Maybe someday, p.6
Maybe Someday, page 6
“I would expect nothing less.” Her tone was so flat. Chris knocked her chin up, her jaw clenched tightly.
Ash scoffed again. “You haven’t changed at all. Were you sleeping with students back then, too?”
Chris slapped her hand on the table before fisting it, as if catching herself. “I’ve never slept with a student.”
“What would you call me?” Ash’s heart was in her throat, her entire reaction riding on Chris’ next answer.
“An unfortunate mistake.”
“Unfortunate?” Ash was worked up again, ready to defend herself no matter what Chris threw at her.
Chris stood slowly, staking her ground in her office. Ash was suddenly reminded that this was Chris’ world that she stood in, not hers. She saw the cameras in the corners of the office and tightened again. What was going on? What mistake was Chris talking about?
“I wanted so much to like you,” Chris whispered.
“I thought I was your favorite student,” Ash fired back.
“You were.” Chris softened instantly. “You were. And for Friday?” Chris paused, her gaze dropping from Ash’s eyes to her mouth and back up again. Chris shrugged slightly. “I wanted to like you for that, too.”
“Wanted to?”
“Did,” Chris corrected. “But I can see how it was a mistake now, and I apologize for the harm I’ve caused.”
What the hell was Ash supposed to do with that? It wasn’t like Chris had forced Ash to sleep with her. She’d willingly gone with Chris. They’d screwed each other's brains out for hours. So many orgasms that Ash had lost count. And then they’d texted. God, they had texted all weekend, slowly getting to know each other when they’d already known each other. It was a betrayal, but clearly not one that either of them had intended. This was just going to take some time to get used to. That was all it was.
“Don’t mess with my kids.”
“I would never dream of it,” Chris responded, her voice monotone.
There was no emotion coming from her, and Ash craved it. Any kind of response was better than this one. Ash almost stepped in closer, almost touched Chris’ shoulder, her arm, her face. Biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from doing something stupid, Ash froze in place.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr. Murphey.”
Chris whimpered.
Ash’s mind went right back to Friday night, to a different kind of whimper, to Chris’ fingers sliding in and out of her. She shuddered, her nipples hard, and that pull to touch Chris again was so strong and next to impossible to resist. But she did resist. Because this was Ms. Murphey, the teacher she hated and the teacher who hated her. This was her girls’ principal. And they’d already decided Friday would never happen again.
Sex was sex, no matter how good it was. And no bully like Chris could replace what Ash had with Mari. No one in the world could replace that. Pulling her lip into her mouth, Ash steadied herself. She found her resolve. She stared down her nose at Chris and said nothing as she walked out of the principal’s office and straight out of the school.
Chapter Seven
“Do you think I’m a bully?” Chris sat across from Mel at the table in the lounge. Mel had her lunch in front of her, and Chris had her fifth coffee of the day.
“I’m sorry, what?” Mel’s face pinched.
“Just something someone said,” Chris mumbled into her mug before taking a long sip. She hated that it was still bugging her, but for two whole weeks she hadn’t been able to think of anything but. No one had ever called her a bully before. She wasn’t one, was she? “No, answer that. Do you think I’m a bully?”
“I’m pretty sure every teacher here would attest to the opposite. You can be demanding, but I don’t think I’d call you a bully. What’s going on?” Mel took a bite of her sandwich.
“Nothing.”
“This isn’t nothing.” Mel pointed her sandwich toward Chris. “You don’t mope for nothing.”
“Sure I do.” Now what was she trying to pull? She did mope, frequently, she just didn’t let other people see it—ever.
“Nope. You don’t, not like this anyway.”
Chris frowned. “This isn’t something I can directly talk about in this building.”
Mel frowned at that, setting her sandwich down. “Did one of the teachers call you a bully? Did someone file a complaint? Linda?” With each question, Mel’s voice rose higher.
Chris shushed her, moving her hands in a downward motion. “No, no one filed a complaint.”
“Then who called you a bully.”
“A parent,” Chris mumbled, trying to keep her voice low. The last thing she needed was to accidentally start rumors about herself. “And it wasn’t in any specific conversation.”
“I’m confused.”
“Like I said, not here. But she called me a bully, and I’ve been trying to think back to everything I did, and I honestly can’t come up with anything. I mean I was firm, I pushed her to do better, I made sure she had the tools she needed.”
Mel tsked. “You’re not making any sense.”
Chris wrinkled her nose. She hadn’t told anyone about the conversation in her office with Ash, not even Andry—though Andry had called to check in about how that had all gone. If they’d been together in person, there was no way Chris would have been able to hold back on that. Chris scratched her scalp and winced. “What’s it like to have kids in your classroom when you also taught their parents?”
“Oh, well, that’s been rare so far. It’s only happened once or twice.”
Chris remained riveted to Mel. She’d been teaching in this district for over twenty years, and she knew everything. Well, Chris liked to think she did on days like this. She needed to confidently believe that Mel would and could catch her when she fell. And if she were to sink deep into what was going through her mind right then, she was falling hard.
“What makes you ask that?”
