“I’ve got it!” Mom suddenly exclaimed over dinner.
It was a Thursday night and had been two days since I told Mr Hudson-Leo- about Jamie. I couldn’t stop thinking about him and everything we’d talked about. I couldn’t help but marvel at how easily I had forgotten he was my teacher.
I saw him English yesterday and he did nothing to indicate that he remembered the conversation we had that night. He had also called up my Mom about ten minutes after I had gotten inside. He told her that he needed some help with his lesson plan and asked me to help. It wasn’t entirely a lie…
“What is it, Mom?” I asked, stuffing my mouth with some peas.
“You know your English teacher, Mr Hudson?” she asked, happily.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course.”
“Well, I was thinking and he’s my friend’s son! Of course! Lindsey and I went to college together!” Mom told me.
“What? Mr Hudson’s your friend’s son?” Melanie repeated in disbelief. “You should totally invite them over!”
“Maybe I will… Oh, I remember when we went over when you were little.” Mom told me and Mel. “You and Leo played together in their sand pit. You were around five or six and he was nine or ten. He made you cry when he trod on your sandcastle.”
“What?!” I blurted, trying to hold in my laughter.
“Yes, I remember the day because I hadn’t seen Lindsey in a while and we were having a little reunion.” Mom explained. “Also, your first tooth fell out and Leo buried it in the sand.”
“Oh my gosh!” Melanie exclaimed. “You and Mr Hudson were childhood friends.”
My eyes widened and I tried my best not to act weird. My mind was actually exploding inside as I also remembered him. He had been like my brother even though I hardly saw him. The last time I saw him was when I was ten and he was fourteen. We played on his PS2 together. I had whopped his ass at wrestling. We visited quite often until that point because we only lived ten minutes away.
“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” I blurted out. “I remember the last time I saw him! It was that night we were moving away. We came to L.A that night, didn’t we?”
“Oh, I have to invite them over! I think I have Lindsey’s number somewhere.” Mom gushed.
***
I went to school the next day, carefully avoiding Leo- Mr Hudson. I was having a hard time to referring to him as Mr Hudson now that I knew he was Leo! We had spent so much time together that it was weird I didn’t recognize him! He had obviously changed from the spotty teenage I used to know so well. He was a man now. He was my teacher.
It was all just so weird to get my head around! I used to remember how we played in his back yard and as we got older we just messed around and played video games.
It was Friday today and I had double English. It passed slowly and awkwardly as I avoided his eye. I was more distracted than usual and I could tell he noticed. I was worried he’d recognize me. A big part of me hoped he wouldn’t; it would just make us awkward but the unreasonable part of me wished he would so that our relationship would change.
At the end of the lesson I hurried out behind Macy.
“Lily, I’d like you to stay behind.” He told me.
“Don’t wait up.” I told Macy as she stared at me.
She nodded and left with the rest of the class, closing the door behind her.
“Okay, spill it.” He said, as I went to sit at on one of the desks at the front of the room.
“What?” I asked, innocently.
“I’m not stupid. Tell me what’s going on.” He told me, sitting on his own desk which was opposite me.
I rolled my eyes. “Nothing’s going on.”
“Stop lying. Tell me what’s up. You’ve clearly been distracted and you won’t even look at me.” He told me. “And you haven’t called me a jerk once today.”
I pulled my eyes away from the floor and looked into his smouldering blue eyes. I sighed. I might as well tell him; he’d find out sooner or later when Mom asked him to dinner.
“You really don’t remember me?” I asked childishly, in a small voice.
He frowned at me, clearly confused.
“It’s me! Lily, Lily Worthington?! Little Lily who was like your little sister?” I screamed, trying to jog his memory.
I couldn’t help it. It hurt me that he didn’t remember me but then again, I had forgotten all about him too.
He looked slightly alarmed but had no trace of understanding. “What are you on about?”
“Leo… It’s me! My Mom’s your Aunt Marissa? Your Mom is my Aunt Lindsey? They went to college together? We lived down the road from each other? We went on holiday to England together? You were thirteen and I was nine? Remember me? Leo? The little girl you called Lils?”
I was desperate now. I wanted him to remember me. He was like my big brother! How could he forget me?!
He frowned at me for a minute, speechless and confused. But suddenly his eyes widened. He looked stunned and looked me up and down, still completely dumbfounded.
“Holy shit.” Was all he could say.
I grinned. That was my Leo.
“You remember?” My voice suddenly cracked.
“Yeah, I flipping remember!” he yelled. “It’s you! It’s really you!”
I nodded, grinning up at him. “How is it that we ended up together, Leo?”
