I Will Always Love You

A Story by Megan

“Did you hear we got a new teacher, Emily?” Angie excitedly asked her best friend. “His name is Brad Wilde and he is going to be our science teacher! He is super attractive! Like if you look up ‘hot’ in the dictionary, his picture would be right beside it!”

“Oh my gosh, Angie! He is our teacher! Don’t be so creepy!”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I have a thing for cute guys,” squealed Angie, “I mean come on! He has shaggy dirty blonde hair, deep blue eyes, perfectly white teeth, and you can definitely tell he works out!”

“Angie! I cannot believe you! How can you check out a guy that old? It’s weird!” Emily remarked.

“What do you mean THAT old? He’s only twenty-three. That’s like six years older than me. My parents are eight years apart.”

“That is totally different. I’m sure they didn’t start dating in high school. Plus he is your teacher!”

“Can’t a girl just dream?” Angie smirked while tilting her head and giving Emily a girly day dreamed look.

Angie and Emily were juniors at Buckner High School. They have been best friends since kindergarten. They never let anything come in between their friendship. That is until the day Emily started dating Rueben. Rueben and Emily started dating freshman year. They were inseparable. No one could ever make plans with Emily unless they wanted to have Rueben come along. Rueben was the most controlling guy you could ever meet. He hardly ever let Emily got out with her friends. When he did, he would constantly call and/or text her. Angie hated him and Rueben hated her. Angie was nice to Rueben yet he always disrespected her. Sometimes, when Angie was with Emily, Rueben would stalk them and make sure they weren’t running around and flirting with other guys. He always had this weird feeling that Angie was a bad influence on Emily, but she never did anything to provoke Emily to do something bad. Emily was always faithful to Rueben and never once had the thought of cheating on him. That is until she met Brad…

~~~~~~~~~~

The summer was coming to an end. In two more days the girls were going to be heading back to school. They had six out of eight classes together, just like in the past. Their first our class was with Mr. Wilde. The girls didn’t know a lot about this new teacher they were going to have, but were eager to have him. Their old science teacher was just that. Old. He didn’t see any point of using technology and was as much of a dinosaur as they could possibly have.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Emily said, “I enjoyed having Mr. Brown as our teacher, but I am just excited to get some change around here! He was a good teacher, but just a little dated!”

“A little?” Angie asked her best friend with much confusion, “He was like a cave man! Literally! He had that ugly long white hair and an ugly white beard he never shaved to match. Plus, all he ever wore were those weird moccasins and sweater vests! He was the definition of old! My grandpa had more style than him! Plus he was like, what, eighty?”

“Oh come on. He was only like sixty-seven I think. And you do realize that I have seen your grandpa before, right?”

“My point exactly,” laughed Angie.

It was a beautiful summer night. The weather was perfect and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. No one could ask for a better night. The girls planned to spend the last night of their summer together like they always had. That is until something came up.

Emily called Angie, “I’m sorry! I feel terrible! You know I wanna come over but something came up. I have to go over and help my aunt with my cousins. James ran away and I have to go help find him.”

“Oh sure, this is just like when your grandpa’s cat ran away. I know what you are up to! Reuben just doesn’t want you to go out with me! I really don’t understand what you see in him! I mean seriously, Emily! Pull your head out of your butt and look around! Your boyfriend and I don’t get along, and quite frankly, I have no clue why this all started! It’s like a competition between him and I to see who can win you over! This isn’t fair! We have been best friends for how long? And you have been dating him since freshman year! No one likes your boyfriend! And I really thought that would influence your decision on how you prioritized. I guess not, though, since he is always at the top of your list! I am so done with this! I hope you two have fun! I know I will have a blast without you! Wanna know why? Because I won’t constantly be wondering if Reuben is going to show up where we are and crash! I am so tired of this, but you go and do whatever the heck you want! Consider this you and I breaking up! Goodbye!” Angie then heatedly hung up her phone.

“No, don’t say that stuff! You know you are my number one,” Emily proclaimed.

It was too late, though. Angie was already off the phone. She began to cry. She had had enough. She always came second and didn’t feel that was fair to her since she was constantly putting everyone first. Then, she had a great idea. She decided she would pull a Rueben. Angie was going to go see if Emily was actually telling the truth. She hopped into her dad’s Chevy and put the key into the ignition. She figured she should be smart enough to disguise herself a little bit. Angie looked around in the truck. She found a bright orange baseball hat and sunglasses that her dad uses when he goes hunting. She pulled her hair up into the hat and put the sunglasses on. You could hardly recognize her. She looked like a girly boy! That was alright with her! She figured that Emily wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out who she was anyways! Angie started the white pickup and the radio was playing her and Emily’s favorite song. Thoughts instantly started running through her mind.

