Overneath the Path of Misinterpretation (Alvis Alendran&Malicious Lullaby)

It was a warm dream filled with more warmth, comfort and strong arms around her. Oh, it wasn’t a dream, it was reality. This was a reality she could get used to. For however long she was allotted of course, after all, all good things must come to an end. Mallory was simply counting down the time. Until then though, she’d really enjoy. As if each day was the end. For now, she slept and she slept a lot better than she had in a really long time.

It seemed all too quick, sleep and then that less than longing tap to her shoulder. She decided it had been from a dream that wanted to nag her awake. So she ignored it until she felt warm lips against hers. Now that was plenty enough for her to rise, her eyes opening and seeing the gloriously naked Adonis right beside her. Crap, it must be four. A small groan came from her and she sat up slowly, her eyes skimming over him and then catching sight of the clock. It was a few minutes past four and that would not do, not when she had an entire routine. “Crap!” She bounded from the bed, still half asleep, threw her clothes on and was about to high tail out of the room when she forgot something. Rounding back to Harrison, Amy pressed a good morning kiss to his lips and smiled. “Thank you, and good morning, Mr. Trenton.” With that said, she bounded from the room, hurrying to her own quarters. She had to get showered asap. And a warm shower seemed like an ideal one since her body was a bit cold inside and out. First waking up after all.

The night whizzed by but as the passing hours went on, the more relaxed and rejuvenated Esther felt. Then her alarm clock went off and even though she had passed out rather early, she didn’t want to wake. She felt the affects of yesterday hit her as she rose from her sleep. Everywhere on her body was sore and it felt like it took all the strength she had just to rise from her bed. She managed though and went straight for a shower, of course after silencing the damning sound of her alarm clock. Too early in the morning for loud rock. Give her an hour though…

After her shower, Esther rubbed her hand over the foggy glass to reveal her reflection. She had a towel wrapped in her hair Carmen Miranda style and another towel wrapped around her body like it was a strapless dress. What her eyes zeroed in on were the many red marks on her neck and shoulder. Holy hell, she looked like she just survived some kind of something but her skin took the brunt of it all. That thought made her snort since the one area that took the brunt of it all was in between her legs, feeling all nice and sore and tender. It made her smile though. That was a sure good sign of wonderful sex. She had a moment where the images of her sexual conquests from one day played back in her mind. It made her cheeks flush and caused her to look at herself in the mirror. She felt like a new woman. No, just a woman who finally got her some. And then some. And then some more.

Esther hurried with her dressing, choosing a fitted white button down with black polka dots and black leggings, boots to go along with her choice, she tied her hair up into a messy bun and then stared at herself in the mirror. She could either wear a scarf or cover up the marks. She wasn’t feeling the scarf since she’d feel to suffocated so she grabbed her foundation and started dabbing and rubbing in. In the end, she saw what her neck looked like without marks. Wow, that was a huge difference in fact. But it solved the problem. That was when she finally went out of her room and was about to call out for Mallory when at the last moment, she realized she was in the apartment, on her own, by herself, no roommate. Which reminded her, she needed to put out an ad asap and find a new roommate. She couldn’t afford the rent on her own.

Soon, she was leaving her apartment with her school bag and her lunch bag that had her lunch as well as her breakfast which she figured she could eat on the way or eat ten minutes before she opened her classroom door. She had a thermos in hand as well and was soon driving to school, to preoccupied to notice gray clouds, no sun and the faintest sprinkles on her windshield. By the time she arrived to school, the sprinkling turned into little pitter-patters and by the time she got out of her car, well unfortunately it started to full on rain. To say she high tailed it and trying to keep herself covered with her hands was an understatement. But by the time she was inside, she wasn’t very dry. Her hair was wet, her clothes were wet, even her skin was wet. She wiped her neck and pushed her matted hair off of it when she saw the foundation on her skin. Her eyes widened and for some reason she felt she should rub more, feeling like if she rubbed more, it’d spread the foundation. But it made things worse. It took the foundation off exposing what she had been trying to cover.

Esther hurried towards her classroom. The halls weren’t filled with students, yet. She had to do damage control. On her neck!
 
