Bitter (wlw) (teacherxstudent)

seventy-four

"You go first" I said, still laughing.

"Okay" she chuckled. "I just wanted to say sorry for not talking about how much to, you know, reveal to them"

"Yeah, same. I didn't mean to lie, or actually, omit some details, I panicked. I wasn't sure if they should know everything. Even though they probably could guess by the information I gave"

"No, it's alright. They probably shouldn't. I doubt they'll ask anything about it even if they do figure it out anyway. I don't think they'd be judgy about it, but I didn't want to end up in a weird situation, you know"

"Yeah, I get it. I agree" I said, kind of relieved.

It's not that I was embarrassed about Sam being my professor, and she wasn't either. But maybe it wasn't something I wanted to tell her parents after an hour of meeting them. And as I said, they had enough information to gather it without us telling them. Or at least, they still had five more days to do so.

"Okay, so, this town is actually pretty small. I probably could show it all to you in one afternoon. But maybe we can keep one half for tomorrow" Sam said as we headed out, my hand in hers. "Also, most of the few people we'll see are probably gonna be old. Like really old. Everyone around our ages is most likely not here in August"

And she was probably right, most people around weren't exactly young. But I didn't mind, I honestly only cared about being there with Sam.

The whole town literally looked like something that would show up if you searched "English town" on Pinterest. I didn't tell her that because I wasn't sure on how she'd take it. But it was a good thing for me. Most streets were made of gray bricks or steps, and most little houses had plants on the balconies or on the roofs. It was honestly a place I would have dreamed of living in when I was going through my cottagecore phase in high-school.

"This place is really nice! I love it" I said as we walked through the main square we'd only seen from a distance earlier, a fountain surrounded by flowerbeds in the center of it.

"You do?" Sam asked, and I wasn't sure if she was feeling surprised or happy.

"Yeah! It feels peaceful. And all of these flowers look great" I nodded, taking my phone out of my pocket to take a picture.

"You know, I seem to appreciate it more each time I come here. I didn't need to be somewhere that felt peaceful when I was in school I guess. By the way, I want to show you my old schools, they're all next to each other" she guided me towards an alleyway, which led to another smaller square. Two buildings slightly taller and more modern-looking than others were on the other side of it. "The one on the right is the elementary school, and the other one is both middle and high-school"

"They're the only schools here I suppose?"

"Indeed. Everyone knows each other here. Or knew. I don't know if it's still like that, but I guess so" she shrugged. "There's a small park behind here, I want to show you that too" she added with an excited smile.

The rest of the afternoon was just as pleasant, we spent at least two hours in said park as she told me a few stories like when she'd tell her parents she was hanging out in that park with her friends, when she actually was absolutely not there, or just random facts about her life during high-school. Definitely more adventurous than mine. But whatever she was talking about, I honestly could have stayed there, in the basically empty park and snuggled on a bench, listening to her the whole day.

Part of me still couldn't believe Sam had actually wanted me to come and visit her hometown and her family, for some reason I sometimes still wondered what I did to deserve so much of her trust, but I knew it was kind of stupid of me to even think that. Maybe what Charlotte told me about needing to work on my self-confidence a few days before wasn't that wrong.