BARE SOULS: A STEAMY TEACHER/STUDENT ROMANCE

CHAPTER 54 | HARPER

I read the text 50 times over, unable to figure out if I should answer it or not.

Sorry.

Just 5 letters, nothing more, that hurt like hell. After thinking about it all day, I guessed there was nothing nothing else that I could say or do. He read my feeling and was now sorry. End of the story.

Despite the sadness and pain, I had no more tears to drop. I was just empty. I revealed my deepest feelings to a guy I knew would never accept them and what was left was the pain. But even if I sometimes had second thoughts about leaving that notebook for him to read, I still thought doing it was the right move... I was just too tired of pretending.

But how to face him at school now? I would have wanted to skip but there was just a few months left until the end of my senior year. Missing more days would mean ruining my perfect attendance and possibly decreasing my chances to get accepted at the school I was aiming for. I couldn't take the risk to ruin my only escape fron this city. Besides, not showing up would only have delayed that moment that was bound to happen regardless.

My heart was beating so fast while walking toward the classroom that for a split second, I thought I was going to faint. The idea of seeing him was unbearable and many questions and fears were rushing through my mind. What if he looked at me? What if ignored me? He was probably thinking that I was pathetic for falling for a guy I didn't know anything about anyway. Rick was right.

He was standing behind his desk when I entered, dressed with a black button shirt, and some dark grey fitted pants, looking classy and handsome as the usual Mr Jackson I knew. His eyes fell on me, and I immediately looked away, feeling the pressure of his gaze following me to my seat.

I was fighting to not look his way, too embarrassed, thinking how uncomfortable he must have felt after reading what I wrote about him. Even though I was dying to know what was going through his mind at that moment, I didn't want to know what he felt about my feelings... that text said more than enough and there was no more explanations to give nor conversations to have.

   "Ahem... take your books to page 256. Read the text and once finished, we will go over some Q&A." he said before sitting at his desk.

I opened my book and started reading but my brain wasn't printing. Why? Because I could feel his eyes on me, which only caused the pain inside me to grow bigger. What was he thinking when staring at me? In a moment of weakness, I took a quick glance his way but realized he was not looking my way at all. His was going over some copies without glancing my way at all. I felt incredibly stupid for thinking he was still caring about me when he obviously didn't.

I spent the whole hour listening to what was said without looking up once. He who used to always make me participate not even once looked at me.

I guess it was better that way. I could no longer lie about how I felt and he couldn't make me believe things would keep going on that way forever. As bad as it hurt, I already knew this was going to happen. I just wished I made the most of the last time I stayed over at his place instead of thinking many more times were to come.

The bell finally rang, freeing me from the torture of being stuck in this room for a whole hour. I rapidly packed my belonging to make sure I wouldn't be last to leave the room. By chance, Levyn and another girl were still chatting, but before I could get up,  Zane was standing in front of me.

His gaze was dark and had no expression on his face. I could tell he was bothered. "I need to talk to you" he softly whispered to make sure no one would hear.

I wanted to escape quickly. But I couldn't move. I wanted to tell him he could kiss my ass, but I was unable to pronounce a word: I was just paralyzed under his heavy stare that I couldn't translate.