Alex was early to school, as usual. He liked the quiet before the mob arrived. And Miss Martin had never given him any trouble for being around early. And besides, it was raining out, and that always put him in a strangely chipper mood. Miss Martin had been in high spirits since her return, and he'd been thrilled she'd beaten the charge from Donny. What an ass. He entered the room, and then just stared as he saw Esther at her desk. her neck was covered in what looked a lot like...hickeys.
"Miss Martin? What happened?" He asked without announcing himself. He took a few more steps towards her, getting a good look at her.

James sighed, then smirked as he watched his co-worker steal a drink of his coffee. She almost spit it out.
"God James! It tastes like a monkey peed in battery acid! What do you put in this stuff?" She asked.
"No idea. I just turn on the pot in the morning." James answered.
"You are out of your mind. Go make a pot of the good stuff." James was out of the office in seconds. As he walked, he realized that he was near Esther's classroom. He thought to drop in on her. He heard a student in the room talking to her, and then knew that he wouldn't be able to see about stealing Esther away for a quickie. He peered in to see what was going on.
 
In that very moment, as she unlocked her classroom door and walked inside, Esther wished she had snagged some kind of sheer scarf just to tie artfully around her neck, let it drape and then it’d hide the ungodliness that was her neck—albeit a delicious reminder of a cherry-on-top-of-a-fantastic Sunday. Putting both of her bags down on top of her desk, she pulled a little compact out of her personal bag and held it up, eyeing the damage to her neck. She cringed at the sight of it. It was very noticeable and she heaved a deep sigh, before squeaking a bit in surprise when she heard a voice. Turning, she snapped her compact shut, her eyes landing on Alex. She inwardly groaned. It couldn’t be a freshman. It had to be a senior. And one of hers.

“Hi Alex.” Her free hand consciously went to her neck and she smiled an uneasy smile. “Bee stings. Who would have know, I’m apparently deathly allergic!” And a terrible liar. You’d fail epically as a lawyer… Her subconscious sneered and she mentally cringed. This was not how her morning was supposed to go. The universe hated her. Otherwise they wouldn’t have made it rain. “How was your weekend?” She asked quickly as a way to change the subject. She also moved and peeled her wet sweater off of her body but a quick glance downwards had her stopping. And she had to wear white of all days too! She pulled the wet material back on and was hastily buttoning it to hide the see-through-ness that was her white button down. Grabbing her day folder out of her school bag, she opened to the first period tab and grabbed an expo marker, beginning to write on the board. And this way no one would notice her cheetah or leopard skin.
 
Alex stepped a bit closer as she did what she could to change the subject.
"Um...Miss Martin, if they were bee stings, adn you were allergic, you'd be in the hospital for like, two weeks. They, um...kinda look like..." He was trailing off when James spoke up from the doorway.
"Hickey's boy." James said languidly. He strode intot eh room. "Come on now boy, it's nothin' ye havnae seen before." Alex looked at the ground a moment, nodding, before looking back up. James reached out, adn touched one of the more vivid marks on her neck. "And that one's mine." He supplied, stepping out of striking distance, in case Esther wanted to brain him. And if she did...well, maybe he could entice her into some rage-fuelled sex. That was always fun! Of course it might also result in a rage-fuelled murder.
 
She was in the middle of writing a sentence when she suddenly stopped. Her eyes closed and she sighed a deep sigh of dread. Couldn’t he just drop it? She wanted to throttle him or tell him to get the fuck out. He wasn’t helping her morning! But no, she didn’t, so instead she turned to him, about to speak when she heard a familiar voice with that god-sexy accent. Oh god… Her eyes landed on James and she braced herself for something. Anything, that just might be snarky, witty or downright inappropriate enough that she could roll her eyes at.

Swallowing hard, she capped the marker and held it tightly in her hand, watching him like a hawk. So when his finger touched her neck, she remained impassive until her eyes widened and looked like they could bulge out of her eyes. It just got worse… “You a---“ She chucked the marker at him, fuming. “Excuse me Alex.” She slammed her day folder down and it made a loud sound, a really loud sound before she stomped towards James. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him out of the classroom where she shoved him against the wall. “Please tell me, what I ever did to you in a past life to have warranted that? And in front of my student!”
 
