This time Tamsin did help me out. “Why don’t you tell us about your name? It’s unusual.”
It was obvious that the kids wanted me to answer the previous question, but I held onto hers like I was Tom Hanks with a volleyball.
“Bexley Heath is a place in London where my family was originally from generations ago. When I was born, my parents thought it would be cute to name me after it, so here I am.”
I looked down at my watch at the same time the bell rang, and finally relaxed.
At least, that’s what I thought I could do, but none of the students moved. They just sat there staring at me.
“Uh, don’t y’all want to go? I always ran out the door when the bell rang.”
Then one of the boys in a football jersey with the school team’s logo on it stood up. Holy shit, he was tall.
“We just wanted to say thank you to you and Miss Waite. We get what you’ve been talking about, Miss Waite, and you’re right. You know what happened to those two students who joined that group—”
Two students had recently attempted suicide after joining a fucked up group on the web. Thankfully, they hadn’t succeeded, but schools were being instructed to educate students about the issues with groups like it and what they said to each other because of an increase in the number of cases. “
“And we just want you to know that we’re listening and applying what you’re saying.”
Part of me wondered if he was just saying it to get her to change the subject, but part of me wanted to believe that they really got what she was working on with them.
Then, he looked at me, and I noticed how red his ears were. “If, um, if you can, would you be able to go over that book with us during one of our classes? I figure learning about society when they were like that would be good for us.”
“I’ll talk it over with the principal and see what he says, but it might not be a bad thing. Well, aside from the title.” When I smiled at him afterward, his ears went darker, and his cheeks joined them.
Before I could ask if he was okay, they all started toward the door, waving at us over their shoulders. Once the last student was gone, Tamsin burst out laughing.
“Well, at least you’re guaranteed one student who’ll pay attention.”
Frowning at her, I closed the door until the next round of students arrived. “What do you mean?”
“Fraser Brown’s got a crush on you.”
“Gross!” No teacher wanted that, ever.
“I know. The good news is that he’ll be over it in a week and going out with a cute girl. I know she’ll be cute and not a vixen because he’s got that sort of gentle personality that’d probably balk at one of the more savage girls in the school. Until then, he’ll listen in class.”
I could totally see him with a pretty, quiet girl like she described.
Moving to sit on top of her desk, I swung my legs back and forth. “Is that what happened with you and Garrett?”
The laughter stopped almost immediately, and when she looked at me, her eyes were wide.
“Girl, no. Shit happened—literally. Baby shit, dog shit, lots of both. It was awful, and I swear I was starting to think that’s all life had waiting for us, but then we grew closer over it all, and the rest is history. Well, recent history, but in a few years, we can say it’s history.”
I hadn’t heard about the finer details of their relationship, so this response was a shock. “Shit?”
Nodding her head, she said slowly, “Yeah, shit.”
“As in shit shit?”
Tilting her head to the side, she repeated, “Dog and baby.”
I didn’t even know how that would bring a couple closer together, so I asked her.
“Well,” she started and then stopped. “Actually, I don’t know how, but we became a team to clean it up, and somehow that just,”—she waved her hand around in a circle—“brought us together.”
I guess stranger things had happened.
“You know what they say: the couple that shits together sticks together.”
She walked over to the door to open it back up as she looked over her shoulder at me.
“Yeah, no, they don’t. And if a couple does shit together, they probably have accounts with Victoria’s Secret and lingerie companies all over the world, ‘cause that’s some nastiness.”
Tamsin wasn’t wrong there. With Logan staying, I had to be careful what I was eating in case I needed the bathroom to poop. I couldn’t relax about it. At this stage, I existed on nothing but the blandest stuff I could think up because I was so paranoid.
I couldn’t go in the morning in case he needed to use the bathroom after me. I couldn’t go when I got home just in case he came home early. I had shitranoia. Yes, I could use another bathroom, but he never stuck to one, he tried them all.
Wait, where was he pooping? Did he do it at work?
It’s fair to say that I was distracted during the next class and the one after it while discussing the book. I know the kids took it on because they were active during discussions and came up with some great questions and points, but I couldn’t have given you a rundown of them afterward if I tried.
My first issue was that Logan was in a bad mood at work because he was horny. But he was sleeping in the same bed as me, so did I make him horny?
Did I want to make him horny? I knew the answer to that question, but it was one thing knowing how I felt and another thing knowing his penis was involved.
Then I was wondering about him pooping, which was weird and gross.
Somehow I managed to make it home in
