“Well, you better learn,” she said, finding some hidden inner strength and stepping away from him. “I’m not doing this. I mean you’re either a drug dealer and a criminal or you’re a teenager and my student. Or, how about this, all of the above. Either way, I lose. We can never be together. Get used to it and accept it.”
Strengthened by the conviction in her own voice, she turned away from him and headed toward the door.
“Delia, I love you,” he said, grabbing her arm.
“That’s it, I’m giving you a Saturday school.” Delia shook off the hold he had on her arm and walked back over to her desk to look for the proper form.
“What?”
“I said I’m giving you a Saturday school.”
“For what? Falling in love with you?”
“Stop saying that or I’ll give you another one.” Chase sighed in frustration and ran his fingers through his shaggy dark hair.
“You’re being ridiculous, Delia,” he said when he noticed she was actually filling out the form. She ignored him and kept writing, leaning over the desk instead of taking the time to sit. “Well, since I already have the Saturday school, I might as well make it worthwhile.” Chase closed the distance between them in one step, swept her up into his arms and planted a demanding kiss on her lips. She struggled at first but after a few seconds, her resolve melted under his power and she gave in. She lost herself in his passionate embrace and the strong thrusts of his tongue until the unthinkable happened. She heard someone clear their throat.
When Chase and Delia pulled apart, they noticed Principal Howard standing in the doorway.
Chapter 14
“Ms. Clark, my office, now!” Principal Howard spun on his heels and stormed away.
“I can’t believe this.” Delia placed her head in her hands and began to cry softly. “This is so humiliating. I’m going to be fired and probably arrested. My life is over.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chase said with eerie confidence, his C.J. arrogance seeping out.
“What do you mean ‘don’t worry about it’? I’ve just been caught kissing my seventeen-year-old student. I think now is the time to worry.”
“I’ll take care of it. Nothing will happen to you.” Chase lifted her chin with his thumb and forefinger, gave her a peck on the lips then left the classroom following the same path as Principal Howard.
After being paralyzed with shock for a few moments, Delia retrieved her purse and coat and prepared to leave. She knew she would probably be escorted off campus immediately. What if Principal Howard had already called the police?
As she approached the principal’s office, Chase was just walking out. Or, rather, C.J. the obnoxiously cool student. He put on a pair of shades, ran his fingers through his hair and walked right past Delia as if they hadn’t just shared an extremely romantic moment. Delia turned and watched him fall in step with one of the football players. He didn’t even turn around and make eye contact with her.
She couldn’t let herself be overly concerned with Chase’s apparent personality disorder right now. She had to figure out a way to save her reputation and possibly her freedom.
Delia entered his office just as the principal took a seat in his lush red velvet chair. Her eyes darted around, noticing how close the book laden walls looked. She felt they were getting closer. “Principal Howard, let me explain. There is a perfectly logical explanation. You see, when I first met C.J. I — ”
Principal Howard held up his hand as an indication for her to stop. “Look, I don’t really want to hear it. Just be more careful in the future. If I caught you, someone else who is a little less understanding than I am could have.” He shook his head in what looked like annoyance as he turned and started typing into his computer.
Delia almost fainted. She grabbed the edge the sturdy oak chair stationed in front of his desk for support. Was he saying that he was okay with her making out with a student? This couldn’t be happening. Legally, shouldn’t he be calling the police or C.J.’s parents or something? What was going on?
Still leaning on the chair, Delia stared at the side of Principal Howard’s head. His calm demeanor made her even more uneasy. She felt her breathing falter. She looked out of the window behind his desk and noticed a few of the students playing a game of pick-up basketball, still in their blazers and ties. When a shot didn’t go in, one student took out his wallet and handed another a wad of cash. Maybe C.J. paid off Principal Howard. Was this how private schools operated? Delia felt she had entered the Twilight Zone.
Turning his attention away from the computer screen momentarily, the Principal said, “Ms. Clark, this is a very sensitive issue. I’ve spoken with C.J. and he has assured me of his … discretion regarding the situation. I hope I can expect the same from you.”
After sitting down and regaining control of her breathing, Delia said, “I don’t understand. Shouldn’t I be in trouble or something?” She couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. She heard his voice and saw his lips move, but the words didn’t make any sense. She focused on his face more closely, but that only caused her eyes to wander to his bushy mustache that suddenly seemed fake.
“I know the likes of students like C.J. I know how … persuasive he can be. I’m willing to write this off as one moment of weakness and forget the whole situation as long as I neither hear nor see anything else about it and you don’t bring reproach upon this school.” He turned back to his computer and continued typing as if she was no longer there.
