Chapter 26: Chris.
You have stolen all my senses,
There's a fever in my heart,
And you are taking my defenses,
You are pulling me apart.
Chris walked as fast as he could down the corridors and back into his classroom. He grabbed a cardboard box and started packing his things into it straight away. He figured he'd better get it all sorted now, seeing as Karen had probably called the police the moment that he'd left the office and closed the door behind him. Part of him was slightly angry with Sami for telling Karen everything that had happened between them, but he couldn't help feeling fuming with himself. It was his fault that they'd got into this mess, he shouldn't have even got her pregnant in the first place. Even if he knew that he loved Sami with all of his heart, he was terrified of how he'd most probably be branded a perv or paedophile. A wave of guilt hit him and he realised that he'd bring the school's reputation down yet another level. Oh, the press would love this! Chris put the box down on his desk for a moment and put his head in his hands, desperately trying not to do something stupid that would get his anger out. He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, calming down a bit. He lifted his head back up again and pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding it up. He absent-mindedly flicked onto the camera photos, and the first one that popped up was a picture of him and Sami sat on his sofa together. It was quite a close-up photo of them and he had his arm tightly wrapped around Sami's shoulder, a small part of his face was covered by her hair. She had a huge smile spread across her face and she appeared to be laughing at something. A brief smile crossed Chris's face as the memory of how that particular photo had been taken.
'Chris, I'm booooored!' Sami whined, wriggling about a bit as they were laid down on the sofa together. 'Oh, that's nice! So spending time with your boyfriend's boring, is it?' Chris replied playfully, not realising that the word 'boyfriend' had slipped off of his tongue for the first time so easily until he saw the shocked smile on Sami's face. 'What?' He asked her, confused. 'You just called yourself my boyfriend..' Sami couldn't hide her smile widening, making Chris's cheeks turn bright red. He'd actually felt quite proud of himself for it for some odd reason, and he flashed her that favourite smile of hers. 'Well, it's what I am, isn't it?' He said, as if he was stating the obvious. '..Yeah, you've never said that to me before though,' Sami laughed. 'Sorry, girlfriend..' He burst into laughter as soon as he'd said this, wrapping his arm around her waist. 'I sound like that telly presenter that you bang on about sometimes! That one who presents the fashion programme you force me to watch every Saturday morning..' Sami gave him a rather poor attempt at a confused look, as she was trying so hard not to laugh herself. 'You mean Gok Wan, don't you?' She giggled, grinning at him. 'Yeah, that's the one!' Sami couldn't fight it anymore, she erupted into a fit of silent laughter and she was laughing so hard that tears were running down her cheeks. 'Y-you're so silly sometimes..' She laughed, now almost doubled over.
Once they'd stopped laughing, they lay there in silence for a little while. 'What can we do?' Sami pondered aloud, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face. Chris shrugged and pulled his phone out of his pocket, making Sami suddenly realise something. 'Hold on, we still haven't got each other's numbers have we?' She said, nestling further into Chris's arms. 'No, we haven't!' Chris replied, getting up the 'new contact' menu on his phone. They quickly exchanged numbers and quietly lay there again for a little while. Chris absent-mindedly played with his phone, and it wasn't until he was flicking through his contact list that he realised he needed a photo for when Sami popped up on his caller ID. 'Hey, we need a picture for this,' he smiled, gesturing to the screen. 'Why not take one now then?' Sami said, smiling right back at him. They promptly sat up and Sami snuggled up to Chris, making him wrap his arm lovingly around her shoulders. He pressed a button on the side of his phone and turned it around so that the camera was facing them. They shifted closer together so that they were sat cheek to cheek and he couldn't resist moving his head slightly so that he could feel her smooth, soft hair against his skin and he could faintly smell it beneath his nose. He tucked some of it behind her ear, but left enough for him to feel against the side of his face. Sami's eyes flitted over to him and she smiled slowly. 'Love you,' Chris whispered gently into her ear, kissing her softly on the cheek. 'Love you too,' she whispered back, blushing.
Chris leaned forwards slightly and lovingly kissed Sami's temple, smiling at how much she was blushing. His finger hovered over the button to take the picture, but before he did so, he playfully whispered the words 'It's all about the confidence!' into her ear, putting on his best Londoner accent that he could manage. Sami started to laugh again and Chris quickly pressed the button on his phone, smiling shyly as it let out a small click to indicate that the photo had been taken.
'Christopher?' A quiet, soft female voice interrupted the memory and brought him back into his classroom. Chris looked up towards the door, to the source of that voice. The voice that belonged to the one person who practically held his heart in his hands, and that small, simple sound of her speaking his full name had an unspeakable effect on him. He could feel his heart hammering again in his chest and a blush skittered across his cheeks. He couldn't hide the look of warmth and adoration in his blue eyes as he laid them on her bright green ones, no matter how angry, confused and upset with her he was supposed to be right then. You need her, the voice inside his own head gently told him. He could see that her face was still stained with tears and he desperately needed to have the feeling of his skin on hers, to simply hold her in his arms and kiss the top of her blonde head and tell her that it was all going to be okay. But he couldn't, she'd told Karen everything and now he was going to taken away from her.