Don't Stand so Close to Me

Walking briskly with his clipboard in one hand and the mesh ball bag filled with soccer balls he had retrieved from the gym storage minutes earlier in the other hand, Matt Sanders made his way to the school's soccer field where he had told his senior students to meet him for their thursday afternoon P.E period. He blew into the whistle he had hanging around his neck as he approached the students who were all standing around the bleachers waiting for the class to begin, and waited for them to quiet down before he dropped the ball bag down onto the grass next to him and let the balls bounce in different directions in their confinement as he spoke with a firm tone.

"Hi everyone. Today we're gonna be playing soccer," he ignored the sighs and whines that came from several students and continued, "–I'm gonna split you into two teams in a moment, I'm just gonna take attendance first," he looked down at the paper on his clipboard that contained all the names of his students before beginning his roll call.

"Blake Anderson."

"Here."

"Anna Arthur."

"Here."

"Lydia Clark."

"Here!"

"Olivia Daniels."

His eyes left the clipboard before he was done speaking, curious to see if the blonde was present this afternoon. He scanned through the mass of students and soon stopped at the petite young woman that had her hand raised.

"Here." she smirked at him. Without thinking, he returned it with a small smile of his own, breaking his tough-teacher facade before quickly realizing the mistake he just made. He cleared his throat to cover his mistake before he returned to his roll call and the remaining names on his list.

He soon had the group divided into two teams and had them playing their first game of soccer after a few minutes of warming up. He looked on from the sideline of the soccer field while he simultaneously refereed the game, he didn't interfere too much and just let them play for themselves.

His eyes followed the ball as it was passed to and caught by Olivia, and he shouted a 'good catch!' to her before he could even stop the words from leaving his mouth. His little slip-up didn't go unnoticed he realized when he saw Anna turn around and glare at first him and then Olivia who had shot him a smile from the field, but he remained his cool the best he could, he had to focus on the game. The game went on as normal, one team scored the first goal of the match, and he felt a corner of his lips lift upward on its own when Olivia got the ball again, but his smile fell when he watched one of her male classmates tackle her, effectively taking her down. He quickly blew into his whistle to signal that the game was paused when Olivia didn't stand back up and she cradled her ankle with a pained look on her face, and he glared daggers at the guy who had tackled her as he jogged over to the scene to check on her, angry that he had played so aggressively when it was just a pointless school match.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked softly as he knelt down beside her and dropped his clipboard next to him, his hand coming to a rest on one of her shoulders without thinking.

"No, it hurts," she shook her head, and it almost looked like she was fighting off tears.

"Here, let's see if you can stand on it," he raised her arm and put it around his neck as he put his arm around her middle and gently lifted her off the grass, all too aware that everyone was watching them, but he had to help her.

He watched her wince as she tried putting weight on her hurting ankle, holding her arm incase she couldn't stand on her own, before she shook her head again with her face scrunched up in pain.

"I can't, it hurts too much."

Matt hummed in response as she met his gaze, not liking that she was in pain at all. He looked around him and contemplated what to do with the other students before he decided to let them keep playing while he helped Olivia back to the school to possibly take her to the school nurse.

"Alright, while I take Olivia back to the school you can keep playing, but please be careful. I'll be back soon again."

With that, the other students began to spread out on the field again, and the guy who tackled Olivia apologized once to her before joining the rest of the students when she told him that she was going to be okay. Matt grabbed his clipboard again before effortlessly picking up Olivia so he was holding her bridal style, inhaling deeply when her sweet perfume filled his nostrils. He began walking towards the school building, closing his eyes momentarily when he felt her fingers start fiddling with the short hair on the back of his head, sending warm tingles down his spine as they discreetly worked down his neck. It was easy for him to get lost in her eyes as he looked down at her and met her gaze, but he snapped right back to reality when he heard a particularly loud shout behind him. He checked backwards while still walking to see what it was, but he didn't see anything, and was just about to turn around again when he locked eyes with Anna, who was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and glaring at him again. He snapped his head back and hurried his steps, figuring that she had witnessed Olivia's little neck massage on him.