James smiled at Esther. She was cute when she was angry. Though he knew better than to point it out to her.
"Come on now lass! Boy's a big lad. He knows yer human. And he definitely knows you're a woman. And a woman has needs, same as anyone else. Hell, he'll probably love you all the more now that he knows you've had a wild night or two!" James said calmly. He honestly didn't see this as a big deal. It wasn't as though there was a video of it, showing Esther being double teamed by himself and Aaron. They'd deleted that. He paused, thinking. Had he purged the backups? He didn't remeber. He'd have to check. But that was not something he felt like bringing up at this precise moment. Esther looked ready to go apoplectic on him, and that would really only aggravate the situation. He leaned forward, putting his face close to hers. "And now lass, I'm askin' ye to let me shirt go. 'less ye plan to do something about havin' me this close, adn all to ye self."
 
Her eyes narrowed and she pushed her hand into him even more, as if wanting to inflict some pain. If only her hand was wrapped around his neck, then she could really do some damage. Like maybe kill him. But then that’d be a waste and she didn’t quite fancy going to jail. She wasn’t the kind to do hard time and she didn’t really want to become someone’s bitch. Because she would. She had ‘bitch’ written all over her.
“I don’t exactly need my students to know that their teacher is still capable of getting some. Considering I did almost get fired for coming onto a student.” She grumbled. “And I certainly didn’t need to let anyone know just who I bumped uglies with.”
He didn’t need to ask twice but she didn’t really want to let him go. They say angry sex is quite divine…Esther let his shirt go and she stepped back from him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Not right this moment, no but come find me during lunch.” With a bit of a smile, she turned from him and went back into her classroom. “Sorry about that Alex. Some of the men that work at this school are just truly incompetent. I don’t know how they get hired.” And she hoped James was around to hear that little bit. “So, I believe you were in the middle of telling me about your weekend?” Just like that, Esther recovered well enough and went back to writing up the agenda, homework and the daily journal.
 
Alex watched Esther come back inside, and swore he could hear whistling coming from the hallway. Was James...? He turned back to Esther.
"Um...it was a weekend Miss martin, notinhg much ahppened. Not goin to lie, it sounds like your weekend was a lot more exciting..." He trailed off, not really sure where he could go with this whole line of conversation, other than delving into her personal life. Which meant she would tell him. Even if he was a good student that had talked to her a lot before this, it still wouldn't be enough to get into her life, he was sure of that. Which, if he was being honest, he wouldn't have minded. Along James' line of thinking, Alex would have enjoyed spending some time with his teacher in a more...personal setting, though he knew that wasn't going to happen. Not after Donny.
 
Her lips twitched in suppressing a smile as she finished writing the journal entry prompt on the board before dating it. She capped the marker and sat down at her desk where she took her breakfast out, just a peanut butter and banana sandwich with a thermos full of tea. She took one half and took a bite before placing it back down. Though she stopped mid-chew as Alex spoke and swallowed a little difficultly. “Oh…it was nothing out of the ordinary. Kicked my roommate out and went away for the weekend. I’m sure that kind of stuff happens all the time, hmm?” She finished that with taking another bite of her sandwich. It’s not like she was lying really. She was just withholding the more juicier details of what she did while she went away.
 
Alex pointed at her neck a little timidly.
"So...that's pretty typical for you then Miss Martin?" he paused after he spoke. He straightened up. "Wow, that's...kind of cool actually." He pondered a moment. He had all kinds of thoughts on what She might have been doing to earn marks like that. He stopped, adn looked at her, a thought occurring to him. "If...that one is James..." He pointed at one of the marks. "...how many other people did there have to be to leave that many marks?" He asked, eye going a little wide.

James made the coffee. It was only right after all. He'd made an appointment that he planned ot keep, Esther was likely handling the student pretty well, and he felt a lot better. If he felt like this when he went home, he might even dig out one of the good clocks for tomorrow, wsince he'd be less likely to smash it apart. Nodding, he brought three cups of coffee with him. He walked into Esther's class, not speaking a word, winking at her, and left one of the good coffee's on her desk. He returned to the office.
 
