I didn’t talk to Ethan for the rest of winter break. I didn’t talk to Maxxon either. I ignored all their calls and texts. I just didn’t want to have to deal with either of them.
Bennett was the only person I could talk to about this. But he wasn’t much help, since there really wasn’t anything he could have done to help me. But I was expecting as much.
I didn’t want to go back to school. I knew no one wanted to go back to school, but I had a different reason from everyone else. I really wasn’t looking forward to the classes I had with both Maxxon and Ethan.
As Bennett and I walked through the crowded hallways before the first bell rang, I was reminded of another reason why I did not want to go back to school. There was just way too much noise and I hated it.
“So, what are you going to do when you finally have to face Maxxon and Mr. Deveraux?” Bennett questioned as we continued on our way down the hall.
I made a face. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far yet.”
Bennett rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
I didn’t want to have to think about what I’d do when I had to face them, because I just didn’t want to face them. It wouldn’t be that hard to avoid Maxxon in our dance class, but he sat next to me in English. And then Ethan taught that class, so it wasn’t going to be that easy to ignore him then…
“Are you going to tell Maxxon who you’re dating?” Bennett asked me now, and I almost tripped over nothing. “I guarantee that he’s not going to give up on it until he finds out who gave you a hickey and who you didn’t want to cheat on.”
“You know I can’t just tell him!” I almost shouted, lowering my voice when I remembered people could hear us. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone. And I don’t even know if there’s a relationship to keep secret anymore anyway.”
I didn’t want to think about that. I just wanted to stop thinking. I didn’t want to have to face Ethan, but I didn’t want to break up with him. I just wanted to stop hurting, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to do that.
When a crying Katarina rushed by and bashed right into me, she didn’t stop and continued to run. Bennett clutched onto my arm to steady me, and I luckily didn’t fall over as we watched Katarina continue her way down the hall.
Bennett and I now turned to see what she had run from, surprised when we saw Maxxon standing there. I gulped when he locked eyes with me.
“Well, I think it’s time to get to class,” I excused, patting Bennett’s shoulder before taking off away from him. “I’ll see you later!”
I knew I was going to have to see Maxxon later, but that only meant I didn’t have to deal with him right then, so I was going to put it off for as long as I possibly could.
The rest of the day went by smoothly, just how you would expect the first day back after winter break to be like. No one wanted to do anything, but the teachers continued to push work onto us. That was just something else I wasn’t looking forward to.
I avoided Maxxon throughout dance, but he didn’t try to talk to me because he knew I was avoiding him. He spent the whole period with Bennett, and I knew they were talking about me because they kept looking over at me as I was with Freya. I also noticed how Katarina would glare at Maxxon, see that he was looking at me, and then she’d scowl even more.
The last period of the day was the one I wasn’t looking forward to the most. I didn’t know how I could avoid Ethan when he was the teacher. He could have given the class a free period (and then everyone would have loved him even more) and then he could have made me go out into the hallway to talk to him. I really hoped he wouldn’t do that.
“My favorite class of the day,” Freya smiled as she skipped beside me. “I just can’t wait to see Ethan after so long!”
I didn’t respond to her, and neither did Bennett. Neither of us really knew what we were supposed to say to her. I actually really didn’t like that she called him by his first name. She was his student, not his girlfriend. I was his girlfriend.
I didn’t even look at Ethan as I took my spot in the back of the room. Maxxon still sat right beside me, but I didn’t even look at him when he entered and took his seat. If I couldn’t look up front, and I couldn’t look to my right, all I could really do was look out the window. So I did.
I didn’t know how long I kept staring out the window. I don’t even know what I was thinking about. Before I even knew it, the class period was almost over and I hadn’t even looked at Ethan. I hadn’t even heard his voice because I was so zoned out.
“Miss Walker!” I finally heard someone nearly shout, snapping me out of my little trance to see that everyone in the class was looking at me, even Ethan, who had been the one to get my attention. I gulped. “Sadie, are you listening to anything I’m saying?”
“Of course I am,” I lied, not in the mood to tell him the truth since he didn’t seem to be very into telling the truth lately.
Ethan didn’t look like he believed me. “Really?” he questioned now. “Then what were we just discussing?”
I bit the inside of my lip. He knew I wasn’t listening and he was still trying to embarrass me in front of everyone. Wasn’t a boyfriend supposed to protect his girlfriend, not try to purposely embarrass her in front of other people?
Maxxon tried to whisper something to me, but he was too quiet and I couldn’t hear him. Ethan saw what he was doing anyway and shook his head.
“No cheating, Mr. Kelly,” he addressed my neighbor, who sunk down in his seat when he saw that he could no longer help me. Ethan now turned toward me. “Since you wasted so much time not listening, Miss Walker, I guess I’ll just have to give you a recap during detention.”
Though I showed no reaction to this on the outside, I was completely boiling on the inside as Ethan turned back toward the rest of the class and continued teaching. He did this on purpose.
I glared at him for the rest of the period, but now he was the one that ignored me. I couldn’t believe him. What was going to happen after school when we were all alone?
