as it is || harry styles au

five

i v o r y

Jamie was excited to start school so getting him out of bed at six-thirty in the morning wasn't very difficult. Getting myself out of bed, however, was. I'd gotten up an hour before to drive Mom to work for opening so that I'd be able to take Jamie to school.

     Still, I managed to pull on a pair of dark jeans and a t-shirt, adding some miscellaneous jewelry to distract from the fact I wasn't going to be wearing any make-up. I made sure to ice around my eyes to try to de-puff them as much as possible from all the crying I'd done—a hack I saw online.

I was nervous about my son starting his first day at a new school, but I was also nervous about the parent-teacher meeting with Alden. It was already a  month into the new school year, so I was sure Jamie would have some catching up to do, but he was a smart kid.

     He was growing up so fast and I didn't know how to handle it. He was his own little person with his own thoughts and feelings. Soon, he'd be graduating high school and moving out. He'd fall in love and follow his dreams and I'd have the privilege to watch it all unfold.

It was about thirty minutes before the school day started and Alden Styles was seated at his desk alone in his classroom. He looked a little worse for wear with dark circles under his eyes, his shirt half-tucked, and his hair a little messy.

Jamie held my hand in a tight grip as we approached the desk. Alden stood up with a bright smile on his face which surprised me after our conversation yesterday. To be fair, the smile was one-hundred-percent directed at Jamie.

"You must be Jamie Henderson! I'm Mr. Styles."

My heart stopped in my chest when I heard his last name. Of course I knew his last name, but it hadn't occurred to me that Jamie had yet to hear it. It wasn't something he would look over.

Fuck. Why didn't I think about something so obvious?

"Styles?" Jamie questioned, his nervous expression turned to one of excitement. "That's my middle name!"

Shit. Fuck. Motherfucker.

Alden's gaze snapped straight to mine, his eyebrows tilted up in disbelief. In a matter of a couple seconds, he tried to cipher out all the answers from my eyes, but he wouldn't be getting a word out of me.

Yeah, yeah, I get it, pal. It's weird to name your kid after your ex-boyfriend you supposedly cheated on.

     Jamie's middle name was my business...and Jamie's, too, of course, but he was too young to understand.

     "What a coincidence, huh?" Alden commented. "Are you excited for your first day?"

     "Uh huh."

     Alden motioned for us to sit down at the seats set up on the other side of his desk. Luckily, for the remainder of the ten minute meeting, there were no additional bombshells on either side. Jamie answered a few questions about what he learned at his old school, and we found out he was a ahead as far as the curriculum went.

     "Do you have any questions for me, Ms. Henderson?" Alden asked me after we went through everything.

     "Will there be any progress checks? To make sure he stays on track since the school year has already started?"