Were's the Love?

Chapter 29: Awkward Conversations and When the Glasses Come Off

I look around my classroom, wipe my forehead, and admire my work. It looks pretty damn good if I say so myself. Which I do, obviously. I don't think anyone else could have pulled off what I did in less than an hour. I'd describe it to you, but that would ruin the surprise.

You didn't think I would forget what I said earlier, did you?

You'll find out what I have planned when Jason does. I don't want you ruining all the effort I went through to put this together before I have a chance to show it to him myself. I know he talks to you too. I'm not sure you can tell him anything, since you never actually answer me, but that's still a risk I'm not willing to take. I've never tried surprising someone like this before and I want to make sure that everything is perfect.

Honestly, I think it's about as good as it's going to get if I plan on getting back to the gym before Jason starts looking for me. The last thing I need is for him to come up here, see what I've done, and start asking questions.

I do wish I had a little more time to polish it up before tomorrow though. But it took me longer than I thought it would to find what I was looking for at my parents' house. Since I'm forced to move every two years, my folks have graciously allowed me to store some of my belongings in the garage until I settle on a permanent mate. I used to keep it in my old bedroom, but after I tried to spend the night there during a fight with Derek a year ago, they packed up all my things and turned it into a library. According to them, I was never going to take the whole hat pairing seriously if I kept running home every time my mate and I had a problem.

For the record, that was the first and only time I had stayed with my parents since I aged into the mating hat.

But that didn't matter to them. They liked Derek. They always have. According to them, he is a good, strong man with a bright future and I would have been lucky to be a part of it. If it had been up to them, once our two years were up, I would have agreed to be his forever and we would be happily on our way to having dozens of wolfy children. At one point, my mother actually suggested to me that I forget using protection and tie him to me with a baby. Can you believe that? She even went as far as to give me tips on what time of the month, the day, and what positions to use to help me get pregnant quicker. It was incredibly disturbing.

Actually... as disturbing as it was, I did end up using the information she gave me.

I made sure that I never had sex with Derek on those specific days, that exact time, or in those positions.

Though, I think my mom might have said something to him about it later. It got really hard to avoid those things as we got closer to the end of our time together. Suddenly, he really felt like having sex every day as soon as I came home from school and the condoms broke more often than they should for the last two months we were together. Thank whatever gods watch over shifters that I never got pregnant. I don't think I could have lasted another few years with that asshole.

Anyway, back to why it took me so long at my parents' house.

Apparently, my father decided that my boxes were taking up too much space in the garage and moved a few of them into the attic without letting me know. It took me nearly fifteen minutes to locate the totes I was looking for. Add in the ten-minute drive to and from the house, I really only had about half an hour to do what I wanted to my classroom.

Okay...so I probably could have found everything faster, but I was a little less focused on my box and a little more focused on what the fuck is wrong with me.

How could I possibly think of Jason as "my Jason!" It's too early for that shit! We've only been together for around five months and the first three of those, he treated me like his birdbrained ex and I barely tolerated him! So, if you really think about it, we've only been seeing each other properly for two months! That's not long enough!