The Payne Of Love

'This isnt enough' she thought to herself. 'I know I cant ever really be with him.. but.. I've got to do something.. find someone else to occupy my mind..'



She slept in comfort again that night after her liasons with her imaginary teacher.
The beginning of the day was as normal, she did art in her spare periods, and doodled through her philosophy lessons, but at lunch something fairly unexpected happened.

"Who the fuck told Mr Hill I was skipping those lessons!" Emmy's vile voice spilled onto her face.

Aislinn felt her head get slammed against the locker block again, and felt a cool trickle, down her cheek, which made tears well up in her eyes.

The lower year kids just stood in awe as they waited in the lunch line

'Why the fuck isnt anyone getting a teacher' She thought to herself 'Holy shit, Im going to die.'

"I WONT FUCKING ASK AGAIN."

Bam, her head hit the cold metal a fourth time.

"Michael! Fucking, Michael told him." She whimpered out.

"Right." Emmy said, with a final blow against the locker, she and her two little blonde accomplices, rampaged off, probably to find Michael.

It was then that Aislinn was helped up by two larger rough male hands.

"Jesus.. they knocked you up good." He said, and helping her they limped off to the medical room, well, it was more of a closet really.

She could barely see from blood trickling into her eyes, but she knew it was him, purely from his voice and manner.

He dabbed at her forehead with a patch of cotton.

"Why didnt you call for help?" He asked.

She managed to get out "I didn't have much of a chance.. " She paused and looked down "Besides.. I would've thought with all the people there that there was.. someone might've had the instinct to actually go get someone.."

"Well someone came and got me.."

"..When it was over, yeah.. Man.. I thought all this kind of shit- Sorry.. I thought this kind of stuff wouldn't happen in sixthform.."

"Well.. I doubt she'll be in sixthform much longer."

"Yeah.." She looked up into his deep eyes, with a solemn look, quickly noticing she was almost staring, she looked back down "Thanks.." She muttered.

He applied a patch to the cut above her eye.

"C'mon, I'll get you a tea from the cafeteiria and you can sit in the tech room for a little while, to calm down, we'll have a chat. Im not on duty this lunch or anything so, you're welcome to sit in there."

She nearly jumped at the chance.

"..Ok, thanks.." She said, in a fake reluctancy.

They walked back to the technology department, and he held the door open for her. They walked past Mr Thomas, who looked up but didnt really acknowledge them.

They went into the back classroom and he pulled out two stalls opposite to each other.

"What was she angry at you for?" He asked.

"Michael, myself and a few others skipped a General studies lesson and Mr Taylor got really pis- annoyed, and we made a point to Mr Hill that she hadn't been to any of them."

He nodded.

"You gave up media at Stow?"

"Oh, yeah." She bit her lip, "I didnt like psychology here so I changed it for media here. Not much point doing two courses of media. Y'know."

Secretly she was loving this, every moment, just sitting there chatting with him, his attention focused solely on her.. well, and the tea.

"Shame. We could've got to know each other a lot better." He laughed.

She looked up at him alerted.

"Calm down." He said. "You look up like that and the blood will will just gush out of your head again."

'Dammit' she thought. His smile was so damn sexy.

"So what'd you take instead?"

"The other art."

"Oh yes, you're an art student aren't you? I often see you in here, bothering Mr Elliot for something."

"Well, theres a reason I didnt take tech." She smiled, and brushed some hair out of her face. "Im not good at it."

"Oh I dont know, I saw your year nine candleholder."

"You did?" She asked unsure of how to react. "I liked it.. only, all I made was the base and the actual candle cups.. Mr Thomas did all the metal bending." She inwardly giggled at the thought of Mr Thomas and 'bending' he was an asshole to her and her best friend, he was his form tutor, they always made fun of him. But he was Mr Paynes colleague so she didnt let her laugh come out.

"Your base was unique"

She smiled at this, it was. Everyone else had sanded theres and polished them to look perfectly round with tiers.

But she had chosen a piece of wood that still had some bark on it from an elm tree and had only sanded the back so it still looked natural.

"Yeah." She smiled, "I still have it somewhere. It was a long time ago."

"Well you do quite a lot of stuff in here for your art projects, dont you"

'only because I want to see you' she wanted scream at him but instead opted for the lines "True. I made a water fountain, end of last year. Im quite proud of that. Recently I came in here to make a prototype of a sculpture made from brass, but I cant take credit for that, Mr Elliot cut most of it on the jigsaw and my mate Jack hammered it for me." She smirked.

"Well, your obviously an artist, and not a craftsman."

"I would say the opposite about you if I knew for certain you werent an artist." She replied.

"Fair enough. We've spoken about you, what do you want to know about me?"

She was fairly shocked. The only teacher that ever spoke about their personal life was Mr Schmidt, her philosophy teacher. Well and Ms Humphries, but she hardly paid any attention to what she had to say.

"Forgive me for the cheek, but there was one thing I wanted clearing up" She said with a grimace, looking down and sipping her tea.

"Go on?" He said, hesitantly.

"Well.. theres this rumour about you.."

"Ah yes... I assume the affair thing?"

"Yeah.. Is it? I mean.. did you?"

"Unfortunately yes. My wife and I.. were never really close, and we didnt have any children, we had married because we were comfortable with each other. But with Charlotte.. that is the name of the teacher it was with.. I dont think she was here in your time.."

She shook her head in agreeance. "Well.. I think I loved her. But.. well, all good things come to an end, as they say, and when she got a new job, she moved on."

Aislinn looked at him curiously. "So.. now..?"

"Now Im a bachelor." He laughed. He obviously found it amusing to be saying the words at his age.

She smiled secretly.