Honor Student - By Teresa Mummert Page 0,41

grow lightheaded as their words grew muffled and distant. This is not what I had pictured as my happily ever after.

“Emma!” William was shaking me from my sleep.

“What happened?” I rubbed my eyes, noting someone had spashed water on my face.

“Are you narcaleptic?” The Mayor asked, and I wasn’t sure it was an attempt at a joke or if he was genuinly worried.

“No” I sat up and pulled at my shirt. William placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Abby, we didn’t mean ‘get rid of her’ like that.” I could hear his amusement in his words. “We just need to figure out how to make her not come back again and again once she has been paid.” He put his hand on my knee to comfort me. I looked up at the Mayor who was looking back at me as if I was an imbecile.

“Right, well, we need to negotiate terms and have your lawyer speak with her. Are you sure this is about the money and not about some sort of revenge?” He asked, his eyes glued to William.

“No, no. She’s the one who broke my heart, remember?” William shook his head at the idea.

“Yea, I know. I just needed to make sure their was nothing else that would come out later.” He stood up and William rose from the couch. “Should be a pretty straight forward arrangement. Are you sure you want to pay her off? You could always let her say what she wants. It’s not like you need the teaching job.” William ran his hands through his hair and nodded.

“You know I can’t let this come out. I would never hear the end of it from my father.”

“I’ll help as much as I can. I owe you that much.” Stephen replied, holding out his hand. The shook and the mayor nodded at me politely before leaving. William followed after him and locked the door.

“You could have warned me that you had company!” I smacked him playfully on the arm.

“You could have warned me that you passed out so easily. Had that happened in the bedroom I would have thought I killed you.” He joked, but I knew I had genuinly scared him.

“Sorry” I looked down at the ground wishing it would swallow me whole. William stepped closer to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his chest.

“Can I ask you something?” I mummbled into his chest. He took a deep breath.

“Ask away.” I had so many guestions running through my mind but I didn’t know if it was appropriate for me to ask.

“What did you do for the mayor that he feels he owes you?” I looked up at him and he smiled.

“If it wasn’t for me he would have never made it through college. I tutored him, helped keep him on track.” He hugged me a little tighter and I smiled back at him.

“Here I thought you helped him bury a hooker or something.” I joked. He let out a deep hearty laugh.

“No, the dead hookers didn’t start to pile up until after he became mayor.” I slapped him playfully on the chest and bit my lip. I had a million more questions.

“Where are you going to come up with the kind of money she is asking for on a teacher’s salary?” I asked. He sighed and let go of me, running his hands through his messy hair.

“My father. In fact, he is the reason she and I didn’t last in the first place.” He shook his head and the hurtful memory. “Abby started turtoring me senior year. I was more into hanging out with my friends and getting in trouble. I dind’t take my grades seriously. One night on thing lead to another. I’ll spare you the details but my father found out that we were seeing each other. He went to Abby and offered her money to stay away from me.” His eyes looked sad as he stared off into the distance. “She took it and never looked back. To add insult to injury she began flaunting some new guy around town. Everywhere I went I saw them together. It wasn’t until college when she called me and begged for me to come see her. We dated for a few months.” He looked down at the floor, “ We ran off to vegas on a whim and got married. Everything was perfect again until I found out my father had paid her. She begged for me to stay with her but