Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! This chapter is a sad one :( but we're close to the end of the story and this one will have a happy ending so keep that in mind!
I would like to send my condolences to anyone of my readers who has either lost someone in the Aurora shooting this past weekend or anyone who has been affected by that senseless act. It was a terrible tradgedy and I'm so sorry for your loss.
Happy Reading!
Tyler knew something with Jeremy had been off; the man looked nervous and jumpy lately and he couldn't figure out why. He'd asked multiple times the past few days if he was alright but Jeremy would give him a forced smile and tell him he was fine. Tyler was a bit concerned; he didn't think Jeremy was cheating on him, rather he felt that he was keeping something important from him, something that the young teacher didn't want to deal with. He decided not to press and just wait until Jeremy came to him. He trusted that Jeremy knew he could tell him anything and that they could deal with his problems together.
He sighed as his the caller ID on his cellphone showed his father calling for the fourth time that day. He didn't know what the man's problem was; he knew he was at work. He looked around for any sign of Rebekah before pressing talk. "Dad, I'm at-at work—"
"Meet me for lunch, what time is your break?"
"Uh—in-in about an hour," Tyler said, confusion clear in his voice. His Dad never called him for lunch. Something must have happened.
"Ruth's Chris on 35th street. Don't be late." He hung up. Tyler stared at the phone, wondering what the hell just happened.
"Ty, you alright?" Bonnie asked kindly. He shook his head and smiled. "I'm fine, th-th-th-thanks Bonnie."
She smiled and turned back to her computer, sipping at her iced mocha latte. Tyler glanced at the clock and sighed; he had fifty minutes to mentally prepare for lunch with the old man and he found himself hoping, for once, that Rebekah or Klaus would make him work during his lunch break.
Jeremy was in the middle of teaching a rather interesting lesson on fractions by having his students play a game when Abbey walked into the room, a nervous smile on her face.
"Hey Abbey," his smile dimmed when he saw her expression, "what's wrong?"
"Principal Kendall asked to see you, said it was important and for you get down there now. I'm supposed to take over your class for now," she said in one breath. Jeremy's heart sank; he really should have seen this coming. He forced himself to smile as he turned back to his students, "Okay class, this is Mrs. Bennett and she's going to take over for me while I go talk to Principal Kendall, will you guys be good?"
"Yes, Mr. Gilbert!" everyone chirped.
"Okay, I'll be back soon," as he walked out the door he felt Abbey squeeze his arm in reassurance, which did nothing to ease the nervous elephants running around in his stomach.
Once he left, Katherine turned to Abbey with a frown, "Is Mr. Gilbert in trouble, Mrs. Bennett?"
"No Hun, he's not," she smiled kindly at the girl and she received a smile in return before she returned to playing her game. Abbey sat behind his desk and sighed; she hoped that nothing was wrong. She genuinely liked Jeremy as a teacher and as a person and hoped everything was okay.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Mr. Gilbert! Please have a seat," Principal Kendall said with a wide smile. Jeremy smiled nervously and sat in one of the leather armchairs across from him. The office was beautifully furnished and looked how anyone would expect the head office of a prestigious private school to look. Kendall typed a few more things on his computer before turning to Jeremy. "I probably should have done this sooner but how are you settling in here at Hillmark? I hope the kids are treating you right?"
"I—" he coughed nervously. "I'm fine, sir; thank you for asking. The kids are great sir, very well-mannered and very well-behaved."
"Well I understand that you are very popular among your students, even some of the older students have talked about how fun your classes are and that they wish they had you as a teacher back then."
"Oh that's—that's nice of them," Jeremy smiled. Kids could have some of the cruelest attitudes or some of the sweetest. He was happy he was mostly blessed with sweet children.
"And you've taught at two very good school before this one," he scrolled down the screen. "Why did you choose to come to Hillmark?"
"I've always wanted to teach at a school like this," Jeremy said honestly. "There were no open positions when I first applied so I tried the other two schools and they had openings. Someone from Hillmark told me they would call when they had an opening and well…here I am."
"Good man, we're glad to have you," he grinned and he folded his hands on the desk, becoming more serious. Jeremy felt his hands start to shake slightly.
"I hate to do this to you Jeremy, you seem like a great person and you're a wonderful teacher from the sounds of it but…someone called in with a complaint a couple days ago against you; they said you were seeing the father of one of your students."
