“Mrs. K! You came!”

Rae wrapped me up in a hug, still in her graduation gown. I told myself that was how she probably hugged everyone. She was just that kind of person.

“Of course,” I said. “Like I wouldn’t come to the valedictorian’s party?”

I returned the hug stiffly, more professionally than I had for any other student who’d hugged me at their graduation party. Her electric grin as we separated had a knowing hint of something else in it. It always did. And it always made me nervous.

Especially because I felt my gaze involuntarily run over the rest of her. She was positively gleaming in that white gown. It made her frosty blue eyes even bluer — and the way they were dancing with excitement and mischief only made me even more anxious.

She casually stepped a leg out and gave a subtle tug to the gown, exposing just for a second the tanned skin up to her knee. I didn’t have to close my eyes to imagine the rest: how that soft skin got paler the higher it went up her toned, silky thigh.

For her, this was a game. That’s how teenagers are. The consequences of getting caught were just theoretical — something that could only happen to someone else, not to her.

I tried not to let a little smile creep onto my face as I surveyed her parents’ expansive backyard. It was filled with all the hallmarks of a classy graduation party: barbecue, yard games, tons of people Rae probably barely knew.

“Mrs. Klein! We’re so glad you came!”

It was Rae’s mom. I wasn’t sure which muscles were responsible for it, but I tried my best to keep the color from draining out of my face. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to look her parents in the eye one more time, but I should’ve known Rae would have been scheming up the opposite.

“Hi June! Thanks for inviting me!” I tried to smile the same professional grin I gave to every parent. I could feel the heat from Rae’s devilishly pleased smile radiating off her face while she beamed at the two of us shaking hands.

“Of course, you should hear the way Rae talks about you.” The expression on the other woman’s face was thankful. I strained to keep mine as neutral as possible. Rae talking about me at all wasn’t a good thing. But then, why shouldn’t she talk about her teachers? “It’s like you’re her second mom!”

Rae guffawed next to us. Even I had trouble keeping a laugh inside.

“Well, couldn’t ask for a better Mother’s Day then, I guess. She’s a special young woman,” I said — and I meant it. We both looked at Rae with admiration. “And she sure knows it, doesn’t she?”

We all laughed and Rae’s smile got just a little more crooked the longer she let her eyes linger on me.

“Hey Mrs. K, I actually got you something. It’s inside.” She turned to her mother. “I’ll be back out in like 15!”

Her mom smiled and shrugged in the way any mother would at their excited and inscrutable teenage daughter.

Rae took my hand, sending a charge through me at the sensation of touching her in front of all these people. She led me up the stairs of the deck, through the glass sliding doors and into the kitchen of the three-story house. Guests were milling about in here, too, so all she did was flash me another smile and a wink while I pretended I was being reluctantly dragged along by the woman of the hour.

Up a couple of flights of stairs, and we were in her room. The walls were covered in posters of soccer players, bands, inspirational sayings. Even though the room was bigger than my first apartment, it was filled to the brim with years of artifacts: stuffed animals, school projects, books, photos.

I didn’t even try to stop myself from inhaling the hint of vanilla that always wafted off of her as she shut the door behind me.

“Thanks for coming Mrs. K,” she said in a low, quiet voice, her grin only getting wider as she closed the gap between us, my back to the door.

Now that we were alone, I smiled back.

Rae pressed herself against me so I could feel her trim, teenage body in the folds of her billowing graduation gown. She was still in her matching high heels, tall enough that our eyes were at the same level.

Hers were still alight with the excitement of the big day. More than a small part of me was flattered a young woman like her would want to spend it with me. Maybe a bigger part of me than I wanted to admit.

I didn’t have to spend long thinking about it, thank goodness. Her soft lips met mine, and I let my hands roam her gown, pulling her in closer. Her slender fingers cupped my cheek. She was always so gentle. So kind. I reminded myself she was that way with everyone, not just me. One of the many reasons everyone liked her so much — why her backyard was filled with people she barely knew.

But she wasn’t out there with them. She was up here. With me.

My tongue slid across her lips and into her waiting mouth, and I squeezed a handful of her taut, tiny ass. She giggled into my mouth, pulling up her gown so I could reach underneath and squeeze her warm skin in the same spot instead.

Skin unobstructed by panties.

I grinned and shook my head as our lips parted, but our bodies remained just as close.

“What?” she said quietly, as if she didn’t know.

“You were like that the whole ceremony?”

She just smirked and winked, then kissed along my neck. I couldn’t help but close my eyes, the teenage valedictorian licking along my skin as if it could possibly have been having the same effect on her as her soft, smooth skin had on me.

“And I was thinking about this the whooole time, Mrs. K.”

“You know I don’t like it when you call me that,” I said, playing my part. She was expecting to me to say it, and I wasn’t about to disappoint. Not today, of all days.

“Oh?”

She turned and pressed her back against me, hiking up her gown with one hand and taking mine in the other.

“Yeah,” I said as she guided my hand between her slender thighs.

“What should I call you?” Those blue eyes glittered up at me playfully.

I couldn’t help it — I kissed her again, luxuriating in the softness of her lips. Everything about her was so soft and inviting, so smooth and supple in a way age would inevitably erode away. That never seemed to stop her from taking the same pleasure in me, though. I couldn’t understand why. I didn’t really want to, either.

Instead, I just enjoyed the warmth of her body grinding subtly against me, the way she almost hummed as I rubbed lightly over her smooth mound while we kissed.

“You can call me whatever you like,” I said, a little smirk forming at the corners of my mouth.