“We have two new students, and I taught their mom in high school.” Chris’ cheeks heated. She definitely wasn’t going to add in exactly who Ash was and what they had done a few weeks ago. Mel knew about that, but she didn’t know everything.
“High school? You haven’t taught that since…”
“Since I was working on my doctorate.” Chris grimaced. “Seventeen years ago, when I was working on my master's, however, is when I taught this parent. She was in one of my junior English classes.”
“Oh, well this gets more interesting by the minute. And she called you a bully for what you’ve done to her kids or what you did to her?” Mel ripped off the wrapper on her pudding cup.
Chris was sure her look said it all. She couldn’t even make herself look Mel in the eye because she would see everything. Like she’d told Ash, she wasn’t perfect, no one was. So had she made mistakes that year? Absolutely. She just hadn’t thought that Ash was one of them. In fact, she’d thought that Ash Garrison—no, Ashton Taylor—was one of the few good things she had managed to accomplish that year.
Ash had wanted to be a writer, and Chris had given her as much encouragement and mentoring as she possibly could. Maybe she’d just been too intense. She had at least been accused of that before. Chris still wasn’t sure where to go with this, but her radio echoed with her name. She snagged it.
“Dr. Murphey, you’re needed in the office.”
Perfect. Chris saluted Mel with her mug of coffee and started toward the office, which was directly across the hall. Linda knew where she was at, but it was easier to just use the radio where everyone could hear that she wasn’t in the office rather than simply get up and walk the twenty steps to her. It was an annoyance of Chris’ but also not something she wanted to deal with—ever.
As soon as Chris stepped into her office, she found Avonlee sitting with a pout and a glare at the corner table. Managing both those looks at once was quite the feat. Chris glanced at her and then looked to Linda to figure out what happened.
“Ms. Dunja needs to speak with you, immediately.”
Well, this is going to be good. Chris said nothing as she left the office and marched down to Esther’s classroom. She was waiting. She stepped out into the hallway and lowered her voice to just above a whisper, her hair pulled back in a slick pony that day. Esther crossed her arms.
“I didn’t know what to do other than to send her down to the office.”
“Start with what happened.” Chris crossed her arms as she leaned more on one leg than the other.
Esther drew in a sharp breath and held out her hand with a chain and ring on it. “This fell out of Avonlee’s pocket, best as I can tell.”
Chris reached forward, plucking it from Esther’s palm. It was a pearl ring, three small pearls situated at an angle with a string of diamonds glittering across it on either side. The ring was clearly big enough for an adult, not a child, and Chris wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a child with such an expensive piece of jewelry—certainly not one that would be worn to school.
“So what’s the drama with it?”
“When Avonlee realized she’d lost it, she panicked. She’s been searching frantically for it for the last part of the day today, unable to contemplate focusing on anything else. That’s not the real issue though, despite her being disruptive to the rest of the class. Kelli found it.”
“And refused to give it back?” Chris turned the ring in her fingers again. It was a beautifully delicate ring. She’d never thought of pearls quite that way before.
“Yes, and teased Avonlee about how attached she was to it.”
“You didn’t send her to my office for that?”
“No.” Esther heaved a sigh. “Avonlee attacked Kelli, trying to rip it from her fingers.”
“Attacked?” Chris’ back went up.
Esther waved her fingers. “No damage was done, but there was yelling, screeching—which was barbaric—and I was able to put a stop to it before anyone was injured.”
“By sending her to me?”
Esther nodded. “She wouldn’t give it up. With the expense of that, I decided it’d be better for me to keep it for the rest of the day, but Avonlee was still disruptive because she didn’t have it with her.”
“All right, I’ll deal with it.” Chris started to walk away, but Esther stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“It’s her mother’s.” The weight of Esther’s words weren’t lost on Chris, but the meaning was.
She was missing something. She nodded sharply, as if she understood, and started back toward her office with the necklace laced between her fingers. It was a gorgeous ring, but her mind was spinning with just exactly what had set Avonlee off to that point. She’d only been at the school a few weeks, and while Esther had remarked that she was a difficult student, nothing like this had happened yet.
Chris walked back into her office and crooked her finger at Avonlee, beckoning her into the office with her. They sat at the table in the corner in Chris’ office with the door cracked open still so anyone could see what was happening inside.
“Want to tell me your version of what happened?” Chris set the necklace and ring on the table in between them.
She was surprised when Avonlee didn’t immediately reach out for it. Instead, she crossed her arms tightly and stared at it, her gaze unwavering.
“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened.” Avonlee’s words had a sharp bite to them.
Chris leaned back slightly. “You can have the necklace back. I’m not sure you should bring it to school because we don’t want it to get lost again—”
“I didn’t lose it! Kelli stole it!”
“Ah.” Chris relaxed. That had been the way to get her to open up. Though it was a bit more explosive than Chris had hoped for. “And if she didn’t?”
“She did!”
“But if she didn’t, if she just found it, are you more upset that she had it or that you didn’t know where it was?”
Avonlee pouted after letting out a snort. Chris had figured that one out in a second. This child was hurting. Something deep inside her was broken, but Chris had no idea what it was or what the cause was.
