Teach Me

Chapter Seventeen: Memories

"Lana, what's wrong?" Chris asked a few minutes later, seeming a bit annoyed now with my behavior. I just shook my head, knowing that there was no use for lying. He would know I was lying anyway.

"You're tense. What's bothering you?" he demanded. I glanced up at him with a look that said drop it, and he sighed and closed his eyes, looking like he was trying to calm himself down.

"Lana." He said firmly, gritting his teeth together as his jaw clenched.

"Yes?" I asked, feeling a bit scared of his actions. Shock flooded through me. Why was I scared of him? Didn't he tell me he loved me? Didn't he promise to never hurt me? I thought he did, so it was just stupid to be scared of him. But in this moment, when I was so close to his body and I could feel the waves of tension and anger rolling off of him, I was scared.

"Either tell me what the problem is, or stop worrying about it." he demanded.

"I can't." I protested in a bit of a whiny voice.

"Fine." he snapped, getting up and walking out of the room. He shut the door behind him, and I ran over to the door, pressing my ear up against it. I heard him mumbling angrily to himself, and then I heard him dialing someone's number on his phone.

"Mr. Williams." he greeted coldly. I froze. Mr. Williams was our principle. I backed away from the door and sat on the floor by the bed, putting my head in my hands. Chris was going to find out what was going on one way or another, and I couldn't do anything about it. I heard his voice in the hall growing louder, as if he was now in a heated argument with our principal. I blinked the tears away and sighed. I felt an odd pull to his bed, and I glanced up with a confused look on my face. Then I remembered the dusty box from beneath his bed. There had been other things in that box besides his yearbook, and me, being the curious person I am, had wanted to know what they were. I sighed deeply, mentally scolding myself. I would NOT go snooping through his things. It was just plain wrong. He could have things in his room that he didn't want me stumbling across. Then his words from earlier floated back to me.

I love you...That means you don't have to keep any secrets from me.

The words echoed again and again through my head until I couldn't stand it anymore. No secrets...That's what he had implied. So if he walked in on me looking through his stuff he shouldn't be THAT mad, should he? I finally let out a deep breath as I gave in and got down on my stomach, crawling halfway beneath his bed and running my hand along the floor, searching for the box. I finally felt it beneath my fingertips and I grunted as I pulled it out and sat up. I coughed from the dust under his bed, and then I gently removed the top from his box. I paused, listening for sounds in the hallway.

"No, don't tell me you can't do that! I HAVE A REASON!" Chris' voice shouted from the hallway. Assured that he would be busy for a while longer, I glanced down at the contents of the box. I picked up a piece of notebook paper and unfolded it, seeing neat handwriting scrawled onto the paper.

"Chris,

I know you might think it's kind of corny to slip this note inside your locker, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving early and I'm going somewhere with my mom tonight. I know we were supposed to have plans, and I'm sorry I can't make it. Maybe we can do it tomorrow instead.
-Angela"

Angela...this was a note she had written to him in high school. Wow, they had really been together that long. I sighed and picked out another paper, seeing Chris' handwriting and her neat response at the bottom. As I dug through more and more notes, it was the same over and over again. Notes to each other. The fact that Chris had kept these let me know that they still mattered to him. They might have been immature and corny, but not to him. He valued these. He still cared for Angela, unless he had forgotten about the notes up until now. I shook my head and took out his yearbook, putting it on the floor next to the notes and then picking up one of the pictures in the box. It was a picture of Chris and Angela, Chris had his arm around her shoulders as she leaned into him, a smile on her face. His lips were latched onto her cheek, and I could see that he was smiling through the kiss. Her hand was on his chest as if she was playfully pushing him away, but he just dragged her in closer. I looked at the next picture and tears almost spilled onto my cheeks. His arm was around her waist as they stood in front of a doorway. He had a smile on his face and he was dressed in a tux. Angela looked beautiful in a long black dress, I couldn't deny it. They looked good together. I assumed this was prom night judging by the way they were dressed and the fact that they looked like they were still in high school. My heart pounded with hurt and sadness, and I couldn't bear to look at any of the other pictures. I took a deep breath and put everything back like it was, but I froze when I realized that I couldn't hear any noise from the hallway. Everything was silent. I turned around and gasped when I saw Chris leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed as he stared at me. I couldn't read the expression in his eyes, but I knew he saw my tears.