Another High School Romance

twenty seven

When school started back, Travis and I were swept up into the heavy workload of term four. Exams were coming up as the weeks ticked by, final assignments were due, and we had so much on that we didn't have heaps of time for much else. I started spending most weekends at home with Mom, wanting to watch over her since she was on an experimental drug. But even though things were busy, everything was still perfect.

"Any questions?" I asked my year thirteen class, who I'd just described the brief of the practice test to. No one raised their hands. "Okay. You've got forty-five minutes. Do as much as you can." I waved a hand for them to start, falling down into my chair.

I buried myself in my workload, marking assignment after assignment as the minutes ticked by. My head ached as I stared down at papers before me and I rubbed my temples, sighing to myself. I forced myself not to stop, knowing that if I didn't get at least half of them marked today, I'd fall behind. This wasn't the busiest I'd ever been, but I was still a little stressed about Mom on top of everything else and that had me distracted.

Then there was a light tap, and I glanced up to see Travis standing outside the door. He gave me a smile through the window in the door, beckoning me out. Glancing back at the class, I put my pen down and got up, crossing the room and slipping out into the hall.

"What's up?" I murmured as I closed the door behind me.

"I just came to bring you this." Travis pressed a little cardboard box into my hands and I glanced down. Painkillers. "I came past earlier and you looked like you had a headache. You look stressed out beautiful." 

"Yeah, a little." I sighed. "Thank you."

"Anything I can help with? I guess a senior English teacher has a hell of a lot more work than I do." Travis offered. 

"No, that's okay, it's probably way out of your depth." I smiled and he rolled his eyes slightly. "Thank you though."

"Don't stress out too much beautiful, it'll be over in a few weeks." Travis reminded me. "I'll see you later yeah? How about a movie night?"

"That sounds so great, what time do you want me?" I sighed. That sounded like exactly what I needed right now. Just a night of watching movies curled up in Travis' arms. 

"I'll pick you up." Travis touched my cheek. "See you then." He murmured, placing a quick kiss on my lips before leaving. 

Taking the box of painkillers, I went back into class. The year thirteens quickly looked back down at their desks, pretending like they hadn't been watching us through the window in the door. Deciding not to bother telling them off this time, I sat down and swallowed a few pills before getting back to work.

The day dragged, but eventually I got enough work done to leave just after four-thirty. I got home fifteen minutes later, dropping my things down on the table and flopping down onto the couch. Deciding to rest for a little while, I rolled over and lay down, closing my eyes.

I was woken a little while later to a knock on my front door and jolted awake, sitting up and glancing at the clock to see it had just gone six. Yawning, I stumbled to my feet and went to open the door. 

"Fall asleep?" Travis laughed as I ran a hand through my hair, trying to blink myself awake.

"Yeah." I sighed. "One second, I'll grab some clothes for tomorrow. I can't be bothered coming home." Travis nodded, moving inside as I went to grab some things. Shoving some clothes into my purse, I grabbed my phone charger and went back to where Travis was waiting for me. 

"Have you been sleeping enough beautiful?" He asked as I locked the door and we walked down to his car. "You keep looking even more tired every day."

"I'm fine." I told him. "Just got a lot on."