daddy issues h.s ➽ [DISCONTINUED]

002.

"Mr. Styles? Are you married?" One of my kids asked on Monday afternoon, her head tilted to the side and pony tail laying on her shoulder. She pulled up her left hand to twirl her brown long hair, chewing her gum weirdly hard.

"No," I answered and ignored her attempt in trying to 'seduce' me with her dirty 15 year old mind. "I hope to be some day though."

"You're not married?" Another girl had chimed in from the back, her voice low and kind of hoarse. I hadn't remembered their names, but I had assumed that they were friends at that time by the way they both looked at each other and snickered. They didn't think I could see them through the reflection of the window on the my right as I sat at my desk and graded papers.

"No, now get back to work." I said to the freshman, straightening my tie and taking a deep breath. My back straightened in the uncomfortable chair, and I could see in my peripheral that one of the girls were glaring.

After a few more minutes of grading papers while my students quietly worked on their upcoming English assignment, I read a few articles about asking women on dates. I figured that later on I would call Ana and ask her if she wanted to get coffee, being that we haven't talked since late Friday night.

Well of course we haven't talked, the only conversation we had consisted of our names and her number.

But why wouldn't she call me over the weekend? She was probably waiting for me to call her instead.

She was the one who put her number in my phone.

I felt so off.

"Mr. Styles?" A kid from the back of the class called almost annoyed, his hand raised and his eyebrows furrowed as he held his worksheet with a tight grip.

"Yes?" I cleared my throat and pulled my rolling chair away from the desk, beginning to get up.

"I have a question."

That whole period, I couldn't focus, and I think my students could notice. I wasn't answering their questions to the best of my ability, and I was stuttering over every word my mouth could even utter.

The two girls who were asking me if I were married earlier came after class because I assumed they had nothing else to do and once I quickly clicked out of the tab 'how to ask a woman out' on wiki, they started to giggle.

"I don't get this assignment," she handed the paper to me and once I read the really nice handwriting in the space for her name, I had acquired her name once again. It was Natalie Barmier. I glanced down at the rest of the paper, noticing that she had the correct answers circled, but then erased. Her new answers were all over the place, and some contradicted with others. I just blew it off and gave the worksheet back to her.

"Just come after school tomorrow, and we'll go over it."

She looked to the ground, and back at me biting on her manicured finger nails. "I have lacrosse practice tomorrow."

The girl beside her nodded and I noticed she had put her lacrosse jacket on. Her name was Julia.

I sighed, rubbing the slightly growing stubble on my cheeks and running it over my face. "Okay." My chair squeaked as I stood up to walk them out. "Just get to next period and I'll see you after school."

They both nodded excitedly before rushing to get to their next class. I knew these types of kids, they were oblivious to the other young male teachers, but I was well aware. They waste their time aimlessly flirting, assuming that they're going to get something out of it, and sadly it does happen in certain schools; maybe even in certain classes of this school. But definitely not in mine.

As I walked to my desk to grade papers, I grabbed my phone from inside my pants pocket and twirled it in my hand, the screen clacking against my rings.

"Maybe tomorrow." I whispered to myself and tucked it away.

ana ~

As customers flew by, leaving with new tattoos and edited ones, the more and more my eyes started to close on their own. It was such a slow day that I could literally count each second in each minute. And since I tattooed words instead of things like roses and birds, many people were in other parts of the shop. A coworker of mine noticed that I was slowly starting to drift off, so he came by to wake me up.

"Have anyone today?" He asked, leaving on the counter of my station that had pictures of previous tatted people I had done, and he had accidentally pushed one out of the thumbtack before pushing it back in. He uttered, "Sorry," as I began to answer.

"Sadly, no," I sighed and rubbed my face. If Sophia didn't have such a strict boss, I would've called her and asked if she wanted to get some lunch, but I can't do so with that being the case. "Everyone's in Jesse's booth today."

"He does a bomb-ass rose, you have to admit."

I laughed and nodded with a stupid grin on my face. Jesse was an attractive guy, but being that he slept with every girl he could get his hands on turned me off almost completely. I didn't blame him, he was fresh out of college and he wasn't looking for something serious. I respected that. And I still do.

"How come you don't have any?" Zayn asked and I immediately knew he was talking about tattoos. I was waiting for him to ask, being that he was the only one in this whole shop who hasn't asked yet. And the thing is that I'm not even the only one who doesn't have any, I guess it's just my personality.

"Why do you ask?" I looked up at him from my chair, and he played with one of the pictures before answering.

"You just don't seem like someone who would work in a place like this," I knew exactly what he meant.

Being a small petite girl with no tattoos and very 'innocent' qualities looks bizarre in places like these. I know that this is what narrow minded people think, but it's just the truth for most. I'm not saying that being narrow minded is a bad thing, but it's just a reality in places that you will be in.

"I don't know, I just like how they look on other people, not me." I shrugged even though it was a deeper meaning than that. The reason why I didn't tell Zayn was because I didn't know myself, and also because I noticed that Jesse was coming over to take a break while his customer did the same, and I always get quiet around him for some reason.

"Hey," he said, taking off his gloves and putting his hands on his hips. He gestured to my drink, ruffling his black hair that was beginning to messily fall over his face. "Can I get some?" I nodded without thinking, and he opened the cap before tilting his head back to guzzle it down.

"How was it?" Zayn asks.

"It's gonna come out dope," he patted Zayn's shoulder with a smile on his face. "Thanks," he closed the top and tossed the drink at me, and I, barely, caught it. The two walked over to Jesse's customer and she showed her half filled, red colored rose and Zayn covered his mouth with his fist. I giggled as the two said 'dope' almost every two seconds in between 'wow's and 'woahs'.

I was so busy looking at them that I hadn't realized that my phone was ringing in my pocket. I bit my lip, grabbing it and aimlessly answering without looking at the number. "Hello?" I sounded out of breath and excited, probably like I had just been laughing with a group of friends when I was really just laughing by myself.

"Ana?" A vaguely familiar British voice clouded in my head, but the only face I could really see clearly was Jesse's.

"Who is this?"

harry ~

My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. Had she not known who I was? Did it take me that long to call her?

My voice caught in my throat, and it closed tightly on me. I could hardly breathe, not matter how many times I tried to loosen my tie that felt like a noose.

"Hello?" The light buttery voice I remembered that evening sounded like many ringing bells, and I couldn't take it so I just hung up, and it felt like everything had just stopped in place.

Then, I stupidly slapped myself in the face and lightly laughed. "Idiot," I mumbled and my next period class walked in.