Page 22 of The Teacher

I just stare at them both in disbelief.

The color drains from my face.

My fist hardens around the door handle.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

“Sandy,” Nicole whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

I came all this way for you to see me looking sexy, Skipper.

“We’re drunk, Sandy,” Skipper offers as way of explanation. It’s pathetic.

“It doesn’t matter,” I reply quietly. “This is wrong.”

Skipper bows his head. “We’ve been drinking. We never meant for this to happen, one thing led to another, that’s all.”

That’s all?

Unbelievable.

No matter what he says, he can’t get out of this. Not this one.

I take in a deep breath. Everything is crashing down around me but I still have enough clarity of thought to spew forth my next statement.

“I never want to see you, Skipper, or you, Nicole, ever again. Ever, ever again. You got me?”

They blink back at me, but they’ve got the message.

I don’t say anything else. I can’t say anything else. I turn straight out and sprint down the stairs and back into my car.

I don’t stop.

I don’t breathe.

I don’t cry, I just drive on home.

My whole world has collapsed.

And that was the last time I saw Skipper Deep. I never spoke to Nicole again. And she kept her distance from me until we finished high school. I’ve never seen her since. She knew better than to try to talk to me about it.

And Skipper, that was the last time I ever saw him.

The last time I saw him until the day of my brother’s wedding when he decided to walk across the room to talk to me.

The last time before tonight at the school fundraiser, when he got my boss to introduce him to me.

And now he’s back in town, and he wants to work with me.

He moved to England straight after that house party, out of my life until he came back eight years later. He went off and became a success in his family’s company investing and owning elite private schools in America, and now he wants to invest in the very place I work.

He’s back in my life, and I don’t know how to feel about it.

But one thing’s for sure, that memory of that house party eight years ago still remains firmly in my mind.

It’s going to take a lot for me to talk to, to even trust, Skipper Deep again.

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