Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

Chapter 30: Bright Future

EMMA's POV

"Don't forget to check out Duke, Rice, and Vanderbilt,"

Mom said as we made our way through the booths at the school’s college fair.

"Oh yes, I heard Vanderbilt's got a strong liberal arts program,"

Dad nodded in agreement.

The school’s holding a college fair this Saturday, along with parent teacher conferences.

All the junior students are required, or as they say, encouraged to attend the college fair.

I wasn’t complaining though.

I wanted to spend my precious Saturday looking through colleges all around the country.

The only good thing about it was at least my best friends had to do it too.

I spotted Tiff and Carrie over at the University of Florida’s booth, and I knew what to do next.

"Okay, I got it.You two go meet my teachers and hear about what a great student I am.I’m gonna catch up with Tiff and Carrie,"

I said, waving my parents away.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting your teachers.Especially your AP art teacher, Mr.Hayes,"mom said and I quickly turned back.

"What? Why?"

"You worked so hard on his class.

You spent almost every day after school working on your art portfolio.

He must have nice things to say about you, I wanna hear about it all,"

she said as she turned to her heels towards the art room.

"Oh, you don't have to —"

"The line at Duke is empty.Go, go check out the schools.We'll regroup here in an hour,"

Dad shooed me as he walked off with mom.

My parents are meeting...my boyfriend.

At parent teacher conferences.

Oh crap.

Making my way over to Tiff and Carrie, I sighed dramatically as I pushed past the row of kids.

Tiff and Carrie turned to see me and they immediately knew something was up.

"What's going on?"Carrie asked.

"My parents are meeting Mr.Hayes.I totally forgot about that.I am so screwed,"

"Don't worry about it.I’m sure he can handle your parents just fine,"

Tiff replied.

"Actually, you don’t have to worry at all,"Carrie added, "

My parents went by earlier.

They wanted to see my art teacher too, but he wasn’t there.

Something about a personal emergency.

He’s doing his conferences with parents via email,"

"Oh...that’s very smart of him,"

It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"See? He’s a smart guy.He’s handling it,"

Tiff said as she grabbed a few brochures from the University of Florida.

"In the meantime, I think you should check this out," "The University of Florida’s a total party school,"

Mark chimed in suddenly, appearing out of nowhere.

"Hey, babe.Did you see Rice and Duke already?"

Carrie greeted him.

"Yeah, you guys should see it.

Duke has the best engineering program—"

Mark was about to ramble on this topic for the next ten minutes, I could just tell.

"I have to make a call, I'll be right back,"

I said to Tiff and Carrie before slipping away from the crowd.

I found an empty, cozy spot at the end of the hallway and I dialed Ian's number.

The line rang for a few times before he finally picked up.

"Hey, you,"

he said over the phone.

He sounded healthy and fine, I was glad.

"So, what's this personal emergency that I heard about? You're not attending parent teacher conferences?"

"Nope,"he said simply.

"Why?"I asked.

"Because it's an archaic concept.

Why meet in person when you can basically do everything online?"

He chuckled as if he was joking, but I could tell something was up.

"lan.Tell me what’s going on,"I pressed on.He sighed and paused for a beat before finally saying, "

Fine.

I didn’t wanna do parent teacher conferences because I don’t know what I'll do if I have to see your parents,"

"You're worried about meeting my parents?"

"Yes.Look, I don't wanna do this over the phone.Will you come over after you're done over there?"

"Okay.And you'll tell me everything,"

"Every little detail,"

"Alright.I'll see you in a few hours,"

After putting my phone away, I made my way back to Tiff and Carrie.

Mark was still going on and on about something.

Tiff had a bored look on her face but Carrie watched him as if he was a sight to marvel.

"Oh and guys, have you heard? The art teacher, Mr.Hayes is resigning from the school,"

Mark’s sudden change of topic piqued my interest.

"He is?"

Tiff pretended to gasp.

"Yeah, I've overheard some teachers talking about it.Apparently, he signed a contract for two years but suddenly he just wants to quit.No one even knew why,"

"Is that such a bad thing?"

I asked cautiously.

"For his career? Yeah,"

Mark scoffed like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "My theory is that it's probably because of a girl,"

"What do you mean?"

I asked again, afraid that he might be on to something.

"He used to date Ms.Diaz, right? She probably broke his heart or something," Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Tiff and Carrie let out a relieved sigh.

But I wasn't relieved, I was somewhat offended.

"They went on one date! And she totally—"

Tiff nudged my elbow to stop me from talking.

I quickly recovered and said, "Never mind,"

"Look! It's NYU! Let’s go check it out!"

Tiff exclaimed a little bit too loud than usual.

She pulled my arm quickly and led me out of there.

"Thanks for that,"

I whispered to her.

"So it's really happening? Is Mr.Hayes really quitting?"she asked.

"I think so,"

"And he did it because...?"

"Of us.Yeah,"I sighed.

"Wow.He’s really going all out,"she paused for a moment before saying, "He must really like you,"

"And I really like him too,"

"It sucks that he has to sacrifice so much, but hey, at least this way you two could be together.You two deserve it,"

Tiff said with a smile.