He felt himself starting to get hot, his chest filled with panic and his head filled with paranoia, but he pushed it away as best as he could when he reached the building the locker rooms were in. He came to a stop in front of the girls locker room, not sure of what to do, meeting Olivia's gaze again, before he pushed his leg against the door and cracked it open just a tiny bit, not looking inside as he spoke.

"Anyone inside?"

When he got no answer, Matt pushed opened the door fully with his back and stepped into the unfamiliar locker room, noticing that it was just a reversed version of the boys locker room. He sat Olivia down on an empty bench and told her to take her shoe and sock off while he went and got some ice and an elastic bandage from his office he would have to use to reduce her swelling.

It didn't take long until he joined her again, and he was glad that no one else had come inside the locker room while he was gone. He sat down next to her and lifted her smooth, shaved leg onto his lap so he could get a better look at her ankle after he told her to lie down, inspecting it before pressing the towel-wrapped ice cold packet of broccoli he had gotten from the school kitchen to her ankle.

"Is this okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," she spoke and nodded her head, before laughing a little. "It's cold."

Matt smiled down at her before looking back at her ankle, checking to see if the swelling was going down any.

"You'll have to wear this bandage for some time until the swelling subsides, I'm afraid it's not going down much, if any," he removed the make shift ice and put it down next to him, before grabbing the elastic bandage. He applied even pressure to her foot and ankle with the bandage, and let her leg and foot rest on his arm and lap when he was done to help elevate her ankle.

"Thank you, Matt."

Matt tore his eyes off the bandage to look at Olivia with a serious look on his face at the use of his first name.

"Don't call me that, it's 'Mr. Sanders'," his voice was harsh, just above a whisper as he briefly checked behind him, paranoid that someone was going to walk in on them, "–And you can't do things like what you did earlier, it's not acceptable," he tried to sound like he fully meant it.

He whipped his head back towards her when he heard her laugh softly, and his eyes hardened. "This is no laughing matter, Olivia. You know what's being said, and it could cause some serious damage, to the both of us."

He watched her sit up and scoot closer to him in one swift movement on the bench and felt her petite frame next to his bulky one, her leg still hanging over his long ones. He looked down to his lap when he realized that he still had his hands on her shin, and he immediately let go of her leg, but she was quick to take a hold of one of his wrists. He began tugging his arm away from her, but her grip tightened, forcing him to meet her gaze again.

"They're wrong. We haven't done anything."

The word yet followed in Matt's mind, but he refrained himself from saying it aloud, he already knew she was thinking the same thing; the same word, but he was sure they were thinking about it in different ways. He held her gaze for several long moments until he felt her hand cup his cheek and watched her starting to lean in towards him. He pushed her leg off his own ones and stood up hastily, immediately turning to face her again with an apologetic look in his eyes when he heard her wince as her sprained ankle hit the floor.

"I'm sorry," he started as he knelt down in front of her and gently lifted her leg from the floor before she even got the chance to do so herself, "–I didn't mean to, I'm sorry," he apologized again, cursing himself internally for hurting her, their previous conversation forgotten.

"I'm fine," she answered meeting his eyes, and he nodded once at her reassurance.

"Do you think you can walk on it? I can ask Hilary and Anna to help you out there again, or the school nurse if you'd like..."

"Why can't you help me?"

He sighed and closed his eyes, frustrated that she didn't understand why he shouldn't help her. "I have to get out there, my other students might need me," he tried, but with the way her full lips tightened into a thin line and her eyes took on a darker shade of green he knew she wasn't buying his bullshit excuse.

"We're going to the same place, Matt. Why?"

He felt his temper flare at her use of his first name again, and tightened his jaw before he spoke. "Because," he snapped, standing up again. "It's inappropriate."

He heard her laugh dryly behind his back before she spoke in a sarcastic tone. "It's only inappropriate if we make it inappropriate."

He glared at her as he turned around before bending down and taking his clipboard and the packet of broccoli, leaving her on the bench when he started walking towards the locker room door with fast steps.

"Matt-"

"Don't call me 'Matt'," was the last thing he said before exiting the girls locker room, frustrated beyond his belief at himself for ever letting the barely eighteen year old get to him so easily.