It was ten minutes to six and Vince had saved his work and shut everything down and was making his way to his wife's office. Entering his wife's office he pushed the door shut behind him, "save your work and let's go."
Lifting her head Linda looked at her husband strangely, "what? I haven't finished my work and I am sure you haven't either so why do you want to leave?"
Walking over to the desk he took a seat on the chair in front of her, "because our daughter needs us. She came bursting into my office after school this afternoon almost in tears and needing a hug."
Rolling her eyes Linda shook her head putting her pen down briefly so she could focus on her husband, "I can't believe you are falling for the oldest trick in the book, she is just throwing a tantrum to get us to go running. She probably wants money to go shopping with or something."
Frowning he crossed his arms over his chest, "Linda I know our daughter and this isn't some ploy to get money or whatever, she genuinely needs us. I know she is seventeen and she is strong and independent and a pain in the fucking ass sometimes but she is also a senior in high school, has moved to a brand new state where she knows nobody and is a teenager with raging hormones. Tonight it is our duty as parents to put our work to one side and spend some time with her."
Her husband wasn't always the most perceptive of people with their kid's feelings so if he was picking up on something then it must be serious, "okay. Give me five minutes to finish this and then we will leave."
Forty five minutes later and they entered the house, "Stephanie!"
She had spent nearly an hour relaxing in the bath before she had got out and put some sweats on and sat down and focussed on her homework. So focussed on her homework she failed to hear her parent's car pull up so when they called her name she jumped banging her knee on the desk, "fuck." Quickly getting up from her desk she grabbed her phone and headed downstairs, "sorry, I was doing my homework."
Vince knew his daughter worked hard but she also tended to need a prod in the right direction to do her homework so for her to be completely immersed in it and not to hear them arrive home was unusual. Giving his wife a pointed look he then turned to his daughter, "that's okay. Why don't you take the food through to the dining room and lay it out whilst your Mom and I grab some plates and cutlery."
Nodding her head she eagerly took the bag from her Dad as she was starving, "thank you Daddy."
Smiling softly he nudged his wife gently towards the kitchen.
Stephanie took the bag of food into the dining room and placed it on the table along with her phone before she began unloading it item by item until it was all laid out on the table.
Entering the dining room with the plates Vince smiled at his daughter, "feeling better now?"
Nodding her head she sat down, "I guess, I'm just struggling right now to settle in."
Linda frowned at her daughter, "are you sure that is all it is? You are normally so confident and self assured and you don't seem confident today. Did anything happen at school?"
'Did anything happen at school?' was such a loaded question for Stephanie, she didn't want to feel like this but ever since he had given her those mixed signals on Monday she felt like her head had been getting more messed up by the day and now when her class mates are saying he is checking her out it just feels like her head is about to explode. All she needed was a good talk with somebody to clear her head but she had nobody here to talk it over with.
Vince noticed his daughter had drifted off onto another planet so waved his hand in front of her face, "Stephanie?"
Shaking her head she looked at her Dad, "sorry, I was just trying to work out what homework I had left."
He could see in her eyes that she was lying but wasn't going to tackle her about it, "that's okay but just get some dinner before it goes cold."
The three of them sat down as a family to eat and enjoy some conversation together. As soon as they had all finished Vince stacked the plates together, "do you want to take the cartons out to the kitchen and sort them into what is empty and what has food left please Stephanie?"
Nodding her head she began to gather them all together before she made her way to the kitchen.
As soon as Stephanie had left the room Vince grabbed his daughter's phone and immediately went into her contacts copying one specific number into his phone before he replaced her phone and slid his phone into his pocket to call that person later at which point he took the plates into the kitchen ignoring the glares thrown his way by his wife.
Once she had finished sorting out the food she turned to her Dad, "is it okay if I go upstairs and finish off my homework now?"
Nodding his head it would give him this opportunity to make the call, "of course. If you get done in time maybe we could watch a movie together but until then I will do some work in my office okay? If you need me you know where I am."
Smiling softly she hugged her Dad not sure where her Mom was right now, "I know, thank you Daddy."
Heading for the dining room she grabbed her phone before she went upstairs.
Putting the dishes in the dishwasher Vince then entered his office shutting the door tightly behind him before he took a seat at the desk and called the number he had recently added to his phone.
As he stood outside of the house he wondered why the hell he had agreed to this, he was sure it was going to result in one big headache. Leaning on the wall he rang the doorbell and hoped they didn't answer but as the door opened and he saw Zack he knew he was out of luck, "hi Zack."
Smiling politely he had never been more relieved to see this guy, "oh my God, I am so happy to see you. My wife is driving me crazy, please God do me a favour and keep her occupied for a couple of hours will you?"
He couldn't help but laugh at the other man, "she's not taking too well to being on Doctor ordered maternity leave?"
Groaning as he motioned the other man in he shook his head, "no, far from it. I am making allowances for her that she is missing the human contact but I swear I am ready to scream."
Smiling he patted Zack on the shoulder, "well why don't you take the opportunity after dinner to do something to let off some steam whilst I keep her occupied?"
"Don't you have like lessons to plan or something?"
Shaking his head he saw his best female friend coming his way from the kitchen, "I have no life and planned my lessons for the first semester over the summer."
Diana was so happy to see Paul, "Paul! I thought you were never going to get here."
Zack smirked, "see."
