Detention

“Mia, I have a secret. Something I’ve been keeping to myself since my senior year in high school.” He rubbed his cheek against hers. She wanted to faint.

The smell of expensive cologne and pure man made Mia’s stomach tighten and her grip on reality weaken. She tried to refocus on making a quick exit, but then something clicked in her head. Brett Wyndam had a secret? That piqued her curiosity. Mr. Big-Man-on-Campus, the boy-now-man, who seemed to have the world on a string, was hiding something?

“Okay, what’s your big secret?” She paused, staring into his eyes. Then she let out a slight gasp. “Wait. Are you gay?”

The response she got wasn’t what she expected. He threw back his head and burst out laughing. “I am very, very straight, which I will be more than happy to confirm for your benefit, but more on that later.” He placed his hand on the small of her back, and led her into the living room. “The secret I have is that I’ve been a very bad boy.”

He wore the most perverted leer Mia had ever seen. “So what else is new?” she asked. She sat down on the couch and continued to drink her orange juice. And the sass on him, saying he’d confirm it for me. As if! She subtly closed her thighs even tighter, keeping an unexplained arousal in check. He’s still younger than I am. He’s still that boy I kept after school. That would be her mantra as he continued to speak.

“You don’t understand, Mia. In high school, I was a different kind of bad.” He joined her on the sofa, but this time, he kept a respectful distance from her.

“All I know is I had to keep you after school for detention for half your senior year because of your tomfoolery.”

“Ah, yes,” Brett said, nodding his head. “But there was a reason for my mischief.”

“Really? Getting in trouble and almost throwing away a perfectly good education?”

“But I didn’t throw it away. I was valedictorian, remember?”

How could she forget? He was just about perfect at everything, and his charm had kept others from labeling him as a nerd and picking on him. He’d kept a 4.0 average throughout his school years, yet he’d insisted on getting into trouble. She could never understand people like him. He had it all, but seemed to want to throw it all away as a teen. She was busting her butt teaching kids who didn’t have a tenth of the privileges Brett had, yet were better at staying out of trouble in spite of peer pressure and their environment.

“So what’s the reason?” she asked in her most self-righteous tone.

“To be near you.”

Mia nearly choked on her juice.