Part Twenty-Five: Late Work Policy
"Yikes! What happened to your car, Mr. Canon?" Cassie ran her finger along the fresh stripe down the side of my vehicle.
"A little present from Abbie and Taylor."
"Oh yeah? I thought you guys weren't talking, after the whole arresting them and getting them kicked out of school thing."
I shivered involuntarily, though not from the insinuation. At this early hour it was still pretty chilly out, and my garage didn't have much by way of insulation. "I went over yesterday to talk to them about the whole thing. Set things straight and all."
"Mm. Looks like it didn't go over too well."
"Seemed to go well enough with Abbie. Not so much Taylor."
Cassie pivoted to face me. "Wanna talk about it?"
I sighed. "I don't imagine there's anything I can say to you that would conceivably prevent you from telling me your thoughts on the matter." Lord knew everyone else was weighing in.
"I don't
always
say everything on my mind," she grumbled, stung. Damn. I hadn't meant to be rude about it. "I just... I dunno. I need to be completely honest with you. To tell you the complete and total truth. I think maybe it's a Serenex thing? But I don't know. I feel like I can say anything to you. I don't mean to be a nuisance, though."
I winced. The last thing I needed on my bruised conscience was picking on Cassie, the sex slave equivalent of kicking a crippled dog. Grimacing at the cold concrete on my bare feet, I followed her into the grudge and pulled her into a hug. "I didn't mean to say it like that. You're fine, sweetie. OK? I've been getting a lot of unsolicited advice coming my way a lot lately is all."
She hugged back, sighing a little too audibly into my chest before I stepped back and let her go. I'd already woken up with my dick in her hands not twenty minutes ago; I wasn't trying to reel her back in. "So go on. If you have thoughts, let them out. I can take it."
"I wasn't gonna try to tell you how to feel. See, sometimes I try to imagine what this all must be like for you. It's heckin' strange for all of us. Durr, right. Having sex with my next door neighbor, a teacher, knowing he's turned my mom into a hashtag free-use slut, sharing him with a half dozen girls... it's kinda wild. But I bet it's gotta be a lot for you, too, right?"
"It can be." Not that I was looking for sympathy.
"Yeah. I mean, I know you like us, and you're a nice teacher and you don't want to hurt any of us kids. Even though I know you try not to play favorites though, it's bound to happen. Isn't it? I guess I don't really know what it is you like about her, though. Like, I know Taylor is crazy hot, perfect tits, perfect ass, perfect legs, super pretty. In a mean way. But I don't know if that's all she is, I guess I'm saying. To you."
"Everybody is more than just their body, Cassie."
"No, I know." She snorted. "No offense, that's something grown-ups say to middle school kids. I think I'm mature enough now to get that sometimes sex is only sex. A man can dip his shwing-shwong in a woman's howdy hole and neither of them might care about each other beyond cocks and cunts. Like, I've been reaching out to porn stars on twitter to ask them stuff, and this one said that it's a double-edged sword, having a porno bod, because some people look at you and only see tatas and booties, but at the same time, it could be nice at times because you don't always want to deal with people and all their flaws and people-ness when all you really want is good sex with a hot partner. Which I totally related to, kind of. My ex-boyfriend - he went to a different school, so you probably wouldn't know him - was really clingy and cheesy, and sometimes it was soooo sweet, but now that I've been with you and see what it's like to be with a man who just wants to use me like a cum sponge (pardon my French), I can also see how it's awesome to just have great sex with a well-hung dude and then go home and not have to worry if they miss you. We'll do it again soon, so it's kinda cool to just pleasure you. It's fun, and it feels amazing. But it's nerve ending feels, not heart feels."
She took a breath at last. "So yeah, I guess that was just what I wondered with Taylor, like which kind of feels you have."
I blinked. It was early in the day to be bombarded with that many words. "You've been talking to porn stars on twitter? What on earth for?"
"Not tons of them or anything, but I've gotten a few to reply. Lots of dudes pretending to slide into their DMs and all, so they're pretty hard to reach. And I just have thoughts and questions, and I figured as a booty call and a daughter of a sex slave, porn stars would get it better than most people. But you didn't answer the question."
I shook my head. Best not to pursue every line of thought in that girl's head. "Sorry, what question was that?"
"What's Taylor to you? Do you, like, care about her? Or do you just really like fucking her?"
"What difference does it make? I'm still responsible for her, regardless of how I feel."
"Sure, but... 'responsible' is a teacher thing, not a lover thing. Right? So if you're just her teacher and her occasional sex partner and that's it, then yeah. That's it. So you just have to figure out how many chances somebody gets before their problems aren't yours any more. But if you actually care about her, then you gotta figure out how to make it right."
I pulled her in for another hug, planting a kiss on her forehead. "See? This is why I'm lucky to have you."
"Yeah, and the butt slut thing," she answered with a coy giggle, but I could tell the compliment landed.
"That doesn't hurt. Now run on home. It's finals week, so I want you focused on that this week. I'll be busy, too, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me until Friday."
"Doesn't school end Thursday?"
"For you guys, yeah, but I have grading to do Thursday night, and then teachers are in Friday to close everything down for the summer."
"Oh. Well, if you're getting stressed and need a quick ass-fuck to blow off some steam, you know where to find me." She pivoted, hastily tugged down her pajama bottoms and the underwear beneath, then rubbed her bare ass against the front of my robe for a moment before recomposing herself.
"Hang in there, Mr. Canon. It's almost over."
________________
The final Monday of the school year. The air in the halls and classrooms of GHS crackled with unspoken potential. This time next week, the annual miracle that was summer break would be here. This time next week, people would be embarking on family vacations, starting new jobs, spending lazy days fishing at Bear Lake, or simply sleeping in and taking it easy.
But to lay one's hand on the treasure hoard, first, one had to slay the dragon.