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The lunch bell rang and everyone spilled from the classroom into the hallway, eager to take a break from class, when Ms. Stone exited the room across from me.
Her eyes met mine and I quickly turned my back to her, ready to make a break for it when her voice called out, “Hey, Topher. Can I have a word with you a moment?”
I gritted my teeth and debated whether to completely ignore her. Instead, I thought it better to go with a direct approach.
I pivoted back around, looping my thumbs underneath the straps of my bookbag. “Nah, I’m good.”
“It’ll only take a second.”
“I’m afraid that’s one second longer than I’ve got.”
She sighed like I was exhausting her. Me. The son of the man she was sleeping with behind his wife’s back.
Her mouth did this pucker thing like she swallowed a sour lemon, and then she said, “It wasn’t really a request.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, mulling over my options. I could refuse, turn around, and head toward lunch. Would she go to Principal Bell and insist I speak with her? If she did, what would be my defense for being so blatantly disrespectful? I couldn’t hardly tell him the truth, now could I? At least not if I didn’t want word getting out.
Not that a part of me wouldn’t enjoy it. I’m sure there was some kind of TOS in the ‘ol teacher student handbook about not sleeping with a student’s parent, and I think I’d quite like to see her fired.
But outing her meant outing my father, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to be the one to destroy my family and my father’s reputation. If word about an affair with a teacher got around, he might as well kiss his political career goodbye. Not that I gave a damn about him. I did, however, care about my mother.
The muscle in my jaw twitched. Without a word, I brushed past her and into the classroom, where she closed the door behind us.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing?”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I’d be doing a lot better if I weren’t talking to you right now.”
“Is there a problem here, Topher?”
My lips ached to say it—to tell her I knew. Instead, I flashed her one of my signature smiles—the kind I was told melted the heart of every girl at Lakeview. My voice sickly sweet when I said, “Whyever would you think that?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, and I’d like to think it was armor against my attempts at charm.
“I got a phone call from one of your parents . . .”
Smile faded, and straight-backed, I said, “Oh, I’m sure you did.”
Her brows drew together. “They’re concerned about water polo interfering with your studies.”
“Did my father also happen to mention to you that I got an offer from Bucknell? A scholarship. Or did he just sell you some story about how I’d rather sling a ball in the pool and waste away my future than go to college?”
Her mouth parted, but nothing came out.
“You know, Ms. Stone, that’s why you’re my favorite teacher. You really go above and beyond for your students.”
A small smile formed on her lips. I casually strode over to her desk and picked up a crystal paperweight, examined it, and plunked it back down before I turned my gaze, hard as stone, back to hers. “I mean, all those parent teacher conferences you do in your spare time . . .”
I raised my eyes to the ceiling with a shake of the head like I just couldn’t believe it and whistled. “Gosh, what dedication. I mean, if half the teachers at Lakeview spent even a fraction of the amount of attention and care you put into your studentsandtheir parents,” I said with a wicked grin, “just think of the possibilities.”
Her cheeks turned crimson and her gaze darted away from my face.
Good. Now she knew. She and my father weren’t a secret, at least not to me.
I leaned in close, let the peppermint still fresh on my breath from the mint I ate last period wash over her face. “Have a good day, and stay out of my family’s business.”
I stiff-armed the door, palm flat on the cool glass like a linebacker, and burst into the mostly empty hallway.
Heat pumped in my veins. My long stride ate the floor.
