Fond Of This Bond

8. Lock Up, Lockdown

My left foot felt a little wet. Not a little, too wet.
I looked down and realised that it was in a bucket, in the mop bucket to be precise.

Great!

Is it just me, or does this happen with everyone? Like, I keep on embarrassing myself in front of that one person who is   not supposed to witness that at all.

My foot had landed in this with a as plash sound which attracted someone's attention. He looked at me then down at my foot. He pursed his lips to control the emerging blasts of laughter.

Ya ya ya, you can laugh all you want.

But, to my surprise, he managed not to crack a laugh. And, to my surprise again, he started walking in my direction. When he reached me, he let out his left hand, still holding the mop in the right one.

"Oh Hannah, when will you get it?", he repeated but this time he spoke it in his own deep voice, maintaining eye contact. "God has gifted humans with a pair of eyes to see around. I think you should appreciate his effort." He gave a soft smile and I forgot what was happening.

Unconsciously, I raised my right hand to put it in his. He held it gently and 
helped me step out of the bucket.

I got out of it and was standing about a foot away from the mess, with a mess on
my foot, thinking hard about how to clean it up.

I tried not to look at him and continued to focus on dirty foot and the droplets dripping from the wet jeans. Thankfully it was just two or three inches of it that got wet.

"I think there were some tissues in that drawer." He informed me, pointing towards the drawer in the teacher's table.

"Yeah, thanks." I replied, still trying not to look at him.

Why isn't he going away? I have a matter to attend.

"Ahem." I heard him clear his throat.

Go!

"Umm... Hannah,"

Shit! He has something to say.

"Yes." I said, looking at the beautiful blackboard. I wonder who cleaned it up!

"We have lot of work undone." He completed.

Why is he telling me that?

"I know. We should get back to it." I said trying to sound as chill as possible.

"And for that you need to leave my hand" He said bring his hand in front of my face. The thing that seemed unusual was his hand had another hand in it and I think I know that hand.

Oh... I it belongs to me.

I pulled my hand back, gave a quick glance at him for less than a millisecond whispering a yeah. That span of a second was enough to see that he was smirking.

I started walking briskly towards the drawer, opened it and was glad to find the tissues in there. The helper had resumed back to his work while I grabbed a chair to sit and start wiping my foot and drying my wet jeans.

About five minutes later, it had almost dried up. I wore my boots and threw the used tissues in the bin.

I took a pledge to not embarrass myself again. It had already been too much for the day. I can't take it anymore.

The only way to get rid of all this sooner is by completing this quickly. With sheer determination, I picked up the wipes to clean the windows.

*****