Chapter 47- Ella's POV
I looked around, hoping that no one would see me as I stole my way towards Edward’s classroom. If anything I knew I was forbidden from going there. By now a lot of people who knew me suspected that something was wrong. I was skipping art lessons and looking forlorn and lost all the time. And everyone found it strange that all of a sudden, Mr James was leaving school to go and work somewhere else. He loved teaching at our college. This is aside from the fact that a lot of people had been spreading rumours about us. Yes, a lot of people were talking about it. Someone had said there were photos going around the school too, but thankfully I had not encountered any of them yet.
I walked into the classroom and looked around. There was nobody inside, so I guessed that Edward must be in a meeting or something. I had not informed him that I would be stopping by, so he hadn't been expecting me. I sat down in his seat and waited. It was unusual of him to leave the classroom unattended, without there being anybody inside.
It was a Thursday, around two weeks after all of the trouble with the principal had been raised. Edward had been given the name of the college where he would be teaching, and he was going to start on the coming Monday. I, on the other hand, was to finish this semester at our college, then start the next semester somewhere else, as discreetly as possible. Another teacher was going to replace Edward, starting from Monday.
Nathan knocked on the door and walked in, eyes crossing as soon as he saw me sitting in Edward's seat. He sat down next to me and sighed.
"Edward left me to take care of the classroom because he needed to speak to the principal. I just went to, uh, speak to someone for a second. "
I noticed the nervousness in his voice, and instantly realised that he must have gone to speak to the stalker. I scoured my memory, trying to think if I had seen him talking to someone, but I couldn't recall anything.
"Why's Edward at the principal's? " I asked.
Nathan shrugged. "Dunno. I guess it has something to do with his transfer."
I nodded. "I guess so. I'm leaving this college too, just to let you know," I informed him, taking a deep breath.
Nathan's head shot up and he looked at me in horror. He clearly had not heard this piece of news from the stalker. "What? Why?" he asked. I rolled my eyes before replying.
"Seriously? Aren't you living in this world? Everyone has been talking about why Edward is transferring, people know everything Nate! Your friend the stalker made sure to make our lives hell after we managed to get out of this without any trouble." I glared at him. I really disliked him for not telling me the identity of the stalker, who, according to him, was the obvious suspect.
Nathan made brief eye contact with me. "Have you found out who it is yet?" he asked.
No, I'm waiting for you to tell me, I thought to myself. "No," I answered, shrugging.
He looked away uncomfortably. "Oh. Wait, one second," he said, sitting up straight. "Why are you transferring?"
"I told you, because of the rumours," I answered irritated.
Nathan raised both eyebrows. "So what? You're just going to let them win? If you leave you're just going to confirm all of the rumours, just saying," he told me.
I looked away awkwardly. He was right. Both Edward and I leaving would only make matters look worse, sort of showing people that they had been right. "I don't know, my brother was the one to fix up everything."
"Oh yes, I thought so," Nathan answered.
My eyes narrowed. "How do you know Malcolm?" I asked, remembering that my brother had said that he knew Nathan.
"Nothing. He just asked me questions about you. He wanted to find out what you were doing, and I helped him out."
This sounded all too familiar for me and I glared at him, thinking. He didn't let me continue, though, raising his hand. "I know what you're thinking Ella. No, he's not the stalker. That's someone else entirely."
I sighed, knowing that I didn't have to ask him again whom it was, he just wasn't going to tell me. I was still thinking about this when Edward entered the room, holding an A4 file in his hand. He looked at me in surprise and then smiled at me. He wasn't expecting me to be there. I had been avoiding the art room, but now, with only two days left of him being here, who was to tell me whether I should enter his classroom or not?
"Hey love," he told me, stopping beside me and caressing my cheek. He grabbed a chair from the side and sat next to me, and I thought of how sweet he was to take another chair since I was occupying his, not asking me to get up like any other person would have. He put the file on the desk and grabbed my hand discreetly. I looked at Nathan during this exchange. He seemed uncomfortable. I didn't blame him much.
"Barnes wanted to explain the stuff regarding the other school. It turns out that they did need a teacher as their last one had left and there had been no replacement," Edward explained to both of us. I nodded and didn't say anything, my mind thinking, three's a crowd, since Nathan was present too. As if on cue Edward turned to look at him.
"Thank you for taking care of the classroom Nathan."
"You're welcome," Nathan mumbled, still looking at our interlocked fingers. His gaze turned to the open door and then back to us. "So, are you guys going to make it official then?" he asked.
