Chapter 8 Eight

I sat dolefully in class, completely absent-minded even though there was a professor in my class and it was a major course.

Thoughts of last night were gnawing at me. The way he had me begging for an orgasm, and moaning my head out when he finally gave it. The heavy guilt that settled in my heart after. The way I cried myself to sleep.

I had no choice but to leave the house very early this morning because I couldn't bear looking at him or April.

I came to school alone and I've avoided every class we shared. I just don't know what to do.

Nothing prepared me for a situation like this. Nothing gave me a heads-up for this. So I'm struggling right now, unsure of how I'm supposed to feel about what's happening to me.

My parents are getting divorced. My best friend's Father won't leave me alone. And my best friend treats me so fucking good, unaware that I moan to her Father's thrusts.

It's all happening at once, giving me little to no time to filter my emotions. Do I love what's happening to me? Do I hate it? I don't know, and that's why I'm more depressed by this.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I noticed the professor leaving the class. I hope I didn't miss out on anything important.

Focused on packing my bag, I didn't see them coming - the HAS girls. I might have avoided them. I definitely wasn't in the mood to banter words with them.

"Hello, little miss virgin," the blonde greeted, flicking her shiny, healthy strands.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring her. I was done packing and stood to leave. But they blocked my path.

"What do you guys want?" I sighed.

"Your friend thinks she can speak to anyone the way she wants and get away with it just because she's daddy's little girl, but I hate to tell her that she's in for a surprise." The blonde spoke again. Most times, she does the talking. Her minions just nod their heads.

"Okay. But you should be telling her that, not me." I tried walking past them again but got my path blocked. Anger surged through my heart.

"We're not done talking -"

"Would you three please get out of my way? I have a class in five minutes."

"Listen, just because you hang out with a cool chick doesn't make you one, Willow. At the end of the day, you're still a poor, boring and inexperienced girl."

Poor, boring and inexperienced. That described me perfectly. So now I spent the rest of the next class wondering why Mr. Joe was fixated on me. I was just a poor, boring and inexperienced girl. Why won't he leave me alone?

A man like him has no business with a girl like me. Or is it all just fun? Am I just his little plaything? I guess that's what I am. Except I don't want to be played with anymore. I want to be left alone.

"Excuse me," a teacher's aide interrupted our class. He went to the professor and whispered some things to her. She nodded and the man stepped forward.

"I was authorized to announce to y'all that Dr. Johnson resigned. You're never seeing him around here anymore."

What? I was stunned by the news.

"I'm here to deliver these scored projects to his students." He said and began calling out the names.

I wasn't paying attention because my notebook got thrown away. So I had no business listening. I was more interested to know why he resigned. He seemed like he was having a good time here.

"Miss Willow Smokes?!" The voice got louder, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" He was stretching out some printed papers to me. Why? I never submitted that.

"Are you gonna come get them or do I go with them?" He asked, visibly pissed that I was keeping him waiting.

I hurried to get the paper and went back to my seat. My jaw dropped at the score on it. I had an A.

How?! Who submitted this?

"That will be all, thank you." The teacher's aide left and the class continued.

Again, I wasn't listening. I was staring at my perfect score, scared that it might disappear. But it didn't. And now I was more terrified and recklessly excited.

April stormed in as soon as the professor left.

"Willow!"

I looked up.

"Why didn't you show up in the classes? I reserved seats for you."

I was tongue-tied. She peered into the paper and gasped.

"An A?! You had an A in Dr. Johnson's project? I can't believe it. That idiot gave me a C minus."

I can't believe it either.

"You don't know how thrilled I am that he resigned. Good fucking riddance."

I was back to staring at my perfect score.

"But my dear Willow," April began, pinching my cheek. "It's times like this that makes me wish I had your brain. I know it would fit better in my pretty head than it does in yours."

Other times, I'd blush at her remarks of me being smarter. But right now, I feel like I don't deserve it. Because I didn't write this. I didn't submit this.

