Loving you is a losing game (ONC 2024)

Chapter 2- Liam

Trigger warnings for Swearing and I guess toxic parents?

Once again, I'm running down the hall to maths. Why am I always late for everything? It's not like I do it on purpose, I just struggle to concentrate on the time. I get distracted with like a million other things and by the time I remember I need to go to class, I'm late again.

I open the door and I'm bent over, gasping for breath.

"Mr Samuels, this is the fourth time this week you've been late," Professor Richards says.

At Whymper we call all of our teachers 'Professor'. In return they call us all Mr or Miss followed by our last name. Apart from Imogen and my best friend Jonathon, Johnny for short, no one ever calls me by first name.

"Sorry Professor, I lost track of the time," I reply.

"Perhaps spending your lunch with me writing lines will help you with your timekeeping."

"No. Professor, I have stuff to do at lunch."

"Like cheating on your maths test?"

Now I'm starting to lose my shit. "Professor, I didn't cheat." I actually tried on that test. I studied and everything for it. Then as soon as I do well at something, I'm accused of cheating. It's why I've given up trying. No matter how hard I try, I'll always be a screw up.

"Just sit down, Mr Samuels. We can discuss your test during lunch." Professor Richards says.

I head to the back of the room and take my seat next to Rupert. As he's the head boy, he feels the need to scold everyone for everything, even if he's just seen a Professor scold them.

"You really need to try harder," he whispers. "I would be willing to help you study if you wanted to make an effort for a change?"

I appreciate it. Really I do, but there's no way I'm going to sit in the common room with Rupert Twickenham telling me shit I already know like I'm a five year old child.

"No thanks," I snap. "I can fail my tests without your help."

"Maybe if you spent more time studying and less time with Edward's sister, you wouldn't be at the bottom of the class."

"You're just jealous!" I snap, "cause now that she's here you're not top of every class anymore!"

"Mr Samuels, please refrain from talking while I am," Professor Richards scolds. He never notices that someone is usually talking to me first, everything is always my fault.

The Professor turns back to the blackboard and Rupert drones on, "I am not jealous of Miss Parker. She is only here because of her stepbrother. She doesn't deserve to be at the top of our English class. She's just a suck up who always has her nose in a book. I'm surprised she doesn't walk into walls since she almost never looks where she's going."

I don't even realise I'm pushing my chair away from my desk and standing up. "You have no right to say anything about her with that stick you have up your..."

"Mr Samuels! That is enough! Go to the Headmaster's office, now!" Professor Richard's shouts.

"What! But I didn't do anything, Twickenham was the one who..."

"I said, now!"

He hands me a piece of paper as I grab my bag and head out of the classroom.

This actually happens pretty regularly. I get sent to the Headmaster's office at least once a day. Most of the time twice.

On my way up to the Headmaster's office on the third floor, I pull my phone out of my pocket and see that I have two texts, one from my mum and one from my dad.

Dad- Could you text your mother and ask her why the contract I asked her to email to PSD hasn't got to them yet?

Mum- Could you message your dad and tell him that he should be smart enough to email his own contracts to his clients?

Seems like they've had another fight. This happens all the time. They always use me as a messenger between the two of them. Their constant fighting is the main reason I haven't let Imogen meet my parents yet. If one or even worse, both of them, don't approve of her, I don't want her to be dragged into their shit.

I might as well call one of them. Using your phone during the school day is strictly forbidden at Whymper. If you're caught doing it, you usually get detention after school for about two weeks, though it depends on which Professor catches you.

I call our landline and decide to just see who picks it up. Whichever one of them gets to it first will be who I talk to first I guess.

Hello this is Ethan Samuels of Samuels' Prime Developers, who am I speaking to?

-Dad you really need to look at the caller ID before answering the phone. It gets annoying to hear that every time I call you.

Sorry son, I'm just waiting to hear from Parkside Developers over that project we're supposed to be doing over Christmas.

-Well anyway, I see you and mum have had another fight. Why don't you just send PSD the contract yourself? You know mum hates doing all your paperwork for you. She only handles the finance side. That's why she's your accountant.

Don't be like that son. Look, I just needed her to do this one small thing for me. I've had loads of meetings with potential clients the past week, I needed to make sure I had everything ready for it.

-Well from now on, if you need anything emailed to clients, send it to me and I'll do it.

Thanks son, you're the best. While we're talking, could I email you these letters to print off and post to a few clients?

-Sure dad, just don't ask mum to do stuff that isn't to do with finance. She's your accountant, not your secretary.

Ok son. I won't. If I need anything else from you, I'll email you or text you, ok?

-Ok, bye dad.

Bye son.

If there's one thing I hate about my family, it's that my dad tries to treat everyone around him like they're less clever than he is. He constantly tries to get my mum to do stuff like that for him. Every time they argue, it's always on me to sort things out. I can't understand why they even got married sometimes. They have nothing in common and my dad only seems to care about himself or his work.

No sooner have I ended the call, I have two emails from my dad, one is the contract that needs to be sent to PSD and the other is the letter as well as a list of clients.

Dear son,

You'll find the letter I need sent out attached as well as the list of clients. Please change the greeting at the top of each letter to the name of the client before printing and posting. These all need to be sent by tomorrow so they arrive by the start of next week.

Kind regards,

Mr Samuels

Have you ever seen someone who emails their son like that? Also when did he say these need to be sent by tomorrow?

Looks like I'm not getting any sleep tonight. Oh well, this is pretty much a regular occurrence for me.