Looking at his watch Paul frowned, "you do know I am about ten minutes early right?"
Slapping his arm gently she shook her head and dragged him towards the kitchen, "come with me, let's talk."
Smiling sympathetically at her husband as she dragged him to the kitchen Paul was questioning his decision to come to dinner.
Leaning on the worktop as she stirred the saucepan he smiled at how different she looked, "pregnancy really suits you."
Rubbing her belly gently she smiled at him, "pregnancy does that to you. How are things with you?"
Skipping over what she had asked him he said, "so Zack says you are driving him insane."
Pouting she acted insulted, "well that is just rude. It's not my fault, pregnancy will do that to a girl."
Shoving his hands in his pocket he smiled, "I haven't been around you so I am okay with you being an annoying pregnant woman."
Tossing the nearest thing to her in his direction she laughed as he ducked the apple, "so tell me something interesting."
Luckily for Paul Zack interrupted so he managed to get away with not answering it until after dinner.
Once they had finished dinner the boys put the dishes away whilst Diana took a seat on the couch but before they had finished with the dishes she was in the kitchen which just annoyed Paul, "for fucks sake Dee, Nurses make the worst fucking patients."
Smiling sheepishly she shrugged, "when you are alone all day every day and can do nothing but rest company is like the best thing to you."
Smiling softly Zack walked over to his wife and kissed her cheek, "whilst Paul is here I am going to run out and do some shopping as we are running low on some essentials. I should be back in about an hour."
Rubbing his cheek gently she smiled softly, "thank you baby, you're the best."
Kissing her on the top of the head he patted Paul on the shoulder as he passed him, "good luck dude."
As soon as Zack had left Paul steered Diana back to lounge, "now sit down and put your feet up, you know what the Doctor has told you about needing your rest."
Sitting down in her designated chair and placing her feet on the foot stool she relaxed cradling her swollen belly gently, "so care to tell me why you keep dodging the question about what's going on with you?"
Getting comfortable on the couch he turned to look at her, "because I don't know what to say to you. We have been friends for like ten years Dee and I don't want one stupid mistake to destroy that."
Raising her eyebrow she shifted in her seat to look at him a little better, "what did you do exactly?"
Deciding to get it over with he just blurted it out, "I technically slept with one of my students."
Her eyes widened, that was definitely not something she expected to hear him say, "how can you 'technically' sleep with somebody? Don't you just sleep with them or not sleep with them? I must admit I am surprised by this, you are one of the smartest people I know and you did have your head screwed on straight so I never imagined that you would do something like that."
"Saturday night I went out with the boys to a club, it was just a night of fun before we all went out separate ways again and I met this gorgeous woman in a club and we got talking and then dancing and . . . let's just say she did some dirty dancing and we both agreed we wanted to go one step further. I was about forty five minutes from home and so was she so we did the deed in the bathroom and then she just kind of walked off before I could ask for her number so I could call her and ask her out on a date. All day Sunday I kicked myself wishing that I had got her phone number . . . and then she turned up in my gym class first thing Monday morning."
Diana's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, "holy shit. How did you not know her? This is your second year teaching in that school . . . oh my God, please don't tell me she has just joined that school and is only fourteen."
He was waiting for the explosion after he had finished talking and she didn't let him down, "she had just joined the school, she has just moved here from another State but luckily for me she is only seventeen otherwise I would be in the shit."
Rubbing her temples she shook her head, "and this makes it better how?"
"It doesn't make it better but in my defence I had never met her before and she hadn't been a student up until two days later. I have already told her that nothing can happen between us and she has promised to keep it quiet."
"But . . .?" After ten years of friendship she knew when he was keeping details from her or from himself.
Shrugging his shoulders he didn't know what she wanted him to say, "but nothing."
Crossing her arms as best she could over her stomach she was not impressed, "and this is the point where you stop lying to me and to yourself. You didn't let all of that out for a reason that was simply getting it off your conscience."
Looking at her incredulously he couldn't believe she said that, "you're crazy Dee, pregnancy is messing with your head. You're the one that asked what was going on so I told you." As she stared at him he found himself unable to lie any longer, "okay fine. She is beautiful and smart and I fell for her before I knew her age, before she was my student and now I'm in so fucking deep when I have to teach her twice a week and she looks like she does. I am trying so hard to resist her but when I look at her and think about what we had it kind of gets a bit hard."
She wanted to tell him that everything would be okay and he could pursue her but it would all be lies and she wouldn't do that to her oldest friend, "do you want me to tell you the truth or tell you what you want to hear?"
"Truth, absolutely the truth." Deep down he figured that was why he was bringing this all up with her, because he wanted her to give him a dose of the truth.
Rubbing her stomach where the baby was kicking her she did just as he asked, "you need to get her out of your head, you need to forget her. The bottom line is right now you are her teacher, whether you were when you slept together or not is not the point, you are now so anything that happens from here on out is asking for a jail term as she is a minor. If she hits on you then you need to knock her back and be strong and tell her that it just cannot happen between the two of you, you value your freedom too much. If you could find yourself a woman around your age to date then all the better."
Deep down he knew that that was what he had to do, hearing it from somebody else who was mostly independent just reaffirmed in his mind that he had done the right thing by telling her they couldn't go anywhere together, now he just needed to stop checking her out. Deciding that he didn't want to talk about her any longer he changed the subject, "so am I going to be the Godfather?"
