Downward Slopes

Bitterness

         Felix T. Squire lived in a small town called Hollow Hills, he was 45 and divorced from his wife Selena. He didn't really have much with his life anymore, his only son decided to live full time with his mother, and his bitch of an ex wife decided to move on to someone younger and hotter. He worked at the local high-school teaching mathematics, it was a dim job and usually caused him more stress than joy.

        Even though he hated everything about his job, he still kept going, and it was for one reason only. Anna. He knew he had no chance, the girl was 17 going on 18 after all. But he still liked being around her. She made everyone smile and laugh, and brought light to his day that never really was there when his ex wife was around.

       Today was a normal Tuesday, he woke up, got ready and headed to the local gas station to get some coffee before work. He didn't mind the coffee from the gas station in the morning, it was somewhat fresh, and way cheaper than anything he could get at those big coffee chains, like Starbucks, or Jim Tim Hortans. He sighed as he snapped the small plastic top onto his coffee and he started to head to the counter, as he waited behind a large man with a sweaty t-shirt he saw one of his students walk in, Holden McDarren.

         Felix hated this boy, he was a C student, showed up the class constantly late, and worst of all, he was Anna's boyfriend. He treated her like shit, she was really just around to be his arm candy. She was leagues more popular than he was when they met, and he manipulated her to make him her boyfriend, making his automatically the school heartthrob. He had seen Holden with other girls before, all of them more gullible than the last. Anna was the one that bothered Felix the most.

         Holden walked to the back of the store and took an energy drink from one of the fridges. It looked awful, sprawled across it were god awful pictures of tigers and hawks. Some things to make the product more appealing. The man in front of Felix finished up at the counter and it was his turn. He payed for his coffee and headed out the door back to his small beat up car. He got in and put his head against the steering wheel. Another day, another day to suffer.

        He put the car in reverse and headed out of the parking lot, the traffic was awful, more awful than usual. It was slow moving, but once he got to the front he saw why it was so slow. The road was riddles with police and a couple ambulances, a car was wrapped around a tree and another one was flipped onto its side next to it.

         The town was so small he knew that at least one of his students would be effected by this, he sighed and kept going. He didn't even care anymore, all those little shits do is talk and throw shit at him. So be it if one of them got into an accident, he didn't care about them.

        He finally turned off into the road for the school, it was filled with parents dropping off their kids and students trying to find parking spots on the already packed road. Felix was lucky that he had a reserved spot in the teachers parking lot, probably the one thing he was grateful for in this shithole.

        he parked and checked his phone for the time, 8:15, class started in 15 minutes. He grabbed his bag from his passenger seat and headed into the school, people were yelling and laughing in the hallway, it just made him grumble. He heard a strong voice come from down the hallways and a few of the yelling voices stopped. He recognized the voice as Mrs. Corneo. She was yelling at a few of the boys who were urging their friend to shove and entire corndog in his mouth.

         She turned to face him once she was finished yelling at them, she smiled when she saw him. "Hi Felix, having a good morning?" he put on his fake co-worker smile and spoke to her kindly. 

       "Sure am, just got some fresh coffee." She laughed knowing that he got gas station coffee every morning, 

          "Man Felix, one day I'll have to take you out for some real coffee. Kind of like a... date" she smiled at his and he just laughed weakly. She had been hitting on him ever since he started working there 5 years ago. She was a kind person, but very persistent.

        "I'm quite happy with my coffee Kelly, thanks for the offer though." He smiled and kept walking towards his classroom. It small on a corner, and a little more tucked away then all the other classes. It was nice, though only when he was in it alone.

            He unlocked the door and flipped on the light, white and bland, what a metaphor. He sat down at his desk just as the bell rang, kids started to get out of the hallways and into their homerooms. He talked his way out of a homeroom, it was fairly easy seeing that Mrs. Corneo was in charge of it.

         Felix leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes for a moment, what he wouldn't do to take up drinking again. 

       after a few moments of relaxation he sat forward in his chair and started to unpack his bag, he pulled out his laptop and loaded up his days schedule. 8:40-9:33 Math 12. He sighed in relief, Anna's class was first. Maybe that would be a good motivator for his school day.

       He smiled genuinely for the first time that day, he started to wonder what she would be wearing, It was a warmer day so she would probably go with her favourite skirt and a t-shirt. His thoughts were interrupted when the bell came thundering through the school.  After a few seconds students started to file into the class and sit in their assigned seats, they were chatting and laughing. Why do they always laugh, he knew they hated it here.

       He watched the door for Anna and sure enough she came in a few seconds later, he smiled and wished her good morning. She smiled back at him and greeted him back. He loved these interactions. She sat in her assigned seat, front row, right next to his desk. Of course he did this on purpose.

        After a few minutes, he decided to start the class. It quieted down and he started teaching at the board. The class went quickly, every once and a while he would take a peak at Anna to get inspiration. Before he knew it the bell rang and they all got up and started to leave. And with them Anna, and with her, his inspiration and motivation for the day. He sighed and started to erase the board.

        The day rolled by slow like always, every period more boring and lack luster than the last. He gave detention to a kid today for offering a freshman weed, but that was really nothing new.

         at 3:30 he made a bee line out of the school, he was almost sure he was the first one out. He got to his car and found some cracked eggs on the windshield, what joy. He took a McDonalds napkin from his glovebox and wiped the egg off of the car. it didn't get all of it but at least he didn't have to look at eggshells.

        He got in his car and went back to his apartment. The traffic wasn't as bad this time, the wreck was cleaned up and he got home quite quickly. He plopped onto his couch and turned on the TV. All of it was shit he had seen before, he stopped on the news and decided to watch it, seeing that it's kind of hard to play reruns of the news.

          They were rambling on about the months newest diet trend, just a bunch of bullshit that they shoved down the throats of their naïve viewers. He pulled out his laptop and started to look through his emails, nothing interesting just memos and such, but all of a sudden something caught his attention on the TV. The frumpy reporter was standing in front of a tree on the side of the road where the accident was earlier in the day, she had a serious look on her face as she spoke, "Here is where the fatal accident happened, Fredrick Gullible was driving to work when a car spun out of control and hit him on the side pushing him into this tree. Fredrick died on the scene and the driver of the other car has not been identified."

           Fredrick Tanga was Anna's father. He recognized the last name. She must of been pulled out of class later in the day and he wasn't told about it.

         He held his face in his hands, knowing that Anna would be destroyed by this news, he knew he couldn't do anything about it, and why the hell would Anna come to him for emotional help. They weren't close, but then again he didn't know how close she was with any of the other teachers. He knew Mrs. Corneo would flirt with anything with legs, she probably has had a go at Anna. He layed down on the couch and tried to relax for a little bit. Before he knew it, he drifted off to sleep.