The Teacher and Me

Room mate Chats

**Blakes POV**

I walk through the front door of my house after having a short chat with my elderly neighbour Beverley who takes it upon herself to know everybody’s business in the street. I crack open a beer and sit on the couch, what a day!. Not only did one of my students nearly die right in front of my eyes, the person who came to save the day was my former student Bethany. I must admit I nearly forgot that part of my life, falling in love with one of my students was never part of the plan, let alone highly risky although she was at the legal age to consent it could have cost me my job. But back then something drew me to get to know her which I did a little too well. When she went off to go to university and study to be a lawyer I knew the best thing to do was to call it off. Not only was the relationship totally inappropriate, I did it more so for her, so she could go away and enjoy her life. Never in a million years did I expected her to return to this town and that I would see her again.

I don’t know what to make of our encounter today, she seemed calm and gentle when she was treating Zane however when I tried to talk to her she seems on edge and snappy. I’m not sure what compelled me to invite her to our weekly teacher drinks it just kind of happened, and she didn’t seem that thrilled about it either. Maybe I overstepped, maybe she has a boyfriend or husband to go home to, after all a lot can happen in 10 years. I decided to put in behind me as I spent the next few hours marking assignments and watching TV in bed. As I lied in bed, drifting off to sleep all I could think about was the days events and that I hoped for Bethany to come on Friday.

***Bethany’s POV***

“How was work dear?” Toby asked as I arrived home. I took off my boots, went to the fridge for a glass of wine and slumped on the couch. “That bad hey!”. It was now 915pm, over 14 hours since I started my shift and I was exhausted. As much as I wanted to offload everything onto Toby and ask for his advice, I was so drained from today I thought I would skip that part and tell him tomorrow.

Toby is not only my housemate, but best friend and colleague. I met him when he started as a paramedic a few years ago and I was his mentor. We instantly clicked and its been like I’ve known him my whole life ever since. For some reason when I found out I was getting another trainee I felt like I was betraying Toby as he was my first and only trainee before Alister and I didn’t want him to feel like I would replace him. As soon as I met Alister I knew Toby had nothing to worry about, as most days I can barely stand Alister at work, let alone be around him outside of work.

“Just the usual, plus dealing with Alister!” I replied taking a nice big mouthful of my wine. “Well tell me all about It then, I know you would be dying to have a b***h sesh” ahh he knows me so well!. So I started explaining the long yet exhausting day, with A lot of bitching about Al, including leaving his stethoscope at the school. After I was done I felt better, which could also be due to the nearly bottle of wine I consumed while doing it. I even decided to tell him how I bumped into a old teacher of mine and invited me to their teacher drinks for a catch up, I just selectively left out the history between us, that is for another day with more wine!. We stayed up chatting about current affairs with another glass of wine and went to bed as Toby starts his shifts back at work tomorrow morning he couldn’t stay up too late.

The next morning I woke up at 6am which was disappointing as I am on night shift tonight and I knew I would struggle to sleep again today. I walked out to see Toby cooking himself breakfast. “Wow awake this early! Whats wrong, are you sick!” He said sarcastically when he saw me enter the kitchen. “No I just couldn’t sleep last night” I replied. I looked at him and he had a slightly concerned look on his face. You see I never have trouble sleeping, I actually love to sleep and when I don’t have work in the mornings I am usually in bed sleeping until at least 10am in the morning, sometimes longer. I would almost class sleeping as one of my hobbies as I love it that much, so I can understand why he is surprised to see me awake at this hour.

“I was tossing and turning all night, wondering if I should go to drinks on Friday or not!” I said to him, knowing this will spark his interest to ask me more questions.

“Seriously, since when does something as trivial as that keep you up at night!” he said surprisingly, “I mean they probably just want to talk to a student that has actually made something of themselves”.

“You’re right im probably overthinking it” I said back while making myself a coffee. I could feel Toby staring at me, thinking about why this simple request has me so on edge. We have known each other for years and he is practically my brother, we know everything about each other. I know he would be suspecting that there is more to this story that I was letting on.

“I don’t get it, I can sense there is something more, what are you not telling me!”