Her hand came up to her neck consciously and she smiled a nervous smile, her cheeks coloring red quite a bit. She shook her head immediately but then it kept getting worse and he wouldn’t stop. She didn’t want to snap at him but she didn’t want to delve either. That was incredibly inappropriate and god forbid if the principal decided to pay her a visit. That would be really bad. But if she shut down Alex, it’d mean she’d be shutting down this open door policy with her students. She loved it when they would come to talk to her randomly during the day. It meant they never forgot her. So what was she to do? “If you know the answer, do you need to ask?” Since if James had only one mark so easy to make out, it was clear the other marks came from other men. Did she really need to spell that one out? If so, that was just mean.
And the coffee couldn’t have come sooner. She took it and took a big sip. Because if this was the kind of inquisition she’d have to go through, she’d need to be quick, calm and alert.
 
"um...wow. Okay then Miss Martin!" Alex sat down, shaking his head, not sure exactly how to process this. His teacher had been involved in a seriously wild night. Or nights. Man, that was strange! He'd never have thought of her like that! But then, she was pretty. More than that really. So it wasn't a surprise really, when he thought about it. She was young, and should really have her pick of guys if she wanted them. He knew that if she'd picked him, he'd never think twice. He rubbed his own neck, thinking what it might be like to be able to leave a mark like that on her. He felt himself stirring at the thought, an winced. Not the kind of thinking that he needed to be having right now.

He winced again. Wow, exactly what might it sound like if he asked that now? But he did need to ask. He really did. He took a deep breath.
"Um...Miss Martin? I know I should have led with this, instead of of going after the neck questions, but..." He took another breath. "The writer's club was going to hold a meeting at you place towards weeks end so we could still hold one. You agreed before the whole Donny thing, and I was supposed to ask if that was still okay...?" He trailed off, adn then put his face on the desk a second. Gods he felt like an idiot,
 
Esther had to hide back an amused grin. She seemed to have stumped him there and the part of her that was still a high school student felt a bit of pride in it because it made him back off just a little bit. He got the answer he wanted in a sort of way and she didn’t exactly really confirm or deny anything, but sort of put him at ease. Because he had his mind made up about it already and she wasn’t going to deny it but neither would she blatantly speak of the things she did last night. No student of hers needed to know.
She ate her breakfast rather happily now, able to swallow bites without feeling like it was a taxing effort just to do so and keep the food down in her uneasy nerves.
Taking a sip of her coffee, washing down the peanut butter sandwich, Esther glanced to him and nodded her head slowly before her eyebrows rose and her eyes widened just a tad. Oh shit, she totally forgot about that. Everything with Donny, Chad, Mallory and now this weekend, it totally slipped her mind. But she did make a deal and she wasn’t about to go back on her word. But seeing Alex embarrassed to ask after everything did please her. The sadistic part of her that truly did enjoy torturing her students.

“Of course.” She smiled. “I’ll send out emails to all the members to remind them and include a set time for all to show up, as well as address and directions.” She smiled, a joke coming to mind. “And to remind you all not to forget your brains since we’re going to get them into gear with writing.” She said it so excitedly even though it really wasn’t a joke. It was really lame. And the crickets in her classroom—metaphorically—were obvious. Clearing her throat, she laughed a little nervously and started on the second half of her sandwich. “Does that sound good?”
 
Alex sighed, and nodded. He leaned back in his chair, and started getting his work out, doing some of it in advance so he'd have more time to goof around in class. He was distracted anyway. He'd be in Esther Martin's apartment. And if the writer's club history was any judge, he'd be the last one to leave. Putting him alone with her. After all, she'd said she kicked out her room mate. He swallowed, and focused more on his work.

The week rolled by, with people going about their days...and nights in some cases. Hrothgar spent more than a few nights keeping Mallory close to him, and while Harrison returned to his apartment to be more effective at work, he would still find teh time one day or so a week to make the trip to estate to relax. Amy seemed very appreciative of this.

After school on Friday, several hours after, the writers club chattered as they approached the home of Esther Martin. Alex knocked soundly, and sighed. Big day was here. As the group turned away to check their things, he snuck a sip out of a flask to steady his nerves.
 
The days went by easier. Mallory felt more safe each time she was with Hrothgar and the each time she spent the night with him, tucked safely to his side and cuddled to him, her worries eased away. She had also gone to her first meeting with a therapist. It didn’t seem like it was helping considering she felt so embarrassed to talk about it all. But her therapist, a Dr. Schroba was very patient with her and encouraged her to talk but when she was ready. To which Mallory was thankful. It was Friday now and she finally spoke today. She started small and told her about how it was working for a different lawyer in the firm. A female lawyer.

