I expected a lot of stuff to happen the next day. I had English very first thing, so it's not even like I could prepare myself for what might happen. Still, I had some ideas; some of which made me blush profusely, and others that made my stomach turn. Still, I entered my English classroom with a feeling that was akin to excitement. Much to my surprise, everyone was already seated when I came in, and looked up at me.
"Oh. Sorry I'm late." I said, turning to Mr. Way. He smiled nonchalantly.
"No problem, I was just reviewing what's happened in the book so far." He said, not even looking at me. I lowered myself into my seat slowly, not quite sure what was going on. Of all the things I imagined, him acting like nothing had happened at all was not one of them.
"Sorry, Anna, you were saying?" he said, turning his attention back to one of the girls. She gave a brief (yet weirdly accurate and detailed) synopsis of what had happened, and he treated her to one of his heart-meltingly beautiful smiles. I felt jealousy burning in my stomach.
"Thanks Anna, that was great." He said, beaming at her again. She blushed and turned away, and he shook his head, laughing a little bit as he returned to his deck. He picked up his copy of the book, flicked through it a couple times, then set it down again.
"I don't wanna read today. I think it's a bit boring for everyone if I just sit here and read. Am I right?" he said. The class laughed and he smiled and nodded, understandingly.
"Got it. So, how do you guys want to approach this then?" he said, leaning his head on his hand.
"I think maybe if you summarized it, and then we worked through it like that, I'd get it better." Chris said. Mr. Way laughed and ran his hand through his hair, and the movement made my stomach drop.
"So you want to read the book without actually reading the book?" he said, smiling. Chris nodded, and he laughed again.
"I think you're onto something, actually. How about I write you all a short synopsis of the story, and you we can decide, as a class, the parts that are most important, and look into that deeper" he said, obviously proud of himself. Everyone nodded and agreed but I, feeling a childish anger, refused. I looked down at my desk, my blood boiling. Okay, sure, I didn't expect him to grab me when I walked in, but how is he acting like everything's okay? It's almost like yesterday never happened.
"Okay, let me just run to the computer room and type up some synopsizes, and I'll hand them out to you when I get back. Until then, just...work." He said with a shrug as he flitted towards the door. Just as he got there, he put a hand on my desk roughly and leaned in towards me.
"I think you should come help me." He murmured softly. It wasn't sexual – more apologetic. I rose to my feet, hopeful that he'd take this opportunity to explain himself. I mean, if he regretted everything and wanted to pretend it hadn't happened, that was fine, but I just needed to know what the fuck was going on. Three days into my crush and my head was already spinning.
The walk to the printer was silent, yet Mr. Way seemed unusually cheery – more so than usual. He looked over at me a lot, but never spoke. Honestly, he was making me want to punch him in the face, and it was difficult to keep my frustration in. When we eventually got to the printer room, he herded me in and locked the door behind us, leaning on it casually.
"Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" he said. For once, there wasn't any special emotion on his face, like anger, or sensuality, or even a particular smile. It was just his teacher face, and it made me even angrier. How dare he treat me like I'm just another kid.
"I think you know." I muttered, keeping my eyes down. He sighed and loosened his tie self-consciously.
"Frank...I don't know what you want me to say." He said, seeming genuinely lost for words. I sighed and looked up at him, hoping that my frustration was apparent on my face.
