The Not Gate (Tom and Alice #1) (17 page)

‘You’re such a big head!’ she smacked his arm with her open palm.

‘Yep, that as well,’ he chuckled, ‘Jesus, I have been blessed with some amazing sexual prowess,’ Tom winked at her.

‘Competent, I suppose,’ Alice teased him back.

He grabbed her sides and began to mercilessly tickle her until she cried out for breath.

‘Competent?’ he asked before letting her go.

‘You’re getting the hang of it,’ she rolled out from under him laughing before he could punish her anymore.

RESOLUTIONS

Monday
1
st
January

T
om drove Alice home at 7am. Long before her sister and parents were due back. He dropped her off around the corner and watched her walk for a moment. Her small body disappearing out of view.

The morning had that distinctive New Year’s Day feeling about it. Still, silent and somehow apocalyptic.

Nearly every house had their curtains closed, their cars in the driveway and the odd neighbourhood cat roamed the street as the world slept off its hangover.

Tom on the other hand had just dropped his teenage lover off after a night of drunken fighting and inviolable sex… all in a day’s work for a respectable school teacher.

Was this his life now?

Why was everything so much easier when you were young? No real issues, no cares. You just got to live in the moment and your parents took care of the rest for you.

Was it still like that for Alice?

He turned the car around in the road and hoped he could find a shop that was open. He needed breakfast, a shower and a bloody good shake.

Tom sat with a cup of tea at his dining table. A pen poised in his right hand, a blank page in front of him.

Resolutions time.

January 1
st
without fail Tom had to write something down. He’d been doing it for years, maybe since he was eleven or twelve. He always felt the need to change something however small, to keep the world turning and him with it.

He scribbled the year in the top corner along with his name, headed it with “Resolutions” and bullet pointed the first line… he stopped and looked at the page.

How fucked up are you?

It wasn’t as if he was going to hand this in to be marked. He ripped the sheet off the pad, screwed it up and launched it at the bin.

On the clean page he began to write:

Sort out temper. Don’t let it get the better of you again.

Alice.

Work? Leave?

Drink less beer.

Stop pushing Alice sexually, too far, too fast.

He would have to burn this list afterwards…

Work??

Marry Alice.

In your dreams…

It was no good. It just wasn’t happening. He couldn’t even think straight enough to write down eat more veg or go to the gym four times a week? Maybe even read a book a month? Everything normal had left him.

He finished his tea and chucked the list in the bin.

He felt like he needed to go home for a bit. Back to Ireland, where he could think clearly. He missed the smell of the place and he missed his folks. He hadn’t seen them in over a year and it was his fault. He missed the streets he grew up on and the boat dock he bummed Saturday work from as a teenager and then later during his summer breaks at university. He wanted to see the Nineteen Arches bridge and taste the sausages his mum cooked. The best Irish sausages he had ever tasted, well done and sitting between thick, white buttered bread and sweet tomato ketchup.

His phone rang distracting him from his reminiscence.

‘Hello?’ he snapped.

‘It’s me, fuck face,’ Neil’s greeting made him smile and quickly pulled him from his maudlin mood.

‘What do you want?’

‘Just wondering how Rocky is this morning?’ he heard his friend try to cover a laugh.

‘Funny man,’ Tom answered dryly.

‘How’s the head?’

‘Flesh wound.’

Neil started laughing loudly, ‘you are such an idiot.’

‘Was that it?’ Tom asked his voice softening.

‘No. I wanted to know if you were okay? I’ve never seen you go off like that,’ Neil asked.

‘Did Matt tell you what he was saying?’

‘Yes, I spoke to him before I called you. The guy did deserve it. I’m not disputing that. But you would normally walk away from that sort of thing, Tom?’

‘Yeah well, I couldn’t this time,’ Tom picked up his pen and paper and on another clean page wrote, sort temper out and underlined it.

‘Okay, if that’s all it was?’

‘It was.’

‘What about knocking that girl back then?’ Neil pressed further. He was so bloody perceptive and inquisitive it made Tom crazy. He’d even debate episodes of the X-Files long into the night if he thought they were reaching too far on factual content.

‘I don’t have to fuck every girl that shows an interest Neil, I’m not you,’ Tom bit back.

