I know what you're thinking. Where the fuck have I been? I'm sorry. I got caught up in the roleplaying thing that my stories took a backseat. I'm turning my attention back to them now. Can you believe I had to reread the last two or three chapters to find where I mentally left off? Here it is!

Alice left fairly late, but I still emailed Amelia back. I couldn't help it. I read her message again. This time with the picture she had sent me opened up in the background. I tried to keep my tone fairly neutral and authoritative, but I'm afraid I allowed myself to come off a little softer, a little more receptive.

By the time I hit 'send', I was so hopped up on the anxiety and excitement of it all that I could barely keep still. I maximized the picture and just found myself with my hand down my pants, completely unable to help myself. Jesus, I ought to at least get some fuckin' tissue… But my eyes were glued to the screen. I couldn't believe what I was doing; I kept getting more and more lost. Before I knew it, I was soaking my boxers.

My eyes gave way and closed as I leaned my head back into the chair. As my body relaxed, my emotions resurfaced. With the sense of primal urgency gone, I immediately regretted how loose I was in my email. Why did I let myself get carried away? I closed the image on the screen and waited for about an hour, cursing myself and wondering if she was going to write back that night.

She didn't.

As I got ready for bed, I began to panic that maybe I went too far, or maybe she was sitting out there somewhere laughing at my emails, getting ready to show them to her friends. I tried to disregard my fretful thoughts. It's late. She probably doesn't stay up on the computer all night. She wouldn't even have expected me to write back again… probably…

The next morning, my questions were answered. I had left my computer on until I was just about to leave for work. Just in case she checked in the morning. Apparently she did:

'Hi! I totally didn't think you'd write back so late! I am about to leave for school, but I wanted you to know I will reply to everything tonight! *And* I will make sure to stay up later this time :)… See you soon!'

My heart sunk and swelled at the same time. Sunk because I was letting myself get dragged in deeper. Swelled because she emailed me back and I knew she was still interested. Sunk because her reply was so brief. I'm far to old to have my heart fluttering like this.

That's how it went for the rest of the week. Amelia continued to play it completely cool while in the classroom. I was frankly impressed that she was able to resist trying to flirt with me or get some kind of reaction out of me. I don't mean that in some self-centered way as if I was god's gift to women and Amelia wouldn't be able to contain herself. I was genuinely impressed at how maturely she handled the situation. She wasn't ignoring me, but there was just this unspoken communication between us. She was honoring the secret. And each day that went by made me feel that much more confident that nobody would ever know.

And I suppose that's why I kept emailing her. Longer emails. More detailed, more flirtatious. And she sure as hell returned in kind. By the end of the week, I was staying up until 1:00-2:00am. It didn't feel like I was staying up late. I was just writing. And reading. And fuck me, but this girl was interesting. The way she talked about writing, and how our "relationship" inspired her to really try harder, and how it has made her feel. It was intoxicating. And, let's face it; I didn't mind this beautiful young girl being so seemingly infatuated with me either.

Or the pictures. God. The pictures. Every once in awhile she'd send me another photo of herself. Nothing really racy, usually just her smiling, or her sitting on her bed with the laptop next to her. Things she'd take at the spur of the moment while waiting for an email from me. My favorite so far was one of her sitting cross-legged on some pillows.

She was wearing these little pajama shorts and a flimsy tank-top, one strap had slid off her shoulder. I was dying to be able to just pan the camera in the picture up a little bit, to get a better view of her legs as what little fabric there got pulled up her thighs… Or to reach through the screen and massage her naked arm, working my way to her slightly exposed chest.

By Thursday, I was both tired and refreshed. All of the late nights chatting with Amelia left little time for me to do my actual job and grade papers. It was when I was catching up that someone texted me. Admittedly, I was hoping it was Amelia though I told her that I wouldn't be on today for work reasons. I'm not rude after all; I didn't want her waiting on a reply that would never come. If she did message me though, I wouldn't object a brief conversation.

I paused my grading to go for my phone sitting on the dinning table. Much to my disappointment and slight horror, it wasn't Amelia but some very very close to her. Alfred.

Yo, Artie, dude! Do you wanna chill tomorrow? Gil's being a total dick and Mat has a date so.

The truthful answer to that question was no. I did not want to 'chill' with Alfred after the bar incident. In fact, I'd done a good job of avoiding him, Gilbert and Mathias for good reason. If he even noticed even a hit of something going on between Amelia and I, I could kiss my life goodbye. It was too risky. Alfred was a liability I did not want to have.

I told him as much. I was busy catching up on assignments and most like would not be able to 'chill' this weekend.

Work, huh? Maybe I can come over and help?

What the hell? No! I had to delete that. I sighed and thought it through. I could spare an hour or two with him, no more but most certainly not at my home. That was far too risky. I knew why Gilbert and Mathias were busy. We had the district superintendent coming that week and everyone was to be on the top of their game. Lucky for me, I wasn't too far behind and typical one of the best teachers, notwithstanding the whole Amelia and I thing.

