Another High School Romance

six

"Alright, that's it for today." I dismissed my period two class as the bell rang. "See you tomorrow."

They trooped out and I moved around the desks, collecting up the worksheets I'd had them leave behind. I yawned, covering my mouth as I blinked slowly. I'd spent hours last night working on a budget, knowing Mom didn't have a ton of money to pay for her treatment. She wouldn't let me offer to pay for it so I planned to go over her head and go straight to her doctors, who would let me pay for it. They couldn't care less where the money came from. 

"Hey." Chris tapped on my door to announce himself as he came in. "Do you have the year thirteen 3.4 rubric? I think all of them went in your file instead of some coming my way and I'm giving it to them today."

"Oh yeah." I stifled another yawn, motioning to the filing cabinet I'd been given when they'd found a spare in storage. "Top drawer, it's all labelled. I did think I got too many for the size of my class."

"Yeah, that happens sometimes." Chris chuckled, going over to the cabinet and opening the top drawer. "So, we never got a chance to finish that conversation, we've been so busy lately." I glanced up, unsure what he was talking about. "You know how I was telling you about that Italian place?"

"Oh." This again. "Yeah, uhh..."

And then, by the grace of god, I was interrupted by Travis coming through the door. I hid my sigh of relief as he smiled at me, holding up a coffee cup.

"You didn't ditch your class did you?" I asked as he passed it to me.

"No, course not." He winked at me. "I didn't have classes this morning. Something about a course the year nines and tens are taking." Then he realized I wasn't alone. "Oh, hey Chris. How's it going?"

"Good." Chris nodded, taking what he needed out of my cabinet and pushing the drawer closed. "How's the training going for the game?"

"Pretty well, the boys are really excited for the first game."

"Good." Chris nodded again, and I cringed at the awkward energy in the room. He looked at me. "I'll talk to you later then."

I nodded awkwardly, not knowing how to tell him I didn't want him to finish that conversation. 

I dodged Chris all week, and somehow he didn't seem to notice that I was avoiding the subject on purpose. Travis and I talked a little, but we both had a lot of work to do, so not an awful lot. Bu he started making a habit of bringing me coffee on the few mornings where he didn't have classes first thing, which I found incredibly sweet. Maybe he was trying to win me over, or maybe he was just being nice, but it started to become what I looked forward to. I knew a couple of the students picked up on it and a few of my year thirteens teased me a few times, but a few carefully placed comments from me quickly steered them away. 

On Friday, I packed up straight away after my last class instead of hanging around to get a little more work done that I usually did. Slinging my purse over my shoulder, I turned off the light and locked up my classroom. When I turned around, I jumped when I saw Chris standing in his classroom doorway.

"Sorry." He chuckled in response to my reaction. "You're heading out early."

"Oh, yeah." I ran a hand through my hair. "Just some things to do." Chris nodded.

"So you're busy tonight huh?" He asked, and I nodded slowly. "What about tomorrow? I was thinking I could take you out to that Italian place. It's real romantic."

"Oh?" I swallowed. 

"What do you think?"

"Chris, look, you're a good friend." I sighed. "But I'm just not interested in dating at the moment. I just got out of a really long relationship, and I'm just working on other things right now. I hope that's okay."