He got to his feet and pulled me into a sudden hug, wrapping his arms tightly around me. “I missed having you around, Lils.”
I was shocked at first but it filled me with warmth, sparks shooting through me.
I couldn’t help but hug him back. “You too, Leo. I cried a lot after we moved, you know that?”
He laughed. “You’re so different now! What happened to the nerdy girl with glasses that I used to know?”
“What happened to the kid with all the zits and was as lanky as stick?” I laughed into his chest.
He pulled away from the hug and held me at arm’s length. I heard him swear again.
I laughed. “Do you remember that night when we last saw each other? I was moving to L.A?”
He nodded, laughing again. “Yeah, you beat me at wrestling on the PS2…”
“Yeah and I couldn’t stop crying when it was time to go?” I asked. “Remember the promise I made you?”
Leo laughed. “Oh yeah! You promised that you’d be come back and find me so we could get married.”
“Who’d have thought that you’d end up as my teacher?” I smiled.
I don’t know why I brought it up but I felt as though I was obliged to.
He ruffled my hair. “You don’t know how much I thought about you after you left. It was weird not seeing you every weekend.”
“Tell me about it. I kept begging Mom to let me stay at your place.” I muttered, making him laugh.
He pulled me into another hug but my phone started ringing. I smiled at him apologetically before pulling my phone out of my bag. I answered it as Leo put an arm around my shoulder. I felt tingly where he touched me.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey, sweetie, where are you? I was on my way home; I thought I’d give you a lift.”
“Oh I’m at school.” I told her.
“Still? You haven’t got detention have you?” she asked sternly.
“No, I was just telling Leo, I mean, Mr Hudson about before. We were just talking about it.” I answered honestly.
“Oh, put him on the phone, sweetie!” Mom said enthusiastically.
I rolled my eyes and passed the phone over him. He frowned at me and so I mouthed, ‘Mom’.
He took the phone and smiled. “Hey, Aunt Marissa!”
I listened as he talked.
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either… Yeah, she’s doing well, she moved up the L.A as well, she lives around half an hour away… Of course I will… I’d love to… See you then… Okay, bye.” He snapped my phone shut and handed it to me.
“What did she say?” I asked, putting the phone in my bag.
“Oh just about Mom and stuff. She also asked me to drive you home and to come over as well.” He replied, still not moving his arm.
“Cool, you ready to go?” I asked.
“Yeah, give me a sec.” He moved his arm and grabbed his brown leather jacket and his bag.
My shoulders felt all tingly and warm where he had touched me. I couldn’t get over the fact that Mr Hudson was Leo. He was pretty much the same as he used to be. He looked slightly different but I guess puberty does that to a guy. I never imagined our reunion to go like this; I always thought that I’d run and hug him, let alone remember him. I was mentally kicking myself for not recognizing him. Who knew he would change so much in seven years.
“Come on, let’s go.” He told me.
He took my hand and we walked to the door of the classroom before I dropped it.
I shot him and apologetic smile. “If anyone saw us… they wouldn’t understand…”
He nodded and smiled.
We walked to the school car park in complete silence. I couldn’t stop thinking about how comfortable I was when he slung an arm around me or held my hand. I had seen him for the first time in seven years and he was my teacher but when I looked at him, I saw the young boy I knew as a kid.
We stopped in front of his silver Mercedes and he unlocked it with a press of a button. He opened the passenger door for me and watched as I climbed in.
“You don’t have to close it for me…” I muttered.
He smirked and closed it anyway before walking around the car into the driver’s seat next to me. We both buckled our seatbelts before he set off.
The car still had its ‘new car’ smell. It was clean and neat and there was a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror.
The journey carried on in silence as we were both absorbed in our own thoughts.
“Do you mind?” I asked, gesturing to the radio.
“No, go ahead.” He told me.
I put it on my favourite channel and started to sing along. To my surprise he sang along with me. Damn! He could sing!
“Stop showing off! Just because I can’t sing…” I snapped playfully.
“You have a beautiful voice.” He told me softly.
I smiled and we both resumed our singing.
We arrived at my house pretty quickly. I switched of the radio and unbuckled my seat belt as he came and opened my door.
I sighed. “Stop it. You make me feel like an idiot who doesn’t know how to open car doors!”
He chuckled. “Just being a gentleman.”
He shut the door behind me and I unlocked the door.
“Ladies first.” He told me laughing again.
I stuck my tongue out and walked passed him to get inside.
“Lily, is that you?!” Mom called from the kitchen. “Is Mr Hudson with you?”
“Yeah, L-Mr Hudson’s here too.” I called back, taking off my shoes.
He copied and we walked into the kitchen side by side.