After our little talk, Tiff and I went around looking at the booths.

I knew I should be thinking about colleges, but I couldn't help but be reminded of Tiff's words from before.

"He has to sacrifice so much..."I hated the word ‘sacrifice’.

I wished he didn't have to sacrifice anything to be with me.

I wanted him to have everything he ever wanted.

But he had to give up teaching, his job, his career...all for a girl.A silly, silly girl.

And would that even be worth it?

After the college fair and parent teacher conferences, I told my parents I was hanging out with Tiff and Carrie.

But of course, I was making way to lan’s apartment instead.

When I got there, lan was still in his normal sleeping clothes, no shirts and a pair of joggers.

His laptop was on and it looked like he had been sending a bunch of emails.

"Hey, how was your day?"he greeted me with a quick kiss on my cheek.

"Great.I looked at a bunch of schools.How about you?"

"It's alright,"he shrugged.

"So..."I trailed and paced around the room aimlessly.

"So?"he pretended to play dumb.

"lan, what's going on?"

I sighed and asked point blankly , ‘Why did you ditch parent teacher conferences? And why don’t you wanna meet my parents?"

"I wanna meet your parents.But not like this, Emma.Not as your teacher,"

I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrows.

What does that even mean? "I'm serious about you.

I’m serious about us.

I see my future with us together,"

he said, pausing for a moment before saying, "But if your parents meet me now as your teacher and someday we tell them that we're dating, how do you think that’s gonna look?"

That would be confusing.

He’s got a good point.

"So, you did it because you didn’t wanna meet my parents as my teacher..but as my boyfriend..?"

I asked cautiously.

"Boyfriend, gentleman caller, whatever you wanna call it,"

he chuckled and I couldn't help but smile.

He took a step towards me and closed the distance between us.

He tilted my chin up and his face leaned down.

His lips found mine and he coaxed me into a long, tender kiss.

When we pulled away, he noticed something was off and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"What is it? What’s with that look on your face?"

I pulled away slightly and bit my lip.

I had been thinking about this all day long.

About that word ‘sacrifice’.

"lan, I don’t know how I feel about you quitting your job, throwing away your career because of me,"

I paused to gauge his reaction, "I know you said you did it for us, but I am half of that us.

And I hate to be responsible for causing you all this trouble,"

"It's no trouble at all.I want to do this,"

he said reassuringly, his hands reached for my arm and gripped it tight.

"I wanna be with you, in every real, legal, moral way possible,"

he said again, "This is just a small price that I'll have to pay to make it happen,"

; He looked at me with those deep piercing eyes.

He was serious and he talked as if he had made up his mind a long time ago.

"But, what are you gonna do if you're not teaching?"

"I'll look for other jobs.

Oh, actually, I have a friend back in Jersey that wants to open a new art gallery.

That might be an option for me too,"

"You're gonna move to New Jersey?"

"It's not definite.

And the gallery’s still a work in progress,"

"But you're thinking about it.

I thought the whole reason you're quitting your job was so we can be together? But if you're gonna be in New Jersey..."

"It’s just an option.

I'm looking at other jobs in Atlanta too,"

"Oh,"

I was quickly relieved.

"We'll make this work, I promise,"

he smiled, full of confidence.

I knew I was supposed to nod along and agree with him.

He was doing so much, doing everything he could to make this work between us.

But I just had to ask him again to be sure, so I said, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes,"

he stated firmly, but he was getting § slightly annoyed.

He sighed, raking his hair with his hand and said, "Emma, what are you so afraid of?"

"What if you wake up one day and you regret everything? And then you'll hate me for ruining your career,"

"That's impossible,"

he scoffed.

Tilting my face up to his, he then asked, "You know why?"

"Why?"

"Someday I’m gonna wake up and you'll be there right next to me.

I'm gonna call you my wife and I'm gonna love you until the end of my days,"

* Did he just say...

my wife? My breath was stuck in my throat.

My eyes shot open and my mouth fell to the floor.

He just smiled at me as if I was an amusing sight.

Licking his lips, he leaned down once again and his lips crashed onto mine.

This time he kissed me hard and hungrily.

After biting on my bottom lip, he slipped his tongue past my lips and roamed the corners of my mouth.

I turned to jelly underneath his kiss.

My hands went around his neck for support and he pulled me even closer, deepening the kiss.

I let my tongue slip out and it danced with his, tangling into each other as I tasted his sweet, intoxicating taste.

When we finally pulled away, we were out of breath.

Our eyes were locked to each other and we were smiling from ear to ear.

He leaned his forehead down and it rested gently on mine.

His hand then went to cup my cheeks, his fingers caressing my skin gently.

"Okay?"

he asked finally.

"Okay,"

I breathed.

Maybe I didn’t know where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to study.

Maybe I didn’t have a clue what my future would be like.

But I knew this much I was in love with an amazing guy who loved me back.

And there would be a future with us together.

A bright, wonderful future.