Crossing Boundaries [COMPLETE]

Once and For All

Tiffany steadied her breathing while she sat outside Principal McCarthy's room. The student, Sean, and his parents, Mr. Malcolm Andrews and Mrs. Linda Andrews, were already inside. Her hands pressed on the phone she was holding, which, just moments ago, was glued to her ear as she spoke to Chris.

It was still early in Los Angeles and he had an exhausting few days as soon as he got back to work. But he wanted to call Tiffany just before she faced the wolves at Lincoln-Sudbury.

Chris's hunch was cemented when he heard her voice. Tried as she might to conceal her nerves, she just couldn't. All he could ever do was comfort her with his words to at least calm her.

Tiffany involuntarily closed her eyes when Melissa called out her name. "They would like to speak with you now."

She stood up, straightened her dress and walked towards the office entrance. She mouthed a thank you to Mel before shutting the door behind her. Her heart thudded a million drumbeats per minute as she saw unwelcome stares from the family in front of her.

"Take a seat, Tiffany," Principal McCarthy asked of her.

All she ever hoped for was to clear this issue out with Sean and his family once and for all. Yet now that they were all together in one room, her voice seemed to fail her. Good thing the principal was there to break the tension.

"Miss Foster, I believe you have something to say to the Andrews." Her voice was gentle and, somehow, reassuring. "They've agreed to hear you out."

Tiffany heaved the biggest breath she had ever mustered in her life. She glanced at her iPhone's screen, trying to remember Chris's words. His words, her strength.

"Mr. And Mrs. Andrews, Sean," she looked tentatively at them. "I would like to first apologize for what this issue had caused your family. But I really have nothing to do with any of this."

"That's a lie and you know it Miss Foster!" Sean's mother's voice was high pitched, her face red. "Do you deny the photo you sent Sean? It was clearly you in the picture. Or that video our son showed of you trying to ask him to sleep with you?"

Tiffany gulped down air as she closed her peepers. When she spoke, once more, her voice remained calm. "I do not deny that I was the one in the photo, Mrs. Andrews or that I was also in that video your son showed. But I'm being honest in saying that I was never the one who sent that image to Sean. Someone else had the access to it and that person was the one, who sent it and had been messaging your son. He'll be here in a while to straighten this mess he's done."

Her next words, she solely directed at her former student. She wanted to reach out her hand to him but she prevented herself from doing it. Instead, she let it rest on her lap. "Sean, we both know how the entire conversation went in that clip. We both know I wasn't asking you to sleep with me."

"Are you calling our son a liar?" Mrs. Andrews' tone was even deadlier now.

"No, ma'am," Tiffany glanced at her briefly but stared back at Sean, who looked restless in his seat. "He may have thought that I am really into him after that picture was sent to him. So, I don't blame him if he wanted to be certain by asking me if I wanted to sleep with him."

"Wait! Are you delusional, Ms. Foster? It was clear in the video that you were the one asking that to my son!" If Mr. Andrews wasn't holding his wife back, Linda would've already slapped her.

Tiffany, on the other hand, felt she could get through to her former student. Judging by how he was acting, he might soon tell the truth about the video. So, although his mother was close to murdering her, she remained her focus on him.