English Is Flammable (Student/Teacher)

Chapter 47

(Will’s Point of View)

 

The rest of the vacation was great, phenomenal, even.  We went hiking one day, went into town and walked around, went swimming, and spent a considerable amount of time in the hotel room...I’m not giving you a blow-by-blow of that or drawing you a map, you can figure out what we were doing.  

We had flown home and were going back to school tomorrow, the same day as Shay’s parents were coming home.  Perfect timing.  I unpacked quickly and saw a text from Shay.

‘Are you busy?’ - Shay

‘No, why?  Is something wrong?  Want me to come over?’ - Me.  Usually she would just go ahead and call.

‘Nothing’s wrong, just wanted to talk about something.’ - Shay.  I couldn’t take it, so I dialed her number.

“Hey.”  She almost whispered.  Uh-oh, this can’t be good.  I can’t think what could be wrong.  Is she in trouble with her parents?  I can’t imagine why, they’re not even home.  She and Dani talked, so that can’t be it.  Is she...pregnant?  No, not possible.  We used a condom every time and she’s on the pill.  She’s not pregnant.  

“Hey, everything alright?”  I asked, trying to sound calm and comforting, but probably failing miserably.  

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine.”  She responded.

“So you’re not pregnant?”  I asked then slapped a hand over my mouth.  I did not just say that.

“I’m not pregnant.  Where would you get that?”  She asked, laughing nervously.  

“Nowhere, just...nevermind.  What’s going on?”

“I think we should tell them.”  She whispered.  It was like I could feel her looking around to make sure she was alone.  

“Tell who what?”

“My parents.  About us.”  She whispered even more quietly.  I gulped.

“Um, okay.  Are you sure?”  I asked her, half hoping she would say no.

“I think so.  I just feel bad lying about the whole thing.  And I just...they’re coming home, and they sound really excited, and they were saying that they’re sure I’ve been good and I can’t handle it anymore.”  She rambled.  I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.  “You don’t want to.”  She deadpanned.  Fuck.

“No, Shay, that’s not it at all.  If that’s what you want to do I’ll support your decision and be behind you the whole way.  I’m just worried about what will happen afterwards.  How do we know they’ll handle it well and that they won’t want us to break it off?”

“I didn’t think of that...”  She trailed off glumly.

“If you think they’ll be okay with it then by all means, I can be there when they get home.”  I told her.  Just because I’m not sure about it doesn’t mean I won’t stand by her.

“About that...can I tell them by myself?”  Really?

“Um...if that’s what you think is better.  Why?”

“I just think they’d be able to think about it clearer without you there.  If they just hear it from me, they might be able to think rationally and then I can do damage control if I need to.”  She reasoned with me.  

“Okay, that’s fair.”

“Alright.  Thanks for being so understanding about this.  You have no idea how much it means to me.”  She said, sounding relieved and serious.