“Am I doing the right thing? Yes, of course I am!”

“What if she was telling me the truth? Don’t be stupid. This same thing has happened before!”

“Did I just ruin the best thing that has happened to me? No, I deserve better!”

“What about the memories? I can do this. Just have to be strong, Angie!

Angie pulled out of the driveway and started off towards Rueben’s house. It was eight miles from her’s so she figured she would know all the answers to the questions she had been wondering in a little bit. Just as she was about two miles from his house, she saw him drive pass her in his new, blue Ford pickup. He had someone in his passenger seat, but Angie couldn’t tell who it was. She pulled up to an approach and turned around to follow him. She finally got behind him at a stop light. She decided she could figure out if it was her best friend if she got beside them at the next stop light. The light they were sitting at turned green and she changed lanes. She kept getting closer and closer. Finally, after two blocks, the light turned red. Instead of stopping, Rueben slowed down and turned right. That was all Angie need, though. She could tell it wasn’t her best friend in his front seat. It was Rueben’s ex-girlfriend, Jessica.

Emily sobbed in the recliner at her aunt’s. Not only had she lost her cousin, but she just lost her best friend. She figured she had deserved it, though. She did always put her friends after Rueben. Karma is what she felt she deserved. Then, she had an idea to win her best friend back. She picked up her phone when, all of the sudden, lights showed through the living room curtains. Emily figured that her aunt and uncle were home so she would wait to call Angie after she left. It wasn’t her aunt and uncle, though. The lights were from Angie. She had come to see her best friend.

“I am so sorry. Please forgive me,” the girls exclaimed in unison.

“Angie, I will change! Things are going to be different! I promise.”

With that being said, Angie suddenly got a terrible stomach cramp in her right side. She had no clue what she was going to do. She had been debating back and forth whether or not to tell her best friend what she had seen moments ago. Then she wondered if she saw what she actually thought she did. Then she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She was going to stay out of it.

“No Emily, I should have believed you. Rueben isn’t that bad of a guy since he seems to make you happy. Let’s just put this all behind us. It’s a new year on Monday! Let’s make it the best one yet! You know I love you and I am super sorry! I should never have said those awful things!”

“It’s alright, Ang! I forgive you! And I agree! Let’s make this year the best one yet!”

Then something dawned on Angie. She never asked if they found James! “Did your aunt and uncle find the little rascal?”

“Ha ha you sound like Mr. Brown! And yes, they did. He was at the school playing basketball with his friends! Naughty little guy!”

“Well thank God they found him,” Angie said with a sigh of relief.

Emily’s aunt and uncle then came through the door. Jim, Emily’s uncle, was scolding James pretty harshly. Then, Ginger came over to the girls and handed Emily twenty dollars and told the girls thanks for the help and they could leave. They didn’t hesitate one bit. As soon as they got out of the house, they went and had a great night at Cherry Berry. Afterwards, Emily spent the night at Angie’s and they acted as if the fight had never happened. But Angie couldn’t stop thinking about what she had seen. Did she see Reuben with Jessica, or was it his sister, or possibly just one of his guy friends? She thought it would be best to just shake it and stop worrying. If Rueben was that worried about Emily cheating, how could he have the nerve to even think about it?

~~~~~~~~~~

Brad Wilde was a dreamy, young guy. He looked identical to Brad Pitt. He was fresh out of college and decided he better start settling down and focusing on his career. No more partying for this guy. It was time to be a good role model and an even better teacher. His first class was at 8:15 and he was ready to enlighten the students. He arrived at school at 7:45 on Monday morning and socialized with his fellow coworkers. He had a great feeling that he was going to have a great time at Buckner. After twenty minutes of being in the teachers’ lounge, he decided to go greet the students that had arrived for his first hour class. He noticed that high school hadn’t changed much since he had graduated. There were still the same cliques. The jocks, the preppy, popular girls, the kids that seemed like they could cause some trouble, and the few that looked as though they could fit into all those groups. Then, two girls walked through the doors. They were laughing like two hyenas. That’s when Mr. Wilde knew he was going to have his hands full. Angie and Emily sat down in the front right beside Mr. Wilde’s desk. They quieted down and looked around to see who was going to be in the class with them. It seemed that it was going to be a fairly small class of about twelve.

