Our Only Exception

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

On the outside I was calm and collected but on the inside I was completely freaked out. What was I supposed to say? "He's a boy I nanny for, but he's like a brother to me." I left out the part that he was actually more like a son.

"Oh... But-" I cut him off before he could ask many questions; I'd answer them later but I didn't want James to be present while we talked about how horrible his life had been before I came along and practically rescued him.

"We'll talk about it later." He nodded unsurely and we drove in silence the rest of the way home. Once we got there I asked Christian to hang out in the living room while I put James to bed.

"So..." I began, walking out to him. He looked up hopefully, as if we were about to discuss the 'James situation'. We weren't. "Do you want something to eat or drink?" When we were walking in the house a few minutes before, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't be returning to school today so I figured we could at least relax.

"Sure?" He made it sound more like a question than an answer.

"Ok, we could watch a movie or something and have popcorn, do you want to?"

"All right, yeah." He seemed to be a little happier after I'd suggested that. However, I could tell he wanted the truth about James but didn't want to be the one to bring it up. While I popped the popcorn, I weighed the pros and cons of telling Christian the whole story.

The pros were that we'd be able to get to know each other better, there would be no more lies between us, and we could be better friends or maybe even more. And that's where the cons came in. I didn't know if I wanted us to get to know each other more and I certainly didn't know if I wanted us to be better friends.

Once our snacks were ready I headed into the living room and found Christian sitting on the couch. I had to force my mind to stop thinking about how cute he looked right then. Well, he always looked cute but he especially looked cute in my house on my couch and wow I think I'm going crazy... I shoved all those thoughts out of my head, sitting down next to him with the popcorn on my lap.

We searched for movies on TV and eventually settled on Bruce Almighty. I spent the first ten minutes of the movie trying to figure out if I should tell him or not. I know, I know, it's not really that big of deal to most people but to me it was. I rarely opened up to people and told them the whole story.

The weird thing was that I felt like I could definitely trust Christian. Something inside of me was just telling me he was different. I knew he wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt me or James and so far he seemed like a really great guy.

"Ok, let's talk." I said bravely before I changed my mind, muting the TV.

"Let's." He agreed simply, turning his full attention to me, showing he was ready for whatever I had to say.

"Want to know the real story about James?" I didn't want to jump into it all if he didn't even want to know in the first place.

"Yes. If you're comfortable with telling me then I'd love to know." He smiled encouragingly at me and I smiled back, knowing now for sure that I wanted Christian to know more about me.

"When James was a baby his parents hired me to be his occasional babysitter. We began to grow very attached to each other and soon they asked me to be his full time nanny. The more time I spent around him, the more suspicious I grew of his parents. I had started to think that they were abusive to him." I stopped to close my eyes and take deep breaths, remembering all the times I would pick him up to find a new mysterious bruise on him.

Christian waited until I was ready to continue, not rushing me or saying anything. I looked at him and went on. "It turned out that they were abusing him, so I promised myself that I would basically devote my life to him. I'd keep him safe and do everything in my power to give him a normal childhood." I finished the story and looked into Christian's eyes, trying to read any emotion in them.

"So he lives with you and Adalie?" He questioned, looking as if he were deep in thought.

"Pretty much, yes. I'm going to try to adopt him because I know he deserves a much better life than what he's gotten so far." He nodded and for a second I wondered insecurely if I'd said too much. Would he be freaked out and want nothing to do with us? More importantly, would he use my newfound vulnerability to his advantage and hurt us in the end? I hoped the answers to those questions were no but I knew better than to expect to be that lucky.

"Thank you for telling me that. I know how hard it was for you and I want you to know that I'm here. I'm here if you need anything. Ok?" I was stunned. I had never pictured that he'd react this well to the news.

"Thank you, Christian." I said sincerely, looking into his eyes again. He smiled and pulled me into a hug. I laced my arms around his neck, returning the gesture. We broke away from the hug but he kept his arms around me, looking at me intently. And then, he leaned in a bit and I could tell he wanted to kiss me but wasn't sure if I wanted that.

Did I want him to kiss me? I answered my own question right away by closing the distance between us and kissing him. But it wasn't long before we were interrupted by the front door opening.

"Hey girl! Ugh long day at school! Is James-" Adalie stopped herself once she noticed who else was in the room and what we were doing. "Oh! I'll just go, uh, wait in my room!" She ran off down the hallway and I smiled sheepishly at Christian before getting up and walking to her room, telling him I'd be right back.

"What was that? Are you and him a thing? I knew you'd end up together! Man, what the heck happened today? Tell me everything!" Adalie went on once I shut the door. I smiled to myself, replaying it all in my mind.

I was about to tell her everything, as she'd requested, but then remembered that we took Adalie's car so I'd have to take him back to his. "I'll tell you later but I don't want him to have to wait out there forever. So let me take him to the school where his car is and then when I get back we'll talk." I left before she could protest.

"Hey can I take you to your car?" I wasn't sure what to say or how to act around him after what had happened. Did he regret it? Did I? No, I knew for sure that I didn't regret it.

"Ok sure."

We drove there listening to the radio and occasionally making small talk, but neither of us even tried steering the conversation towards what had happened. "Bye." I said once we got there.

He smiled at me, leaned in and kissed me on the cheek before saying, "Bye, Kayla." I didn't even bother hiding my giddy smile while he got out of my car and walked over to his, waving at me before getting in the driver's side.

As I drove home, replaying the day's events in my head, I expected to feel regretful or upset but the only emotion that I was feeling bad been happiness. I was glad that Christian was the one I decided to trust and truly believed that I hadn't made a mistake telling him or kissing him.