I told Alfred we could toss back a pint or two for a bit but I couldn't stay out long. Of course, all Alfred saw was a yes. I swear, I have a hard time distinguishing whole was the eldest, Alfred or Amelia. Sometimes she acted more mature, sometimes he acted childish and, quite frankly, I did not want to think of both of them at the same time.

He said he had to make a quick stop before we could go anyway but we could meet at his place first and carpool. It sounded like a good idea at the time so we left it at that and I resumed my grading.

By Friday night, or technically Saturday morning, Amelia and I were back to out usually messaging schedule. We'd talked all night minus a pause for her to eat dinner and for me to talk to Alice. By a little after midnight, she was finishing off our correspondence for the day.

'Okay, I totally need to sleep or else I'm going to be a zombie at this family thing I have to do tomorrow. But I'll see you Saturday night, right? Online of course. Unless you'd rather talk face to face somewhere ;) I wouldn't mind not having to type so much. My poor fingers!'

At some point a few days prior, I promised myself if I ever thought I was getting too carried away, I'd take a break from the computer and, if nothing else, do actually teach stuff or hanging out with Alice. Just to get back in my right mind. Up to now, I hadn't bothered keeping that promise. But faced with the possibility of meeting up with her again… Well, I had to do something before I let myself plot up something for too long. So while I fantasized desperately about what another encounter with my student… "girlfriend?"… would look like, I was at least stopping myself from replying about it.

I left it without replying when I went to bed that night/morning. I woke up to a message from Alfred asking if we could meet a bit earlier than the time scheduled. Groggily, I agreed to meet him at his place a bit earlier. It was all the same to me. I still had time to do something respectable today like see my actual girlfriend. I almost wondered, cynically, if there'd be anything left for her. Worst case scenario, I'll just think about Amelia. God, I was turning into a fucking asshole. It's not like I asked for this… But I couldn't say no either.

Surprisingly, a small portion of the gentleman I had always been was still in me. I surprised Alice with a lunch date. She had no clue I was coming over to pick her up and was so very appreciative of the gesture.

There was this sting at first, like I was just going through the motions. I couldn't help feeling so damn guilty. By the time we were seated at the restaurant and had ordered our food though, things were going okay. Amelia was, for the moment, gone from my head, and I felt like I was grasping a sense of normalcy that I had lost weeks past.

We ate. We laughed. She told me stories about work and I complained about my students, naturally. We even went for a walk in the park across the street and I must say, being with Alice was always calming. She had a way about her that made my cares fade and maybe that's why I was still with her up to this point. But our date had to end because of prior arrangements I made with Alfred. Alice wasn't too pleased and, say what you want, but I didn't want to see her look so disheartened. I arranged for another date the next day and promised it would just be the two of us alone, all day. Alice agreed and left on those good terms.

Now, I'd suspected that Alfred was an idiot but never so dumb as to be late to his own house. I waited in front of the door for a good ten minutes before he came to let me in.

"Sorry bro," he told me, breathless and sweaty, "I just got back from the gym and I'm running like a lot behind schedule."

"If you knew you had previous plans, why did you ask me to come early? You would have been on time if I can come at the time we set."

Alfred walked in the house, letting me into the familiar living room. I actively avoided looking at the pictures. He tossed his gym bag on the floor and walked to what I assumed to be the kitchen with a bottle of something and came back shirtless, shirt in hand.

"I know but I just forgot," he told me, going to what I assumed to be his room but Alfred screamed loud enough for me to hear him. "That's why I texted you. My folks have this family barbeque thing going on tonight and I forgot until they called me to bring some drinks."

I heard what sounded like water coming on so I assumed he was about to shower. To my surprise, Alfred came into the living room with a towel on. He at least had the decency to look bashful. "So I kinda have to make an appearance being the drinks bringer and all. I was kinda hoping that since you didn't have anything to do today you wouldn't mind coming with. I mean, we'll have free food and drinks and we won't stay long, just an hour or two then we can go wherever."

In hindsight, I suppose I should have really thought through what Alfred said in that moment. Honestly, I was frustrated with him being late than really processing what I was about to get myself into. Of course I yelled at him and reprimand him about inviting people to family gatherings where I may not be welcomed. But he assured me that friends and even neighbors came. Honestly, no one would be able to think straight when a grown naked man was standing there with puppy dog eyes. I agreed if only to get him to shower and put on clothes.

It wasn't until after I was in his car, a few miles from his home where Alfred babbled on and on did it dawn on me. Actually, it was when Alfred so helpfully said. "Dude, right, Mel's gonna be there! Don't worry though, I know some students totally hate their teachers but she says you're the cool one."

It took a few seconds for me to connect that this 'Mel' was actually Amelia, ten or so seconds after that for me to smirk knowingly to myself because she thought I was cool. And maybe a minute of narcissism later I finally realized how very very bad this situation was.

So? What do you think after my long hiatus? Is this going to end bad for Arthur and Amelia? Will their relationship end before it even really begins? Please review and leave your thoughts!