With the halls still fairly empty, Ada slid down the trail of lockers that led to Tom's classroom as he stood next to the open door to greet his third period class. So far, she was the only one there, which was common.

When her eyes locked with his, she remembered her sister trying to compare the two men, womanizing James and Ada's Tom.

"Have you ever had a one-night stand?" Ada asked him.

Tom looked around, a slight smile showing his amusement by the question. "Kind of the wrong place to ask me that, isn't it?"

She shrugged. "I asked quiet."

"But you're incapable of being sneaky," he pointed out as he crossed his arms. "But to answer your question, no, I've never had a one-night stand. Almost did about a week after I moved out of the house I shared with my wife. I went to a bar, flirted with an out-of-towner, and you could see where it was heading. In the end, I just went home by myself."

"Why didn't you sleep with her?"

"Not that kind of guy, I guess. I don't fault others for it, it just isn't my style. Sex for me is more than just a physical act with a single purpose. It's about connection, and I need some emotional investment in someone before I sleep with them. I don't know, maybe I'm just old fashioned. I guess I don't want to have sex with someone unless I know I'll be happy waking up next to them in the morning."

Why that answer tugged at her heart strings, she wasn't sure. She wouldn't have faulted him for having a one-night stand, but knowing that he wanted something real out of sex filled her with excitement and caused a bashful smile to take over her face.

"Have you ever slept with anyone besides your wife?"

Tom shook his head. "Nope."

Nothing alike. The two men, minus their jobs, had one hundred percent nothing in common. Tom was in it for love, not just sex.

She saw a classmate nearing, so she only had time for one last question. "Were you planning on sleeping with me?"

Then he flashed her the sweetest smile she'd ever seen. It was sweet because it was bashful, humble, and honest. He looked down, hiding it only for a moment, before looking back up and glancing around to confirm no one was in hearing distance. They both noticed that her classmate had stopped to talk to a friend.

Once he was certain he was in the clear, he leaned in just enough for his breath to cause goosebumps across her skin. "I've imagined waking up next to you in over a dozen different ways, and each of those ways brings me something beyond the word of happiness. So, the answer to your question is yes. If and when you are ready, I would love nothing more than to sleep with you."

With those perfect words, Ada became so freaking ready she had to fight the temptation to push him into his classroom.

"What?" Tom asked, now looking self-conscious.

It wasn't until then she realized how long she'd been staring at him, mesmerized. Noticing her classmate finished talking to his friend, Ada kept her reply simple and only for him to understand. "If you still have that napkin, I think I've got a number five for my list."

Tom's smile returned and he let out a soft chuckle. "I'll add it."

So Ada slid inside the room, taking her usual seat in front of her very attractive teacher.

To her surprise, Tom followed her in rather than remain at his post by the door. He walked to his desk and sat behind it.

"I'm planning on having Britt read her article in class today," he said, his smile having not yet faded.

"What article?"

Tom remained silent and uninterested in answering her question.

"What article?" Ada repeated.

Tom said nothing as the rest of the students filed into the room. Britt pranced in and took a seat beside her, looking to be in a good mood.

"What the hell did you write, Britt?"

Britt just shrugged, keeping a cavalier expression. "Can't remember."

"Bullshit."

"Watch the language, Ada," Tom warned from behind his desk. His voice was hardly scornful. The warning was half-assed, but he had to.

The last of the students came in just as the bell rang, and Tom stood and walked over to the door to close it. "Last week of school for you seniors," he sang out as he made his way back to the front of the class. "Next week you won't have to wake at ungodly hours. Excited?"

Everyone cheered.

Though Tom smiled, it was lazy, and faded almost as quickly as it arrived. "There's a lesson I want you all to take with you as you move on to the next stage. It's the most important any of us can learn, and yet it's surprisingly difficult to beat into our heads and practice it. The lesson is 'respect'. Buddha said, 'If you propose to speak, always ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?'"

He wiped at his face, rubbing his thumb and index fingers against the scuffle of his chin that he didn't have time to shave off that morning. The cheers having long faded, only confused silence filled the room.

It made Ada more curious about what Britt had written, what gave Tom this solemn expression as he took several moments to find the right words.

"Respecting those around you seems obvious. Accept each other's flaws. Understand that people are going to be different from you. Respect people's privacy and, above all, respect that everyone has their own individual life with triumphs and struggles, just like you. Respect that those triumphs raise them up and respect that those struggles shouldn't be used to tear them down.

"When you spread lies about someone, however innocent or small those lies seem, they affect that person. We'll use Brittney and Ada as an example, if they don't mind."

Britt just gave him a small smile and waved at him to continue, leaning back in her seat like she was getting comfortable for whatever was to come.

He looked over at Ada then, a slack expression on his face and his eyes beginning to turn a shade of red surrounding the dullness of the gray.

Ada nodded.

Whatever he had to say, she wanted to hear it and at this point didn't care who knew the details he'd be asking to share. What she did care about was the message Tom wanted to get across. If her situation helped with that message, she was on board. She had nothing to lose except maybe some weight off her shoulders and the cloud in her brain.

He returned her nod before reverting his gaze back to the others and continued in a scratchy voice. "Ada was tortured to the point where she didn't want to go to school anymore. This from a young woman who's always thrived on learning. Who showed up to this building every day with a smile on her face.

"Ada was teased. She was sexually harassed. People were leaving notes in her locker that I can only describe as disgusting. They were so out of line and terrible, that it shocked me I had these sort of people as my students and never realized the hate they were capable of. One of the note writers is in this room, which is why I'm sharing all of this."

Tom closed his eyes and dropped his gaze to the floor before he leaned against his desk. Ada noticed his grasp against the wood tighten, like he was trying to hold something back.

