Chapter 5

"This was the worst decision ever."

Lois, a drink in her hand, was trying to get up a staircase against a never-ending flow of drunken people. Aether, the town’s main nightclub, was nearly bursting at the seams. There was no air conditioning and it was a hot, sweaty crush of bodies. The problem was that they weren’t really the kind of bodies that Sera or Lois were into. There didn’t seem to be a hot guy in sight.

"I also feel like someone’s grandmother," Sera said.

This was the problem with clubs that turned a blind eye to fake ID. Sera and Lois had been clubbing since they were fourteen. Now they were nearly legal drinking age, everyone else in the club was years younger. Mainly girls, since it was easier to fake being eighteen if you could slap on make-up and high heels.

So now Sera and Lois felt among the oldest females there.

"It’s like a youth club isn’t it? Let’s go somewhere else."

Getting out was easier said than done due to the crowds. Sera dreaded to think how they would evacuate the place if there was ever a fire. Aether was built in the hollowed out structure of what was formerly a large town house. There were several storeys with dance floors and bars connected by various staircases that wound around.

Plus a basement which was so hot and dark that Sera crunched and swallowed ice cubes whenever they danced there to try and cool down. The bartenders didn’t charge for a glass of ice so it was cheaper than buying a drink.

"Where shall we go then?" Sera asked as they finally got outside and felt the chill night air bite their skin.

"I don’t know, what’s open late? It’s nearly closing time for most places. The Retro is open until 1am, isn’t it?" It was the other side of town but worth the walk if it was the only place open. It was also near Orion, so if they felt like it they could gatecrash Joel’s night out.

Sera had never been sure about The Retro. As bars went it always seemed a little bit dark and a little bit cliquey. It was an odd mix of style and grunge, half bar, half club. The crowd there was also quite a bit older, they’d definitely be among the youngest people in the place if they managed to get in.

Which they did. It wasn’t hard to get admitted being young, female and in a super short skirt when the average bouncer was a straight male, more interested in getting hot females through the door while keeping out drunken, aggressive males. At this time of night people were starting to spill out of regular bars, many of them the worse for wear. The doormen had their work cut out.

Lois got them two gin and tonics because the drinks fluoresced in the black light downstairs, which always looked eye catching. There was a small dance floor but people tended to sway and jiggle a bit rather than actually dance. Nearly everyone was wearing black.

"Pretty much all these people are just sad office workers by day, much as they may like to think they look like The Cure," Lois said after some woman gave her a nasty glare and muttered something that sounded like "tarts". Having come from a nightclub they were both wearing skimpy, tight mini-dresses and getting more male attention than women dressing down in jeans.

One group of men clearly weren’t office workers though. When Sera and Lois got onto the dancefloor they were soon surrounded by half a dozen large guys who turned out be some visiting rugby team. This was more like it! Typical, of course, that they were only visitors and not full-time residents of the town.

If you liked big burly men you were spoilt for choice. Lois was soon hanging off the neck of one of them but Sera found herself holding back. Something just didn’t click for her that night.

As her friend was quite happy on the dance floor Sera slipped to the bathroom. She was looking fine: her make-up intact, her hair was okay. Through the narrow window in the bathroom she could see the moon above the buildings outside. A thin, bright silver crescent, only a couple of days past the new moon.

She shivered, without knowing why.

Then she stepped outside and her blood ran really cold.

There, just by the adjacent wall and glaring right at her, was Mr Marek.

You could get into a huge trouble if a teacher caught you out on the town underage. Sera froze, then frantically wondered what to do.

Walk by him and ignore him? Give him a brief nod and hope he turned a blind eye?

Fall at his feet prostrate and beg him not to report them?

Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. She chose the ignore option, perhaps she could pretend she hadn’t even seen him and he would do the same.

"Sera."

No luck with that then. She winced, prayed, and turned to him. "Mr Marek?"

"Underage and in a licensed premises yet again?" He stood there looking tall and severe, and incredibly good looking.

There wasn’t a lot she could say in response. "I bet you didn’t wait until you were eighteen to start drinking."

"Probably not. That doesn’t make it right for you to be here. Let alone dressed like that." His eyes ran up and down her dress, which was admittedly very short, and his gaze made her burn inside.

Sera felt daring. "Given how much more of me you’ve seen, I can’t see why this should bother you." On "this" she ran her hand over the top of her dress, drawing his attention to the neckline and the swell of her breasts.

His face betrayed no reaction. "That was perfectly professional."

"Was it?" Sera remembered how the way he looked at her had changed once the other model had arrived.

"Until I realised you weren’t a professional model, yes."

