Dream Catch Me (Student/Teacher)

Dream Catch Me - Chapter Thirty Four

I heard his words and knew he wasn't lying. I had single handedly brought a grown man to his knees let alone a gangster to tears. I was shaking as I ran through the double doors to the gym and across the school grounds. I don't think I knew at the time just where I was running to but my subconscious definitely knew where. Where my it thought was home. Luckily everyone was in class and paid no attention to the girl who had tears pouring from her eyes as she sprinted across the campus. Under the radar.

I threw open the doors to the main building and made my towards the social sciences department. I got to the block of offices where 'home' was and searched the doors to the different offices. Mrs Dunne, Mr Bragg, Mrs Miller.. It was right at the end that I read Mr Hunter. I knew I had to be polite, even as tears were gathering on my cheeks. I raised a shakey hand to the door and knocked, silently hoping he had a free class and was in his office. The door creaked open and Joe stood there.

As soon as he saw me crying outside his office, in my gym clothes and shaking in my shoes his face flashed with panic. I didn't blame him! It's not every day he got a teenager balling her eyes out. Joe grabbed my arm gently and guided me inside to the couch in his office. It was the same one I had laid on after passing out in gym that one time. I slowly sat down and accepted I would be safe now that Joe was sitting next to me. It only made me sib more, the tears flowing more steadily.

Joe didn't ask what happened initially, just accepting the fact I was upset and had come to him. He shuffled close to me and slung his arm around my back, pulling me close to him. I laid my head on his chest as his hand came up and stroked my hair. Some of it had stuck to the tears on my face and he tucked it behind my ears gently. When my sobs had died down to short shakey breaths he finally asked.

"Jane? What happened?" his voice was so full of concern and I knew he didn't even try to mask any bit of it. I took in a long shaky breath and at that point I was in the fence. Did I tell him? Did I make him worry about me? Did I want to cause more trouble? The answer, no. He had done so much fro me and I couldn't expect him to fight all my battles for me and be the knight in shining armour every time I was hurt. I took another breath and told him something I knew he wouldn't accept. "Joe, I can't tell you. But please believe me when I say I'm going to handle it. I just needed someone to hold me and tell me it was going to be okay," I had to talk slowly, in fear of another wave of tears.

I was right when I said he wouldn't accept it. Joe stood abruptly from the couch and started to pace across his small office space. It was a poky little room that barely allowed for the desk, chair and couch it already had in it, but yet it was still big enough for Joe to pace. Back and forth he went as emotions crossed his face, anger, sadness, confusion and finally understanding. He faced me and came to a conclusion. "Jane, you know I'm here if you ever need me. Like today. You have to promise to come to me if you need help. Don't keep it to yourself, it will end up worse that way." I nodded in agreement, yet doubted I could stick to his promise.

Joe sat back down and held me again. This time he repeated, "It's going to be okay," and "It'll turn out." Even though he didn't exactly know what 'it' was, his words still comforted me and I had calmed down so that the tears stopped falling and my breathing returned to normal. We sat there for a whole hour in silence, the time I would've spent in gym and when the bell rang it startled us. I jumped and so did Joe. He chuckled lightly and muttered, "There goes my class planning period." I immediately felt guilty and muttered a sorry. "Hey," he said, trying to get my attention. I looked at the ground but he put a finger under my chin and lifted my head up so I was looking in his eyes.

"Don't ever be sorry Jane." I smiled lightly, wondering what I'd ever do without Joe. I didn't want to picture it. His finger under my chin lifted my head higher and I wondered what he was doing, but immediately realised when he sucked in a breath through his teeth. He still had one finger under my chin but with his other hand he brought it up to my neck and traced the patterns of finger prints. They ran over the slightly raised bruises and I flinched. Lewis had a stronger grip than I thought.

"Jane," he said in a pained voice. "I understand your privacy, but please keep your promise." his eyes pleaded with me as I saw how affected he was by my injuries. I closed my eyes and scrunched my brow. "I promise." I solemnly swore. And I meant it, I would try to stick to it for his sake as well as mine. Another bell rang out, alerting students and teachers their classes should've started. Joe muttered 'shit' under his breath and looked at me.

"You can stay in here as long as you like, just be careful." I smiled and thanked him. He grabbed his teachers binder and sprinted out the door, but mindful to close the door quietly behind him. I heard his squeaky footsteps from his shoes on the linoleum fade away into the distance. I was left standing in the middle of his office, in the borrowed clothes. I suddenly felt dirty and disgusting wearing the communal shirt and had to pull it over my head. I stripped quickly and went in search of my bag which had my clothes in it, wandering around in my bra.

Luckily Joe hadn't decided to come back, remembering he had forgotten something so I was safe. I ignored the black bruises on my stomach from Mother as I fished out the shirt I had been wearing this morning. I did the same with the pants until I was eventually back in all my own clothes. I still felt filthy as I remembered Lewis touching me and how his hand had groped my chest. I tried to put it to the back of my mind as I pulled out my bottle of hand sanitizer and rubbed it on my hands. My clean hands weren't enough and I had to rub some on my neck to get rid of the feeling of his hands that monitored my pulse.

