Chapter Twenty-Nine
Gunnar stared at the note in his hands. Read it again. And again. He must’ve read it a thousand times but it didn’t make any more sense after the thousandth time than it had after the first.
Dear Mr. Fox,
Thank you for everything you’ve done for me over the past few months. I really appreciate it, but I have to go home now. As soon as I get a job, I’ll pay you back for all the clothes and stuff.
Twyla
What the fuck? What the everliving fuck? Yeah, he’d been worried that Twyla would leave him eventually, that the role of little wouldn’t fit her forever. But he’d thought he’d be able to tell when it had started to chafe and they’d be able to talk about it.
Even if it meant leaving him and going off to be a grown successful woman who had once engaged in ageplay, he would always want what was best for Twyla. And he would’ve helped her get it. Applying to college, getting a job, traveling… Anything she wanted, he would’ve done anything for her. It made him sick to think of her back in that house with her stepfather.
He must have missed something, but he couldn’t imagine what it had been. He was an observant, attentive man, and that girl had become his life over the past few months. He hoped he hadn’t let her down because he’d never forgive himself if he was the reason she went back to her parents.
Something occurred to him and he hoped to god he was wrong. Had she not passed her classes? Was she not going to graduate? He’d tried to impress upon her that it would be okay if she didn’t.
There was summer school, there was next year. There was a private school the next town over where he had some connections and he might be able to get her in so she wouldn’t have to do a third senior year at Clover Hills. Online classes, getting a GED. Hell, he didn’t care if she ever graduated high school, but it seemed like something that was important to her so he’d support her in accomplishing it in whatever way he could.
But maybe he’d said one thing and his behavior indicated something different? Maybe he hadn’t been convincing? Maybe he should have told her more often? Or maybe that wasn’t it at all and this was just him grasping at straws to explain something he found so completely baffling.
Grades wouldn’t post until next week, and besides, using his position as a teacher at her school to check her grades would be an invasion of privacy. He wasn’t above bending the rules—even getting close to breaking them—but he didn’t like the idea of doing it.
Gunnar paced his living room, raking the hand that wasn’t holding that godawful letter through his hair. Suddenly it came to him: Aaliyah. She and Twyla had been getting along well lately, he’d seen them laughing about something in the hallway between classes. He’d call Aaliyah, tell her he was worried about Twyla, and maybe she’d have some information that could help him figure this out. And if she refused to talk to him, he wouldn’t press.
He was mostly a patient person but he couldn’t keep his foot from tapping as he waited for Aaliyah to pick up her phone. Gunnar tried not to breathe a sigh of relief when she answered.
“Hey, Gunnar, what’s up? Don’t tell me you’re calling to gloat about being done with your grading. Because if you are, I’m going to make you come over here and finish mine.”
Ah, shit. No, he was nowhere near finished grading and he needed to read some papers tonight if he was going to have them all finished by the time he needed to have them in the system.
“No. No, definitely not, not even close.”
“What’s going on? You sound weird.”
He couldn’t tell her what was really wrong—that the woman he loved and thought was the one had left with three sentences written on notebook paper—so he settled for raking his hand through his hair again and continuing to pace. He could beat around the bush but there was an easier way to get what he wanted.
“Twyla wasn’t home when I got here and she left a note saying she’d gone back to her parents’ house. I’m worried about her.”
He heard Aaliyah suck air through her teeth. “That’s surprising for sure. Have you talked to her?”
“No, she won’t pick up when I call or answer my texts.”
“Can you think of any reason why she would’ve left? Did you have a fight?”
“No.”
And even if they’d had an argument, he liked to think she wouldn’t justleave. That was messed up.
“Did she seem upset during her exam today?” he asked, not knowing which answer to hope for. If she felt like she’d failed and she didn’t feel like she could face him, he had a hope of convincing her otherwise.
“Nervous, but not upset. And I looked it over as soon as she handed it in. She passed with flying colors. I still have to give her a C-minus for the class which is crappy given all the progress she’s made over the past few months. But mine was her last exam and she was so excited when I told her she passed. Even gave me a hug. Told me she was going to graduate.”
Twyla was going to graduate? Pride swelled his chest and he did a fist pump in the air. His little girl had worked so hard for this, and she’d succeeded.
Good things didn’t always happen to good people but it was fantastic when they did. And even though she’d made mistakes and would make them again because she was only human, Twyla was a good person and she deserved to be happy.
It sucked that it appeared she was of the opinion that she wouldn’t be happy withhim.
He swallowed his hurt and heartbreak—he’d try to sweat them out later—and made some inane chitchat with Aaliyah before volunteering, “I don’t want to keep you, I know you’ve got a lot of grading to do, and come to think of it, so do I. But if you hear something from Twyla, would you…”
Tell her to call me?
Tell her I’m so proud of her and I knew she could do it?
Tell her I love her?
Aaliyah took pity on him. “I’ll let her know you’re worried about her next time I see her, promise. Now go get that grading done or we’re both fucked.”