“Ms. Dunja said it’s your mother’s. It’s beautiful. Is there a representation for the three pearls?”
Avonlee flicked her gaze up to Chris, a tense pause before she finally broke the silence. “For me, for Rhubie, and for the baby Mom lost.”
Chris’ heart shattered in front of her.
Avonlee leaned forward and pointed to the string of small diamonds that bridged over the pearls. “These are to show what ties us all together.”
“Love?” Chris asked, trying to hold back her own tears.
Avonlee nodded slightly. When she locked her gaze on Chris, those bright blue eyes reflected back at her weren’t Avonlee’s but were Ash’s, except the shade was different, the innocence and experience in them was different.
“Avonlee, I can’t have you disrupting the class when everyone is trying to learn.”
“I know,” Avonlee mumbled.
“I know this ring is important to you, but you might not want to bring it to school with you. It’s too important to accidentally lose. Or maybe wear it?” Chris was out of suggestions. It was as if she’d lost all words to comfort and console, as if she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do as a principal with a child in front of her was achingly sad about something. “Do you want to stay here for a little bit before you go back to class?”
“Are you going to call my mom?” She seemed almost scared but far more remorseful.
“Probably. Don’t you think she should know what happened?”
Avonlee pursed her lips, staring down at the ring again. “She’ll be mad.”
“Are you supposed to leave the ring at home?”
The nod confirmed everything.
“Do you think you’ll get in trouble for bringing it?”
“I know I will.” Distressed, Avonlee fidgeted her fingers in her lap.
“All right, well, I’ll see what I can do about that. For now, do you want to leave this with me until school is out so you don’t lose it?” Chris normally wouldn’t give a student an option, but this ring and necklace had way more meaning than Avonlee was letting on.
“No.”
“Then I suggest wearing it instead of keeping it in your pocket. Would you like some help with that?”
Chris snagged the necklace up and clasped it around Avonlee’s neck. The girl’s entire mood changed as soon as the necklace was back in her possession. Chris would have to figure out what that was all about later.
“Why don’t you go back to class, and maybe, you can focus on learning for the rest of the day.”
Avonlee nodded sheepishly and headed out of Chris’ office. Chris stayed at the table for another minute before finally standing and walking to her desk. Calling Ash wasn’t something she wanted to do, but this was also a conversation they probably needed to have. She could brush it off on Esther if she really wanted to, but she didn’t. She wanted to hear Ash’s voice again. She wanted to prove to Ash that she wasn’t a bully.
“Hello?” Ash sounded worried. She probably would be since it was a call coming directly from the school.
“Ms. Taylor, this is Dr. Murphey.” Why was she being so formal? She’d literally had her fingers inside Ash so many times she’d lost count and now suddenly her brain decided to be professional? Who was the idiot now?
“Oh.”
“I’m calling about Avonlee.”
“Is she sick?”
“No.” Chris tapped her fingers against her standing desk. She needed something to do with her hands, anything to make this conversation more comfortable. “There was an incident in the classroom I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Her teacher couldn’t talk to me?” Ash’s retort was sharp.
“She could have, but I wanted to be the one to make the call.”
“Why?”
Chris sighed. “Because I’m concerned about Avonlee, Ash, nothing else. She brought a necklace to school today, one with a ring on it.”
“She shouldn’t have done that.” Ash’s voice softened, disappointment in each word.
“Right, she told me she wasn’t supposed to bring it, but what’s the significance behind it? She was very upset by not having it, and while I’d rather her leave something so expensive at home, I’m not going to deny her bringing it either.”
“I’ll talk to her about it.” Ash’s answers were back to short and clipped.
Chris clenched her jaw tightly, staring out the small window to her office. She should have just let Esther make this call. “I’m concerned about her, Ashton. That’s what I’m trying to get across to you. She’s struggling.”
“I know.” Ash sobered instantly. “I know she is.”
“I wasn’t insinuating you didn’t, but I’d love to work on a plan so that she can start to enjoy life again. She looks so upset half the time, and the other half she’s angry.” Chris waited for any kind of response, but she was only greeted with silence.
Ash finally broke it. “Do I need to come get her?”
“No. I’ll talk to Ms. Dunja about scheduling a meeting with you to work on some of the issues we’ve noticed so far. Is Rhubie struggling? I haven’t noticed anything, but I haven’t had a chance to speak with Ms. Walsh yet either.”
“No.” Ash sounded choked up.
Chris wished she could see Ash’s face, know what she wasn’t saying, find a way to pry it out of her. She’d broken the trust between them though, somehow seventeen years ago, Chris had broken the delicate trust between teacher and student. She might never be able to make amends for that.
“I’ll continue to watch out for them and make sure they have everything they need. I promise.”
“Forgive me for not believing you.”
A male voice could be heard through the phone. Chris didn’t strain to hear it, but when Ash came back, she said she had to go and hung up quickly. Chris frowned as she stood at her desk. What had she done that was so bad? She just wished she knew. Not because she thought she could change Ash’s mind, but at least she could apologize.
