Page 18 of Student Seduction
He relaxed finally and exhaled softly. What sounded like relief. Then his eyes were tight again. “Complicated how?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.” He stared at me intently. So deeply that it seemed like he could see past who I tried to appear to be and all the way to the little girl in me that really just wanted her daddy to come home and take care of everything. “Because of your mom?”
I didn’t like it.
“Because of everything.” I took a step back and he placed a hand on my waist and pulled me closer.
“Complicated how, Emersyn?”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t break eye contact. And couldn’t lie to him.
“Like I told you before, my dad left us. Besides Lupus, my mom is the proud owner of a violent temper. She takes it out for a spin regularly. I’m all my little brother has. I got an internship in downtown Charlotte and I have to take the bus right after school twice a week, while coordinating a way for my brother to get to and from fall ball practice and make sure he has dinner. I get home late and make sure he’s eaten, bathed, his homework is done, and he’s in bed. Then I take care of my mom until I can finally crash myself. The nights I don’t have my internship, I work at High Octane until close. I wake up at five thirty every morning and do it all over again.”
My anxiety ramped up my speech and heart rates. I left out that sometimes my mom messed the bed and I had to clean her and that up also. She deserved her dignity. Even if she didn’t, I wouldn’t disrespect her like that.
Aiden flinched. “And here I was thinking you were some flighty party girl who always seemed to be running late because she couldn’t be bothered to give a shit.”
“You couldn’t be further from the truth.”
He breathed heavily before giving me a truth of his own. “Drew was right. If you were mine, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off you.” He closed his eyes. “Seeing him handle you like that made me crazy. I’m not usually this way.”
“Didn’t look like you were too worried about who I belonged to or who had their hands on me this morning. You were otherwise occupied.”
His brows dipped inward. “I asked Lisa about you. I didn’t mean to. Your project was on display when I subbed for her in the art room yesterday during my prep period. It was amazing. I asked who sculpted it and she told me it was you. I’d never seen anything like it and she could tell I was too interested, too intrigued, and asking too many questions, so I shifted the topic to her and her art.”
“That’s the sculpture I submitted that got me the internship.” Okay, so maybe I could forgive him.
“Seems like you have a lot going on. Do you absolutely have to have an internship?”
I nodded. “One of the four interns gets a ten-thousand dollar scholarship to a school of their choice. I need the money. I won’t be able to afford my first year of school without it. And I’m afraid…”
“Afraid of what?”
At this point, I didn’t have much else to hide. “Afraid I’ll take a year off to save up for college, then never end up going. It happens to lots of people around here. Camille’s cousin Charity got a job cleaning offices to save up for school when she graduated, then she got an apartment and a live-in boyfriend, who got her pregnant. Now guess where she works five years later?”
“Still cleaning offices,” Aiden offered dejectedly.
“Yep. At night. Days and weekends she waitresses at a truck stop gas station diner, because guess who didn’t stick around to help with the baby?”
“That won’t happen to you, Emersyn. For one, you have more drive and talent than anyone I’ve ever known. And two, you ghosted the only guy you ever slept with so I doubt unplanned pregnancy is in your future.”
The bell rang, signaling that I was late for second period. I stepped out of his arms.
“That’s the scary thing about the future, Mr. Singleton. It’s not like history. None of us really knows what it holds, do we?”
