Westwood Regional High

She was only fifteen when she met him the first time. He was sitting on the steps to the private school, eating his lunch in the midday breeze. It was a cool spring day and most of the kids had found places to sit in the sun, or had taken off in cars or on foot. They were anxious to escape the school walls, even if only for forty five minutes.

She had seen him around the school quite often and knew that he had a reputation of keeping to himself. It made sense to her that she would find him here, eating his lunch outside alone, rather than inside the school in the staff room with his fellow teachers.

She stood and watched him for a moment. Watched his eyes move lazily around the landscaped grounds scattered with students as he took a bite from his brown bagged lunch. She studied his broad shoulders, his receding brown hair and the darkest, deepest brown eyes she had ever seen. He was extremely handsome for a man whom she believed was in his mid forties. Back in the day when her older sister had gone to school at Westwood Regional High he had been known as one of the ‘cute’ teachers that all the students had had crushes on. She could easily see what all the fuss had been about. Even now, a good ten years later, she could appreciate his good looks. Mostly because it’s hard to not melt when you see brown eyes like that, and partially because older men had always intrigued her. There was something about them that the boys her own age didn’t have. Something that made her want to cross that extremely dangerous line and find out what exactly it was that made her knees so weak.

She watched him every day that week at lunch.



It was second semester and she found herself seated in his classroom. She sat at the front of the room, so she could be as close as possible to the man she now fantasized daily about. She often found herself drifting into daydreams during class. Luckily the class was English, a course she had not even the slightest bit of trouble in.

The first time he asked her to stay after class she figured she was in trouble for something. He paused by her desk as most of the students were pouring out of the room, in a hurry to get to their next class. He grumbled at her that they needed to talk and then went to sit at his desk in the corner of the classroom to wait for her. She took her time picking up her things and by the time she made it over to his desk all the students had already left. He placed her assignment from last week, a poem, on the desk in front of him so she could see it. At the top of the paper was a red “A+” with a circle around it. She smiled even though an “A” wasn’t anything new for her, she was pretty much a straight “A” student, coming from him that “A” seemed much better. “I just wanted to personally tell you how amazing this was” he had said as he handed the paper to her, his fingers grazing hers as the exchange happened. She blushed, thanked him, and took off out of the classroom as quickly as possible.

The second time he asked her to stay after class she wasn’t as worried. This second time it was to tell her how much he loved her short story she had written. He suggested she enter it in the school writing contest.

By the fifth time he asked her to stay after class, she had no fears, only excitement. Every Friday he seemed to want to talk to her, be it about an assignment, or the plans for her future. He seemed to think she should focus on her writing, try to make a real effort at getting published and had turned her into a bit of a pet project of his.

The sixth time she was asked to stay after class he said nothing, only took her hand in his, and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Tell no one” he had muttered as he walked out of the classroom.



It was only a week after her sixteenth birthday when they first slept together. It had been short and heated, happening quickly after school one Friday when everyone had already left for the weekend. It was the first time any man had touched her that way, and was both shocking and exciting for her. After finishing, he had whispered in her ear how amazing she was and had told her to meet him in the same place at the same time next week.

They carried on for two years like that; meeting every Friday after school in his classroom. Sometimes they talked afterwards, and sometimes they didn’t. When they did talk, it was about the secret that they had to keep, or about her life and her future. The time they spent together made her feel complete. It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with him.



She was seventeen and graduating when her heart completely broke. Walking into the classroom on the very last day of school she found him leaning over a fellow teacher. The woman was starting new at the school next year and appeared much closer to his age. She watched for a moment as he tucked a rogue strand of hair behind her ear as she giggled and placed her hand on his thigh. Their lips brushed quickly against each others. The kiss lacked the passion she and him shared, and she wondered what it was about this woman that had him even giving her the time of day. Her childish hope of going on a real date now that she had graduated quickly vanished. He looked up just in time to see her turn around and walk out of the room.

He had apologized, and explained that she was just too young for him. He needed someone he could take out in public, someone who was in the same place in life as he was. Her heart broke with every word he said. In two years she had given her everything to a man who had ended up throwing it all away.

She was only seventeen years old, yet now much wiser than most girls in her graduating class. On the last day of school, breathing in the warm summer air, she walked down the very steps where she had first watched him and said goodbye to Westwood Regional High.