Assisting Victoria

Part Seventeen

She was shutting her door and locking her car when I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. The lights flashed and she looked up just in time to see me standing there like a lost puppy before walking inside. A look of concern came over her face.

“Kelsey? What are you doing?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

I started to walk over and as I did I caught her checking out my outfit. Suddenly I remembered why. I was still dressed in a dress that was way too short. I pulled it down and held the jacket around me as I walked.

“I was at Kevin’s.”

I could still hear his music playing in the background.

“Party going on over there I see.”

“Yeah….”

I sniffed a little, because I was still a little emotional, and Tori walked over to me.

“Kelsey what’s wrong?” she asked, putting her arm around my shoulder.

At any other moment I would have been really happy about that, but at the time I just started to cry a little more. I tried to answer her, but all that came out was a bunch of random words that made no sense.

“Lauren… Mitch… working… tutoring… school…”

Tori rubbed my shoulder and then looked around a bit.

“Alright. Come on.”

She started to walk with her arm still around my shoulder and I followed her. Was I actually going to go in her house? For a second I completely forgot about what was going on that was making me so upset. This… this was probably the most shocking event to happen yet. I couldn’t even believe it was happening.

We walked inside and she turned on the lights. Her house was really nice inside. It wasn’t that I expected it to be bad, but oh my… was it ever beautiful, or what. I walked over and sat down on her couch and she went into another room to get rid of her stuff. When she came back, she went into the kitchen.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked. “Water? Milk? Orange Juice? Food?”

            “No thanks. I’m fine.”

            She sighed, grabbed a bottle of water and came into the living room. I rubbed at my eyes to get rid of the tears. It left my eyes burning and dry and I wished I could just go to sleep and not wake up for a week. I was very tired all of a sudden. Crying usually did that to me though.

            “What happened?”

            I fiddled with the zipper on my jacket as I awkwardly sat across from her. She leaned back in her chair waiting for a response.

            “I left a party upset over the fact that my friend let something slip in front of Mitch, and now he’s threatening to use it against me,” I admitted.

            “Is it something serious?”

            “No,” I liked, only because I didn’t want her to get into it anymore. “I’m sure he won’t even say anything. I don’t know why I got so upset.”

            “You’re sure you don’t want me to talk to this kid?” I nodded. “Okay, I won’t. Yet. I’m just warning you now though, if I stumble upon you this upset again… I can’t promise I’ll say out of it. You’re my student. I care about you. It’s not fair that you have to be treated the way he’s treating you.”

            She said she cared about me. I looked down and half smiled to myself, hoping she didn’t notice.

            “I know.”

            She stared at me for a bit before saying anything else.

            “Would you like me to call your parents? Take you home?” 

            “NO!”

            I didn’t mean to yell that. It made Tori jump a little.

            “O…kay?”

            “They don’t know I went to a party. I don’t want them to either. My mom would have killed me if she knew I left the house dressed like this.”

            I can’t believe I just told her that. I basically just gave her permission to check me out in this ridiculous dress, and that’s just what she did.

            “I can’t say I’d blame her. It is a pretty… sexy… outfit… for an eighteen year old….”

            I had to fight hard to hide the smile that threatened to take over my face. No way did she just say it was sexy. Of course, she wasn’t saying it was on me, or anything. She was only saying it about the outfit itself. I regained my composure and looked up at her.

            “My friend made me wear it.”

            “Well it does look good on you.” Tori looked away and rubbed at her forehead. When she turned back to me I sat up a little straighter. “And I mean that, in the least… creepy way possible. I’m sorry that… didn’t sound as weird in my head, but I’m your teacher and I probably shouldn’t have… you didn’t take it that way right?” she asked, seemingly a little more nervous now.

            I started to wonder whether or not I was really going to be the one saying I told you so. I shook my head.

            “No not at all. It’s okay.”

            “Okay… good.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression about me.”

            I was going to say something more until I heard a knock at the door. Tori looked at the door and then back at me. She didn’t say anything though as she got up and went to answer it. When the door opened, I saw that I was Heather.

            “Heather, hey, what are you doing here?” Tori asked.

            Heather stepped inside, past Tori and looked straight to me.

            “I was supposed to come here remember? You invited me.”

            Tori stood still, thinking for a moment. She looked really confused at first, but eventually I saw a look of realization come over her.

            “Oh my god! You’re right. I’m so sorry I forgot!”

            Tori looked over at me when she noticed Heather was staring.

            “Isn’t that one of your students?” Heather asked.

            “Uh, yeah. She’s… we’re… I’m helping her deal with some stuff.  I ran into her upset outside of my neighbor’s house and I told her she could come here and talk to me.”

            “Well hi,” Heather said to me. “I believe we’ve met before actually.”

            “Hey,” I said back quietly.

            Heather turned around to face Tori.

            “Would you rather me come back at a different time?” she asked.

            Tori seemed to not know what to say to that, and I didn’t exactly blame her. I suddenly felt like I was interrupting something important. Like I was being a burden and I should have just left. So I did. I stood up off the couch and walked over to where they were still standing in the doorway.

            “No, I was just leaving,” I told her as I quickly walked past them and out the door.