“Aunt Marissa! You’ve changed so much!” Leo exclaimed, putting on a charming smile.
“Hello, dear! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you. It’s lovely to see you.” She was beaming at him. “Please, come and sit down.”
She led him to the living room. Melanie was sprawled across the sofa reading a magazine and George was on the floor, playing video games.
Melanie looked up and blushed. “Oh, hey, Mr Hudson!”
She scrambled into a normal sitting position. I sat beside her as he sat in Dad’s armchair.
“So, would you like any tea or coffee or…” Mom offered.
“I’d love a coffee but please come and sit down.” He answered politely. “Milk and two sugars, please.”
“What about you kids?” Mom asked.
“I’ll make myself a cappuccino.” I said, standing up and following her to the kitchen.
She was smiling brightly.
“So what do you think, Mom? He’s so different now!” I exclaimed as she put the kettle on.
“I know! I can’t believe he’s a teacher. Remember how he wanted to be a wrestler?” she laughed. “He’s so mature and good looking too!”
“He’s still the same old Leo, you know? He still acts like it…” I muttered.
I made myself a mug of cappuccino while Mom made his coffee and made herself a tea. We put them on the tray along with a couple of biscuits.
We walked into the living room to see him on the floor with a controller in his hands. He was shouted competitively at the T.V.
He stopped as soon as he saw us and blushed.
“Never stopped loving video games, huh?” I asked, smirking at him.
He laughed and shook his head.
“Same old Leo…”
He ruffled George’s hair. “I’ll play with you after I finish my tea.”
George looked up at him and grinned.
He stood up and sat beside me picking up his mug of coffee. His hand brushed mine as we went to take the same biscuit.
“Sorry.” I mumbled, blushing.
Sparks shot through my hand and it felt all tingly.
He smiled and gave the biscuit to me before taking one for himself. I leaned back against the sofa, my arm brushed his. I felt oddly warm inside. I’d never felt anything like these sparks before.
We all sat and drank in silence with occasional small talk. Leo told us about his Mom who moved up to L.A three or four years after us but she didn’t contact because she hadn’t been sure if we were still friends. She, Uncle Chris (Leo’s father) and Leo were coming over for dinner on Sunday.
I could tell by Mom’s face that she was excited. She and Aunt Lindsey had been friends for years.
“Lily, why don’t you show Leo the house?” Mom suggested as we both put our mugs on the coffee table.
“Okay. Follow me.” I told him.
I showed him our games room, the kitchen, the garden and the indoor and outdoor pools. He marvelled at how big our house was. I enjoyed seeing his eyes widen in shock as we reached the pools.
“When did you get so rich?” he muttered.
I laughed. “Seven years ago when Dad got this massive promotion. We were looking around for houses and Mom fell in love with this one. We were going to live with our cousins but they decided not to move in with us. So here we were for a house way too big for us that Dad had already bought…”
I led him upstairs into the cinema room, the four guestrooms, then Mom and Dad’s room, Dad’s study, Melanie’s room, George’s room…
“… And this is my room.” I said proudly.
I loved my room. I could’ve lived in it if there had just been a kitchen in it. I had a massive double bed with a T.V that came out of the head board, a large dressing table with I used as a desk as well, a massive walk-in closet, a grand piano, a guitar, a large book shelf with bean bag surrounding it, a window seat, a mini hot tub in the corner, a mini bar and an en-suit bathroom.
The walls were covered in picture of me, Macy, Mike and Jason, there were even some of me and Leo from when we younger.
I turned around to see his reaction. I hadn’t realized how close he was. I could feel his breath on my face. His face inches away from mine. I felt a shiver go down my spine. I felt the need to close the gap between us. I stepped forward only had him suddenly crash his lips down onto mine.
It was as though we’d been doing it for years; our lips were in sync and my body completely melted into his.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and I felt my arms on his shoulders. He was pressing me towards him. He nibbled on my bottom lip making me open my mouth. He traced my lips with his tongue.
We both had our hands in each other’s hair. I tugged on his. Fireworks went off inside of me. Sparks were flying through me.
Be both broke the kiss to breathe. Our foreheads were touching for a moment as we regained our breaths.
“Lily, I-.”
“Don’t.” I whispered, cutting him off.
I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want him to tell me it was wrong, I didn’t want to hear that he was the teacher and I was the student. I didn’t want to hear that it was a mistake. I didn’t want to hear that it would never happen again. I pushed myself away from him and walked through the door that was behind him. It would take me some time to adjust. I needed to think.
I walked into one of the guest rooms and curled up on the bed. I desperately wished I was in my room but I had no intention of seeing him.