Page 94 of The Teacher
Deny everything.
I squirm on the sofa. “There’s nothing to know.”
“Yes, there is.” She levels her blue eyes at me. “You were sleeping with him.”
I can see in her eyes that she really does know. She’s not asking, she’s not digging, sheknows. She must have seen us sneaking into the darkroom together or… I don’t know. Oh my God, this is the worst thing ever. The worst possible person has found out about the worst thing I’ve ever done—well, the second worst. I wonder how she found out.
“I saw the poem,” she says.
That is the last thing I expected her to say. “What?”
“When we were in the cafeteria and you spilled your lunch tray,” she reminds me. That’s a nice way of describing the day when she threw my lunch on the ground. “There was that poem in your notebook. He wrote that and gave it to you. You know… ‘Life nearly passed me by, then she, young and alive—’”
“Stop it!”
I hold up my hand to get her to stop talking before she ruins my favorite poem forever. I will never forget the verses that Nathaniel wrote just for me. I have every word memorized.
Life nearly passed me by
Then she
Young and alive
With smooth hands
And pink cheeks
Showed me myself
Took away my breath
With cherry-red lips
Gave me life once again
I narrow my eyes at Kenzie. “How do you know he wrote me that poem?”
She starts chewing on her fingernail again. “Because he didn’t write it for you.”
“Yes, he did. Trust me.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “He wrote it for me.”
Chapter Seventy-Four
ADDIE
My whole worldfeels like it has just turned upside down. What? What is going on? What is Kenzie talking about?
“He wrote it for me two years ago,” she says. “I… I have it memorized.”
Thankfully, she doesn’t try to recite the poem again, because I would have had to run out of the room, holding my ears and screaming.
“I don’t understand,” I say. “Why did he write you a poem?”
“Because Nate and I have been sleeping together since my freshman year.”
No.No. That’s not possible. She’s making this up just to torture me.
