Teaching Her a Lesson Pt. 20

Part Twenty: Indoor Recess

The first thing I did that rainy Sunday morning was to head out to the strip mall and buy myself another new phone. In hindsight, I could have simply asked Megan to use the burner phone she'd used to blackmail me, but in the meantime the folks at Sprint got to fleece me all over again. It was ironic, in a way. I mostly used my phone for social media and email, but this whole past week, I had been totally unplugged. No news from the outside world, no updates on middle school acquaintances' babies or memes about political grievances had penetrated my bubble. Evidently when one is busy maintaining a stable of seven, there simply wasn't time to squander updating my status. (Seven, I insisted to myself. The eighth didn't count.)

The saleswoman recognized me, to my surprise. It had only been two weeks since replacing my last phone, the one whose screen had shattered when Megan's all-caps threats caused me to drop it. This new one was prompted by a text from Tabitha that was waiting for me when I dragged my rather sore butt out of bed.

Do you like it when girls send you nudes?

I left her on read - but only long enough to get the second phone and conduct a little belated clean-up. Something about the too-casual offer of career-ending generosity had finally jarred something loose. All this time I'd been corresponding with my women using my own phone. Taylor's fake confession, taped in the school bathroom. The video of Candy playing with herself in the shower. Myriad nude and semi-nude selfies from the lot of them. My phone was a cornucopia of evidence against me should it ever fall into the wrong hands. I certainly hoped it would never come to that, but I didn't even have my Serenex on hand to deal with any problems that might arise. I had to be more careful, if only for another two weeks. Then my girls would graduate, and anything we did would be merely scandalous, but not a violation of my contract. Or state law, which Isa had reminded me was also the case.

I spent some time purging every bit of incriminating data and each illicit conversation from my regular phone, then updated Tabitha on the new number. Finally, I responded to Tabitha's question.

Depends on the girl. Depends on the nude. Whatcha got for me?

Alerted by the message explaining my new number, she was already on hand, the pic ready. It arrived only a few seconds later. The shot was set in what had to be her bedroom, an austere, off-white place full of bookshelves, with one such shelf set aside for a slew of ribbons and trophies that were too well-centered to be coincidentally in the shot. As to the centerpiece, it was surprisingly elegant, her body captured in a sunbeam from an open window - one which I could only hope didn't have neighbors with a good line of sight through it.

Tabitha rested on her hip, torso upright and twisted to face the camera. Her nipples jutted out pebble hard, though otherwise the only "indecent" part of her showing was the suggestion of buttocks partially visible behind her feet tucked up beneath her. One hand teased down her lower lip, the other thrust into her hair, which I couldn't help but notice was more unkempt than usual. There was a wildness to it. She'd even gone with a black and white shot, though had filtered it so that the blue in her eyes shone like diamonds.

I approve of the girl. It's a little pretentious, the whole B&W thing, but then, pretentious suits you. Solid A.

The original's still on my laptop if you want the full color version. I thought it looked more interesting contrasting the eggshell walls, cream bedspread, the pearls.

I hadn't even noticed the pearls.Shall I send them to your photography teacher? I bet Mrs. Tandberg would be impressed.

Did you know it's illegal to send someone else's nudes without their consent? In this state, anyway. Though if you went across state lines and sent them to her from there, it wouldn't be. (Though I think it would still suggest certain other crimes.)

I did know about the first part, but not the technicality. Thanks for the tip...?

Yeah, maybe don't joke about that and you won't get lectured, Mr. C. She attached a bitmoji of her holding out a trophy that read "You're The Worst."

Maybe don't distract me from my planning so we have fresh material for tomorrow.

Tomorrow? When/where? Gotta add it to my calendar.

After school. My room. I pictured the look on Taylor's face when I kicked her out so Tabitha and I could get to work. Served her right.

Do I need to bring anything?

I considered. Was there? She had her body, and that was really all she needed, but...Wear a thong. And no bra.

No bra all day...??? Or just take it off after seventh period?

I left her on read once again. Truthfully, I didn't care, but she had to learn to interpret my preferences for herself. With that, I passed on the new number to Candy and Isa, the latter of whom replied to compliment me on taking some added precautions for once. Then, after a brief consideration, I sent it to Megan and Cassie in the same text. That was it, though. The Sterns could find out my new number when and if I deemed they needed it.

