* * *
Sam couldn't sleep.
Lying awake in his darkened bedroom, the day's events kept replaying in his mind. He was on probation at school and he couldn't be near Josie. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the hurt look in her eyes, the sad expression on her face. It was killing him that any of this had caused her harm or had hurt her. All because he was too weak to use the restraint he should have on his emotions and his need to be near her. He was in love with her and he knew he had no right to be. She was innocent in all this, and he only had himself to blame for everything that happened. And now that he knew she had the same kind of feelings for him, it only seemed to make the situation worse.
"Ugh!" he groaned out loud as he swung the blanket aside and got out of bed. He felt restless and anxious and roamed into the living room where he sat in his leather recliner in the dark. He rolled his head upward and stared at the ceiling, remembering that just one day ago, he sat in this chair waiting for Josie to get dressed so he could take her home.
Josie.
Had she really been here? In his apartment? It was almost too much to believe. She had indeed been here, he thought, in my home and in my bed. Sam slowly closed his eyes and tried to focus on that night, rather than today's events. He slowly drifted into a deep sleep.
* * *
Sam woke up with a start. He had a strange feeling that he was not alone. Opening his eyes slowly, he swallowed hard when he saw Josie standing in his living room, in front of him wearing her silky red slip and nothing else. Her hair was tousled a bit, with a tendril hanging loose over her forehead.
"Josie," he croaked, totally confused why she was there.
"I couldn't sleep..." she whispered.
Sam didn't know how to respond. His heart was beating fast and he gasped when he watched her take a step forward so that her bare leg was just brushing against his. He could see her chest move as she breathed heavily.
"I couldn't sleep in there..." she nodded toward his bedroom, "knowing that you were in here."
Sam watched helplessly with excitement as Josie took another step forward and gently sat on Sam's lap. She braced one hand against the chair behind him and his hand uncontrollably went behind her as he placed it on her back. They both locked eyes and were lost in each other's gaze.
Sam's breathing was now just as labored as Josie's. He could feel her breath against his cheek and realized that they were now just inches away from each other. His hand traveled back and forth over the silk on her back. His bare legs and hers were touching and it sent waves of arousal through his body.
Josie was like a magnet drawing him to her. He knew he couldn't restrain himself any longer. It was wrong, he knew, to be responding to her like this, but he couldn't stop. He had to kiss her.
Sam's gaze shifted from Josie's eyes to her lips. With his other hand, he reached over and pulled her slowly toward him, closing his eyes and letting himself be fully immersed in the sensation of being close to her. He pulled her close and just before their lips met, she disappeared and suddenly no one was there. His hand motioned through thin air as he opened his eyes and realized that he had just woken up from a dream. He was still sitting in his recliner, alone, in his darkened living room.
He exhaled loudly, disappointed that it had only been a dream, yet relieved at the same time. "Get a grip on yourself, Sam," he told himself. He slowly got up and walked toward the bedroom.
In an attempt to fall back asleep, Sam rolled over in his bed and pulled the pillow over his head. Once again, he drifted into a restless sleep.
* * *
Sam slowly woke up when he felt someone stirring next to him. He lifted the pillow from his head and looked to his left to see Josie sound asleep in the bed with him. She had a peaceful, innocent expression on her face and he knew that she was in a deep sleep. He slowly reached over and brushed his thumb across her cheek. Her eyes fluttered slightly, and he pulled his hand away, scared she might wake up.
'What am I doing?' he thought to himself. 'I have to get out of here.' He didn't know how they had both gotten in bed together, and even though he knew it was wrong, it felt so right, so natural, to wake up with her at his side. He sighed heavily and swung the blanket aside, gasping in shock when he saw he wasn't wearing anything. Turning quickly to look at Josie, making sure that she was still asleep. His mind began racing. At least she was still wearing her red silk slip.
'Where are my clothes?' he wondered. He looked down at the floor and recognized the towel he had previously worn around his waist from his shower. He quickly picked it up and covered himself before standing and swiftly wrapping it around him. He watched Josie to make sure she was still asleep. He exhaled a sigh of relief seeing that her eyes were closed and she hadn't seen anything.
He tiptoed to his dresser and quietly opened the drawer so he could find something to put on. He suddenly felt something or someone behind him, and turned to see Josie standing in front of him, just inches away. She was looking deep into Sam's eyes, just before letting her eyes roam up and down, discovering his body which was only covered by the small towel. As if in a trance, she slowly slid the straps of her slip down her shoulder. Sam held his breath and watched as in slow motion the silk confection started to slide off her, when a loud buzzing noise interrupted him.
