Linger

S E V E N T E E N

I turned around, short of breath, watching Mr. Hayden come down the entrance stairs, a briefcase in his hand as he stopped in front of me. "Are you alright?"

I leaned over on my knees, trying to catch my breath & make sense of this whole crazy situation. I shook my head as I kept my gaze on the ground, wiping my now sweaty hair from my face & tears from my eyes. I had been so caught up in running, I hadn't even realized I had been crying. But now that I had, I mentally scolded myself for ruining my makeup, yet hoped it wasn't that bad as I took in a deep breath and looked around.

There seemed to be nobody else around except us two and there was no sound of footsteps so I assumed Tom had stopped chasing after me. It sounded more horrible than it really was and I felt absolutely awful for leaving him hanging clueless. But I felt like it was the best option . . for myself, at least. 

I took a seat down at the bottom of the stairs, carefully wiping my eyes as I tried to wrap my head around all of this.

Mr. Hayden shifted uncomfortably on his feet next to me. "Will your ride be here soon?" he asked, keeping his gaze forward, not daring to meet my eyes.

I paused in the middle of my actions. "Do you care?" I asked, my tone sharper than I had intended. 

His lips parted before he quickly shook his head. "As a teacher, I care about the well-being of my students, yes." He nodded. "I do care." 

As a teacher . . . That wasn't supposed to hurt. I knew it wasn't because in all honestly . . . he was right. 

But I couldn't pretend his words didn't sting right through my heart. 

I bit the inside of my cheek, slowly nodding. "Thanks." I swallowed hard as I turned to look back out to the parking lot before reaching for my phone and sending a quick text to Chelsea and Alice to come pick me up. 

He let out a soft chuckle. "How was the game?"

I shrugged, keeping my eyes on my Converse. They were now worn out & scruffed up from all the running. My feet ached & I wanted nothing more than to sleep and never wake up until all of this was over. 

"Who won?"

"Does it matter?" I mumbled, not looking up at him. 

"Well, it is our school. We should be supportive of our team, right?" he pointed out, yet kept his gaze ahead. 

"I guess." I looking out into the parking lot, silently hoping to see headlights driving towards us soon. I hadn't seen his face properly since the beginning of all this, but I knew if I did everything will come crashing down on me again, so I didn't blame him.

A comfortable silence settled between us. It wasn't awkward & barely even noticeable, unlike when I was just with Tom moments ago. The cool breeze was refreshing against my hot skin along with the silence, providing a sweet solace after the rough storm that had just past.

"Do you know when your ride will be here?" Mr. Hayden broke the silence.

"You don't have to wait here, you know," I told him. 

"Well, we can't just have students roaming around campus unsupervised this late . . . " he trailed off, shifting his gaze to me. "And I was kinda hoping to find out who won," he added quietly.