Dahamrai & Henderson Ch. 11

Synopsis: Layla Dahamrai has just begun her second year at university. She's acing every class and is one of the department's best students in her cohort. However, she's not getting along with her professor in her East Asian Regimes & Empires class, not that it's really her fault. It doesn't help that she's hot for her teacher either. Sebastian Henderson expects the best out of his students, given he's teaching at one of the most prestigious universities in London. He's had enough of Layla stumbling into his class late at the beginning of the semester. In the six years he's been teaching in academia, he has never desired a student until now. Layla and Sebastian will soon come to realise they have more in common during, and definitely out of, office hours.

Chapter 11: Student Night

30/04/2018

"Come on! Let's get more shots!" Delilah drags me to the bar. It's the final Sports Night before exams start in two weeks. It's coming to the end of April and it's almost been a month of Sebastian and I sending these little messages checking in on each other. I haven't seen him in person. I've just been focused on finishing my final assessments of the semester and revising for my exams. We've spoken more about the weather than we have about anything else.

I huff a sigh and look down at my clothes to check they're still okay. I'm wearing a flimsy, blue, backless satin mini dress with long slits on the sides. It looks like a napkin on me with the way my breasts are bursting over the edge and being unable to bend over if I don't want to flash my arse to everyone. My black boots have been trashed from all the liquor and the sticky floors. Delilah tugs on my arm and brings my attention to the student bartender.

"What can I get you?" he yells over the music and the other students yelling at him across the bar.

"We need four shots of vodka and four shots of tequila," he looks at me dubiously, but doesn't question the order and pours the drinks for us.

"Layla, I said one of each!" Delilah looks alarmed when she sees the shots being poured out.

"Perfect! That means there are two for you and six for me," I quickly pay for them and start throwing back the tequila and vodka in front of me. I was already tipsy by the time I made it to the event but now I was ready to get blackout drunk.

The balance between Sebastian and I was extremely off. We are both at fault. I walked in unwilling to talk to him, instead, I pushed him away, and effectively shut him up by fucking him. Sebastian panicked, said things he would never say, but kept his space knowing I wasn't ready to listen to him again. I sigh and walk away from the bar to find Florence, Alice, Aurelia, and Lola.

I wrap my arms around Florence's waist and snatch her drink out of her hand. "Hey!" I ignore her as I down the whiskey and coke. I wink and insert myself between Lucas and Digby. Before I can start grinding against them, Aurelia tugs my hand, moving me between her and Alice. I frown at their concerned faces.

Lola links her arm with mine and guides me away from the group. "I need to pee!" she yells at me. Alice and Aurelia stay with the boys while Florence and Lola join us. I stumble into the brightly-lit restroom and fall into a cubicle. I walk back out and giggle at the state of my face. My mascara and eyeliner are smudged beneath my eyes and I look wildly aroused. I mean, it's been a month without Sebastian, I might be losing my mind without his cock in my pussy all the time. God, what has he turned me into?

I attempt to salvage my makeup as Delilah, Florence, and Lola join me by the mirrors. "Bad Layla is finally making an appearance! We haven't seen her since the end of our first year," Delilah cheers next to me.

Florence giggles, "She just needs to slow down on the alcohol". I stick my tongue out at both of them as they wash their hands and fix their makeup. I take out my phone and read the last message Sebastian sent me.

-- The weather is starting to look really good now that we're moving into May. I hope you have a good day. I'm here if you need any help with exam revision.

Christ, we went from sending nudes to each other every day alongside our romantic messages to ones about the weather and wishing each other good days. I may as well be another student! I want to know what he's been up to without me around? Where has he been, with Camille, with his friends? Does he miss me? It makes my heart sink knowing he hasn't said it once. I haven't even said it. I want him. I miss him. I love him.

The vodka, tequila and who knows how much whiskey begins to take over and starts making the decisions I was too afraid to make while I was sober.

-- What are you up to tonight?

Lola holds my hand and leads me out to the dance floor. When we can't find anyone we walk into the frigid smoking area. I shudder when I reach Alice and Aurelia in the crowd. Aurelia is in the middle of chastising Henry, George and Lucas about their excessive smoking while Lucas watches in horror as Alice sticks her tongue down a stranger's throat. Florence and Delilah laugh at how sloppy it is. My phone vibrates and I'm taken aback by how quickly Sebastian has responded.

