I Think I Like It

By the time I got home, it wasn’t actually that late. To be exact, it was 8:47 when he pulled up a few houses down from mine. I could have stayed out later, but my Mom was gunning for me as it was, and I sort of wanted her to drop our conversation from this morning. He leaned forward and kissed me, smiling against my mouth.
“I don’t want you to go.” He breathed. He’d wiped off the majority of his make up, but the mascara still clung to his eyes, and his lips were still slightly stained red (though, that could just be where they were bruised. Oops.) I stroked his cheek.
“I don’t want to go, either. I’ll see you tomorrow, though.” I said softly. He groaned and laughed.
“I forgot about that.” He chuckled.
“It’ll be fine. I mean…I won’t say anything if you don’t.” I said. He looked at the deep purple and red bruises that stretched up both sides of his neck and sighed.
“No, but everyone else will.” He murmured. I put my hand over his.
“It’s fine. Nobody will guess anything.”
“It’s a bit of a coincidence though, right?” he said, concern filling his voice. I shook my head.
“Just make a joke out of it, and they won’t suspect a thing. Y’know, hiding in plain sight and all that?” I said. He smiled and kissed me again, his lips lingering on mine.
“Go.” He breathed. I squeezed his hand again and slid out of the car. He waved as he drove off and I walked home.

“Hey Mom.” I greeted her warmly when I walked in the door. She hugged me and smiled.
“How was your day?” she asked brightly, and I was happy to hear that this morning seemed to be forgotten.
“It was fine, thanks.” I said, leaning against the doorframe.
“You’re home a bit late.” She said, furrowing her eyebrows.
“It’s only like, 9.” I laughed. She sighed.
“I guess so. I don’t know. Frank, can I say something without sounding like a horrible, domineering bitch of a Mother?” she asked. I nodded, worried about where this was going.
“I don’t want you staying out late anymore. Just…come home from school okay?”
“What? Why?!” I said, outraged. She sighed, like she saw this coming.
“Because I don’t know who you’re with. If you bring your boyfriend-“
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I snapped. She rolled her eyes.
“Well, whatever. If you bring him here, and I meet him, then you can do whatever the hell you want. Until then, you’re only allowed to school and back. If you want to see anyone on the weekend, you can, but you have to be back by 6.” She said, her voice firm. I groaned and smacked the doorframe.
“Why can’t you just trust me!?” I cried. Granted, I knew that she had every right to not trust me – but she didn’t know that.
“Because you’re so different now! You’re secluded and emotional, and you come home late with lovebites all over you, and you’re refusing to talk to me. It’s enough to make any parent worry.” She snapped. I groaned.
“Mom, I’m sorry. I’ll be less secretive.”
“Good. And once you bring your friend over, you can do whatever you want.” She said. I grunted unhappily and stormed out of the room, tears of rage in my eyes. I knew she had every right to be worried, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. If anything, actually, her being right made me even angrier.

I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep until I woke up. I was still clothed and, if the time on my clock was right, running late. I groaned and rolled out of bed. Clearly, my Mom was still angry about the night before, because she didn’t even bother waking me up. Nice one.
I slid off my jeans, and almost considered keeping the same boxers on, when I remembered what had happened last night, and quickly changed them – there were some things that you didn’t want to go to school smelling of, and sex with your teacher was definitely one of them. I dragged on new clothes and stumbled downstairs, not saying a word to my Mother who, not surprisingly, didn’t say a word to me, either. Not, at least, until I reached the front door.
“I’ll see you home straight after school tonight.” She said firmly. I rolled my eyes and slammed the door.

I was really, really late. I only had Science first, and didn’t have English until after lunch, but it was still annoying. I was nearly there when my phone – my normal phone – buzzed.

FROM: Joe.
(8:27am)dude! wer u @?????

TO: Joe.
(8:28am)Almost there. Mom being a bitch. What’s up?

FROM: Joe.
(8:29)New info re: ur mystery bae. Tell u @ lunch.

I groaned and slid my phone back in my pocket. I really couldn’t be bothered to sit and listen to their theories, knowing that they weren’t right. Actually, the only thing I really wanted to do was to see Gerard, but I knew it was best that I wait until our lesson together.
Until then, I had four whole hours of fun to sit through. For most of them, I just rested my head on the desk and tried to sleep, only looking up when someone spoke loudly enough to rouse me, or when I got a text, the latter of which were mostly from Joe (who was sitting across the room from me), trying to tease me about my ‘mystery guy’, and not realizing that I didn’t give a shit. I chewed my lip as the thought passed through my head, feeling bad. He’d worked really hard to track this person down, and considering I was lying to him, I at least owed him my enthusiasm. I smiled at him, and turned back, pretending to be listening to my teacher.

