Decode

Later, Kendra, Lorri, and Jess came over, but we didn’t have a pillow fight. That was okay with me. I preferred not to see them naked. Instead, we watched “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and graded more papers.

“Where’s Austin?” Kendra asked.

“Out.” I answered, throwing some popcorn into my mouth.

“You didn’t ask where he was going to go?” Lorri asked.

“He’s not a little kid. He can take care of himself.” I said. She shrugged and left it at that. We spent the rest of the time laughing over high school memories and awkward situations.

“Speaking of awkward, Jennifer almost walked in on Austin and I. Then he was being a pervert with her in the room.” I smiled. They burst out laughing. When it died down, I remembered my break.

“Oh, you guys! I met this guy today on my break and he was a total babe. He had sex hair.”

Their eyes widened.

“Yummy.” Jess groaned. They went home around ten and I decided to go to bed. As I climbed into bed, I called Austin’s phone, and got the answering machine.

“Hey, it’s me. It’s around ten. I’m going to bed, uh. Bye. I love you.” I hung up with a knot in my stomach I sat down and read a book, waiting for him. Time had flown by. It was one o’clock, he still hadn’t shown up. I called his phone again.

“Hey, it’s me again. I’m about to fill out a M.I.A. I’m getting worried. I can imagine you in a ditch somewhere.” I said. I was just teasing about it, but I really was worried. I hung up and turned off the light. All night I tossed and turned, thinking about him.

The next morning I woke up and sleepily strolled to the bathroom. I looked into the mirror and analyzed myself. I though, Wow, I really look like shit.
My hair was like a lion’s mane and my eyes were bloodshot. I turned the knob and hot water shot out. I let the steaming water run down my body. What the hell? No phone call, no warning? He had me worried; scared shitless!

I drove to work in silence. The longer I thought about it, the more pissed I began to get. This wasn’t the norm for him. I pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car in my space. It didn’t have my name on it, so it technically wasn’t mine, but we always parked here before anyone else could. I slammed the door, causing my coffee to spill.

“Shit.” I breathed. Okay, so is this the kind of morning I was going to have? Wonderful. As I walked into my classroom and put my stuff down, one of the office ladies informed me we had a staff meeting. Great, I fucking hated staff meetings. I wasn’t even listening. Frankly, I didn’t care. I loved teaching kids, not worrying about state testing to make the school look good. Half way into the meeting, the door opened.