SPACES [Editing]

Drowning in Waves

Louis Tomlinson

"Ah, finally. Thought you weren't coming back." Higgins welcomed me with a hug as soon as I entered the school.

"What? You thought I'd last another day without your pretty face?"

"I don't think you'll be needing my face anymore, eh? You got your husband now. How was Italy?" He led me to his office, which was...well. It's almost empty. His table was usually messy, with a folder on top of another until they have formed dozens of piles, but now the only thing that's left is his laptop. I wasn't expecting him to be this ready since he only supposed to leave after a month, but somehow seeing his office feels like I was slowly losing my mentor.

"It was fun, like a proper holiday. We were supposed to stay for one more day, but we had to go home because of Lottie."

"Lottie? What about her?" He looked confused.

"She gave birth two months earlier than expected. We got home as soon as we heard. The babies are fine now, but they have to be with Lottie for a couple of months before we can really adopt them." I explained to him.

"That's okay, at least you have more time to get used to your new job. It's gonna be tough, you know? You're gonna be working a couple more hours than usual. What's good is that you're gonna earn more than you do now. Which is good when you're staring a family." He tapped my back. I don't really care about the salary. Since I got married to Harry, I hardly even touched my bank account. Which is a good thing, because at least we have a backup account when he runs out of money--which is almost impossible because Niall's good at managing his bank account. He sets limits for Harry and surprisingly, Harry follows those limits.

"Anyway, this is going to be your new office soon. You get to decorate it any way you want to, just as long as it's decent for when parents come in and visit." He said, sliding his boxes to the corner of the room. Boxes filled with his stuff. I hate it. I hate that he has to leave. I want to unpack his boxes and just put the things back to where they belong and let them stay there until the time he actually has to move out.

"Why are you so eager to leave, anyway? I got a lot to learn from you still, Higgins." I said as I sat down on his chair, putting my feet up on the table. I've always wanted to do this. He sat on the chair in front of me as he laid down a couple of papers on the table.

"Here are the papers from the last board meeting. And you're gonna read these things eventually but I'm gonna tell you anyway. We're not just having new members in the board, the company that owns the school is actually going bankrupt. Which explains the employee 'lay off'," He air quoted. "Since a private company owns the school, they have to pay taxes for it and the value for the land is getting higher because of the location and the new buildings that are being built around it. This place will become a commercial area and companies are bidding for the land to be theirs. We need people to fight for it. The school where I'm going to be transferring to--it's a new one. I need to see how it's going to be, if it's going to be as good as this one. If it works, we can probably transfer the students there. Same teachers, same quality, just...a different facility. But right now we need someone here. And you're one of the people I trust most, Tommo. I know you won't let us down."

His words made me feel the weight of the responsibility that I was going to bear. Because fuck, I wasn't expecting that shit. I'm not ready for it.

"When are you leaving?" I asked him. I needed to make sure that I won't be alone in this, not when I'm still at square one.

"A month from now," he replied. "Don't worry. I'll teach you everything else you need to know."