It was Tuesday when Miss V called me into her classroom, early in the morning. She had barely texted me over the weekend, and I wondered what she was up to. My mind explored naughty fantasies - was she going to make me lick her clean while she sat behind her desk, typing away at her computer, a contained smile on her face? Was she going to jerk me off under the desk, letting me cum on her tights? As I soon realised, the truth was nowhere near as pleasurable. The truth was bitter, and would shake me out of the sense of security I had fallen into over the past week. 

“Close the door behind you,” she said, hands folded on the desk before her. She removed her glasses and wiped them clean with a cloth, before turning to me, a blank expression on her face. “I have some… bad news.” she said, and all my naughty ideas vanished. I leaned on the desk in front of hers, hands in my pockets. 

“What’s up?”

Miss V sighed, putting her glasses back on, “My placement in this college is coming to an end sooner than expected. I will be leaving this college, and this city, on the 14th of May.” I hastily reached for the phone in my pocket to check the date, but she saved me the trouble, “About two weeks from now.”

I gazed at her dumbly. We had talked about this before, she was supposed to spend the rest of the term here, maybe even a little bit of summer. Two weeks… two weeks was nothing. “What happened?” was all I could get out.

She looked down at the desk, rearranging some papers,  “I’ve been offered a better position at a high-end private school, away from here.” she lowered her voice, “I know you’ve been… growing fond of me, and I like you too. You’re the first man in a long time I’ve felt anything but indifference for. But I have to go now. So perhaps it would be better if we… nip this in the bud.”

“Nip it in the bud?” 

“If we carry on, it’s only going to hurt more when I have to leave.” she met my eyes with a sympathetic gaze, “It’s better to say goodbye before the path splits.” she smiled awkwardly, and I could tell this was difficult for her too. 

Nip it in the bud. Perhaps it was for the best. She had been taking over my life, unintentionally, but I had to admit that was the truth of what was happening. I hardly ever studied anymore. We had had mocks the last week, and I was sure I had done worse on them than ever before. My mind wasn’t equipped to handle intimacy with a woman like her. The thought of her enveloped me, making everything else seem irrelevant. 

“Of course, we can still talk.” she added hastily, “It’s just, maybe we shouldn’t do anything-”

“No, I understand.” I said, surprising even myself with the conviction in my voice, “I hope you can find someone as fantastic as me at your new job.”

“Unlikely,” she said, a sad smile forming on her lips. “Oh, that reminds me-” she picked up her phone, offering it to me, “You can delete that video.”

“You can keep it,” I said, forcing a smile, “my treat.”

“That means I’d have to give you something in return.” she purred. 

“See, that? That’s no longer allowed,” I said, “or I may not be able to resist.”

She smiled, “This is going to be difficult.”

“It is.”

“But it’s for the best.”

“Yes.”

“Well then,” she said, taking a deep breath as she set her phone down on the desk again, “is that all, Daniel?”

So that’s how it was. Back to full names. “That’s all, Miss Vixen.” I said, turning towards the door, “Have a good day.”

“You too.”

Despite my carefully curated act of nonchalance in her classroom, the thought of Miss V leaving in two weeks, and the fact that we wouldn’t properly see each other before then, was eating me up inside. For the first time in years I’d made some progress with a woman. Not just any woman, but the woman of my dreams -  a woman who men tripped over themselves to get a chance at. And now, because of some out-of-the-blue placement in a private school, it was all going to vanish. Anger passed over me only briefly - I understood Miss V’s career was important to her, and I wouldn’t want her to give up such a great opportunity for my sake. Still, it hurt. 

I was only dragged out of my misery by Andrew, during another physics ‘lesson’. All the lessons were basically just revision now, but for some reason the college insisted that we attended each and every one. 

“You good, Daniel?” 

“Not bad.” I said, clicking my pen absently. 

“Well, listen up.” he said, lowering his voice, “‘Cos I got news.”

I turned to him, “Thelma?”

He nodded, grinning, “Dude, it’s going so well with her. We’re practically dating.”

I smiled, forgetting about Miss V for a second. Andrew had been quietly sneaking glances at Thelma since last year, and it genuinely brightened my day to hear he’d finally made some progress. “Ask her out!” I said, and when this drew annoyed glances from my overly studious physics class, I lowered my voice and repeated, “Ask her out.”

His smile faded, his expression becoming sheepish, “I’m not sure, man.”

I stared at him in disbelief, “What? Dude, you’ve been waiting for this for ages!”

“I know, I know. But… I talked to her and we’re going different unis. Like, opposite sides of the map different. Which gives us what, three, four months together?” he shook his head, “And I don’t think either of us would be up for an LDR. Especially in uni where everyone’s losing their virginity left and right.”

I laughed, then we fell silent for a minute. “I think… I think you should go through with it. Be upfront about it. Make sure you both know it’s probably not going to last past September.” I paused, my thoughts turning elsewhere, “Just enjoy the time you have left together.”

Andrew let out a sigh, “I guess. I mean, nothing lasts forever, right? Crappe diem and all.”

“Carpe diem.” I corrected him.

He grinned, shrugging, “Same difference. Anyway, forget all that. What are your plans for summer? I can’t wait to be done with these exams.”

“I’m not sure,” I said, feeling a hollow pit in my stomach as I realised I didn’t have any plans. I was well-known around college - well-liked, even - but there were very few people I actually interacted with outside of class. Andrew was in a whole different boat - his friends group was so large it resembled a mob. 

Andrew nodded slowly, “You know, I’m planning a trip to Tenerife with some guys. And some girls.” he added meaningfully, “You should come along.”

