Page 75 of Mr. Naughty List

“Carter?” RJ blinked in confusion. “Why didn’t you say… Oh, you didn’t know.” Aaron nodded. “Until today.” Another nod. “How?”

“Doug and Betsy’s house isn’t in my school’s zone. I assumed I was safe. You know what they say about assumptions…” Aaron winced.

“Ah. I think he still goes to his old school from before the divorce. Over near where his mom lives.” RJ groaned. “Which, yeah, probably zones him for Pineview. Fuck.”

Aaron swallowed, wiping his fingers over his tired eyes. “That makes sense.”

“So what happened?”

“He went to the principal—my mother—about it.”

RJ tried to figure out what that meant. “I don’t understand.”

“He somehow knows we’re seeing each other. He told her.”

“He turned you in? For seeing me?”

“I have no idea what he said to her. It all blew up too fast for me to even discern what Carter’s motivations were.” He blinked rapidly. “It was just…kerblewy. She accused me of…things. I lost my temper. She lost her temper. I stormed out. I…I left school. In the middle of the day. I’ve never done that before.”

RJ shifted so that he was mirroring Aaron’s position on the sofa, never pulling his hand away, letting Aaron clench it for comfort. “Okay.”

“It’s not okay, RJ.”

“Why not?”

Aaron looked down at their hands and his shoulders sagged. “I didn’t tell you everything about my past. When you asked me why I switched schools and what was going on with my mother, I left out a key piece of my history.”

“Why?”

“Because I was ashamed.” He actually trembled but when RJ reached out to comfort him, he drew back, still clinging to RJ’s hand, though.

“Tell me.”

Aaron shook his head.

“Tell. Me.” RJ tried the dom voice, and just like that Aaron softened, surrendered.

“As teachers, we’re bound by a code of ethics. There are certain things we can lose our careers over.”

“Like?”

“Our code of ethics says that teachers must demonstrate strong character traits, such as honesty, lawfulness, respect, decency, and unity.”

“That sounds pretty vague to be honest.”

“Maybe, but I’ve already been written up once by my former school and by the Superintendent of Schools for violating the code of ethics with regards to decency.”

RJ went very still. “Because you’re gay?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, because I fucked the gym coach at Taylor High while he was still married.”

RJ nodded his head slowly. “Coach Ingles or Coach McAllister?”

Aaron blinked at him, tears rising in his eyes. Shit, why did RJ keep doing this to people he cared about? Saying things that obviously hurt? “McAllister,” Aaron whispered. “On school property. Twice. We got busted by another teacher.”

RJ stayed silent, hoping that was the better choice, and squeezed Aaron’s hand to encourage him to go on.

“I didn’t know he was married. I barely knew anything about him. We hooked up via Grindr, and we both just had torso pics up. He listed things I’m interested in.” Aaron blushed. “He promised to be rough with me. I wanted that.”