Page 25 of Fight For Us
“Really?” I teased. “So that wasn’t suggestive moaning then?”
“Oh my God. Can you not?” Her already flushed cheeks flamed to the tips of her ears. “Just forget this ever happened.”
“You may be a tiger but I’m an elephant.” I leaned in. “I never forget.”
My eyes were glued to her face as she bit her lower lip. She turned her head and I could see the change in her expression.The fire in her eyes. She glanced down at my lap and smirked. “Doesn’t look like an elephant to me.”
I choked on a laugh as she backed up and hopped on the main road toward our kids school.
I clenched my jaw as we walked through the claustrophobic halls of the elementary school. The place smelled like a mix of Pine-Sol and day-old pizza. Olivia shrugged on the hoodie she’d grabbed from her backseat. Thank fuck because I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I wanted to splay my palm around her waist the entire car ride, especially after that audiobook mishap. Not the most opportune time for my mind to be hovering in the gutter.
School employees waved at us, offering smiles and politehow are yous. I nodded, following Olivia who seemed to know where we were headed.
“Here’s their classroom. I had to walk Alex in a few times after the surgery.” We peeked through the window of the closed door to see the teacher deep in conversation with a set of parents. “I guess we’ll have to wait here,” she said.
I took in the walls lined with holiday artwork and writing assignments. It had been so long since I’d stepped foot inside a school. Guilt gnawed at my gut. Lilly was ten and this was my first time at one of these parent teacher conferences. I really was a shit father.
“Hey, I think this is Lilly’s.” Olivia pointed at a hanging paper on the wall a few steps from me. She read it over and cleared her throat.
“What is it?”
“Take a look,” she said in a quiet voice.
It was an essay. The title at the top read,All About Me. I scanned the sprawling penmanship.
I’m supposed to write an essay about myself but why bother? I’m not important or cool. No one would want to read it and I’ll probably get an F anyways. But here it goes. All about me. I’m Lilly and I’m 10. I live with my dad and my grandparents. I really want a cat but my dad says no. He says no a lot. I think he’s just sad all the time. I like to draw and play video games but I’m not very good. All in all, that’s pretty much it.
I ground my teeth until my jaw hurt. “Well, that stings.”
“I can’t believe she hung that out here.”
I hadn’t thought of that but now that Olivia brought it up, I was pissed. Confused too, but mainly pissed. “What am I supposed to do with that?” I asked, pointing at the paper.
“We can ask her to take it down.”
“I meant, with what she wrote.” I stared up at the popcorn ceiling. “I knew she’d been acting off.”
“Alex has, too.” Her sigh mirrored how I was feeling. “They’ve gone through a lot of changes. Plus they’re at this weird age, right between being a kid and a teen. It’s not easy.”
I knew everything she said made sense but I couldn’t help but think it was my shitty parenting that was messing everything up. The classroom door opened and the teacher’s voice drifted out the door. “I can see whoever’s next.”
I looked at Olivia. “You can go.”
“No it’s fine. Go ahead,” she said, gesturing toward the door.
I glanced into the empty classroom then back to Olivia. “Together?”
She hesitated a moment before nodding. “Okay.”
“Thanks for coming in, I’m Mrs. Nolan.” She extended her hand to me and smiled at Olivia. “Hello again, Olivia. Have a seat.”
Olivia wasn’t kidding about the Goldilocks chairs. I looked down and my immediate thought was that I’d break that thing. Then I thought about the low squat I’d have to do to get in the thing and how much my body didn’t love those. My back and hips already ached from a long day. Olivia noticed my hesitation and said, “I think we’ll stand, thanks.”
“Okie dokie,” the teacher said. “I knew Alex and Lilly were close, but I didn’t realize they were siblings.”
“Oh. They’re not.” Olivia gestured between us. She let out a breathless laugh. “We just work together. Right, Wes? We’re not dating.”
“Yup, definitely not together romantically.” She continued to laugh nervously, knocking my ego down a flight of stairs.
