What Really Goes on in the Classroom
By MaryMagdalene912
Disclaimer: Yet another unfortunate reminder that the characters do not belong to me sob I wish they did though! Don't we all…
Chapter 7
Darien opened the door to his apartment and closed it behind him with a soft click. The dim, dusky light poured in from the balcony, lighting up the area with a soft glow. He hung up his coat and sighed. What had gotten into Leah lately? She seemed so edgy and irritable, especially always angry with him. He thought she was being nasty to him because of the baby and couldn't help feeling their roles were reversed. Okay, so he hadn't wanted a baby at the beginning, but now after seeing how much it meant to Leah (so much that she lied to him and hid the pregnancy from him, something he had never seen her do before) he had not made a big fuss about it. But Leah seemed very distant from him, even after he had been considerate about the whole thing. What had he done wrong?
He walked into the kitchen to get himself a drink, noticing how quiet it was. Maybe Leah had gone out or something. Turning the light on for the kitchen, he stopped in horror. His first impression was that Leah had had an accident, but then he realised someone must have done the deed on purpose. Someone, most certainly Leah, had picked up a chocolate cake and smashed it a good three feet away from the table, on the kitchen floor. Half of the mess had splattered onto the expensive cream carpet in the living room.
Angrily, Darien turned on his heel and walked to the living room, turning the light on as it was getting darker by the minute. He saw the apron next to the couch on the floor with shoe marks all over it, and more puzzled than angry now he opened his mouth to call Leah. Then he stopped.
There she was, lying on the couch sleeping peacefully like an angel, an angel with wicked red hair. Darien smiled to himself. She looked so cute with chocolate smudges all over her face and little bits of flour in her hair. Darien decided to clean up for Leah, not minding about the reason for the mess. She had probably been frustrated with all the morning sickness and the woes of being a pregnant woman, he told himself. And it didn't help that he was feeling constantly guilty about how he had been disloyal to her.
He picked up a dustpan and collected the mess, depositing it into the kitchen bin. After wiping the messed up section of the kitchen with an old wet towel, he stood up and exhaled loudly. That was about all he could do right now, he'd have to go buy some heavy duty cleaning liquid for the carpet tomorrow.
He heard a noise from behind him. He turned around to see Leah, rubbing her eyes sleepily and looking at the kitchen floor. Surprised she looked up to see who had cleaned the mess, and Darien met her eyes with a warm smile. She just threw him a sour look and stalked to their bedroom.
Darien grew annoyed. "What's the problem now? God, I just cleaned up this mess YOU made, and you just give me a dirty? What kind of thanks is that?!"
When Leah didn't reply, he became really angry. He contemplated shouting at her, then decided not to. If she was going to be all cold and spoilt, let her. In the meanwhile, he was going to act like an adult and ignore her. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, and finally walked to the fridge. Opening it, he took out a bottle of iced coffee and downed it one big gulp. Throwing the empty bottle in the bin, he went to their bedroom.
"Look, I don't know what the matter with you is," Darien began as he undid his tie and flung it carelessly on the bed with his back to Leah, "but you're really acting weird you know that? Would you care to tell me what-" he stopped suddenly as Leah slammed the door behind her, walking out on his nice little speech.
He shook his head angrily. Why was she being so frigid? Not only that, she had even forgotten his birthday! He tried to stop thinking about her weird behaviour as he shed the remainder of his clothes and walked into the shower. She was acting seriously weird…
--
It was all Leah could do stop the tears from flowing every time she saw him. Where was that wonderful man she had married? The one who was handsome, funny, and caring? The one that had previously belonged only to her? The thought of sharing him with another woman made her see fire. Every time she saw him, she envisioned him entwined with that woman on a bed the way he was with her. How could he do this to her? She did not know. One thing she knew for certain was that she could not live like this anymore. Did that mean she had to move out and live on the streets till she got a new job – she knew modelling agencies would be just thrilled to hire a pregnant model – or finish this life altogether? She did not like where her mind was taking her at all.
She went to the living room to turn on the TV, an excuse for her to stare at it blankly, pretending to watch it, but really think about her current dilemma. As she went to sat down on the couch, something flashed brightly at her from the across the room. She whirled around. It looked like blue and silver wrapping paper, but what was it doing in Darien's coat pocket? Suddenly something from earlier that day flickered in her brain.
"Darien?" the voice was a girly, and a little breathless, "Did you like what I gave you?"