Sam woke up with a start and recognized the sound of his alarm clock. It was morning.
* * *
As Sam walked down the hallway of South Glen headed toward the teacher's lounge, he purposely looked down at the floor to avoid meeting anyone's gaze, Josie's in particular. After his long night of longing dreams about her, he didn't know how he would respond or react if he saw her. He successfully made it to his destination and saw Adam sitting at their usual table, drinking a cup of coffee, and reading the sports section of the paper.
As Sam approached the table and pulled out the chair, Adam looked up at him and shook his head at Sam's sour expression. "Well, if it isn't Mr. Intense. Sam, what got into you yesterday? I haven't seen you play like that since Lara stood you and your parents up that time."
"I don't want to talk about it," Sam said through pursed lips. In fact, he did want to talk about it. He felt like he would burst from the pressure. Sam pulled some papers out of his briefcase and audibly gasped when he saw Josie's paper on top. Adam, hearing his reaction, looked over and grabbed the paper from the pile before Sam could stop him.
"Josie Geller," he read her name. "Ok, buddy, I wasn't going to say anything. But..." he looked up at Sam to read his expression. "I saw you two at prom. And then yesterday, well..." he stopped and looked down at the paper, "people talk Sam. Some of the teachers said they saw you in Jack Kerdan's office. And then they saw her in there, too."
Sam nodded slowly and his eyes watered slightly remembering what happened.
"Now, are you sure you don't want to talk about it? Come on, Sam. Level with me."
Sam looked around the room to make sure no one else was there. "It's not what you think," he said quietly. "She's a great... she's amazing, Adam. She's sweet, smart, funny... I don't know what I'm saying. I'm so confused!" He buried his head in his hands.
"Sam," Adam said slowly, "Just tell me this. Did anything happen between you?"
"You mean happen as in happen?"
Adam nodded.
"No. Absolutely not," he said convincingly. Truth was, nothing happened between them physically. Emotionally a lot was happening.
"So tell me what happened."
"Nothing really. She's one of my best students; I admire her a lot. We had been spending a lot of time together with the prom committee. I know this sounds strange, but she just has the most intense affect on me- on my teaching," he clarified. He had to be careful just how much he admitted to Adam, or to himself for that matter.
"So...we had lots of talks about literature, Shakespeare, things like that, and that's really how I got to know her. And then at prom... Well, it came to my attention that one of the kids was planning on taking advantage of her, and, well... I just couldn't let that happen. I had to try to stop it."
Adam looked at Sam in response, trying to figure out how to interpret what he was hearing.
Sam continued. "Maybe it's unusual for a teacher to go out on a limb like that for a student, but she just... she just seems so innocent, and I couldn't handle the guilt of knowing that it was about to happen and not step in."
"So what did you do?"
Sam took a deep breath before continuing. "I went to find her. She was at the Four Seasons downtown." Adam's eyes grew bigger.
"You followed her to a hotel?"
"Yes," he said quietly. "And, luckily, she found her way out of there before getting hurt. But, you see, the problem was..." Sam looked down at the table and folded his hands. "They had gotten her drunk�really drunk. So by the time I found her, she was one the verge of passing out."
"I see." Adam said flatly, without giving away any emotion.
"So I tried to drive her home, but by the time she was in my car, she did pass out. I shook her, but I couldn't wake her up."
"Okay... so where did you take her?" Adam watched Sam blink repeatedly. "Sam? Where did you go?"
Sam winced before saying in a whisper, "I took her back to my apartment."
"Sam! You didn't!"
"Adam, I didn't have a choice! She was unconscious. She didn't have an ID with her�I had no way of knowing where to take her. It was almost three in the morning. Faced with that, what would you have done?"
Adam scowled a bit and then sighed before responding. "I guess you didn't have a choice. But nothing happened, right?"
"Absolutely nothing. I laid her on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and I slept on the couch. She woke up the next morning with a king-sized hangover. I made her some coffee and took her home."
"Okay, so nothing happened. So what's the big deal?"
Sam inhaled deeply. "The big deal, is that my jealous ex-girlfriend made sure that Jack Kerdan happened to witness Josie and I left my apartment together first thing in the morning."
"Oh my... Sam! You've got to be kidding me. He saw you? Did he misunderstand?"
"Yes. You could say that. Frankly Adam, I'm on probation. I'm damn lucky he didn't just suspend me. And I'm not allowed to have any contact with Josie while they investigate."
Just then, Ms. Knox walked in. "Good morning!" she called out to them before going to the coffee machine.
