Once Upon A Time, Back In Highschool

I had gotten a text from my mum during third period saying she was staying at a friends tonight and I’d be with dad. I could make a solemn bet they've had a fight. They work together as well, I’d hate to work with my husband, you’d see way too much of them. They always fight about work; they try to out do each other. Mum always manages to win though.

The whole upside to the situation was that I'd have the house to myself for a couple hours after school, counting on dad went to drown his sorrows at a friends house. He didn’t like whining to me, he said it wasn’t my job to listen to his and my mother’s fights.

I could see Mr. Way off in the distance, sitting casually on the railings. He beckoned me quicker so I jogged over to him, slipping once I got to him so he had to grab my arm in case I fell.

“Come on, quick, The Headmaster’s round the corner, by the way I have those DVD’s for you in my class,” he said, jumping off the railings swiftly and beginning to shuffle out of school obnoxiously, he started running when he got outside the school gate and I followed in suit. For a man who said he got F’s in P.E as a child, he sure was doing good. I caught up with him and he tried to puff out my question, “Come on, slow poke, we have to get Starbucks quickly,” he grinned, speeding up again. I whimpered and ran after him, my shoes splashing in melting puddles of snow.

We arrived giggling and heaving in Starbucks, collapsing on the counter. He shoved my shoulder lightly, playing raising his eyebrows.

“I won,” he grinned as the assistant swivelled round and smiled glossily, “Could I have two coffee’s, one black with sugar, one white with sugar? We’re drinking out,” he panted, scratching his back as he did so. The assistant nodded and told us to wait at the end of the counter. We both dragged ourselves over to the sun burnt orange counter in which we were supposed to wait at. I breathed in heavily through my nose, filling my senses with the smell of coffee and cream before letting out a giggle.

“I feel so out of breath right now,” I laughed, heaving in deeply to get my breathing pattern back to normal. Mr. Way laughed and nodded, thanking the woman as she set down two polystyrene cups. Mr. Way took them both and we began walking at a fast pace. He gave me my coffee one we were outside the door, still not letting slip where he was taking me. We reached the edge of town and he sub consciously snatched my wrist up to cross the road.

“I can cross the road y’know?” I laughed as we trekked through the muddy field towards Newark woods.

“Oops! I forgot sorry, I’m used to taking my friends nephew places and he’s such an ass about crossing roads,” he chuckled, beginning to quicken his pace until we were almost running again, “I wanna have time to show you it!” he called over his shoulder, I was lagging horribly, I wasn't used to running this much. I felt hand suddenly wrap round my wrist and he began running again, keeping me close behind.

For some reason I forgot my lack of breath and concentrated on his cold hand wrapped around my wrist. It felt so nice, like I never wanted it to leave, I was almost sad when he let go and began treading carefully through the thick mass of trees.

“Go in front of me,” he said, “Just walk forward, it’s fine, I’m not going anywhere. I just don’t want you getting kidnapped seeing as we’re in Jersey and the woods,” he chuckled, still panting a little, "I'm such a responsible teacher."

I did as I was told and walked forward, allowing him to steer me by the shoulders until we were deep in the wood, his hands now firmly planted on my forearms to keep me walking in the right direction. He pushed his coffee into my hands and whispered another trust me in my ear before he covered my eyes. My heart racked inside my chest, the feeling of his hands cupping my eyes and not letting me see was driving me crazy. The heat of his body pressed flush against mine when I kept stumbling on different roots and twigs was also not helping things. He kept one hand over my eyes and the other grabbing my belt to tug me back form falling.

“Okay, look at this,” he laughed, uncovering my eyes.

There stood was a huge house, thick vines and trees entwining up the sides. The windows were boarded up and the door looked jam shut with a think truck of a tree. Over the years forestation had attacked it and grown through the brick making it look like a fantasy home. The shutters on the window were hanging on by a thread and solid ivy had grown and crawled it’s way up the house. I took a step back and let a laugh escape my lips.

“This is amazing? How’d you find this? Can you get into it?” I asked, placing both our coffee’s on the ground so I could run my hands over the complicated pattern of the vine.

“Yeah, you can get into it. You have to climb that tree, shimmy along and drop into the roof. We can do it quickly now if you’d like?” he offered, digging his foot onto a sturdy part of root and elevating himself up. I followed him easily, there were so many roots and vines you couldn’t exactly fall, “You can come here anytime you want y’know? I don’t mind. It’s good for when you just wanna think.”

