He Was Always There

Chapter 1

Janet Lane ran to the bathroom. She got there as tears streamed down her cheeks. She didn't expect anyone to follow her out of the class, much less a guy. She sat on the floor of the girl's bathroom, against the far wall, as he walked in. He came over and sat next to her.

"You okay?" He asked softly.

She looked at him. "Do I look okay?!"

He grinned slightly. "You want me to be honest?" He joked. She pulled up her knees and nodded a little bit while sniffing. "No, you don't look okay," he said. As she began to look away he added, "You look beautiful."

She blushes a deep red. "That's not what I meant."

"I know." He said smugly.

She started giggling, "What am I even doing here sitting on the floor? Let's get back to class." She smiled slightly. She wiped her face with a wet paper towel, dried it, and then left.

There were only fifteen minutes of class left when she returned. She sat at her desk and just worked on getting her stuff together quietly. The teacher was having a conversation with the class on the importance of safety goggles. The funny thing was that it wasn't even a science or an agri class. It was a history class.

"They protect your eyes," Stated Jeffery Taylor. He was one of the jocks in her school. All the girls wanted to date him. All except for Janet.

"Safety goggles do many other things, Taylor," Mr. Fritz said matter of factly. He was by far Janet's favorite teacher.

Several people started laughing and most were yelling, "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Janet looked out the window and smiled. "Even in the worst everyone is so happy," she thought. Her phone buzzed quietly. She glanced at it and thought. "A text message from her? Why would she---?" The bell rang cutting through her thoughts. She grabbed her things and started heading out of the room when Mr. Fritz stopped her.

"Ms. Lane, may I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.

"Umm. Yeah... Sure," she replied.

After all the students left Mr. Fritz stated, "There is no doubt about it, you are a straight A student right?"

"Mostly. I have one B right now that I am trying to pull back up."

"I see. May I ask you what's going on?" He asked her concerned.

"With what?" She replied. Her voice quivered just a bit.

"Why did you leave my class today?

"You know how my..." Her voice faltered, "Grandfather..." She took a deep breath, "He didn't make it through the surgery and my stepmom thought it was a great idea to text me during school and I just---" She burst into tears.

Mr. Fritz pulled her into a huge hug. "It'll be okay. At least he doesn't have to hurt anymore. Hey, also don't worry about it. You can leave my class whenever you need to. Okay?"

She nodded. "I should get going. *Sniff* See ya later, Mr. Fritz." She waved slightly as she headed out the door.

"See you," He waved slightly and frowned once she was gone. In his mind thoughts poured. They all led to this one though: "Poor girl... She never has time to recover anymore. Not to mention no one wants to be around her. I wonder if I'm the only one that can help her... *He shakes his head* She reminds me of my daughter... *Sigh* Maybe, I'll be able to save this one..."