My head is spinning. Mr. Bennett knows what I did, and he doesn’t hate me. Not only that, but I’m his favorite student. I almost want to burst into happy tears.
“Thank you,” I manage. “Thank you so much.”
“Of course,” he says. “I only did what was right.”
The rush of emotions I feel is almost overwhelming. Before I can stop myself, I throw my arms around Mr. Bennett in a massive hug. My eyes are welling with tears, and I cling to him. I never hugged my dad, not since I was a little girl, and I never even hugged Mr. Tuttle. But I never felt quite this grateful to another person before. He believed in me. He went to bat for me.
Mr. Bennett hugs me back, not pushing me away even as I cling to him. The hug lasts far longer than I intended it to, but I don’t want to let go of him, and he doesn’t seem to mind either. But then something firm pokes me in the leg. Like a roll of toilet paper.
Oh my God. Is that…？
I leap away from my teacher, horrified. I had hoped maybe I was mistaken, but when my eyes drop, I can see the telltale bulge in Mr. Bennett’s pants. From the look on his face, he realizes exactly what has happened, and he looks completely mortified.
“I am so sorry, Addie!” he cries. He turns away from me, attempting to conceal it, but it’s far too late for that. “This is completely… It’s unacceptable. I’m so sorry.”
“Yes,” I say in a small voice.
“It’s no excuse,” he says in a small voice, “but you have to know that my wife… We have nothing in common anymore. I feel nothing for her. And then I meet you, and it’s like… I finally connect with someone for the first time in my life.” He hazards a look at me, his face bright red. Even when he is flustered, he is so handsome. “But that’s no excuse. No excuse. I am just so sorry.”
I wish he would shut up and stop apologizing. “Right.”
“You should go,” he tells me.
I do what he asks of me. I grab my backpack and quietly leave the classroom, although my head is spinning even more than before. As I walk away down the dim hallway, I try to make sense of it all.
Mr. Bennett is the sexiest teacher in the whole school. Everybody knows it. And he’s married to a grown woman, who I would assume he has sex with. But for some reason, while I was hugging him, he was getting turned on. By me. And then he told me that he’s never connected to anyone like he has to me.
The weird part is that I was thinking the exact same thing.
I freeze in the middle of the hallway. I don’t know what to do next, but I can’t leave right now. I have to figure out what just happened in there. I owe it to both of us.
I turn around and walk back to the classroom. Nobody is around the school anymore. All the clubs have ended, although some of the teams are still meeting outside in the field. Mr. Bennett is sitting at his desk, and when he looks up at me with his soft brown eyes, it feels like the two of us are the only people in the entire school. In the entire world.
“Hi,” I say.
“Addie.” He frowns. “I don’t think we should talk about this anymore. Like I said, I am incredibly sorry.”
“But I want to talk about it.”
Mr. Bennett stands up. He can’t conceal that he is still turned on. He stares at me across the room. “Close the door,” he instructs me.
I do as he says.
I float across the room until I’m standing right in front of him. He’s about half a head taller than me, and I have to tilt my head to look up at him. His lips look moist. There were moments with Hudson when I felt a stirring inside me, but never anything like this. This is like that, on steroids.
“I’m trying to resist you,” he murmurs. “You have no idea how badly I’m trying.”
“You don’t have to.”
I thought that I would be the one to have to make the first move, so I’m surprised when it is Mr. Bennett who lowers his lips onto mine. It’s the first time I have kissed a boy—well, a man. At first, it’s just his lips on mine. But then a few seconds later, his tongue enters my mouth. I always knew in my head that people kiss with tongue, but I never imagined how it would feel. At first, it feels super weird, like some alien object worming its way inside me, and I’m not sure I like it. I almost want to pull away, but he’s holding me tight, close to his body, and also, it would be lame to pull away. He’d be so disappointed.
And then, after a few more seconds, my body starts to tingle. And it’s…incredible. My whole body feels like it’s on fire, like it’s an explosion. I don’t want it to ever stop, but then he pulls away.