My feet pounded down the hallway as I ran to class—pausing only to toss my ticket in a trash can along the way. Dad can never know I got pulled over.

I skipped my locker completely, converse squeaking a bit as I halted abruptly in front of Mrs. M's door. I tried to slip in as unobtrusively as possible, but my lateness won't have gone unnoticed.

"You're late mister Price." Her stern voice greets me the moment I enter, and it feels like all eyes are on me. It's way too quiet, uncomfortably so. She narrows her eyes, glancing pointedly at an empty seat. "Are you going to hover there or sit Mr. Price? Make a decision."

I sigh heavily and drop my backpack noisily on the floor while sliding into my seat. Ian stifles a snicker, breaking the silence in the room, and I shoot him a knowing grimace in response. He only waggles his eyebrows and leans forward in his seat, resting his chin in hand, gazing amusedly between The Witch and me.

"You finished?" Mrs. M questions dryly, tapping a pen against the palm of her hand. I slump down in my seat and shrug, "I'm sitting, aren't I?"

She scowls and leans against her desk impatiently, an expectant expression on that made-up face. "I'd love to hear the excuse this time mister Price; let's hear it."

I pulled out my chemistry notebook and mechanical pencil, glancing reluctantly around the classroom while trying to work out a response.

The Witch can't know I got pulled over, she'd rat me out to dad.

"Accident." I yawn, running a hand through my dark hair.

Mrs. M raises her penciled-in eyebrows, not buying a single word. "Is that so?"

I nod, attempting to scratch some notes off the board down.

"Where at, Lucas?" She presses, an unamused smirk tugging at the corner of her red lips.

"Slater road. Everyone was bumper to bumper, and I had time to make conversation with one of the cops directing traffic. They had to clear the road; you know." I do my best to make eye contact with her.

"There was no accident on Slater this morning Mister Price," she snips, blue eyes running over me smugly. Mrs. M knows I'm a liar, but I decide to persist.

"Hey, I'm serious! Two cars, one got totaled and they had to tow it. The Officer I talked to was really nice though—apparently he went to Sherman too." I decided to use Officer Hoffman as an unwitting accomplice, and hardly sorry about it.

"Likely story." she says flatly, rounding her desk to sit down. "I'll be calling your father when class is finished."

Fuck.

"No, really! He told me to tell you hello." I insist, praying she'll take the bait.

Mrs. M's head snaps up, her piercing gaze settling on me uncomfortably. Her expression exudes mild amusement and curiosity. "Tell me hello?" She clarifies, leaning back in her seat.

"Yep, you." That's it, take the bait, you Witch.

She huffs out a dry laugh, "and why would this made-up officer want to say hello to a random kid's chemistry teacher?"

"He said he knew you," I shrug.

Mrs. M's eyes narrow and she purses her lips thoughtfully. "I see, and what's the message officer-no-name has for me, then?" She appears extra confident that she's about to expose my bullshit.

I leaned forward on my desk, fidgeting with my pencil and exposed my winning hand. "He said, 'tell Miss Massey Jae Hoffman says hi.' "

Her skin goes a bit pale, her mouth opening and closing awkwardly, as if she's not sure how to respond. Several strained seconds pass before she clears her throat. "Jae Hoffman?"

"That's the one!" I nod, unable to keep a smile from tugging at my lips. I can see Ian grinning like a total asshole, looking on between the two of us in excitement. The entire classroom is completely hushed.

"Jae Hoffman told you to say that?" She questions again, actual anxiety in her voice.

"Yep! I told him I was late for AP chemistry, and that spurred him to ask where I went to school. I said Sherman, and then he asked if 'Briana Massey' still taught here. I told him yeah, but that you have a different last name now."

She only stares, still speechless, and so I continue.

 "Anyway, he was really nice, and I guess he used to go here too. That was really it, though." I finish, yawning tiredly as if the information was dull to pass along.

She clears her throat and forces an uncomfortable smile. "W-well, that's very thoughtful of him, thanks for passing it on." Her mouth forms a tight line as she smooths out the front of her skirt nervously. The silence that follows is embarrassing.

