The Teacher's Pet

Chapter Thirty Five
“Hey Matty, what’s up?” I answered the phone surprised to see that my brother was calling me.

“Where are you?” Matt asked and I scrunched my face up, confused onto what he meant.

“I’m home, why?” I asked and saw Tyler walk over towards the couch, “Everything all right?” I asked as I picked up my feet and let Tyler sit down and then placing my feet on his lap.

“Are you sitting down?”

“Yeah, why are you whispering? Are you all right?”

“Ok, don’t freak out,” he said completely ignoring my questions.

“Why?” I asked sitting up straight and having Tyler looking at me before opening his can of coke, “What happened?”

“I’m downstairs,” he said.

“My downstairs?” I asked and then stood up, “You’re in Boston?”

“Yeah, but don’t freak out!”

“I’m not freaking out; you know you’re always welcomed.”

“Not why I’m telling you not to freak out,” he whispered and I was beyond lost.

“Matt, what’s going on?” I heard multiple voices on the other end talking to Matt, “Who’s that Matt?”

“Will you let us up?” he asked and I just assumed that it was some of his teammates.

“Ashley and Amy are shopping, so not booty action here,” I said and giggled a little, pressing the button that was going to let the elevators to go to Matt.

“We’re on our way up,” he said, “Don’t freak out!”

“Why do you keep telling me that?” I asked but then heard the beeping, “Great, he hung up.”

“What’s going on?” Tyler asked and I unlocked the door and walked over towards the couch.

“You’re guess is as good as mine,” I said and then collapsed onto the couch next to Tyler, kicking my feet up and placing them on his lap, “He just kept telling me not to freak out.”

“I don’t think your heart can take any more surprises,” Tyler teased and I groaned and nodded my head.

“You already scared the crap out of me with your mom!”

“Hey, you liked her, admit it! And she definitely likes you!”

“You didn’t have to tell her about your teammates,” I said and he shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his drink, “And you’re right, I did like her. But you still scared the crap out of me-“

“Knock, knock,” I heard and then turned around to see Matt walking into the condo.

“Hi!” I smiled brightly and then instantly froze when I saw the two behind him walk in, “Matt.”

“Don’t freak out!” he said and then rushed over towards me and bent down, “They just want to talk.”

“Hello Emily.”

“Hi, mom,” I said and then looked back over towards Tyler to see that he looked lost and just as scared as I was meeting his mom. I stood up and looked at both my mom and dad standing in my living room, “What are you doing here?”

“We just want to talk, we haven’t seen you in a few years-“

“Three,” I interrupted my dad, “It’s been three years.”

“Yes well, it’s been a tough three-“

“Tough mom?! Really? Out of all the words you use to describe the past three years, you want to use tough?!”

“Em,” Matt said as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, it’s all right,” I heard Tyler whisper behind me and then felt his fingers lace with mine.

“Who’s this?” my dad asked as he looked at Tyler.

“My boyfriend,” I said and my dad looked back at me, “What are you doing here?”

“Hear them out, Em,” Matt said and I snapped my head over towards him and glared, “I know, I know, but it’ll be best if you just hear them out. Come on Tyler,” he said and then grabbed Tyler’s shirt and left down the hallway towards my bedroom.

“Well, so much for Matt being our shield,” my mom muttered and I glared at her, “So, Emily, how have you been-“

“Cut the crap mom, what are you guys doing here? Money? Pity party? Family? You’re in the wrong place,” I barked and crossed my arms over my chest.

“We just wanted to see our little girl,” dad said and I scoffed and shook my head, “You seem to be doing all right with yourself Emma-“

“Don’t! You don’t get to call me that anymore,” I growled and my dad sighed.

“Emily, please just listen to us,” mom said and I shook my head and held up my hands.

“You two never listened to me! Never! Zip! Zero! You constantly told what to do and who to be! Now you want me to stand here and listen to what YOU have to say,” I hissed and my dad ran his hand over his head and sighed.

