I Don't Want This to Make Things Awkward

The bell rang; a sound Nate thought he was done with ten years ago. It was like being on the other side while he regressed back to his glory days. He put his head down on the empty wooden desk and took a few deep breaths.

His life had taken a drastic dip in high school. He was the golden boy. Yeah, he got in a few fights, smoked weed a couple of times, went to parties on the weekends, and whatnot, but everybody liked him and he had good grades.

And when his dad got sick, he stopped everything. Except the drinking. Nate started stealing to pay for his dads medical bills. He became the fuck-up that nobody liked and was arrested for assaulting a teacher a month before his high school graduation. Then his dad-

Nate shook his head. No use reliving the past, he thought. Fuck, he needed to talk Lyle out of this teaching thing. Too many memories.

"Nate?" Zoe had debated on saying anything to him. But when he put his head down after everyone filed out of the room, she couldn't just leave without trying. Things needed to be cleared between them. Even if she just said that she could forget about him asking her out. Things needed to be ohk. However, she hadn't counted on him being so cute or for the color of his eyes to be such a perfect chocolate brown.

His head came up and the look in his eyes told her everything. She couldn't shake the vulnerability she felt around him or the fact that she could see his vulnerability like the air around her.

"Yeah Zoe?" Nate was amazed how her name sounded from his lips. It was one thing if he thought she was hot, but he was acting like a lovesick fool. And he was at least ten years older than her!

"I just wanted to let you know-" Zoe started. She had to make the right choice and not say what she was feeling. "-that I'm sorry I said no." Wait! What? Oh god, she just made things ten times worse. She didn't mean to blurt that out. He was going to think that she was just some desperate high school student who was hitting on the new hot teacher. God, she sure knew how to screw things up.

Nate just stared at her. He didn't know what to say. Did she really just admit that she had wanted to go out with him? Even after she knows that he will be her teacher the whole year? What was going on? He was probably getting pranked by Matt and as soon as he said oh yeah, let's reschedule, somebody was going to pop out with a camera and arrest him. Again.

"Zoe, you know I'm your teacher now and I didn't even know I was going to be teaching here. I didn't even know that you were in high school. I'm at least ten years older than you sweetheart." Even as he said the words, he knew he wouldn't turn her down. Nate stood up and walked around his desk to stand in front of her. She was probably half a foot shorter than him, leaving her eyes at his neck.

He shouldn't have gotten so close. Nate could tell that was a mistake by the quick breathing and the racing heart he suddenly acquired. He could see Zoe looking up at him with so much trust. And he knew he would break it.

Just like he broke trust with everybody else. So as much as he wanted to kiss her, he knew he should just back off. Nate took a step back and looked into her crystal blue eyes.

Shit.