[2 weeks later]
(Mr. Mara's pov)
Her coming here every night drives me insane. I'm glad that I'm able to help her, but it's getting to the point where I can't handle it anymore. She drives me absolutely crazy. I've never felt this way about someone before. I know that I shouldn't be this way because she is my student, but I can't help it.
Everything about her is just so fascinating to me. I feel like the majority of the time we don't even study. All we do is talk and I feel like I know absolutely everything about her.
She's going to be here any minute now. Part of me wants to tell her that I like her, but I would be crazy to do that. I'm her teacher and she's my student. I can't just tell her that I have feelings for her. That would be way out of line, but who cares. Other teachers have done it before, but then again they went to jail. I don't want to go to jail because I fell in love with a student, but then again what if I love her eventually? You can't help who you fall in love with.
"Mr. Mara!"
I snap out of my thoughts and I see her standing in front of me, "Uh, sorry. I was completely zoned out."
"It's okay," she chuckles. I love her laugh. I swear I won't be able to control my emotions anymore, "What's on the agenda today?"
"What do you think you need help on today?" I stand up from my desk and I sit down next to her.
"I don't know," she says. "I feel like I'm doing a lot better on everything."
"You are," I smile, "You might not need me to tutor you anymore."
"Oh," she says. "That would suck."
"How so?"
She looks up at me and frowns "You know exactly why it would suck."
"Yea," I sigh, "But there isn't anything we can do about it."
"I know," she says. "But it's so hard to understand that."
"It is," I say.
She looks down at the ground, "I told everyone that you would be nothing to me. I said that I wouldn't catch feelings for my hot math teacher."
"But you did," I add.
"I did," she smiles, "And now I can't have you."
"I can quit."
"No," she says. "I wouldn't make you quit just so you could have me. We don't even know if this would work. We don't know anything."
"I do know that I have feelings for you," I whisper.
"Then let's do it," she inches her face close to mine, "Nobody has to find out."
I try to control my breathing. It's hard to focus when she's this close to my face, "And if they find out?"
"They won't."
"You don't know that," I say. I rest my forehead onto hers, "Anyone could walk through that door and see us like this."
"There is a lock for a reason, Mr. Mara."
"Do me a favor and don't call me that anymore," I say.
She smiles, "Okay, Nick."
***
I walk into my tiny apartment and I lay down on the couch. I can't believe all of that just happened. I wanted to tell her so badly, but I knew that I couldn't because of the trouble we could get in. But she said it first and I knew exactly what she was talking about. I knew that I needed to agree with her in that moment. No matter how wrong it may be, I knew that I needed to tell her my feelings and tell her that I liked her more than just my student.
(Kai's pov)
[1 week later]
The bell rings and I grab all of my things. Everyone leaves the room, but I stay back for a little bit.
"Hi," I say once everyone is gone.
He smiles, "Hey. Are we still on for tonight?"
"Of course," I say. "I'm excited to see where you live."
"It's not anything special," he says. "I'm just glad that we can finally get out of this classroom though."
"I am too," I say. "Hopefully it will feel a bit more normal. Having dates in a classroom isn't very normal."
"Well we made it our own type of normal."
"True," I say. "Tomorrow I think..."
I'm interrupted by our principal before I can say anything else, "Sorry to interrupt, but can I talk to Kai?"
"Go right ahead," Nick says. I look at Nick with panicked eyes as the principal walks out of the door, "It's okay. He doesn't know anything. Don't freak out"
"Okay," I say. I walk away from Nick and into the hallway.
"Kai," he says. "Your brother is in my office right now. I think you need to go calm him down."
"Why? Is he okay? What happened?"
"He got into a fight with a junior," he says. "I don't know exactly what happened. Neither of them will tell me, so I was hoping you could talk to Zion."
"Of course," I say. We walk to his office and I see Zion sitting alone in a chair. He has a few cuts on his chin and his lip is bleeding.
"I'll leave you guys alone."
The principal walks out and it's now just Zion and I alone. "What? He sent you in to give me a lecture or something?"
"No," I say. "He wanted me to come in and calm you down."
"I am calm."
"Then tell me what the hell happened."
"That kid," he says. "He was making jokes about you and Mr. Mara."
"What jokes?" My heart drops to my stomach.
"He knows that Mr. Mara has been tutoring you," Zion says. "So he thought you two were fucking. He was making all these jokes right in front of me and I couldn't handle it."
"You didn't have to get in a fight because of me, Zion," I say. "You know better than that. I can fight my own demons."
"It's my job. You're my little sister and I'm always going to stick up for you."
"I know," I say. "But none of that stuff is even true, so you shouldn't have got so mad at him."
I hate lying to him. Zion has always been my best friend and I usually tell him everything. I hate that I can't tell him everything that's going on between Nick and I.
"I'm sorry," he says. "I'll try and control myself next time."
"Good," I smile, "Now you need to talk to the principal about this and tell him what happened."
"Okay."
I lean down and I kiss the top of his head, "I love you, headass."
"I love you, shitface." We always call each other those names. Ever since we were about ten years old.
I smile and I walk out of the office. I walk down the hallway until I get to Nick's classroom. I stand outside the door and I watch him teach through the glass window that's in front of me.
I know that I should get to my next class, but watching him and seeing him comforts me in a way that I can't really explain.
Nick and I have only been doing whatever the hell this is for a week now. We hang out in his class every single night and we talk. We don't study, we talk. It's the best feeling ever, but I know eventually someone will figure it out.
"Kai!"
I turn around to see Maggie walking towards me, "Hey. Why aren't you in class?"
"Why aren't you?"
"Had to deal with Zion," I say. "Now I'm just chilling out here because I don't want to go to class."
"Ah," she says. "Glad he beat the shit out of that kid. Everything he was saying was bullshit."
"Yea," I say. "I'm sure it all was."
She smiles, "Lets head to class."
She starts to walk and I turn around one last time to see him at the board, teaching his class.
The bad part is that kid wasn't lying. We may not be fucking or anything, but we are something.
I don't know what it is yet, but we are something.