MINA [#Wattys2014]

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"You didn't have to do this Tank..."

"Consider it extra credit or me trying to pay penance for my wrongs or anything you want to call it, but whatever you settle on, I'm sure your girlfriend won't mind."

Instead of being offended like she should have been, Mina just laughed, "Now why would you think that?"

"C'mon, no offence, but you're HOT! I mean, there's not one guy in this entire school, teacher or student alike who doesn't think you're hot and doesn't want a chance at you. Even you must know that...yet you never give anyone the time of day. I know. Don't ask me how...but I know you don't date."

Mina stared at him incredulously; obviously this one wasn't one to keep up with his current events...did he seriously manage to miss every news report that had aired her story? She looked him over again, and decided that he just might have. That or he didn't care. Either one was right up his alley and both were situations she was better off not thinking about too intently.

"I know what that look means." he glanced at her briefly before turning his eyes back to the road. "The only person we ever see you with is that woman. You both seem pretty close and who can blame a person for thinking what I had the guts to say out loud?"

Mina just shook her head, trying to keep the smile from her face...

"She's not my girlfriend; well not in the context you're thinking about us. She's my lawyer and my friend."

"Really?"

"Really..." Mina replied and continued to watch him as he tried to focus on the road. She saw the smile break out on his face and the slow release of the breath that he had been holding.

"Phew, that's a relief, then I'm sure she won't mind if..."

"Tank, forget about it. You're five years my junior, kid."

"I'm nineteen and legal..."

"And I'm your teacher!"

That seemed to stop his banter and he sigh out loud. "Fine I get it, you don't like me."

Mina rolled her eyes, "Wow, am I that obvious?" her words were laced with sarcasm.

Tank grinned that cocky grin of his, which had become his ever present trade mark and made him somehow seem older than his nineteen years. Probably a trick he had learned to help him pick up chicks... "Hey a guy can take a hint."

But if she knew him for the Tank she'd come to know these past months, he was already cooking something up in his mind...

She smiled to herself at the thought...the only reason why she had agreed to let Tank drive her home was because Tanya was working late again tonight and she did not feel up to walking it home alone, especially since it was now really late and she'd missed the last bus that would pass her way.

The creepy feeling was coming back, and if it were possible, seemed to be getting stronger and more fervent and even harder to ignore. So when Tank had pulled up beside her, she did not exactly jump at the offer per say, because he was her student after all, and she did not want to seem too eager to hop into a vehicle with him. Also she didn't want any rumors to suddenly surface. She had enough on her plate already without having to deal with rumors as well. Maybe her conscience would kill her later but right about now it was about survival, so she had toyed with his head and manipulated him into believing that it was he who had convinced her that it would have been safer if he dropped her at Tanya's place.

She had 'finally' agreed...

"He's still young." she had chuckled to herself, "So much still to learn..."

"Next left." she pointed.

She directed him until he had pulled up in front of Tanya's White Colonial.

"Thank you Tank." she said while opening the door and getting out of his car. It was so low that her feet collided with the ground more quickly than she had expected and she rocked back, a little off balance. Tank's hand on her back, however stopped her from bouncing dangerously into him.

The warmth of his hand seared her skin and seemed to radiate rapidly throughout her entire body like liquid fire, though his hand never moved from its spot.

"Thanks," she mumbled again and quickly got out. Taking care to not have a repeat of what had happened. That would have been a mistake she could not afford to make.

He called out to her through his window, "So what...that's it? You're not gonna invite me inside for a cup of coffee?"

"Go home Tank. Go do your homework. If of no other, I'm sure of one. I want no less than five pages and my advice is that the sooner you get started on them, the sooner you'll be finished."

She heard him laugh as he pulled off the curb and back onto the road. She shook her head in mock annoyance, and then laughed nervously to herself. Who would have thought that Tank would hit on her? It almost seemed cute. He had a crush on his teacher...and that teacher was her. Though she wouldn't be his teacher in another month or so.....

Ok it was official, she was one messed up woman with an even more messed up background story. She just didn't need any more drama in her life. But that was territory she refused to trespass on. Not on this life or the next. She managed to chuckle as she quickly rummaged through her bag for the spare key that Tanya had given her. Usually it would have been kept hidden beneath the flower pot but after having so many people tracking her every movement with a lens, she'd simply just carried it around instead.

Just as she had fit the key into the lock, the creepy sensation, like she was being watched overwhelmed her and she could not stop herself from glancing over her shoulder even as she willed her fingers to work faster. What she saw was nothing. Mentally berating herself she quickly unlocked the door and went in, fitting the dead bolt into place just like Tanya had showed her to do when she so happened to find herself home alone. Tanya would use the garage entrance on days or nights like this. She could not however stop her legs from carrying her to the window. She peeked out the window in the hallway and saw a fiery red car slowly pull away...it looked...

"Oh My God Mina! Stop being so paranoid," She smacked herself on the forehead with her open palm.

Rolling her eyes at herself and her pansy behavior as she kicked off her heels, she picked them up and then padded barefoot into her room.

Maybe a nice long bath would solve her problems? And she'd try extra hard not to think about Tank either...

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"Wrong direction," he chuckled as he watched her glance over her right shoulder, then quickly unlock the door.

He watched her even as she went in and listened as she quickly shut it a little too firmly to pass as normal. He enjoyed her fear, it permeated his mind and whet his ever increasing appetite...it turned him on.

"Soon my darling." he murmured stroking himself, "Very soon..."

He slowly drove away, noting that she was looking out the window. He smiled inwardly and was almost tempted to honk his horn in greeting and wave...Almost...but he would not risk it.

No not yet.

She needed more time.

Besides he was not one to toot his own horn...get it? 'Toot his own horn'.

Man he cracked himself up.