Ian coughs loudly, and on purpose no doubt to break it. I fucking love Ian.

After a few more tics of that silence, Mrs. M returns her attention to the board and noisily flips through her notes to change the subject. "Mister Price, please turn to page 320, paragraph three with the rest of the class; we're wasting valuable time."

Oh my god, did she just buy my excuse?

My mind flashes back to the expression on Officer Hoffman's face when he gave me his message, and there was a smirk there. I suspect now that he knew his comment would throw her off!

I exhaled in hesitant relief, too busy doing an inner-happy dance to worry about whether she's gonna call dad, because I'm pretty sure she's too mortified by the mention of "Jae Hoffman" now to remember. I can only guess at the type of history they might have had together, and my mind races with the possibilities. Part of me wishes I could text him just now about how she responded to his little message—I bet he'd be amused.

My phone buzzes, and I pull it out of my pocket, glancing at it discreetly under my desk.

Ian: Bro, that was fucking hilarious, look at how awkward she is now!

I grin at Ian and stifle a laugh, returning my attention to Mrs. M.

 He's right, she looks uncomfortable, and suddenly I feel like today might not be so bad after all. Maybe she won't call dad, maybe I'll be able to eat dinner like normal tonight, and maybe I won't get beat.

Sure, I'm still kind of mortified at my attempt to hit on Officer Hoffman, but nobody here knows about that, and he ended up helping my case in class dramatically. I'd say it's turned into a win-win situation after all, and now I'm grateful I got pulled over.

When life gave me lemons, I got hot officer Hoffman instead.

The rest of chemistry class passed uneventfully, and Mrs. M made a point of not speaking to me when I left, which is unusual. Typically, she'd have lectured me about my tardiness, then called dad in front of me to be extra bitchy about it, but not today.

My backpack slung over my shoulder, Ian and I walked to our respective lockers. Ian is going on about the girls' volleyball team and how much he likes their little shorts, and his plans to ask one of the girls on the team out.

I'll admit I do love their itty-bitty shorts, but I'm not exactly craving the opposite sex these days.

To be fair, it isn't like I'm a raging virgin. I lost my virginity to Jordan Wilder the summer before Junior year. It was awkward, we were kind of drunk off some vodka she snuck from her parents, and we proceeded to date exclusively throughout the remainder of our junior year. Yeah, we fucked often. She's hot, and the sex was pretty good, at least I think so anyway. Neither of us were overtly experienced and we had to figure a lot of things out together, but it was still fun.

Something in me changed over the past summer though, the very something that caused me to give Hoffman my number....

"Look at Sky!" Ian whispers, his rough nudge against my shoulder jarring me from my thoughts. I follow his gaze, finding Sky Renner bent over in front of her locker picking some papers up, and her lace underwear is on full display. She's wearing a little sundress, and her undies leave little to the imagination.

I think she's teasing Ian; he fucked her a few months ago.

Part of me wonders how she isn't cold though since the temp outside is dropping rapidly with each passing day.

"Damn... " I mumbled, feeling my face flush. I don't exactly mind the view either if I'm being honest. I like eating pussy.

"Right?" Ian chuckles, shaking his head in wonder, eyes still fixed on her round ass. "She could suffocate me between her thighs, and I'd die a happy man." He lets his gaze linger until she rights herself.

I say nothing, turning back to my locker as I deposit my Chem books in exchange for AP History. Sky is hot, but she's not what I want. My mind is honestly more focused on reliving the interaction I had with Officer Hoffman.

He's exactly what I'm looking for, but painfully out of my league, and obviously uninterested. What did I think was going to happen? There's a notable age-gap between us, and he probably wouldn't have given me a second thought.

I exhaled heavily and leant against my locker, watching Ian go through his. 

"You're kinda quiet," he says over his shoulder, eyeing me as he shoves a sucker in his mouth and collects his shit for English.

"Just tired." I shrugged. 

"U-huh..." he tilts his head skeptically, waiting for me to elaborate, but I only smiled. "Really Ian, I'm just tired."

"If you say so," he says, shutting his locker. "Okay, but I gotta know, was there really an accident?" He grins, voice hushed.

I chuckled, "what do you think?"