Teaching Mr. Graham

    They held hands throughout the entire flight. Not once did they let go. Tatiana thought about everything she wanted to tell him. But people were around them. She figured she would wait to tell him what she wanted to tell him until they had some alone time. Instead of talking about the very serious, very real issues that were plaguing them, they talked about everything else: how well his artists performed at the IHeartMusic Festival, Aubrey's return to making music since he had the free time to do so. He confessed that he was writing again. She confessed to him that she was also writing.

    "To be honest, I haven't stopped writing since we started writing together," he told her, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. "Ever since I met you, that very first time, some of the most beautiful words have been going through my mind. They've just been...piecing themselves together. I rarely have to even think about it, they just come out of me. And it's all because of you, all because of us."

    She smiled and touched his face. Her feet were tucked underneath her and she was sitting in the chair sideways, just so she could look at him. One hand tucked in his, and the other gently touching his cheek. "I'm so sorry," she blurted out. She hadn't meant to say it, not right here and now, but she couldn't keep the words from tumbling out of her mouth. "For all of this."

    His brows furrowed. "You don't...blame yourself for this."

    "I should have never let it get this far," she said. "And if I hadn't blabbed my big mouth to my parents then we probably wouldn't be...then all of this wouldn't be..." She cut off the sentence and groaned in frustration.

    "You don't have to worry about me," he told her.

    "But I do," she said. "All the time. Every day. All day."

    He squeezed her hand and tilted his head back against the headrest. It pained his heart to hear the sadness in her voice. There was no sugarcoating the trouble that he was in; she knew better. And she was taking the blame for all of it. "None of this is your fault."

    "You don't have to tell me that to make me feel better, Aubrey."

    "I'm not telling you that to make you feel better," he told her. "I'm telling you that because it's true. Between the two of us, I'm the authority figure. It was up to me to shut anything between us down. And I didn't."

    She looked at him.

    He smiled sadly. "I couldn't. Because it was you. And what I felt for you, it was so..." He took a deep breath and forced himself to keep going. "My feelings for you were so fucking strong. I couldn't even control myself around you. My heart pulled me towards you and I just...followed. It was irresponsible of me. And ultimately, it was wrong of me."

    She started to protest.

    He shook his head. "No. It was wrong of me. It was. Whether or not it was morally wrong, that can be debated until we're blue in the face. But I knew that if we were caught, it would end up like this. With the news reports going crazy and with one or more of us being dragged. When I rewind all of the time I spent with you...I was never careful. Not as careful as I should have been. I was fucking reckless. Careless. Just...happy to spend time with you, excited that you felt the same way about you. I mean...come on. Holding hands in class? Flirting in class? I made a lot of stupid decisions when it came to us, because a part of me said that I didn't care if we were caught. I was stupid for that."

    "So was I."

    He laughed. "Eager to jump in the sinking ship with me, huh?"

    "I'd go anywhere with you," she said. And she meant it.

    The laughter in his eyes died and a serious look took its place. He frowned down at their joined hands. "I don't want this time we spend together to be all about the mistakes we may or may not have made. I want this time to just be...about us. I want this to be a happy time for us, a time for us to forget all of the bullshit and leave it at the door."

    It sounded nice, that concept. Whether or not it was actually possible still remained to be seen, though.

    "I want...I just want to spend this time loving you. Can I do that?"

    Her heart broke when his voice cracked a little. She leaned forward and kissed him, stroking the side of his face.

    "Will you two get a damned room?" Kenya called back to them.

    Eric laughed, then said something to her that Tatiana couldn't make out.

    Tatiana pulled back from the kiss.

    The laughter returned to Aubrey's eyes. "We'll be getting our own room as soon as we touch down, believe that," he said to Kenya with his eyes still on Tatiana.

    "Ya nasties," Kenya muttered.

    Tatiana laughed and kissed Aubrey again, this time holding her middle finger up to Kenya.

    "Who the hell does this bitch think she is?" Kenya demanded, and a moment later a pillow was sent flying towards Aubrey and Tatiana.

    Aubrey and Tatiana laughed against each others' lips, but refused to break the kiss just because a pillow war was being declared on them.