"The Line Has Moved"
Student:
I walked out of that room,
but part of me didn't.
My lips still tasted like her breath,
like secrets I had no business swallowing.
The hallway was a blur,
and so was I.
Eyes on me. Or maybe I imagined it.
Maybe I wanted them to see
what she did to me.
Her lipstick was on my mouth
a crime scene I wore like an oath.
I touched my jaw where her fingers had lingered,
where the heat hadn't left.
I wasn't afraid.
I was marked.
She kissed me slowly.
But her slowness was a trap
and I fell in willingly,
like prey taught to crave the hunter.
I'm not sure what I am anymore.
But I want more of her.
Even if it ruins me.
Especially if it ruins me.
Teacher:
She thinks I'll stop at the kiss.
She thinks restraint is mercy.
Darling, mercy isn't in my nature.
I didn't plan to touch her that day.
But when she lingered,
when she looked at me with that naive defiance,
how could I not test her?
I've seen that look before
but never worn so raw,
so desperately ripe for corruption.
She's too young to hide her desire.
Too eager to play innocent.
I could taste her surrender
before I ever tasted her mouth.
She doesn't realize
I study people the way predators study rhythms.
I know when to strike.
And I never miss.
Student:
She's in my dreams now.
She's in my bones.
I replay the kiss
like a sacred sin.
When she said, "You'll never leave this room the same,"
she wasn't wrong.
I left…
but something stayed.
My control? My sanity?
Maybe both.
My mouth remembers hers too well.
The tilt of her head,
the way her breath melted between my teeth.
I would beg to feel it again.
What does that make me?
Teacher:
She'll unravel beautifully.
I'll be patient.
Predators don't rush the feast.
She thinks she initiated something.
How charming.
She hasn't yet realized
I orchestrated this from the first glance,
the first silence I let linger too long.
Her innocence is not armor
it's perfume.
And I'm intoxicated.
I'll let her come to me again.
She always will.
She must.
After all,
I gave her the taste.
And nothing tastes the same after me.
Student:
Tell me it wasn't just a kiss.
Tell me I didn't imagine the pause in your breath
when our lips met.
Tell me I matter
in the way danger matters
inevitable,
irreversible.
Because I'm not going back to before.
Even if it hurts.
Even if it ends me.
Let it.