By the time lunchtime swung around, I was all but ready to pass out from exhaustion. I nearly fell into my seat, and turned to talk to my friends.
It was only when I really looked that I realized that someone else was sitting at our table with us. He looked vaguely familiar – I thought maybe I recognized his sandy blonde hair. He shifted uncomfortably, and I realized I’d been staring at him. I let my eyes slip to Joe, who was practically bouncing.
“What did you wanna tell me?” I asked sleepily.
“This is Cameron. Cameron, Frank.” He said in introduction. Cameron smiled.
“Uh, yeah, I’m in your English class.” He said. Oh, so that’s where I’d seen him. I smiled politely.
“We went through the list, and questioned every single guy on there, and we got nothing.” Chris said, disappointed. What a surprise. “But, we came across Cameron, who said that he likes you.” He said boldly, and I watched Cameron blush. I smiled – he was kinda cute.
“Joe, don’t be such an asshole.” I laughed. I extended my hand to Cameron, who shook it timidly.
“Sorry. Don’t worry, it won’t be ah, weird.” I smiled. I could almost see Joe and Chris jumping with excitement out of the corner of my eye and chuckled, and Cameron smiled. The longer I looked at him, the cuter he seemed. Almost like the kind of guy I’d date.
The thought caused me to turn my head to the side, where I knew Mr. Way would be sitting, and my stomach dropped. He was staring at me, looking like a lost puppy. I dropped Cameron’s hand and gave him a small, reassuring smile. His mouth twitched a bit, but it wasn’t much of a smile.
I hadn’t realized until I turned back around that Joe and Chris had left us alone. Those bastards.
“So um, I guess we could walk to English together?” Camerom stammered. I smiled.
“Yeah, sure thing.” I said. We didn’t speak much as we walked, but that was fine. A plan was already formulating in my head. I glanced at Cameron. If things went well, I thought I’d just found my way to be with Gerard and appease my Mom at the same time.
Of course, there was someone I had to run it by first.

