I Think About You When You're Gone

Chapter Three

She wasn't in first period.

We had a substitute teacher, who narrowed his wrinkly eyes at me as I burst through the entryway with seconds to spare. Nodding at him, I grabbed my usual seat in the front row, the chair to my immediate right empty. The room buzzed with a low roar of chatter, the sides of the room basically separated by gender. Breathing heavily, I leaned back in my chair, taking a quick survey of the room.

"Alright, settle down." The older man coughed as he held a piece of paper up to his readers.

"O'Cleary?" He asked.

"Here."

"Ortega?"

"Here."

"Owens?"

"Here."

"Palmer?"

Silence.

"Palmer?"

"She's not here!" Tyler Owens offered from the back row, followed by laughter from his group of friends.

Marking something off of the roster, he continued.

"Pritchard?"

I raised my hand.

"Here."

It was a small class. The teacher rattled off the rest of the names, with a couple more beats of silence.

"Well," he began, "this is a study hall, as you know. All I ask is that you keep the volume to a manageable level."

With that, the class erupted into conversation. Our standard teacher, Ms. Allister, normally has a 'no talking' policy, so for many the chance to converse during class time was an exhilarating opportunity.

"Hey, William!" Tyler Owens called out from the back. "Where's your girlfriend?"

I ignored him, taking out my laptop and putting my headphones on.

Before I knew it, Rose's seat was taken by the muscular frame of the football player, squatting down to make eye contact with me. "Hey, I'm talking to you." he batted his hand across my covered ear. "Take that shit off, queer."

"Queer? What is this, the 80s?"

If Rose were here, Tyler wouldn't have even spoken to me. If he said the word queer directed at one of us, he would have gotten bitch slapped hard enough to leave a handprint. The days without Rose are always the worst days.

Hold your own, Lucy. Hold your ground.

"Where's your lesbian girlfriend?"

If only he knew.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"So she's a lesbian?"

"I didn't say that."

Giggles came from the back of the classroom. I knew a crowd of his friends were watching us, watching Tyler be a man and razz on the faggot in the front row.

"What do you want, Tyler?" I sighed, acting like sweat wasn't dripping down my neck in fear. I knew what he was capable of. Just like he knew what Rose was capable of.

"I wanted to invite you to my party on Friday."

My thoughts stopped their spiral for a moment. "What?"

"Yea! I'm having a bunch of people over, it should be fun! Jacob's gonna hook us up."

Jacob Miller. He's popping up everywhere today. I glance back, seeing his gaggle of friends double over with laughter. I didn't quite get the joke, but I wasn't giving any ammunition to this asshole.