Page 8 of Hot For Teacher
All summer we were together. I thought we weresomething. Something special. Once school started up, it was as if the entire summer never happened. I went back to hanging out with the cheerleaders and the jocks while he hid away at the theater with his sister and Mandi.
When it came time for prom, I wanted to go with just one person. I wanted to go with Brenden. Before he could ask me, Chad Bucks lied to the entire football team about sleeping with me. Not only did Inotsleep with that creep—even with a marriage behind me, I am still a virgin.
“You kidding me? Because of what the football team said? Do you recall Bucks never playing a single game senior year? I totally wonder why that dickhead couldn’t throw a ball.”
Pushing away from the counter, he storms away down the hall. I blink after him as I let his words sink in. Chad’s badly fractured shoulder kept him on the bench for his final season. It ruined our school’s winning streak as well as his chances at getting a scholarship.
Jumping to my feet, I rush after him down the hall. Before he can close his door on me, I throw it wide open. Brenden blinks at me in shock. Tears sting my eyes, but I am smiling. I never did buy the story Chad got hurt tipping cows.
“You did that to him? You did that...for me?”
“No, babe, I did it for me. No one ever talked about it again, did they? Do you think I wanted to hear about you sleeping with that fucking creep?”
“Brenden,” I sputter, rushing towards him as emotions wash over me. One right after the other, just like the colors turning in a kaleidoscope.
“Look I never meant to ruin his chances at going to school. I never even meant to hurt him that bad. I was just so pissed he talked about being with you. When I told him to stop or else, he chose or else.”
“Brenden,” I start again, watching him pace as he runs his hands through his dark hair. “He was a liar. A dirty, filthy liar. Ineverslept with him. Is that why....”
“No, I did not ask you to prom hoping to get laid, Jesus. Wait,” he mutters as he turns to face me, as if seeing me there for the first time. “Did you say you two never...”
“I did. Because we didn’t. We never had an actual date, Bren. Just the team going to get burgers. He took me home, so people saw us together. No one doubted it because he had been with all the other cheerleaders.”
“What a goddamn dweeb. Should have broken a few more bones.”
“Whydidyou ask me to prom? That summer.... you never asked me out on a date, Bren. You asked me to prom after that bogus rumor. I thought....”
Brenden moves fast, faster than I knew he could, to pin me to the door. I gasp as his hand comes to my jaw, tipping my head back. His blue eyes are darker than I have ever seen as they gaze down at me. I find myself pressing closer to him, welcoming anything he might want to do to me.
“Because I was an idiot, babe. That summer was the most wicked time of my life, Blair. I asked because...whenever I thought about prom, I thought about you.”
His whole body presses mine to the door, both of us breathing hard. I want to go back to that night he asked me. It was just after the final football game, just a few weeks before prom. He was at the game, even though he never came to games. I should have known he came for me.
“I wanted to go with you,” I whisper, as if we really are back on the football field together. “I just knew after that summer we would...I thought we might end up together.”
I say the words I have thought a hundred times over. I always thought he would ask me out. That he would prove that summer meant something to him too. After school started, I thought he still might ask. Asking me to prom just hurt me. With my senior year ruined and my mother running off on me, I was no longer worried about prom.
“Would you say yes now?” he wonders, his mouth almost touching mine as his hand slips into my braid, tilting my head back further.
“Yes,” I breathe the word against his lips.
Now I know how it feels to live with regret. To wish you had done things differently. Wishing I had made better choices. Looking back, I made a desperate choice when I got married. One I have regretted every single day since.
“Why did you say yesto him?” Brenden’s voice sounds pained as he asks this, the one question he has never dared to ask me.
Pulling him closer, I tilt my head back to meet his gaze. I have never been more certain of an answer in my life. An answer he might not like. One he may judge me for or even resent me for. It is the truth though, so it is time he hears it at last.
“I wasafraidof being alone, Brenden. He offered to take care of me, to give me a place to call home. He never loved me, Bren. And I never loved him. It was an agreement between two very lonely people. It also meant....” I trail off on a sigh, but he presses closer, his body hard against mine, his chest heaving.
“It meant what.... tell methe truth.”
“It meant that I was close to you,” I shout the words as tears slip down my temples. “Being close to you was worth the tradeoff. Worth people thinking I was a gold digger or a slut sleeping with her friend’s dads.”
Brenden lets out a heavy breath, turning away from me. I cover my mouth with trembling hands to hold back a sob. I am such a fool. Twice I have been a fool for Gallo men. First, trusting his father to take care of me when he barely took care of himself. Second, thinking that whatever high school thing that happened between Brenden and I really meant something.
Putting myself together after the Gallo man I married walked out on me was not hard. Doing it again after the Gallo man I have loved for half my life is a different story.
Chapter Five
