Assisting Victoria

Part Twenty

Thoughts. Endless possibilities. Swimming through my head.  I tried to relax and fall asleep that night, but it was obvious by 3:00am that that wasn’t going to happen. I stared up at my ceiling thinking about what to do next. Tori had already told me that whatever was going on was personal, meaning there was nothing I could do without stepping out of the bounds of our student/teacher relationship. I hated life right now.

The seconds on the clock ticked as I thought about how much better my life would be if I were born just a little bit earlier. Tori and I could have been friends. Possibly even more if she really was with Heather… Heather. I wondered if she had anything to do with how Tori was acting. I got online and logged onto Facebook.

I wanted to see if there was anything either Tori, or Heather said to each other, so I looked up Heather’s page again and read her wall. There were no comments, from Tori, but there was one from another woman… a girlfriend.

Immediately I sat up straighter, suddenly more interested. The comment was from a lady named Jennifer White.

Jennifer White: Hey, just wanted to let you know how much I love you and I enjoyed our date tonight. You don’t know how much you mean to me.

I sat back in my chair and thought for a moment. Either Tori simply had a gay best friend, or Heather really was her girlfriend. If she was, it was also possible that they broke up, and that’s why Tori was upset. However, one thing didn’t seem to make sense to me. This Jennifer lady really seemed into Heather, and they couldn’t have progressed that far into their relationship in such a short time. Oh how I wished there was some sort of way for me to figure out what was going on.

My alarm clock went off at its usual time, even though I was already awake. I hadn’t slept for a minute when I tried to go back to bed. My mind was too busy trying to do detective work, even though I really didn’t have enough information to work with.

Tori still seemed upset during third hour. I tried to ignore it and go on playing my parts as usual, but it was hard. I screwed up… a lot. Mr. Baron did not seem pleased either. I noticed the glares he kept giving me throughout the hour.

At lunch I talked to Lauren about how Tori was in a bad mood and it didn’t seem to be going away. She didn’t have any ideas either. I sat there sulking, not knowing what to do. Mitch came by during lunch. Of course. He had a friend with him too.

“Hey, Kelsey. What’s wrong? You guys break up?”

I didn’t answer him this time. I just sat there, staring at my tray.

“She’s not in the mood,” Lauren told him for me. “Just go away.”

“What? Why?” he asked with a smirk on his face. “I just wanted to know why poor Kelsey seems so down. Thought maybe it had to be something with her little crush on Tori.”

“You don’t care you ass! Don't even bother acting like you do. Just leave her alone. ” Lauren shot back. 

I was a little surprised at her sudden boldness, which finally made me look up at them. Mitch's eyes were wide in shock.

“Wow, someone’s cranky,” he said.

“Can I talk to you,” she looked over at the other kid just standing there, and then turned back to Mitch, “in private?”

Mitch looked at his friend.

“Well, well. Looks like someone wants some alone time with me. You better sit this one out Jake.”

After that they bother walked off. Jake looked at me for a moment, didn’t say anything, and walked off in the other direction. I didn’t know what to do, so I simply sat there waiting for Lauren to get back.

When she did finally come back, she came without Mitch… thankfully.

“What did you talk to him about?” I asked.

“Oh nothing important really.”

I found it odd that she didn’t tell me what they talked about, but there was no time to worry about that. The bell rang, meaning I had to get up and go to 4th hour.

Shockingly enough, Mitch did not bother me once the entire hour. I figured that Lauren must have actually done good convincing with whatever she said to actually get if to stop. Finally, I could relax in class.

-

You know how when you assume things, you can sometimes end up being really wrong? Well, turns out I wasn’t exactly right when I assumed that Mitch wasn’t going to do anything to me anymore. At the end of the day, I had figured that out.

I went down to the band room after school and just as I was about to walk in the door, I heard Tori… talking to none other than Mitch himself. They were talking about me. Mitch told her he knew why I didn’t want her to talk to him. He told her it was because I was afraid he’d let it slip that I had a crush on her. The second I heard those words come out of his mouth my heart sank. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe anymore.

What on earth had just happened? How was it possible, that after Mitch seemed to have been letting off a little bit, he just decided to go blow my secret right to Tori herself. I couldn’t go in there. I could see her. There was no way. I turned around and ran in the other direction as fast as I possibly could. No explanation whatsoever.