Tessa
I walked into the high school, my heart beating fast, my legs shaking, returning to the high school I went to before I met Collin, before I had Iris.
I was -of course- late to school. Collin was trying to rush me out the door, while I was trying to stay home. Stay with my baby, and still have the ability to be rule free even though I was the one who chose to go to an actual high school.
Earlier today.
The alarm rang, I looked at my cell phone and glanced at the super bright digital clock that read 4:24am.
Collin rolled over in the bed facing the left side of the bedroom (toward the door -away from me-) pushing the blanket up toward his neck.
Unfortunately that is the only thing we couldn’t solve, was the sleeping situation. I had figured that Collin would just go to the couch, making me comfortable, but, he didn’t. Instead he deliberately ignored my begging, flipping it on me. Saying if I wanted to sleep on the couch I could. So I slept on the couch the first night; which was horrible, it’s so uncomfortable that my entire body felt like it was extremely sore.
When I finally got out of bed, going to the bathroom, remembering all of the tasks I used to do when I lived with my parents, the things that gave me life knowing I was going to school to learn many, many things no one else knew.
Take a shower
Brush my teeth
Dry my hair/style it
do my makeup.
Last but not least; get dressed.
I was wearing a cropped tank top with a blue jean jacket and black leggings with a pair of white Birkenstocks the jean jacket to hide my post partum stomach.
It’s now 5:32 in the morning, this is where I would normally eat and do any homework I didn’t do and pack my volleyball gear for volleyball practice that was after school.Being that I’m now a mother, this is where I get the house cleaned as much as I can and wait for Iris to wake up.
6:05AM
When Iris woke up I had just finished putting the last dish in the dishwasher, allowing me to walk to the other side of the apartment, grabbing her from her finished and beautiful Nursery. I went down to the living room and sat on the couch, breastfeeding her, before Collin uses the milk I pumped last night that’s in the refrigerator.
I then heard Collins foreign alarm, the one he never wakes up to, especially when we were in Virginia, he didn’t hear that one tell it was too late.
He got out of bed, no shirt, no pants, just his underwear. My mind was practically melting looking at his abs. “Good morning.” He put some stuff in the espresso machine and then walked over to me but I held my finger stopping him from coming closer, not wanting him to see me, not right now.
“Good morning, I’m surprised you woke up to your alarm, I mean, it seems like it’s pretty hard for you to hear em’ old man.” I grinned, able to tease him with it.
“Who you calling old? This body doesn’t look old, it looks refreshed.” He smiled.
“I don’t know, Brad Pitt seemed like he has a better body then you did, in my opinion.” Totally lying. Kind of. Collin hasn’t been out beaten by any actor, yet.
“I guess I’m gonna have to work harder, I mean, for the others girls you want me to date.” He said going back to the kitchen and grabbing his coffee from the machine. I stared down his bare 6 pack chest. My mouth drooling at the sight of his body.
When Iris was finished, I put my shirt down, quickly, and walked her to the more fancy baby bouncer I have here, when I felt Collin staring I spun away quickly to start packing my lunch “Can’t you put a shirt on Collin?”
“That would let you get off the hook, hiding these babies would make it easier for you to stay away from me.”
“No. You’re just tempting me, I need to go and your abs are making it impossible for me to think.”
“Get going Tessa you can’t wait for Iris to go to sleep to let you go to school. I’m here and when I’m not here, the babysitter can watch her, that’s what we hired her for. It’s going to be fine.”
“I shouldn’t have enrolled back to the high school. This was a mistake. Maybe if I--”
“Go Tessa. I’m going to actually push you to your car if you don’t go.” He laughed putting his pajama pants on that he left in the living room while I took up the whole bedroom to change my clothes last night.
“Okay, okay. You’re right. But I want reports on how Iris is doing every hour.”
“fine. Just go. You don’t want to get in trouble your first day back.”
“I can’t tell you how nervous I am.”
“I’m sure nobody even knew you were pregnant.”
“Word get’s around.” I said walking out the door.
“I love you!” Collin shouted, watching me walk down the hall.
I didn’t reply back, I would have if he wasn’t going to take it the wrong way, but I just kept walking, my food in hand, and my thoughts on his exposed chest.
I watched Collin shut the door as I waited for the elevator doors open. It’s the first time in a while since I stepped into my school, the high school I was the second queen of, the highschool I just disappeared from. I was captain of the volleyball time, I was a friend of everyone’s, and certainly every guy wanted to hook up with me -the smokin’ hot virgin volleyball player-. But now what do they think of me?
I stepped inside the elevator and pushed the M button. Continuing my thought; Do they think I’m a skank? Do they think bad of me? Are they going to slut shame me? Mock me, because I got pregnant?”
The elevator doors opened; I walked out of the elevator and into a bare chest.
“Hey, watch where—” I looked at the man standing in front of me.
It was Collin. He was breathing heavily, holding a backpack in his right hand no sight of Iris, but his abs again, in my freakin face.
“Are you sure you’re prepared to go back to school?”
I blushed “You’re out of shape. It’s about time you got down here, I was waiting to see if you were paying attention.” I scoffed.
“Shut-up.” He laughed. I went to grab my back pack and Collin pulled it away from me.
“Can I have my backpack?”
“Kiss me.”
“Collin, I can’t. We aren’t anything, by my choice.” I reached for the backpack again and he put it high enough so I couldn’t reach it.
“You can’t go to school to without your school stuff; and you can’t get your school stuff until you kiss me.” He leaned down and smirked. “So, kiss me why don’t you?”
“No, I can’t. ”
“Then you can’t have your stuff.” he turned around and walked back toward the steps, when I knew I had to have that backpack for school, I had to do it, I had to kiss him.
“Wait!” I said, looking down, feeling defeated, “Come back here.” He walked back towards me, raising the bag higher when he reached me, I got on my tippy toes turned my head to the left and grabbed his face in a gentle way to kiss him, and It wasn’t just a peck, it was a long kiss. My stomach got the butterflies and my cheeks were overly blushing. I ended the kiss, willingly, and put my hands back to the side and my feet back fully on the ground.
“Can I have my school stuff now?”
“Of course.” He smiled.
I grabbed the backpack and smiled at Collin
Present time
I knocked on the door waiting for the teacher to open it. That’s one of the stupid things at this high school. Students who are late having to suffer to wait for the door to open. It’s “Their karma for tardy students”
I have a reason to be late. I have to drive two hours just to get here. Oh, and don’t forget the fact I have a Three-month-old at home.
The teacher walked to the door and opened it having a genuine smile, a welcoming smile as she greeted me saying “You must be the new student all the way from Denver.”
I walked into the classroom, everyone in the classroom gasped and started whispering to each other.
“Not new. Just returning. But you look new ma’am.”
“Yes. I’m Mrs. James.”
“Nice to meet you Mrs. James. I’m Tessa Reynolds, I’ve been a student here since freshman year all the way up to the end of my sophomore year ma’am.”
“I know you’re all over these walls as ‘missing: reward if found.’