Was this an admission? She looked up into his eyes - he was so much taller than her - and was certain she saw the same attraction there that she felt. Why did he have to be her teacher? If only he was one of the guys playing rugby she could easily have pulled him onto the dance floor, probably have given him her phone number at the end of the night.

Sera decided to be daring. "Are you going to dance?" There were actually people dancing at this point, as a recent club hit was playing.

"Not to this."

"It’s not your type of music?" she asked.

"Not exactly."

"Do you ever dance?"

He looked straight at her. "Not with my students."

Something in Sera gave an absurd little thrill at his use of "my". It wasn’t intended to be possessive - after all he could equally have applied the same term to Barry or Jasper - but she liked the sense of association with him.

"I guess I’ll have to go and dance with that lot then." She indicated the rugby players who were all over Lois.

Sera hadn’t meant her words to rile Mr Marek, she genuinely intended to simply go and dance with the rugby team. But his eyes darkened when he saw the players jostling around Lois and a muscle clenched in his jaw.

"I’ll dance with you."

His tone was one of command, not acceptance of her invitation. Too shocked to react, Sera walked to the mass of moving bodies and Mr Marek followed her.

They faced one another and feeling strangely giddy, Sera began moving to the music in front of him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Lois’s mouth drop open. Sera knew her friend would drag her off the dance floor and to the cloakroom, wanting to know exactly what was happening. So she deliberately avoided looking in her direction.

Instead she cast her eyes up towards Mr Marek’s face. He towered over her and everyone else, he was at least as tall and well-built as any of the rugby players. Yet despite his height and strength he had a masculine grace as he moved that made the rugby guys look clumsy.

They weren’t really dancing together, just swaying in front of each other. Mr Marek was so incredibly attractive. Sera was close enough to sense the heat of his body and the trace of his aftershave. His eyes glinted as the lights flashed past them, his hair as black as midnight. His lips were firm and perfectly sculpted but unsmiling. Sera felt a magnetic force drawing her towards him.

What would it be like to kiss him? To have him crush her against him, with all the anger she could perceive in him flooding out into a violent embrace?

Desire gave Sera a rush of confidence. She moved closer to him, took his hands and put them on her hips. He dropped them instantly but she smiled at him, a sexy smile hyped up by alcohol and adrenalin, and tried again.

This time he let them linger there. He was looking at her, transfixed, his expression hard but failing to mask a flicker of attraction. More than a flicker.

Sera closed her eyes. She swayed closer to the music and to Mr Marek. I can’t believe I’m dancing with him, she thought. His hands only touched her lightly but her body burned and tingled under their impression.

She wanted to put her arms around his neck, draw up to him and feel his lips on hers, but she sensed it would be a step too far. Instead she used her hands to scoop up her own hair, twisting it on top of her head. Raising her arms meant her breasts were lifted towards him. He took a step back, breaking contact with her, and swore under his breath.

Sera smiled again and tried to return his hands to her hips but instead he gripped her arms and pressed them down against her sides, preventing her from reaching out to touch him.

The song finished soon afterwards and Mr Marek released Sera’s arms and left the dance floor.

"This never happened," he told her, his face unsmiling.

Sera watched him leave, going upstairs and she guessed out into the night. Everything felt flat and dull once he had gone, though certain parts of her were still burning with nerves and excitement from the memory of his touch. As anticipated, Lois soon dragged her off to the bathroom.

"What the hell? You dancing with Mr Marek. How did that happen?"

"I asked him," Sera admitted. "He was very reluctant."

"He looked more like he wanted to eat you. Or kill you," Lois added.

Sera wouldn’t have minded either. "He smells amazing."

"He’s your teacher, he’s supposed to smell of art books and oil paint."

Oil paint… just the thought of that aroma seemed erotic to Sera right then, because it made her think of Mr Marek.

"The look on your face," Lois said. "You’re in a dream world. Please don’t tell me you’ve gone and got a crush on him. I know what Joel and I said, but we were only joking."

Sera felt dejected. "You mean about him glaring at me?"

"All that, yes. It’s true he does glare at you - glower might be a better term for it - but I’m sure Joel’s just winding us up about it having any significance."

Now Sera wasn’t sure if she should feel disappointed or heartened by Lois’s words.

"He’ll probably completely ignore me next class," she said.

Lois made a face at herself in the mirror and pouted, having reapplied her lipstick.

"I guess it could be worse."

"How could it?" Sera asked.

"You could have taken all your clothes off and given him a striptease. Oh wait - that’s right - you already did." With a wicked grin Lois slipped back out into the bar before Sera could react.

Monday was certainly going to be interesting. Sera felt a thrill of fear and anticipation just thinking about it.

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