The Sins of Regret

Chapter 6

The next morning Ross sat, cross armed at his seat. He couldn't help notice how exposed he was now that Bridget no longer sat at his side.

"Now, class. I'm sure that you are all well aware of what happened to your classmate, Ms. Hawthorne. This is probably a lot for you all to process. And with the standardized testing schedule, you don't really get the time to grieve. But I do feel it is my job as a sympathetic mentor to give you this day off to wrap your heads around this all."

As the teacher sat, the class dissolved into groups. Ross sat at his table and waited for Mark, but he never came. Ross look around the class. He spotted Mark sitting, deep in thought, on the other end of the room.

Ross felt his heart harden, "You have to be strong for him." he murmured to himself as he walked to Mark's seat.

"How can you sit there knowing that she's not coming back?"

Ross was thrown off by his conversational tone.

"It's hard," he choked.

Mark sighed, "I'm guessing Trevor's taking it really hard."

Ross Wiped his clean shaven face, "No, he's taking some time out of school to..."

"It's not fair. Why didn't Brittney and her friends die instead."

"Because, that would be murder."

Mark smiled, but the pain in his eyes was as strong as it would be if he had just broken down crying, "They took down the video."

Ross swallowed hard, "It did its job."

"But still... that was the last thing she said. They shouldn't just throw it away."

Ross pulled a notebook and pen out of his bag, "And how does that make you feel" he said, making his voice sound as over the top as he could muster.

Mark laughed, "But, what about you? How are you handling this whole thing? I know you-"

"I'm fine!" Ross blurted, trying to keep down the lump that was forming in his throat, "I'm not great, but I'll be fine."

Mark put his hand on Ross' shoulder, "Does someone need to talk?"

Ross fought back a smile, "You will when you explain to the paramedics how you broke six ribs walking into a door."

"See, I like what we have here. You insult me, I insult you."

"You touch me, I brutally assault you."

"Yup," Mark nodded as he slapped Ross on the back.

*

Ross walked into the administration building and nearly confused it for a war zone. Papers were thrown this way and that, people were running in circles, the place was a mess.

He walked up to one stressed woman behind a desk, "What happened here?"

"Everything's a mess," she answered without looking at him. "There were threats of an investigation after that girl's suicide, so the school department just decided to fire everyone involved. Now, we're short a P.E. teacher, a math teacher and at least half the administration and security department including the principal and vice principal. And the replacements haven't shown up yet."

Ross took a deep breath, hardened his jaw, and look at the panicked woman, "This is all going to be fine," He told her. "We have multiple P.E. teachers, so they can just mix the classes. The math kids can just have study hall and have a teacher that has a free period watch over them. And things can work like that until the new teachers come. People are in shock, and the new security guards will be here before that wears off. And we just need to clean up, and fire whoever authorized a rave in the admin building."