When I turned 18 the dreams started. I would wake up slick with sweat, panting, exhausted. He was in everyone, haunting me from my pillow. I stopped going to high school, I saw my friends post pictures in cap and gown, and truly I was happy for them. I couldn't tell my dad, I just faked sick, until finally, as classes resumed after a long summer in a house all by myself, I forced myself to go.
I went straight to Mr. L's classroom, and he looked up at me with the same smile he always had. Nothing had changed, he was still here, at his desk, and I was still here, his pupil. I had done the paperwork to drop out over summer though, I was not his student anymore. I'd pulled on the old uniform to get in without question or issue, a familiar face in a crowd.
"Good to see you Kimmy." He said. Kimmy. I hadn't heard anyone call me Kimmy since...well since I dropped off with everyone. My dad called me Kim or Kimberly, it felt so comfortable, like slipping into your favorite sweater.
"I kept dreaming about you." I say, tone light, I strolled into his empty classroom, tracing a finger along one of the desks, eyes anywhere but his face. "You know what they say. If someone's in your dreams it means they're thinking about you."
"I heard you were sick; your classmates and I were all worried about you." He said. "I'm glad to see you're feeling better-"
"But they weren't in my dreams, only you were." I turned to him, moving to sit on the desk just in front of his. I studied him, his flop of honey hair, his stubble speckled chin, his gleaming wedding band. Forbidden. He had a wife, two kids, a life. Why was I here? What did I want from him?
The bell would ring soon, I should just go, how did I expect this to go? Hey, you're my old history teacher, I had sex dreams about you, please make them come true? I looked away from him, unable to bear his expression. No longer a smile, he looked at me like I was endearing, concerned, and comforting and painfully paternal. He stood, and I watched as he moved to the window and pushed it open. He produced a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and tapped one free of its case.
"Don't tell." He smirked as he flicked a little blue lighter into action. He took a long slow breath, closing his eyes and blowing the smoke out the open window. "I know you're not enrolled anymore, did you just come for a visit?" He asked, watching me with a curious smile. I winced when the clanging bell rang, but he didn't move an inch. Students moved through the halls, but none came into his classroom. I waited, nearly forgetting to breathe as all the feet and books and learning settled.
"A visit." I replied weakly, allowing my eyes to slip down from his face once more. I felt like a child, like I'd done something and was afraid of being scolded for it.
"No." He ground out the cigarette half-finished on the windowsill and returned it to the box for future consumption. Slowly, he walked towards me, catching my chin between his index finger and thumb and forcing me to look up at him. To face him. To admit the truth. He would never put his hands on a student, but that shield no longer protected me. Or no longer stopped him.
I opened my mouth but closed it to swallow hard against the vice clenching my chest. His eyes bore into mine, waiting for an answer, demanding, forcing an answer to produce itself from my dumbstruck lips.
"To see you." I said in a weak voice. The right corner of his lips quirked up for half a second, but I saw it. Almost a smile, the beginnings of a smile, from me. He held me in place still, unfinished with me. His breath burned my nose, the smell of cigarettes and stale coffee. I wanted to live there in that moment, under his eyes. But he let go, closing the door before returning to his desk.
"Then your mission is complete." He opened a book, propping his feet up on his desk.
"No." I said, urgently, almost desperately. He smirked again, looking at me over his book. I bit my lip.
"No? Then what else did you hope to accomplish while here?" He closed his book, marking the page before depositing it on his desk. I stared at the book, unable or unwilling to answer him. "If you're not going to elaborate-" He picked up the book again.
"I can't." I murmured.
"You have-" he checked his watch. The clock that hung in the back of his classroom had never read the correct time. The idiom about a broken clock being right twice a day did not count for the possibility that it just moved separately from our time. Innovative students attempted to fix it over the years but somehow it was always just wrong. "Forty-nine minutes." My heart started beating faster, he set a time limit. His classroom would be full next period, I could escape then. But I didn't want to escape.
"I just kept having dreams about you." I said in an uncomfortable tone. I didn't want to sound like that. I wanted to sound confident. I wanted this plan to work, not that any of this had been planned. I fiddled with the hem of my plaid school uniform skirt. "And I wanted to come see you about them."
"I'm not a dream interpreter, Kimmy, I'm a history teacher." He was teasing me. "Well tell me then, what was I doing in these dreams of yours?" He watched, keen eyes, I knew he saw the blush as it flamed across my skin. Another hint of a smile that he quickly stifled. He stood, walking around his desk, moving slow, deliberate, and stopped in front of me, looking down at me. "What was I doing in your dreams Kimmy?" He hung on the last word, letting my name fill the air between us. My name, but when he said it wasn't mine anymore. Nothing was mine; nothing had ever been mine. I was just living in his world, an object in his solar system, a passing shadow.
"Touching me." I whispered, barely audibly. He heard; I knew he heard. Still, somehow, he remained even, calm, stoic. I licked my lips, staring into his chest, his button up, wondering what was underneath it.
"What?" His voice was soft, gentle, a temptation.
"You were touching me." I said, a bit louder. This time he inhaled, deeply, slowly, purposefully, a long silent moment filled with him.
"Show me." He held out his hands for me to use. I looked up at him, and finally he let the true smile bless his lips, the devious one, the one I had only seen in dreams. I let out a soft noise and he chuckled, but made no move to touch me. He was letting me 'show him' which meant I had to do it. I had to initiate. I had to make this thing between us, this sin, this betrayal, this dream come true. I took one hand and moved it to my throat, feeling his fingers curl around it instinctively. The other I pulled between my thighs. With this complete, he made a pleased noise and pushed me backwards against the cool concrete wall. His hand constricted around my neck, not enough to restrict my breathing but enough for the warning to be clear, do not make a noise. He used a knee to push my legs open as his fingers moved back and forth along my clit.
Of course, I wasn't wearing underwear, of course he knew what to do, of course he would finger me in his classroom, it felt like everything that was happening was obvious. Like it was going to happen whether I was aware or unwitting. He pushed his index finger slowly in. I bit my tongue to keep quiet. He was watching my face, he wanted to see what I looked like when I went over the edge, his hand left my neck, and for a moment I was wondering what he would do to me, what was next.