-- I'm at home. I'm playing billiards with Oliver, Christopher and Charles.

-- That sounds really good.

-- What are doing tonight?

-- I'm at Sports Night with the girls and the guys.

-- That sounds fun.

I shove my phone back into my purse and smile at Alice's horrid make-out session with some random guy. "If she sticks her tongue in there any longer she might not get it back," Henry and George laugh at my comment and I walk back inside. I head over to the bar and squeeze through to the front. A hand comes around my waist. Ugh, it's another aggressive rugby lad. The blonde stranger presses his mouth to my ear.

"Can I get you a drink, babe?" I wince inwardly at the overfamiliarity of his words. I take his hand off my waist and scowl at him.

"I'm good thanks. I can get my own drink," I lean over the bar and motion my hand at the bartender that had served me and Delilah a little while ago. The guy nods at me as he finishes his current order.

"Hey, don't be a bitch. I'm doing something nice for a fat slag like you," my hand twitches on the counter. I'm ready to slap him across the face when Arthur stands between the two of us. I step backwards and bump into a girl behind me.

"Watch it!" The girl screams at me. I turn and mumble a weak apology. When I turn back around, I look up at the lanky guy's face, I realise it's not Arthur but his older brother Ben. He's smiling down at me in that eery way he did last time I met him. Fuck.

"What can I get you?" I turn to the bartender and look at Ben.

"I'll take two Vodka Red Bulls and two Jägerbombs for me and my friend here," the guy nods and starts pouring the drinks. I hastily pay for the drinks and raise one of the shot glosses towards Ben. I keep one protective hand over the Vodka Red Bull as we throwback our shots.

"Thanks for that," Ben says as we walk away from the bar. I can barely walk straight at this point.

"Thanks for stopping me from punching that guy," I say as I hastily down the contents of my cup. I put down the empty cup on the table next to the pillar we are leaning against. Ben lazily sips on his drink and folds his arms as he checks me out from head to toe.

"Consider me your knight in shining armour," I nervously laugh at his arrogant words.

"Right... Are you looking for Arthur?" Ben shrugs while he continues staring at me intensely.

"I was but then I ran into an incredibly beautiful woman," he says as he unfolds his arms to stroke my arm.

"Ben--" I jump when my friends rush over to bring me towards their little circle on the dance floor.

"Layla, this is our song!" Florence takes my hand and starts dancing behind me. I dance with the group and realise that Aurelia is not behaving like her usual self again. I release myself from Florence's hold and move over to take Aurelia's hand.

"Are you okay, honey?" I say against her ear. I follow her gaze when she ignores me. She's staring at Arthur and Ben who are chugging down pitchers of beer with the football team. In my drunken haze, it hits me, that night in our first year when she came crying to me. It was either Ben or Arthur. "Who hurt you? Was it Ben or Arthur?"

Aurelia's eyes widen and her mouth opens in shock. "How do you know Ben?" Her body begins shuddering in fear. The girl is about to cry. I stumble through the crowd and take us towards the cloakroom.

"So, it was him," I say as I wrap her coat around her waist. "We're going to go home," I threw my coat on. As I pull my hair out from under my coat, Lola approaches us with her hand on her head.

"If you're leaving, I'm coming home, too! There's no way I can keep up with Alice, Florence or Delilah tonight. I can already to tell you that they will end up dead on the floor in our house tomorrow morning with the boys!" The two of us wait for Lola to get her coat. I notice the latest message from Sebastian.

-- Please be careful.

I put my phone away. Aurelia looks at me and presses her mouth against my ear. "Can you please just leave this alone until everyone is out of the house next week?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I think I'm going to head to my parent's country house for the weekend. I need a break from the city and my parents are going to be there with my little brother anyways."

I nod my head at her words. "Okay. I'll be checking in on you though. If I don't hear from you then I'm coming up down for a visit." Aurelia offers me a weak, but reassuring smile and nods. Lola reappears and shrugs her coat on. "Ready to go?" I ask her. Gosh, have I been slurring this entire time?

