Hannah's Story

Chapter 16 - The Guys

It's short, but here it is. I hope you like it.

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GABE

I really liked Hannah, but this whole abstinence thing was starting to worry me. I didn't mind waiting, but I was scared it might take her awhile to love me. I wasn't a "third date kind of guy," but I wasn't used to being the "wait 'til we say I love you" type of guy either. My last girlfriend had started the relationship by explaining that if she hadn't slept with me by the fourth date, the relationship wasn't going anywhere. We were in bed by the middle of our second date. Hannah seemed worth the wait, though, so I soldiered on.

We had been keeping our relationship low key in school, for obvious reasons. We didn't want Hannah to get in trouble with student teaching, and we didn't want all of the students figuring things out. Jesse and Rachel knew, but that was a different sort of circumstance. We were comfortable sharing our relationship status with them. Plus, they were sworn to secrecy.

It was in my fourth period history class that I discovered the students might be onto us more than we thought. I was discussing how women didn't used to have as many opportunities as they do now when Chase Wheeler shouted, "Are you happy about that?"

"What do you mean?" I asked him, confused by his question.

"Do you like that women don't need men anymore?" he asked.

"Well, it's nice to know that even though women don't need men, they still often choose to want us and share their lives with us," I answered truthfully.

"So, you're happy Ms. Drake wants you?" he asked, a snide smile spreading across his face.

I wasn't sure how to respond. I didn't want to come across as defensive, but I didn't want to give it away, either.

"Oh. You think Ms. Drake has a crush on me?" I asked, playing stupid.

"No, I'm saying you're hitting that," he said, as over half the class erupted into laughter.

I saw Jesse sitting in his seat, hands clenched and eyes trained directly on me. I wasn't sure how to respond to any of this. I looked at the clock. There were five minutes left. Too many to avoid dealing with the situation.

"You are out of line," I responded.

I looked at Jesse, who had focused his attention on Chase.

"Don't deny it, Mr. P. Denny and I saw you two leaving that new coffee place a few weeks ago. I see how you check out her ass every time she walks by. You can't hide it from us," he said.

I looked at the clock. Four minutes. I felt myself smiling, despite how uncomfortable I felt.

"You really don't know what you saw. Just because we were hanging out didn't mean it was a date," I responded.

"You went home and got it on," he said.

I was still smiling, despite wanting to kick this idiot out of my classroom.

"Adult matters shouldn't concern you, Chase," I said.

Less than three minutes. Jesse was glaring at me now. What had I done to make him so mad?

Chase was smiling in his seat. Then, he began to chant, "Mr. P and Ms. Drake, sitting in a tree, F - U -"

"Stop it, Chase," I said, walking toward his seat and praying that the bell would ring.