Ms. Roman's POV
As I pulled into my driveway, I realized how stressful today really was. My feet were so sore from these stilettos, I was positive I had at least 5 blisters on each foot.
I got out of my white Mercedes convertible and sighed as I slipped off my heels. I looked up at my new house, still not used to calling it mine.
As I walked up the steps to my front door, I dug my key out of my purse, and unlocked it.
I dropped my shoes to the ground as soon as I stepped in.
"Rorie?" I called.
"Rorie, where are you?" I yelled again.
Soon I was greeted by the sound of little paws running down my stairs.
"Hey, honey!" I said in a baby voice to my 6-month-old pug.
As I set my purse down and sighed as I rested my fingers on a picture frame beside me, "Hi, Pop." I whispered sadly.
It was a photograph of my father sitting on a bench in New York when we visited around 2 years ago, smiling up at the camera I was holding with his big blue eyes.
A rush of pain hit my heart as I thought about the old memory and the fun we had touring around the big city in Taxi cars.
I walked to the kitchen hearing Rorie follow close behind me.
I opened up a bottle of Moscato and decided to pour myself a glass, not really knowing what to do with myself on this Wednesday night.
My thoughts started to wonder towards Ivy and the feelings I was having about her. It was all so confusing and wrong. She was my student and that's a line you do not cross.
But it felt so right when I was around her.
The thought of her long blonde hair and her bright brown eyes made me smile as I thought about the events of today.
Was I jealous of Lauren?
I certainly didn't like seeing Ivy flirt with her at lunch. I felt like I had to intrude and show that chick that Ivy was mine.
But she wasn't.
And then again in the parking lot, I had felt so threatened seeing Lauren kiss her on the cheek.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind as I heard my phone buzzing in my purse.
"Hey!" I answered as I seen it was my best friend calling.
"Hey, got plans for tonight?"
"I don't know... maybe sit around and drink some wine while watching a chick flick?" I said back.
"No. Definitely not." Morgan replied laughing. "You're coming out with me."
"Come on, Morgs. I don't know about that. It's been a long day." I said unsure.
"I'll be there at 7 to get you." She demanded as she hung up on me.
I rolled my eyes and sighed as I looked up at the clock.
Great, it's 6 o'clock now.
After I took a shower, put on some makeup, and curled my hair, I walked into my closet trying to decide what to wear.
I had a pretty big walk in closet and I had a lot of clothes, but I don't really wear any of them.
As I scanned the room, I quickly found a red dress and black heels. After putting my outfit on, I added some red lipstick and grabbed my purse while looking at my phone.
6:57pm
Where are you, Morgan? I thought to myself as I waited. Like she had been reading my mind, my phone buzzed.
"Hurry up, Bitch." I read.
I excitedly opened my door and ran down my front steps, now happy that I'm getting out of the house and seeing my best friend.
I had so much to tell her.
"Hey!" I smiled warmly and wrapped my arms around her, quickly taking her all in. She looked great tonight.
"It's so obvious that we grew up together." Morgan replied as she rolled her eyes, looking at my outfit. She had the same dress on, except her's was black.
Her black hair was curled as well and she had big silver hoop earrings in her ears.
She looked at me with her deep green eyes full of sorrow, "How have you been, love?" She asked me.
Taking a deep breath, knowing this had been coming and we still have a 30 minute drive, I prepared my answer. "Slowly accepting it." I replied vaguely.
"I understand." She said nodding her head.
Morgan was one of the few people there for me when my father died in a car accident around 9 months ago. We grew up together and it was a huge loss for her as well.
"Have you told your mom yet?" She asked me, changing the conversation.
I knew exactly what she was referring to.
"No, I haven't, Morgan. I can't yet."
"Now why can't you, Viola?" She asked me, slightly annoyed.
"Because with everything with dad, I don't know how she'll handle it. I don't want to stress her out more than she already is and I don't want to be the one who breaks her heart more." I sighed.