Friday night came along and Esther spent a good deal of her afternoon when classes were done and her office hours were done, making sure she had enough refreshments, enough space and lots of clear area. She was expecting about ten to twenty students in her apartment. She wanted to accommodate for all of them. She had little game ideas in mind, exercises they would do and then they’d each all present a little snippet or excerpt from a creative writing piece they were working on, which would let her see progress and just how the cogs in their brain worked. That was the part she was most excited for.

When things were ready, she smoothed the hem of her shirt down and sighed softly. She wore what she wore at school that day, a winter green long sleeved turtleneck and jeans. Since make up seemed to be a problem, she figured she’d be safe with a turtleneck. After all, James decided to keep being James. It had been a week. The old marks faded. New marks sprouted in their place. She really had to stop calling him or responding to his calls.
The sound of a knock pulled her out of her mental reverie. Just in time. Going to the door, she opened it and smiled at the throng of students. “Welcome to Casa de Martin.” She stepped out of the way to let them all in, motioning towards the couch and chairs she had set up. And so it began!
 
Alex and the others all thanked her for hosting them, and moved inside, taking their seats. The place was pretty big. Alex was impressed that Esther could afford it.
"So, what do we open with first?" Alex asked the group.
"Sarah wanted to go with her poetry, right Sarah?" A shy girl blushed, but nodded. She lifted a page, and cleared her throat twice.
"Relax. We've all done this. Just read what you have." Alex encouraged her. Sarah took a deep breath, and started to talk. And holy hell did she talk! Gone was the shynes in her voice. She had a deep, rich alto toned voice, and it lent inflection to what she was saying. Alex stared at her, jaw open. SHe was good. Very good. It reminded him of some of the classics that he'd read. Gods, she was going places if she could keep this out. Gods, an honest to Baldur poet! In this day and age! She spoke for nearly four minutes before stopping. Then she blushed, adn sat down.
"That's all I have right now..." SHe muttered. The group applauded her.
 
Esther smiled her smiles and nodded her head. It wasn’t much to host their club at her home and she was honestly more than happy to comply. If anything, she was just there to keep an eye on them, maybe give her two cents here and there but Alex was the one who ran the show. But since it was a school matter, a teacher needed to be involved and it wasn’t a chore. Esther enjoyed this. She got to see the future minds of the following generations to come in play. What was better than that?
Grabbing her diet soda, she sat down on an arm rest and crossed a leg over the other and she watched, listened and soon her jaw was kissing the carpeted floor. The potential some of these kids and the things they could do. She clapped along with the rest of them and smiled to the rather shy Sarah. “Sweetheart, that was beautiful and very wonderfully done. You’ve every reason to be proud.” Esther encouraged warmly. She meant it too.

Taking a sip of her soda, she looked around. “Who’s next? Come on, don’t be afraid. So Sarah set the bar high. You guys can totally kick butt. No one be shy.” She wanted to say if Sarah could do it, then anyone can but she refrained. Her eyes surveyed the students and landed directly on a duo, Kip and his sister Danni. They were a wonderful duo, bouncing off of each other really well. Kip was a senior and Danni a sophomore. It was always a treat to watch them, they did monologues or little skits in which a witty dialogue was always written between them, inspired by real life home situations, of the everyday brother and sister ‘rivalry.’ She often died of laughter watching.

"You two. Go." She grinned.
 
Danni looked hesitant.
"I...I don't know..." SShe mumbled. Alex snapped his fingers.
"Someone said it! Fortify your nerves people!" He declared. Half of the people pulled out a flask, and tipped a drink out of it, before passing it to their left. Everyone besides Esther grabbed it, and drank, then stowing it.
"Miss Martin, you're sitting in the cirlce! Someone said I don't know! Everyone has to take a drink!" Kip announced, pointing to the still held out flask.

Alex was wondering if he should say something about his situation. But no. He'd chair the meeting. He liked doing it really. It was...fun. Not a lot of work, but it was always enjoyable. Though he was concernec about Esther. She could decide that she had a big problem with this whole drinking thing, and then they'd all be in trouble. After all she was their teacher.
 