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but he’d actually attempted to cover the bruises on his neck by wearing a high-collared shirt. His attempt today, however, was even weaker than mine yesterday. As we filed into the classroom and everyone looked at him, I heard a general gasp, and whispers. I felt a swell of pride.
“Oh god!” Cameron exclaimed. Gerard’s eyes flicked up, then back down to the paper in front of him. He was pissed.
“That looks painful.” Cameron whispered, following me to my desk. I laughed and nodded, not bothered with him anymore. He seemed to get the hint, and slunk away to his own desk. Mr. Way stood up and perched on his desk. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.
“What happened to your neck?” one of the girls squealed. He smiled.
“Aftershave allergy.” He said, flicking his eyes to me. The class laughed and I felt a wave of panic. I didn’t mean that he should hide it in plain sight by telling them exactly what happened.
“No, but seriously, it’s…is it that bad?” he laughed nervously, and the class almost screamed ‘yes’ at him. He blushed and tried to shift his shirt up, but to no avail. I smirked, and he shot me a glare.
“Well, sorry. I hope it’s not too distracting.” He mumbled.
“It really is. Dude, you look like you got beaten up.” Chris said, forever being the most eloquent one in the room. Mr. Way smirked.
“You should see the other guy.” He laughed. As he did, I noticed that his lips were still swollen and bruised from the night before. He looked at me and smiled sweetly.
“Frank, your little accident seems to be clearing up nicely.” He said, his eyes glinting. I blushed.
“Thanks.” I murmured. He laughed and ran his fingertips gently over the bruises.
“Honestly though, they hurt like a bitch. My… ah, friend from last night wasn’t exactly gentle. Not that I minded, of course.” He chuckled. It was normal for him to talk about his sex life with us, him being laid back and ‘cool’, and all, but I wasn’t used to him talking about our sex life. Not only that, but he was making jokes about my first time which, for me, was extremely sentimental. I thought it was special, yet here he was, joking around and making a mockery of it.
“What did they do, try and take a blood sample?” one of the guys called from the back. Mr. Way laughed, turning his attention to the worksheets on his desk.
“I think they were, yeah. It was a bit freaky, you know?” he laughed, walking around and handing the sheets out. I looked down, breathing deeply. I felt like such a fucking idiot. Of course last night didn’t mean anything to him. I was just another fuck. I remembered all of the other stories he’d told us over the last couple years, the girl who kept calling him, the other woman who smelled like cats, the guy that kept forgetting his name. They all passed in a matter of seconds, a stream of jokes for our benefit. And now I was one of them. Just one of his stories.He slid the worksheet on my desk and paused.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly, the tone of his voice almost making me remember the way he talked to me last night.
“Fuck off.” I spat. He stuttered.
“Wh-what?” he said, staring in disbelief.
“I said, fuck off. Like, literally, get the fuck away from me.” I snarled.
“Outside. Now.” He hissed. I glared at him.
“Shove it up your ass.”
“Outside.” He said, his voice losing all personality and becoming his strained, angry teacher voice. I slammed my hands on the table as I rose to my feet and stormed outside, slamming the door behind me. All was silent for a few moments, until he joined me back outside.
“What the fuck was that?” he hissed. I stared at him, my blood boiling with anger. I wanted to scream at him, to call him every name under the sun, to punch him in his fucking face.
What I did, though, was cry.
I fell against his chest and he instinctually wrapped his arms around me, cradling me to him.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked gently, stroking my hair. He smelled so good, so familiar, and my head felt light with confusion. I couldn’t work out if he really wanted me or not.
“I…don’t mean anything.” I sobbed. He took a step back and held my face, staring into my eyes.
“What do you mean you don’t mean anything?” he said sadly.
“I’m just another fuck.” I breathed. He stared at me in confusion, then his eyes widened as he realized what had happened. He pulled me back into him, holding me tightly.
“No, baby, no. Last night was perfect and you were perfect. I was just trying to laugh it off so nobody would suspect us. Baby, don’t ever think you aren’t important to me. Sweetheart, I’m sorry.” He said, kissing the top of my head as I sobbed into his chest. I felt stupid, but reassured.
“So I’m not a freak?” I said softly. He shook his head, his own eyes filling with tears.
“No. You’re my beautiful, amazing boy and I’m absolutely crazy about you. Why do you think I’m so damn jealous all the time?” he said, then stopped abruptly. He clearly hadn’t meant to say that. I laughed a little.
“You don’t need to be jealous. If last night is anything to go by, you don’t have any competition.” I smiled. He hummed happily, stroking my cheek.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel unimportant.” He said solemnly. I smiled.
“It’s…fine. I guess I just overreacted.”
“Just look at me and remember the way I was last night. That’s how I am. That is me.” He said, holding my chin.
“The real you is dressed up as a woman and bouncing on my dick?” I said, lowering my voice. He beamed at me.
“Yes. Exactly.” He said happily, pulling me in for a final hug, before leading me back into the classroom. I caught Cameron’s eye as I walked in and he smiled timidly. Gerard’s grip tightened on my arm, and I subtly pushed his foot with mine. He gave me a hard look, but the side of his mouth twitched up as he returned to his desk. He picked up his pen and sucked it thoughtfully, and the image with his painted red lips wrapped around me the night before rose in my mind. Jesus.He smiled and dropped the pen.
