Page 68 of The Teacher
ADDIE
You knowthings are seriously bad when even ice cream doesn’t help.
An hour later, I am sitting in the kitchen with an empty tub of rocky road ice cream, and I don’t feel even a little bit better. Actually, I feel worse because my stomach hurts now. I started to feel regret setting in when the tub was three-quarters empty, but I kept going.
The pain of knowing I’ll never get to be with Nathaniel again hurts me right in my soul. This hurts worse than anything I have ever experienced. Worse than when my father died, that’s for sure.
Well, when I killed him, that is.
That was anaccidentthough. An accident that wrecked my friendship with Hudson, which sucked, but at least it started me on the path to Nathaniel. And even though my mother won’t admit it, our household is so much better off now that he’s gone. My father’s death fixed everything.
And if Mrs. Bennett were gone, that would fix everything too.
Despite my churning stomach, I lick the remainder of the ice cream off my spoon. I’m glad for the discomfort, because I want to feel something besides the ache in my chest. But the loss of the love of my life is not the only emotion I’m feeling right now. Almost overwhelming that sadness is another emotion:
Hate.
I hate Mrs. Bennett. I thought I hated her before, but I didn’t even know the meaning of the word. She is the worst person I have ever met. She is ruining both of our lives, and it’s like she doesn’t even care.
If she were dead, I could still have my job, and we could still be together.
I could never do anything to hurt her though. I mean, yes, I was responsible for my father’s death, but that was anaccident. I would never…
I could never…
No. No way. Out of the question.
But one thing I could do is try to reason with her. She probably thinks Nathaniel is taking advantage of me, but that’s not true at all. Maybe I could explain it to her. Maybe if she understands how much he and I mean to each other, she’ll finally get it. It’s not like she even wants him anymore if she kicked him out.
I have to believe that Mrs. Bennett has a decent bone in her body. After all, she did try to help me in math class. She didn’t turn me in for cheating, and she helped me to find a tutor.
Maybe she’ll listen to reason.
After all, I have to try. It’s my only hope.
Chapter Fifty-Three
EVE
This entire day feels surreal.
I caught my husband kissing one of his sixteen-year-old students. He washaving sexwith her. Now I have thrown him out, and as soon as I can, I’m going to file for divorce. I don’t need a lawyer. He’s going to give me everything I want—everything I deserve.
Or else.
I can’t celebrate the end of my marriage though. I skip dinner entirely and end up grabbing some Neapolitan ice cream to soak up the alcohol in my belly. I turn on a movie on Netflix, and three hours later, I am feeling much more sober, for better or worse.
I thought there was a reasonable chance I would spend the entire night awake, but the combination of alcohol and dairy is making me extremely tired. My eyelids feel like they have lead attached to them, and almost against my will, I find myself drifting off on my sofa.
Until I get awakened by a crash.
I scramble off the sofa, tossing aside the container of ice cream. I only finished about half of it, and the rest has turned into ice cream soup. But that’s the least of my problems.
What was that noise?
I never quite appreciated how nice it was to have a man in the house when things went bump in the night. And this was more than just a bump. This was definitely a crash. And it sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.
I look over in the direction of the kitchen door. Did I imagine that sound? I was almost asleep and also watching television. The noise might have come from the TV, although it really did seem like it was coming from the kitchen.