It must have been that girlfriend of his. She had given him a birthday present. Leah crossed the room in a few quick, long strides. Standing in front of his coat, she stopped. It felt oddly like stealing, invading his personal items. But she had to know. Without thinking further, she plunged her hand into his coat pocket and drew out a half unwrapped present. A little card fell out beside her on the floor. Picking up the card quickly, she scanned it, muttering to herself, "Dear Darien, Happy birthday, blah blah, hope you liked the present-" here she stopped and reached into the folds of wrapping paper to see what the present was.
She drew in her breath sharply, it was a gorgeous silver photo frame set with tiny sparkling blue sapphires. The photo it held was of Darien sitting at his desk with a cute little blonde girl standing behind him, her arms encircling his neck. Their faces were next to each other and it was hard to tell who was smiling more happily. Leah looked at it in shock; the girl looked no more that seventeen. She couldn't believe the nerve of her husband: he was having an affair with a student?
Something engraved at the bottom of the frame caught her eye. 'Serena & Darien' was carved into the frame in beautiful script.
"Serena," she muttered to herself. It was a pretty name, like the girl herself. Leah felt oddly empty; she had expected the girl to be slutty or indecent, but here she was, as pure as anything. Leah could have drawn a halo over head, that was how innocent she seemed to be. Leah bit down on her lip in fury, she had wanted to believe it was the girl that had seduced her Darien, that had ruined their marriage. But it looked like Darien was the one who started the whole mess.
She started to put back the card and present before Darien came out of the shower, but stopped when she saw there was more written on the card.
"Turn the picture over for something I just know you will like. Think of it as another gift to make up for whatever made you angry at me. Love always, your Serena."
With trembling fingers, Leah turned the frame around and opened the clasp that held the door of the frame shut. She nearly dropped the whole thing in surprise: on the back of the photo was a photo of a completely different Serena, the Serena Leah had expected. She was in a white room straddling a black chair, completely naked except for a black beret and black killer stilettos. She was blowing the viewer a kiss with sexy full red lips.
Leah stuffed back the photo and frame into his coat pocket in disgust, and sat down. Why the hell is she dressed like a complete hooker? Leah wondered, staring blankly at the TV again, twisting a cushion angrily in her hands. Even in her anger, she had to admit Serena really pretty, Leah wouldn't have been surprised if she was a part time model, and she knew she couldn't compete with her because Darien liked his girls young. And this one was a good four or five years younger than her.
Defeated and depressed, Leah howled into the pillow, feeling like a teenager all over again. She hated Darien so much for doing this to her, and that Serena girl for participating willingly. She hated them both, and she wanted to kill them. And she wanted to kill herself as well. She felt worthless without Darien. Her Darien, the one she had left everything for; what would she be without him?
--
Leah started awake. What was that noise that had woken her? Everything was quiet, she couldn't hear anything, though it was murder on her back sleeping on the wooden floor. She had snuck down to the floor after Darien had fallen asleep, not wanting to sleep next to a liar anymore.
"Mmmm, yes!" It was Darien, talking in his sleep. She looked up from where she was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag, to the bed. It was hard to make out anything in the pitch black, but it looked like Darien was muttering to his pillow. "Oh come on, baby, don't stop! Hurry up Serena!" his leg gave a little jerk, and he turned over to the other side, stopping the sleep-talking. But for Leah, the damage was already done. She had heard what he said.
She gritted her teeth in anger, and stood up. This was it, she didn't care about anything anymore, she was so furious that he was even dreaming about her! She couldn't believe this cheating man she'd been spending her life with. She pulled out the travelling case from the wardrobe and dragged it into the living room. Going back and forth from her wardrobe and the bathroom, she soon had all of her things packed. She had made up her mind to go and live with her cousin, at least until she got a new job. Her first idea had been to go and live with her parents, but Darien might come looking for her there if he knew she was missing. Darien did not know about her cousin, however.
Looking around the darkened apartment she gave a half-sigh-half-sob. It was a beautiful apartment, one she had picked out. "I'll get a job again soon, and I'll build something ten times as gorgeous as this!" she whispered, making a vow to herself in the dark. On an impulse, she rushed back to her wardrobe and grabbed a smaller bag, and went through the living room, putting some ornaments and small pictures into her bag. They'd help her if she became homesick.
Moving her bags quietly to the front door, she went to call a taxi. She wanted to leave before Darien woke up, she didn't want there to be a big fuss. After confirming a taxi would be waiting for her in ten minutes, she was nearly out the door when she remembered.