"Damn it, Viola, you can't use that as an excuse anymore! It's been 9 months, almost a year. You're her daughter, she has no choice, but to accept you. Whether or not you're gay, isn't going to affect her opinion of you."
Yes it will, I thought to myself.
Morgan knew my parents pretty well, they were like second parents to her, considering her parents were hardly around. But I knew that she didn't know my mother on my level. I was her blood daughter and I knew it would disappoint her.
"You come out to her and tell me how it goes, then I'll consider it." I teased.
"Yeah, that's never gonna happen." She laughed as she parked in the front of the gay bar she picked for us tonight.
Coming around and opening my door, she said, "Now let loose and let's go have some fun!"
~~~~~~~~~~
I sighed looking at my phone and seeing it was still only 9 o' clock.
"Can I get another shot of Jack Daniels, please?" I asked the bartender, having him add it to my tab.
It feels like I've been sitting here alone for an hour, waiting on Morgan to get back from dancing with the cute blonde girl she led into the middle of the dance floor.
I've shrugged off a hand full of girls tonight who had the shittiest pick-up lines I have ever heard.
As I downed another shot, I started feeling the liquor hit me all at once.
A familiar voice came up behind me, "Ms. Roman?"
I turned around knowing immediately who it was.
"Hello, Lauren."
"Can I buy you a drink?" She asked with her big blue eyes staring back at mine. "Strictly teacher and student, promise." She continued, laughing.
"Sure, okay." I said with a smile.
Lauren was an amazing artist and a great student, always participating in class. She was nice, really.
But I couldn't overcome the feeling of jealousy I had thinking about her all over Ivy today.
"You look good, Ms. Roman." Lauren said to me, kind of catching me off guard.
I started to blush, much to my embarrassment. I can see what Ivy sees in her, shes actually very pretty. She could still do way better, though.
"It's Viola." I said with a smile.
I then saw Lauren look me up then very... very... slowly back down.
Was my student just checking me out? Right in front of me?
"Can we get 2 shots of," she started then looked at me, allowing me to choose.
"Jack." I said.
"Can we get 2 shots of Jack Daniels on me?" She asked the bartender.
This is so inappropriate, I thought to myself.
After downing our shots, a very drunk Morgan decided to come back over, much to my happiness. The blonde girl seemed to be pretty shit faced, because she was hanging all over Morgan, barely able to walk.
"Hey, cutie." Morgan slurred my way.
"We should go." I said to her sternly, then turning towards Lauren, I continued, "Thanks for the drink, see you in class."
"Come on, love." I said, grabbing Morgan's hand and dragging her away from Lauren and the blonde.
The cold night air felt great on my heated skin.
"We'll get a taxi tonight and tomorrow after school, I will pick you up and take you to your car. Okay?" I asked Morgan.
"Okay." She managed to burp out.
As we called a cab and began the 30 minute drive back to Morgan's house then to mine, the loneliness started kicking in.
I was feeling vulnerable.
Turning towards Morgan's half awake body, I said, "I need to tell you something."
Her eyes opened up a little bit, knowing I needed her to listen. "Alright."
"I think I have feelings for a student." I said worriedly.
"Well fuck, Viola." Morgan replied. "How old is she?"
"She's 18." I answered.
"Senior?"
"Yes."
"Well that's not too bad.. I mean she's an adult and she'll be out of school soon." She reassured me.
"Nothing has happened, Morgs. It's just that she's gorgeous. All the girls kiss the ground she walks on, so she must be a player. I just have no one to talk to about it and I needed to admit it to myself and to someone else while I'm still drunk and ready to admit it." I said rambling, the alcohol spilling all of my secrets from deep inside my brain and flowing out of my mouth.
"If nothing has happened, you have nothing to worry about. Just ignore it and let her play with girls her own age." She said, trying to keep me out of trouble. "You don't want to mess this art opportunity up."
Knowing she was right, I nodded my head, not wanting to talk about it anymore.
As we pulled up to her house, I gave her a huge hug and told her I would see her tomorrow.
