Babysitter [cake au]

👶10

Chapter 10

Luke

I had been right when I thought Trace would try to keep everything under wraps. And boy was I glad – I could not handle that kind of drama when something so major had happened last night.

I didn't even care that my Spanish teacher was hollering down my ears about the fact that I had turned up halfway through her lesson. It wasn't my fault Ellis wouldn't get off my foot... though it was kind of my fault for telling Calum I had a study period.

"If you're late one more time, you're in after school detention, do you hear me? Mr Hemmings, look at me!" she screeched. I gulped, lifting my eyes slowly to hers, which had squiggly red lines where it was supposed to be white.

"Sorry."

"Now, let's get back to our set text..."

I slid back into daydream zone, doodling little stick men on each page of the book we were meant to study, so that they made a moving picture when I flicked through the book. Then I moved on to love hearts.

The only point during which I was disturbed was then a scrunched up ball of paper hit me on the head and bounced off onto my desk. I slowly opened it and rolled my eyes when I saw the familiar scribble of Trace.

Meet me in back corridor @ break

T xx

Cringing hard, I folded it up and shoved it in my pencil case, not ever wanting to look at it again. I should've left it – now he knew I'd seen it and I wouldn't even be able to pretend I didn't know it existed.

The lesson went by in a blur. I made one or two annotations on the boring ass text we were studying, taking time to colour in all the holes in the letters. Once the bell went, Trace was the first to leave, and he sent me a look as if to remind me where I was supposed to be right now.

Reluctantly, I followed him out to the corridor behind all the classrooms. It was a sort of secret rendezvous place for students, though nothing too dodgy tended to happen there.

He immediately tried to pin his lips on mine, but I quickly held him back with my arms, weak as they may have been.

"Trace, I'm sorry but I can't do this."

His eyebrows drooped as he said, "What? But... I thought..."

"I never thought I'd be the one to turn you down but I just don't think this is a good idea. Sure, it's exciting... at the moment it's not really what I need though," I explained.

"Is there someone else?" he muttered, not daring to look me in the eye anymore. I pursed my lips, nodding ever so slightly.

"I don't think he likes me back, but I'm still hoping he'll turn around."

"Who is it? Does he go to our school?"

I shut my eyes and placed both my hands firmly on his shoulders. "No. Look – one day, you're gonna find someone who really loves you, and is willing to accept that you're not 'out', but unfortunately I'm not that guy."

Knowing this would make everything more awkward, I slipped away and headed to my locker to get out my books for my next lesson. I felt terrible. If something like that had happened to me, I would've hid in the toilets all day crying – but I had other things on my mind. Like whether Calum required babysitting any time soon.

~

The week went by pretty quickly – on Wednesday I had a brief encounter with Calum on my way home after school, but nothing all that exciting. No – it wasn't till Saturday morning that I found out all three of them would be coming over for dinner.