Jonna's Fantastical Sexcapades

19.2 Stupid Decisions...Again

Shane's beard hung in a bushy clump, competing with his matted hair for nasty supremacy. His mottled skin underscored his bleary eyes. Jonna immediately equated him with a drunken mall Santa Claus.

"Hi," he breathed.

He languished on his feet, swaying as if to music.

"What do you want?" she asked, one hand balled around her keys, and the other ready to dial for help.

He leaned forward, the stink of his breath almost enough to knock her over.

"I've missed you."

Jonna glanced about, half-expecting Jayden to walk up and threaten her ex. However, she was at work, and it was the part of day when everyone had already left campus, and she had been stupid enough to walk to the parking lot alone. Even the campus security guard was nowhere to be found.

"You need to come home," Shane said.

More than anything, those words annoyed her, specifically the phrase you need, and the word home. She had spent a decade doing what Shane
had told her to do, so much so, that she had let him keep the house, just because she had wanted to get away from him. Now she had no home, and he was still trying to drag her back.

Jonna straightened, steel edge to her tone. "I don't have to do anything. Get away from me."

Shane leaned away from her, taken aback. She had never spoken so plainly to him before.

Instinctually, she wanted to turn around and get into her car. However, she realized it would be unwise to turn her back on this stranger.

"I'm leaving. Don't make me call the cops."

"Call the fucking cops!" Shane shouted.

He had meant the outburst to scare her, and momentarily, it did.

Until he reached out as though to touch her, and she snapped, "Touch me, and I'll stab you."

He didn't need to know that it would be with a pair of keys, though that didn't seem to matter. His eyes widened, and he stepped way back.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" he muttered, as though she were the drunken stalker and not him.

In the past, their arguments had consisted of him berating her, her head down, and him triumphing. Later, she would always come up with what she could have said to him, what she could have done. It never came to her in the moment. He had always seemed so...big. Yet, he seemed so very small now.

"I'm not signing," he promised.

"Yes, you are."

Jonna was aware she was basically arguing with a child, and sounded like a child, but she needed to say something. Shane was not going anywhere, and she did not know how the situation would end.

"Ms. Lopez!"

She was never happier to hear her name called out.

Shane spun comically, searching the lot for the culprit. To the left, Arman waited, waving at her. He was tall, with the slight but obvious muscle of youth.

She smiled and waved back, seeing her way out of this mess.

"Want a ride home?" she called back.

As a teacher, she was supposed to avoid being alone with students for an extended period of time. However, she had already threatened to stab, so she saw no problem with breaking another social rule.

Surprise lit Arman's face, but he shrugged and nodded, sauntering on over.

"You sleepin' with that douche?" Shane slurred.

Jonna rolled her eyes, fighting the urge to confirm the ridiculous accusation. Because it would only blow up in her face one way or another, she bit her tongue.

Once Armon neared the car, he gaze swung from Shane and then to her.

"Everything all right?" he asked, his tone indicating that he was 19, but not stupid.

"It's fine. Let's go."

With someone else around, Jonna felt safe enough to climb into the driver's side. Eyes never leaving Shane, Arman got in the passenger side. She like the kid more for the piercing glare he threw at her ex.

She drove away, not wasting a look on Shane in the rearview.

Arman resolved the awkward silence with a question. "He in one of your classes?"

"He's no one," Jonna said.