History equals dates

Chapter Fourteen

The next day, Drew anxiously waited for Sadie to show up for their usual morning coffee. Drumming his fingers on the table at their usual spot, he looked at his watch which was marking 8:10am. Drew wondered what had come up. He was curious to know what Mr Cooper wanted to talk to her about. But he also wanted to continue what he was about to say to her the previous morning. He needed to tell her.

As he was about to text her he gave the situation the benefit of the doubt: maybe they were stuck in traffic, after all. Lately, traffic had been crazy in Yorkwood. Mr Wilson should see to this, he laughed. He put his phone away and decided to wait for a bit longer, looking at his watch every couple of seconds while tapping his foot nervously.

Although the canteen was quite crowded, Drew could hear a voice which he recognised well. Looking all around him, Drew searched for Mr Cooper hoping that Sadie would be there with him. Well, it was not that he wanted Sadie to be talking to their teacher instead of spending time with him, but it was almost time for the first lesson to start and Sadie had not shown up yet.

Trusting his things with a friend on another table, Drew left his spot and walked to Mr Cooper's direction. He was surely talking to a female, however her hair was not as blonde as Sadie's. Who could it be, then? As soon as he was only a couple of meters away from his teacher, Drew realised that the last was talking to another student who was also really pretty. He examined them from his stop and did his best to overhear what they were saying, failing miserably.

Then, Mr Cooper glanced at Drew's direction giving him a nod of acknowledgement and immediately looking away. Drew could not take it anymore. He suspected that Sadie's absence from school had something to do with her conversation with Mr Cooper after the lesson the previous day. He was dying to know what made Sadie so upset and it hurt him so much that she would rather confide in their history teacher rather than him, her so-called best friend.

Walking towards Mr Cooper, he cleared his throat and waited for Mr Cooper to acknowledge him, which he did. Drew noticed that Mr Cooper's face was suddenly pale as he said, "Good morning, Drew, can I help?" Drew raised an eyebrow and Mr Cooper understood that the subject of their conversation would be Sadie, so he turned to the other student and told her, "Um, this seems a bit urgent, Miss Smith, can we talk later?"

"Sure," she smiled. And she walked away.

As soon as she left, Drew crossed his arms and inquired, "Where's Sadie?"

Mr Cooper studied Drew's face. He immediately recognised the way Drew was feeling at that moment: jealous. So he smiled and started walking towards the door, chuckling, "She's your friend, Drew, why would I know where she is?"

Drew sighed and followed him. "Look, Mr Cooper, I don't know what you did to her to make her cry like that yesterday but I wanted you to know that if you ever hurt my girl there will be consequences. Do you understand?"

A couple of students who were close enough to hear what was being conversed, raised their eyebrows at Drew and glanced at Mr Cooper, disgusted. Mr Cooper turned to face Drew, shaking his head.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, somewhat panicked. "Don't start rumours, Drew." He pointed his finger at him as he talked and raised an eyebrow, as if to warn him.

Drew smirked and walked closer to Mr Cooper, whispering, "Look, I know you like her but I do too, so please back off."

Everyone was staring at them and gossiping about goodness knows what. They probably think I'm a violent freak who perverts around at school, thought Mr Cooper. Why would Drew do this to him? Did he know? If he did, did Sadie tell him? He shook his head as if he were shaking away his thoughts and focused on the situation he had found himself in.