As she paid the taxi, I took her short figure in, realizing I hadn't seen my best friend in like a month and noting that it can never happen again.
I was so relieved to see her and she made me feel okay again. She was more like a sister and I was so thankful for her.
Once I finally reached home, I went to pay the driver and realized that I had left my purse at the bar.
This is just fucking fantastic.
Knowing I had stored some cash in my bra, I had just enough to pay him.
"No tip?" He questioned angrily.
"Fuck you." I said as I walked towards my front steps. I rolled my eyes knowing that Morgan had tipped him a good enough amount for the both of us and he was just being greedy.
I kicked off my black heels and stumbled upstairs and finally into my room, taking off my dress.
"Rorie, come lay down!" I yelled as I got into bed.
Wishing no one stole my purse, I'm going to need to go back into the bar tomorrow when I drop off Morgan and hope they have it there still.
I went to grab my phone to see the time, mentally face-palming myself when I realized it's in my purse as well.
~~~~~~~~
The next morning was painfully slow. I shouldn't have gotten that drunk on a school night. What would they think of a teacher coming to school completely hungover?
I took a quick cold shower and drank 2 cups of black coffee, along with taking some Tylenol as I got ready for the day.
Feeling my hangover fade away a bit, I slipped on my black pencil skirt and blue blouse.
I headed out the door towards my white Mercedes hoping that today would go well, considering I lost my purse last night and also admitted to my best friend I had a crush on my student.
I'm such a mess, I thought to myself.
~~~~~~~
1st period and 2nd period went by pretty fast, considering I just let them have a free day today because all of my classes were doing quite well.
All of my students seem to be actually pretty interested in Art and I was glad they weren't giving me too much trouble my first year here.
The bell rang letting 2nd period know they had 5 minutes to get to their 3rd period classroom.
As my class left, I caught sight of Lauren walking in.
"What can I do for you, Ms. Stone?" I asked curiously.
"I think I have something you might want." Lauren answered with a grin.
She pulled my purse out from behind her, "You left this behind last night."
Putting my hand on her arm, I started laughing, truly grateful that I had it back in my possession.
As I leaned towards Lauren a little bit closer, smiling wide, I said, "You're the best!"
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ivy standing there watching me, Dylan just now walking up as I took a few steps away from Lauren.
"See you tomorrow, Ms. Roman." Lauren said as she nodded and walked to the door, greeting Ivy and Dylan as she walked by.
How long had she been standing there? Did she come early for a reason?
I hadn't intentionally flirted with Lauren and honestly, I don't know why I did. I was just happy to get my purse back and I really don't feel anything sexual towards her.
As the bell rang, I greeted the students, feeling everybody's eyes on me.
"Good afternoon, class. I'm very proud of the work you have been doing and the equal participation from everybody, so I'm giving you all a free day to talk and do whatever you'd like." I informed them.
You could tell they were all pretty happy about it. No one has given them one yet and it's only been a little over a month since schools started.
As I walked over to my desk, I could feel Ivy's eyes on me. She was watching my every move and even though I felt like shit, I dressed cute today.
I picked up a stack of graded artworks I had for them and began passing them out.
As I got to Ivy, I gently touched her hand with mine, feeling her slightly shiver at my unexpected touch.
"Awesome work." I said as I looked down at her, staring into her brown eyes, smiling, then continuing to pass out the artwork.
As I made my way to my desk and sat down, I peeked over as I watched her flip over her paper and see the blue sticky note I had left telling her to stay after class.
It was only her first week at this school and I didn't want her to think bad of me, oddly enough. I didn't want her to think I meant anything sexual towards Lauren, but at the same time I really didn't owe her an explanation.
As she read it, she looked up at my eyes. As we held eye contact for a little too long, she nodded her head my direction and smiled at me, making my head get dizzy and my hands start sweating.
____________
Hey guys! Just checking in. How do you like the story so far? What do you think about Lauren suddenly being in the mix of it all?
Like, Vote, and Comment for this chapter! ❤️