Iris and the List

Colton looked wary, but sat down. I mentally chided myself. That was creepy. You should have just ignored him. Stupid, stupid.

"Are you okay Audra? Hearing about your dad must be hard." He offered.

Audra looked up at him. "What? What do you mean? I'm upset about Charlie dumping me. What have you heard?"

Colton gulped. "Forget I said anything. So, how 'bout them Red Sox?"

Audra narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't change the subject. What have you heard?"

He avoided her gaze and stared out at the city. Rory looked curious.

"Your dad is a teacher here right?" He asked.

She nodded.

Ginger then added her two cents. "He probably failed a whole class or something. Hannah makes a big deal out of nothing."

Colton winced and so did Rory. Evidently it was much worse then failing an entire class of seniors. He handed Audra his phone. Her blue eyes filled with tears once more. She let out a sob and threw Rory's phone away from her. It narrowly missed going off the roof. I picked it up and looked at the article.

Apparently her father had been having an affair with a former student, and had been fired by the school. Her mother was filing for divorce. Nice of her to hear it from a website, rather then her family.

Just then the door opened again. It was Audra's boyfriend Charlie. He promptly went into a speech on how sorry he was and how much he loved her. I'm sure it was nice, because Charlie had a way with words, but to be honest I tuned it out. They left together and Bee sighed.

"Charlie's such a sweetheart." She said.

Ginger nodded in agreement. "I wish nice guys dated me."

Rory looked so indignant at this that I had to smile. Ginger gave me an odd look.

"Well to be honest it was jerkish to dump her in the first place." I pointed out.

"Yeah. If he really loved her, he wouldn't have dumped her in the first place." Colton agreed.

"Anyways," Ginger said, growing bored with the subject. "how about the list? We never finished discussing it!"

"What list?" Colton asked.

"It's nothing, really." I said. I barely knew him. He didn't need to know.

"She broke up with her boyfriend and now she's going on a journey of self discovery." Rory informed him.

Gee I didn't think that could sound any dumber.

"He's being dramatic. It's just like a bucket list."

"That sounds cool. If you want any help, I'm available." Colton offered.

Ginger raised her eyebrows at me suggestively. I glared at her. It was a mystery to me too. Colton seemed very eager to do this. He looked at me, asking for confirmation.

I sighed. "Sure. The more the merrier, I suppose."

He beamed. "This is gonna be good."

We planned for a while and tossed around ideas. It was decided that they should each have some goal and at least one idea to contribute.

Rory decided that since his goal was to get into a Literature program at Commer University, he would use this experience as an essay topic. What this had to do with literature was beyond me, but he assured me he'd connect it. I took his word for it and asked no further questions.