The Sleeping Arrangement

Prologue

Most teens I know end up in bed with their boyfriend for the first time after days, weeks, or months of sweet-talking, getting to know each other, and figuring out that sleeping together is what both really want. I, however, ended up in bed with my boyfriend before we even began dating—and you want to know the worst thing? Technically, our principal was the one to tuck us in.

My name is Sophie Allen and in all sixteen years of my life, I've not once been called out of lesson for anything other than to perform my duties as a school Prefect. That was why, when the school secretary came to collect me from my maths lesson that Tuesday afternoon, my throat suddenly went dry. When I heard her call out Thomas Lester's name and ask him to join me, I was near suffocating. In fact, my head was spinning from lack of oxygen for so long that I thought maybe I'd pass out before I even got to the principal's office.

Really, it's a good job I made it there alive. If I hadn't, my life right now would be very different...

"Sophie, Thomas, thank you for coming! I know this is a little out of the blue, but please come in and sit down. Make yourselves comfy—there's absolutely nothing to be worried about. It's all good news here!"

Mr Spokes was a large man in his forties, with slightly greying hair and thick, pink arms. He lifted himself out of his chair for a second as we walked in, but then his face turned red and he sank back down again. With one podgy hand he gestured for us to take our seats in the blue chairs beside his desk, and I stole a quick glance at Thomas before stepping gingerly across the room towards them. I felt his presence behind me the whole time, and it took an enormous amount of effort on my part to keep my attention focused on Mr Spokes' words as he began to talk to us.

"Now, as you both already know, the two of you are brilliant assets to our school. Your grades are excellent and you are both highly talented individuals. You should know that your contribution to the school doesn't go unnoticed..." Mr Spokes was grinning as though he was about to tell us some extremely exciting news. I bit my lip to stop myself from grinning at how red his face was getting. "That's why I've taken it upon myself to enrol you both on a week-long residential trip to a small youth centre on the coast, where you'll be able to take part in a variety of fun activities and make new friends from lots of other schools. Think of it as my gift to you, for being so brilliant. What do you say?"

My hands went clammy. I stared at Mr Spokes. The grin I'd been trying to contain left my lips instantly, and my expression was replaced with a frown.

"What?" The word escaped my mouth without confirmation from my brain, and I suddenly felt myself turning bright red.

Mr Spokes rubbed his nose and his smile faltered slightly. "You don't seem very impressed," he said. "I thought this would be exciting for you. You won't be doing any schoolwork while you're there, don't worry," he reassured us. "The trip is entirely focused on team-building skills and having fun. The two of you will have a great time!"

"It's just me and Sophie going?" Thomas asked, and my chest instantly filled with warmth at hearing his newly-broken voice. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shift forwards in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees and cupping his chin in his hands.

Mr Spokes nodded and I looked to him for an answer. "Yes," he said, with a nod. "Just the two of you will be going. The centre only accepts one boy and one girl from each school. I hope that's okay with you both."

The silence that followed lingered in the air awkwardly, as though it was explaining everything that our words didn't have the power to. Of course this wasn't okay! I wanted to stand up and slap Mr Spokes sharply around the face. Why me?! Of all the girls he could have chosen to join Thomas Lester, why did he have to choose me? Did he not know about my crush? Did he not know that, for the past four and a half years, I'd distanced myself from the boy sitting beside me because I could barely even look at him without my legs turning to jelly?

Of course he didn't. Nobody knew. Because, since the first week of secondary school, I'd kept my crush private, and it had grown and grown as the years had passed, becoming more and more secret the larger it developed. I couldn't speak Thomas' name without turning bright red, as though people would somehow be able to see the situations I'd imagined inside of my mind; all of those countless scenarios involving him declaring his love for me, or something else just as impossible.

And impossible was exactly the word to describe my feelings for Thomas Lester. We were not going to be together. I knew that. He was popular, smart, funny and cute. I was not popular, too smart, unfunny and the direct opposite of cute. Worse than that, I hadn't held a conversation with Thomas since the first day of secondary school—the day I'd decided I liked him. We didn't speak. We didn't associate with each other. We certainly didn't know each other well enough to be placed alone together for a week.

I was panicking. My heartbeat had increased dramatically and I had definitely stopped breathing now. I was just about to open my mouth to refuse Mr Spokes' offer (if that was even an available option, since it seemed a lot like this trip was going to happen whether we liked it or not) when Thomas spoke again.

"Cool," he said. His voice was normal. "It sounds great."

And then he did the unthinkable. As I sat there in my invisible bubble of worry, Thomas Lester turned to me with a smile and reached a hand out to touch me on the arm.

"We'll have fun, right?" he asked, his blue eyes staring right into my own.

In a definite state of shock, I found myself robotically nodding my head up and down, and up and down, and then my mouth was actually opening and I heard my own voice speaking. I was replying to Thomas Lester, whose hand was on my arm all warm and clammy just like my own, whose blue eyes were looking right into mine and not just from across a classroom, and whose speech was directed at me for the first time in four and a half years.

"Of course we'll have fun!" I was saying, my mouth functioning on its own as the rest of my body stayed in a state of shock. "It's a chance to make friends, right?"

"Right," Thomas replied, eyes sparkling, and I wondered if the same thing was happening inside of his head and if his words were coming out on their own too. But that definitely couldn't be happening, because there was colour in his cheeks and his smile was widening now as he turned his head back to Mr Spokes.

"Right!" Mr Spokes replied, grinning ear-to-ear. "I'll phone the centre right away and tell them that you'll be arriving Monday morning!"

"Cool!" Thomas grinned and his hand dropped away from my arm. "A whole week out of school—the lads are going to be so jealous."

"Right," I said. "Cool."

And just like that, I was spending a week with the boy I'd been crushing on for four and a half years, who had just touched my arm and smiled at me. I knew I wasn't an expert when it came to visits to the principal's office, but one thing was for sure: if this sort of thing happened every time someone was sent to talk to Mr Spokes, I wanted to be called out of class more often.