"Let's go!" The three of us walk to the bus stop and wait five minutes for it to arrive. We huddle together on the row of seats at the back. Lola and Aurelia lean on each other as they review each other's Instagram stories for the night. I just continue to stare at Sebastian's message. I can hardly read the words since I've consumed too much alcohol. That doesn't stop me from taking a deep breath for the courage to respond to him.

-- Damn, you should have said that to me over twenty shots ago.

I look away from my phone for five seconds to approve Lola's Snapchat story while Aurelia giggles at my Instagram story before she moves on to the next one on the list. Sebastian has already responded by the time I look back at my phone.

-- Christ, Layla, please tell me you're at least getting home safely.

-- I can assure you that I am. Aurelia, Lola and I are all about to get off the bus and walk into our warm and cosy house. Stripping out of this dress will be amazing.

-- Which dress? Is it the silver one?

-- It's the blue satin, you know the backless one with the side slits.

-- That's quite the dress.

-- It'll look even better on the floor.

-- I couldn't agree with you more. Who's going to take it off?

-- I don't know. I might do it myself. I might get someone to help with the strings at the back.

-- I'm sure Aurelia or Lola will be delighted to help you with that.

-- I'm sure they will. Before we hook-up, I should see if Ben, or Arthur, maybe Lucas or Digby can help us get off. Wait, maybe I should call up Henry, or George, perhaps Albert will stop studying to help me?

-- Layla. Stop.

I ignore Lola and Aurelia as we walk into the house. Sitting in the living room, I continue drinking from a left-over bottle of rum from when we were pre-drinking earlier in the night, it aids me as I scowl at the words on my screen. I know I've become a drunken, petulant, bratty girlfriend. That little bit of self-awareness doesn't stop me from my need to argue with him over the phone.

If I text Oliver, Christopher, or Charles, will they come over? I know they're with you right now but I can tell they won't refuse me.

-- Layla, I'm not doing this with you over the phone. Stop.

-- Hey, I'll call up Freddie and Hugo and the six us can have a killer gang bang.

-- Go for it. I can invite Aurelia, Florence and the other girls for one, too. Gosh, if I bring along Camille it'll be a dream.

My fingers swipe across the screen to order a taxi to his place. I storm down the staircase and shove my feet into my boots as the taxi pulls up outside the front door. The rage I feel is pure, unadulterated and has been stewing for the past month.

-- Camille has been keeping you happy for a month now. I'm actually surprised you haven't invited my friends over for your dream of a sapphic gang bang.

-- Well, repeatedly telling you that Camille is nothing but a friend hasn't helped!

-- That's because she's still in love with you! She told me she wants you and that she's going to have you! Then you turn around and tell me I'm overreacting.

-- At least I'm not the one rushing to replace her old professor for a fun new boy toy.

-- At least I'm not the one rushing to replace his young student for a former fiancée.

-- Why are we still arguing about this?

-- I don't know! You've been goading me all night.

-- If the roles were reversed, would you be upset, too?

-- No. I wouldn't.

Okay. If that's what you'd like to think, Sebastian. I grunt in the backseat as I stare at my phone. The liquor is going to carry me through this disaster of a night. My blood is boiling, I'm seething with anger, and Sebastian is going to get the verbal bashing of his life!

----------

Forcefully shutting the front door behind me, I storm into Sebastian's living room. I'm in a blinding rage from our messages. I glare at Chuck, Ollie and Kit when I find them sitting there on the sofas all drinking cognac. Freddie and Hugo enter the room holding the cue stick in loungewear after, what I can assume, were long days at work.

"Where is he?" I hiss at the five of them. They never get the chance to respond as Sebastian emerges from the other room with a cue stick in one hand and a glass of cognac in the other. The anger is pouring out of him as well.

"Um... We're going to leave," Fred announces to the room. Sebastian throws back the whiskey in his hand. I stop Freddie before he can leave with the others.

"Hold on, Fredster," I yank him towards me and force my lips onto his. I wrap my arms around his neck until Sebastian grabs me by the hips and yanks me away from him. The rest don't make any form of contact with me and quickly dismiss themselves with Freddie following out soon after. Good. This ass-kicking needs to be done in private.

"Now you're ready to talk to me?" Sebastian hisses at me.

"I thought you wouldn't get upset. I'm more interested in your friends it seems," I hiss back at him.

