My English Teacher is the Prince of Hell

~ TRIS KILLIAN ~

"Hi Denver," I said into the phone, to my boyfriend, Denver Crosby, on the other end of the line.

"Hi, babe." He beamed. I could sense the ecstasy in his tone and I wondered what was the cause of it, but I wasn't interested in asking.

I secured my phone firmly by placing it between my ear and shoulder, so I could get into my underwear.

"I miss you so much. Can you believe I haven't seen you in three months?!" He exclaimed.

"I know." I giggled, returning my phone to my grip. "I also miss you so much."

"So… how are you? Have you had anything to eat this morning?" I asked, feeling a headache forming at the back of my head, and it made me wince in pain. It was probably due to lack of sleep, but what could I do? I was stuck in this weird and stupid thing I had to attend called High School.

"I'm very good. I hope you had a nice sleep. Did you dream about me?"

"I ought to, but I couldn't dream about you because my sleep was very short." I rolled my eyes.

"And why is that? I've told you to always have a quality night rest."

"I know, I know, I was stuck with taking care of Aeryn last night. She was kinda sick so I was up all night, watching her. And I had tons of stupid homework to do." I heaved a sigh.

He maintained silence for a while before I heard him sigh and mutter, "sorry."

"Denver…" I chuckled. "Anyway, I'll call you later. I've got to get dressed for school." I yawned, still feeling sleepy as hell.

"Sure, have a nice day, babe."

"Yeah. I love you. Bye." I ended the call, tossing the phone to my bed.

As fast as I could, I wore my black jeggings, a white tank top, then a red sweater, slid my feet into my white and black striped pair of espadrilles, and rushed to the dressing mirror to brush my wavy waist-length dark blonde hair. My hazel eyes had bags under them, so I applied a bit of unnoticeable makeup to hide them.

"I guess I look better now." I tried to convince myself, sighing again. I really needed to rest.

I strode to my school bag on the stool beside my wardrobe and hung one of its straps over my shoulder, picked my phone from my bed, threw it into my bag, then strode out of my room, scuttled down the stairs, and found my way to the dining table.

"Finally! You're here." Jayana, my stepmom, greeted me with her round brown eyes flashing with delight that matched her smile as she pulled out a chair for me to sit on.

"Thank you." I smiled back at her. Jayana was my 39-year-old stepmother. Unlike the evil stepmothers in movies, she was the sweetest human ever.

My biological Mom had died when I was 11, then Dad, Paul Killian, had married Jayana when I was 13 —Jayana didn't have a child for him due to her infertility— Dad eventually died from a fatal plane crash when I was 16 years old, which was two years ago. Ever since my parents' death, Jayana had been the greatest Mom one could ever ask for. She said she would've adopted children if she didn't have me but she accepted me as her daughter already.

"Where's Aeryn?" She asked.

"Mom, I'm here." Aeryn Ivy Killian said, walking towards us and scratching her eyes with both her small fingers.

"How are you, my sweetheart?" I stretched my arms out for my almost 3-year-old daughter to step into my hug. I embraced her lovingly and kissed her forehead.

"I'm good." She yawned, pulling away from the hug.

"Are you feeling better now?" I placed the back of my palm on her forehead.

She nodded positively. "Sure, mom." She yawned again. Her turquoise eyes looked damn tired and her dirty dark blonde hair formed a muss above her head. "I'm hungry." She raised her head to stare directly into my eyes.

"Why don't we give you a bath first before you have breakfast?" Jayana cooed, holding Aeryn's hand to lead her out of the dining room.

I returned to my breakfast: toast, fried eggs and coffee. "Jayana, stay blessed." I began to dive into the journey of breakfast.

Wait… are you perhaps wondering why and how I have a 3-year-old daughter? Well...

I was only 14, going on 15, when I had gone out with my best friend, Ren Anthony. Our foods had gotten mixed up with others then we accidentally ate foods and drinks with alcoholic content in them. I swear, it was damn crazy!

Denver had happened to be at the party too but was really drunk at the moment as well. Things happened… things happened… I woke up the next morning, completely naked with a naked man beside me. I screamed, cried, cursed and shit. He had promised it was accidental and compensated my family but… eventually, I happened to be pregnant.

Dad was so furious at me and Denver and almost had Denver arrested for an accident we both fell into. Jayana, with open arms, accepted me as she guided me through the stages till I gave birth to my little princess.

Being pregnant, skipping school for a year, missing out on fun things as a teenager, hiding from the world, giving birth… Everything was just way too tough for me to have handled at such a young age, but I was able to go through the phase.

Denver was worried sick about me the whole time. Being the extremely supportive and sweet man he was, our time together before and after my pregnancy made us get to know each other really well and our emotions stirred up, causing us to become boyfriend and girlfriend.

We've been together for almost four years now but only made our relationship official about a year ago when we admitted our feelings for each other.

Though I still always felt insecure because having someone like Denver as my boyfriend felt too perfect to be true and I was always so scared that he would prefer someone older than me to be with him, we are living our lives happily with our daughter in my custody. I couldn't bear the pain of letting Denver take Aeryn, so I decided to have her with me. He didn't have a problem with it because that didn't deprive him of spending time with his daughter. Aeryn and I still spent our breaks with him and he was there for us as any amazing father would be for his family, in every aspect.

Aeryn never called me 'Mom' around other people, though it probably hurt her, for some reasons.

We love our baby so much, I was living my life happily with her, Jayana and my boyfriend.

***