Honey and the Moon

Lex woke up and found that he had fallen asleep with Janice wrapped in his right arm. She looked peaceful as she slept facing towards him with her head rested on top of where his shoulder met his chest and her left arm spread on his chest with her hand just below his neck. The last he remembered just before he fell asleep was her tracing his mouth and touching his lips with that same hand. Careful not to wake her, he turned his head to look at her and traced her mouth and touched her lips in return.

Janice stirred a little and blinked her eyes drowsily. "Good morning," she said with a smile and a really soft voice that comes with just waking up.

Lex continued stroking her mouth, now and then moving to the other parts of her face. "Good morning," he said in turn with his usual cold, cruel, and uncaring voice that had a subtle tone of tenderness whenever he was talking to Janice.

When he didn't say anything else Janice closed her eyes again. Lex just kept on touching her.

"What's wrong?" she suddenly asked without opening her eyes, still in that soft morning voice.

Lex didn't answer.

Janice opened her eyes again. "What's wrong?"

Lex shook his head, meaning to say "Nothing."

Janice looked at him for a while then took his hand and moved up to give him a light kiss.

"What are you thinking?"

"Nothing," Lex replied.

Janice kissed him again, this time a little more passionately.

"Stop thinking."

"I'm not thinking."

"Yes you are. Stop thinking. Everything's going to be fine."

Lex stopped and regarded Janice when she said that. He couldn't bring himself to say what he was thinking so instead he kissed her back.

"Go back to sleep," he said, removing his arm from her.

"Where are you going?" she said, suddenly losing all drowsiness and even looking and sounding like she was about to cry.

"I'll be right here," he reassured her as he sat up and then turned back to her to lie her down on her back.

"No," she whined softly, in an almost childlike way, as she grabbed his wrist with one hand and the abdomen part of his shirt with the other. "Stay in bed with me."

Lex looked down at her. Silly girl, he thought, moving in for another kiss.

As they kissed, Janice wrapped one arm around his neck to pull him down and clung tightly to his shirt to show that she didn't want him getting off her just yet. Lex got the picture for a while and didn't force himself out of her grasp. But after a while longer he had to remove Janice's hands from him and hold them before they could slip and pull him down again.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered with his mouth ever so close to hers and his eyes looking right into hers.

"Are you leaving?" she asked, taking on the tone of utter sadness that she somehow did so convincingly in a snap.

Lex fell silent for while, but not for so long that Janice barely noticed.

"No," he said.

The two of them looked at each other intently before Janice smiled and finally closed her eyes. Lex kissed her softly before he got up and paced to the window and sat in the armchair beside it.

Yesterday, Janice's father found out that his daughter was having a romantic relationship with her teacher. Being the kind of man that would never really do anything to hurt his daughter, he pursued the matter in confidence by inviting Lex to dinner and confronting him and Janice from there. He never raised his voice for the whole time that he talked to them, and he never called Lex foul names that any usual father would've done the minute he found out what was going on. They just sat together in the living room and he simply forbade the relationship to go any further. He listened to what Janice had to say in defense of Lex, and was even gracious enough to listen to what Lex had to say about how he felt about Janice. He didn't say anything when they both insisted and persisted that they were going to continue to be together and that they were going to get through all the problems they would face. But when all was said, his word was final. Janice and Lex were to become student and teacher from that moment on.

After an eternity of silence, Julian Forester was about to politely ask Lex to leave and Lex was about to let himself out without another word. But as if it was called upon by Janice as a desperate prayer for her and Lex to be together for a few last moments, a deafening clash of thunder suddenly boomed and an impossibly heavy rain began to pour. Lex was offered to stay the night. He would've declined and braved the dangers of driving into a storm like that but Janice silently pleaded him to stay with one look that always got him whenever she used it on him.

That night Lex couldn't sleep. He couldn't even lie down. Instead, he watched the storm from the window. How similar his thoughts and feelings at that moment were to the storm. Angry. Chaotic. Destructive. But most of all, confused.

The sound of the guest room door opening and closing interrupted his thoughts.

When Lex turned around he found Janice standing by the door. Only when he put his eyes on her did the tears start to silently flow from her eyes. He would've wanted nothing more to dry those tears and be the one to stop them. But after what had happened earlier and a sudden realization that came to him, he wasn't so sure if he should.

His uncertainty quickly left him, though, when Janice ran to him, flung herself into his arms, and cried onto his chest.

"I'm not going to leave you," she choked in between her sobs. "I'm not going to let you go. I don't care what my dad says. I'm not going to give up."

Lex didn't say anything.

Then Janice looked up at him.

"I love you," she whispered.

Maybe it was the tears in her eyes. Maybe it was that smile that made him feel like everything was going to be just fine. Maybe it was just the fact that it was she, Janice, was there, with him, in his arms, and she wouldn't have it any other way. Whatever it was, it made Lex forget everything. Nothing mattered at that point. All that mattered was that they were together right there and then, and nothing was going to bring them apart.

"I love you too," he whispered back, holding up her chin and moving down to kiss her.

Unfortunately, it was time to return to reality.

The morning sun slowly began to flood the guest room. From the armchair, Lex could see the light and shadows play on the many surfaces around the room. The shadow of the tree's leaves and branches outside particularly played on Janice's face, lighting it with patches of yellow.

When Lex and Janice first met, they were teacher and student. To student's dismay, teacher was pompous, arrogant, cold, and cruel. To teacher's dismay, student was sassy, self-absorbed, spoiled, and a smart-aleck. To student's surprise, teacher was actually sweet and caring, and she found out that teacher had all the right to be pompous and arrogant because he was one of the most amazing and interesting men she'd ever met. To teacher's surprise, student had a certain maturity to her in the way she looked, spoke, acted, and related to other's, and she was probably the most complicated and yet fascinating girl—dare he say woman?—he'd ever seen.

The things that we hated in each other at first became the things we found most endearing in each other in the end, he thought, smiling a small smile at the sleeping figure on the bed.

Janice was seventeen years old. He was thirty-seven. Despite their enormous age gap and their borderline differences, they were happy together. They complimented each other. So much so that they barely even noticed that they almost looked like father and daughter and that they were student and teacher when they were together.

But they had to face the facts.

Without a sound, Lex stood up and went to the side of the bed. Without waking Janice up, he stroked her cheek, touched her lips, traced her mouth, and gave her one last kiss. And without looking back, he went out of the room, let himself out of the house, and drove away. When they would see each other again they would be teacher and student, even if Janice didn't want to see it that way. Lex would be determined to show her that that's how it was going to be from then on.

She doesn't have to waste her time on me anymore.