Parting

As I was walking down the hall to math I start thinking about Victor, sweet, plain, old Victor. I’m kind of growing tired of him. I mean come on it has been five months since we started going out and I’m bored. At first it was great he was always there and always helped me. Now it’s “Sorry Resa, I can’t.” Sorry! Sorry! He can take that sorry and put it somewhere really far. So we are still together but I have my eye on someone new. His name is Chad Summers. Darn if I knew Chad before Victor I would’ve nabbed him in a flash. Yet, unfortunately he is going out Lisa. Man, I hate Lisa.

So as I’m happily day dreaming my way to math when I bump into Lisa. “Hello, Teresa. Having a nice day? Where’s your Victor? Did he skip out on you?”

I royally hate her. I hate her to the point where I’m willing to do something crazy. “Oh! You mean my Victor? Well he is on his way to English but, after school he’s tutoring me.”

“Oh, what subject?”

“Not anything you need to have knowledge of.”

Lisa turns and walks off in a real huff. Originally Lisa liked Victor but she lost him to me. Now she has what I want. She has the glorious and absolutely gorgeous Chad. When I get to my math class I sit down and look to my left and see something marvelous. It’s Chad! He’s looking out the window and seems to be zoned out.

The teacher walks in and snaps back to normal and looks right at me. “Oh, Hi Teresa I didn’t know you take advance math,” He said.

I’m dying. I’m truly dying. He thought I was stupid. “Well it seems there are many things you don’t know about me,” I say in a semi-angry way.

He looks at the board and it seems he thinks the problems the teacher put up are baby work. Chad turns his attention back to me. “Yeah, like what?” He asks looking me up and down.

I look him dead in the eye and say, “You’ll just have to find out yourself.”

“Just tell me when and we’ll see what I can do.” Did he just like ask me out?

“Should meet around four?" I ask hoping my prayers would be answered.

“Uh, I have practice being captain and all. So how about you come and watch and afterwards we’ll go somewhere?” Hallelujah! God is good. I snap back to normal and Chad looks like he is on cloud nine.

“Sure, so tomorrow I’ll watch you play. You better be good.”

“Don’t worry. I'm not captain for nothing.” By the time our conversation finishes math is over.

When I leave the classroom to get my stuff to go home I’m practically jumping for joy. I feel a tap on my shoulder. When I turn around I see its Victor. “Hi baby,” I try to say happily.

“You ready for our tutoring session?” I smile.

“Yeah, let's go.” When we reach the library Victor takes my hand and leads me to a table in the back. He pulls a chair out for me.

"My lady," I take my seat and feel a little uncomfortable doing it.

“Thanks Victor.” I start looking around feeling nervous. What if Chad finds me? Wait a minute should I worry? I mean it’s not like Chad is my boyfriend. Victor is.

“Resa are you okay? You look kind of frazzled.”

“Oh, no I’m okay.” My French lesson goes on and on. When it ends I snap back to reality.

“So are we meeting again tomorrow?” Victor asks me with a really big grin on his goofy looking face. I look down.

“I’m sorry Victor I promised my mom I’d be home early. You know how she is when it comes to staying out late with boys,” I lie to him. Victor looks down and tries to hold a calm face.

“Oh. Okay so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.” With that he leaves looking a bit down. Yet he turns around and comes back up to me and hugs me. Then he leaves and I sit there alone wondering what will happen next.

‡‡‡

The next day I walk into school feeling guilty, really guilty. Then right on cue when I think my life can’t get any worse than what it is I see them. I stop dead in my tracks. Looking like a deer in headlights I just stare at them. My bag falls and my knees drop to the floor. I can’t believe it when I was planning to call it off with Chad because I thought I realized that my relationship with Victor is good. I see them Victor, Lisa, and Victor’s locker. Lisa is about to go for the goal but Victor turns his head to me.

“Oh crap,” He says when he sees me. I get up and walk toward him.

“Crap. Is that all you can say? CRAP! I mean come on Victor why would you do this to me.” He looks at me like murderer caught red handed.

“I’m-“

“Don’t say anything Vic baby you didn’t want her anyway,” Lisa interrupts. I start to get mad, really mad. Then I lash out. I grab Lisa by her long blonde hair and slam her into the locker. As I’m doing this Chad walks in on our little fight.

“You think doing this is funny, Lisa?” By this time I have her by her throat. Victor falls to his knees and starting crying.

“I’m sorry Resa. I am.”

Chad grabs Victor by his wrist. “What did you do to Resa?” Chad asks really loud. When I look at Lisa she is almost purple. I let go of her throat and let her fall. When she is fully on the ground I give her a hard kick in her ribs. I hear something break. Chad lets go of Victor and Victor rushes over to Lisa.

“Leave her Victor. She’s no good now. Let her suffer,” I say harshly.

Chad grabs my hand and walks me to the library. We go to a far back table. I sit and he pulls a chair next to me and holds me. I start to cry and Chad just holds me. I look up at the clock and I’ve already missed two classes. Chad shifts his position and catches me off guard.

“Resa I’ll beat him up for you. I know you could do it yourself but I don’t want you to go through that again.” I look up into Chad’s eyes and I know he is being sincere.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine as long as you’re there to help me,” I say to him. We both stand up. As we start walking to the door Chad puts his arm around me. When we start walking down the hallway we see the EMTs carrying Lisa’s crumpled body on a stretcher with Victor holding her hand going with her. That’s also when I see our principle. She walks over to me in a huff and separates me and Chad. She grabs my wrist and drags me to her office. Chad follows me running.

She sits me in her office and keeps Chad outside. My principle, Mrs.Watanuki, sits down and calls someone. When the person she call answers she asks only one question, “Is she pressing charges?” I freak.

“Okay. Alright, I’ll tell her,” Mrs.Watanuki says. She hangs up and takes a deep breath.

“Teresa. You are lucky they are not pressing charges! Have you gone mad? Why would you go and hurt Lisa like that?” I have gone mad? She’s the psycho.

“Why? She was messing with Victor!” I scream.

“I know how you feel Teresa I really do,” She says. Oh yeah Mrs. What’s Her Face knows how it feels to be cheated on.

“You know nothing,” I scream and run out of her office. I also run past Chad. As I run past him he grabs my wrist pulls me into a tight hug.

“What’s going to happen to you Resa?” He asks nervously.

“They’re not pressing charges on me at least,” I say. He hugs me tighter.

“Thank God,” He whispers. I feel so happy and safe in his arms like nothing can hurt me. I love it.

As Chad walks me from school I feel like nothing can touch me. I feel like this relationship will last forever.