Jeremy briefly considered lying about the whole thing and denying that he knew what the man was talking about but he wouldn't put it past Mr. Lockwood to do something even more drastic to get him fired. He sighed, "Yes…I've been seeing him for a couple months now."
"And who is he?"
He sighed again, "Tyler Lockwood. He's Katherine Lockwood's father."
"Ah, Katherine is a smart kid," he said and he pulled a file from her desk with her picture on it. Jeremy had the feeling he already knew who he was seeing and was just testing him to see if he would lie about it. He mentally cursed Mr. Lockwood for being a lawyer and for being Tyler's father; the man could probably figure out a reason to sue him and take all of his money.
"Well Jeremy, we do not discriminate against anyone here at Hillmark so I don't want you to think that's what this is about. What goes on in your private lives or the private lives of our students is no business of ours…until it begins to show in the classroom," he placed the file down and looked at Jeremy again. "You said this has been going on for a couple months?"
He nodded, "Since November."
"I see."
There was silence in the room as Kendall pulled out a rather thick book and placed it on the desk. Jeremy felt the nerves take over and he blurted, "Mr. Kendall, I know that it probably looks really bad that I've been seeing Tyler but…but it hasn't affected my work at all and—and Katherine is still getting excellent grades—"
"That's the issue, Mr. Gilbert. This anonymous source that called…he was concerned that you were, perhaps, favoring Ms. Lockwood in the classroom because you're seeing her father. I haven't had any other complaints that you have treated any of your children differently until this point but he seems to think that you have been inflating Ms. Lockwood's grades due to your relationship with Mr. Lockwood."
Jeremy blinked; of all the things he expected Tyler's father to pull, he didn't expect this. He would really go so far to get him fired as to pull a seven-year-old girl into it? "He thinks…he thinks I'm giving her false grades?"
"More or less," Kendall sighed. "Like I said Mr. Gilbert, I've heard great things about you from students and faculty alike and I can tell you're an honest man but with a complaint like this and someone questioning the morals of the school we're going to have to investigate the matter."
The shaking in his hands was visible now and Jeremy laced his fingers together, "So what does that mean for me?"
"I hate to do this, I truly do but until we investigate the matter properly…we're going to have to suspend you."
If Jeremy wasn't sitting already he felt that his legs might have given way. He could barely wrap his mind around what was happening to him right now. Just two weekends ago he was blissfully happy because Tyler had told him he loved him and now he was sitting in the principal's office being told he could possibly lose his job. He pressed his lips together to rein in his emotions as the oblivious principal kept talking.
"It will be paid, of course so you needn't worry about that and the investigation shouldn't take too much time. We'll have Mrs. Bennett take over your classes starting Monday so you can finish out the week and tell your students you won't be in for a while. I'm sorry that this is a big inconvenience but like I said, we can't afford for someone to question the moral of the school. You understand that, don't you Mr. Gilbert?"
He nodded numbly, barely registering what the man was saying anymore. He felt sick; how was he going to tell Tyler that he might lose his job because of their relationship? And Katherine, how was he going to tell her he wouldn't be her teacher for the rest of the year? He blinked as a thought came to him, "What about Katherine? What's going to happen to her if they think they find something?"
Kendall looked a bit uneasy at the question, "Well if we find that her grades have indeed been inflated…then she'll have to repeat the year."
"No!" Jeremy stood quickly. "Katherine—I—her grades aren't being inflated, Mr. Kendall, I swear I would never do that! That wouldn't be helping her at all and I just—I want her to succeed more than anyone! If anything, I grade Katherine a bit harder than everyone else because Tyler's asked me to! You can't—whoever this person is, they don't like that I'm seeing a parent and I understand that but…please don't punish my student for something I did. That isn't fair."
Kendall regarded Jeremy sadly, "You're a good man Jeremy and I'm sorry this had to happen to you but we're still going to have to investigate and that is still a possibility that can happen. If it were up to me, I wouldn't go through with this because I don't believe you would do something like that and Katherine's grades have been high since she started here. It's up to the school board and the School District of New York on how they will proceed." He looked at Jeremy sympathetically, "I'm sorry, I truly am."