His words didn’t ease her confusion or anxiety. She left his office even more afraid of the future repercussions. Was he giving her a free pass to make-out with students as long as no one found out? And if so, how many other ‘passes’ had he given out? What was going on at this school?
Delia went back to her classroom and started grading the test papers as a way to get her mind off the absurdity of the situation. When the next class began, she handed out their tests then continued to grade the tests from first period. When she finished, she noticed something very strange. C.J., Angie, Ian and Lena had near perfect papers. Everyone else scored in the C- to B+ range with a couple of failures which was completely normal for this class. She reasoned that it was normal for C.J. to have a near perfect paper since he always seemed to somehow achieve straight A’s in her class, but she couldn’t explain the other three grades. They had never scored so high on one of her tests before.
She put her pen down and leaned back in her chair staring at the four test papers lined up on her desk. She had a feeling there was foul play involved, but she didn’t know how. The papers weren’t identical, so if they cheated, it wasn’t off of each other. But it was almost as if they intentionally missed certain questions.
Angie missed number 7 but got number 9 right, which was almost the same problem. Ian answered number 3 perfectly, but completely bombed number 5. She hated to think that Lena, possibly her favorite student, the one whom she had connected with the most, was somehow involved in cheating. But in the few review sessions they’d had, Delia knew that Lena was not yet capable of the caliber of work she saw on this test.
She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t exactly in the position to be the moral crusader and accuse someone of cheating. After the day she’d had, she’d feel like a hypocrite accusing someone of such a deplorable act after all the deplorable acts she had committed. But did that mean she would have to turn a blind eye to every act of dishonesty and corruption for the rest of her life?
Principal Howard’s passive response to her encounter with Chase and the unusually high test marks plagued her mind as she drove home that afternoon. She wondered if the two situations were connected. If so, how? Different scenarios played in her head. Maybe the students were blackmailing the principal. But what would that have to do with the grades in her class? He certainly had nothing to do with the making of or the grading of the test.
Delia wondered what would happen if she wrote a new test tonight and gave it to them tomo
rrow. Would the same four students make the same grade? She took out her laptop computer and began rewriting the test. She made it about the same concepts, but focused on different aspects. In the morning, she would just claim she lost their tests and needed to administer a new one.
***
That night, at 10:30, Delia once again awoke to someone pounding on her door. She groaned. It better not be Donna Lee expecting her to go clubbing on a Tuesday night. When she opened the door, she wished it was Donna Lee. Instead, it was Jason.
Chapter 15
After her brain registered that her philandering soon-to-be-ex-husband stood in front of her, she swung the door shut, but he caught it and let himself in. She was too tired to throw him out. She knew he would never physically harm her and she had to admit she was a bit curious as to why he was there.
“What do you want?” she asked, crawling back to the bed.
Upon entering her small apartment, he gave it the once over. Though neat and well-organized, it was obvious the studio apartment didn’t meet his standards. Jason James was used to luxury. So the question remained, why was he there?
“Where’s Gina? Do you want her to move in here too?” Delia asked with uncharacteristic bitterness. Maybe she had finally had enough and was ready to stand up for herself.
“About that,” Jason began as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I need to apologize for that. It was wrong and completely inexcusable.”
Was that an apology? Did Jason James really just apologize? Delia rolled over and looked at him carefully for the first time. He had let his hair grow out a little and had dyed it blond. It really didn’t matter what Jason did to his hair, he always looked gorgeous and always looked quite a bit like Johnny Depp.
“I don’t want a divorce. I want you back. I want you to move back in.”
Delia nearly rolled off the bed. She swung her feet over the side and sat up, suddenly awake. “Why?”
Jason knelt beside the bed and took her hands in his. “I love you, Delia. I always have. I know I’ve been less than worthy of you, but I’m willing to work at it. I’m willing to change.” He kissed her fingers lovingly then rested his head in her lap. Despite herself, Delia ran her fingers through his hair. It was just as thick and luscious as it always had been.
Maybe she had misjudged him. Maybe he’d loved her all along. Why else would he come to her like this? He could have any woman he wanted.
Her pulse quickened as she felt his hands inch up her modest nightgown until they reached her panties. He kissed her thighs as he slowly inched the underwear down. Delia went dizzy with emotion. She remembered all too well what an excellent lover Jason was. But this wasn’t right. It was too quick, too sudden. Something was wrong.
“Jason, wait. I can’t do this.” She pushed him away and worked her panties back to their appropriate position.
“Why not? I’m your husband.” Momentarily shocked, Jason stood and stared at his wife. He saw the familiar insecurity in her eyes then went in for attempt number two. He placed his fingers in her hair then gently caressed her neck with his lips. “We belong together, Delia,” he whispered.