I was sure everyone in the class thought that Ethan and I absolutely hated each other. I’d rather them think we hated each other than loved each other.
I didn’t move from my seat when the bell rang. Bennett gave me a look from across the room, but the look I gave him told him to not even bother and he left with Freya. Maxxon tried to say something to me, but he saw that I wasn’t going to listen so he left as well.
Everyone else left the room within five minutes. Then it was just Ethan and me, all alone. He was at his desk at the front of the room, and I was at mine in the back. Neither of us said anything as we just stared at each other.
I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to go home. But I knew he wouldn’t let me leave.
He let out a sigh and stood up from his desk, making his way over to the door and locking it. I swallowed. By that gesture alone, I knew that this was not going to be a regular detention. But I was expecting as much.
“Sadie,” he said as he made his way back over to his desk. “Come here, please.”
I didn’t want to do what he said, but knew I was going to have to talk to him eventually, so I slipped out of my seat and slowly made my way down the aisle toward him. I took a seat on top of the desk in front of his while he took a seat in his chair. I wouldn’t look up from my lap.
“I understand why you’re mad at me,” he told me, but I still refused to look up at him. “I would be mad if I found out you had been engaged and didn’t tell me, too. I get it. That’s not why I’m asking you to forgive me.”
I still didn’t look up at him. I didn’t want to look at him, because I knew I would forgive him if I did. And I didn’t want to forgive him. At least, I didn’t want to forgive him yet.
All I could think about was him with Anna. They were going to get married. They had been serious. They had planned on spending the rest of their lives together and I wouldn’t have ever even crossed his mind if they had gone through with it.
“You told me your relationship with Anna wasn't serious.” My fingernails practically dug into my skin as my arms stayed crossed over my chest. “You told me it meant nothing to you.”
Ethan let out a sigh. “I didn't want you worrying, Sadie.”
“About what? That you'd jump right back to her the second she said she wanted you back?” I asked almost frantically, not allowing my tears to fall as I stood up. Ethan stood up at as well. “Well, it's too late, Ethan, because I am worrying! She's your age, and a teacher! She's not a student, and you wouldn't get in trouble for dating her. She's beautiful, and smart, and funny, and I'm just... I'm just...”
Ethan shut me up with a kiss. “You're just the perfect girl for me.”
Tears leaked from my eyes and I scrubbed them away. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want to seem like a little girl, especially in front of Ethan. He was the person I wanted to seem the most grown up around.
“I didn’t mean to lie,” he told me now, resting his forehead on mine. “I didn’t want to lie to you because I knew that it was something important. I just didn’t want you to worry over nothing, because I already knew you didn’t like it when I was around Anna. I just didn’t want you to worry.”
He had been thinking of me, but that didn’t mean that had been the best decision. I would have been upset if he had told me he had been engaged to Anna, but I wouldn’t have been as upset when I found out through his mother. I wasn’t just upset that he had been engaged, I had been upset because he lied to me about it.
“Tell me what happened between you two,” I ordered. “I want the truth.”
He looked like he didn’t want to tell me, and I honestly didn’t think I wanted to know. But I had to. I’d only keep worrying if I didn’t know what had really happening between the two of them.
He sat back down at his desk, and I sat on top of it so that I was right in front of him. He let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.
“I... loved Anna more than anything,” he started, and I felt my throat constrict and I thought my heart was going to burst. Noticing this, he placed both his hands on either side of my thighs and rubbed them up and down. This immediately calmed me down as he continued. “I'd loved her ever since we were kids. We started dating in sixth grade, and it lasted all throughout middle school and high school…”
I knew I didn’t want to hear this, but I knew I had to. It made my heart hurt, but I just had to remember that this had been in the past.
Ethan continued, “I thought I was going to marry her. I wanted to marry her.”
I felt myself suck in a breath, and Ethan stopped. He removed one of his hands from my legs and wiped away the tears I didn’t know were forming.
“Sadie,” he whispered, so quietly that I barely heard him. “I don’t have to say anything else if you don’t want me to.”
“No, no,” I denied with a shake of my head, wiping at my eyes with the back of my hands. “I want to hear it. Just ignore how my body reacts to it.”
Ethan didn’t look very sure, but he continued on anyway. “So, to make my dream a reality, I went to the same college as she did even though I could have gone to any school I wanted,” he now said. “I became a teacher, because that's what she'd always wanted to be. I could have been anything. A scientist, a doctor, a writer. You saw how smart I was, and even still am. But I wanted to be with her.”
I let out a shaky breath. This was okay. This was in the past. I believed Ethan when he said that he loved me. I knew that Anna was no threat, so there was no point in getting upset over absolutely nothing.
“So last year, during our last year of college, I proposed go her,” he continued now, and even though I already knew that this was coming, it still hurt to hear it. “She said yes, and I was overjoyed. My dream was finally coming true.”
I didn’t understand. He had been so happy, so why weren’t they together now? When we were younger, they were always with each other. I rarely saw one without the other unless Ethan was with his family. So what had happened?