I was shaking my head before he’d even finished, “Thanks, but… that’s not my thing.”

“That’s bullshit, man.” he lowered his voice, “Look, what happened with Katy was fuckin’ terrible, but you gotta try and push past it. Get back to your old self again.”

I stayed silent, though I knew he was right, and I appreciated him being so forward with me. I needed that. Someone to tell me when I was wallowing, stuck in my own head. “How many people are coming?” I asked quietly.

Andrew’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Like… seven or eight.”

“Seven or eight? Do you even know all their names?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. A group that big wasn’t as ridiculous as I made it sound - I’d been in one like that myself in highschool. 

“I got them written down somewhere.” Andrew laughed, “Anyway, you gotta come with us. Tenerife, dude!” he leaned in, raising a hand for a stage-whisper, “Beaches… bikinis…” 

Admittedly that was a benefit I hadn’t considered, even with my disgustingly lewd mind. “I’ll think it over.” I said, but I was still nervous and very much would have preferred just idling away at home over summer. I didn’t necessarily enjoy that, but it was a far more comfortable option. 

The prospect of this summer trip to Tenerife only briefly distracted me from my already-aching longing for Miss V. I didn’t text her that day, nor the next, and she made no attempt to reach out to me either, probably not wanting to drag out a painful thing. I wondered if, despite the silence, she was itching to text me, just like I was to text her. Or to bump into her on my way to class. Or, even better, to bump into her afterschool. 

I’d been doing a lot of thinking, late at night, when having a double bed to myself made me miss her the most. We’d never got to the point where we’d shared a bed, but I had fantasised about it extensively. Not just making love (I don’t know exactly when I started calling it ‘making love’ instead of ‘fucking’), but what came after. The whispers, the quiet kisses. Falling asleep in each other’s arms. We’d never got to do that - hell, I didn’t even know if she’d want to, considering our only real intimate moment had been kissing in a public bathroom, to muffle her moans as she came.

I was halfway to sleep one night when, for some unknown reason, my conversation with Andrew drifted back to me. Just enjoy the time you have left together, I’d told him. If it was that simple, why weren’t Miss V and I doing the same thing? But I hadn’t been trying to brush him off. I’d given him my genuine opinion. Andrew and Thelma had four months left, we had two weeks, what difference did it make? There was no need for Miss V and I to treat ourselves as such fragile little things, to cut things off before they became painful. The best things and the worst, the things that have meaning, are always painful. 

At some point during the night I made up my mind on the matter. Perhaps it was in those drowsy moments before I fell asleep, or perhaps it came to me in my dreams. Either way, I woke up with a fresh desire to speak to Miss V, tell her how she was looking at things the wrong way. I didn’t want to text her - this was something I felt I needed to say in person. Also, I didn’t want it to look like I’d been spending all my time just thinking about her… even though that was mostly true. 

On Thursday morning I received an email from Miss Smith, the head of biology. I glanced over it, put my phone down, then picked it up and read the email again. And again. My heart sank in my chest. She wanted to meet me in the staff room. Immediately. Had we been found out? Had Miss V slipped up somehow? I cleared the thoughts from my mind. and hastily made my way to the first floor, my heart pounding in my chest. 

Miss Smith was alone in there, sipping her morning coffee with the look of amusement all good-natured old people wear. That put me at ease slightly. She didn’t look as if she knew that one of her staff had been playing around with one of her favourite students, but I had only once seen her without that cheerful expression. And that was when someone had accidentally set fire to a chemistry lab. 

“Oh, Daniel, you look so worried.” she said, chuckling, “I assure you everything’s quite alright.” She reached for a booklet on the desk, “This is the biology mock you did last week.  What grade do you think you got?”

“Um,” I fumbled, caught off guard, “an A?”

Miss Smith smiled, shaking her head. She turned the paper around so I could see the grade scrawled in the top right corner, “B.” she said, “Mind you, it was close. Nearly an A. For most students, this would be a fantastic grade. But you and I know, Daniel, that you are capable of much, much more.”

I nodded, leaning against a desk, “My revision wasn’t the best for this one,” I said, “I fell out of the habit for a while.”

“Even on your other tests, I think you could benefit from some expert guidance.” she said, handing me the paper, “There will be a booster session on Friday, after college, for high-achieving students like yourself.” I started to come up with an excuse , but what she said next stopped me dead in my tracks: “Miss Vixen understands exam technique better than anyone. Except myself, of course. But I have some telly to catch up on.”

“Miss Vixen’s doing the session?” I asked, trying to pose the question as casually as possible. 

“That’s right. Bright one, isn’t she?”

“I guess so.” I said, trying to contain my smile. This would be the perfect opportunity to talk to Miss V. Well, not the session itself, but if I lingered behind for a bit afterwards… This was perfect - I’d thought I would have to wait a while before I bumped into her again. I left the staff room grinning ear to ear, paper in hand. In the morning, my certainty from the night before had faded. Strangely, this meeting with Miss Smith about something as mundane as a revision session had motivated me again. What were the chances that I would suddenly be placed in a booster class with the very woman I’m infatuated with? 

That had to be some sort of sign. Miss V and I had to spend these last two weeks together. She would have to leave soon, sure. But I was going to hold onto her until the very last second, when I kissed her goodbye. 

I glanced at the paper again, smiling at the grade on the front. I’d never been so happy with a B. Frowning, I noticed that the marking wasn’t in Miss V’s handwriting… which meant that Mr Harding was back. 

Great.