Page 70 of The Teacher
“Addie…” This girl is so far gone. Maybe I should go to Higgins after all. Maybe it’s the only way to get this to stop, but I do want to try to spare her that. “You have to understand that Nate is a lot older than you. Alotolder. And he’s your teacher. It’s so inappropriate to be in a relationship with him, and honestly…he’s taking advantage of you.”
She doesn’t like hearing this, which is not a surprise. “He’s not taking advantage of me. I promise. You just… You don’t understand. Maybe you’ve never experienced anything like what we have, but if you had, you would understand.”
Oh, Lord. She is so brainwashed.
“I do understand,” I tell her gently. “I know how you must feel, but it’s just not healthy. You should have a boyfriend your own age.”
“It’s not about having a boyfriend.” Her round cheeks turn pink. “You don’t understand. Nathaniel and I have aconnection. I know he’s older than me, but I understand him in a way that I’m not sure you ever will. I’m sorry, but it’s true. And…it’s cruel for you to keep us apart.”
“You think that, but—”
“It’strue,” she says through her teeth. “I’m sorry you’re the kind of person who can’t understand the love that the two of us have for each other, but that’s not my fault. You don’t have to rip us apart. If you care for Nathaniel at all, you’ll let us have this.”
It’s like talking to a person programmed by a cult. I thought I might be able to talk sense into her, but I’m not certain anymore. Maybe it’s best to be straight. “Nate has been lying to you, Addie. He’s telling you what you want to hear. A man his age is not capable of having normal adult feelings for a teenage girl, especially not one of his students. He’s manipulating you.”
“No, he’s not!” The pink in her cheeks has morphed into a bright red color. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Addie, I’ve lived a lot longer than you, and I’ve known Nate a lot longer than you. And I’m telling you, he—”
“No!” she screams at me. “You don’t know him at all!”
Oh my.
I take a deep breath. I can’t let myself lose my cool because Addie is getting hysterical. She needs to know that this “relationship” has to end. “Addie,” I try again, “I think the best thing to do would be to talk to Principal Higgins on Monday. I wanted to avoid that, but I think it would be for the best.”
I didn’t want to do it to her, but I can see now it’s the only way. Her mother and the principal need to know what has been going on, because she clearly needs help. I wanted to spare her the embarrassment, but there’s no other way.
Addie’s face is now purple. “You can’t do that! You can’t tell the principal!”
“I have to,” I say quietly.
Addie lets out a heart-wrenching scream. The sound of it chills me to the bone—it almost sounds inhuman. I take a step toward her, reaching out a hand to attempt to comfort her, even though I recognize I’m the last person she wants near her. But just before I can touch her, she snatches the frying pan off the counter.
It all happens so quickly, I couldn’t react if I wanted to. Addie brings that frying pan down on my head with all the force in her young teenage body. It connects with my skull with an eardrum-shattering impact. And a split second later, everything goes black.
Chapter Fifty-Five
ADDIE
Eve Bennett goes downthe second I hit her with that frying pan.
It’s heavy, and I got in a good whack. She crumples and collapses to the floor, her eyes rolling up in her head. But even after I hit her, I still feel the rage coursing through my fingertips. So I hit her again.
And again.
After the third impact, she’s very still on the floor. I look down at the back of the frying pan, still caked with the remainder of a meal cooked last night. Now there’s blood caked on the back of it too. It’s trickling out of Mrs. Bennett’s head onto the kitchen floor.
Oh no.
I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t come to this house with the intention of bashing my math teacher on the head with a frying pan. I just wanted totalkto her. But then she started saying all that awful stuff about how Nathaniel is taking advantage of me and lying to me.How could she say something like that? She had no idea what she was talking about.
But one thing was clear. She was never going to let me be with Nathaniel. Whether she wanted him or not, she did not want me to have him.
I crouch down beside Mrs. Bennett on the floor. She isn’t moving at all. I squint down at her face, trying to figure out if she’s breathing. I’m not sure she is.
Oh my God. She’s not breathing.
Did I kill her?
