Jealousy at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

‘Rex. So glad you could stop by.’ Ms Grainger stood at the doorstep of her house wearing a very short skirt and a light low cut top.

  ‘I’ve never had a teacher give me her phone number before, but yours was one I couldn’t resist.’

  ‘Great. Come on in.’

  Her house was quite homely and it even had some religious artefacts around the main lounge. One thing Rex noticed was a little strange was the absence of photographs.

  ‘Come and sit down,’ she invited him.

  She took his hand and led him to the couch. They both sat down and she moved in close to him. ‘This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this too, but there is just something about you. I had to try my luck. Of course you do realise that this is not going to lead anywhere, right?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And no one can know.’

  ‘Someone already does.’

  She shrunk back a little. ‘Who? You didn’t report me, did you?’

  Rex laughed. ‘No. Of course not. I wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘Then who did you tell? Your friends? I wouldn’t want rumours going around.’

  ‘I told one person who I trust completely. My girlfriend, Vanessa. She knows I was coming here tonight.’

  ‘You told your girlfriend?’ She gaped. ‘I can hardly believe that. Which one was she? I take it she was one of the girls I pulled you away from in class last week. Was it the extremely beautiful one or the absolutely stunning one?’

  ‘The absolutely stunning one.’

  ‘I should have guessed. And you’re telling me she’s fine with this?’

  ‘As right as rain,’ Rex said. ‘Just as long as I don’t keep anything secret from her.’

  ‘Wow. You must have a strange relationship.’

  ‘Well it’s certainly not normal.’

  ‘That’s good.’ She smiled. ‘Normal’s boring anyway. I believe in unusual relationships myself.’

  ‘So err…’ Rex said. ‘You live here alone?’

  She smiled. ‘No need for talk. We should get straight down to business. Want to come and join me in the hot tub?’

  ‘Sounds good to me.’

  At first Rex was a little uneasy, thinking that perhaps she was up to something, but he soon found that was not the case. She was genuine in her desire for him and Rex enjoyed himself so much he was shocked when he discovered that two hours had flown by. He lay with her on her bed. She ran her finger up and down his chest.

  ‘You are definitely something special. Here was me thinking I would take the teacher role and you the student, but it seems the roles were reversed. You definitely know what you’re doing.’

  For the first time Rex was able to take a good look around the room. It was spotlessly clean, but there were a lot of drawers for just one woman. Even in other parts of the house there were signs that she did not live alone. Nevertheless, he was willing to go with her wishes and not ask questions.

  ‘I’d like you to come back again from time to time.’

  ‘I’m sure I can manage that.’

  She smiled. ‘Awesome.’

  ‘It’s great to have such a hot teacher as you Ms Grainger.’

  ‘Please... call me Katy.’

  ‘Ok, Katy.’

  ‘But not at school.’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘I...’ Suddenly she sat bolt upright. ‘Oh my God, he’s back already!’

  Rex heard a door open in another part of the house and immediately realised the situation they were in. ‘It’s your husband isn’t it? Or your boyfriend.’

  ‘My husband. Oh God.’ She pulled the blankets over them. ‘Get down.’

  Rex didn’t see how hiding under the blankets could do any good at all, but he heard footsteps coming up the hallway. There was no place else to hide, so he covered himself over and lay as flat as he could. She leaned partially over him. He heard the door open and somebody entered.

  A familiar voice spoke. ‘Katy, why have you taken down our photographs... Good lord! Someone’s under the covers with you!’

  Rex flinched and braced himself for what was to come.

  ‘Katy...’ the man’s voice whined. ‘Why? You promised me...’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ed. But I needed this.’

  ‘What? I thought we were fine. I thought you were happy.’

  ‘I am, Ed, it’s just that I need a little something extra from time to time, you know?’

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘Do you really need to know? Can’t you just leave the room for a minute, I’ll get him out of here and then you won’t have to see him.’

  ‘Not see him? I want to know who he is right now! Right now Katy!’

  Katy sighed. ‘It’s ok, Rex. He won’t hurt you.’

  Rex pushed the blankets down off his head and when he saw who it was standing in the room, red faced and wide-eyed, his jaw dropped. It was Reverend Flanders, his middle-aged biology teacher.

