Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

Chapter 57: Different Directions 

EMMA’s POV :

"Oh, god, can you believe Mr.Hayes is chaperoning the trip?"

Tiff whined as soon as we got into our room.

"Emma, are you gonna be okay?"

Carrie followed right behind us.

We put our bags down and climbed to the bed.

I lay my head down and sighed as I stared at the ceiling.The day started off so well and now it was turning to a soap opera slash nightmare.

"I have to be okay,"

I stated firmly, "I've decided this trip was gonna be the start of something new.I can't let anything stop that, not even him," Especially not him.

"That's good, that's the spirit,"

Tiff nodded approvingly and lay her head next to mine.

"Yeah, and this is a big island.

We'll go as far away from him as we can," Carrie said, sitting at the foot of the bed.

"What are you girls chatting over here about?"

Mark suddenly appeared at the door.

We jolted up immediately and hoped to god he didn't hear anything incriminating.

"Nothing, what do you have there?"

Carrie was quick to pull his attention away, pointing at the six-pack of beer he was holding.

"Glad you noticed.Say hello to my little friend,"

Mark raised both his hands up and revealed he was holding another six-pack of beer in the other hand.

"You brought them in?"

Tiff's eyes shot up in excitement.

"Yeah we did.Brad and his guys helped a lot.They put a bunch of these in surfboard bags and Coach Pullman didn’t even notice,"he laughed victoriously and handed the beer to us.

"Alright, let's get this party started!"Tyler appeared at the door and it looked like he already knew what Mark was up to.

"To the greatest freaking senior week ever!" Mark cheered as all five of us held a bottle of beer high in the air.

"Hear, hear!"

I downed that bottle of beer in one go.

I was determined that nothing was gonna stop me from enjoying this moment, not even lan Hayes.

My friends cheered and hollered as they watched me down the entire thing.

And when I was done, like the loyal friends that they were, they followed after me.

We were filled with laughs and this adrenaline rush after downing our drinks, so we decided to hit the beach and spent an entire afternoon out in the sun.

Another bottle of beer later, I was having the greatest time.

Our hotel was right at the beach and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Some senior kid played Bad Bunny music on his speaker and people started dancing.

Mark and Brad handed out drinks for everyone, under the noses of the chaperones, of course.

We saw Coach Pullman and Ms.Diaz walked by the beach one time, and we were quick to hide all evidence.

They didn't suspect a thing and it seemed like they were too busy being into each other than to chaperone the out of control senior kids.

lan and the other chaperones were probably in the hotel somewhere, but I didn’t wanna think about that.

My head felt light and my body felt like dancing.

Wearing our cute matching bikinis, Tiff, Carrie, and I danced the daylight away until it was sunset.

After the sunset and the sky turned dark, everyone got even more drunk and loud.

Carrie and Mark ended up making out by the bonfire and Tiff was busy keeping Madison away from Brad.

Tyler and I sat by a tree as we watched the sunset.

I didn't know how it started, but Tyler and I were now in the middle of a Never Have I Ever drinking game.

"Never have I ever...asked my friend cut class with me to get Chick-fill-A,"

I said with a giggle because we both knew exactly what happened. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

"Hey, not fair,"he slurred.

"Drink up, big boy," I said and pushed the beer bottle to his mouth.

He took a big gulp and said, "My turn.Never have I ever...got kissed by a friend at the dance,"

"Using my own tactics against me, touché,"I laughed and took the bottle from him.

At this point, we had finished our fourth bottle.I felt tipsy and giggly, but Tyler could barely keep his eyes open.

"Hey, you still with me?"I asked him.

"Absolutely!"he said defensively, like any drunk person would.

"Okay.Never have I ever...had sex with a girl,"I said and handed the bottle to him confidently.I said that because I thought it was a for sure way to get him to drink.

But instead, he just smiled and shook his head.

"I never had sex with a girl, so there, I’m not drinking,"he pushed the beer bottle back to me.

"You never had sex with a girl before?"I gaped.

"Nope,"he shook his head again.

"You're a virgin?"

"Sshh!"he shushed me and laughed at himself.

He trashed his head back and lay flat on the sand.

He was laughing and smiling, and was absolutely drunk.

"Why are you still a virgin, Ty? I bet there are lots of girls that would wanna be with you,"

"I just haven't met the right one, I guess,"he shrugged, pausing for a beat before saying,

"Until you came along..."

He was such an honest drunk.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

He was grinning that boyish grin and I felt this urge to tussle his messy blonde hair.

My hand reached for his hair and I started stroking it gently.

He leaned his head against my hand and closed his eyes, smiling a big smile.

"Okay, you're very drunk right now.Let's get you back to your room,"I said finally.

"No, I’m not drunk,"he shook his head and pouted his lips.

"Sure, and I’m the new defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts,"I laughed and pulled him up by his hands.

"You're funny,"he slurred again.

I managed to get him up to his feet, but he could barely stand on his own.

I put his arm around me and held some of his body weight.

We were limping and stumbling around, but we managed to make it back to the hotel.

Tyler was rooming with Mark, but since Mark was still busy with Carrie down at the beach, the room was empty when we got in.

Using all my strength, I pushed Tyler’s body down on the bed.

I didn't expect him to be so heavy, my entire body ended up being pulled down with him.

Tyler lay flat on the bed and I was on top of him.

Our faces were only inches away from each other.