“We miss our children, Emily,” he said and looked at them, “We haven’t seen or heard from you in three years and Matt longer.”

“Whose faults that?” I asked and my mom sighed, ‘…God, I can’t take any more surprises! Tyler’s mom the other day, my parents today! No more!...’

“We know, we shouldn’t have pushed you and your brother so much, we should have let you chose what you want to be. You seem to have a nice life in Boston,” mom said and I sighed.

“Yes, I do! I have nice friends, nice home, I go to a nice school, I have a nice job, I have a good boyfriend,” I said and shook my head; “I like my teacher salary life in Boston.”

“Do you even get paid? Don’t you student teacher?”

“I get paid minimum wage,” I answered and then sat on the couch’s armrest, “But I’m happy!”

-Tyler-
“What’s going on?” I asked as Matt pushed me into Emily’s room, “Why did you bring your parents here?”

“Because they need to see that we’re both doing fine on our own!” he growled as he walked over towards Emily’s desk and sat at the chair.

“You’re not here to push your parents onto her?”

“God no! I can’t stand them! Had to drive up in separate cars because I didn’t want to talk to them,” he said and I nodded my head, “They thought that they should push themselves into our lives because they think that they’re needed, and they’re not!”

“Look, I get the whole can’t stand your parents,” I said and then sighed, “I can’t stand my dad, though he walked out on us, your parents constantly pushed you.”

“Is that what Emily told you?” Matt scoffed and I looked at him confused, “Our parents didn’t just ‘push’ us, they purposely planned our lives for us! When Emily was younger and my parents caught her playing teacher with her stuffed animals, they went out and bought her a doctor’s kit and told her to practice doctor. When they saw her watching funny shows, something kids should be watching, they changed the channel and put Law and Order on or some kind of doctor show. Some of those shows that they put on were gory, and Emily had nightmares at night.”

“What about you?” I asked wanting to stop him from explaining anymore because I didn’t want to hear it.

He sarcastically smirked and shook his head, “Me? They gave up on my when Emily was born, I couldn’t stand the girl at first.”

“But she was your sister!”

“Didn’t matter to me, my parents paid more attention to her,” he said and I nodded my head, “Although, when she was five and I watched as she threw all of the doctor stuff away and went back to playing teacher, that’s when I knew that I needed to watch out for her, I knew that my parents were going to be more insistent on her to become either a doctor or lawyer.”

“Why a doctor or lawyer?”

“It’s what they are,” he answered, “My mom’s a doctor and my dad’s a lawyer. Our whole family’s full of them. Emily and I are the black sheep’s; we didn’t want to be a part of it.”

“Had to have been tough growing up.”

“That’s an understatement,” he scoffed, “Got most of my workouts in by walking to the ice rink for practice four times a week. My parents didn’t like he face that when I was ten I sighed myself up for hockey.”

I laughed and shook my head, “No I guess they didn’t.”

“I think I really pissed them off when I got into the NHL that was me kind of telling them that they were wrong about everything they ever told me.”

“And Emily?”

“Beyond pissed when she got her acceptance letter to Boston,” he laughed, “I’m just happy that I had money to help pay for her tuition, and her car, her life basically.”

“You’re a good brother,” I smirked and he sighed and looked away.

“Eh, she would do the same for me. That’s why Emily and I are so close, we look after one another,” he said and I nodded my head, “You know I was terrified when she met you.”

“Me?”

“I thought you were going to take her away from me,” he muttered, not looking at me, embarrassed by his words, “I never apologized for acting like an ass that night at the restaurant.”

“Eh, it’s fine, I’m a big brother, I understand,” I said and he held out his hand and we shook.

“Take care of her.”

“We take care of each other,” I smiled and Matt smirked and nodded his head.

We both turned our heads towards the door when we heard something break in the living room and then heard Emily start yelling, “Uh oh.”