"I gotta get out of here," Sam said as he got up. "Adam, not a word to anyone. Do you swear?"
"I swear. It'll be okay, Sam. It'll work out. I'm sure of it."
"I hope so, I really do." Sam turned to walk to his classroom, knowing that things definitely weren't okay.
* * *
The moment Sam had been dreading had finally arrived. English Lit class with Josie. As the students filtered in, Sam decided to preoccupy himself with writing some notes about today's lesson. He sat at his desk, looking down at his notebook, but couldn't avoid the vision he saw out of the corner of his eye.
Josie slowly walked in, looking down at the floor and stopped briefly next to Sam's desk. She looked up at Sam to see him focused on whatever he was writing in his notebook. He wouldn't look at her. She turned and continued on her way to her desk in the front row.
Sam took a deep breath and tried to ignore what he saw, but he couldn't. He looked up briefly, just in time to see Guy walk up to Josie's desk.
"Don't think you got away with anything," Sam heard Guy saying to Josie. "We may not have done anything that night after Prom, but that's not what I'm telling people. If you're smart, you'll play along." Guy then turned and walked away.
Sam's stomach turned when he caught a glance from Josie, a hurt, worried look in her eyes. He immediately shifted his gaze back to his notebook just as the bell rang.
"Okay class," Sam said as he stood up. "Today, we're going to talk about..."
Just then, the door opened and Jack Kerdan walked in. Sam froze.
"Oh, Mr. Coulson, please don't let me interrupt." He turned to the class. "Mr. Coulson was nice enough to invite me to observe one of his English Lit classes, and I decided to take him up on his offer before the year ends." He walked over to the empty chair in the back of the room. "Please, go on."
Sam was stunned. "Um, where was I?"
Josie watched as Sam became visibly shaken. She thought she was going to be sick.
"Today, we are going to talk about the reading assignment from last night..." Sam had to pull it together. It took everything he had to focus on Shakespeare and forget that the love of his life was sitting just a few feet away from him and he had to pretend she didn't exist. Somehow, he made it through the very long, awkward hour, knowing that his job would be over if he didn't.
* * *
Josie didn't think she would be able to make it through the day. She knew she had to go on, for the sake of finding her story, but all she wanted to do was turn to Sam and tell him the truth, as much as she knew it was going to hurt him.
After her long day finally came to an end, she found Bambi in the parking lot and began her commute back to the city. She listened to the radio while getting caught up in one of Chicago's famous traffic jams on I-94.
"There's going to be quite a storm," she heard the radio announcer say. She temporarily shifted her thoughts from Sam to ominous skies above. "Chicagoans are urged to stay indoors tonight, as there will be some severe weather in the Chicago metropolitan and surrounding areas." Josie sighed deeply.
"Well, it's not like I have anywhere to go," she said out loud. She reached over and turned the radio off, determined to wallow in her depression over Sam.
* * *
Sam walked out to the parking lot to find that his car was the one of three that remained. He had purposely stayed late so he could finish grading some papers, but the truth was, he didn't want to sit alone in his apartment. He knew that he would start dwelling on Josie again.
As he reached over to open the car door, he heard someone call out his name. He turned to see Adam approaching him.
"Hey, Sam. Wait up." He continued walking over to Sam until he was standing next to him.
"Adam, about today... what I told you..."
"Sam, there's something you need to know. Now don't get mad at me..." Sam gasped, thinking that Adam may have done something to interfere. "Sam, I decided to do some checking today..."
"Checking?" Sam repeated.
"On Josie Geller. Sam, she's not from where she says she's from." Sam smirked slightly, remembering Josie's fake story.
"I know she's not from Bali."
Adam had a confused look on his face. "Bali? What are you talking about? Her transcript said she was from Scranton, Pennsylvania."
Now Sam was confused. "Right..." he said slowly.
"Sam, you're my friend, and�well�I just want to make sure that you aren't accused of something you didn't do. I had a funny feeling about her, so I checked up on her, Sam. And she isn't from the school where the transcript is from."
Sam's heart was racing. What was he talking about? "How do you know that?"
"I called over there. They have never had a student named Josie Geller."
Sam was in shock. There had to be some mistake.
"I just thought you should know. Oh, I see my ride is here... Look, if you need anything, don't hesitate to call me. I'm sorry for interfering, but I'm a friend, Sam. Be careful, all right?" The horn beeped. "Okay, I have to go." he patted Sam on the shoulder. "Take it easy." He then turned and walked away.
Sam felt as if the world as he knew it was just turned upside down.
* * *