes because I would have felt bad if I had said no.” She turned away from him once again to find Mackenzie.
“We have to go. Now.” Madison said, cutting Mackenzie and Garrett’s dance short.
“Madison! We’re dancing here!”
“Jake kissed me, okay? Let’s go!” She grabbed Mackenzie’s wrist and Mackenzie laced her fingers with Garrett’s. “Did you guys see where Nick went?” Madison looked around the room frantically. She decided to ask Miss Shaefer if she knew where he went.
“Uhm, Miss Shaefer?” Her voice wavered.
“Oh, hi Madison. How are you?”
“Great. I saw you talking to Ni--Mr. Santino earlier,” She cringed at having to say that, Mr. Santino. “Do you know where he went?”
“He left. He said something about how he had a girlfriend and he didn’t want to go out with me.” She was visibly upset about it, but her voice begged to differ. Madison stopped and looked at her. She was hitting on him. She sighed, to keep the anger away, and turned toward this exit with Mackenzie and Garrett trailing behind.