My face is cupped in my hands, my leg bouncing frantically as I try and keep myself awake.
"How much longer?" Louis whispers to me.
Mrs. Anderson stands in the center of the teachers lounge, spewing random nonsense that I could not make myself listen to.
"Any questions?" She asks, pushing her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose. "No? Ok good, moving onto the Fall Dance" Mrs. Anderson grabs a sign up sheet from the table and holds it up in the air "Who is going to volunteer as chaperones?"
I rolled my eyes and whispered over to Louis "You couldn't pay me enough to chaperone screaming kid-"
Before I could finish my thought Louis grabs my arm and raises it with his
"Oh, Ms. Castleton and Coach Tomlinson" her eyebrows raise as she walks towards us with a clipboard.
"What the heck was that?" I seethe over to Louis, pulling my arm away from him. He met my glare with a smile
"It will give us an excuse to spend an evening together and we wont even need a babysitter" he says, writing our names down on the sheet of paper. "Plus I don't know how I feel about Belle being around all those boys without at least one of us there" he takes a deep breath and hands the clipboard back.
My eyes continue to dig daggers into Louis face.
"What?" He asks
"You didn't even ask me if I wanted to do it" I folded my arms, sliding down in my chair
"I'm sorry" He nudged my arm "I will make it fun. I promise"
"Excuse me" Mrs. Anderson says sharply in our direction "If you two children would stop interrupting me maybe we could finish this meeting."
"I'm sorry, I don't see any children in here" Louis says, craning his neck to search all direction of the room "I'm afraid you may be having. . . hallucinations" he leans forwards as he says the word softly
Mrs. Anderson glares Louis down and says a few short words before ending the meeting.
Stifled laughter is heard as everyone makes their way out of the lounge.
"I'm still mad at you" I say, walking slightly faster than Louis "I'm overly exhausted, extremely stressed, and barely have enough time to shower daily. And now you add this on my plate."
"Baby" Louis laughs, reaching for my arm and turning my to face him "It's going to be fun. All you have to do is get dressed up and show up."
"I don't even have a dress!" I whine
"Did you miss your morning coffee?" Louis asks.
I nod in response
"Lets go fix that" He smiles
--------
I twirl a bit in the bar stool as a large coffee from Bluehill Family Café begins to touch my soul.
"Better?" Louis takes a bite of his tollhouse pie.
"Better" I sigh
"Good" Louis places his hand on my knee, again taking a bite of his chocolate chip filled pie.
"What did Liam talk to you about the other day?" I ask, warming my hands on the sides of the coffee cup.
"Stuff" Louis replied.
"Like what"
"He's basically your keeper, Lace. He was just letting me know what would happen if I decided to turn out like you know who. He also told me some stuff that is important for me to know about you" he scratches the scruff on his face
"Like what" I furrow my brow, now worried what went on in the conversation.
"Oh I don't know, like you have a hairy back and-"
"I do not!" I say, giving his arm a firm slap
"And that you are very violent" Louis rubs his arm before grinning "I'm kidding, Lacie. We just talked"
"How's the pie?" Kathy asks Louis as she wipes her hands with a dish towel.
"Fantastic" Louis sticks up a thumb of approval.
"Great" Kathy flashes a smile that quickly fades away "Incoming, Lace" She says quietly before disappearing into the back of her café.
Louis and I turn around, my eyes meeting William's.
"Lovely" I roll my eyes as I turn back around.
Louis stays facing William.
"Louis turn around" I utter "I don't want him coming over here"
"If he has anything to say he can say it to me" He says, grabbing his pie and continuing to stare down my ex.
Neither one looked away until William walked to the far end of the café and sat facing away from us.
"That what I thought" Louis sticks his fork in his mouth and spins back around.
"Would it be bad if I put just a tad of dishwater in his coffee" Kathy says, writing out the bill for our visit.
Kathy used to get earfuls of my issues with William when Liam and I would come to the café to talk out my problems. She would often add her input. And more often than not it was very useful input.
"By all means" I reply.
Louis grabs the bill and hands Kathy a credit card "Add a large chocolate milk to-go please. With a bendy straw"
Kathy nods and takes the card.
"Bendy straw, huh? Maybe Mrs. Anderson was right and you really are a child" I tease.
"It's for Annabelle, goof" Louis replies, taking the large Styrofoam cup "She mentioned to me that you keep forgetting to buy her favorite drink. Shame on you"
"Speaking of my daughter, Mandy will be dropping her off at my house pretty soon" I check the time on my phone "I better get home".
"Oh, he's looking" Louis says as I stand up, handing me the chocolate milk. "He's so jealous" He utters, still looking at William.
"Stop it" My tone is serious. "Don't make a scene."
"Bye sweetie!" Louis says loudly, waving to me as I make my way to the door.
I glance behind me to see Louis smiling at William.
I roll my eyes, letting the door close behind me.
_____
"Well, Logan asked me but I said no. He's such a player" Annabelle yells over the buzzing of the vacuum
"Oh is he?" I ask her, unplugging the vacuum and shoving it into the closet.
My floor which was once covered in cut up paper and glitter is now clean.
"Yeah" She nods "But it's ok cause Andy Turner asked me" her large grin tells me that she accepted his request to be his date to the dance.
"He's a nice boy" I smile "Its a good thing you turned down Logan, huh?"
"Yep" she nods "Louis told me I would get someone better"
"Oh did he now" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yup" She sips her chocolate milk "Louis is a nice boy too, momma"
"He is, isn't he" I smile
"I mean, c'mon. The man bought me chocolate milk" she points to her cup .
