The School Guidance Counsellor

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It was one week after backyard sex and it was also one week of side glances and low whispers sent her way by her neighbours and other residents in Dalgaco. They were staring at her like she was a piece in a museum, like she was Lucy or something. She had her breakfast at a diner that faced the longest crosswalk in town and the waitress there looked at her warily. She pretended to be engrossed in the view out the window, but she felt eyes on her the entire time she was in that diner. When she left, more eyes fell on her and as she headed down the crosswalk, more people passed her by with ugly frowns on their face.

They knew.

No, that wasn't possible. They had been discreet. But then, they did have sex in public every now and then. But they made sure no one would see, didn't they? Dalgacans mostly kept to themselves, and she was certain they would rather watch TV than look out the window to see if their neighbours just happened to be having backyard sex. She walked down the pavement that led to her home and a mother with a child strolled past.

"Look, Mom! It's her!" the child pointed at her and yelled.

"Hush!" the mother covered her child's mouth and pulled him away, running down the road to the other pavement.

Kitty sighed and went up to her porch. When she walked in, Barry was sitting at a chair behind a table that leaned against the blinds.

"Kitty," he said. "Come sit down."

"I'll stand, thank you," she said, bracing herself for what was to come.

"I thought you were better, I really did," he said. "How could you? Do you think I'm a fool?"

"What are you talking about?"

Betrayal shone in his eyes. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"No, I don't."

"Stop lying to me!"

Kitty frowned hard. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

He slammed his fist down at the table. "You liar! Don't you know liars end up in Hell?"

"What do you want me to say, Barry?"

"Tell me the truth. How long have you been sleeping with your school guidance counsellor?"

The cat was really out of the bag. "A while."

Sorrow flashed in his eyes. "Why, Kitty? God, why? Why would you do this to us? I trusted you!"

"Oh come on, Barry, you should've known this would happen a long time ago."

"What do you mean?"

"We're best friends, for Christ's sake, not lovers. We never were."

"Because I can't provide you sexual gratification? Is that it?"

"It's not only that, and you know it. I didn't mean to hurt you like this, but I'm sorry. I wanted to break up with you but I knew you'd never accept that, so I never tried to."

"What have I ever done to you? How could you betray me like this? We had a partnership, a mutual understanding, an alliance that was supposed to be approved before God one day!"

She laughed. "A mutual understanding? What we had was never mutual, Barry."

"What? What are you talking about? We both agreed - "

"No, Barry," she said, indignance rising up in her. "Everything was always on your terms, on your rules, everything! You decided everything for me. You don't know what a partnership is, you're a fucking dictator."

"What?" Barry pronounced in disbelief. "I respect you - "

"You don't, Barry. You respect the idea of saving face. All you do, you do so that others would take one look at you and be filled with jealousy. You tried to mould me into a perfect housewife, but I'm sorry, I'd rather die and go to Hell than ever spend the rest of my life with you!"

Barry glared at her, at a loss for words as tears streamed down her face. She wiped her eyes and shook her head at him.

"It's over, Barry," she said.

Then she left.

❃❃❃

"As you can see," Gunner said to the Dean. "They are all rumours."

Kitty nodded her head. "Yeah."

The Dean sent careful glances of suspicion between either of them before looking down at the papers in his hand and tapping on them with one finger. "We have a report of you two having sex in the backyard of his home, and following that, several people came up to tell us that you often went over to his place and that you seemed to have an unnaturally close relationship to him."

"Well," Kitty said. "I went over to his place to see Melanie. You know about my father's trial. She was the victim and I befriended her."

The Dean's eyes lit up at Melanie's name, now privy to an interesting piece of gossip. "Melanie who?"

"I can't tell you that," Kitty said.

Disappointment flashed in his eyes. "There was also a security guard who saw you entering his office late at night one day. He came forward after hearing the rumours about Gunner and you."

"Don't you think it's weird he only mentioned something after rumours started floating around? I never entered his office out of school hours. He clearly loves gossip."

The Dean paused in consideration, and Kitty knew she had made a good point. "The way he looks at you, the way you look at him..." he said. "It's like - "

"Think you've been watching too many movies, Dean," Gunner remarked. "I have a wife."

"And I have a boyfriend," Kitty said.

"It wouldn't be the first time someone cheated on a partner. It's entirely possible that you two - "

"You have a point," Gunner said and Kitty stared at him in horror.

The Dean's eyes widened. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"Talk to Mrs. Edwards."

"And why should I?"

"She'll tell you," Gunner said. "How she turns me on. Can't control myself around her."

The Dean pursed his lips. "She did come to me talking about a particular incident."

"Well then why are we still having this conversation?"

"You're really not sleeping with her?"

"I have a foster daughter, Dean," Gunner said. "This job is very important to me."

He slumped back into his chair. "Okay then, I'm clearing the two of you."

And Kitty pumped the air with her fist in her mind.