Only one question rested on my mind - who did?

We got home hours later and I was locked in my room again. Dinner time terrifies me. I didn't want to use the 'no-appetite' excuse again so I just pretended to be asleep when the maid came for me.

She left and I opened my eyes but I laid there, still thinking about what happened in school today.

My phone beeped. I reached for it on the nightstand. A message.

From...Mr. Joe Anderson.

-open your door-

I stared at the door like it was a ghost. My heart already kickstarted. But I couldn't bring myself to open it.

Another text.

-don't make me kick it down-

Would he really? But somehow, that threat got me off the bed and heading to the door. I opened it and there he was, still dressed in a suit, except he was missing a tie and his sleeves were rolled up. He seems hotter with his sleeves rolled up.

Hotter...really? Shut up, Willow.

He stepped inside, and shut the door. I put a good distance between us instantly. He stared at me in silence for seconds and finally let out a stiff chuckle.

"I get it. You're having a hard time wrapping your head around what's happening between us. But If you keep avoiding having dinner with us, April's gonna figure out you're only doing that to avoid seeing me. She'll wanna know why."

"I can't tell her why..."

"Then stop hiding here during dinnertime. Join us and fucking look at me while you're at it. Stop acting so...childish."

Childish? That pissed me off.

"I'm a child..."

"You're 19."

"Doesn't matter. I'm a child. I'm poor, inexperienced and boring. So...so why won't you leave me alone? Why do you keep doing that to me? I don't want to be your plaything." I blurted out.

"You're not my plaything, Willow." He retorted.

"What else can I possibly be?"

"My girlfriend?"

"That's unreasonable. I can't be your girlfriend. It doesn't even make any sense."

"Why not? You're legal. I'm legal..."

"You're April's Dad..."

"...I'm a man who's insufferably obsessed with his daughter's best friend."

Now that immediately silenced me. My eyes stayed wide on him.

"I've been obsessed with you ever since that day you spilled your drink on me at April's 18th birthday party. I've had the most unholy thoughts about you ever since that day. If you haven't noticed, I'm particularly fond of boobs. That yellow satin dress you wore that day did a nice job in pushing up your cleavage. My eyes caught them and I've never been the same. I tried so hard that night not to be the man who took advantage of a drunk teenager. But I've been a bloody wreck ever since then. I've just been good at hiding it."

He...remembers what I wore that night? That's like a year ago.

That night, I tasted alcohol for the first time and ended up creating a mess. He...held me all through that night. He soothed me. And I was grateful, because it felt so fatherly.

It's creepy to know he had other thoughts. Other dirty, non-fatherly thoughts.

"I tried to get rid of those thoughts. I tried to convince myself that you're too innocent. Too immature. Too...conservative. Too inexperienced. But then those are what I like about you, Willow. You're innocent, in a way that excites a man like me. You're...conservative, so that means you don't have time to indulge horny little boys. You're inexperienced, that means I'm gonna have the pleasure of being the first guy to expose you to the beauty of life. You're immature, so I'm gonna have to be your Daddy. So you see, I just couldn't...get out of my head."

My throat was dry. I was gulping endlessly, trying to wet it up.

He's been having thoughts of me since last year? How did I not see that?

Maybe because he never showed it. He never looked at me longer than five seconds. He never paid me any attention. I would have sworn he didn't know I existed. So it's shocking to know he's been having such thoughts.

That's...that's scary.

"I'm just trying to make you understand that what I'm feeling right now didn't happen overnight. It's been sitting there for a whole fucking year. It's been killing me for a whole year. Do you understand?"

I shook my head. He let out a short laugh.

"It's fine. I'll give you time to process it."

He looked around my room a bit and then his gaze found me again.

"Aren't you gonna thank me?"

"Why?"

"I presume you already saw your score on the Dr. Johnson project?"

My eyes popped. "It was you?"

He gave a lopsided smile. "You're most welcome, Willow." He winked and left my room.

I stood there, staring speechlessly at a shut door. It was...him?