  ‘Oh. Hi, Mr Sanders,’ Rex said, trying to sound as casual as possible, which was difficult, especially considering that his first name was Ed. If it wasn’t for the precariousness of the situation, Rex probably would have laughed. ‘I had no idea she was married.’

  ‘He’s one of our students!’ Sanders gasped. ‘Katy! I can’t believe this! Do you realise how much trouble you could get into? You could lose your job. I might even lose mine!’

  ‘Ed, you’re over reacting, you’re not going to lose your job.’

  ‘And him too! Why him?’

  ‘Because he’s young... athletic... and...’

  ‘How can you do this to me? I know I’m so much older than you and I’m not good looking and I’m not athletic, but I thought I could trust you. And you...’ He pointed an accusing finger at Rex. ‘You have a girlfriend!’

  ‘I know, Mr Sanders. I have a lot of them. You’re not telling me anything I’m unaware of. Look, I’m sorry. If I had known, I would never have come.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have, anyway! She’s a teacher!’ His face reddened still more and his body quivered. ‘I want you out of here!’ He pointed at Rex again. ‘Go!’

  ‘Err... mind if you step out the door for a minute?’

  ‘What, so you can mess around with my wife some more?’

  ‘No, so I can get my clothes on.’

  Sanders eyes narrowed, but he left the room. Both Rex and Katy quickly got dressed.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Katy whispered. ‘I really am.’

  ‘It’s ok. Are you going to be alright? Is he violent?’

  ‘No. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.’

  Rex nodded.

  ‘Hurry up!’ came Sander’s voice.

  Rex opened the door where he came face to face with his irate biology teacher. Sanders blocked his path, a glare on his face. Rex refused to be intimidated and met him eye to eye, keeping a straight face.

  Sanders backed down first. Rex knew he would, as he knew that deep down Sanders was terrified of him, especially after the incident involving Vanessa. The biology teacher pulled to the side to let him pass, the glare gone from his face. Rex stepped by him and turned to face him one last time. ‘Honestly. I had no idea.’

  Once outside, he breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been nice just to walk away and forget the entire incident had ever taken place, but Rex knew that he hadn’t heard the last of it. Sanders seemed like the type of guy that held a grudge and on this occasion, it was Rex in the wrong, not him.

  Rex pulled his cell phone from his jacket and speed dialled Vanessa’s number. He continued to walk.

  ‘Dollbaby!’ Vanessa’s welcome voice radiated from the microphone. ‘How did it go? Did you enjoy getting hot for the teacher?’

  ‘It was.... an education.’

  ‘Don’t tell me she had you doing school work.’ Vanessa laughed. ‘Was it some new kind of detention where the student goes to the teacher’s home on Sunday night for their punishment?’

  ‘If it was, I might make it a policy to actually tur
n up to detentions.’

  ‘So what happened? You have to tell me everything. Don’t leave out any detail.’

  ‘I’ll give you the most shocking details if you like.’

  ‘Ooh la la, I like the sounds of that.’

  ‘She’s a married woman.’

  ‘Oh, oh. There was always that danger.’

  ‘You’ll never believe who she’s married too.’

  ‘Come on, Dollbaby, spit it out!’

  ‘Reverend Flanders.’

  Vanessa gasped. ‘No way!’

  ‘It’s true.’

  ‘Nuh uh.’

  ‘Yeah huh.’

  ‘I don’t believe it. There’s no way a teacher that young and hot is married to a stuffy middle-aged religious bigot like Flanders.’

  ‘That’s why she reckoned she needed someone like me. But hey, that’s not the only shocking detail. Flanders arrived home early.’

  ‘Oh my God. Please tell me you got out unseen.’

  ‘Nope. We were busted.’

  ‘Holy shit!’

  ‘Nothing holy about it. I think he was more freaked out than either me or Ms Grainger was. Katy, that’s her first name, took it very calmly, like it was something that old Flanders just had to live with.’

  ‘Oh man... Flanders is gonna be so pissed. He’s not gonna just let that go.’

  Rex turned to walk down his street, his house only 400 metres further down the road. ‘I know, but he’s gonna have to be careful. I don’t think he wants his Mrs to lose her job.’

  ‘But after this, he may dump her anyway. He may not care.’

