Sunshine (Student/Teacher Romance) 18+

31

And as soon as I hear the soft slam, my mouth opens.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Shyla?"

She smirks. "I work here."

I stammer, "What do you mean you, you work here? Since when?" My brow goes solid in anger. "You fucking kidding me?"

"Not at all, Mr. Caswell. Funny, I could've been Nurse Caswell. That would've been cute."

"You can't work here."

"Why not? I needed a job, the school needed a nurse." She shrugs. "And here I am."

"What about living in Wood Crest? You're really going to commute here every day? That's easily a two hour drive in traffic."

"Oh, no I got an apartment in Carlson. My commute is now less than five minutes away."

My blood is close to boiling.

"You and me will be seeing a whole lot of each other." She smiles but I know her well enough to know it's not genuine. It's forced, it's conniving. "Just like old times."

...

"My life's a fucking train wreck," I tell Tyson, still pacing my living room.

I've been so antsy since running into Shyla. I can't even sit still, that shit got me more amped up than caffeine. I just know the crash is going to be brutal. I shake my head roughly, despite my aching neck. It's so stiff and tense, I've been rubbing at it all day with no relief.

But maybe it's because it's not as simple as massaging away a knot under my skin. The problem is in my head, it's in my gut.

It's in my chest.

"What now?" He flops onto my couch, tossing his keys on the coffee table, almost not seeming to care where they land. "Not the little teeny bopper again, man. I thought you let that shit go like I told you to."

I quickly shake my head again, not even wanting to address that. "Shyla's working at Carlson. She fucking moved here and took on the school nurse position, just so she can torment me. Like what the fuck."

"So what?"

"So what? She's my ex fiancée and I finally made peace with her walking out on me. I've finally gotten over her and here she is casually returning to this city just to stir some shit up I'm sure."

"But why is that?"

"Huh?" I frown at him. "I don't fucking know why she—"

"No, why now are you suddenly over Shyla? I mean yeah you were together for a long time, but damn, took you long enough. And when it finally happened it was all at once. Not gradually."

"What's your point?"

He crosses his arms in a smug way, looking me over. "I'm just wondering what finally got you to snap out of it."

"Time? Common sense? I don't know, Ty."

"Orrrr possibly a lady friend? But that doesn't make sense cause you haven't told me shit about any new women in your life."

"Cause there aren't any."

"Yeah, sure."

I frown at him, noting the hard expression on his face. The tension in his jaw, his fists. "You good, Ty?"

He almost laughs, but not quite. What comes out is dry, his smile only enough to show his fangs briefly when he shakes his head. "No."

And then I realized as I quickly took the next seat, all I ever do is talk about myself. My problems. Granted, he asks me, but I never ask back.

He's my brother in law. My really good friend. Probably my only friend, how can I let myself get so wrapped up in my own life, I don't remember to check in on his?

"What's going on?"

"You really wanna know?"

"Of course I do."

"Well," he sighs, "you know how your sisters been going crazy over wanting a baby for like the past two years?"

I nod slightly. I was aware, but I didn't know it was really that big of a deal.

"We'd been trying for at least that long with shit luck. I mean I really didn't care if we had one or not, you know me. Take it or leave it." He sort of shrugs. "But we finally went and got things checked out the other day and...the look on her face when they told her, Abel,"

"Told her what?"

"Basically, she won't be able to have children on her own. Well, their exact terms were 'close to impossible', but what's the fucking difference."

"There's other options though, right? I mean I'm sure Hailey wouldn't be thrilled to have to go another route, but if it's what she really wants then-"

"We already talked about that. She said she didn't like the idea if it wasn't the old fashioned way..."

Typical.

"What's so bad about getting some help?"

"You know how she is. I think it's mostly a pride thing, but she's completely sick over it. It's actually nice to be out of the house for a little...I love her, but it's draining. I gotta be so positive and uplifting all day and night and nothing helps."

I didn't really know what to say. I didn't even know if he really wanted me to say anything. I didn't exactly understand how any of that felt, I'd never quite reached that point in a relationship, but I knew it was heavy.

And knowing Hailey she was exactly what he said. Sick.

Probably would be for a while, and dammit maybe she needs more than just Tyson right now.

Maybe I need to pull my head out of my own bullshit and focus on something else.