A Forbidden Finale (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Christmas had been the bitterest disappointment. I'd been looking forward to going home and relaxing with my friends for the first time since I'd returned to Briarwood after half term, but when I'd gone to one of their house parties I'd been shunned. I was the posh girl now and they didn't want anything to do with me, apparently. I was the butt of every single joke and I'd left early.

No one had bothered to message me the next day to see how I was doing, or to apologise. I hadn't tried to contact them again—I'd sat in my room with too much wine and sad films for the majority of the two week break.

Not that it meant I'd been wanting to return to the Academy. I just wanted to wallow in my bedroom, no matter how much it had been worrying my parents. My friends had been my rock. What did I even have to look forward to anymore?

My best friend, ex-best friend, had messaged me on New Year's Day to apologise. It had been an essay of bullshit telling me how it was hard to stay friends since we didn't speak very often anymore and that I hadn't made the effort to Skype with them or anything since I'd been at the Academy.

Maybe it was true. It was probably true. I'd been practising as many hours as my body could take and that didn't leave much time for maintaining friendships.

I hadn't replied to her.

Instead, I'd come back to Briarwood and told Liliana that I was in on her stupid bombing scheme. Liliana and the twins were the only friends I had left and I was going to do everything I could to make sure they stayed friends with me.

I couldn't deal with loneliness.

So I was in the back of a ridiculously expensive getaway vehicle with a balaclava in my hand knowing I was making a horrible decision.

Liliana had been sceptical when I'd first said I wanted to come on the mission—I liked to call it that, it made it sound far more exciting and important than it really was—but I'd spun her an apparently believable story about some research I'd been doing on the topic that really moved me. As long as she thought I was heavily invested in the same cause as her, nothing else mattered.

The car was surprisingly energetic. Dean was sat beside me with the biggest smile I'd ever seen on his face and his knees were jumping up and down with excitement. It just made me feel even more out of place as I tried to stop my hands wringing together in a nervous gesture.

Why was I here?

Liliana liked me anyway. She'd explicitly said that I didn't need to come to this, but in my lowest state I'd done the stupidest thing possible. I was making a massive mistake. If I got caught I could probably go to jail, never mind losing my scholarship.

I wanted to bang my head against the window. I was a complete idiot.

We pulled up a couple of miles away from the chemical plant, but I could see it in the distance. "We're walking the rest of the way." I hadn't even been given the entire plan since I'd come on board so late. "Through the forest. We don't want the car to be seen at all." The number of backroads through these woods was ridiculous. It was like a maze, but we'd only driven ten minutes. I hadn't realised the chemical plant was this close at all. You could probably see it from the roof of the Academy.

I was glad I'd wrapped up tight, anyway. Luckily the only coat I owned was black and I blended into the seemingly endless trees easily. I was practically a ghost. The group didn't stick to silence like I'd expected. "We'll be out of earshot for at least another half an hour," Liliana assured everyone before beginning to jabber away. "I just can't believe we're finally going to do something about all this."