"Let go of me,Ethan".

Chapter 13

Kierra's POV

I was stumped. Everything was happening and I had no idea what to do. Emily seemed to be getting closer and Chase was staring at Ethan and me with understanding, his eyes saying what his mouth wasn't.

Desperate and unable to take the pressure, I placed my finger over my lips, told Chase to shush before quickly closing the door.

I realized that it was a very stupid move since I couldn't be sure if Chase would want to keep quiet but it has already been done so I could only hope.

After closing the door, I stayed with my ear pressed to the door to see if I could hear anything. Even though the conversation was muffled, I was able to listen in.

Emily had approached Chase and asked if he had any idea where I was.

"Uh, no. None at all," I heard him answer. I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Are you sure? You really don't know where she is?"

"No, I don't."

"Oh okay. Is she in here? I'd like to check." I could hear her hand on the door and my heart began to pound even faster. No, no!

"No, she isn't there!" Chase yelled.

"And how do you know that?" Emily inquired, sounding very suspicious.

"Because– that's my room and I just stepped out. No one was in there except me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, okay. I'm just really worried though. I haven't seen her since last night and she's not picking my calls." I couldn't have felt worse if I had been punched in the gut. She was worried about me and yet, I had gone behind her back and betrayed her trust. What kind of a friend even was I?

"I could help you look for her though," Chase offered. "Really? Thanks. I'd like that."

Then I heard them walk away. Just to be sure though, I opened the door a little to peek just in time to see Emily disappearing down the stairs and Chase glancing back. Our eyes met for a second before he looked away and disappeared down the stairs after Emily.

I closed the door again and sighed deeply as I leaned back against the door, feeling worse than I ever had in a while. If Emily had seen Ethan and me together, she would definitely not have believed that nothing happened and she would be kinda right.

After all that happened yesterday, it was easy to slip into this fantasy world where I could be around Ethan but things weren't like that and if I let it go on, it would only hurt people I cared about. I cared about Ethan too but...

Gosh, this is so hard.

I groaned as I opened my eyes to find Ethan staring intently at me. He looked worried and concerned but I couldn't do this anymore. Not when it would hurt Emily and Liliana.

"We should–" I cleared my throat–"probably wait a bit before we leave so we don't run into–"

"Yeah. We should," Ethan cut in. I nodded before I walked over to the bed and sat down. I didn't want to look at Ethan but felt him sit on the opposite side of the bed.

The playful air between us was gone and even though we weren't too far from each other, the distance between us had grown. As it should be.

After we were sure that Emily couldn't see us, we snuck out of the room and into Ethan's car so he could take me home.

Neither of us said a word on the drive home. It was a very tense and awkward ride and I wanted it that way. It would make leaving easier.

When he pulled up in front of my house, I didn't take a glance at him and was about to get out when Ethan suddenly grabbed my wrist.

I froze and bit my lip to stop the tears I felt welling up in my eyes.

"Key," he called and I shook my head. "Let go of me, Ethan."

"Shouldn't we at least, talk about this?"

"We have nothing to talk about, Ethan," I answered softly, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

"Please?" he pleaded, his voice conveying desperation and helplessness but I knew I couldn't stay. So I wordlessly shook my head before gently pulling out of his grip and walking out of the car.

On the way inside my house, I was tempted severally to look back at Ethan's car but I managed to make it inside. That was however when the tears started.

I told myself that I shouldn't feel bad. Nothing happened between Ethan and me so I hadn't betrayed Emily or Liliana but there had been a moment between us and to have to give all that up hurt like hell.

It hurt too much.

By the time I reached my room and looked outside, Ethan's car was gone. I should have been happy he'd gone but I felt like my heart had been shredded into a million pieces and cried even more.

All I wanted was to be happy with the guy I liked. Was that so much to ask?

***

I ended up not seeing Emily or Ethan for the rest of the weekend. My reason for not seeing Ethan was pretty self-explanatory as for Emily, I was just too ashamed.

The guilt of feeling like I had betrayed her was eating at me from the inside so I decided to just keep my distance at least until Monday.

I had called and told her that I was sick and that she didn't have to come to see me because I didn't want her to get whatever I had. She had bought it.

I spent most of the weekend in my room, dreaming about the impossible basically, and then by Monday, it was back to school and all its craziness.

That morning, as I prepared to leave for school, I could feel fear bubbling up in me as I thought of what would await me. Would everyone know about Ethan pulling me away from Chase at the party on Friday? What if Chase spilled that Ethan and I spent the night in the same room? What if someone else had seen us together?

For the first time in a while, I didn't want to go to school but I knew my mom wouldn't like that, and I didn't want to disappoint my mom.

