Checkmate

With Raven by my side, I walk into our English class. We sit down in the front, so we don’t have to hear anything that the jerks towards the back are most likely going to say. That, and I don’t want any of those sluts around Mr. Gaskarth. Wait. What? I don’t know what’s going on in my mind. My short friend gives me questioning look, but I wave it off. There are still some things that I can hide from her. Mr. Gaskarth walks into the room and eyes Raven. I don’t know what I see in his caramel eyes, but it almost looks like anger. He goes up to the whiteboard and starts to write with the black marker.
Writing Assignment
As soon as everyone knows that he’s writing, they groan. The brunet teacher chuckles from their reaction, and I swear I feel something. Mr. Gaskarth turns around to face us with a smirk on his devilishly handsome face. Damn. I’m still thinking like this. What’s going on with me? It’s like he’s drawing me in with his charm. It’s worse than yesterday. Don’t worry, Jack. This isn’t weird. You just have a crush on your new teacher. It’ll pass in time.
“It’s not that bad,” Mr. Gaskarth tells them. “I just want to see how you all write and what level everyone is on. This is probably going to be the easiest thing all year. In fact, you can write about whatever you want, well, as long as it’s school appropriate. You can write an essay, a song, a story, anything that you want. Plus, I’m giving you today in class to start. Tomorrow, I’ll be giving you your first book that we will be reading. Oh, I almost forgot. It seems that we have another new student in our class. Why don’t you tell us your name and what you like.”
“Um, well, my name is Raven, and I like hanging with my best friend.”
Mr. Gaskarth doesn’t look too happy about her answer for some reason, but he continues on with the class. I don’t know if it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but I swear that he was looking at just me when the other students weren’t looking. I kept getting that feeling that I was being watched, and every time that I looked up from my paper, I saw him quickly putting his head down to read the book on his desk. It continued like this the whole period.
When the bell finally rings, I am so happy to just get up and leave because I honestly don’t know what’s going on with me. Is it really that I just have a crush on my teacher? That’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s just that it’s pretty big for only knowing him for two days. I wait until everyone else is already out of the classroom besides Mr. Gaskarth and Raven. I get up from my seat and start to walk out with my brunette friend, but a voice stops me.
“Jack, can I talk to you for a second?”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn my head towards him. “Um, sure.” I turn back to Raven. “You can go on without me.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” she whispers. “I don’t like him.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. There is just something about him that’s off.”
“Well, you can wait outside the school then. I’m not going to be long.”
She sighs. “Fine.”
Although not wanting to, Raven leaves the room and out of view. Mr. Gaskarth motions for me to close the door behind him, so I do. Well, it looks like Little Raven is going to get what she wants. I pull up a chair so I’m sitting directly in front of him. No expression is on his face. I don’t really know what to do, so I just look at my hands.
“Don’t worry, Jack,” the teacher speaks. “I didn’t have you come because you’re in trouble. I just wanted to know where you got that black eye from.”
“Is that why you were looking at me during class?”
“Yes, it was. Remember, I told you yesterday that you can talk to me if need to. Did a student do this?”
I shake my head. “No, it, um, it was my dad.”
“I really can’t leave you like this...”
My head sprung up. “Please don’t tell anyone else. This is the first time that he has ever hurt me. It won’t happen again. His anger just got the best of him after I made him upset yet again.”
A sigh falls from the caramel-haired teacher. “I’ll let it go because you asked me. I’m not suppose to do that, but I’ll let it slide just this time. Did all he do was hit you?”
“Well, actually he smashed my only guitar as well. That’s pretty much it. They kind of made up for it though by letting me be friends with Raven. Our families aren’t fighting anymore, so she’s allowed to hang with me again.”
“He smashed your guitar? That’s terrible. I’d probably beat the shi- I mean, crap out of anyone if they did that to one of mine. Although...”
“‘Although’ what?”
“I could let you borrow one of my acoustic ones.”
My eyes widen. “No, you don’t have to do that. I’ll live.”
“I have a ton of them. If you don’t hurt it, you can borrow it.”
“Yeah, but my mom or dad would probably see it.”
“That’s true. Plus, I don’t really just want to let you borrow it for free...” He puts his hand on his chin and thinks. “How about you come over to my place?”
I know that my cheeks are starting to turn red because I can feel a couple of butterflies in my stomach. “Is-Isn’t that like not allowed at all?”
Mr. Gaskarth shrugs. “Yeah, but I would really like to have a chess buddy. I haven’t played against anyone in forever. Besides, it’s allowed if no one finds out.”
“I don’t even know how to play chess.”
“I can teach you. We can play chess for me, and we can jam together for you. We both get what we want. You can tell your parents that you’re hanging with your girlfriend, Raven.”
I don’t know why I say it, but I do. “OK.”
“I’ll put my number in your phone.”
I take it out of my pocket and watch as he inserts the digits. He’s definitely a faster texter than I am. I can see his fingers dance across the screen as he texts himself, so he has my number as well. Mr. Gaskarth gives me my phone back, and I see the name that he put in for himself. “A.W.G.” That’s actually a good idea. If my parents did look at my phone, they might only think I’m breaking the rule of making friends. They wouldn’t even think that it’s my teacher.
Mr. Gaskarth gets up from his seat and starts to pack up all of his stuff. I don’t really know if he wants to say anything else to me, so I stand there for a second. The caramel-haired man just continues grabbing his folders and putting them in his bag. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that that was all he wanted to talk to me about and it’s time for me to leave. I start walking towards the door but stop when I hear his angelic voice again.
“I’ll be waiting for that text. Bye Jack.”
“Bye Mr. Gaskarth.” I open the door, and I’m about to exit the room, but then I remember something that he had said. I turn around to face him. “Oh, and Raven isn’t my girlfriend.”
“She’s not? I just assumed since everyone was talking about how close you two are. Gossip gets around here pretty quickly.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, it does, but yeah, she isn’t my girlfriend. She’s not really my type.”
“Your type?” I almost swear that I see his eyes go a little bit darker.
“Um, yeah. I’m gay. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I quickly run out of the room. What was I thinking? I just came out to my teacher! Who even does that? I don’t know why I did, but... I’m actually happy I did. It kind of feels nice that I’ve told someone besides Raven and my parents. Still, when it comes to this meeting at his place, I have no idea what I’m getting into.

Notes

Mr. Gaskarth is getting pretty close... Hmmmm.
Sorry this took so long. I went to a concert on Friday and then on Saturday, and I didn't have time to update. That, and I was really tired the beginning of this week from it.
Hope ya liked it!