Ten minutes after Emily and Angie walked into the science room, the bell rang. Mr. Wilde then introduced himself and talked a little about him his interests, and how he got to where he was. Then he asked everyone to do the same so he could get to know everyone. As soon as the last guy talked a little about himself the bell rang dismissing the students to the next class. Everyone got up to leave except for Emily and Angie.

“Are you two not in any bit of a rush?”

“Nah,” Angie said to her new dreamy teacher. “We have study hall in here next!”

“Oh, I understand.” Mr. Wilde said, “So I wasn’t to scary or anything, was I?”

“Ha, of course not! I think the students are going to enjoy having you around here! I don’t want to be mean, but Mr. Brown wasn’t everyone’s favorite,” Emily said quietly.

“Umm.. he was someone’s favorite teacher?” Angie laughed, “Yeah, I don’t think so!”

Just then the next bell rang. The three looked around and noticed they were the only ones in the room. Emily and Angie hopped out of their seats and started to dance.

Puzzled, Mr. Wilde asked, “Excuse me? What are you two doing?”

Angie giggled, “We told you we liked to dance, didn’t we?”

“And I said we were random,” Emily reminded him.

Mr. Wilde laughed “So you dance randomly in class? Are you two like a tiny flash mob?”

The girls then sat down and explained their life more in detail. They told him that they were just getting him ready for the rest of the year. Mr. Wilde laughed and told them they needed to behave so he didn’t get into trouble. He didn’t want to jeopardize his career by having to spastic teenage girls acting crazy in his class room.

A few weeks passed by and Emily started to get behind in Advanced Biology. She just didn’t enjoy science like her best friend. Mr. Wilde noticed Emily’s falling grade and asked if she wanted to start staying after to try and get that grade up. Emily figured it was for the best, so every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she stayed after with Mr. Wilde for two hours. Three weeks passed and Emily’s grade started to move upward. She was finally starting to understand everything! She felt like a genius thanks to Mr. Wilde.

One late Friday night, after their study session, Mr. Wilde asked Emily what she was going to be doing this weekend. She said she was going to hang out with her boyfriend Reuben.

“You have a boyfriend, Emily?”

“Yes Mr. Wilde! Why do you seem so surprised?”

“I’m not surprised! I just never hear you talking about him! Did you two recently start dating or what?”

“No, that’s not it. Angie doesn’t like it when I talk about Reuben. They don’t exactly get along the greatest. We have been dating for almost two years though.”

“How can you date someone if your best friend doesn’t like him? She seems like she is pretty important to you! Do you not value her opinion on guys or what?”

“Well, I do. I don’t know. Maybe I don’t. It’s just that we have spent almost two years together. How do you just throw that away?”

“That’s completely up to you! How old is he?”

“He is a freshman in college.”

“So you’re into older men, huh? Ha maybe Angie is jelous!”

Rueben and Emily spent the weekend together. Emily constantly wondered if their relationship was the right thing. Was she really happy him? Did Mr. Wilde point something out that she had just been ignoring this whole time? Maybe that was all it took. She had heard Angie and a couple other people say the exact same thing to her about Rueben multiple times but maybe Mr. Wilde was the person who opened her eyes.

“What’s the matter babe? You don’t seem like yourself! Is something bothering you?”

Rueben seemed concerned. That meant he cared, right? “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about what Mr. Wilde and I were talking about in our last study session. That’s all!”

“Oh, you had me worried there for a second! No why don’t you hop up and go make me a sandwich!”

Emily got up off the couch and Rueben smacked her butt. She just headed towards the kitchen. She thought to herself, Rueben didn’t even say please. He is so disrespectful. Why doesn’t he get his lazy butt up off that couch and go make himself a gosh darn sandwich? Whatever, this is what a nice person does, and I am nice!