“I’m guessing you’ve all either finished your worksheets, or you haven’t started.” He said bluntly. The noise the class made a noise that indicated it was the latter. He laughed.
“It’s fine. I’m not in the mood to rant on at you for an hour anyway.” He said, sitting down on the edge of my desk. That fucker. From this angle, I could see the faint dark black smudges under his eyes from where he’d unsuccessfully tried to remove his eye make up. My breath hitched and he looked down, smiling softly, even though he didn’t know why I was so ‘excited’. I moved my arm, which was resting on the table, slightly forward, so my fingers brushed his thigh. He smiled even wider and moved his leg up, giving me a better reach. It was subtle enough that nobody else would notice, even if they looked straight at us, but it was bold enough to send a thrill of excitement through my legs.
“You’re being a bit presumptuous.” He murmured softly. I raised my eyebrows in confusion. He smirked.
“My threat still stands.” He said curtly.
“No it doesn’t.” I retorted. He looked surprised.
“Why not?”
“Because I haven’t graduated yet.” I teased. He nodded, as if he was considering that.
“You raise a good point. There’s ways of getting around that, though.” He said softly.
“Like what?” I asked. He didn’t respond, he just got to his feet and returned to sitting behind his desk, his pencil moving furiously on the paper in front of him. I sighed and dropped my eyes to the worksheet in front of me. I got a few of the questions done, but too soon, the bell rang. He looked up and smiled warmly.
“You guys can go.” He said, turning back to his work. On a whim, I walked over to Cameron, who was packing his stuff away.
“Hey, wait for me outside, okay?” I said. I could almost feel Gerard’s eyes on me as I spoke. Cameron’s face lit up and he nodded.
“Yeah, sure thing.” He said, walking out of the classroom. I spun on my heel and smiled sheepishly at Gerard, who looked tired.
“I feel like we’re going to talk about something upsetting.” He said. I smiled and walked over to his desk, taking his hand in mine.
“Nope. I found a solution to everything.” I said happily. He raised an eyebrow.
“Everything?”
I quickly explained the situation with my Mom, and with my friends constantly digging around in my business. He nodded slowly.
“I didn’t realize, but yes, that does sound problematic. How do you propose to fix it?” he asked. I chewed my lip.
“I was thinking, that since Cameron likes me…”
“Cameron likes you?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. I squeezed his hand.
“Yes. But it’s okay, because I was thinking that I could pretend he was my boyfriend.” I said. His face dropped.
“I’m not following.”
“Well, I’ll introduce him to my Mom, and act like he’s my boyfriend in front of my friends and everything, so nobody has to find out about us, because they’ll just leave us alone.” I explained.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t see the logic in that…but no.” I stared at him in shock.
“What? It’s the perfect solution!” I cried.
“And you’re just gonna tell him the truth? ‘Hey buddy, pretend to be my boyfriend so I can continue fucking my teacher?’” he asked. I chewed my lip.
“Well, no.”
“So he’d think that you were actually dating. And so would everyone else. That leaves me, sitting here, watching you in a relationship with someone else.”
“But I’m doing it for you.” I insisted.
“Are you?” he said coldly.
“Yes? Why else?” I retorted. He sighed and pulled his hand out of my grasp.
“I’m saying no. You’re mine, you always will be mine, and I will not share you. If you want to go around and get a new fuckthing, that’s fine, but don’t do it under the pretences of helping me.” He hissed. I felt tears welling up in my eyes and shook my head.
“Gee, it’s not like that and you know it. I just want to be with you.” I said hoarsely.
“I’d rather get caught than have you go through with this.” He said seriously. I pursed my lips.
“Well, I wouldn’t. It’s worth a shot, right?” I said hopefully. He didn’t reply. I was aware that Cameron was still waiting outside.
“I’m gonna go. We’ll talk about it once you’ve had a chance to think it over.” I said. He nodded, but didn’t respond. I leaned over his desk and he gave me a quick peck on the lips, but didn’t look at me, his eyes seemingly transfixed on the wall opposite. I sighed in frustration and walked out, where Cameron was still waiting outside. He smiled bashfully.
“I didn’t know if you were still coming so I uh, thought I should wait.” He said nervously. I smiled.
“Nope, it’s totally fine.” I said, walking down the hall with him. We were nearing the doors when my phone buzzed, and I answered it, apologizing to Cameron.
Realising it was the other phone, I put it back in my pocket and tried to subtly switch. I didn’t think Cameron saw.
“Hello?” I said softly.
“I’m sorry.” He said, his voice shaking. He was crying. I wanted more than anything to be able to comfort him, but I knew I couldn’t, not with Cameron listening.
“It’s fine.”
“No it’s not. I’m just so scared. I know I’m so much older than you, and that being with me is…difficult. But I really-“
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter. Please, Frank, please reconsider.” He sobbed. I couldn’t stand putting him in pain, but I knew that this was the best way to get everyone off our backs, at least for the time being. It was better for us in the long-term.
“I’ll think about it.”
“You’re with him.” He said solemnly.
“Yeah.”
“Right. Call me when you’re not whoring yourself out for my benefit, then.” He snapped and hung up. I sighed and slid my phone back, smiling at Cameron, who looked concerned.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Totally. Wanna come to my place? I think my Mom would like to meet you.”

Notes

Over 3000 views! Yaaas! :D

Also, thank you to everyone for your super kind and supportive comments on the last chapter! :) I didn't have time to respond to all of you personally, but thank you, it genuinely means so much. <3