"You called her a stupid whore and told her she was better off just killing herself, because no one was going to love her now that everyone knew what a skank she was." He released one hand from the desk and rubbed at the scruff on his face again. "I gotta say, I hate that I have to be in the same room as this person. I hate that I have to treat them like every other student for the next week and look at them like they weren't the biggest piece of crap on the planet."

Now that he was no longer speaking to that student, he raised his head to look at everyone. "In a desperate move, Brittney claimed she was pregnant. Now, not a single person went to her with any kind of sympathy. And not just that. Some of you jumped at the chance to change what was said, to shift around the truth until it was something more entertaining to talk about.

"Brittney started this rumor because she knew she could trust so many of the students at this high school to ridicule her and treat her like a whore, just like they treated Ada. For Brittney, suffering through this was worth if it meant Ada would have to suffer less. That's friendship. That's respect."

Tom coughed before continuing. "Trust me when I tell you that every student who spread that original rumor and twisted it to make it something more exciting to talk about took part in ruining the love Ada had for school in her final month and my love of being a teacher. That's what spreading rumors and hate and gossip does to a person's life. Some people aren't strong enough to handle it day in and day out. They take a blade or a bottle of pills or a gun or whatever, and they take their own life."

"That's reality, people. It shouldn't take your English teacher to tell you that words have the power to create something remarkable, but can also tear someone's entire world apart. This is a lesson you should have learned in kindergarten and at home.

"To those who learned it and used their words to support these two young women, I applaud you. It isn't easy to stand up to the masses and say, 'this isn't right'," Tom said in a firm voice as he pushed himself up from the desk and pointed downward. "But when you did this, you helped give both these young women hope and told them they were not alone. That takes unbelievable courage.

"For the rest of you, I beg of you to think about what I said here today and to think about Brittney and Ada. And not just a passing thought, but give it time to sink in. I want you to think about what Ada has gone through because of this rumor and what Britt went through to protect a friend. I want you to think about the courage it takes to keep showing up here day in and day out."

Tom pointed between them. "These two women sitting in my classroom are extraordinary. They are by each other's sides now and will remain that way for the rest of their lives. I want everyone who tried to tear them down to know that they failed. You may have made their lives miserable here, but not outside these halls. You failed because they are stronger than you and stronger than any rumor or ridicule you throw their way.

"I didn't realize how strong Brittney was or how much respect she deserved until she turned her article in last week, which I will ask her to read in front of you now."

Britt nodded, stood, then walked to the front of the room. Ada watched as Tom picked up a copy of the paper and handed it to her before going over and taking Britt's seat, right next to Ada.

Ada gave him the look he'd given her the night before, filled with love.

Britt opened the newspaper to the second page, cleared her throat, and read it aloud.

It talked about the condensed version of Ada's dad and Tom's discussion, giving Tom's perspective, and her father's, which meant Britt had interviewed them both. Tom had provided his thoughts on the conversation, and his thoughts on the days that followed.

The article continued with Britt's observations in the days Ada was absent and Tom was on leave. She listed edited quotes of her former friends, not naming them, but showing the callousness of their conversations and their obvious indifference toward Ada, a girl who'd been part of their group for the last four years. It showed their lack of empathy toward not only Ada but also for the teacher who'd mentored them throughout high school, who could have lost everything because of their interest in gossip over the truth.

It then talked about Britt's own experience with gossip when she made the desperate move to save her longtime friend from the spotlight of their torture. She'd admitted then that she was not pregnant at all and that Ada had been dealing with so many personal issues that the only thing she could think to do was create a lie to save Ada from further difficulties.

It urged everyone to speak up when they see bullying and praised the students at the school who did just that when they saw Ada being bullied and harassed.

The article was some of the best writing Britt had ever done. It had so much heart in it that it tugged at her own. Though much of it mirrored what Tom had just said, it was still powerful to hear.

It was a side of Britt she never experienced in all their years of friendship.

When she set the paper back down on Tom's desk, several people clapped and cheered. There were also several who did not clap, but rather lowered their heads and sank down into their chairs as if to make themselves invisible. But their actions only showed them for being the guilty party that they were.

Britt waited for the applause to die down before she continued. "I wanted to tell anyone who I have ever bullied or talked about behind their backs I am so sorry. I honestly never realized what those things could do to a person until I watched my best friend go through them. I just figured people brushed it off and went about their lives. So if I ever caused any of you pain, I am sorry for that."

Britt walked toward her seat, and Tom stood to switch places with her. Once he sat on top of his desk, he stared down at the paper for the longest time before looking up at the class with heavy gray eyes.

"Until a few weeks ago, I loved teaching. I believed it was what I was meant to do with my life. I pictured myself as an old man, walking down these halls until the day I died.

"To the person in here who wrote that note and to those who spread hate throughout this school, those are what your words did to me. You took away my passion for this job, and I didn't even think that was possible."

Tom shook his head, letting out a small sad laugh before the room grew silent. The only sound came from a single heavy sigh as he looked around, not at the students, but above them, taking in the room itself. The room that was once filled with that joy he'd lost and that energy Ada felt whenever he talked about a book he loved or an author he admired.

"When you learn respect, you are striving to become a better person. When you stand up for the people around you, you give faith to humanity. So to everyone in this room who are still proud of themselves, I'm sorry that I failed you as a teacher. To those that take this message to heart and practice what I'm trying to teach you, thank you for making my final days here mean something."

The last sentence caused Ada's body to tense, and a gasp built up in her throat and escaped her lips.

A classmate she didn't know the name of raised her hand, but didn't wait for Tom to call on her. "Final days?"

Tom dropped his head before giving a slow nod. "I turned in my resignation this morning."