UNTEACHABLE

I met him at a carnival, of all corny places. The summer I turned eighteen, in that chaos of neon lights and cheap thrills, I met a man so sweet, so beautiful, he seemed to come from another world. We had one night: intense, scary, real. Then I ran, like I always do. Because I didn't want to be abandoned again.

But I couldn't run far enough. I knew him as Evan that night. When I walked into his classroom, he became Mr. Wilke. My teacher. I don't know if what we're doing is wrong. The rules say one thing; my heart says screw the rules. I can't let him lose his job. And I can't lose him. In the movies, this would have a happy ending. I grow up. I love, I lose, I learn. And I move on. But this is life, and there's no script. You make it up as you go along. And you don't pray for a happy ending. You pray for it to never end.

Leah Raeder is a writer, designer, and unabashed nerd. She writes pretentiously lyrical YA and adult fiction of various genres. UNTEACHABLE is not her first novel, but it's the first one that made her blush. She lives in Chicago with her boyfriend.