My Daughter's Teacher Pt. 02

I wake up abruptly to the noise of the door closing with a bump. I sit up quickly about to jump out of bed but I'm held down by my right arm. My belt is tying my hand down to the bed. I untie myself quickly before throwing on shorts. "Cass" I call, worried something was wrong. I reach the door and look out, seeing no one outside the building or rooms. I head back inside to grab my keyboard, intent on making sure Cass is okay. I grab the keycard and a piece of paper wrapped around. I take a step before looking at it. I turn on the light, it's a note written in a familiar handwriting.

'I'm sorry. -Cass'

I'm momentarily immobilized as my mind tries to make sense of the note. I put it down and head for the door. I walk around but between tying me to the bed and the note, Cass had enough time to get away.

I resign myself to failure, return to my room and lie down. It's 1am. I'm wide awake just thinking about the night. Why was she sorry, did I do something wrong, say something wrong. I look at my left hand, the indent still there from where I used to wear my wedding ring. Was that it? Slowly the doubts and thoughts fade enough so I could drift to sleep.

I slap my phone, grabbing it and shutting off "Duality", my alarm. My head hurts a little, my right wrist is a little sore and my eyes refuse to open. It's 6a and another day at Disney World. I slump my way into the bathroom, shave and successfully make it through my shower before I get a text from my daughter. 'Morning, 7a for the Magic Kingdom' I respond with a thumbs up. I get out the door with a coffee in my hand feeling like a pack mule. No one ever tells you how much crap you need for a successful Disney trip. "Good morning" I groggily greet my in-laws and daughter. My daughter begins to talk about what ride is first, then next as only a kid can do with adrenaline pumping through their veins. I nod, half listening, half looking. She's nowhere to be seen, maybe she's gone, maybe she's avoiding me.

"Dad?"

The voice pierces my distraction. "Oh, sorry, I'm not fully awake yet "

"Rough night?" My father in law says, a little venom in his voice. So he suspects I guess. The loss of my wife still hurt, and he must have thought 5 years wasn't soon enough to see someone new.

"No, just carrying the weight of the world " I say as I shift the backpack. I re-engage with my daughter, trying to draw my focus away from the note.

I walk through the day, trying to catch a hint or glimpse of Cass to no avail. That night, I stake out at the bar with no luck. A thought does cross my mind at one point, I do have a way of contacting her if I want. Would it be appropriate to use her school email or phone number from one of her various school communications? Or would that be a level of creep too far? I decide to leave it, trusting that she has her reasons for leaving the way she did, with the note that she left. If our paths meet then I'll ask then. I finish the drink and retire for the night. The next two days are the same, the trip back home is uneventful. My mind doesn't drop the thought of her lips against mine, or the feel of her body tensing around me. Each time I'm tempted to contact her and each time I resist.

A month later it happens. My daughter Jess and I went to one of the local beaches. I had taken a day off work to make a long weekend so the beach wasn't too busy. It was a larger beach, about 300 meters from the parking lot to the water, 500 meters of lake front. There were a couple of volleyball courts, a playground and a lifeguard stand for the busy season. We had found this beach two years prior, when Jess had joined me to looked potential new homes. I changed jobs, with the new job coming with a Manager title, new location and more pay. It also came with family difficulties, as the new location was away from the only home Jess ever knew, and away from my parents. This beach was one benefit of moving, since it was only 15 minutes from our new home.

It wasn't uncommon for us to see the beach busy on a weekday, with most being either traveling families or young adults. This day wasn't any different. We set up near the volleyball nets, about 20 meters from the water. We head out into the water to cool down before lunch. I kept an eye on our stuff, just making sure no one was walking away with anything or being mischievous. I noticed a couple of young ladies set up not far from our blankets, but nothing that concerned me. After about an hour we came back in to eat a little. About 20 meters from shore I noticed one of the young ladies looked familiar. Miss Cass was sitting there with, presumably a friend talking and drinking. She was radiant.

She was sitting up, arms behind her as she talked and laughed with her friend. She had a orange and yellow bikini top, with a sea green bottom. Her brown hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, the excess bunched in curls to her shoulders. The slight freckles on her face were reflected down on her chest. Her toes and fingers were painted to match her bikini bottom. Her friend was different, her legs a little longer, her chest a little bigger, her hair dyed a light dirty blonde cascading over her shoulders. She projected confidence in a blue flowered string bikini. Neither woman was paying any attention to the preteen and her father at the moment.

I walked to shore with Jess, wondering if I should say anything when Jess called out.

