Page 125 of Teach Me

“Are you sure?” was the first thing he said after I answered.

“It doesn’t have to be here,” I told him, hearing the question in his voice. “I can go to you—”

“No, I…I’m heading out the door,” he answered, letting out a heavy sigh.

“Seriously, if you don’t want to come, then don’t.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” he admitted. “It’s in the dorms and there’s the chance someone could see us. See me, really.”

That hit me the wrong way. After what I’d just been through with my parents to tell them about him… It felt like I was trying to take a chance for us, but he wasn’t willing to do it, too.

“It’s fine,” I said finally. “Don’t. I should go to bed soon, anyway.”

“Mia—”

“No. You’ll have the kids tomorrow anyway, so you should get some sleep, too.”

“It’s fucking seven in the evening. Neither of us are going to sleep anytime soon. That’s not what this is about.”

I bit my lip in frustration but said simply, “I’ve got to go.”

“Don’t—”

For the first time in my life, I hung up the phone while someone was on the other line.

My stomach swirled with instant regret, but pride demanded I didn’t call him back to apologize or make excuses.

He wasn’t coming, and I refused to go to him, so… It was probably better I worked through my stuff on my own anyway, to figure out why his words had hurt so much so we could have a real conversation about it.

I’d barely gotten my things together to have a quick shower before crawling in bed with a sappy romance when a knock sounded on the door.

Did Clea forget her keys?

I shoved my stuff into the bathroom before opening the door. I wasn’t prepared for what awaited me.

“Here you go,” Marsha, one of the other upperclassmen said, giving me a little finger wave before leaving Owen there at my doorstep.

What the hell?

Owen pressed his hand against the door to make enough space to slip into my dorm room.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed, shutting the door behind me.

“There’s a lock at the fucking front door. I had to come up with some excuse to see you here,” he bit back. “I just told her I needed to talk to you before we handed out tests tomorrow.”

“People are going to talk.”

“I know. That’s why I don’t come here.”

Suddenly, I felt like a moron for being so angry with him. Of course he was right. Coming here meant exposing what we had to people who could hurt us. Or really hurt him.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just had the worst day, and I wanted to see you but…I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

He paced the room for a moment, glancing around before he shoved his hand through his hair and plopped down onto the edge of my bed.

“I do,” he blew out. “You wanted your boyfriend to be there for you no matter where you were. I get it. And I want to give that to you…I just…”

“You can’t,” I whispered.

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