“I don’t know what you mean” I replied with a smirk on my face while taking a sip of my coffee.

“Spill it girlfriend or ill eat all this bacon and eggs myself” he said sitting down and placing two plates filled with bacon and eggs at the table. He knows he can bribe me with food, because as much as I love sleeping, I love eating just as much. If I wasn’t concerned about gaining weight and becoming overweight I would eat all the time, anything and everything. I quickly grabbed the plate of food from him, shoving some scrambled eggs into my mouth. He snatched the plate back off me, true to his word and tipped it onto his plate. “Ugh, fine” I stated while motioning for him to give me my food back.

“I knew it! And as if you can hide anything from me miss Bethany, we are soul-mates, platonic of course” He replied while returning my food back onto the plate and giving it to me, “Now spill!”

“You need to be off to work soon and it’s a long story” I said trying to avoid the inevitable.

“Come on! You can’t say that, then fob me off!, just tell me the headline and we can continue the rest some other time”

“Fine” I hesitated slighty but then just came out with it “I slept with the teacher that invited me to drinks, we had a thing!”

“What!” He said nearly choking on his coffee… “You said last night that you hadn’t seen him since you left high school” I just gave him a quick look in reply to say I agree and that was correct. It was silent for a moment before he replied “I cant believe you sprung this on me before work, and you have night shifts, we wont see each other until Thursday, how am I going to cope not knowing the details for two days!” He exclaimed. I just rolled my eyes, typical Toby making it all about him as per usual.

“Hey you just wanted the headline” I said as I got up taking the empty dishes to the sink. “Im going for a shower, have a good day at work love” I said as leaving the room, blowing him a kiss. I knew this was going to eat him up until Thursday, which made me feel slightly better, knowing he will be suffering not knowing all the details.

The next two days were mediocre at best, no exciting work, Alister on his best behaviour and I was just sleeping and eating to get through my two night shifts. After my night shift, Toby and I decided to go out for breakfast together considering he was about to start his two night shifts so we couldn’t do drinks until at least the weekend. We arrived at Café on point the paramedics local go to for good coffee. Being a Thursday morning it wasn’t very busy however we sat in the back corner, mostly away from people because I knew exactly where this conversation was heading. The lady came over to take our order and Toby spared no time in getting straight to the point.

“So tell me all about this ‘thing’ you had with your teacher. Oh and FYI I have already decided you are going for drinks tomorrow because I need more excitement in my life”

“How was your night shift Bethany, Its so good to see you!” I say sarcastically as I laugh in reply.

“But seriously tell me everything!” He said.

“Where do I start”

I proceeded to tell him everything from the start, how he was my year 12 math and physics teacher and somehow, some chain of events had led us to a s****l ‘no ties’ relationship. I told him how he was the person I lost my virginity too and how we managed to keep it a secret from everyone due to his career and him being 25 years old and myself only 17 at the time. I always felt odd that he even allowed it to happen for just a s****l relationship as he could’ve easily lost his job over it. Over time though I started to develop feelings for him which I considered only natural seeing as I was so young and we were having regular s*x!. We both were having such a good time however right before I graduated he called it off, saying it “was for the best” and that I would be better off. So off I went to university, not expecting to come back to this s**t hole of a town and definitely not expecting to EVER see Blake again.

Toby had so many questions to be answered, so many that when we decided to go home it was already lunch time, and even then I felt he had more. I was still on the fence about going as I didn’t know Blakes intentions for asking me, nor did I want to assume anything either.

“You have to go and find out!” Toby said later that day while getting ready for night shift. “If you don’t you wont get any closure, and you never know it might spark up another ‘thing’, god knows how long its been since you’ve been with someone!” I was making dinner at this time and he was right, its been forever since ive slept with someone, and I must admit I do miss it some days. Don’t get me wrong, having Toby here makes It easier; its like having a boyfriend without the s****l connection, we do everything together like a couple would minus to s*x and romance. The thought of having s*x again after so long excited me; even though I know it wouldn’t be with Blake so I agreed with him. “Ok then, I’ll go”