THE TEACHER

Chapter three

On the left side of the bed Dale was snoring, already asleep for hours; Abigail, on the other hand, was just lying down with her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling and desperately trying to stop thinking about Melissa. She loved her fiancée and the idea of getting married to him; then why couldn't she get rid of the love she felt for Mel?

Confused and irritated, she got up and went to the kitchen to drink some water: all that thinking and debating against herself was making her sweat.

After a few minutes at the kitchen counter, only lit up by the dim light above the sink, she heard some sleepy and slow footsteps heading in her direction, followed by a yawn and the appearance of a tall man.

According to a lot of girls in college, Dale was a very handsome guy, and based off of looks no one could deny it: he had beautiful green eyes, black curly hair and had grown a very adult beard during his last year at UCLA. The fact that he came from a rich family added more to his already splendid reputation around campus, and he just couldn't keep the not-earned fame away. Despite his handsomeness and his very wealthy situation, Abigail had known some very dark secrets about him that she hadn't shared with anyone, not even her parents: he was a jealous type, he would suspect of everyone that came in contact with Abigail, and since she had made the mistake of telling him about her sexuality, he had become even more sticky than normal.

Dale had his flaws, but Abigail knew how to handle them and the fights over jealousy had been minimalized to just one or two a year. He had great manners and a good sense of humor – which made Abigail fall for him in the first place – and was very sweet around everyone: elderly people, babies, colleagues, everyone felt immediately good around the guy.

"Hey babe, is it morning? Are you heading out to go to the pool?" he asked, with his eyes barely opened.

"Honey, it's three in the morning. Go back to sleep."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm not tired, I'll be back soon."

Instead of turning around and walking back to the bedroom, he got closer to Abigail and put his arms around her waist, slowing swinging left and right.

"Is there something on your mind?"

"Just work stuff, honestly," she sighed. "But I promise I'm fine."

"Can I do anything to make you come to bed with me?"

"We could get a cat," she chuckled.

"Abby, we already talked about this, and I vetoed it. Don't bring it up again," he stated, with his voice suddenly becoming stern.

"Sorry," she said, turning around to face him and placing a soft kiss on his lips. "Seriously, go back to bed, I'll be there soon."

Too tired to stay up with her, Dale nodded and walked back to where he came from, moving like a possessed zombie.

When Abigail later joined him in bed, she forced herself to go to sleep; with her last thought before closing her eyes, she wished to wake up and find her feelings for Melissa gone.

Monday morning, Abigail steered away from Ms. Bennett's classroom, and instead stayed in her own, working on her laptop, and trying to clear her mind by suffocating herself in work. She finally understood why Melissa had been a workaholic her entire life, and actually found working for long times very therapeutic.

When the final bell rang, she thought she had escaped the possibility of meeting her and having another awkward staring competition. She was soon proved to be wrong once she reached the corridor that led to the main exit, where Melissa was waiting for her in front of the door, standing upright with her things in hand.

"Hi. You didn't come in my classroom during second period," she said, struggling to keep everything in her arms.

"It didn't seem very opportune, honestly," replied Abby, taking Melissa's laptop to help her out.

"I'm sorry about Friday. The entire thing was a very stupid idea, starting with taking you to that very awful place," confessed Melissa. "Forget that night, please. Every word I said, everything I did... just erase them from your mind."

While they were chatting, the two slowly walked out the door, stopping at the top of the stairs.

"I'm sorry, but how can I erase all that? You told me that you haven't moved from our kiss in five years, and I'm supposed to forget about it in a day?" Abigail raised her eyebrow.

"I had one too many glasses of wine last night, I was confused."

She was clearly lying, since she had drunk only two glasses of white wine, but Abigail didn't want to put her on the spot. She still remembered the night they had talked at the pub, every single word spoken, and how Melissa had told her that 'the real truths are always said after a couple of drinks', but the other teacher obviously didn't.

"Oh my god, fine," she sighed, just to put an end to that dreadful conversation.

They walked down the stairs together, and when they reached the bottom, they found a not-so-well-timed surprise waiting for them.

"Hi babe," smiled Dale, leaning in to get a kiss from his fiancée.

"Hi! What are you doing here?" she asked nervously.

"Thought I'd stop by and finally see you at work. How was today?"

"Great, great," she quickly answered his question. "By the way, this is a... colleague of mine, Melissa Bennett."

They shook hands politely, and the eldest made sure to show off her fakest smile yet.

"It's good to meet you," nodded Dale. "We should all get together for dinner sometime. You, Abby, me, and your husband."

"Oh, she doesn't have a husband," jumped in Abby.

"Sorry, my bad, I was just wrongly assuming."

"It's alright. Not all of us have the luck to find someone, like Abby did," she replied, clenching her jaw. "I must get going. Bye."

"Oh, here," said Abby, handing her laptop back. "See you tomorrow."

Melissa walked away in the opposite direction from the couple, and was actually very relieved when they were out of her sight; she stopped in front of her car, but before getting in she took a few deep breaths and ultimately decided that if Abby wanted to stay with Dale, she should have, and that she had no say in it.

Hand in hand, Abigail and Dale reached their house, chatting about their day. As soon as they opened the front door, Abby went straight to the bathroom to take a shower, while he sat down on the couch and started watching the news. As he was waiting for his fiancée to get out of the shower, his mind started wondering about Melissa, who she was and why the hell was she staring at her girlfriend with those lovingly eyes. Once Abby joined him in the living room, he dropped the issue completely, not wanting to start off their new life with another fight, but vowing to bring it up again if Melissa sticked too much to his fiancée.