I uttered a quick prayer before stepping out of my room and heading out of the house.

"Bye Mom," I bade her goodbye as I headed out. I heard her say bye after me and smiled. Now it was off to Everglade...

I took the bus and arrived outside the school building just about twenty minutes before homeroom. The first thing I noticed was that literally everyone was staring at their phone and talking amongst themselves.

While this wasn't exactly something new among teenagers, it did make me feel a little suspicious and I wondered if Friday had gotten out. Ethan had said he'd handle it but after how we parted ways, I wasn't exactly sure.

What convinced me that it might be something else was that no one seemed to notice me which would be the opposite if everyone found out about Friday.

But it still felt very weird as I wandered the hallways, curious as to what everyone was so focused on.

"Hey, Kierra!" I heard someone call my name from across the hallway. I glanced up and saw Emily heading towards me. My first reaction was to freeze and panic internally at the thought that she had found out about Friday.

However, her first words when she stopped in front of me were, "You will never believe what just happened."

That put me at ease. If Emily was talking to me, then she obviously didn't know about Friday.

"What happened?" I asked, trying my best to sound at ease.

"Someone recorded Mr. Wyatt and Grace Collins making out in his office and posted it in the school's blog together."

"Wait, what?! Mr. Wyatt and Grace?!" I exclaimed. I had definitely not been expecting to hear this.

"Yeah! Haven't you checked your phone recently?"

"No. No," I responded. I had kept my phone off throughout the weekend.

"Oh yeah. How are you doing now?" Emily asked, pressing the back of her hand to my forehead. It was hard not to flinch at her touch and concern for something that wasn't true.

"Fine. Fine. So how about Grace and Mr. Wyatt? How long has that been going on?"

"About two years now," Emily answered.

"Two years? That's crazy!"

"It sure is. Wanna see the video?" she asked, waving her phone in front of me.

I was a little hesitant to see it but my curiosity got the best of me so I nodded. Emily smiled and placed her phone in front of me a few seconds later.

From the looks of the video, it had been recorded with a camera which Grace and Mr. Wyatt had no idea about and it made me wonder who had planted the camera in his office.

The video was also a little hard to watch. I wasn't very familiar with Grace since she was in the same set as Ethan and Liliana but she was the vice-president of the Science Club and seemed like a genuinely nice person so it was a little hard seeing her like that.

Mr. Wyatt was the Physics teacher and probably the most adored teacher in the school. He was nice, taught the subject well and girls thought he was cute which he was but I never thought he'd sleep with a student and the fact that it had been going on for two years...

He had been a teacher at Everglade for two years. Had they been sleeping together that long?

Eventually, when the video began to get too graphic, I stepped back and told Emily that it was okay.

"So– who recorded the video? A student? Mr. Wyatt's ex?"

"Nobody. It just appeared on the blog anonymously and went viral. They're in the principal's office right now and I think I heard that the cops have been called."

"Really? The cops?" I didn't think it was that serious.

"Well yeah. Her parents called the cop. Grace is nineteen and Mr. Wyatt is twenty-six but they've been hooking up since she was seventeen, a minor..."

I filled in the rest of the details myself. A seventeen-year-old was still a minor plus as a teacher, sleeping with your student was ethically wrong and kinda creepy.

"I never thought that Grace would do something like that. Then again, it's more of Mr. Wyatt's fault. He's the adult. Gosh!"

"Yeah, it's really something. I don't get sleeping with a teacher. I mean, he's cute but it's gross..." Emily shuddered and shook her head.

"Oh well... Let's not judge her. And speaking of guys, tell me about Cameron, was it?" I asked to confirm as I placed my arm around her shoulder.

"Yes, it's Cameron and he's simply amazing!" she said and sighed dreamily. I smiled at her despite the ache in my heart caused by a certain someone. Someone I wasn't allowed to have.

Emily told me all about Cameron until it was time for homeroom. No one really paid attention to the teacher and after marking attendance, she left. Afterward, it was off to our next class, Social Studies.

That class also ended up not being much of a class since everyone was just talking about the Grace and Wyatt situation which made it hard to concentrate.

After Social Studies ended, I trudged to my locker alone to get my Math homework since Emily had gone ahead to class. However, I was not expecting who I saw after closing my locker.

"Chase!!" I exclaimed, jumping a little in fright at the sight of the guy who had almost been my second kiss.

"Hello, Kierra. Do you have time to talk?" There didn't seem to be any ulterior motive behind his question but I was scared all the same.

"Sure. Why not?" I agreed, not like I had much of an option. This should be interesting.