Jeremy nodded dully and shook his hand, thanking him before walking out of the office and to the teacher's bathroom. Once inside he leaned against the door with his face in his hands and closed his eyes, trying to will his tears away.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Principal Kendall sighed as he watched Jeremy leave. He truly did feel sorry for him; he personally had no problem with the man seeing one of the student's parents. Hell that was how he met his wife and her son turned out to be fine in his class. It was interesting as well as suspicious that Jeremy had told him he had been seeing Tyler since November, yet he was only hearing about this now in the middle of February. If someone were to have a problem, wouldn't they have reported it sooner?
His thoughts were interrupted when the phone rang. "This is Hillmark Academy, Principle Kendall speaking."
"Did you take care of it?"
He closed his eyes, "Yes, Mr. Pierce, I just gave him the news."
"Good."
Kendall frowned, "What do you have against him? He's a harmless school teacher who happens to be really popular with my students. How am I supposed to explain why he's being investigated for an innocent relationship?"
"That's your job isn't it?" Kol snapped. "I don't care what you tell them, I just want him out. Make sure that happens." The line went dead.
Tyler clenched and unclenched his fists nervously as he walked to the restaurant. He'd tried calling Jeremy, needing to hear his boyfriend's voice at the moment to keep him grounded but he wasn't answering and now he was completely on edge. He licked his lips as his stomach swirled around nauseously; what did his father have to tell him that was so important that they needed to meet for lunch? His mother wouldn't be there to be a buffer like she usually was so he had no idea what to expect or what was going to happen. He hated being caught off guard like this.
He took a few calming breaths and remembered the exercises Elena had him do whenever he was in a stressful situation and he didn't want his stuttering to take over. He pretended Jeremy was there, holding his hand and telling him that everything was going to be okay. He really, really wished he could hear his lover's voice right now.
After taking another deep breath, he walked inside and fought through the crowd to get to the podium, "H-Hi, is Richard Lockwood here?"
The hostess flashed him a flirty smile, "I just seated him; I'll take you to him."
"Thanks," he muttered and he followed her through the maze of the restaurant, somehow hoping that a fire would suddenly happen and everyone would have to vacate so he could make a quick escape. Unfortunately, no such thing happened and he came face to face with his father soon enough. After giving the hostess a small smile he sat down, coughing nervously, "Dad."
"Son," he nodded looking up from his menu. "I heard some rather…distressing news from one of my associates today."
Tyler looked at him in question, "What kind of-of news?"
"Well, his daughter attends that school Hillmark Academy and apparently there's a…scandal going on. One of the teachers has been seeing a parent of his student and now there's talk of inflating the child's grades and dishonesty."
Tyler's eyes went wide; how the hell did his father find out? He was pretty sure the story about his associate having a daughter at the school was cock and bull so how the hell had he managed to find out about his relationship with Jeremy? He never wanted to know anything about his life or Katherine, why was he so interested now?
"I…th-th-that's unfortunate," Tyler said faintly as he busied himself looking at the menu.
"That's exactly what I said. And when I asked him who it was you know what he tells me? He said the second grade teacher…and your son."
Tyler cringed; his father made it sound like the scandal it was quickly turning into. "Dad…I can explain—"
"There's nothing for you to explain, Tyler," his father said coldly. "You realize that he'll probably be suspended for this? Maybe even fired?"
He inwardly smirked as his son dropped the menu and stared at him with wide eyes, "Wh-What? Th-th-they can't do that!"
"Oh they can," he said simply. "They believe he's giving your kid false grades? She's probably going to have to repeat the year."
Tyler felt his stomach drop. "I…that's n-n-n-not fair! I n-n-need to sp-sp-speak with them, th-they're blowing this out of pr-pr-proportion!"
"I don't think talking will do you much good," Richard said solemnly. "The school board for New York private schools is very strict. They believe that one mistake can make the whole school system look bad. I don't think Mr. Gilbert stands a chance honestly."
Tyler clenched his jaw to keep from yelling; how was it that his day seemed to be going perfectly fine and now it was shot straight to hell? He wondered if this was the reason Jeremy hadn't called him back, because they were busy firing him.
"He would probably have a better chance of staying if you weren't seeing him anymore," Richard suggested innocently. "Perhaps you should end it with him and let the man keep his job; though I'm not sure they would let him stay at this point."
