Assisting Victoria

Part Four

I walked out the door to head to lunch with my head held high. Lauren was waiting for me at our table, and when I sat down she looked over at me, confused.

            “Hey,” she said as I sat down. “What’s up?”

            “Oh nothing,” I replied.

            “Right….”

            I smiled, but just as I was about to cave in and tell her, Mitchell came by and “accidentally” spilled spaghetti all over my back. His friends burst out laughing as I sat there in shuck, unsure of what to do next. Lauren stood up to yell at them, but I couldn’t even focus on what she was saying. I got up and ran for the doors to get out of there as fast as I could.

            Luckily, the hallways were empty so I didn’t have to go through the embarrassment of people seeing me. I headed straight for the bathroom without looking back. I didn’t have to though. I knew Lauren didn’t follow me.

            Once inside I went over to the mirror to really look at myself. The spaghetti had spilled over to the front of my shirt and I stood there for at least ten minutes desperately trying to rub it off. Not that it mattered. My shirt was ruined. I just wish it wasn’t a brand new one I’d only worn twice before. I sighed. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even reach the back and I didn’t want to take it off. I wasn’t wearing my normal multi layers today. My eyes started to water a little.

            That’s when I heard the door open behind me. As I looked into the mirror, my heart seemed like it completely stopped beating. Tori was the one walking in.

            “Kelsey? What happened?” she asked.

            “Just some stupid guy and his friends.” I answered, truly embarrassed.

            This was way worse than other kids seeing me like this. This was Tori. I hung my head and wiped at my eyes to try and hide the fact that I had been about to cry. She stood there for a moment, assessing the situation, and then pulled out paper towel from the dispenser, wet it, and started to carefully wipe the sauce off of the back of my shirt. I continued to work on the front.

            “I take it you don’t get along with this boy?” she asked after a long awkward silence.

            “He’s always doing stuff like this,” I admitted.

            “You haven’t told anyone?”

            “No….”

            She sighed.

            “Maybe he likes you.”

            I stopped wiping at my shirt and looked up at her in the mirror. She looked up at me too and smiled a little.

            “Yeah right.”

            “Boys always tease girls they like,” she told me. “This could just be his way of expressing that.”

            “Well that would be stupid, because he knows I wouldn’t be interested.”

            “Why not?” she asked.

            This question made me a little uncomfortable and I paused to think of a good way to word it.

            “He’s just… not… my type.”

            Yeah, that was a great way to explain it. Points to me for originality. I went back to cleaning my shirt off hoping she would be satisfied enough with that answer. Luckily, she didn’t ask anymore.

            “This isn’t going to come all the way out,” she stepped back and looked at me, “but at least now it won’t be dripping off of you.”

            She gave me a look as if to show that she understood how I must have felt and took off her jacket. Unexpectedly she handed it to me.

            “Wha….”

            “So you can hide your shirt. I’ll be back at the end of the day to work on my new office anyway… you can give it back then.”

            “Are you sure?” I asked.

            She nodded.

            “I trust you, Kelsey. Just make sure Mitch doesn’t get anything on it and I’ll be fine.”

            She smiled at me as I put her jacket on. It smelled just like her. I could have feinted if she hadn’t been standing right there next to me.

            “Well thank you. Hey, why are you still here?” I asked.

            “Office stuff. It’s taking a lot of work. Don’t worry, I always went back to the middle school only to be on my own lunch break. So… I’m not late or anything if that’s what you’re thinking.”

            “Oh, okay.”

            She smiled again and then turned around to go into one of the stalls. I left. When I got back out into the hallway I wrapped the jacket tighter around me. To my surprise, it fit me quite well. I mean, Tori was a couple inches taller than me and liked to wear her jackets long than I did, so it was a little big in that sense, but other than that she was as skinny I was and it fit nice and tight on me.

            I walked around for the rest of the lunch period thinking about how she had been helping me, touching me again, and how I was glad she had still been at the school. What I didn’t understand though, was why she went into the student bathroom. I was glad she found me, but they had separate ones for the staff. Did she see me? I hoped not. I must have looked so stupid running down the hall with sauce all over my clothes.

            I pushed that thought aside and started to head to my 4th hour when the time came closer. There was no reason to stress about that anymore. I was wearing Tori’s jacket. She had actually trusted me with it.