The Unlikely Daddy

• 14 •

"I don't want you to" Alfie admitted, not wanting Mr Bentley to come and find him at break to make him go to the bathroom again.

"Why not?" Mr Bentley asked, not seeing anything particularly wrong with his previous request.

"Because then everyone will start wondering why you keep coming to see me and then they're bound to find out" Alfie sighed.

"Well, will you go with Logan to the bathroom at break time instead?" Mr Bentley suggested.

Although Alfie felt a lot more comfortable with Logan, he still wasn't convinced that he would actually have the courage to tell him that he needed a wee. Regardless, he nodded his head, pretending he felt more confident than he did in reality.

"That's fine then. Get yourself to Mr Tyler's classroom, I'll send him an email to explain why you're a little bit late" Mr Bentley said, opening the staff room door for Alfie to leave.

Alfie ambled towards Mr Tyler's classroom for homeroom. He knew all eyes would fall on him when he entered the room, and he couldn't help but feel stressed about it. He was aware that only Logan knew about his accidents, but even so, he got the impression that the prying eyes of the other students knew more about him than they were letting on. Of course, they didn't, but that was still a thought that plagued Alfie's mind.

"Good morning, Alfie" Mr Tyler smiled as Alfie arrived at the classroom.

Most of the class were doing some last minute homework, so very few even looked up at him as he came inside.

"I got Mr Bentley's email. Would you be okay with coming into the hallway for a quick chat?" Mr Tyler asked.

Alfie had assumed that Mr Bentley was only going to email about his lateness, however it was now clear that he had mentioned a few more personal things.

Alfie followed Mr Tyler out, catching Logan's eye as he did this. Logan smiled widely at Alfie, but Alfie merely raised his eyebrows in return.

"So, Mr Bentley has let me know about your new medication" Mr Tyler began.

"He has said that as it works it's way into your system there might be a few side effects, most notably an increase in bathroom visits" Mr Tyler continued.

"Uh-hu" Alfie nodded, wanting the conversation to be over.

"Do you feel safe enough in my class to let me know when you need to go to the bathroom?" Mr Tyler asked.

Alfie didn't reply. He very much did not feel safe enough at all.

"Because it's important to me that I create an environment in my classroom that lets my students feel confident with letting me know what they need" Mr Tyler went on to say.

"I won't need to" Alfie said quietly.

"Okay, but if you do need to" Mr Tyler knew that wasn't true of Alfie to say, but went along with it anyway.

"I'll just wait" Alfie said nonchalantly, as if he was actually capable of waiting.

"Buddy, it's okay for you to say no, that you don't feel safe, so I can then do something about it to make it easier" Mr Tyler explained.

"It isn't you" Alfie said, not liking the idea of Mr Tyler feeling bad for his own shortcomings.

"But I have a duty of care to every student in my class. If you aren't feeling okay, then I'm not doing my job quite right" Mr Tyler replied.

"There isn't anything you can do to make it better" Alfie admitted.

"Look, I've known you for a few weeks now. I think I'm getting quite good at noticing when you need to go for a wee and are a bit too nervous to let me know. How about, if I notice those signs, I'll call you outside and you can go to the bathroom without having to actually tell me" Mr Tyler suggested.