Former Teacher

33

Dalton comes up from behind and hugs me. "Hey, babe." He says, giving me a long smooch on the cheek.

I immediately scoot away from him. "H-hey," I say, getting all warm and having flashbacks of Lucas and me last week.

"What's wrong? You have barely been texting, calling, and hanging out with me."

"Oh! It's nothing!" I say, blowing over the fact that was a lie.

He holds my arms, massaging them. "You are getting flustered and your stuttering. What's bothering you, baby?"

"Uh..." I say, determining if I should walk away without telling him the truth. I man up. "Let's sit down," I say, bringing him to the bench in the park. "I don't know how to say this, and I would totally understand if you don't want me to be in your life anymore..."

"Spit it out, Bella." He says, trying to understand what I'm attempting to explain.

"Okay," I say, letting out a heavy breath of guiltiness. "Last week on the 4th, Lucas texted me, hey, and I replied, but he never got back to me, so I got worried and went over to his house. He was in a bad state, so I helped him got clean and picked up his place, and then we went to get food."

"I don't see where you are going."

"Let me get there... After we ate our food, he requested to stay at my house because he didn't want to sleep at his that night, and my mom didn't have a problem with it, and I didn't either.

He raises an eyebrow. "Okay?"

I let another heavy breath out. "It lead to us in bed," I say, tearing up. "I'm so sorry, Dalton... I didn't mean it to happen."

He gets up. "You slept with Lucas. Mr Till! Our former teacher? Oh my god, Bella." He says, turning around and sliding his hand through his hair and shaking his head. He turns back around, facing me in the eyes. "Why?"

"Sit back down... I will tell you everything."

I revealed everything to him from where it all began. Me having a crush on Lucas in elementary to us dating last year and the blackmail. I still don't have a clue who it was.

"Are we okay?" I say, putting my hand on his shoulder.

He flinches back. "I need time to process this..."

"I feel horrible, and telling you didn't make a difference. I still have that horrible feeling in my gut. I really didn't mean it to happen... It just... It just did Dalton..."

"It's okay, Bell. I know... I will still fight for you." He says, bringing me close to him and kissing me on the head. "I will talk to you later."

"Wait, why aren't you mad? I seen guys go ballistic."

"I have always figured something was up with you two, but I didn't know if it was my overthinking or not. Now see you later, Bell..."

"I have the car. Let me drive you home."

"No, I need a good walk." He says, getting up from the bench and leaving me in the park alone.

I pull out my phone.

B: "I told him..."

L: "Oh my... How did that go?"

B: "Better than I thought, actually. He just left a minute ago to go take a walk and process what just occurred."

L: "How are you doing?"

B: "It didn't make a difference for me tbh... I wasn't trying to make myself better. I didn't want to lead him on anymore, and I just really wanted to be honest with him."