A Forbidden Finale (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

"Oh come on, pet." My mam started trying to drag me towards the small boutique shop on the corner. "I just want to see what you look like in the gorgeous dresses, that's all."

"Mam, I'm really not interested." What on Earth was the point in going and trying on a gorgeous dress that I couldn't have? It would just make everything else seem even worse than it was already. "Look, let's see if they have anything in there." It was a shop that looked well within our price range.

Liliana had informed me that the dress code wasn't anything as fancy as prom, but it was very smart still. Wedding style, apparently. I just needed something that didn't make it blatantly obvious that I'd spent about a tenth of everyone else's budget. At least no one there shopped in the high street shops, so they probably wouldn't recognise where I'd got my dress from.

There was nothing here. I pulled out a purple knee length dress covered in sequins and shuddered, quickly shoving it back. My parents continued to breathe down my neck whilst I scoured the railings trying to find something suitable. "So, you haven't really told us anything about your teachers yet. How are they?" My dad inquired, pulling out a floor length dress with anchors on and forcing me to shake my head.

"They're fine." It was mostly true. Mr. Langley was of course my favourite. Mrs. Mellier and the other ballet instructor we had were both stuck up and unbearable. The academic teachers were nice enough, it seemed. "I mean, they're good, obviously. My ballet instructor was dancing with Royal Ballet at one point."

"Oh, that's so great." My mam was buzzing to hear anything good about the school and I wasn't going to break any of the bad things to her. "I'm so proud of you, pet."

"Thanks, Mam." I pulled out another dress and sighed. This one probably would have been okay—knee length, slim fitting and cream—if it hadn't been for the slit that dragged practically up to my knickers. I had to pull another out just to check this one wasn't ripped. "I don't think there's anything in here that's going to do."

"And your friends? No one's being morons I hope, I can imagine there are some stuck-up idiots there." My mam had always done a surprisingly good job of not swearing in front of me. I knew she made a conscious effort, too, because she was on the phone with her friends there was a fuck every other word.

"There are some, obviously. I have some friends, though. It's all been fine, really."

I exited the shop and tried to hide my scowl. I wasn't sure why we were shopping in Leeds in the first place. It was closer to the school than Newcastle, but they had all the same shops and I missed my home town. I wanted to see my friends, but instead my parents had just come to pick me up for a day trip. They thought I was enjoying myself so much that I wouldn't want to come home and I couldn't bring myself to burst their bubble.

I was just about to divert our path towards the next shop when I heard someone calling out my name. My stomach sank with recognition. "Hey, Leon," I greeted, scratching the back of my head. "These are my parents." I turned to my folks. "This is Leon. We go to school together."

"Are you dress shopping?" He looked at my so far empty hands.

"Yeah, just having a look around really. You?"

"Just going to try and find a suit." His hands were empty, too. "You should tag along, it'd be cool to see more of you."

It was really the last thing I wanted to do, but he was doing a good job of looking very imploring. And he dared to do it in front of my parents, who were egging me on silently.