‘Bit harsh. I suppose if I looked like you I wouldn’t have to either,’ he joked.

‘Look I just wanted a night out with the guys that’s all,’ Tom answered honestly.

‘Okay, if you say so,’ Neil changed the subject swiftly, ‘coming for a bank holiday drink later then?’

Tom thought for a moment, ‘yeah, why not.’

He hung up and just underneath on the next line he wrote, drink less beer. Knowing only too well he’d fail miserably.

PANIC

Monday
8th January

T
om had been called to the head’s office just after registration on the first day back after the Christmas break. It was never a good thing. He sat awkwardly on the green leather chair waiting for Mr Davidson’s arrival and all manner of uncomfortable conversations played out in his mind.

‘It appears that some allegations have been brought to my attention…’

‘Unsavoury and unacceptable behaviour…’

‘Sexual relations with a pupil of this school…’

‘Suspension Mr Chambers, effective immediately…’

Tom stood, straightened his trousers and tie and sat again. He shifted and glanced at his watch. The door behind him opened with a soft whoosh against the carpet.

‘Sorry, Tom,’ Mr Davidson said as he walked to his desk placing a steaming mug of hot black coffee down on a much used coaster, ‘truants again it never changes. Oh…’ he looked up at Tom, ‘that looks rather nasty?’

Shit.

Tom had convinced himself that his eye didn’t look too bad. But clearly this wasn’t the case. It had been a deeper cut than he had thought at the time, the guy must have caught him with his ring or something as he was lashing out and it had left a nice little red scar.

‘No, it’s fine now. I had a fall from my bike last week. That’ll teach me trying to burn all those mince pies off too quickly,’ he laughed scathingly at himself.

‘Oh well… the youth do like to keep in shape.’

‘Vanity, it can be dangerous,’ Tom replied.

‘Indeed.’

‘Was that what you needed to see me about?’

Mr Davidson looked flustered suddenly, ‘no, well the thing is Tom… it’s a bit delicate.’

Here it comes.

‘Go on?’

Just cut to the chase.

He felt suddenly so hot and he thought he was going to throw up.

‘It’s Mrs Atkins,’ the head looked up at Tom.

‘Mrs Atkins?’

‘Yes Tom, your predecessor. It seems she has decided she would like to come back to teaching after her maternity leave is finished. Well it’s more to do with the fact her husband has lost his job unfortunately… but we are keeping that hush-hush from the others for now. We, the school that is, were under the definite impression that she would become a full-time mother and therefore recruited to a very high standard… you. With a mind to be her permanent replacement of which you’re already aware from our various meetings,’ Mr Davidson looked uncomfortable as he picked up his coffee and continued, ‘but since she is still on maternity leave and technically employed by this school we are legally obliged to take her back. Oh, not that I am saying she’s a poor teacher, she’s a lovely lady. Lacking only in good old fashioned discipline,’ he winked at Tom in a – you and I are on the same page – sort of way.

‘I understand Mr Davidson. It’s okay really. I knew that it was always a distant possibility,’ Tom replied.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about this? Apart from the instant relief that it wasn’t what he had first feared.

Was it a good or a bad thing?

‘You’re a damn fine teacher Tom and we were so lucky to secure you. I hate losing good men. I’m sure you will have no trouble finding a new post for September…’ he looked down at his pile of papers on his desk, ‘…I don’t suppose you would be interested in a normal English position, just not head of department?’

‘Thank you and as much as I have come to love this school it would feel like a backwards step,’ Tom replied honestly.

‘Yes, yes of course you’re right. I just thought it was worth a shot,’ Mr Davidson looked at him slightly embarrassed.

‘I am flattered,’ Tom said trying to wrap it up, the headmaster did have a tendency to go on.

‘Well then if anything changes you’ll obviously be the first to know. Also if you need any advice going forward don’t hesitate to come and talk with me.’

He was a really nice man, Tom thought. It would be a shame to not be working for him for much longer.

‘Oh incidentally you have had some great results with the under fifteens. It’s the first time our school team has shown any real talent on the pitch,’ he smiled warmly at Tom.

‘Thank you.’