  ‘Nah. I don’t think Flanders is that stupid. A guy like him is not gonna find anyone of her quality that easy. I get the impression he may even be used to her infidelities.’

  ‘You took precautions, right?’

  ‘Of course. I always do.’

  Vanessa didn’t reply right away, but then finally spoke. ‘I trust you.’

  ‘I would never abuse that trust.’

  She was silent again.

  ‘You ok?’ Rex asked.

  ‘Sure. I was just wondering...’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Ah, nothing. It’s ok.’

  Rex was about to probe some more when movement ahead caught his eye. Two burly figures advanced in his direction. As they drew closer Rex could make them out from the light of the streetlamp that they wore gang jackets.

  ‘Oh, oh.’

  ‘What, Dollbaby?’

  ‘Wild Dogs.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Coming up towards me. Stay quiet. I’ll leave the phone connected just in case.’ He slipped the phone into his pocket and turned to look for a clear way around them. He wasn’t in the mood for having to deal with gang members.

  It was then that he noticed movement from behind. He considered running across the street, but yet another gang member emerged from the gloom. Rex spun around to meet his rear attacker and noticed a glint of something metallic.

  A knife.

  He grabbed his attacker’s arm just in time and wrenched it around causing the gang member to cry out and release his weapon. The other gang members picked up their pace to a run. Rex twisted his attacker’s arm around and thrust him down onto the footpath. He pinned him down with his knee while grabbing the knife and holding it to the back of his head.

  ‘Hold it!’ Rex shouted at the other three gang members as they reached the spot and pulled to a halt in front of him. ‘Don’t even think about it if you don’t want your douchebag pal here to lose an ear.’

  Rex recognised one of the Wild Dogs. He’d seen him briefly before, probably when they gate crashed his birthday party a few months earlier. He spoke, ‘We want you to come with us.’

  ‘Well you can go to Hell.’

  ‘Hone wants to talk to you.’

  Hone was the leader of the Wild Dogs; the man Rex had defeated in a fight when they gate crashed the party. Rex had no desire to see the man again. ‘Well I don’t want to talk to him.’

  ‘You better come,’ said the Dog. ‘Hone doesn’t like it when people don’t obey his orders.’

  ‘I’m not in his gang!’

  ‘He just wants to talk.’

  ‘What, so he sends his heavies, with weapons to beat me up and carry me over there?’

  ‘We weren’t going to beat you up. We just wanted to take you over there to see him.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He wants to talk.’

  ‘Yeah, you told me that, asswipe, but I want to know why.’

  ‘It was just his orders.’

  ‘Well that’s great isn’t it? I’m expected just to hand myself over to you eejits, put myself at your mercy, let you take me to a gang hideout and then trust that I’m gonna walk out of there unharmed?’

  The leader shrugged. ‘Just following orders.’

  ‘Well how about you take an order from me? Go back to your leader and tell him if he wants to talk to me to come and see me himself. You got that?’

  The gangster’s eyes narrowed, but then he nodded. ‘Alright. I’ll tell him. But he’s gonna be pissed with you. And you don’t want that.’

  ‘Then let him be pissed. I don’t give a shit.’ Rex released his assailants arm, but pushed his knee deeper into his kidneys causing him to cry out. ‘Don’t move.’

  With the knife still held at the Dog’s ear, he reached for his cell phone with his free hand.

  ‘You there?’

  ‘Rex, are you alright? Shall I call the cops?’

  ‘It’s ok.’ Rex looked up at the Dogs. ‘I’m gonna let your pal go in a second, but not until you eejits are long gone and I’m gonna have the person on the end of this line call the cops if anything happens to me. You got that?’

  ‘Yeah, I got it,’ the leader said.

  ‘Then piss off.’

  The leader turned and walked. So did his two buddies. Once they had reached the far end of the street, Rex released his hold on the final gang member and climbed up. The final Dog clambered to his feet and hurried in the direction of his pals.

  Rex sighed and spoke into his phone. ‘It’s ok Nessie. They’re gone. I’m almost home. It’ll be ok now.’

  ‘Rex, I’m worried about you. They’ll be back. You need to call the police.’

  ‘I will. Don’t worry. I’ll deal with these guys.’

  CHAPTER 17:

  Cheeky Cherry Strikes Again