Her jaw once more kissed the floor but not because of some amazing presentation. But because underage students, her students, all whipped out flasks that she knew immediately by the potency in the smell that it was alcohol. They passed it around like it was nothing and right in the middle of her apartment. She almost dropped her soda because she was so shocked by this development. When did this happen?
Part of her wanted to jump up and just take the flasks out, confiscate them and make them promise not to do it again and she won’t tell the principal. The other part of her, the part that was responsible for these kids decided it’d be in their best interest to let them do as they pleased. If she said no, they’d find a way to do it anyways. And at least they were in the safe confines of her apartment to be able to drink and she was keeping an eye on them. Since it was in privacy, why the hell not? But she taking part? Now she wasn’t sure on that. “I don’t know Kip. It’s bad enough that you all are drinking and I am pretty sure none of you are twenty-one.” She raised her eyebrows at them all, letting them think that they just got into a lot of trouble right now.

“But I’m letting it slide. If I were to partake however…” She trailed off, once more letting them think the worst. She wasn’t sure if she should. It was Friday but one sip of the flask wouldn’t hurt. “…at least it’d be legal.” She muttered finally before taking the held out flask and taking the tiniest of swigs. Her face contorted to something of disgust before swallowing and she sighed a content sigh. They were right, it really did help with nerves. But she knew this already with wine. “Alright, put the flasks away. It’s time to get serious.” Esther said while handing the flask back to Kip. “Kip and Danni, show us what you got. And don’t either of you dare say ‘I don’t know.’” She warned.
 
Kip raised a hand.
"Somebody said it! Everybody drink!" The flasks came back out, and a swig was taken. They still passed to teh left, and it was becoming clear that not everyone had the same booze. The one that was passed to Esther smelled more like scotch than the last one. Not a great one, but better than the rotgut she'd been passed last time. Danni nodded, and stood up, Kip coming after her.
"We can't start until you take the drink Miss Martin. Club rules for the Friday meetings." Danni pointed out with a grin. They all looked like at the very least they were enjoying themselves.

Chet, one of the smaller people in the group was going over his notes, trying to pick out a piece. Oh, he had some good ones, and he had a few that weren't fit for public consumption. But he kept everything in the same folder. It was all his work after all. And he wanted to keep it all together.
 
Her hand came to her forehead in a face-palm, in dismay, because she was the one who technically said it even if she didn’t say it in the context that they were all used to. Fucking technicalities. She wanted to throttle something or someone but instead, like a proper sport, she took the flask handed to her. Taking a sip, a small one, she made a face before swallowing, the liquid burning down her throat. It was actually a pretty nice one but left a taste in her mouth she wasn’t exactly fond of. She took a sip of her soda as a chaser and then nodded to the group. “Please, proceed.” Cheeky students they were, and Danni suddenly didn’t seem so shy anymore. Of course.

The piece the brother and sister duo presented was a skit, properly written with a lot of instances of dry humor and overall wonderful humor. It was a parody of the time when Danni apparently switched the sugar with salt when Kip was baking a cake for their mother, for her birthday and the resulting argument that ensued when Kip found out what his sister did. It was both pleasing and shocking to see how both of them seemed to come out of their shell. It was even more enjoyable for Esther because it allowed her to see just what her students were really up to outside of the classroom, seeing them in a different light. Alcohol and all…
 
"I gotta admit, I was kinda worried about doing this here." Chet admitted. Kip waved him down.
"Nah, Miss Martin is cool. Told she would be. What did you think she'd do, go all super authority on us?" Kip asked. Chet shrugged.
"I don't kno-FUCK!" Chet cursed, face in hands.
"Everybody drinks!" Alex announced, taking a swing, and grimacing. That was the rotgut. The flask that came to Esther was rum. Bicardi. Bicardi 151. "And Chet, I think you're up next." The young man growled, and shifted. A set of papers fell out of his folder, and Alex caught them. He smiled, and read a few lines. His face fell, and he handed it back. "Yeah, don't read that one."

Kip cocked his head, curious now. They'd all read some embarassing stuff in the past, why would Alex be suggesting that this one not be read? It just didn't make sense. He looked at Danni. There was a beginning of a plan to see what was on that page beginning to form.
 
