Jan. Week 3: Thursday-Leah invites Nathan in her classroom.

Leah resigned herself and gestured Nathan in, letting the door swing closed behind him with a resigned heaviness. She paused just a beat before flicking the lock, the metallic click echoing around the empty classroom like a gunshot. Her mouth went dry as Nathan walking across the classroom, awkwardly placing his backpack at his feet. He looked straight ahead, but his fidgeting betrayed him; he bounced his leg slightly, fiddled with a loose thread on his jacket, unable to meet her eyes.

"So… what is it this time, Nathan?" Leah tilted her head, trying for stern but landing somewhere between maternal and mortified.

"Uh, I just—I mean, last time, I uh…it was…great I just ummmm I thought about our deal and all and…about what I really wanted." His face was an impressive shade of red, the color climbing from his collar to his forehead. "And I have. I have thought about it. A lot, actually."

She stood there, smoothing down her skirt in anticipation of what he might say. A cold sweat forming, trickling down her spine. Nathan licked his lips, fighting himself.

"Honestly, I want… more. Like, the real thing. With you. Not just…" His gaze flicked to the memory of her kneeling in front of him, then away. "You know. Not just the other stuff." His Deep South, puritan upbringing making the words too awkward to say—but who knew how much filth he had perused on the internet by his age.

"Nathan, we've already crossed more lines than I care to count," she sighed, exasperated and aroused in equal measure. "You blackmailing me to cheat on my fiancé wasn't part of the deal." Leah hoped this argument about her being taken would disarm him. He shrank a little. Leah followed up feeling herself with the advantage.

“Do you want to make me cheat on my fiancé? I am supposed to be getting married this semester Nate.” she gave him the best and biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster.

“Well no…” he paused, hesitated. “But…you already did other stuff. And—and he doesn’t have to know.”

“Sex is serious Nate.” Leah countered. She fought the urge to argue in her mind that sucking her student’s cock was also serious. This was just a mess.

"I know. I'm sorry, it's just—I can't stop thinking about it. Or you." The confession, so raw and unpolished, left Leah off-balance.

"It's not like you haven’t done it before." Nathan's voice was almost a whisper, an accusation and a plea mingled together. "With strangers. On video. Thats…"

“That’s why you are here to begin with…” Leah sighed as she winced at the reminder, but there was nowhere to run. Her classroom remained locked and the day’s lesson plan had no bullet point for this kind of confrontation. "That was a very long time ago," she said, but her protest sounded weak, even to her. "Besides, that was different."

"I…I will be quick. I promise." Nathan said, voice cracking. "I want to do that with you. Here. Just once."

Leah knew it would be quick. And she knew it wouldn’t be just once.

He looked so **** in that instant—awkward and hopeful, like a kid asking for a date to the prom, but instead of flowers, he was clutching her darkest secret.

"This is all insane." Leah muttered and began pacing. She stared at him, silent, until the tension in the air became suffocating. "Did you even bring protection?" She had hoped that this would stall him. The kids learned so much in health class to use protection, she banked on him knowing he needed to use one. And she hoped he wouldn’t have one. A delay—even a day—maybe she would call in sick to avoid his next advance.

Nathan’s eyes went wide. Nathan reached into his front pocket hands shaking, and slowly produced a single condom. He held it up like it was a golden ticket.

"I—I brought one. But…do we…really need it?" he asked, voice barely audible.

"Yes, we really need it," Leah spat, but there was laughter hiding in her scold. "I’m not adding pregnancy to my list of worries, Nathan—besides what if you have something? Did you learn nothing from Health Class?"

She didn’t need to worry about getting pregnant with her IUD but she knew he might not know all that.

He nodded and stood awkwardly, legs nearly buckling as he approached her. She noticed the bulge in his jeans and rolled her eyes so hard she felt dizzy.

"You're serious?" she asked, more to herself than him. He nodded again, his cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

"I’ve never—uh, with anyone. I just—I want my first time to be… special." His eyes darted around the room, then back to her. "And with you, it's…well it seems perfect."

Leah wondered what kind of universe she’d fallen into where she was simultaneously being blackmailed and softened by a virginal declaration. She could have laughed. She almost did.