I frowned, then realised that he was talking about our relationship. With both of us transferring to different schools, there was no point in hiding it anymore. We could be just like a normal couple, kind of like what we always wanted.
"Honestly we haven't given it much thought yet," Edward admitted. "We've been focusing on keeping things hidden for the last couple of days here. We don't want any more trouble."
"But you're still together," Nathan said sort of questioningly, as if he had something to confirm. Really, Nathan was getting more than annoying.
Edward chuckled. "Of course we are." He eyed the door hesitatingly, then got up and shut it before sitting down again. No students were supposed to be coming in at this hour, I recalled that Edward had two free lessons at this time.
"I guess that's thanks to me then," Nathan said referring to the fact that we were still together. "Even the fact that you guys got together in the first place." He grinned as if he was happy with all of this, but warning bells started ringing in my head.
Edward started laughing, oblivious to the way I was looking at Nathan in horror. "Really? How so?" he asked, sounding amused. But this really was not amusing. I couldn't wait for the topic to be changed.
Nathan stretched his arms."Well, first of all-" he started saying, but I interrupted him.
"Thank you Nathan. Now can we change the subject please?"
He frowned at me. "Okay," he said, clearly not understanding the change in my mood. He didn't realise that I had never told Edward about the dare which had primarily gotten me interested in him.
"No, wait, Edward spoke up, still speaking with a chuckle. "Now I want to know how on earth you think that we got together thanks to you. Is this because you came in class on the first day of school and Ella was with you? Or because you were rude and she felt the need to say sorry in your name?"
Nathan grinned. "No man, you got it wrong both times. It's because of the dare."
Shit shit shit....
Edward raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
I felt my head spinning as I knew what the revelation would be. I did not want him to know, mostly because I did not want him to find out this way, and from Nathan too. But there was no going back now that the topic had begun being discussed. Edward was so far taking it as a joke, but he would not be laughing in a minute, and the worst thing was that I did not have the energy or the know-how to stop Nathan from telling him.
"The dare, man. First day of school. I told Ella to try to get you to like her... well quite literally I told her to sleep with you..." Nathan paused when he saw Edward's eyes popping out of their sockets and me almost shaking. "What?" His eyes turned to me and then back to Edward, who obviously was not laughing anymore. "Wait, you don't know about this?"
Edward's eyes slowly turned to me, and Iooked back at him helplessly. "No," he mumbled. "I didn't."
Nathan glared at me. "You didn't tell him?!" he hissed in an accusatory tone. "You're in a relationship with him and you didn't tell him it started out as a dare?"
Shut up, shut up, my mind was saying, but my voice was not heard. I just stared at him with a horrific expression, because I knew that Edward was not going to forgive me for this.
Edward turned to look at me, his eyes blazing with fury. "What does he mean by dare? Do you mean to tell me that all of this was a stupid bet among idiot teenagers?"
I tried not to let his words get to me, but my eyes brimmed with tears, because of the situation rather than of what Edward had said. "It wasn't like that," I mumbled.
"It's a dare! What the hell?"
"No! Nathan suggested it and I had to agree because he threatened me, but I was never intending to do what he said! It's not why I was interested in you."
Edward pushed his chair back and stood up angrily. "That's not why you were interested in me? Of course it is! You're a hypocrite, that's what you are! All this time I was a bet to you and I was an idiot for not realising it!" he yelled.
I gulped. I knew where this was going. "It wasn't! Nathan told me that it was fine if I didn't do it later, and I didn't stop because I genuinely liked you. How was I supposed to tell you that Nathan had dared me to do something like this? If I had, what's happening now would have happened!"
My gaze turned to Nathan, who looked shell-shocked glancing from me to Edward. I guessed he felt guilty for bringing all of this up, and yes, I did blame him. He should have stepped in to help me with this, not sit there looking dumb.
"Yes, because if I knew, I never would have gone out with you! Geez, I almost got fired because of you!" Edward's tone was vicous now and he was looking at me in hatred. "I bet you were waiting for me to sleep with you too so that you'd be able to end your stupid dare." He paused to take in a few breaths, his voice had gotten hoarse from all the yelling. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned to look at Nathan.
"Why the hell would you do this? You could have gotten me fired and sent me to jail! What the hell were you thinking?!" he said loudly. His voice boomed throughout the whole classroom.