Esther looked between both boys when Kip and Danni finished, following the applause. She wiped her eyes since she did laugh a little too much that it made her cry a bit. She sipped her soda and raised a brow. So they all thought she was cool enough that they could get away with underage drinking at her place? She was flattered and also worried that they might think her a pushover. But for right now, she’d revel in the flattery of their words and smiled warmly. Her students were awesome.
And then of course the infamous line was spoken and she rolled her eyes. Since when did she become apart of this? She wasn’t a student. Just an ‘innocent’ bystander. After taking a sip from the flask handed to her, she nearly gagged and had to wash her mouth with her soda, she handed it away and then cleared her throat. “Why do I need to take part in this drinking game going on? I’m the teacher, you’re the students. Shouldn’t it just be among you all?”

When Chet stood and his papers flew about, even she was curious as to why Alex advised for him not to read that one. “Now now, we’re all friends here. What you say here, stays here. Especially if you don’t want anyone else to read. I stand by this pact. Now, Chet, don’t hesitate to read whatever you like. There’s no judgment. Besides, I’m curious as to why Alex decided you shouldn’t read whatever it is.” She waved her hand absently to the ‘forbidden’ document. “Go on, read. Otherwise…you fail.” She grinned. She wasn’t abusing her power and she really wouldn’t fail him if he didn’t oblige, but he didn’t know that.
 
Chet set his mouth in a firm line. Alex waved a hand. Chet stood up, squaring his shoudlers.
"Chet, dude, you don't have to do this man." He said quickly. Chet grabbed a flask.
"No. They want to hear it? Fine. Let 'em hear it. They apparently want to." He pointed the flask at Alex. "I don't know why." He took a swig, and passed the flask. The rest of them did likewise, though this rather...intesnse feeling off of Chet was a bit...unnerving to be honest. He shook out his shoudlers, adn lifted the pages. When he spoke, it was with a calm, deliberate cadence to his voice.

"As her knees snapped she let out the kind of scream one hears when a belt sander breaks. I leaned on the crowbar, relishing the was she tugged on the straps binding her wrists to the stainless steel table. Each purple bruise was like a love mark from hell.

She was beyond praying or screaming for Gods mercy. Now her cries merely sprayed blood from her mouth. Her vocal chords had ruptured somewhat during the night.

The crowbar had perforated her skin, and now I could hear the dripping blood from her kneecaps pattering wetly ont he concrete floor.

Without thinking about it, my hand wrapped around the handle of my hunting knife, eight inches of razor-sharp steel. Soon I'd plunge it in." Chet looked back up at the group as he finished. There was dead silence. Kip raised a flask.
"I don't know where that came from!" He took a heavy slug out of the flask, teh rest of the club doing the same, passing them around.
 
Esther rest her elbow on the top of her knee that was crossed over the other and she leaned over, intent to listen and interested. She took a swig from the flask, a large one since something told her she’d need a bigger gulp than she had been taking and a small cough came from her after swallowing. She didn’t wash the taste away with her soda. Instead, her eyes trained on Chet and she too noticed the difference in the way he carried himself and his behavior. Then he began to read and she had wished she didn’t make him read it. The resulting reaction? Silence and wide eyes. Her jaw didn’t kiss the floor. No, instead she worried about Chet and wondered if she should talk to him and see exactly where that bit came from. Whether it was just imaginary or some scary fantasy he wanted to live out. God, she hoped there wouldn’t be a massacre at the school in the years to come…

When the flask came to her, Esther took a really big gulp, several of them, draining the flask nearly dry when she passed it on, a some couple or three big sips left. She covered her mouth and stood. “Well then…” She hiccupped a little bit and covered her mouth. “That was certainly something Chet. You’ve…quite an imaginative mind there.” She was tempted to direct him to the school counselor but refrained. Ideas. She needed ideas. Something to change the mood of the current group after that. Maybe take a break from the sharing and onto a different activity to once more bring the playfulness back into the group. “How’s about a game of charades?” She asked. “Just an easy going game to alleviate.” She nodded her head and waved her hands in a motion for them to get on with it and as they all scrambled to do so, she cleared her throat. “Chet, may I speak with you?” She arched a finger towards him, beckoning him to follow her as she moved in a bit of privacy to the small hall of her apartment to speak with him.

She was suddenly thankful for their little drinking game.
 
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