"You're drunk, Layla."

"You're an asshole, Sebastian."

"I've given you everything you've asked for!"

"Sebastian, you didn't even miss me!"

"Is that what you think?"

"What else am I supposed to think?"

"I have missed you every fucking day. I have been trying my hardest not to barge into your house to beg you to take me back. I have been waiting to bend down in front of you and beg for your forgiveness for what I said that night," his words stun me into silence. "I love you so bloody much. I just want you to be happy. I thought giving you that space would achieve that. I didn't want to suffocate you."

"Oh," my head is spinning. "Gosh, I really have been behaving like a teenager." I put a hand over my mouth and my stomach. I finally blackout.

----------

My head feels like a pile of bricks when I lift my head from the pillow. "Ow," I wince as the light filters into the room. Turning to my side, my body collides into Sebastian's, who was still sleeping peacefully next to me. I feel the arousal in my stomach when his eyes flutter open.

"Good morning, my love," Sebastian reaches out to teach my cheek and kisses my temple. "How's your tummy feeling?" I look at him in confusion. "I predicted that you wouldn't remember. At the end of our little screaming match, you decided to leg it to the kitchen sink and began chundering. Then you decided to go for a few more rounds of crying, screaming and chundering until I got you into our bed. However, you decided you didn't like that bed and came into the guest bedroom with me. When I thought you were asleep you then crawled back into our bed and demanded we have sex. Now, you're awake and in a straight jacket made out of my shirts."

"I've really hit rock bottom," I groan into the pillow.

Sebastian pulls me onto his chest and rests his chin on my head. I nuzzle my face against his chest and purr as his fingers stroke through my hair. "We made a right mess of things. We didn't handle any of this correctly," I whisper against his chest. I look up at him as he plays with my hair.

"I was angry but that doesn't justify my actions. I promised to always have your best interests at heart and I let my emotions get the better of me when I should not have. I'm truly, deeply, sorry. I hurt you badly and I don't expect you to forgive me immediately."

"I already forgave you. What you did... It was unlike you. I threw a curveball then I went on one."

"I can't believe we wasted a month together on this."

"I know -- just because we're in academia it doesn't make us that smart."

"Layla, you're an angel," he kisses my temple. "So, how do we move forward?"

"I need to have a little more faith in you when it comes to Camille," I whisper.

"I need to have a little more faith in you when it comes to all of your friends," I giggle when he reluctantly admits it. "Layla, you were right though, if the roles were reversed I would have been furious."

"Okay," I free my hand from underneath the shirts he's trapped my arms with. I extend my pinky finger to him. "This is what we're going to promise each other from now on. There'll be no more running when things get rough. I also promise to love you, even when I am angry with you, and we never go to bed angry whether we're apart of together. I'll always be yours and you'll always be mine."

Sebastian smiles and wraps his pinky finger around mine. "I can agree to those terms".

"Now, we must seal the deal..."

"Mm... How shall we do that?"

"With a kiss and nothing more. I want us to get back on track the right way."

"Hm... As much as I hate the idea of that, I know you're right."

Sebastian reaches around to place his hand on my back, pulling me tighter against him. He stops to gaze at me then kisses me deeply. I had been aching for this, I was so hungry for his lips, I savour every part of him I can taste in that moment. The pit in my stomach has disappeared and things feel right once again.

----------

I skip into Sebastian's office in his home. I welcome the coolness of the room thanks to the air-conditioning. It was only the beginning of May and the weather was already becoming alarmingly hot. "How did the exam go?" Sebastian asks me, I roll my eyes and sigh.

"I just spent three hours of my life talking about three different periods of Western European Architecture. I'd rather not relive it by talking about," I say as I sit on his lap. Sebastian chuckles at my reaction. "Hey, it's not my fault we were all stuffed into what is basically a conservatory where the sunlight hits us from the back. It was a sauna! Then we're asked to talk about random points of architecture? It wasn't ideal, to say the least."

Sebastian tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Aw, it's okay. At least you've finished your second year." I pout at the thought of it. The past two years have flown by and I only have one more left until I graduate. The thought isn't exactly comforting. "But we don't need to talk about that fact either," Sebastian interjects and pulls me from my thoughts.