Page 31 of Apparently, I’m Trouble

Oh, the poor sweet, big, lovely boy. He was crushed. I could see it in the slump of his shoulders, in the slope of his mouth. I had to put a stop to this.

“Kira, can I have a chat with you?”

She gave me a look of disappointment, almost as if she knew this talk was coming. Then someone knocked on my classroom door and cleared their throat. I didn’t have to turn my head to know who it was.

I sighed. “We really have to stop making this a thing, Mr Hudson.”

He strode in, brimming with big-dick confidence, as he said, “I need to talk to you.”

Much to my frustration, the two teens took it as their excuse to leave, and brushed by him. Kira shot him a look on her way out.

I kept my eyes glued to the wall in front of me. “You can talk all you like as long as you don’t yell at me.”

He shut the door behind him and stepped close, his tone low and… almost menacing as he said, “Tell me why my daughter’s still reading this, and I won’t have to yell.”

My gaze caught on a copy of Misplaced as it whirred through the air and landed on my desk.

Confused, I made the mistake of glancing up at him and wasn’t surprised to find a six-foot-three outraged male staring back.

“You said you’d give her a different book.”

My confusion settled in. “I was going to, but she told me she was fine with it.”

His outrage turned to frustration. He swore under his breath as he paced the small space beside my desk, running his hands through his hair and gripping the back of his neck.

My pulse thrummed under my skin, sharp and intense. Tension radiated from him, and I had this awful impulse to soothe it.

I tried to ignore it, but my skin flushed as I picked up Misplaced.

“If she’s going through something, I need to know,” I told him. “Otherwise, I can’t do anything.”

He sighed, and something like acceptance was in the way he stared at me. But before he could say anything, two unhappy female voices drifted through the door. I recognized one as Principal Rutton and groaned.

After my last encounter with Theo, Gem decided to report not just to Lilly but to the principal too. This morning, before I set foot in the staffroom, Rutton ordered me into her office and gave me a prompt telling-off. She had no problem with Theo and me not liking each other, but having me disappear on Gem during rehearsals left her no choice. She didn’t want me alone with this man if I could help it.

Add in all the parent drama from last year, and she’d be pretty irritated if she saw me standing here with him now.

“Get in the closet.”

Theo seemed surprised at first, but that quickly morphed into exasperation.

“I’m not getting in the closet, Mia.”

“If you don’t, my boss is going to be pissed.”

“Why?”

It was a lucky twist of fate that our doors auto-locked after they were shut. Rutton was still fiddling with the keys to the classroom.

“Because every time you yell at me, I get in trouble for it.” I put the book back on the desk, walked around him, gripped the closet doorknob, and threw it open. “I know you don’t like me, but I don’t deserve another lecture. Will you please just get in here before she comes in?”

He hesitated as he eyed the small storage closet behind me, but mumbled, “Fine,” and stepped inside.

I shut him in, then quickly sidled up to the classroom door, planning to open it for them, when I heard Ashley Myers’s voice on the other side.

“Amber shouldn’t have this much work to do. It’s impacting her other classes.”

“Mom, I said I was fine.” Amber was here too.