Megan's response was a simple thumb's up. Cassie replied separately.

are you still mad at me??????

I sighed. I'd seen it coming, but still, the girl had a pitiable way about her. Even so, consoling someone for being party to that obscenity was not in me yet.A little, yes. We'll talk about it later.

She responded in a flurry of mini-texts, which in my book was a literal microaggression.

I told them not to!!

I said you'd be mad

but they didn't care

Abbie said you deserved it

and I guess she made me feel bad

which is so stupid because why would I

even though you made her have ff sex with couch salad

*coach

*Salata

sorry gotta proofread better

but I'm sorry!!

My new phone's vibrator didn't crap out on me through all of it, which was impressive.I accept your apology. I need to get some work done, though. There. That was as magnanimous as I could make myself be about it. She responded only to assure me she'd be happy to help with my work or offer a breather, but like Tabitha, I simply closed the window on it.

I'd not been lying, either. My workload was still copious. The journals fromNight were still piled high. It was one of those labor of love gradings, where the rubric was pretty fuzzy and the grade was largely a completion score for making sincere effort. Still, breaking the book into five sections meant five journal entries, times one page each, times eighty-four students, which all told made for four hundred and twenty pages of handwritten text to skim and comment on. I tried to make sure each of them got at least a comment or two. It had been almost two weeks and I still had almost half to go. Today, I'd do my damnedest to finish them off. Then I could whip up a simple reading check quiz for the weekend'sCatcher reading, review last year's vocab unit 34 tests to make sure they didn't need updating, respond to some parent emails, and hopefully be in bed by eleven. Another glamorous Sunday in the life of a-

"Heya, C-dawg."

I screamed, leaping out of my chair so fast I banged my knee on the underside. That'd be a hell of a bruise, for sure. "Damnit, Taylor! What the hell are you doing here? Wait, and how the hell did you get in? I don't leave my doors unlocked!" I did sometimes, actually, but I'd made it a point to lock up so I wouldn't risk Cassie sneaking over to distract me.

She shrugged. "I used a key."

"What key?"

"My key." She fished it out of her purse, jingled it for me.

"You... When the fuck did you make a key?!"

She leaned casually against the doorjamb. The rain had been coming down pretty hard outside; her hair and her shirt were both pretty wet. For once, though, I wasn't distracted by the sight of her bra through the thin white shirt she wore over it. Notthat distracted, anyway. "The sooner you adjust yourself to leaving the past in the past, the happier you're going to be. You wanna hook a bitch up with a towel or what?"

"Give me the key."

"What? No. How else am I supposed to get in? Ring the doorbell like a pleb?"

I gritted my teeth. "Give. me. the. key. Taylor."

With a roll of her eyes, she plucked it off the ring and tossed it at me. I had to deflect rather than catch it. "Abbie's got one too, so I'll just make another copy of hers."

I didn't have a counter for that, and even if I did, I knew too well that I wouldn't get anywhere letting Taylor Stern control a conversation - especially when she'd put me off balance. "You need to leave. I have work to do, and you weren't invited."

She gestured to the rain-spattered window. "What? Fuck that. It's pouring out."

"You survived it on your way in. You'll survive it on your way out."

"Is this because of Friday?"

"It's because I said so. Nowgo."

"I seem to recall a teacher of mine telling us to question authority figures and power structures. Only now suddenly he's-"

"You didn't listen to a thing I've said for the past two years, Taylor. I'm not going to waste my breath clarifying myself for you now."

Her frown intensified. "Why you hatin' like this?"

"I'm not hating like anything. You broke into my house, and I'm asking... No. I'mtelling you to please leave."

She looked past me. "Those ourNight journals?"

"They are."

"You grade mine yet?"

"Not yet. I do them in period order, so your class will be..." I caught myself being interrogated and shook my head. "No. We're not having a discussion. I have work to do, and you probably have ten more souls to capture before you're summoned back to hell."

She laughed in spite of herself. "Nice. You just think of that?"

I'd probably said words to that effect a hundred times, bitching and moaning about my resident demonspawn to my friends and sympathetic colleagues. "What can I say, you're an inspiration. But really, last time I'm saying it before I drag you out to your car. Go. There's an umbrella by the door. Borrow it if you need to."

