A Fractured Lover (Student/Teacher)

Chapter 14

Dinner commenced as normal as expected. My McCoy or Nathan sat next to me at the dinner table. As soon as he sat down, he maneuvered his chair closer to mine so that his thigh was pressed right up against mine throughout dinner, making it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

Claire and Travis were just opposite of us across the table looking every bit the unhappy couple that they no doubt truly were. Claire hadn't been able to hide her obvious jealousy and Travis just looked as though he had a large pole stuck up his ass. Even as uncomfortable as they looked and as awkward as this situation was, it couldn't compare to the round of questions that my parents fired at us though the meal.

"So how'd you guy's meet?" my mom asked Mr. McCoy and I politely while putting butter on her croissant.

Oh shit. We never talked about any of this. We were supposed to up in the bedroom but Mr. Hot and heavy had other plans.

I felt the rush of fear creeping into my lungs as no words found their way out of my mouth. A nervous laugh escaped for just a moment. I shifted my body in my chair so that I was facing Mr. McCoy and smiled sweetly at him.

"You tell the story so much better than I do, honey. Why don't you go ahead and tell it."

I reached my hand out and placed it gently on his bicep in a loving way, or what I hoped came off as loving at least. His eyebrows rose slightly and his eyes tightened at the sides, a mischievous glint embedded deeply within them.

Before I could pull my hand away, his reached over and clasped mine in his warm grip.

"It's actually quite a funny story," he began. "Well, first off, I'm a teacher, just in case Alex didn't mention it before."

What the fuck did he just say?

Was he trying to get me murdered by my parents? My eyes darted around in panic between Mr. McCoy and my parents trying to conjure up some way to remedy the shit storm that was about to rain down on our family dinner.

"And one day I was headed to the Teachers' Lounge for some morning coffee before my first class of the day. When I got there I saw," He briefly spared me a cool and collected glance.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. He's gonna reveal everything and I will die a slow and painful death tonight. Jesus, here I come...

"That there was no coffee left."

My eyes snapped back to his face in shock. Relief spread its way through my veins and the muscles in my body that I was unconsciously tensing began to relax. Mr. McCoy turned his head to meet my stare and a small but knowing smirk crept onto his lips.

Bastard.

"So I decided to make a quick trip to a coffee shop that I had seen a few blocks away. When I got inside of the coffee shop I noticed a woman crouched down on the floor trying to pick up little individual pieces of sugar that she had presumably knocked down onto the floor. I walked over to try and help and heard her muttering profanities at the sugar." A small, breathy chuckle tumbled through his lips as he looked on, not really focused on anything in particular. He looked as if he was almost reliving the moment in his mind.

"Now, in my head I'm already thinking that this woman is a little on the weird side, talking to spilled condiments and all but she was incredibly funny while doing it; at least I thought. So I asked her from behind if she needed a hand." Mr. McCoy looked over at me with a gleam in his eyes, adoration clear as day in them before looking back to my parents. "And instead of thanking the stranger for offering to help, she stands up, still not facing me, and jumps on my case about how she's not some damsel in distress and some other colorful words that I won't mention. But then she turns around to face me and... I was lost." His thumb started to rub soft, slow circles over my hand in such a soothing manner that even I couldn't hide how much I loved the feeling.