The Cracks in Perfection

The Walk in the Rain

Chapter 3:

Morgan

            Throughout the day thoughts of my brother circled through my head. He had stayed at his girlfriend’s dorm the night before so I hadn’t seen him since the Easter dinner. That wasn’t what was bothering me, though. He was going to be deployed in just over a week and his life would be in danger until he came home. It wasn’t until lunch that my feelings got the best of me. During study I asked to go to guidance and once I started telling Mrs. Heveret about my brother, the tears came freely.

            I knew I couldn’t cry like this at home, my family was strong, so I had to be as well. We’d all be worried for Graham and I had to pull myself together. I just needed someone to tell. I would have told Karen, but she wasn’t in my study and my feelings were growing worse and worse. After I told all of this to Mrs. Heveret, an entire period had gone by and she called my Spanish teacher to send down Karen.

            A minute later she came flying through the door and I explained the short version to her. She hugged me and helped me pull myself back together.

            “Hey, he’s not gone yet. You have to smile and laugh while he’s here and then you can cry when you miss him. And then you’ll have to stop crying until he gets back because crying doesn’t do anything for anyone.”

 I loved Karen to pieces, but she didn’t baby me, and I never would have expected her to. She knew I hated crying and she knew I especially hated crying when there was no reason to. I nodded, sniffled, and used Mrs. Heveret’s tissues to clean up my face.

            “Come on, let’s get back to Spanish, okay? I can’t stand being there without you, Miss Sanchez is a nut job.” I laughed and nodded, letting Karen help me up. Mrs. Heveret wrote us a pass and we stopped in the bathroom to make sure it didn’t look like I had been crying. Then we went back to Spanish.

***

Later that night Graham and his girlfriend came for dinner. The rest of the week we did different activities together like bowling and laser tag. That had been a fun night. Mallory even joined us for laser tag and it was Graham, Parker, Mallory and Charlotte versus Paisley, Mia (Graham’s girlfriend), Dad and me.

Graham’s team won, so that meant they got to pick what we did the next night, and they picked movie night at home. That was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tonight was Friday and Graham was taking Mia out on a date later. I walked into first period physics and sat down with Rose and Seth.

“Hey Morgan, I just signed up for your step mom’s environment gathering this weekend,” Rose said as we got out our supplies.

“Yeah, so did I,” Seth said.

“Oh that’s great, I’m going after the Key club meeting, I guess I’ll see you in both places.”

“That you will,” Rose smiled and we began our work for the lab. After class I went to AP Literature and then to psychology, my favorite class. When I went to AP European history, Seth sat next to me, which was weird. He usually sat with his friend Ray Donahue, but as I looked around the room, I realized he wasn’t there.