She was obviously displeased, but I gave her nothing. Any crack in the façade, signs of interest or weakness, even a stray glance at the way her white t-shirt was plastered against those mouth-watering tits of hers, and she'd push me. And if she pushed me, I was going to push her back - right onto my bed, where I'd fuck the living daylights out of her.

"Fine. Be a fucking prick, why don't you." Taylor hesitated just long enough for me to say something, but anything I said would have only stopped her, and stopping her only would have laid my weakness bare. I watched her go, redirecting my eyes off of her ass just in time not to be caught after her pivot at the midpoint of the stairs, from whence she scowled back at me.

I sat back down at my desk, my head clutched in my hands as I performed a mental exercise, running through the reasons it would be bad if I'd let her stay.Justin, I told myself.Remember that? It was beginning to help when I heard the door to the garage open downstairs. Only instead of the expected silence, I heard a second voice.

"Da fuck you doing here?"

"Where's Mr. Canon? Did he invite you over?" Cassie's voice was low, but the house was too quiet to mistake her identity.

"Nope. I was just in the neighborhood."

"Don't b.s. me, Taylor. He booty called you! Didn't he!"

"Slow your roll and use your brain, girl. You obviously saw me come in here. It's been like three minutes. You honestly think I had time to go upstairs, rock his world, get dressed, and sneak back out? That's some serious hate on our guy's stamina."

I crept towards the top of the stairs. They wouldn't be able to see me unless they came a good deal closer, so it made for a much better eavesdropping post.

"Then whatare you doing?" Cassie pressed.

"On my way out. Guess he's not in the mood."

"No duh! After what you guys did Friday, obviously he's not gonna be in the mood! And now you got me in trouble, too, so I hope you're happy!"

"Fuck, Cassie, I don't know how you lived as long as you did without a cock in you. You're a natural fuckin' addict. Like, literally."

"My mom says it's perfectly natural for girls my age to have strong sexual appetites!"

"Your mom also sucks off your boyfriend, so maybe reconsider where you're getting your perspectives from."

"Don't talk crap about my mom, Taylor!"

"What? It ain't like I haven't blown the guy a hundred times, too. Not judging, girl, just sayin'. I calls it like it is."

I thought I heard a sigh. "It's not fair. You made Justin go down on him Friday, and now he's taking it out on me like it was my fault. And I saw you flipping him off, too, so don't even act like you're sorry! Mr. Canon's never gonna believe you are."

She wasn't wrong there. If Taylor regretted the incident, it would be the first time in our shared history she acknowledged wrong-doing or experienced contrition. "OK first off, you know as well as I did he had that shit coming."

"No he didn't! What he did with us was... fun!" Was her pause a quest for the right word, or the mark of poor acting talent? "What you did to him was sneaky and mean!"

"Fun? Yeah, well, guess you weren't drinking his jizz off your sister's tits."

"So what? Pleasuring Mr. Canon is fun! There's nothing wrong with it!"

"And for two," continued Taylor heatedly, "you're barking up the wrong tree. Justin was Abbie's idea. I got fuck all to do with it. Y'all wanna make waves, take it up with her."

"Oh come on! You two are always coming up with shit together! I sure didn't hear you standing up to her!"

"Abbie's my boss. I do what the boss says," replied Taylor. Indeed, I had a hundred copies of that statement in Taylor's handwriting in my desk drawer not twenty feet away.

"You still could have saidsomething! Heck, you were right there with her at the party when she started taking people upstairs and dosing them with that stuff! You could have stopped her then!"

"Yeah? How? Same way you'd stop our guy if he told you to sixty-nine your mom while he fucked her ass? Bet you'd ATM that shit if he told you, wouldn't you, freak."

"I mean... if he asked, I guess. . The girls online do hashtag ass to mouth all the time." Oh god, that was what ATM was? How had that gotten into the vernacular? "Besides, there's nothing wrong with pleasuring Mr. Canon It's not the same."

"Right, 'cause the shit you do because your head got fucked is totally different from the shit I have to do 'cause my sister's a psycho. Keep telling yourself that, booty call bitch. Just don't say it in front of Mr. Canon, 'cause I know you got your hangup about lying to him."

Well shit. Abbie? I'd been so sure it had been Taylor, or at least a team decision. Abbie so seldom took advantage of her leverage over her sister that it was easy to forget she had it. Taylor was as much a victim of Abbie's capriciousness as me.

