His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

26. Birthday planning

[RECAP: Sera is about to turn eighteen. Will this break Mr Marek's resolve?]

Sera had finally told Lois about some of the things Mr Marek had said to her, though not about the visit to the hospital. She felt that was his private business.

Typically, Lois had been amused rather than shocked by his explicit talk. "You'll both have to get it out of your system at some point," she told Sera.

But when? How?

"You have to break down his resolve. Find the chink in his armour." Unfortunately Lois had no more idea than Sera as to what Mr Marek's Achilles heel might be.

"It's not as though I can wear something sexy or revealing, because, you know," Sera said.

Lois laughed. "Given he's already gazed upon your naked form for hours on end and managed to resist you, I guess not. Unless you flash just a little bit more. I take it that the pose isn't quite Basic Instinct-level explicit?"

It wasn't, but Sera had no intention of imitating Sharon Stone's infamous vagina-flash. "I'd feel like one of those female baboon monkeys, waving that in his face."

"The ones that swell up all pink when they're in season? Well, if it works for them..." Lois gave a wicked grin.

"Except homo sapiens doesn't have quite the same attributes." Thank God. Imagine being in a nightclub or on the beach in a bikini and that happening in front of some hot guy, Sera thought. It was awkward enough that nipples had a life of their own without your genitals turning into a bright pink balloon. She pointed this out to Lois.

"It's a tough one, isn't it?" Lois said. "What else could you do? Lie there and lick your lips? Touch yourself? Talk dirty back to him?"

Sera could not countenance doing any of these things.

"You know he wants you, so maybe it's not so much about you trying to be more sexy. Maybe it's about making some kind of move when his defences are down. If they're ever down. He always seems to be so in control of everything. At least he is in class," Lois said.

This was true. Compared to poor old Mr Billings, or most of the other teachers at St Christopher's, Mr Marek had absolute command and control of the art class. This was all the more impressive since people tended to relax and mess around in art. But now he was teaching, things were very disciplined.

"Of course he may have a girlfriend already," Sera said. He might even have a fiancée or a wife, she supposed.

"If he does, I doubt she'd be too impressed with your modelling sessions," Lois said. "It's one thing him painting someone, quite another saying all that stuff. Even if they're all Bohemian types I bet she'd be pissed off."

They had to change the subject as Joel arrived. Sera was still feeling guilty for keeping him in the dark. The longer she left it, the harder it was going to be to tell him.

"It's the soon-to-be-birthday girl. What are you planning to do when you wake up tomorrow? Vote? Get married? Have your first ever legal sip of alcohol to toast the end of your youth?" Joel put down a brightly coloured bunch of flowers on the desk, which made Sera feel even worse.

"Thank you, they're beautiful."

"Fight on the front lines. Serve on a jury. Make a will." Joel was still reeling off the list of rights that Sera would gain within the next twenty-four hours.

Lois picked up the flowers and smelled them. "They are lovely. So we're still on for tomorrow night?"

They were going for dinner with a few other people to celebrate Sera's eighteenth, and then nightclubbing. Sera hadn't wanted to have a huge party as she would only spend the whole time stressed about gatecrashers or someone setting the house on fire. Her parents had offered to book her a venue but she preferred the idea of a restaurant.

"Absolutely."

"We should take you out to lunch as well," Joel said. "Or are your parents doing that?"

Sera and Lois met one another's glance, knowing that Saturday lunch time was modelling time. "About that..." Sera began. It seemed like high time to confess.

Joel raised his eyebrows. "Something you haven't told us? A hot date already set up?"

Hot, but not a date. If only.

"There is something. I don't even know why I didn't tell you before. You have to promise to keep your mouth shut though. And from tomorrow I can probably sue you, so be warned." Sera gave him a brief outline of the modelling sessions. She didn't mention the suggestive things that Mr Marek had said.

Fortunately Joel wasn't affronted that he hadn't been told earlier and instead found the situation hilarious. "You just lie there starkers with Marek sketching away?"

"He's painting with oils," Sera told him.

"What's it look like? Has he shown you the work in progress?" Mr Marek hadn't, and Sera hadn't dared to ask him about it. "What if it's a really bizarre style? He might have painted you with a penis or something. You should sneak a peek before it's too late."

"There isn't really a chance to."

Joel turned to Sera. "So let me get this straight. You lie there, and he paints, and nothing else? Despite all that tension between the two of you that should be obvious to anyone with eyes?"

Once again, Sera and Lois shot one another an uneasy glance, which Joel noticed and seized on.

"What? Don't tell me he's some kind of Toulouse Lautrec? Girl with a Pearl Necklace and all that."

"It's Girl with a Pearl Earring," Lois pointed out. "And even I know that Lautrec didn't paint that one."

Joel gave a smirk. "I know what I said. All the great artists screwed their models. So has he deflowered you on his couch? Made you his mistress?"

"No, and no. Nothing like that." Sera felt herself going red.

"He talks dirty to her," Lois told Joel.

Joel's mouth fell open at this. He demanded a blow-by-blow account and Sera gave him a somewhat edited one.

"You clearly need to move this on then," Joel told her. "You can't just leave it there."

"That's what I've been telling her," Lois said.

Lois and Joel were clearly going to gang up on Sera about this. She was never going to hear the end of it until she had reported some progress.

"Ask him for a birthday kiss. See what happens."

"Invite him out to have a birthday drink with you."

Sera knew that she would probably not be able to bring herself to do either, but she played along. She could understand why they were so fascinated: she would have been just the same in their shoes. It was hugely forbidden and potentially scandalous, which was why Mr Marek was holding back. Or she assumed that was why, unless he had a girlfriend as well.

But why not try? She had nothing to lose, except the one thing she really wanted to lose.