Part 9 (1/2)
Charlotte looked at Susie who was smiling like the Sphinx and then back at Laura. She saw how pale Laura looked, and the nervousness in her eyes.
”Christ, Christ, Christ on a bike. b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. You're not joking? What and when and how and why, and why didn't you tell us?”
When had it started? Laura wasn't even sure where to begin.
She did her best. How she'd liked him from the start and felt a connection with him. How he'd stopped and talked with her several times. How they'd been alone in his cla.s.sroom. How it had suddenly... just happened. And how he had asked her to stay with him that weekend. She didn't even get to the details of what happened.
”He's your teacher, Laura. He's so old. It's just wrong.” Margery was distressed and confused.
Charlotte was shocked but fascinated. ”He is so gorgeous. I just can't believe he would go for someone not even in the sixth form. This is true right? I mean this isn't some joke between you and Susie?”
Susie was getting impatient. ”So did it go well this weekend? Did you guys do it? Was he any good?”
Laura went red.
”Welcome to the club then,” Susie said. ”You can give us a detailed account when you're ready.” What she meant was when Margery wasn't there, as Margery would only be horrified rather than intrigued by the details.
She left the room, and Charlotte fired dozens more questions at Laura, mainly pertaining to the early days of the affair. ”I just can't figure out how it could all have been going on under my nose.”
Laura did her best to answer her questions. She was relieved that Charlotte wasn't aggrieved at being kept in the dark, and didn't seem to be against it all, unlike Margery.
”Nothing was actually happening, so there was nothing to see.”
”But there must have been all these hidden undercurrents. Why didn't anyone else pick up on it?”
Laura cast a glance at Margery, who was folding away clothes. ”I noticed him always staring at her,” Margery said. ”But I never thought anything like this would happen.”
She was actually upset. She genuinely disapproved. Laura felt a pang.
”Neither did I, not in a million years. It just got to the point that nothing else mattered.” She wanted Margery to understand. But Margery had never been in love, let alone reciprocally.
”He kissed you in his cla.s.sroom. What if someone had seen you?”
This was what Laura had been trying to explain. How when it happened that wasn't even a consideration, not in the moment. Afterwards of course it became a terrifying concern.
Charlotte wanted to ask Laura for more of the juicy details of the past weekend, but Margery was putting a dampener on things. She and Susie would have to wait until they could get Laura alone.
”You're not going to sleep for hours, are you?” Susie said to Laura when they were in the bathroom. There was a shared area with a row of basins separate from the bath and shower rooms. ”Me neither, but then I never do. Let's go out on the fire escape again.”
Outside it was freezing cold, but they had wrapped up with dressing gowns and sat huddled on the hard ironwork of the stairs.
”So tell me all about it,” Susie said. ”I a.s.sume you actually did it. Was he any good?”
”I don't really have anything to compare it to.”
”Did you enjoy it? Did he get you off?”
Laura covered her face in her hands, feeling embarra.s.sed.
”I'll take that as a yes,” Susie said. ”At least with a older guy they should have some idea of what to do. Probably the best way to lose it really, instead of some schoolboy fumbling around.”
”Darius wasn't like that was he?” Laura asked.
”I wouldn't know, we haven't gone there yet. I expect he's pretty au fait with what to do since he's dated older girls.”
Laura was surprised how nonchalant Susie was about Darius's history. She herself felt uncomfortable thinking about how inexperienced she herself was compared to Mr Rydell.
”Does he want to see you again?” Susie asked.
”Yes, but I don't know when. We haven't arranged anything.”
”Let me know when you do, I'm happy to cover for you if you like.”
Laura looked through the darkness to the edge of the building, where it blocked the view of the groundsman's cottages. Strange to think he was only a few hundred yards from her. Was he asleep? Or awake, reading or working late?”
”He told me he loved me,” she said.
”Wow.” Susie was impressed. ”It makes sense though given the risk he's taking. You don't just do that on a whim. Unless you're Mr Peters.”
Laura laughed. ”He's so creepy. I can't believe so many Sixth Form girls have fallen for him in the past.”
Susie shuddered. ”More fool them. Any St Duncan's boy would be better than that.”
”Don't you worry at all about getting found out?” Laura asked Susie. ”If you got caught with Darius I mean, and expelled.”
”No, not really.”
”Wouldn't your parents be mad?”
”No madder than before. They'd send me somewhere else again, and I'd see how I liked it,” Susie said.
”My parents would be devastated.” With the euphoria wearing off, Laura was starting to worry.
”You can stop you know, if it's more stress than it's worth.”
Could she? Laura felt she was a different person now. She couldn't undo what was done. The funny thing was that she also felt more like her old self than she had done in weeks. Since she first saw him. He had changed her into something new, and yet part of her had been changed back.
Margery lay in her bed, desperately unhappy. She had been woken by the sounds of Laura and Susie creeping out. She had no idea where they were going. Charlotte was fast asleep.
She felt lonelier than ever. All the others seemed to think what Laura was doing was fascinating and wonderful, but it worried her sick. It didn't help that her own father was a teacher, and a languages teacher as well. Somehow she felt it to be a personal wrong.