Dear Universe

Chapter 2

I stared at her mahogany desk, not looking Ms. Laurence in the eyes... I could tell she was just staring at me, though. My bag was slumped on the floor next to the itchy chair I was sitting in, across from Ms. Laurence. I followed her out of the classroom where she led me to her office and we've been sitting here for 5 minutes without saying anything.

Can we just do this until lunch? Just another hour or so...

What if I'm being suspended? Did I do anything suspended-worthy?!

Is she worried with my grades? But I've been doing fine! I think... I have a low B in Language Arts... but that's it!

I shoved that thought far away, into some cabinet in a dark corner where the sun doesn't dare shine for fear of being whipped away into oblivion by the darkness of denial.

That's the way I've always kinda worked... If you just push it all away into a neat ol' cabinet in a dark, rarely visited corner of my mind, it'll just stay there-hopefully-nice and neat, and I won't ever have to worry about it again! Because once the little drawers of the cabinet are open, and something is put inside, it doesn't get opened again! Ever! Because we don't do that!

Nuh uh!

"Ms. Mace?" The principal finally said and my head shot up to meet her gaze. "Are you alright?"

"Huh-" I stuttered, "Wh- Y-yeah, I'm fine."

Ms. Laurence pressed her lips tight together, and a small crease formed between her eyebrows as I responded and held back the habit to bite my lip as she said, "Are you... sure..?"

My eyebrows inched up and I shoved them back down. "Yeah, of course." I quickly added, "Why?"

Ms. Laurence folded her hands delicately on her desk. "Ms. Mace, it has been brought to my attention of your tardy record." A little whimper escaped my lips, and my neck strained, but she didn't seem to hear it. "You've been tardy a considerable amount of times since the beginning of the school year, and I wanted to ask if your home situation is well?"

My eyes widened in surprise in a look that said excuse me? "My home situation is fine..." I said, adding a small smile for reassurement.

Her eyebrows scrunched together again as she inspected my sudden change of attitude. "I will take that as a 'no,'" she replied. "What's wrong, Bryson?"

"Nothing," I told her, trying to sound convincing. I was getting pretty good at lying, but sometimes... I would have my awesome days and I'd have my terrible, you-can-see-right-through-me days. There is no in between.

"Bryson," she said, "you know it's okay if things aren't okay. I'm here to help."

I closed my eyes, holding in a shaky breath. My eyes solely focused on a so very interesting apple-shaped paperweight i said, "Really... everything's fine, I just have a really bad internal clock,"

Ms. Laurence let out a small sigh and looked at me with pity in her eyes.

I hate when people do that.
I knew she suspected I was lying, but she didn't push further. But I also know that this conversation-unfortunately-isn't over.
Ms. Laurence sighed and stood, "Alright then. You should probably get back to class, Bryson."

I nodded and stood, "Thank you."

Jesus Christ superstar...

I stared at her mahogany desk, not looking Ms. Laurence in the eyes... I could tell she was just staring at me, though. My bag was slumped on the floor next to the itchy chair I was sitting in, across from Ms. Laurence. I followed her out of the classroom where she led me to her office and we've been sitting here for 5 minutes without saying anything.