I knew I should get up, but for a second there, I was stuck.

Tyler held onto my face with his hand and his soft blue eyes bored deeply into mine.

"You're so pretty and you're funny.You're so great.I really like you, Emma Sinclair,"he said breathlessly.

I just stayed like that and watched him for a moment.

I thought about kissing him, and it would be so easy too since our lips were barely an inch away.

"Have a good night, Tyler.I'll see you in the morning," my lips leaned for his cheek and I gave him a quick kiss there.

Despite the alcohol dancing in my veins, I was still aware of what was happening.

If I kissed him right now, I might regret it in the morning.I decided I wasn’t ready for this, so after kissing him on the cheek, I got up to my feet.Tyler's eyes fell in disappointment.

He held onto my hand and said, "Where are you going? Stay with m...".

He was so drunk, he couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.His eyes rolled back and he fell into a deep sleep.His fingers slipped down from my hand and it landed on the bed.

I gave him a weak smile before I pulled the blanket over him, making sure he was warm.I couldn't sleep that night.Maybe I drank too much or maybe I didn’t drink enough.

Tiff was already dead asleep on the bed next to mine and my eyes were still open, staring at the dark ceiling.I rolled over the bed and noticed my purse on the bedside table.

My hands instinctively went inside and fished out the heart locket from my wallet.I opened the locket and read the words aloud in my head.

"Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same,"

It was still as painful as ever to read these words out loud.

It had been three months since we broke up and I didn’t want to carry this pain around forever.

I decided to take this locket with me and headed to the beach.

I knew something had to be done and it was now or never.

I walked off far enough into the beach so that I wouldn't run into anyone.

Not that anyone was around.

The other senior kids were probably in their rooms, making out or doing the deed.

And I also heard something about a hot tub, so that's probably where everyone went.

When I got far away enough, I took the locket out of my jeans pocket and stared at it for another minute.

As I was walking here, I pictured it in my head that I was gonna throw the locket into the ocean.It seemed like the right thing to do.But now that I was here, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

"Emma?"

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me.I quickly put the locket away and whipped my head around.

"lan?"

He was standing there with disheveled hair and tired eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at me and I pushed the locket deeper into my back pocket.

"What are you doing out here?"he asked.

"I was just...nothing, I just wanted to take a walk,"I stammered.

"Where are your friends?"

"Somewhere around,"I shrugged.

"You shouldn't be out here on your own at this hour.We have a curfew, you know?"he scolded.

"So? What are you gonna do, drag me back to my room, Mr.Hayes?"my voice came out somewhat spiteful, but I blamed the alcohol for that.

"Please don't talk like that,"he hissed.

"Like what?"

"Like I didn’t care about you," I felt another pang in my stomach when he said that, but I tried to appear unfazed.

"It didn’t look like you do,"I replied.

"Then why am I standing out here for?"he challenged.

"Yeah, what are you standing out here for?" I challenged back. He let out a sigh and raked his hair with his hands, a sign that he was frustrated.

"Emma, it doesn't have to be like this...we can still talk like normal people, can’t we?" I didn't answer him right away.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just looked away and bit my lip.

"How are you? How have you been?" he said again, and his tone of voice was calmer.

"The same," I paused before saying,

"How are you?"

"Meh,"he shrugged.

"Yeah, I know how that feels,"I let out a small smile.There was a moment of silence for a while.Our eyes caught one another and it was as if there was electricity coursing in the air.

"So, I heard from Mrs.Ash that you got into U Penn with a full scholarship.I wanted to say congratulations.You absolutely deserved it,"he said finally.

"Thank you,"

"I heard about it a couple of weeks ago.I wanted to call and congratulate you, but I couldn't reach you,"

"I changed my number.I got a new phone after the accident,"

"Ah, I see,"he nodded.

"I wanted to call you as soon as I got the news.But I thought it’s probably best if I don't,"

Our eyes met again and there was something in the way he looked at me.

It was like he was in pain.I couldn't handle it, so I looked away.

"So, U Penn, huh? You're gonna be in Philly then?"he said.

"Yup,"

"Are you excited?"

"Can't wait,"

I knew he was trying to make small talk, but the tension in the air wasn’t subsiding.I think he realized it too.He took a deep breath and stepped closer to me, causing me to look up at him.

"Are you happy?"he said slowly, as if that question held a lot of meaning.

His dark brown eyes pierced into mine and I found myself entranced, I couldn't look away.

"I'm only ever happy when I’m with you,"I admitted.

A sad smile curved up my lips and I bit my bottom lip to try to hide it.

With quivering lips, I said,

"How about you? Are you happy?"

He swallowed hard at my question.

Then he looked away and let out a sigh, saying, "The principal offered to extend my contract, so I’m taking another year to teach.It’s a great offer, with fewer hours and more pay.I can focus on my art some more,"

"Whatever happened to that job in the gallery?"

"Ally came by a month ago.She told me that there were some financial problems with the gallery so they had to postpone the opening,"

"Oh,"

I remembered the time I saw them walking around town together.So it was for that...he shrugged.

"Guess we are,"

"It's probably for the best,"I hated that he said that.

He made it sound like our breakup was needed, like he was doing me a favor.

But was he really doing me a favor? Was he doing anyone a favor? "lan, you still haven't answered my question,"

I said to him firmly, "Are you happy?"

He let out an irritated scoff before turning to me and said, "What do you think?"