I Was Never Yours

Chapter 33

Steve P.O.V

I was pretty surprised and, I'll admit, a little embarrassed by Callie's behaviour on the bus. Despite the fact that I still don't believe the teacher dealt with the permission slip issue properly, I'm beginning to understand why he insisted on her having a parent here. She is unbelievably amped up today.

After telling her off I sat down beside Mr Brent and apologized.

"It's okay, she's a good kid," he laughs. "Her friends enjoy her company. She's funny, for the most part she's respectful and she's a very proficient student. She just seems to get over stimulated. Have you thought about getting a diagnosis?"

"We've been discussing it since she was about 5, but Tony is pretty dead against it."

"But surely you could get it done?"

"No, I mean yes I probably have more of a parenting role than Tony does, but I'm not on the adoption certificate, I have no actual say legally."

"That's unfortunate."

"Yes, it is. You really think it would help her?"

"One hundred percent. It would just even everything out for her. The over the top emotions would come down to a normal level."

I nod thoughtfully, "I'll bring it up again."

"Okay when we get off the bus I'm going to have you chaperoning your niece, Mary Jane, Harry, Ned and Peter if that's alright with you? May I'll give you a separate group of kids but you can stay close to Peter's group if you'd like."

"Sounds perfect, you're Peter's mom?" I turn to the woman sitting across the isle.

"No I'm his Auntie." She smiles and my stomach flips in response.

"I'm Callie's Uncle, if that wasn't obvious." I grin.

She laughs and nods. "Yes, I gathered that. Peter talks about Callie all the time."

"Same on our end." We continue chatting about the kids for awhile and my heart is pounding in my chest the entire time. This woman is drop dead gorgeous and she keeps giggling and touching my forearm and playing with her hair. I find my mouth dry and my legs shaking nervously. I'm going to ask for her number before we go home tomorrow I've decided. I'm not missing this chance.

We pull up to the Aquarium and to my relief, Callie behaved for the rest of the drive.

"Okay class, I'm going to split you into groups, 5 kids per chaperone." He proceeds to tell the kids their groups and Callie and her friends seem fairly happy with the outcome though she looks at me a little nervously.

We all gather together outside the bus in our designated groups. May and her student are standing beside me, she has a group of 3 boys and 2 girls, one of which is the girl Harry yelled at this morning.

Callie is standing beside me and I can feel her practically vibrating with anticipation. I put my arm around her upper chest and she leans back into me, her breathing calming. There's some snickering beside us and Callie's head jerks over and she pushes away from me, going to stand beside Harry instead.

We all get our instructions and then we head in to the Aquarium. There are a few hours left of shows while the establishment is still open to the public, then we go for dinner, and then we get to see the behind the scenes stuff. It sounds like it should be a lot of fun, but it seems like a lot for my easily overwhelmed kid.

Mine and May's groups are starting in the main viewing area. The kids start dispersing around to look at the different exhibits and I grab Callie's arm and squat down to whisper in her ear. "You need to come check back with me within 20 minutes understand? Daddy told me not to let you out of my sight but that seems unreasonable to me so just make sure you text or come find me okay?"

She nods and looks around before kissing my cheek and taking off with her friends. I stand up, watching her as they observe the fish in a cylindrical tank and for a second I think I see Peter squeeze her hand but it's so brief I'm uncertain if I even did.

I have to fight the urge to walk over there but instead I turn to May. "Shall we?"

She laughs and loops her arm through mine making my insides squirm and I'm suddenly thankful for thick denim.

"You're pretty protective of her, hey?" May asks, watching the kids with a small smile.

"Yeah, she's been through, like, way too much. And we've had someone try to take her from us before so honestly it's hard to feel at peace if I don't know exactly where she is." I admit, pausing to gaze at an Octopus who is curled up in a glass jar within his personal little habitat.

"I get it. Peter lost both his parents, and my husband passed away about a year ago. We were super close, and suddenly he's insanely secretive and it seems like he can't wait to get away from me," she laughs. "I blame a fresh interest in girls."

"In my little girl," I chuckle. "This is the first time I've noticed her seem to have any infatuation with a boy, though she also hasn't gone to school before so... contact with boys was limited. It's harder than I thought." I admit.

"Steve, I think something is going on over there," May whispers.

I look over and see the blonde girl from May's group laughing and Callie, a good head shorter, shoves her hard in the chest.

"Callie!" I whisper yell and she looks up blanching. "Are you okay?" I ask the girl, gently grabbing her shoulder. I'm not an idiot, I know that this girl has been egging my kid on all day, but until I know what's going on I can't do anything.

The girl blushes and to my horror she thrusts her pubescent chest out and bats her eyelashes at me. "She hurt my boobs." She pouts. "Right here." She grabs my hand and starts to slowly lower it, but before I'm able to pull my hand away Callie dashes forward and tries to shove her again, which gives me the perfect excuse to jerk away from her to wrangle my little girl.

I wrap my arms around Callie's waist and quickly carry her into the handicapped bathroom.

"Hey hey hey, calm down. It's okay."

She's struggling against me, tears falling down her face. "Put me down!"

I place her feet down and turn her to face me, kneeling down so we're eye to eye. "Sh baby, sh." I brush her tears away. "What happened? What did she say to you?"

Callie opens her mouth and closes it again, shaking her head and looks at her shoes.
•
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Callie P.O.V

My Uncle just witnessed the thing that I have been dreading for months, and now he's asking me the worst question possible.

I want to tell him, so badly, but I just can't. Instead I decide to give him half the truth. "She said she wants to suck your dick." I mutter and his face turns a bright red.

"Oh my god. Why the hell would she say that? Especially to you?"

"Oh, um, she didn't, I heard her say it to her, um, friend and it made me mad." I lie.

He raises his eyebrows at me and I can tell he doesn't believe me. "Why was she laughing then?"

"Because she thought it was funny that I heard her? I don't know."

"Callie..."

"It's the truth!"

"Okay, okay fine. It was super inappropriate what she said, and also incredibly mean. But pumpkin, you can't push people, if I hadn't been there you definitely would've been sent home."

"I know, I'll do better." I push his hands off my shoulders and hug him, breathing in his scent, letting it calm me. There's just so much in my brain, and so many sounds and smells and sometimes I act without thinking. Like, I push someone and don't realize I've done it until after. But when my Uncle is holding me, if I close my eyes everything slows. Of course, I could never do this in public, so I'll just have to manage until we get home again.

"Okay, I think it's time for the dolphin show thing, you good?"

I nod and follow him out of the bathroom to rejoin my friends.