It was as clean as I was going to get. It was unfortunate I couldn't clean my mind, but I hoped over time I would start to forget about it. My mind was churning and the best thing I decided to do was to study. One, I was missing class and two, my exams were coming up. I pulled out my books from my bag and opened them, jumping into my study. I skipped the first morning tea break to continue studying. I feared that as soon as I stopped, Lewis would invade my mind again and take up my study space.

Joe didn't come back in, as he had a staff meeting I saw in his calendar. I studied hard through the next two periods on either side of the break. Once I had started to get cramp in my hand and blisters from the pen I was holding too tightly I knew I had to stop. Stopping meant thinking of Lewis and I couldn't handle it. As soon as the bell for lunch rang out, I packed up my stuff and headed out of Joe's office.

Hoards of students were flowing through the corridors all out to get the lunch served up in the canteen. I hoped that the steady flow of students could cover me as I decided to slip out the door and make my way home. I was almost at the door when I took a sweep over the room, glancing to see if anyone had noticed I was leaving.

Black eyes. They sought mine out from the large crowd and demanded attention. I stopped for a second, scared he was going to say something. But it was then I realised he was saying not something, but everything. His eyes were full of anger and fury, but as he smirked slightly I knew when he said, "I'll get you Petal," he really meant it. If not before, now more than ever. I slipped out the door before his glare made me freeze and get caught. I slowly jogged out of the school holding my abdomen. It had taken a beating today, not only from my frantic running across campus, but from the floods of tears I cried.

I was walking in pain until I saw a bus that was heading into town. It slowed at the bus stop and I got on, paying in the spare coins I held in my bag. The bus driver looked me up and down, trying to decide if I should be at school or not. I guess my still red eyes made him reconsider kicking me off the bus and back to school as he let me pass and sit down near the back of the bus.

The journey was short. I probably could've walked it, but as the bus driver drove over a pot hole the pain reminded me of why I took the bus. I glanced around the bus, noticing different people whom I had never seen before. It was weird how we all shared the same journey on the bumpy bus but didn't try to communicate. The old woman and her walking stick who struggled to keep her shopping bag between her loafer clad feet. The seedy looking young boy who I bet was ditching like I was. The young mother and her baby wrapped up in a ratty blanket in her arms. It gurgled and smiled as each pothole. Then there was me, the girl who had been crying and winced every time a pothole was driven over.

We all shared the same journey, yet we decided to keep to ourselves. I sighed as the bus beeped, letting me know it was stopping at the next stop; town. The bus slowly pulled up to the curb and let two of us out of the bus. The young boy jogged off into the distance, the opposite way to which I was going. I wondered if I'd ever see him again, but decided probably not.

I walked a short distance from the bus stop to the front door of our business to be and pulled out one of the keys Alex had given me. I unlocked the front door and stepped up the stairs to the apartment. It was empty, which meant Alex was at training and Ellie was at university. I threw down my bag onto the floor of my bed and immediately stripped. I hurried to the shower and turned it on, not waiting for it to warm up. The cold didn't deter me as I picked up the soap and scrubbed and scrubbed.

I scrubbed until my skin was red and raw. The temperature now hot it singed my skin but I continued to soap. When I decided I couldn't feel Lewis' hands around my neck, or on my leg or even his tongue in my mouth I shut the water off. Steam rose from my body as it fogged up every surface in the bathroom. I quickly dried myself and ran across the living room to my bedroom. I threw on my favourite baggy sweat pants and the sweatshirt I had been given by Alex as a welcoming home present.

Now feeling somewhat cleaner after scrubbing, I sat down on my bed and threw myself back into my studies. I hadn't had the chance to do much study over the break and now was my chance to do it. I was focused so well I didn't hear my phone buzz the first or second time, but the third time caught me. I checked my messages, one from Jaz, one from fletch and one from Joe. I replied to Jaz telling her I had gone home sick after she had asked where I was. I also knew she would tell fletch so there wasn't much point in replying to him.

I opened the txt from Joe and it read, 'Someone said you'd gone home. Call me if you need anything. Joe x'. I smiled but quickly texted back. 'Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. See you later tonight. Jane x' reminding him of the plans to sit down as the four of us, Alex, Joe, Ellie and I to discuss the intentions of the shop. I added the x on the end after a short deliberation. I studied for a couple more hours before I heard Alex come home. He stuck his head around the door and greeted me, not knowing I had skipped half of school.

"Studying? Good." he affirmed and left, leaving me to continue. I chuckled half heartedly at his attempt to 'big brother' me. I had studied for so long my hand was going to drop off and a small blister was forming on my finger from the pen. I placed it down for a second and got up to grab some pain killers. My injuries were hurting from where I sat on my bed. I chucked back two of the pills and swallowed with a gulp of water.

I sat back down on the bed, noticing it was almost 5.30. I told myself I'd just close my eyes for a minute and be up later for when Joe was around. Needless to say that after a long and eventful day I didn't stir when Joe came, and no one wanted to disturb me. So I slept.

-

Please vote and share if you liked this chapter or the story in general! xx