"Hi Miss Cass" She said completely innocently. I saw Cass look at Jess and tense up when she looked my way.

Forced into it my response is awkward. I nod, saying nothing but "Miss", a kind smile hopefully crossing my face. Dumb dumb dumb. I recover slowly from my social faux pas. "How are you doing today?" I ask, noticing Cass' new nervousness.

"Good, how are you?" She looks up. I take off my glasses so I can look in her eyes. They were a deep blue, with slight speckles of light blue.

"Good, just enjoying a day off" We lock eyes for a second before I turn to Jess. "We should let Miss Cass and...." I look at her friend,

"Amber." I look at the blonde, nod my head in greeting.

"...and Amber get back to their day. Have a good....." my last word was drowned out by the raucous laughter of a group of kids. Looking over my shoulder I see three guys and another girl walking my way. I turn back to see the nervousness on Cass' face intensify, almost to the point of pleading. My brow fuels when I hear it.

"What up bitches? Grandpa." It's the guy at the front of the group. He was 5'11", brown hair, slim build, carrying a cooler. He sets it down and gives Cass a kiss. Oh, was that why she was sorry, why she was nervous?

"I'm sorry, my daughter was just saying hi to Miss Cass"

"Sure Gramps" eliciting laughs from his buddies.

I nod before guiding Jess to our area. We eat, making small talk while I half listen to the talk coming from the guys next to us. From what I gather, Nate, the one who called me Gramps, is with Cass, and the other two guys are with Amber and the third girl. From the way they talk, none of them have any respect for the women that they're with. I sigh, look at Jess. She's trying not to listen, but the volume keeps drawing her attention.

"Hey Gramps" I ignore it, my daughter just looks at me. I give her a smile and a wink. "Hey, old man, I'm talking to you" I take a sip of my water, pretending to be blissfully unaware. I can feel Nate behind me now.

"Mr. Dayton" Cass says in our direction.

"Yes?" I turn around, looking up at Cass, who's got a hand on Nate's shoulder.

"Do you mind if we borrow your volleyball?" Cass points to the ball. I look at Jess.

"Sure, do you mind if we join you?"

"Not at all Gramps" Nate says picking up the volleyball and heading to the nearest court. I stand up to follow, but I can feel Cass hanging back.

"Please, don't make him mad" Cass whispered in my ear. There was fear in her voice. Shit, that complicates things. Part of me wanted to shove the 'Gramps' moniker down his throat. What Nate didn't realize is that I used to play competitively, and that I still was active with my daughter. There was still a way, is just have to be a little more creative.

Nate was practicing serving to Jess and another guy and Amber, Cass was walking over towards Nate, the third guy and the girl i hadn't met. I head over to the guy with Jess, "I'm Luke, or you can call me Gramps" I reach out to shake his hand.

He reluctantly takes it, "I'm Dan." He's kinda athletic, but doesn't look like he's played much before.

"Nice to meet you" I say. I nod to Amber. I stand by the net, taking the bumps and just setting them up for Dan, Jess and Amber to hit from the back row.

"You ready Gramps?" Nate says. I look at the others and give a thumbs up. Jess joins me in the front row, left side as I drop back in the middle. I look at the other two players across the net. The guy also has an athletic build, taller than myself, blonde with a facial structure most men would die for. I heard his name was Kyle. The other girl was Julie, a redhead with a build similar to Cass. Shorter at 5'3", dark freckles across her nose and chest, B maybe C cup in a more modest suit than Amber or Cass.

I watched as Nate threw the ball up and tried an overhand serve, that landed in the net. The next serve is more of an overhand lob over the net, played by Dan, set by Jess and lazily overhand the net to the back corner by myself. I see Kyle trip as he steps back and the ball hits the sandon the line.

"Out" Nate calls. I go to open my mouth, then close it. It doesn't matter. It's fun right. Nate takes the ball back, everything resets and he serves, better this time but right to me. Bump, set, hit to Cass, her bump is a little off causing Julie to chase and bump it over the net out. I see Nate glower at Cass, her response was to shrink in on herself. My uneasy feeling about Nate now seemed justified. Weather he was just verbally abusive or crossed the line, Cass was afraid of him.

As the game went on the pieces started to fall into place. Her insistence on being in control, the apology for exerting her wants, the nervousness around me. Did she cheat on him with me? At a break in the game I decide to ask, "So how do you all know each other?"

" We all went to high school together. We've been together for 3 years, Julie and Kyle for 4 and...." Amber points towards Nate and Cass. "2, 3 years depending how you count it" Serve, bump, set, hit.

"What does that mean?" Jess asks, voicing what I'm thinking.

