“I’ve got to tell you something.” I smiled at Claire.
“Do you have lip gloss?” She asked.
Typical Claire. “Yeah, in my locker.” I muttered, heading down the hallway towards my locker.
“I really want to impress Matt when I see him next hour.” She winked.
“You guys have a thing?” I asked, not really interested. They’d been on and off for awhile.
“Yeah, oh my god. You need to read the conversation we had last night!” She said, whipping out her phone, scrolling through texts, going on and on about Matt, but I wasn’t listening.
“Any boy news with you?” She giggled as I handed her my lip gloss.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you about..” I trailed off. Now I wasn’t so sure I wanted to tell Claire, she spread gossip in this school like wildfire, and I knew this was a matter that no one could know about.
“What happened?!” She said, dabbing on the lip gloss.
I shrugged. “It’s nothing, actually..” I sighed.
She glared at me. “Mal, now you gotta tell me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nothing! There’s just a guy in my history class who’s really cute.” I lied.
She burst into laughter. “Oh wow, that’s your big guy news? We need to get you a boyfriend, babe. It’s kind of sad.” She smiled at me.
If you only knew. “Yeah, I know.” I blushed.
“Hey, Malory.” Mr. Tomlinson, along with at least 5 or 6 of the drama kids approached my locker. I immediately blushed, just by seeing his face.
Claire smirked at them, and then looked back at me, giving me an amused look.
“Uh, hey.” I muttered.
“We’re going to do an extra drama practice during 6th period.” Mr. Tomlinson said, smirking at me.
Claire snorted and raised her eyebrows at me.
“I-I can’t, I have chemistry.” I looked down at the ground.
“You’ll get out of class! C’mon, I’ll go write you a pass.” He said.
Claire laughed, staring at me.
“No thanks.” I raised my eyebrows at them.
“Why not-“
“I don’t want to.”
Mr. Tomlinson’s smile disappeared. “I guess you’re missing out then.” He said dryly, indicating for the students to follow him as he started to walk away.
“Oh, darn.” Claire muttered sarcastically under her breath.
They were a few feet away when Mr. Tomlinson stopped and turned around to face me again. “Oh, and do we still have that private lesson today? Or are you going to cancel again, because we’re not cool enough for you.”
He didn’t wait for my response, he turned around and walked down the hallway.
“Private lesson? Dork.” Claire laughed.
“Can you believe him?” I asked, still in shock.
“What an asshole.” She said. “I guess you were right!”
I felt my cheeks burning up and turning red. “I’m so furious right now. I hate him.”
“Chill out, Mal. So what if the drama club hates you?” She snorted.
“He’s just so rude.”
“You already knew that.”
I thought he’d changed. “Yeah.. you’re right.”
She continued to ramble on about Matt as if nothing had happened, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Should I just pretend nothing happened yesterday, cancel my lesson, and go back to hating him? At this point, that seemed like the easiest thing, because I hated him again already. Just the thought of him made me want to scream. But then I thought about what had happened between just the two of us, and I realized that I couldn’t just hate him. He pissed me off a lot, yeah, but I couldn’t help it. I had to talk to him.
**
My hands shook as I opened the door to the auditorium. I looked down and saw Mr. Tomlinson sitting at the desk next to the stage, reading through papers. He must’ve heard the door open, but he didn’t look up at me. I took a few steps inside, making noise with my shoes hitting the tile floor. Nope, he still didn’t look up.
“Hey.” I said.
He glanced up at me. “Didn’t expect you to come.”
I took a few steps closer. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re too popular for drama, huh?”
I kept my stare on him. “No, I love this class.”
“You just pretend to hate it in front of your friends.” He raised his eyebrows.
I stood there, not knowing what to say. He got up, and threw the box of scripts in front of me. “Choose one.”
I sighed and bent down, looking through the papers. I glanced up at him every so often, but he remained looking at the work on his desk again.
“Why do you hate me?” I asked boldly.
His head snapped up, looking at me. “I don’t, I hate some things you do. The way you treat some people.”
My eyebrows furrowed together. “I don’t treat anyone badly.”
“I’ve seen you around school, Malory.” He said, getting up and walking towards me. “I see how mean your friends are.”
“My friends, not me.”
He shook his head. “Why don’t you say something? Why don’t you stop what they’re doing? Why don’t you just tell them you like drama? If they’re going to hate you for doing something so lame, then they’re not worth being your friends.”
I rolled my eyes. “Typical.”
“What?”
“Typical for a teacher to say.”
“I’m a student teacher.” He muttered. “I was your age a few years ago, Malory. And I wasn’t as rude as you.”
“I’m not rude. Just because I care about my social status and what people think about me means I’m rude? I never did a damn thing to anyone.” I retorted.
He took a step closer to me. “You think that you’re just too good for everyone? The world revolves around you and Claire? Maybe it does right now, but you just wait. You need to realize that there’s a life beyond high school, Malory. In a few years, it won’t matter if you were popular or not. You need to get over yourself.” He snarled.
“I don’t see why you care so fucking much. Did I ever do anything bad to you? I got my cell phone out one time and you decided to make this year hell for me. Just leave me alone-“
Before I could finish my sentence, he leaned in and his lips crushed my own, his hands frantically moving to my waist. I felt my tongue against his, breathing heavily as his fingers toyed with the end of my shirt by my waist. Our mouths worked together in unison, passionately and heavily.
“Immature high schooler..” He moaned into my mouth, pulling me closer by the waist. Our entire bodies were pressed against each other, practically begging for more. I needed him, and for some strange reason, he needed me too. Our kiss deepend as we desperately grabbed each other, trying to get closer than we already were. His fingers traced over the waistline of my jeans, toying with the tiny band of bare skin just above it. One hand moved up to my neck, fingers gently stroking my jaw line as his tongue explored my mouth. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him as close to me as humanly possible, I just couldn’t get enough. My hands slid down, feeling his toned abs through his thin v-neck.
We both heard the door to the auditorium open and jumped away from each other. I ran to my bag, pretending to be busy looking for something.
“Hey Tommo, Malory!” Mr. Andrews walked in happily. “What are you two working on?”
“We had just finished.” Mr. Tomlinson said, clearing his throat.
“So early? It’s only 4:05! Lessons usually end at 4:30.”
“I-I’ve got to cut this one short. I have a dentist appointment.” I laughed nervously. “I’ll stay a little longer next time!”
“Well what script were you working on, Mal? You’re such a great actress, I feel like you could handle a lot of parts the other students can’t. What have you been doing?”
“I-uhm. I really gotta go, Mr. A!” I stammered, picking up my bag. “We can talk about this tomorrow morning!” I smiled, practically running out the door.
I glanced at Mr. Tomlinson before I closed the door behind me. He gave me a little wave and a slight smile, still blushing at what had happened.