A PLUS /h.s./

Chapter 20

The rest of the day flew by and then I was sat in Mr. Hardenbrooke’s classroom with Mr. Styles for detention. There were no other kids in here, surprisingly, and I sat in the front this time.

We sat in silence for the first few minutes. I think he was waiting just to make sure nobody was late to detention before he started talking to me.

After about 5, maybe 10 minutes of silence passed, he got up from his desk and walked over to me, sitting in the one to my left.

“I told you you didn’t have to show,” was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

I raised my eyebrow and replied, “And I told you that rules are rules, Mr. Styles.” 

He smirked at me and nodded his head before looking around the room.

“Looks like you’re the only delinquent here today, Randi,” and I looked at all of the empty desks.

“I’m too much of a troublemaker for this school,” I sighed and he chuckled but didn’t respond.

“So,” I started, “Was Gemma pissed that you weren’t home last night?” I asked him, because I don’t think she’d be too happy that he and her daughter were missing when she went to pick her up.

“Eh, I was expecting worse, to be honest. I think she was glad to get rid of her for a night,” He laughed and I smiled. He has such a lovely laugh.

“Yeah, well she may need to stay at my house more often. My makeup has never looked so good,” I stated.

“I agree, the whole raccoon look is working for ya,” he pointed to my eyes and I scoffed, looking into my phone screen to see if it was noticeable still.

"I’m just joking. You look beautiful, as always,” he told me, taking the phone out of my hands and suddenly the air in the room just got a whole lot awkward.

“Thank you,” I said, not sure what else to say about it. It’s not often that your teacher calls you beautiful.

He simply nodded his head.

“You know, you haven’t been showing up to your two weeks worth of detention for losing that bet,” he reminded me and I rolled my eyes.

“You know, you have been ignoring me for the past two weeks so I didn't think it'd be a good idea,” I replied, slightly mocking him.

“And there’s that attitude,” he chuckled. “You know why I was doing that, I can’t risk my job, Randi. I just got it.”

I grew annoyed by that statement, “I didn’t ask you to. Last I checked, you’re the one who keeps popping up in my life, so don’t act like all of this is my fault,” I snapped.

His eyes widened, “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, I don’t know, it was scary, alright? I got called down to the principal’s office and he basically looked at me like a pedophile, like I just prey on teenagers. And I didn’t want to risk him thinking anything, so I tried staying away, that’s all. None of this is your fault, I never said that.”

“You’re not a pedophile, all we’ve ever done is talk so you have nothing to worry about. Your precious little job is safe,” I rolled my eyes. I don’t know why this conversation was making me so mad, but it was.

“That’s the problem though. Just because we haven’t done stuff doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I like you, Randi, way more than a teacher should like a student,” he confessed while looking straight at me. I could feel his eyes burning mine, even though mine were turned towards the floor. I was scared to look up.