Maybe he was right. Maybe they did belong together. She surely didn’t belong with a seventeen-year-old high school student. Maybe Jason was what she needed. She tried to believe this, but unfortunately, when she closed her eyes and began to succumb to Jason’s caresses, she saw Chase, not Jason.
“I have to think about this.” It took every bit of inner strength for Delia to push him away, but she did it and she felt extremely proud of herself for it.
“I don’t understand. Is there someone else?”
“No,” she lied.
“Then what’s the problem? Let’s pretend none of this happened and go back to the way things used to be.”
“The way things used to be? When you cheated on me with a different woman every week?”
“I won’t do that anymore. I’ll get help. I’ll change. I promise.”
“I said I have to think about it. Now please leave, Jason.”
“I’m not leaving. You’re my wife and I have every right to be here.” Jason took off his coat, tossed it on the bed, then plopped in the lounge chair. He took out a nail file and started buffing his nails as if he would be there for a while. “Besides, you need me. You wouldn’t have been attacked if you had a man around to protect you.”
“What?”
“I said, you need a man in your life. You can’t handle things on your own,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone as he continued to groom his nails. A speck of dust from his nails fell upon his crisp gray shirt and Jason meticulously removed it so as not to spread it to his creased black pants.
Delia flushed with anger. How dare he march back into her life just to declare her incompetence? A flood of not so nice words rushed into her mind, but one phrase popped out first. “How did you know I was attacked?”
“Hunh?” Jason looked up from his nails as if he had forgotten she was in the room. He wasn’t even pretending to listen.
“How did you know about the attack?”
“Oh, some police people came to question me.” He went back to his nails, immediately purging Delia from his thoughts.
She eyed him suspiciously. He hadn’t changed a bit. He was still a self-absorbed, conceited, arrogant bastard. He didn’t love her. If he did, he would have come to see her after she was bound and gagged and stuffed into the trunk of a car. She didn’t even get a phone call from him. Looking at him now, she realized he probably loved his fingernails more than he loved her. What had she ever seen in him? More importantly, why was he now so interested in getting back together? He had to have some ulterior motive.
A knock on the door pulled Delia out of her thoughts. She had never been so relieved in her life to have an unexpected visitor so late at night.
“What are you doing here?” she asked Chase when she opened the door. This night just kept getting more and more bizarre.
“I was on my way to the Black Cat when I saw Mr. James here entering your building. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” Chase stepped passed Delia into the apartment and glared at Jason.
“Excuse me, do I know you?” Jason asked.
“Wait, you were going to a club on a Tuesday night? You have school in the morning,” she said.
“Delia, is this one of your students?” Jason asked with an arrogant grin. “Looks like he’s got a bit of a crush on you.”
“I think you should leave now,” Chase said with an authority that belied the youthful White Stripes T-shirt he wore.
Jason laughed outright. “This does not concern you, kid. This is between me and my wife. If anyone’s leaving, it’s you.” Jason stood and approached Chase threateningly.
The two men stared at each other in a battle of wills neither one of them wanting to be the one to move first.
Finally, Chase said, “Are you going to leave willingly or am I going to have to force you?”
“I’d like to see you try.”
In a flurry of movements, Chase grabbed Jason’s wrist, twisted his arm behind his back and had him pinned to the floor writhing in pain. Delia’s eyes bulged. When did they start teaching that in high school gym class? Chase picked him up, banged his face into the wall then pushed him out the door and into the hallway. It all happened so quickly that Jason stood speechless staring into the apartment and clutching his bloody nose.
Chase grabbed Jason’s coat, tossed it at him then slammed the door shut.
“What the hell was that?” Delia asked when it was all over.
“I hate that guy for what he did to you.”
“Does that give you the right to break his nose?”
“I should have done worse. I wish he would’ve hit me back so I could’ve knocked out some of his perfectly placed teeth. What was he doing here anyway?”
“He wants to get back together.” Delia found herself slinking away from Chase. Suddenly, she was a little afraid of him. She had seen the shy, swee
t Chase from the cruise, the arrogant womanizer C.J. from school, and now this new incarnation of personality seemed simply violent. She wondered if he had another name he went by.
“Delia, I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you,” he said when he noticed her guarded demeanor.
“I think you should go. I just want to be alone.”
“Delia, I … ” he reached out to touch her then decided against it.
Chapter 16
The next day, the test grades turned out about the same. Most students even scored worse except C.J. Angie, Ian, and Lena, whose grades either stayed the same or improved. That should have been enough to ease her worries. It was a completely unplanned and unexpected test and she had watched them carefully throughout the class. There was no way they could have gotten the test in advance or cheated right in front of her face. She should have felt better, but she didn’t. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew something wasn’t right.
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