"Oh, they're on and off. You should have seen how mad Nate was a couple months ago," bump, return, point. So that was before Disney.

"You going to talk, or play" Nate yelled. We moved around, Jess serving, me in the back row with Nate at the net. Underhand serve, set by Cass and a spike by Nate directly at Jess. She ducked and the blow glanced off her shoulder. Nate fist pumps as they rotate around.

"You okay?" I ask my daughter, she just nods obviously shaken. I glare at Nate, he doesn't notice, but Cass does. Fine, go after my baby, all bets are off. Serve, bump, set, spike, I dig the spike, set by Amber and strike by Dan. We win serve back.

"Hey Gramps, hope I didn't bruise your daughter too bad" he says in a jovial, childish manner. I shake my head. Cass gets serves, bump by Jess, set by Amber towards me. I couldn't have asked for a better set for what I intended. I see Nate take a step to block, I step and jump, the practiced motion of a spike coming back as second nature. I watch as the ball traveled past a surprised Nate's hands, and strike him on the left side of his face. There's a silent moment for everyone on the court, except for Jess. Jess giggles a little. "What the fuck?" Nate yells. I've already grabbed the ball and started our next rotation. I look to Kyle and Dan to see if they were approaching. If anything they were amused. I heard and felt Nate approaching, his steps heavy with anger.

"Jeff" Cass called as I felt Nate stop behind me.

I turned around deliberately looked at the red spot on Nate's face and said "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't bruise you." The anger boiled onto his face, turning it bright red. He raises his hand to shove me. I let the shove carry me back a couple steps, putting me outside the court. I notice we have a small crowd now, I'm assuming from the game and the yelling. A couple phones are out too, starting to record.

"What's your problem?" He yells in my face, hands in my chest again. My hands are up, facing him at chest level, a defensive position.

"I dont have a problem" I only go back step now, my mass and muscle advantage keeping me in place. "I'm just not afraid of you" Cass is there, a hand on his arm that he shrugs off. I see it happen, his arm cooking back for a punch. I step back out of the way. He takes two steps, his arms swinging wildly. A couple weak hits deflect off my chest and arms as I spin away.

Cass is holding his arm now, his buddies more engaged. "Please, Nate stop." His anger on me was wasted so he turned it on Cass.

"How the fuck do you know this guy? And don't give me this bullshit that you only know him because of her" He points at my daughter. Cass stumbles over her words. She takes a step back.

"Hey, leave her be" I say, trying to redirect his attention.

"Shut the fuck up, she's mine and I'll do what I want" He towers over Cass, "c'mon bitch, I know somethings going on." She looks at me, I shake my head no. Her eyes drop, and she nods. His hand lashes out and slaps her across the face. She falls to the ground holding her face trembling.

I see red, close the gap between myself and Nate. I give him a light shove away from Cass. Jess gasp, but no one else moved, or even breathed. Her need to restrain during our most intimate moment makes sense now. She never had control. She must have been hiding guilt from Nate this whole time, the fear if he found out. I don't understand why she returned to him, but I'll be damned if I'm going to stand by now.

"You useless whore" Nate said, looking around me. "You're nothing without me, you never were anything."

"Enough" I say, tired of this boy. "Walk away"

"Or what? Or what old man? You gonna make me?"

"No, I won't, but you're not getting to Cass to hurt her again." I hold my ground, bracing against the shove and don't give ground. Then the swing, I roll my head with the strike but it still hurts. I hold my ground still, between the abuser and abused. Another punch, this one bringing a metal taste to my mouth. Another punch, this one buckling my knees.

"Dad!" From one knee I see Jess, frightened and distraught. She's being comforted and held by Amber. Amber, for her part looks helpless and resigned.

I give Jess a nod and stand back up. "You're done."

"Not until I get what's mine" Nate reaches back to punch again. This time I dodge and return the blow, knocking Nate to the ground, semi conscious.

I turn to Cass, her body still trembling. I feel Jess coming to me as well. "You okay?" I ask Cass. She nods. Her eyes are full of tears, a bruise forming around her eye. Now that I'm so close to her I can see that she has covered up old bruising on her face, her arms and her body. I help her up and lead her back to our towels. I grab our stuff, beckon Jess to grab Cass' stuff. I see Amber with us, helping gather everything.

Once Jess, Cass and I get in the car the gravity of what happens strike me. I shake as my body comes down from the adrenaline of the encounter. I look at Dan and Kyle helping Nate to his feet, then to Jess and Cass seemly exhausted. I put the car in gear and head home, wondering what to do now.