✓ | Mr. Hetfield, My Teacher. [Metallica: James Hetfield]

Chapter 31

3 weeks later

Ali woke up and groaned while rubbing her eyes. She and James didn't get much sleep last night because they went at least rounds of passionate sex during the night. The last couple of weeks, they had been having sex more often and more than once a day. They guessed it was because they were both excited to be living in the same city again and they simply loved each other. James had already moved into the apartment next to Ali's and Kate's. His best friend Cliff helped him out like he promised, which made moving much easier. James went to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago to say goodbye to his brother and the rest of his friends. Ali had already completed the final registration for school and was going to start in two weeks along with Kate.

Ali turned to her left and saw that James was still sound asleep. She smiled and kissed his cheek softly. She sat up on the bed and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. She saw that there was a new text from her mom.

"Hey sweetie. When you wake up and have a chance, call me please. Love you"

Ali immediately dialed her mom's number. It rang once and her mom quickly answered.

"Hello?"

"Mom it's me. You texted me to call you, is everything okay?" Ali asked concerned.

"Sweetie, it's your sister."

"What's with Roni?" Ali got off the bed and began to pace. She didn't even notice that she woke James up. He rubbed his head then noticed that Ali was talking on the phone and pacing.

"She's depressed Ali."

"Depressed? Why is she depressed?" Ali stopped pacing so she could fully understand what her mom was saying.

"I don't know if you noticed anything sweetie but Veronica is in love with Mr. Hetfield. You're economics teacher from last year.''

Ali's jaw dropped and she looked at James with widened eyes. James furrowed his eyebrows at her and threw his hands in the air as if he was asking her what was wrong. "Why would you think that? How do you know?" Ali couldn't believe what her mom was telling her. Veronica was in love with James. Her James.

"She confessed to me last night. I'm sure she told you that Mr. Hetfield quit his job and left San Francisco right?" Her mom asked. Ali turned to look at James again, who only had the bed sheets covering his naked body, from the waist down. "Umm, yeah she told me. I thought she sounded weird when she called me a few weeks ago. She started crying and then she hung up on me." Ali explained to her mom as she walked to the bed and laid down next to James; who immediately wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "Mom, are you sure it's not just a little crush or something? I mean, she's going to be a sophomore. Love is a strong word to use don't you think?" Ali asked.

James sighed as he realized what Ali and her mom were talking about. He never noticed anything strange with Ali's sister whenever she talked to him last year. She never did anything strange either. He was hoping it was what Ali figured it was.

"I don't think so honey. Like I said, she has been depressed since she heard about it at registration. She has even been trying to find out where he left to. I'm worried about her getting worse with time."

Ali stiffened up as her mom was explaining to her how bad the situation was. Ali began to feel bad. Her sister was in San Francisco all depressed and in love with her boyfriend; that nobody knew about except Kate, who just happened to be her ex-teacher. "So, what do you suggest we do to make her feel better?" Ali finally asked her mom. She looked up at James who had his eyes closed.

"That's the problem Ali. I'm not sure. I think she needs some kind of assurance from him that there is no way that she has a chance with him. Pretty hard to do that when we don't know where Mr. Hetfield left to. Then again, it would be weird to disturb the man by telling him that a 16-year-old is in love with him."

"Yeah, I don't think that would be the best idea." Ali thought for a second while she felt James stroke her hair. She loved it when he did that. It always kept her calm and relaxed.

"What if you talk to her?"

Ali widened her eyes at her moms suggestion. "Me? Why me?"

"I don't know. She looks up to you and maybe if you let her down easy and explain to her that she has no chance with that teacher, she'll come to her senses."

Ali cleared her throat. She wasn't sure if her talking to Veronica was the best. If she did, once her and her family found out that she had been with Veronica the entire time, Veronica would be heartbroken for sure. Unless Ali would be able to make her sister forget about him completely. Then again she didn't want Veronica to think that she was doing it to get James all to herself. Either way, talking to her sister was bad because at some point, she was going to find out the truth and so where their parents. She finally decided on what to do but she wanted to talk to James about it first.

"Look mom, I'm going to think about it and then I'll call you back ok?"

"Alright but don't take long sweetie. You're sister needs this talk." Brianna urged her.

"I won't mom...love you too. Bye." Ali hung up her cellphone and sighed. She twisted her body so she was cuddled up next to James. "She loves you."

"No she doesn't Ali. It's just a crush. Don't worry about it. She'll get over it." James shrugged one of his shoulders.

"No she won't James." Ali pulled away from his embrace and got off the bed, standing next to it. "She really loves you. My mom says that she's depressed and she told her straight out that she loves you." Ali crossed her arms. "She's going to think I'm the worst sister ever."

"Babe, it's not like you knew anything about it. We just barely found out. All you have to do is talk to her and tell her to get over it." James said simply.

"It's not that simple James...especially because it's you. You're attractive and nice...you're the whole package and any girl would easily fall in love with you. If the tables were reversed, I would be pissed off and hurt." Ali pouted.

"But they're not. You have me. This happened before your sister even noticed me. You have nothing to feel guilty about." James got on his knees, on the bed and pulled Ali close to him; her knees hitting the side of the mattress. Ali rested her hands on his shoulders and she couldn't help but giggle when James kissed in between her breasts. For some reason, she was ticklish in that area and he knew it.

"Babe, seriously...I came to a conclusion though." Ali tried to pull back but James kept a firm grip on her.

"Oh..yeah. What's that?" he asked as he continued to kiss all over her chest and abdomen.

"We have to go to SF before I start school. You AND me." Ali said sternly. James immediately pulled away and looked at her like she was crazy.

"What?"

"We both need to go and we need to tell my family the truth about us. For two reasons. One, we have to take the weight off our shoulders already. We are going to have to tell them at some point so we might as well get it over with. They can't do anything anyways; I'm in college now and you're not my teacher anymore. Second, we have to do it so Veronica can get over you. She'll hate me but it has to be done, for her sake."

"But babe-" James tried to protest but Ali cut him off.

She kissed his lips passionately then pulled away. "We're going before I start school. No excuses."