She went back to their bedroom, and carefully pulled out the two photographs from under the corner of the mattress. Looking at them, she could see there was no mistaking Darien in the photo. She just had not wanted believe it before, and had made up something to comfort herself. But now she knew she had to accept the facts.
Opening her dresser drawer softly, she took out the two tickets to Darien's favourite band performing live. They were his birthday present, but in all the shocking events of the day before, she hadn't had the chance to give them to him. It was lucky the concert was on the next day, or else he might have missed it.
Leaving the two tickets and the photos on the coffee table, where he was sure not to miss it the next morning, she scrawled a note. "Happy birthday, hope you enjoy the concert with your little Serena tomorrow. Bye." She had purposely not signed or left a contact number, just to infuriate him. Then she went to the door and pulled it open without a sound. Hoisting one bag onto her shoulder, and lifting the other one in her hand, she closed the door behind her with a gentle click.
--
Darien woke up as his alarm beeped robotically, and automatically slammed the stop button. Yawning, he got out of bed, wondering where Leah had gone. When he got to the living room, he knew something was wrong. Where were all the little ornaments that usually lay across the top of the china cabinet?
His eyes fell on the coffee table. "Oh, shit." He gently picked up the tickets and looked at them, after reading the note. "Leah, what have you done?" He couldn't believe that something so little had gotten out of hand so badly. The most amazing thing was the photos. How could someone do such a horrible thing like send the photos to her? He knew that it was his fault, there was no point blaming it on the person who had exposed him, it was he who had been doing the wrong thing.
He felt a lump in his throat and a burning sensation behind his eyes as he thought about who he had lost forever: his wonderful wife, Leah.
Suddenly, he scrunched up the photos and threw them to the ground. He knew what he had to do. He couldn't sit here forever thinking about what he had lost, he had to move on. He knew he couldn't stay in the house any longer either. It was a house that she had chosen, there were memories of her everywhere. Now that she was gone, he knew that he just couldn't live here all by himself, or go on with his teaching with Serena in his class and act like nothing was wrong.
With a black hole of despair hanging over his head threatening to engulf him, he began to pack everything. He was going to move to England, where his best friend, Andrew, from college lived. As he picked up the phone to dial the airport for emergency bookings, he just hoped Andrew could find him a house in a hurry.
--
Bzzzzzz! Serena pressed the buzzer of Darien's apartment three days after he had stopped showing up to school. She was going to find out why he wasn't answering his calls and not even coming to school. There was no answer on the little security caller. Frustrated, she tried again, and five more times before she decided it was no use.
She was just about to press the buzzer for the apartment labelled "Landlord" when a rather elderly man came out of the apartment building.
"You won't find anyone there," he said, making her jump.
"S-sorry?" Serena stuttered like a frightened rabbit.
"I'm the landlord, and I'm just leaving, so I said you wont find anyone if you buzz my house." His eyes were twinkling.
"Oh sorry!" Serena said, "I'm just looking for Mr. Darien Shields. He hasn't answered my calls or anything, and he seems to be out at the moment. Do you know anything about that?"
"And who might you be?" asked the man, suddenly serious.
"I'm Serena Tsukino, his student." She replied eagerly, "Did he leave a message for me?"
"I'm sorry, Miss Tsukino, he didn't leave a message for you in particular, but he moved overseas three days ago."
"What? Where did he move to? Did he leave an address or number where I can contact him?" Serena felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her; it was an unpleasant shock.
Sadly, the landlord shook his head. "I'm afraid not. But please excuse me, Miss Tsukino, I have to go to visit my daughter, and I'm late already." And with that, the landlord bid farewell to Serena and walked down the pebble lined path.
Serena gripped the handle of the door as she tried to get her mind around this staggering piece of information. Why did he leave her? And where could he have gone? Questions buzzed around her head as she finally let go of the handle and followed the path the landlord had taken earlier to go home. She only hoped that one day he would come back for her.
A/N: That was the last chapter guys, I hope you enjoyed my fic! I was actually gonna make Leah commit suicide over Darien boo hoo but I thought it would have been too over dramatic like one of those soaps… so I didn't! And thanks for the reviews once again, you guys are absolutely awesome! Feel free to review me about the ending of the story! Btw, stenny, you can go to hell if you hate my fic… no one MADE you read it and review, did they?
Edit: There'll be a sequel written to my story, by princess of star (that's her username) and if you can't find her homepage, go to my reviews on Chapter 7 and she's submitted a signed review. She'll be submitting it under her own penname, so be sure to read it!