Like that, my anger dissipated. My anger at Taylor, at least. Abbie was another story. Hell, the little sister had probably thought it would be funnier using Taylor's buddy as her subject, just to put bad blood between them. It had occurred to me at one point to be surprised Taylor would use her close friend and confidante in such a way, but I'd chalked it up to the girl's casually malicious tendencies. For once, I'd actually underestimated her.

"Well... is he here?" asked Cassie after a moment.

"Yep. See, you can see his shadow on the rug there, creepin' on us."

I darted back, but it was already too late. A pair of laughing voices echoed up the stairs. "All right, well I guess I'ma go. You two crazy kids have fun, yo," said Taylor. A moment later I heard the door to the garage open and close.

I hurried after it.

"Hi, Mr. Canon! Did you hear all-"

I ran right past her, through the garage, across the side yard and down Megan's driveway. I was soaked before I made it through the gate in the fence. I caught up with Taylor right as she was opening her car door, but I threw it closed. She hadn't heard me approaching in the deluge, jumping in alarm as she whirled to face me.

"What the fuck, dude! You scared the fucking shit out of me!" To my surprise, she planted her hands on my chest and shoved. Hard. "What are you even doing out here?"

"I'm sorry." I swiped the water from my eyes, but a fresh curtain replaced it instantly.

"So you thought if you ran your ass out here in the rain and apologized, it'd be some fucking Hallmark movie moment? We'd kiss, lock eyes, I'd melt into your arms, fade to black?"

I eyed her askance. "You watch Hallmark movies?"

"Abbie loves those stupid fucking things."

"Seriously?" I supposed if I'd had to guess what sorts of things she watched, it would beSaw movies and videos from r/ChildrenFallingOver.

"Don't you fucking dare snitch on me, either. Bitch simps hard for that Hallmark garbage." I mimed locking my mouth and swallowing the key. "You know that shit was barely funny the first time you did it, right."

"Then why are you smiling?"

"Because I'm looking at an idiot getting drenched just because he misses my titties that bad."

"Notjust your titties."

Her expression softened as she wiped a strand of hair plastered to her forehead. "Yeah? What else?"

I shrugged. "Well, you've got a great personality. Sense of humor..."

She shoved me again, but this time yo-yoed me back in with a grasp on the waist of my shorts. "You hate my personality."

"Only because I know you so well."

She shifted to a two-handed grip. "Wanna get to know me better?"

I arched a brow. "Um, what?"

"That was supposed to sound sexy. Shut the fuck up." She snatched my collar and pulled me down to her waiting lips. There we were, making out by the side of the road like regular people. I counted on the rain to obscure our identities should anyone drive by, though bad as the storm was, there were only a couple cars. Nobody honked or stopped to peep. Damn shame, because they missed one hell of a show.

"Let's go back inside."

"I thought you had to work."

"Eager as I am to read your journal, it can wait."

"You positive? I don't wanna come between you and Cassie."

"Coming between you and Cassie was exactly what I had in mind."

That got a laugh. "See, now if you cracked shit like that in class, people might actually pay attention."

I cupped her ass in its clingy wet athletic shorts. "And if you showed this crack in class, maybe you wouldn't have flunked all those times."

"See, ya had me, then ya lost me. Don't push so hard."

"I thought you liked it when I pushed hard."

"Better." She squeezed my ass in turn. "And I fucking do. Now take me inside before we rinse away."

It was somehow more apparent how cold we'd gotten once we were back in the warmth of the house. Shivering violently, we retired to my bathroom and hastily helped one another out of our wet clothes. (Taylor received some assistance from Cassie, who, although she'd had the presence of mind to protect herself with an umbrella on her flight from next door, went right ahead and stripped with us. I silently thanked my fussy ex for sticking me with this opulent shower that managed to accommodate all three bodies without being unduly cramped. The two of us leaned against the wall as we permitted Cassie to help massage some warmth back into our limbs.

"So you guys were kissing right out there in the street, huh," Cassie pointed out. Neither of us had an immediate response to that, so she went on. "I don't think anyone else saw, though, since the rain. I thought it looked romantic, though. Are you two a couple now or something? That would be so weird. Do you think you'd get fired if you started dating after we graduate? Is Taylor graduating? Not to be snobby - just that I know you're always sort of... you know." Her fingers sunk into Taylor's tense muscles, drawing forth a relaxed groan. "Lazy."