Lux showed up extremely early for school the next morning. She had to talk to Eric and explain things but he refused to see her. She could've waited until the end of the day and showed up and his apartment but she was growing impatient. The girl sat in one of the desks as she waited for him but considered how Eric would see the image. She would look exactly like one of the students and despite the fact that it was what she was, she didn't want to give off that image. She stood up and moved toward the front desk, placing her backpack on one of the chairs before doing so.
Eric hadn't wanted to show up to work, not since finding out. He was half expecting to find the police waiting for him in his classroom to arrest him. Getting arrested was a constant fear running through his mind since he saw Lux in school. He barely slept the night before because he was almost sure the cops would be banging on his door and charge him with statutory rape.
As soon as he reached the doorway, he got a glimpse of Lux. It wasn't any better than the police in his mind.
"What are you doing here?" he asked casually as he placed his briefcase on his desk. He hated that she was there.
"You weren't returning my calls," Lux answered. "Or answering my texts for that matter. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Yeah," Eric said as he tried to refrain from making eye contact as he walked over toward the door to close it, lowering the shade so that no one could see inside. "Can you blame me?" he asked before he finally turned around to look her in the eye.
"Look, I didn't tell you because I didn't think it mattered that much," she said half truthfully.
"Well it does. Jail time matters to me Lux. Geez, don't you get it? You're a kid."
"You didn't seem to think I was a kid before," Lux argued.
"You told me you were in college."
"No, I told you I was still in school," Lux clarified. "I didn't lie about that."
Eric shook his head. "Well that makes this all better now, huh?" He said sarcastically. "You didn't correct me when I assumed you were in college."
"But this shouldn't change anything. It was a stupid lie and it doesn't change how I feel about you."
"It changes everything," he whisper-screamed at her as he brought himself even closer, standing directly in front of her now. "You're my student, Lux. You're still in high school."
"What would you have done if I told you, huh?"
Eric shook his head.
"That's what I was afraid of. I was afraid you'd break it off."
"I don't know what I would've done if I'm being honest. But this wasn't fair to me either."
"So what... you don't care about me anymore? You want to break up because of a couple year age difference? You're really going to let that get in between us?"
"It's illegal, Lux," he voiced angrily. "I'm twenty-five, you're what? Sixteen?"
Lux remained silent. Not wanting to add to the fact that she was still fifteen because she was sure it wouldn't help any.
"I still love you," she said and regretted letting the words escape from her lips. They had never exchanged the words but Lux knew she loved him, otherwise the thought of losing him wouldn't seem like the end of the world to her right now.
Eric froze, completely unsure of how to respond.
"Eric, please say something," Lux pleaded. "I know these aren't the greatest of circumstances and I should've told you the truth about how old I was."
"You didn't give me a chance to put a stop to this before. You didn't give me the option, Lux. I don't want to be that kind of person. I don't want to be a …a… pedophile," he said with a disgusted expression on his face.
"You're not," Lux told him.
"I don't see it that way. But this stops now. Us. We stop now. We can't do this anymore," he voiced sternly.
Lux stared at him blankly for a few seconds and nodded understandably. She was afraid to cry because then it would make her look like a child and prove him right. But it was obvious that she was hurt by all of this.
"I really am sorry, Eric," she apologized again before walking out of the classroom. She stormed down the hallway and made her way over to her locker. This was the exact opposite of how she pictured today would go. Students began entering the school one after the other. And as soon as she unlocked it she went to reach for her literature textbook but stopped herself. She wouldn't just grab her book and walk right back into Eric's class.
She couldn't.
She shoved her locker shut and glanced in the other direction.
"Did everyone do their homework?" Lena asked her kids as she began removing food from the refrigerator to begin cooking.
"Yes," they all answered in unison except for Lux who was glued to her cellphone, scrolling through her photo album attempting to delete all of her photos with Eric in them. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of him.
"Hey mom," Callie said as she attempted to grab her mother's attention.
"Yes, bug?"
"So uh… we have to start practicing to write college essays for Mr. Daniel's class and one of them is to choose a person who impacted your life for the better and write about them."
"Uhuh," Lena answered as if she wasn't sure where this was going.
"Well, I was wondering if I could write about you… if you wouldn't mind."
Lena's facial expression showed that she was completely caught off guard. "Me?"
Callie nodded.
"Of course I wouldn't mind. I'd actually feel honored but… are you sure you want to write about me? I mean, I would assume you would want to write about mom. Not that I'm telling you, you should. I just thought–"
"I put a lot of thought into it and I decided I want to write about you. How if it wasn't for you having such and big heart and giving me another chance by picking me up from juvie, I wouldn't be where I am today."
"Well then I'm writing about Mama," Mariana chimed in as if to point out to the rest of the family that she called dibs on Stef.
Lena smiled and hugged Callie and gave her a quick peck on the forehead. "Well, thank you, Callie. That's so sweet."
Callie smiled. "What about you, Lux?" Callie asked.
The blonde was still absorbed with her phone, feeling the pent up anger toward Eric with every picture she saw of him.
"Lux?" Lena called to get the teen's attention.
Lux glanced up, "Oh um, I'm going to finish my homework later," she answered, assuming that the woman wanted to hear something along those lines. It was obvious that she wasn't paying attention to what they were discussing.
"I meant for your essay. Have you decided who you're going to write about?" Lena asked while she began walking over toward her, and the blonde immediately pressed the home button of her iPhone.
"Oh, the fake one for college? I was just going to google something."
"You can't google it," Mariana said. "It has to be a real person in your life."
"Oh," Lux answered. "Well, I haven't really decided yet. I mean, it's not due for another week so I have time."
"Uhuh," Lena answered. "You know, Lux… There was actually something else I wanted to talk to you about."
"Yeah? What happened?" Lux asked.
Lena put her head down. It upset her to think that Lux would automatically assume something was wrong and that Lena didn't just want to talk about something casual. Or to just talk at all. Still the woman tried to smile, "Oh nothing's wrong. Mrs. Davis actually came to see me today. She thought I should know that you came to her office… to change your schedule?" she asked as more of a question. It was obvious that she wanted to know more about it.
"Yeah," Lux answered. "I just wanted to switch a few of my teachers. I couldn't pay attention to some of them. I think it was the way they were teaching. I wasn't like retaining any of the information."
"Oh," Lena replied. "Do you need a tutor? I was actually a teacher before I was the vice principal. I can help you with your algebra or literature, science even."
"No," Lux was quick to answer. "Thanks but Mrs. Davis already changed my schedule and I have a feeling I'll do much better now. It's early in the semester so I don't think it'll effect my grades or anything. Seriously, I'm fine," she answered.
"Okay," Lena said. "Well the offer still stands."
"Thanks," Lux finished as she watched Lena walk back toward the refrigerator.