The moment I stepped outside the police station, I sprinted off to the hospital. My fear was put to rest when the doctor came out after an hour and told that the wound was not fatal as the bullet had penetrated only flesh and had missed the organs but he also said that it chipped a part of her pelvic bone so she would have a small but permanent limp when she walked. I was allowed to see her soon after.859Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaNcH9iByHL
She was sleeping because of the sedatives. I caressed her soft cheek. She was innocent. She never wronged anyone and in spite of all that, she was the one in pain. At the very least, I was relieved that she was not in any danger. She woke up after a day and the pain was evident in her eyes. I felt useless as I had to go to school after that. I could’ve stayed with her but she demanded that I go to school and I did not want to disobey her. Kelly moved away to Japan with her parents and I didn’t hear from her after that.859Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ07vrHZu9mR
After two weeks, Ms Emily was back at school. She did limp a little though. I knew it was time to introduce her to my dad so after school, George, Janet, Ms Caroline, Ms Emily and I planned to go to my place.
We all met at my apartment. To my surprise, dad was there. Aunt just smiled at me and Ms Emily while dad gave Ms Emily a perplexed look. “What on earth is wrong with you? I don't want to hear one more thing about you fighting with other boys no matter how strong you are, understand?” shouted dad at me all of a sudden. Ms Emily flinched at the deep loud tone of his voice. I could do nothing except nod vigorously.
“I come back home after quite a while and the first thing I hear is about that idiot getting into a fight,” someone said behind me. I turned around and saw my brother. “Clark!” I yelled and ran to him and hugged him like a little kid earning giggles from everyone.
Someone said “Aww!” in a rather different tone. We all looked around and found Ms Caroline standing by the door, stargazing at my brother. I looked at Clark and he seemed mesmerised by her. “Alright take your staring contest outside, lovebirds,” said dad chuckling and shoving Clark outside towards Carrie and they immediately left the place without another word! Damn, that was quick!
Dad was in a good mood. Well, lately he was a lot kinder to me. Anyway, that was my cue. “Uh... um...” I trailed off, unsure of how to start. As if he read my mind, dad turned to Ms Emily. “So, you’re Emily?” he asked. “Yes sir,” she said politely. Dad then turned to aunt and asked, “She’s the one?” and aunt nodded. That meant... Aunt had already told him?! I really needed to talk to her about keeping less important secrets as she had a tendency to blabber them if they did not need to be confidential.
Dad called me and Ms Emily to follow him to his room. That got me nervous as whatever decisions he made in his room were a bit negative. Once we were inside, he closed the door and sat at his desk and gestured us to sit down. However poor Ms Emily was all too nervous that she was unable to move an inch. She stood rooted to the floor.
“Alright, I'll come straight to the point. My sister already told me that you two are in love with each other. I need a few honest answers first. You are Jason's math teacher, right?' he asked, looking straight at Ms Emily.
“Yes sir,” she replied.
“How young are you, Miss?”
“I'm twenty six,”
“Whoa, that's eight years between you two,” he said. Please don't say no, please don't say no I kept thinking repeatedly. Ms Emily, who was cornered could do nothing except hang her head down but she soon looked up and started speaking.
“I do know that sir. And I probably shouldn't be saying this to you in such a raw manner but you can believe me or you can just ignore what I'm going to say. I love your son so much and I know he loves me back. He is mature enough to take care of me and I sure can take care of him as well. I don't know if you're going to accept me of kick me out but I'm saying all this with a flicker of hope that I can be together with Jason,” she finished and my jaw literally dropped to the floor. I didn't see that coming. Even dad looked a bit surprised.
“Well said, Emily, well said. Now, if I may continue, you know that this is a close-knit small community with many old-school elderly folks, right?” he asked.
“Yes...” Ms Emily trailed off unsure of what was to follow.
“And you do know that those folks do not appreciate huge age gaps especially if the woman is older than the man, right?”
“Yes...” she trailed off in a less loud voice and I started losing hope.
“And you also know that in our society, they oppose relationships between a teacher and her student so out rightly, right?”
“Yes...” she trailed off in a barely audible voice, hanging her head. By that time whatever hope I had left was almost completely gone.
“But you see, I'm not one of them. So I have nothing against the two of you getting married,” he said with a slight smile. That was when both Ms Emily and I visibly brightened up.
“Whoa calm down, you love-struck young people. Okay, Jason, do well in your college and then you can marry her. Now off you go, scoot. I've a lot of work to do,” he said, shooing us outside.
A/N: Well, like I said, The finale will also be released tonight. I've planned to take a break for a month after which I'll be back again, maybe even with a new story.
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