“I’d love too! But, I don’t think I’d be able to find my way back here,” I chuckled, heaving my self up onto the dark slate roof and trying to carefully step towards the crumpling hole in the roof. I stumbled a little and I felt \Mr. Way’s hand curve around my hips as I continued to walk. I slowly turned red, enjoying the feeling of his ice cold thumbs on my bare skin.

“I’ll draw you a map, right? And leave red ribbons tied in bows along the trees so you can find your way back here. You steady now? Sorry I had to suddenly grab you, I couldn’t stand the thought of you falling,” he laughed as he dropped down into the attack. I could still feel his thumb imprints like a red hot iron.

“It’s alright -I’m steady,” I told him, sliding down so my legs were dangling in the attack but I wasn’t actually in yet. Mr. Way looked up and me and smiled, his breath still coming out in clouds and his nose red from the cold.

“Put yor hands on my shoulder and I’ll lift you down,” he told me. Bee’s swerved around in my gut as I leant forward and pressed my hands down on his shoulders. He shuffled forwards and tucked his arms around my hips before lifting me up, he then let me slip down to the floor with a soft creak. I blushed, letting go of his broad shoulders promptly.

The attack was bare, only a small trap door leading down into the actual house. Spiders webs hung loftily from the roof and an old arm chair was set up in the corner, one of the legs broken. I looked behind me and saw the wallpaper peeling off leaving a yellowing wall with a vine attempting to push through.

“The armchair was here when I first found out about this place. The leg was bust too. I’ve always thought About fixing it up a bit, maybe getting a posters and pillow up here,” he laughed, “I’ve never gotten round to it though.”

“We should fix it up,” I said, “I could ransack my own attack for things and I’m sure if we get a load of old magazines we could use glue to get it on the walls. I can remember my dad saying there’s an old rug in the attack –and we have camping cooker, from when I was younger!” I told him beginning to get excited, “And I have folding chair in my room! And we could get a ladder for the roof-“

“You’d really want to spend time with me to fix this shit hole up?” he laughed, I nodded eagerly.

“Why wouldn’t I want spend time with you?” I mumbled, my eyes wide as he shrugged and scratched his head.

“Because I’m your boring, old art teacher?” he suggested, “I don’t want you to feel like you have to spend time with me because I keep asking you,” he mumbled, suddenly going all shy and embarrassed. I stepped forwards towards him, “You could just say no? I wouldn’t mind-“

“I like spending time with you. In fact I love it. That’s all I want to do right now,” I told him truthfully, trying to get him to look at me, “Okay?”

“Okay,” he mumbled, sounding like a five year old child who wasn’t allowed to go to the beach. I smiled at him and he let out a small chuckle, “Come on, we best go,” he smiled walking towards the gap in the roof. I followed after him, feeling a small sense of awkwardness dotted between us. I pressed my palms flat against the outside roof tiles before looking back down at him, “I’ll lift you,” he told me, I nodded and vaulted upwards, shrieking and dropping back down when his wintry hands enclosed round my uncovered hips. They were were freezing.

“I wasn’t expecting your hands to be so cold!” I laughed shakily, twisting round in his grasp. I saw the look in his eyes, lustful and worried. I sensed what was going to happen next. I could tell from the way his hands tightened, the way he stepped forwards, and the way he tilted his head down, “Mr. Way… I don’t think we should-“ I was cut of by him pressing my lips in a light, feathery kiss. I felt like I was in a heated room and everything was closing in. As quick as he had done it, he suddenly pulled away, his eyes closed and his face doubtful

“Sorry,” he whispered opening his eyes. I opened my mouth and he shook his head, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Let’s just go back to school,” he said quickly. I shut my mouth and nodded, heaving myself back onto the roof, sighing when he awkwardly helped me up.

We walked silently back to school, both of us opposite sides of the pavement. I shuddered when we arrived at the school gates, not wanting to depart from him with this awkward feeling between us.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing his arm, “What about those DVD’s?” I asked him a small smile breaking out onto my face. Luckily he grinned back shiftily and nodded his head, telling me to follow him. I did so happily, glad we could demolish the awkward feeling for a while. We got to his classroom and he crouched down, rummaging through his briefcase until his brought out both, handing them to me daintily.

“You wanna meet up on Saturday? Bring the stuff? I’ll do the ribbon thing and bring in a map tomorrow?” he offered, I nodded keenly and he grinned, “And sorry about the-“ I cut him off my opening his classroom door.

“Don’t be,” I said quickly, “I liked it anyways.”