You are my home

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Valerie

I'm on my way to the teacher's lounge to get a cup of tea when I see two ladies walking down the hall. "Girls, what are you still doing in the hallway? You should already be in class." Emma turns to me. "We are on our way to the emergency room?". I look at her questioningly. " How so? What is going on?". She nods her head at Melissa. I walk towards them. Melissa keeps turning her back to me. " Melissa, don't be so annoying. What is going on?". Finally she looks at me. " What happened?". I ask a bit shocked when I see that she is holding a wad of paper, which is already quite red, against her nose. "Run against the wall". I shake my head and look questioningly at Emma. Maybe she will have a normal answer. "She broke a heart again." When Emma says that, Melissa walks away. "Of course it's my fault again." She says very irritated. "I've warned you before." I see that Emma wants to follow Melissa, but I stop her. It doesn't sound very friendly between the two. I don't want it to get out of hand. " You go to class. I have a free hour and I'll help Melissa." Emma gives me a nod. " Please. I'm done with all the drama." .

I quickly caught up with Melissa and put an arm over her shoulders. "Walk with me". She shakes her head. "I'll just go to the emergency room." I sigh. "Don't be so stubborn. Or would you rather explain to someone else what happened?". She shakes her head. We walk in silence to the teacher's lounge. I'm glad no one else is there. " Have a seat. I'll just grab a clean cloth ". Melissa sits down on a chair. I grabbed a damp cloth and a tea towel and then sat down next to her. "Now let's see how bad the damage is." Melissa removes the wad of paper in front of her. " It is not too bad". she says softly. I gently start cleaning her face. "It does indeed seem to be going well. You have a small cut under your nose, but it seems to have stopped bleeding already. If you hold this cloth against your nose for a while, that will also stop". She looks at me a little hard. "Just put it on the table. We'll clean that up soon." I say as soon as I see that she doesn't know where to go with the bloody paper. She then puts it on the table and takes the clean cloth from me.

"And now you can tell me what happened." She sighs. "You can tell me a lot, but I don't believe you've run into a wall". Even with the cloth over her mouth, I can see from Melissa's eyes that she has a small smile. "That wall was a fist". she says softly. " And you accidentally bumped into that?" She shakes her head. I keep looking at her and waiting for her to say something. " Someone wasn't very happy with me ". She finally says with a sigh. "I was that far too. What have you done that makes someone not so happy with you?" The irritation can be read on her face. "You look like Emma. It's all my fault again." I put my hand on her shoulder." I'm not saying that, Melissa. I just want to know what happened. I haven't blamed anyone for anything yet." Melissa closes her eyes for a moment and seems to be thinking. Then she looks at me. "I I may have done something with someone who is already taken, but I didn't know that." I give her a small smile. "So the rumors are true?" She sighs. "Which one? That I've already had the whole school?" . She says it very irritated. Which I can imagine. It doesn't seem nice to me if something like that is said about you. I really couldn't do it either believe when i heard it. " Not the whole school. Since a nice percentage is male". I say it with a smile and luckily I can see Melissa calming down a bit because of that. "Do you believe what they say?" I shake my head. "I think there is some truth to it. Especially when I see how you're doing now. But no, I don't believe you have a different one every day".

Melissa gets up and walks towards the sink. "There have been seven in the past six months". She starts to talk softly, trying to clean herself up a bit. I get up and stand next to her. "Melissa, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to". She looks at me with a small smile. "I'd rather you hear my story than everything they make up about me." I nod understandingly. "Otherwise come by tonight. Then we can talk about it in peace. I can't keep you out of class for too long now." She gives me a small nod. "Then I would also like to hear who did this to you". Melissa sighs. "I don't want any further trouble, Val. No one saw it and it has now been resolved." " Okay only this time. But don't let me find out that it happens more often". She gives me a small smile. " Thank you. I'll go to class now." She doesn't know how fast to run away. " I will see you tonight". I hear her sigh before she closes the door behind her. I clean up everything and then it's time to go to class.

I really hope she comes over tonight and tells me her side of the story. The wildest stories about her are going around. I actually can't believe those stories are true. The Melissa I know who spends on the couch with me every Friday night is a completely different Melissa in those stories. I know Melissa as a quiet and somewhat shy girl, but if I have to believe the stories she is the biggest player around.