Emily handed Rueben his sandwich and told him she had to get home. He gave her a kiss and told her he loved her. She replied with the same and went on her way home. She woke her parents and told them she was home. She didn’t want to be tired for school the next morning so she texted Rueben that she was going to bed. Two hours later he responded to her text. Of course Emily didn’t wait up for a reply so she noticed the time difference the next morning. That did not impress her. She didn’t understand how it could take him two hours to reply. Instead of arguing about it with him, she just blew it off and got ready for school. She knew she couldn’t talk about her problem with Angie because she knew all she would get was a snotty, “I told you so!” That’s when she decided she would that to Mr. Wilde about it in their study session.

The final school bell rang and Emily rushed to Mr. Wilde’s room. As soon as she threw open the door, she burst into tears. Mr. Wilde was confused but Emily explained her situation. Mr. Wilde was speechless. He didn’t go to school and major in counseling. He was a science teacher! After about a minute of silence, Mr. Wilde told Emily to text Rueben and make him explain himself. Emily told him he probably wouldn’t reply for a while because he was either still in class or at football practice. Emily then looked down and started to cry again. Mr. Wilde didn’t know what to do. That’s when he leaned over.

~~~~~~~~~~

Angie pulled into her driveway. She knew she had a ton of homework and wanted to get started on it right away. She opened her front door and sat down at her kitchen table. She then pulled her books out of her bag and debated on what to do first. That’s when it dawned on her. She forgot to grab her Advanced Biology book! She looked at the clock on the microwave and noticed she had enough time to head back to school and grab it. She figured that Mr. Wilde and Emily would still be there.

As she approached the school, she saw Emily’s and Mr. Wilde’s cars parked in the parking lot. That meant the school would still be unlocked and she could hurry and grab her book. Maybe she would even stop in and say hi to her best friend. Angie hustled to her locker and grabbed her book. Then she walked towards the science room to go tell Emily how careless she was! Just when Angie was about to turn the door handle she saw Mr. Wilde hugging Emily. Angie’s jaw dropped! She figured that now was not the right time to go pop in and say hi.

Angie ran to her car. She turned it on and drove straight home. While on the way she tried to process all the events that had been going on in the past few weeks. First she thinks Reuben is cheating on her best friend. But now maybe Emily is cheating on Reuben with their teacher!

“Emily isn’t that dumb!” Angie said out loud to herself, “I thought I was the one with the crush on the teacher! Not Ms. Perfect! What is going on here?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Wilde’s warm embrace felt nice to Emily. She soon stopped crying and noticed that she was getting butterflies. She pulled away and looked at Mr. Wilde and smiled. He smiled back and Emily looked down at her phone. It was now about six o’clock and she saw that Reuben still hadn’t texted her back. At this point she no longer cared. Mr. Wilde was there for her and that felt nice. Reuben was rarely there for her when she needed someone and that made her kind of angry. Emily looked back up at Mr. Wilde and they hugged again. He then looked her deeply in her dark, brown eyes and then kissed her passionately. So many thoughts we going through her mind at this point. What is going on? Is this cheating? I didn’t kiss him, he kissed me! Who cares! Reuben is a jerk anyways!

As soon as Mr. Wild had started to kiss Emily, he stopped. He leaped out of his chair. “What did I just do? Oh no! I am going to lose my job! I’m going to lose my teaching certificate! I’m screwed! Why did I do that? I am so sorry Emily! Please don’t say anything about this! I didn’t mean it!”

Emily looked down, “You didn’t mean it? It sure felt like you did.”

“Well, I meant to do it but you are my student! This isn’t right!”

“I know,” Emily shrugged and then said, “but I thought it was right.”

The room was silent. The only noise was a leaky faucet that never seemed to stop. That annoying sound just made matters worse. Mr. Wilde started pacing back and forth and folded his arms across his chest. He bit his lip and then turned to face Emily. She was just sitting in her chair watching Mr. Wilde intently. Then, Mr. Wilde broke the silence, “From now on, when we are alone, you call me Brad. Not only that, you have to break it off with Reuben.” With that he leapt forward and kissed Emily again. For some odd reason, things felt right to Emily. Even though she knew everything about this was wrong, she liked it. She was tired of always being the good, responsible girl. Then reality struck. Things were never going to work out. More importantly, how could she keep this from her best friend? Emily sprang out of her chair and gave her teacher a hug and told him she would text him later. At this point she just needed to think. Emily ran to her car and started to drive. Thoughts raced wild in her head. “What am I going to do?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Angie called Emily. She couldn’t wait any longer. She needed an explanation from her best friend. Why would she hug their teacher? The phone rang three times and finally Emily picked up.

