Page 9 of Topping the Jock
Damn him.
“You should get to the library,” I said, surprised I could keep a steady tone with how badly I was shaking on the inside. I wanted to punch Monty, but another part wanted to shove him against the wall and fuck him senseless. “The meeting should be starting soon.”
Fortunately, he didn’t argue. He backed out of the room and walked down the hall without a word. I expelled a breath and slumped against a stack of chairs before grabbing three of them and heading toward the library myself.
The meeting was… awkward to say the least.
Gwen seated me right next to Monty since we were the last two to enter the room, so I was forced to sit inches from him for an hour. Each time he shifted in his seat, his leg would lightly bump mine. We both put our arms on the table at the same time, and our elbows touched. I pulled back and rested my hands in my lap instead.
“Are there any questions or concerns?” Gwen asked after introducing everyone and going over the handbook, classroom procedures, and safety drills. She gave us a lot of freedom with our classes, letting us set up our own rules and methods of teaching, just as long as they followed the basic guidelines she set.
Monty raised his hand. “What’s the rule on phones in class? We had a no-phone policy at my old school. If a student was caught texting in class, the phone was confiscated and a parent had to come pick it up to get it back.”
“Good question,” she said. “Last year, we changed the phone policy. They used to not be allowed at all, but it’s been shown phones can actually be helpful with learning. We, of course, don’t want the kids goofing off and texting during lecture, so rules still need to be put in place to prevent that. One teacher suggested having the kids turn off their phones and put them in a basket before class, while others let the students keep them on their person and only take them out when their work was finished.”
Monty nodded and jotted down a note inside the front flap of his teacher’s handbook.
I had to admit I was impressed he was taking it seriously. In all our years of going to school together, I never knew him to be serious about anything other than football. Everything else had been a joke to him—classes, schoolwork, and following the rules. So it was a side to him I’d never seen.
Not that it changed anything. He’d always be an asshole in my book. Definitely someone I didn’t want to be around.
After the meeting, I stayed behind to help clean up. Frustratingly enough, Monty did too. Our gazes met as he gathered chairs into a stack. I scoffed and went back to wiping off the table. We both reached for the same empty box of donuts, and I jerked away before going to the other side of the room. Then, we nearly collided outside the library door when he was coming back inside after taking chairs to the storage room and I was going out to toss a bag of trash.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling as he stepped out of my way.
I shot him a glare and walked past him. If he expected me to play nice, he had another thing coming. I didn’t care if he had matured in the past ten years. Monty was—and always would be—nothing but a bully.
***
“Are you shitting me right now?” Reed asked, wiping his chin from where he’d accidentally missed his mouth when taking a drink. Probably because of the bomb I’d just hit him with. “Monty’s back?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Don’t know what shocks me more.” Reed sat back in his chair, resting an arm on the empty one beside him. “That you’re working with Monty or that he’s a teacher. Hard to imagine him being a positive role model for anyone, let alone kids. He was one hell of an athlete, but his personality left a lot to be desired.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
“Have you talked to him?” Reed asked before doing a double take at a guy in a suit who passed our table. He’d wanted to have lunch at a more upscale restaurant that Sunday, and I’d humored him even though I preferred simplicity and quiet meals in a laid-back atmosphere.
“A little,” I responded.
Reed tore his eyes from the stud in the nice suit and focused on me, raising his finely trimmed brows in anticipation. “And? Don’t leave me hanging, Beck. What happened?”
“Well, he said some things, and I said some things. The end.”
“You bitch,” Reed said, cutting his eyes at me.
I laughed before reaching for my glass of water.
Reed snatched it up and held it out of my reach. “No water until you talk.”
“You’d let me die of thirst?”
He shrugged. “Wanna find out?”
“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “Monty apologized for the way he acted in school. No, get that smile off your face. Hisapology, if you can even call it that,was pathetic. He tried to justify the bullying by saying, in not so many words, that boys will be boys. He thought it wasgood funback then.”
“What did you say back to him?” Reed set my glass on the table, no longer holding it hostage.