Tyler felt his world starting to crash around him; he didn't want to end things with Jeremy, they had been so good lately and everything seemed like it was falling into place but now because of one person, everything was being ruined. He gripped the menu tightly; he didn't know what to do. He couldn't let his daughter suffer for his mistakes and if there was a chance that Jeremy's job could be saved if they weren't together then the obvious solution would be to end it.
"Think Tyler," Richard said lowly. "If you stay with him, he loses his job and your kid has to stay back another year. You don't want them both to resent you, do you?"
Tyler could feel a lump growing in his throat at his question. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was right. It would be incredibly selfish of him to make Jeremy choose between him and his job and Katherine…Tyler didn't know how his daughter got mixed up in all of this but he couldn't let her suffer because he decided to date her teacher.
Richard watched his son's conflicted face and he knew he'd gotten to him. He smiled inwardly, "Don't worry Tyler; you'll be doing the right thing, for all of you. It just wasn't meant to be."
The single father nodded numbly, "Yeah—Yeah I guess not." He knew what he had to do and it was going to kill him. But he had to fix this, for Jeremy and for Katherine.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"We're sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Lockwood but surely you understand where we're coming from?"
"Yeah—yeah I guess I do," Tyler sighed heavily, trying hard to keep his tears in. He talked to the principal for a few more moments and asked him to let him know how the investigation was coming before hanging up, throwing the phone on the couch and dropping his head in his hands. He whimpered; there was no way out of this. He had assured Principal Kendall that Jeremy wouldn't do something like that and the man had his daughter's best interest at heart as well as his other students when it came to grades but the school board wouldn't let up. Everything became much more complicated when the higher-ups got involved.
The doorbell rang and the lump in Tyler's throat grew; he had finally reached Jeremy, who sounded shaken, and he asked him to come over. The last thing he wanted to do was end things but he had no choice; it was either him or his job and Tyler couldn't let Jeremy's career suffer because he wanted to be with him. The saying 'if you love them, let them go' rang in his head and he snorted bitterly. Slowly he made his way to the door and opened it, not able to meet Jeremy's loving, wide brown eyes.
Jeremy immediately sensed something off, "Ty? What's wrong?"
Just get it over with. He bit his lip and more tears gathered in his eyes; he loved Jeremy so much, to lose him would be pure agony but he couldn't be selfish, he had to let him go.
"I…I heard about wh-wh-what happened at the sch-sch-school…with you—you and Kitty and I just got of the ph-ph-phone with Principal K-K-Kendal and…I don't—don't think…" he sighed, taking a deep breath as he tried again. "I don't think we should see each—each other anymore."
He heard Jeremy gasp but he didn't look up; he couldn't look into those deep brown eyes that would crumble his resolve in seconds. No, he had to do this for Jeremy and for his daughter, no matter how painful it was for him.
"You don't mean that," Jeremy said in a shaking voice and Tyler could tell it was taking everything in him not to cry. "You…you can't do this Tyler, we can figure this out, we can—"
"No Jeremy," Tyler interrupted him firmly, "no we can't. It—it's over. We should have n-n-n-never done this. I sh-sh-sh-sh—I shouldn't have put you in-in this position and I'm—I'm so s-sorry."
Jeremy wanted Tyler to look at him, wanted to see his eyes because he knew he would see the truth, that Tyler didn't want this to be over but he looked away from him determinedly. Tears were streaming down his face and he felt sick as he tried to fight for their relationship.
"Don't do this Tyler," he said thickly as he reached out a hand and suppressed a sob when Tyler moved away. "Please I…I love you. Please don't walk away from this, from us," he begged, lips trembling.
Tyler squeezed his eyes shut. "J-Just leave, Jeremy."
"Tyler please—"
"Go," he said sharply and Jeremy's heart sank as it hit him; this is happening.
With a shaky sob he couldn't hold back he looked at Tyler one more time, hoping he would at least look at him but Tyler was determined to burn a hole in the ground with his eyes.
"I love you," he whispered sadly before turning and walking away from the man who held his heart. Tyler closed the door immediately and leaned against it, sliding down with his head in his hands not being able to keep his tears in any longer.
"Come back," he whispered. "I love you s-s-so much." He sobbed painfully, wishing that Jeremy could somehow hear him through the door and run back, ready to forgive him. He began crying so hard he curled into a small, trembling ball.
"Please, Jeremy," he begged to the silent room. "P-P-Please come back," he whispered hoarsely, insanely wishing the other man heard him. But Jeremy never came.