“Hello.”

“What the heck girl? Our teacher? I thought I was the crazy one!”

“Wait. What do you mean?”

“I saw everything! I know about you and Mr. Wilde, Emily!”

“How?”

“Ha,” Angie laughed, “I forgot my Advanced Biology book at school so I had to go back and get it! I then decided I was gonna pop in and say hi to you guys but just as I was about to head in I saw him hug you!”

“I’m coming over. I’ll explain everything when I get there,” Emily hung up and two seconds later pulled into Angie’s driveway.

Emily flung the front door open and explained every little detail about what had just happened. All Angie could do was sit there listen. She tried to level with Emily but couldn’t. As soon as Emily got to the part about going to break up with Reuben, Angie smiled. She jumped up and started dancing and cheering. Then she stopped and gave Emily a puzzled look, “Wait a second. You plan on actually having a thing with our teacher?”

“I don’t know what to do! All I know is that I am done with Reuben’s bull crap!”

“That sounds great with me, Em,” Angie said with a smile.

The next day at school, first period flew by. Then it was time for study hall. The awkwardness filled the room. Mr. Wilde didn’t say a word the whole period. He acted as if he was too busy. Emily and Angie just sat there in the silence and couldn’t stand it. They needed to break it. Finally, Angie blurted out, “Well, sure is a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

Emily laughed and agreed with her. Then they started talking about random things and somehow ended up talking about a possum named Philip. That’s when they heard Mr. Wilde chuckle. The girls looked up in his direction and he immediately avoided eye contact. Angie got up and went over to his desk.

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

“Yeah.”

Emily left the room. As soon as she closed the door she heard talking.

“Does she know?” Mr. Wilde asked impatiently.

“She is my best friend so what do you think?”

“This can’t happen again. We have to just pretend it never happened. I am too old for you, plus I am your teacher, and I don’t plan on moving schools any time soon.”

Emily just sat there thinking. She didn’t know what to say. She just sat and stared back at Mr. Wilde replaying last night in her head. Then Mr. Wilde said something that completely shocked Emily.

“This can only work if you don’t tell anyone else. We also can’t show any type of affection at school. Never again will it happen here. You got that?”

Emily smiled and then nodded her head. As soon as Angie heard no more talking going on in the room, she opened the door. Angie went and sat down in her seat. She looked over at Emily and smiled. Emily knew Angie had heard everything through the door when Angie gave her a thumbs up and grinned the cheesiest grin she had ever seen her best friend give.

After school, the girls went to Angie’s house to talk about study hall. Emily made sure she had heard everything right and discussed how things were going to work out. Then reality sunk in to Angie. She got up and slapped her best friend right across the face.

“What was that for?”

“You have got to be crazy! Things will never work out! He is our teacher! It’s not like you are about to graduate! We just started our junior year! You cannot keep this a secret from your parents either. This isn’t a tv show, Emily, this is your life!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right! What am I doing? I’m crazy!”

The next morning Emily decided she was going to set things straight. Then she saw Mr. Wilde. Her plans changed right away. She wasn’t going to break things off. She was just going to tell her best friend she did and work things out with Mr. Wilde. She walked into the class room and Mr. Wilde pulled her aside. Just when he was about to say something to her, someone dressed in all black burst through the door. He had a black ski mask on so Mr. Wilde could tell something was about to go down. The guy dressed in black pulled out a gun. He looked right over towards Emily and drew up. He didn’t hesitate to open fire. *Bang! Bang!* Mr. Wilde pushed Emily to the ground and took two shots to the abdomen. He fell to the ground and the shooter ran out the door. Emily knelt to his side and started to cry. Mr. Wilde was bleeding out fast. Pools of blood were all around him. He looked Emily in the eyes and said, “I will always love you!” As soon he said those last words his body went limp in Emily’s arms.

Emily’s life was never the same. She resumed school after two weeks but wasn’t the same girl. She never did her homework and didn’t put any effort in to her life. She began to cut herself every night and felt that her world had ended. Angie and her were no longer friends. Angie tried to help her but Emily constantly refused. She was never going to be the same bubbly girl she used to be.