Brave Bold Belle (ft. Liam Payne)

Chapter 7 - The Treat

    Weekend goes by pretty smoothly after that. I don’t get any call from Liam or a text telling me I have to face him. I’m all by myself and that’s wonderful. Although I sometimes find myself checking my mobile just to see if he’s texted me to say thank you, at least. I took him home, I made sure he didn’t die or get lost and he hasn’t been able to tell his girlfriend that he survived and didn’t drown in a pool of his own vomit.

I don’t care about him as a friend or because I’m actually getting in the part of the girlfriend, it’s my nature to be responsible. I’m a primary teacher, being responsible of kids is all I do, it’s second nature for me so it’s not strange at all that I get worried about Liam. I see him, in a way, like my responsibility. If he dies due to intoxication or something I’ll be free, yes, but I would also ruin my father’s chances to finally make it this time, to find his footing after all these years. I accepted the deal so I have to be an adult and just go on, and taking care of a kid is not that hard.

However, once I’m in school I don’t think of Liam at all. I just push all thought about him to the back of my mind and focus on doing my job. I’m the teacher of a Year 3 group in a small and nice school. It’s not the best in all London, but I quite like it. My class is not large, just twenty-three students and they are all quite nice most of the time. Of course, they are kids and they like playing and it’s hard to keep them focused all the time, but I do my best. Out of all the teachers in this school I’m always the one with fewest problems. I don’t know if I’m just the luckiest with the best group or if it’s all due to my hard work. I like to think it’s a combination of both.

I normally never make a problem myself. I never bring any drama from my life to school and it’s not like my life is perfect. I have all the problems with my father and all our financial issues but when I’m in school, I’m a hundred per cent focused and everyone knows that. My father would never call me unless it’s an absolute emergency and I have no other friends or acquaintances that could call me during the day. That, of course, until I signed a deal to become the girlfriend of a stuck-up rockstar.

Oh joy.

So I actually get scared in the middle of the class when I feel my phone vibrating inside my pocket. The kids get startled as well and some of them look at me with scared expressions. When your teacher jumps in the middle of the class with no apparent good reason and you’re seven or eight years old, you get scared. I smile at them, trying to reassure them that everything is all right and carry on although I know my phone is still buzzing. I manage to take it out of my phone without the class noticing just to frown at the screen when I see Liam’s contact showing there.

What the…?

I don’t answer because whatever he is calling me for can’t be important. He wouldn’t call me in case of an emergency and if he got in some accident they would call his family first. I know I’m saved as girlfriend chick but there still must be a Mum or Dad contact a hospital would call to.

I shove the mobile inside my pocket again and carry on with my class and I keep doing that for the rest of the day because yes, Liam keeps calling. I start to get anxious yet he hasn’t texted me or anything. If he really needed me to answer the phone he would’ve sent a text saying so, right? I’m getting worried for nothing.

Nevertheless, once it’s lunch break instead of going to the teachers’ room I go outside to the parking lot. I don’t know why Liam is calling me but no matter what, I don’t want anyone to hear me talking or even knowing I have a boyfriend now, even if it’s fake. Most of the teachers are quite old —I’m the youngest teacher in the whole school— so they don’t keep up with the gossips and the students are all young, just kids, so they wouldn’t know if I’m dating an international rockstar. I would get worried if I were a secondary school teacher.