‘Peter Marlow’s showing promise in goal…’

Outside, minutes later, Tom felt a sense of freedom. This could be just what they needed. He wouldn’t be
her
teacher but he would still a be
a
teacher. Okay they still couldn’t go public but some of the guilt would be removed and he may even be able to sleep at night. The timing wasn’t perfect and he didn’t like the thought of switching positions after only a year, but the circumstances and his good track record should make it easy for him to find a suitable post.

That evening Alice called him. Monday night conversations had become a bit of a routine for them. Alice’s parents went to the local pub quiz and it meant she could steal the phone for an hour whilst her sister watched television. They should both get mobile phones really and become part of the new craze that was growing steadily day by day. Text messaging would apparently become the new way to communicate, according to Neil, and he was a computer geek so he would know. Tom didn’t really like the thought of it, but if it meant that they could contact each other privately then he would certainly jump on the bandwagon of the worlds latest fad.

‘Hey you,’ she said sweetly and he imagined her beautiful green eyes smiling.

‘Feel’s good to see you again in the day,’ he answered, knowing he would have to tell her about his morning meeting, ‘I hate the holidays, going weeks without seeing your face.’

‘What’re you doing?’ she asked.

‘I’ve just had a pizza and now I’m getting started on some year eight marking.’

‘Do you want me to leave you to get on with it and call you later?’

‘No way, I want to talk to my girl,’ he heard her giggle, ‘…why is that funny?’

‘It’s not, you’re just so sweet,’ Alice breathed.

‘I am not sweet. I am a MAN!’ he joked in a self-
deprecating
way.

‘Yeah you are. Are you having a beer?’

‘Is that a trick question?’

‘No.’

‘Then, yes I am,’ Tom smiled. This is what he loved about these conversations. Alice could be sat next to him just chatting away about nothing. They had the time just to relax and talk, get to know each other. Not like the times they have to cram a month’s physical contact, sex, passion into snatched meetings here and there. That part of their relationship Tom would never get used to. He wanted her there all the time. To be able to turn over at night and hold her, any night... every night.

‘Good,’ she said.

‘Good what?’ he asked snapping back to the conversation, what had he missed?

‘Good, you’re having a beer.’

‘Why good?’ he chuckled.

Alice sighed gently, ‘because I like to get a picture of you in
my head and when I see you drinking a beer it always turns me on.’

‘You’re a very strange girl, Alice. Swearing, drinking, angry, a bit of light bondage. I’m starting to worry you may want a bad boy and not a wholesome teacher after all?’ he loved teasing her.

‘Light what!’ she spluttered, ‘um I think I already have a pretty bad boy on my hands.’

‘And I have a very pretty girl in mine.’

‘You’re crazy.’

‘Crazy for you,’ he sang.

Okay, you have to tell her.

‘Alice, listen. I’m not going to be teaching at Claude Bennett next year,’ he kept his voice flat, waiting for the fireworks.

‘You resigned! Why?’ she shouted.

‘Wait, I didn’t resign. Mrs Atkins is coming back. It just means I have to find another job, that’s all,’ Tom replied calmly.

‘What about us?’ he could hear the tears through her voice.

‘Nothing’s changed. We’re still the same the only difference is we won’t see each other at school every day. That might not be a bad thing though, think about it, you’ll be able to concentrate on your final year of A-levels and I can get back to teaching instead of being distracted all day by the little blonde fairy that I am hopelessly in love with.’

‘I guess it will make you worry less as well won’t it? That we will be caught out and you would lose your job or worse,’ she whispered.

‘Yes. It also makes it slightly more morally bearable,’ he admitted.

‘Well don’t go falling for anyone else when I’m not there to watch you.’

‘Ditto, I may become a very jealous man. I know the lads that you hang around with young lady and I know the way they look at you,’ he half joked.

‘I like you jealous.’

‘Right that’s another bad trait we need to add to the aforementioned list, this is getting very dark indeed,’ he could hear Alice giggle on the other end of the line.

It was going to be okay. She was mature and she understood the risks would be lesser for them this way.

‘Why don’t you unbutton your jeans?’ Alice asked quietly then.

Tom nearly choked on the swig of beer he had just taken.

‘Sorry? Are you seriously initiating phone sex?’ he was stunned.

‘Yes… I think so,’ she breathed in her airy tone.

Oh yes, mobile phones were suddenly sounding like one hell of a genius idea.