Nathan seemed to hesitate, then glared at him. "I wanted to get you fired, for splitting my parents up!" he yelled back.
Wait, what?
Edward's facial expression changed and he looked at me cautiously. I swallowed the bile that had risen to my throat and asked, "What? What do you mean split your parents up? I thought they were divorced."
Nathan's eyes narrowed. "They are divorced, thanks to Edward. Mum had an affair with him, Dad found out and left her."
I felt my head spinning for the second time in the frame of a few minutes. Edward had never told me what had happened, he said that Nathan's parents were separated and that he dated his mum for a while. Now I realised that they had separated because of Edward, he had hidden that tiny piece of truth from me.
"You said that they were separated," I said to Edward, also standing up. Nathan remained sitting down on his own, looking at both of us.
"So what? They are separated," Edward answered.
"Yes, but because you separated them!" I said in frustration.
Edward shrugged. "So what? I had an affair with her while she was still married, so?"
"What the hell?" Nathan stepped in but both of us ignored him.
"You lied to me!" I yelled.
"No I didn't, I just kept the truth from you. You did that too, so who cares?" Edward glared at me for the millionth time.
"Yes, but you were angry because I did!"
"Of course I was! I was a dare, A DARE, to you, and you're angry at me for being with someone who was married? I didn't even know you at the time!"
My eyes narrowed. "I didn't even know you at the time when I accepted the dare either!" We both stood, facing each other and glaring at each other.
"What you did is worse than I did,and don't try to think otherwise," Edward said.
"You lied about your previous relationship! How is that okay?"
Edward stepped forward, his face still a grimace. "So what if I had a relationship with a married woman? I'm freaking twenty-eight years old, I'm not going to let an eighteen year old tell me what to do!"
I stepped back, horrified at his words. He was insulting me in the worst way possible: the difference in our age, which he knew I was wary of. I felt someone supporting my arm and looked to the left to find that Nathan had also stood up and was holding me back from Edward.
"Don't, then," I said in my iciest voice. "I'm going to make this very easy for you." I picked my bag up and started stepping back towards the door.
Edward was not going to let me have the last word, though. He ran a hand through his hair and, eyes narrowed, looked at me. "Yes, please do. With your stupid dare, I can see that our relationship was based on nothing but lies and idiocy. It's a shame that I have to transfer because of you. But at least now I don't have to follow the rules of a teenager. It's over Ella. We're over." His voice was hoarse and he did sound sorry, but he was more angry than he was sorry, that I was sure of.
I nodded and turned away, opening the door. I closed it behind me so as not to let anyone follow me, I didn't want to be with anyone right now. I started walking down the stairs, tears streaming down my face as I realised what had just happened. Edward had found out about the dare and I had found out that he split Nathan's parents up, and he had broken up with me. For once, it wasn't the stalker causing problems, but ourselves. We had kept too much from each other.
As I walked down the stairs, I bumped into someone. I mumbled a sorry and continued walking, but this person held on to my arm. Annoyed, I looked up to see John staring at me, concerned.
"Ella, what's wrong?" he asked.
I gulped as more tears ran down my face. "It's Edward. He lied to me. We broke up."
Confusion crossed John's face. "What? I thought you guys broke up ages ago."
Although my mind was foggy from all that had happened, I recalled that Edward and I had decided not to tell John about us being back together. Well, who cares now, I could tell him.
"No. We had gotten back together, but we broke up." I couldn't hold on any longer and broke down crying, looking away from John in embarassment.
John rubbed my shoulder. "Hey, it's okay." Silence followed for a moment, then he said, "Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head and he sighed. His hand trailed up and went around my shoulder. "It will be okay," he whispered.
I shook my head, knowing that as long as I was without Edward, I could never be okay. John didn't say anything for a while. Then he took a deep breath. "Ella, I'm going away for the weekend, do you want to come with me, take away some of the stress?"
I looked up at him in confusion. "Seriously?" I asked. "No thanks."
Hey guys, an update! I hope you enjoyed it, I spent way too much time writing it hehe. By the way,the next chapter will identify what you have been waiting for for so long! :)
Please vote and comment. In the last chapter I barely got any comments and really, I was disappointed, because I take so much time to write and then only a few people comment :/
I'm really busy right now and it's really a sacrifice to write when I have assignments. But because I love you guys, I'm updating :)
Dedicated to YoPineapple, thank you for your support ^-^
PS. What do you guys think is going to happen?
Thanks for your support! Take care! xxx