“But after a few months, she broke it off because she thought we were moving too fast,” Ethan now informed me, and all I could do was stare at him. Too fast? They’d been together all their lives! “She wanted to focus on her career. I was devastated; I didn't know what to do. I thought I was going to die.”
I understood how he felt. Over the break, my chest hurt so bad that I thought I was going to die without him. If it was possible to die of a broken heart, then that would have been my cause of death.
Ethan now looked around his classroom and let out a sigh. “But then I was offered this teaching job, and I decided I'd stay with this profession for a little while, to see if I liked it,” he now explained to me. “At first, I absolutely hated it, but now... I love it. I love teaching. It's what I want to do for the rest of my life. And you want to know what made me realize this?”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “What?”
He smiled up at me. “You.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You made me realize I'm not a little kid anymore, and I needed to act like an adult for this job,” he explained, playing with the hem of my shirt slightly to avoid my eyes. He seemed to be embarrassed about saying this to me. “Also, I like that people have to listen to me and do as I say.”
“Ethan.”
“What? World domination has to start somewhere.”
I hit his shoulder. “Ethan!”
“But in all seriousness, it was all your doing.” He was finally smiling again, and I was glad. “When I saw you here on the first day, I felt like I had a connection with you. I didn't realize you were actually my bratty childhood friend until I saw your name on the attendance. That sure rocked my world.”
I gave him a flat look. “Thanks.”
He ignored me and continued. “But when I realized it was you, everything came back.” He smiled at the memories of when we were younger, even though most of them weren’t exactly the greatest. “I remembered everything we did and everything we did together. And then I really looked at you and saw the woman you had become. And I was really ashamed to say that I wanted you.”
I felt my face heat up. “You... You did?” I stammered.
Ethan nodded. “I did. I wanted you so badly,” he smirked at me when he saw how red my face was. How was this more embarrassing for me than it was for him? “That was why I tried to transfer you out of my class, because I knew it would be a bad idea if you stayed. I couldn't concentrate with you around. But I knew you would have hated to be sent to Anna's class, so I didn't do it. I didn't switch you. I wanted you to stay.”
I wiped at my eyes and slid off his desk and right onto his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face into his hair. He seemed surprised by this for a moment, but then wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face into my neck.
“I love you,” I whispered, holding him close. “I’m so sorry I avoided you. I’m just… so sorry.”
“No, Sadie,” he murmured. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I’m the one that has to apologize. I’m sorry.”
I then remembered that I did have something I needed to apologize for. I had left the party early and went to Maxxon’s house. I went up to his room without a second thought and then… and then he had kissed me.
The memory made me tense up, and Ethan noticed. He pulled away from me only slightly and asked, “Sadie, what’s wrong?”
“I just…” was all I was able to really say at first, and I then cleared my throat. “I have something I need to confess.”
Ethan looked unsure. “Okay… What is it?”
“I was just so mad at you that I was unintentionally…” I began, but then realized that might have not been the best word to use. “Well, maybe not unintentionally, since I kind of put myself in the situation, even though I fought it and didn’t want it to happen. But then it ended up happening anyway—”
“Sadie, take a breath.” Ethan reached out and held onto my shoulders to stop me from continuing to rant. “You were unintentionally…”
“Unfaithful,” I blurted, immediately regretting it after I saw the look on his face.
“Un… faithful?” was all he was able to say, his eyes wide. “What… what do you even mean by that?”
I then explained everything that had happened. I told him how Maxxon had noticed the hickey on my neck and had talked me into joining the party at his house. I told him how I went up to his room without even thinking twice about it. I told him how Maxxon tried to find out who I was dating, and then kissed me in the process.
Ethan went absolutely rigid underneath me. I placed both of my hands on either side of his face and stroked his cheeks slightly. He hadn’t shaved, so his cheeks were scratchy.
“I could kill that little punk,” was all he said.
I couldn’t help but frown. “Yeah, I bet you could…”
“I don’t like the fact that my rival has the same name as my sister-in-law,” Ethan informed me bitterly, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.
“Maxxon is not your rival,” I assured, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. “Even if he does like me, I don’t like him like that. I love you.”
Ethan sighed, pressing his lips to mine. “You’re the only one for me,” he whispered, staring deep into my eyes as he said this. “You’re the one I’m supposed to be with, not Anna. How I feel toward you is different than how I felt toward her. I love you so much.”
We kissed once again, for the longest time. I just continued to sit on his lap, our arms wrapped around each other, not breaking apart until a loud bang outside in the hall startled us, causing us to break apart.
“It’s late,” Ethan told me as he looked over at the clock on the wall. An hour and a half had already gone by. “I didn’t even notice. The janitors are starting to come around. We should go.”
And we did. Separately, of course. We still couldn’t afford to have anyone see us together, even if it was only a janitor.
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A lot of people are on Team Maxxon. Oh... Well... Yay for Ethan and Sadie making up? :D?
I have to go back to school in two days... I'm really not looking forward to it.
Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :D