Friday morning I gave Bo a ride to the university and went straight to my office. I didn't want to see anyone, mainly because I had somethings to figure out. I may be reading too much into this but I feel like that if I don't explore everything that could happen I might get hit by some crazy shit.

There's a knock on my office door that pulls me back into reality. "Yes?" I say.

"Professor?" Becca walks into the room.

"Becca, how may I help you?"

She was all red and shaky for some reason, "Um, I um, I can't make it tonight."

I look up at her confused, "Okay, why not? I mean I know that's your business I'm just curious." she looked like she had just seen a ghost.

She looks back at the door nervously and then back at me, "Something came up."

I chuckle and stand up, "Well that's fine with me. Some other time I guess."

She looks at the door again and makes her way to it, "Maybe not. I gotta go." Becca swings the door open and rushes down the hallway.

"Okay." I say confused and go to look in the hallway to find Bo leaning against the wall cross from my door.

"Hey teach." she says pushing herself off the wall and over to me. "I didn't know you knew Becca."

I look down the hall where Becca had disappeared, "Not really, she wanted to go to the movies and just cancelled." I look at Bo, "How do you know her?"

She scoffs and walks past me into my office, "Thats the infamous best friend that slept with Rachel." I look at her in shock. "Yup, now close the door before someone gets ideas."

I nod and close the door even though I knew that no matter what would happen people would always talk, "What can I do for you Dennis?"

She sits on my desk and crosses her legs in that way that made my mouth water, "Well I need to ask you a favor, and you don't have to say yes or anything."

"What is it?" I ask in confusion and go sit in my chair, trying not to stare at the long legs next to me.

"Um, well since Rachel and Becca kinda kicked me out I don't really have anywhere to go and I don't really have any..." she paused and looked at her twiddling fingers.

"Bo you're welcome to stay with me if that's what you're asking." I say softly and shrug. "I don't mind."

She smiles wide and moves to sit in front of me on my desk, "Really? Because I mean I could stay at a motel until I get my own place or whatever."

I wave her off my desk, "Don't worry about it, I have a perfectly fine guest room, food, and a shower. I doubt you'll be able to find an affordable hotel room that has half of all of that."

Bo smiles widely and gives me a tight hug accidentally falling into my lap. I gasp slightly in surprise but I didn't immediately push her off of me, I liked the way her warmth consumed me. After a moment of Bo and I looking at each other she leans out of the hug and stands up slowly, "Sorry, I um, tripped."

I run a hand through my hair and blush, "Don't worry about it. When do you want to pick up your things?" I ask trying to change the subject.

Bo steps away from me and puts her hands on her hip, "Do you think we could do that today? I need to shower and I need my jammies."

I chuckle, "Your jammies?"

She rolls her eyes at me, "Yes my jammies, you know the things you sleep in."

I laugh some more and nod, "I'll take you by there, but I'll go in and get it. There's no need to start more drama than necessary."

"I hear ya teach. I hate drama." she swats a hand at me. "And maybe since you and Becca didn't work out, we could go to a movie?"

I look down at my hands and smile, "Bo you know that I'm not supposed to date my students right?"

She scoffs, "Who said it was a date teach? I just wanna go see that new horror movie and have no money to actually see it."

I look up at her and she winks, "What if I just give you the money and drop you off?"

"Um no, that's not how things work around here Lewis." she says sitting on my desk again. "We go to a movie, as friends, we pig out on theatre junk and then go home and have girl time. Ya know what that is right teach?"

I scoff and throw a pen at her, "Fine, but no horror movies. Never been to one and I don't plan on going anytime soon."

"You don't like horrors?" she gasps throwing the pen back at me. "No no, we gotta go see one."

I shake me head and put it back into the cup it was in originally, "No, that is out of the question."

"Oh come on teach, just one scary movie?" she pleads as my door swings open.

"Professor Lewis?" the Dean walks into my office and Bo hops off my desk quickly. He looks at her then me. "You know your class started ten minutes ago."

I glance at the clock and grab my briefcase, "Shit. I'm sorry Dean Martin."

"Professor are you gonna help me out or what?" Bo says trying not to smirk.

I roll my eyes and walk past her, "Fine . I'll meet you here at five."

She salutes me, "Yes sir."

I sigh heavily and walk past the Dean, "What was that?" he asks walking closely behind me.

"What was what?" I ask power walking down the hallway.

"Her sitting on your desk and you two talking casually?"

"She has a habit of sitting on all of my desks." I roll my eyes again. " was asking my help on a personal matter."

"I'm guessing you two are buddy buddy now." he asks.

"Not exactly. She told me a bit about her childhood yesterday." I couldn't let him know she slept over at my house and was moving in without him getting any ideas. "She just has earned some respect for me is all. She's still annoying as hell."

He sighs, "Just keep it professional professor. Wouldn't want to lose a great professor such as yourself."

I nod as we approach my classroom door, "You don't have to worry about it, I'm taking her under my wing as prior your say."

He nods, "Good job then, I'll let you go and teach your class."

"Thank you." I say and walk into my classroom. I didn't really want to be here today, if it were up to me I would just hang out with Bo. It was true that right now our relationship is strictly professional but I couldn't make any promises about the future. It was obvious that Bo and I had an attraction to each other, I just didn't know where it would lead.

Throughout the day Bo would pop into my mind and luckily for me she only had my class Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It made it easier for me to do my job when she wasn't staring at me with those brown eyes. It would make my life easier if she just didn't have brown eyes at all, but then again if she didn't whatever color she would have I would instantly get attached to those as well. She was like a magnet and I was caught in the force field, unable to free myself. I didn't even know if I wanted to.

At five I went to my office, but Bo wasn't waiting like I thought she would be. I decided to wait a bit for her, so I grab my keys and go to unlock my door only to find that someone has broken the lock. "Great." I whisper and push the door open and see Bo sitting on my desk facing the door.

"It's about time teach." she says with a smile. "Ready to go?"

I smile and nod, "Yeah, let me put these papers up."

"You really do work too much Lauren." she says and I smile at the sound of my name coming out of her mouth.

"Well what can I say, I like my job. Sometimes." I put a few papers into a file cabinet and fix my lock on the door back, "Thanks for breaking into my office by the way." I chuckle.

"I hate waiting outside of places." she shrugs. "Makes people suspect things."

"And breaking into people's offices doesn't?" I say and raise my eyebrow.

"Better than what they could be thinking."

"You really don't like people getting the wrong idea about you do you?" I ask.

She sighs, "No. I care what they think about you. I'm not trying to make you lose your job."

I smile, "Well thank you for looking out for me, but believe me my career is fine."

She shrugs, "I'm just cautious when I like someone."

I smile and nod,"Well, lets go and get this over with." I say.

Bo gets off the desk and walks past me, "By the way, I'll have to get my car from them too."

"You're car? Do you have the keys?" I ask locking my office door.

"Teach if I had the keys do you think I would be telling you about it?"

I laugh, "I guess not."

Bo and I go to my car and I drive us to her old house following the directions she gave me. "This is it." she says as we pull up. "The place where everything turned to shit."

I sigh and put the car in park, "Remember you stay in the car."

She shakes her head no, "You see that red car?" I nod yes. "Thats Rachel's car, the yellow one is mine, she hates when people can't do things face to face so it'll probably be best if I go in."

"Do you want me to come with you?" I ask, concerned about her well being.

She smiles and gets out, "No, just wait here. Most of my stuff is in a box."

I nod and Bo goes into the house. She doesn't bother to close the front door and after a while I hear yelling and glass breaking, "Shit." I swear and get out if the car. "Dennis you okay?" I yell as I approach the door.

"Yeah I'm good, don't come in here." she says muffled.

"Who the hell is that?" I hear a voice say and I go right into the house hoping that I wouldn't get something thrown at me.

"Everything okay in here?" I say calmly, folding my arms across my chest.

"Lauren get out of here." Bo says trying to get Rachel off of her back.

"Hey, get off of her." I say sternly.

Rachel laughs darkly, "What are you gonna do? Blush me to death."

I smirk and walk further into the house, "I'm not at work anymore so if you don't let her go you'll have a major problem on your hands." I shrug, "So as I said before, let her go."

Rachel laughs again and throws Bo into a wall, stunning her for a minute. "Oh really?" she says walking into my personal space. "And what exactly are you going to do?" she asks running her hand up my leg.

"You really don't want to do that." I say but she just laughs and lets her hands drift slowly up my body. "Your choice." I say and grab her wrist twisting it behind her back.

She screams in pain, "Let go of me." she tries to get out of my grip.

"Bo get your things and put them in the trunk." I say quickly.

Bo stagers up and nods, "Hold her, if you let her go she's going to flip shit."

"I got it just go." I tighten my grip on Rachel.

"Oh lady you don't know who you're fucking with right now." she says with a dark chuckle. "Bo where'd you find this one a fighting ring?"

Bo ignored her and went through the house putting things in bags, "You know insulting people just because you don't like what you see in the mirror never got anyone anywhere."

Rachel chuckles once again, "She's a slut and a worthless piece of shit. Thats why no one ever stays."

My anger flares and I turn Rachel around grabbing her throat, "You don't know anything about her obviously." I push her into a wall and punch her once in the stomach. "She has more worth than you do in a strand of DNA in your whole being."

Bo shuffles into the room, "Lauren I need my car keys, she probably has them."

I look at Bo then back at Rachel, "Come on Rach, give us the keys."

"Fuck you." she says before spitting in my face.

I wipe my face and chuckle. "Give me the me the keys Rachel." I say and punch her in the stomach again.

"Give me the damn keys Rachel." Bo says walking up behind me. "Where are they?"

"Somewhere you or your little body guard will never find it." she says.

Bo scoffs and pushes me gently out of the way, "You think I forgot your weakness baby?" she says softly while running her hand down into Rachel's pants.

"Bo." I say feeling awkward.

"It's not what you think just give me a sec." she says glancing at me then back at Rachel. "Give me the keys Rach."

Rachel shakes her head and tries to get away from Bo, "You can't jut sex your way into getting your shit back."

"Oh can't I?" Bo kisses her neck and Rachel closes her eyes. "The keys."

Rachel sighs and presses her hips into Bo, "No." I stand at the door watching all of this go on, secretly wishing that it was me Bo was kissing on and touching on..

Bo puts her hand deeper into Rachel's jeans pulling a gasp from her, "The keys Rach." she says again but Rachel just shakes her head. "Alright." Bo pushes her body into Rachel's making her moan loudly. I look away and go to stand outside, there was no way I could watch that and not dream about it being me later. I could still hear Rachel's moans outside and I hear Bo talking to her. "Gimme the keys and I'll finish you."

"Key chain under the sink." Rachel moans.

"Thanks babe, now I'm going to leave just like this and if you ever come after me or anyone else I may care about you'll be sorry." I hear a cabinet open and close. "See ya later Rach."

Bo comes out of the house with a box and a few bags, "You ready?" I ask.

She nods and smiles tightly, "Yeah, help me out?"

I grab the box Bo was holding and walk over to her car, "The back seat or the trunk?"

"Back seat is fine." she says unlocking the doors. "I'll follow you back to your place."

"Thats fine." I say after sitting the box where Bo wanted it.

I start to walk away when Bo calls after me, "I'm sorry about all of that, I didn't mean for you to see,"

I couldn't look at her for some reason, "Don't worry about it lets go." say walking over to my car. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, and I'm still not sure what to do about this Bo situation. When she wasn't being an ass I liked being around her, and even when she was I still liked her. Whatever was going on here I needed to figured it out before either one of us messed it up.

When Bo and I get back to my apartment and get all of her things settled in I make us some more burgers, "You okay?" she asks. I had been on mute since we had gotten all of her stuff.

I glance at Bo then back at the meat I was preparing, "Um, yeah I'm fine why?"

She comes and stands next to me, putting some olive oil on the pan, "You've been really quiet since we got back."

"I'm just thinking that's all." I say placing a meat patty on the pan.

There's a silence for a minute, "You want to talk about it?" I look up at her in confusion, "I mean, you let me open up to you and I feel like a small amount of the burden I carry has been lifted. Maybe it'll do you some good too." she says sincerely.

I look into Bo's warm brown eyes. How did we get here so quickly? I wouldn't have even thought this was possible. Me having a friend and that friend being Bo of all people.

I sigh, "I need a drink first."

"I'll get it." she says. "Where is it?"

"The office closet." I point to the room on the other end of the kitchen.

Bo nods and disappears into the room, I sigh heavily again. I haven't opened my heart to anyone in a very long time, not since Nora actually. It's been a while, ten years to be exact, and here I was thirty-one years old and I haven't let my heart out of its cage yet.

"I didn't know which one to grab so I just got the Chardonnay." Bo says walking back into the room. "Glasses?"

"In the cabinet over there." I point and Bo goes to get them out. "These will be done in about five minutes."

"Alright. Do you mind if I go take a quick shower? I feel gross." she tugs at the bottom of her shirt.

I nod, "No problem."

She smiles and walks into the guest room, taking off her top as she closed the door. I sigh heavily and run my hands through my hair, letting them rest on the back of my neck. It was going to be a long night.

Twenty minutes pass and Bo finally comes out of her room, dressed in grey sweatpants and a white tank top with no bra. I bite the inside of my mouth at the beautiful sight that was her. "Sorry I took so long, that water pressure is fabulous."

I smile lightly, "No problem, I got a little hungry and just finished my burger from last night but yours is still warm in the microwave."

"Thanks and the wine." she raises an eyebrow.

"Oh right." I pull up the bottle from my feet. "Here, and glasses are on the counter if you wouldn't mind grabbing them for me."

Bo smiles widely and I notice a cute small dimple on her face. It added to her beauty and made me bite the inside of my mouth again. "No problem teach." she says. There's some rattling and Bo comes to sit on the couch next to me, placing the glasses on the coffee table.

"Hit me bartender." she says with a wink holding out both glasses.

I chuckle and pour us both a glass of Chardonnay, taking mine into my hand. "This is my favorite thing to drink."

"Chardonnay?" Bo asks mid bite.

I sip the wine and it slides smoothly down my throat. I close my eyes enjoying the warm feeling that spreads from my stomach to my whole body, then nod.

Bo giggles, "I can tell, you look like someone's kissing your neck."

I blush and choke slightly, "Um, thanks?"

"You're welcome." Bo says with a smirk and sets her half eaten burger down. "So, Professor, what's your back story?"

I chuckle, "Its actually quite a story, I've loved I've lost. My dog don run away." I look up at her and giggle.

"Seriously, I spilled my guts. It's time for you to give a little." she says placing a hand on my knee.

I take a big gulp and set the glass on the coffee table, "Where do you want me to start?"

Bo takes a sip from her glass and curls her legs into herself, "Well you can start by telling me how you got this lovely apartment."

I scoff, "You want the long version or the readers digest one?"

"Whichever is fine with me." she sips again. "I just want to get to know you Lauren."

I look into her eyes and nod, "Okay, well I was engaged to be married about ten years ago. Her name Nora, I thought she was the love of my life. That was until I came home one day and found her having sex with our male neighbor." I look down at my hands. "It was two weeks before we were supposed to get married and the day of the engagement party. She told me that her cheating on me was a mindless mistake and that I should've seen it coming, I kicked her out. She threw a fit and said I would regret it. I never thought she would actually live up to her word because the one thing Nora never did was keep promises." I pause. "But one night I was entertaining a female friend of mine and in the middle of everything I started to smell smoke and noticed that there was a fire coming out of my kitchen and into my living room." I pause again and look up and Bo's shocked expression. "I grabbed the girl and we tried our hardest to get out but Nora had boarded up the doors and the only windows that didn't have flames in front of them were upstairs." I grab my glass and finish it off, pouring me a second and sipping. "Then I remember that there was tree outside the day room that we could use to get out of the house. It took some effort and by the time we actually got out of the house it was consumed in flames. I ran to the front of the house and saw Nora speed off. Firemen came and put the fire out, the friend I was with never spoke to me again and Nora got off with a slap on the wrist since it was her first offense and she managed to cover her tracks."

Bo sips her wine again, "But isn't she the one that cheated?" I nod. "Then why was she so upset with you?"

I shrug, "I'm not really sure. I tell myself it's because I wouldn't let her use me for her selfish needs anymore. Nora didn't work, I always went to work, even got a second job to pay for all the things that she wanted but I couldn't afford to give her. Overdue credit card bills and all of that shit." I pause for a second. "I never complained or said anything to her because I loved her. I gave up four years of my life to be with her, shut my parents out and let go of so many people all for her. We planned to have a family, children, but when I walked in on her fucking him...everything went down the drain."

"I can understand that." Bo says motioning for me to pour her anything drink. "I mean you devoted so much time to her, changed who you were to meet her standards on what she thought you should be like and she just took it for granted."

I lean my glass towards her and point, "Exactly, and now I know that when my mom told me that no matter what don't ever change yourself for someone you love, she was right. You change into someone you swore to yourself you would never become." I look at my hands again. "Then when it's all over you can't even look at yourself in the mirror. You don't even have the drive to take those walks in the park or go take a swim in the lake. Everything you used to feel inside is just gone."

Bo puts her hand on my cheek and wipes away a few tears I didn't notice fall. "It's okay Lauren."

I shake my head and chuckle, gulping down my Chardonnay. "It's not actually. You know what hell I've been going through for the past ten years?" she shakes her head no. I'm not really sure why I'm telling her this but it feels good to let it all out for once. "I had to move to a completely different state to get away from Nora and her bullshit, and the worse part? This whole time you're the only person to hear any of this. Growing up I had no one, not even my parents, and now that I'm older I still have no one." I scoff and look back up at Bo. "I don't have mirrors anywhere upstairs you know why?" she sakes her head again and I lift up my shirt and point to my scars. "Any time I did I would do this. Every. single. time."

Bo gasps and covers her mouth, her eyes glassy. "Lauren."

"I hate what I see in the mirror, and I hate what the voices in my head tell me." I'm fighting against sobs now. "These aren't even the worst ones." I hold out my wrist and point at the pale white line across my left wrist. "I went into a coma because of this. Four days. I was ready to end it. I really was." I say softly. "I'd rather die than live a life of so much despair and unhappiness when I did nothing to deserve it in the first place."

Bo grabs my wrists, her fingers damp and kisses them both. "Don't do that to yourself." I look at her in shock as she kisses both wrists again. "Don't." she whispers and looks back up at me. "No one deserves to be driven to that point. I understand that that's not all of what happened and I know that you can't change the past, but if you ever need someone to talk to you can always talk to me. Even though we are still kind of strangers."

I look down at her hands holding mine and memories flash through my mind, forcing a heavy sob out of my mouth. I bring my hands up to my face and then I feel Bo's strong arms around me. She strokes my hair and kisses the crown of my head, whispering encouragement and "everything will be alright"'s to me. It was the first time in a long time that I had actually cried, cried to the point that I needed a glass of water for my throat. I needed this, I needed to just sit and cry.

The next morning I wake up laying on the couch with a blanket warped around me and a plate of breakfast on the coffee table in front of me. I sit up and stretch, I must have cried myself out last night because my eyes hurt and I desperately needed a toothbrush.

Next to the plate of bacon and eggs was a note. I pick it up and read it chewing on a piece of bacon, "Teach, I forgot something that might make you feel better at Rachel's, I'll be back by noon." I set the note down and glance up at the clock, it was two. I'm guessing Bo hadn't made it back so I go check her room, nothing.

"Damn." I swear, Rachel probably picked another fight with Bo and wasn't letting her go. After a while of inner debating I decide to go and make sure everything was alright. First I had to take a shower and get dressed in something other than my day old clothes.

"Can't believe I'm doing this on my day off." I murmur to myself as I pull up to Rachel's house.

I put the car in park I see Bo come out of the house, kissing Rachel deeply before turning and noticing me sitting in the car. She just looks at me and I put the car back into drive and speed off back to my apartment. I can't believe I let her do this to me, this is why I never let anyone into my head, into my anything. They always fucked me over leaving my in the dust. I was done, I was completely and utterly done with all that was this fucked up world, where people only cared about themselves and what they wanted. I was done.

A while after I had seen Bo and Rachel I woke up to Bo patting me on the face an a cold stream of water hitting my face, "God dammit Lauren wake up." I hear her yell faintly. I flutter my eyes and open roll my eyes around, trying to make out my surrounding. "Lauren?" Bo says. I roll my head from side to side and mumble for her to leave me alone. "We aren't doing this right now." she says scooping me out of the tub and onto the floor in what I think is my bedroom. "What were you thinking Lauren? Why would you do that?" I hear her ask.

I don't answer but I know why I did it. I was tired, tired of everything. Tired of the lies and the games, of all of the deception that came along with so many people that I have met. I was just tired and worn out, utterly emotionally drained. I wanted to sleep forever.

Bo takes off all of my clothes and dries me off. I don't protest or try to assistant her, I just let her dry and clothed me. "There you go." she says putting me in the bed, pulling the blankets back over me.

"Why are you here?" I finally say hoarsely. "It's obvious you've been just mooching off of me this whole time." I pause. "Just like Nora."

"Lauren what are you talking about?" she asks cupping my cheek.

I slap her hand away, "You lied to me. You made me trust you." I cry. "I let you in and you just lied, just like all of the rest."

"Lauren I don't know what you're talking about." Bo says softly.

Tears start to stream down my face, "You were with her, Rachel. You were with her."

"Well yeah Lauren she's my ex. I was with her before I moved in." she says playing innocent.

"You know what I mean. I saw you Bo, I fucking saw you so don't try to pull that I'm just imagining it crap because I know what I saw."

Bo sighs heavily and tries to take my hands again, I push her away. "Lauren it's not what you think."

I chuckle, "Really? Then what is it then? Please explain to me. Because I am clueless why someone would make another person trust them, make them feel comfortable and the. go and do some bullshit like that. So please explain."

She sighs and again and walks over to my dresser, "I forgot to get something and Rachel wouldn't give it back to me, I had to do a few things for her before she gave it back." she turns around holding up a small diary like book. "I needed to get this back." Bo walks over to me and kneels on the side of the bed, placing the book in my lap. "My mothers diary. I know the feeling Lauren, believe me when I say I have been there. The things in this book gave me encouragement to go on, to have hope for something better. It may not be the word of whatever god there is out there but it's pretty damn powerful." She pause and looks into my eyes, "I told you I was going to get something to make you feel better and that's what I did."

I look at the book and run my hand over the smooth leather cover, "You aren't lying to me?" I whisper.

"No Lauren, I did what I had to do to help you. I'm not one to lie about things." she says softly.

Putting my hands over my face I a cry softly, "I'm so sorry Bo. I really am. I didn't want you to seem me like this."

Bo pulls me into a hug, "It's quite alright, I just don't want to see what happened to my mom happen to you." she pauses. "You've become very important to me Lauren." she lets me go and cups my cheek.

I lean into her touch and close my eyes, "And you to me."

Bo sighs and rubs her thumb over my cheek, "I'm sorry Lauren." she whispers.

"No I'm sorry. I have this habit of jumping to conclusion that I've never gotten under control." I lean away from her hand and run my hand through my wet hair. "Thank you."

She stands up and smiles, "It's no problem. Now I'll go and rent some movies and get some junk food, that always makes me feel better."

I nod and laugh, "That sounds great." I say looking into my bathroom and frowning.

"It'll be okay teach, you just gotta believe that you deserve better. And you do, we all do." Bo says before walking out of my rom and closing my door.

I am such an idiot. I don't know what it was but somewhere in me always needs to find the bad in people before they can hurt me with it. And here Bo was, just trying to help and I treated her like everybody else who had entered my life. I guess I should probably stop dwelling on my past or I was going to ruin any future with anyone I could care about. But first, I would have to deal with my built up emotions. Something tells me that if I do that I could finally be happy, and I was so ready for that.

Wow you guys are amazing! I lobe refresh your feedback! I'm trying hard to get more chapters for Lady Of My Heart up but I keep running into walls, just give me some time and the next update will be worth the wait I promise. Thanks again you guys c: