Page 88 of Apparently, I’m Torture

I shook my head. “It isn’t that simple. I can’t just break up with him. We work together.”

Mia shifted in her seat and started shuffling papers.

“Lilly, listen to yourself. It’s been a whole year since we graduated. You’re teaching at your dream school, and we get to work together. Stacey can’t hurt you now. Why are you still forcing yourself to be with someone you don’t want?”

I squeezed my lips tight. It might’ve been over a year since then, but Stacey’s threat still sprang to mind whenever Trevor locked his arms around me. At first, I was kind of just resigned to dating him. I thought I might, maybe, develop feelings for him eventually.

After all, forced proximity and fake dating were romance novel tropes, weren’t they?

And Trevor was nice. Plus, we worked together, and he wasn’t exactly unattractive. He was technically a cute enough guy, in the aesthetic sense. But something was missing, and I didn’t know what. He just wasn’t… it for me.

Slowly, whether I wanted it to or not, my resignation turned into repulsion, and it was like Trevor could sense it. He upped the ante, trying to touch me at work. My stomach gurgled and burbled every time I caught sight of him in the hall.

What would he do now? Pull me into a classroom and kiss me? Would a student catch us? And what would happen then?

It wasn’t just that I felt anxious over his whole intensive over-amorous-ness (yes okay, I know that’s not a word), it was also that I felt sick at the thought of him touching me.

But I didn’t want to hurt him.

Ugh, why did I put myself in this situation to begin with? If I was just better at taking exams, if I didn’t have to deal with feeling anxious all the time… but no point crying over spilled milk, and all that. It was what it was, and Mia was right.

I had to end this, and sooner rather than later.

Lilly

“Mmm.” The way Trevor moaned turned my stomach. “God, I love your lips, Lillybug. I could kiss you for hours.”

His hands slid around my waist, and he pulled me close. I had an extremely strong urge to push away his touch and run as far as I could. I stiffened as he nuzzled into my neck.

“Trevor…”

“Mmm?”

Another kiss, sloppy and wet, left a trail of saliva on my left shoulder. I grimaced at the feel of it.

“You have to stop touching me. We’re going to get in trouble.”

He met my fearful stare with a glint in his eye. “That’s half the fun, isn’t it?”

He pushed me against the concrete wall, and ground himself into me. I couldn’t help it. My hands worked on their own as I shoved him away.

“Stop it,” I hissed.

As I looked around the still-empty cafeteria, he held up his hands and came closer, slow and cautious.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were so freaked out over getting caught.”

I shot him a glance that said, you’re an absolute moron.

“You know what this job means to me, Trevor. If a student catches us, it could mean instant dismissal,” I whispered.

He put his hand on my arm and I shrugged away from him.

“Lillybug, come on. Nothing like that is going to happen. I just wanted to kiss you. It’s not like I was going to fuck you against the wall.”

“Ugh.”

I think I really was going to be sick. Not anxiety-sick. Sick-sick. He eyed me with a pout.