Tea Parties in Boston

37 - Peptalks

November 8th, 2022

It was not a proud moment for Rory. She'd shut herself into a bathroom, the faculty one - which was just the single occupancy space much like headmaster Charleston had in his office - and held the crumpled up napkin she'd already spent the last ten minutes bawling into. Her upper lip was all reddened, as was her nose... and her eyes were all puffy.

"Get a grip, Rory!" she tried to talk to herself in the mirror burst just burst into tears yet again. The work day was over and most people had left the building for the night, so she wasn't really concerned about having someone hear her. But she just didn't feel like leaving the space. She hadn't known she was still that person to have breakdowns like this - and this was the part she was truly ashamed of. She'd made arrangements so that Catalina would pick Em up for her tonight, pretending she had to work late. She just needed to get over this... but it was so embarrassing. Right now she just felt like hiding from the world.

Her phone buzzed for the third time. It was Angie. Logan had already messaged too, asking if she was okay.

"I don't really feel like talking right now," Rory texted Angie back.

Yet on that note the woman just called again and in that moment Rory knew she should just take it or she wouldn't stop calling.

"Yes?" Rory answered with a broken voice.

"Giselle called me," Angie explained.

"Uh-huh," Rory acknowledged her, but didn't feel like saying much.

"Mistakes happen," Angie said, making it evident she'd gotten a recap of what had happened already.

"This shouldn't have...," Rory replied, sniffling her nose.

"But tomorrow is a new day and there'll be other assignments you'll ace," Angie suggested, innocently.

"I screwed up because I was distracted. I was distracted because I wanted to go on a lunch date with Logan and I just... and I really screwed up," Rory added.

"Well if anyone deserves to be distracted it's you, okay? And a date with Logan - what more reason to?" Angie discussed lightheartedly.

"This is just what I do... he always distracts me and I start making bad decisions...," Rory explained, feeling like blaming both herself and him. "This is not a mistake a 38-year-old makes, it's an early-career mistake. Something that wouldn't happen because there would be someone more experienced supervising. They might as well suspend me, maybe even fire me for this," Rory rambled.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Angie assured.

"Well, I'll hear about it tomorrow, won't I? I got called to see the chair tomorrow morning," Rory added.

"So right now there's nothing you can do about any of it, right? Just take a deep breath and just... face up," Angie tried to sooth her.

"Why does this always happen when Logan is in the picture? It's like I become this teenager..," Rory continued.

"You're not behaving like a teenager just because you have something resembling a social life," Angie insisted.

"I could just sense how disappointed he was...," Rory replied. Naturally, Logan didn't even know the details yet but her brain was already imagining his reaction.

"In you?" Angie wasn't quite following.

"Yes, in me... in me screwing up at a job that's supposed to be a piece of cake, at a job he already thinks is supposed to be beneath me, and even more so because I screwed up at something I boasted about at the beginning of our date. In the date too, I guess... fuck, I flew out of there like something was on fire," Rory blurted, succumbing to her self-pity again. "I'm not like this when he's not around...," she continued, shaking her head.