Smile For Me (Student/Teacher)

Garden of Clichés

At his apartment I walked up the steps and faced him at the door. "Password?" He mocked.

"Stop being a kid?" I teased and he laughed, pulling me in.

"Only around you, Diana."

I flushed again.

"I'm getting started." I told him.

"Yeah, I have to grade papers." He grumbled behind me, facing the bookshelf and tilting the Romeo & Juliet book, having the shelf move forward and slide to the side.

I let out a sigh in admiration and walked in, sitting in the center of the pile of books I left the previous night.

Organizing them one-by-one, reading titles and summeries and piling them up in genres the time flew on quickly and my brother was calling me. "Yeah," I answered distractedly.

"Where are you?" Chris' voice asked.

"A friend's house."

"When will you be back?"

"Why?"

"Answer me, Diana."

I let out a sigh and dropped the book, laying on my back and staring up at the high ceiling. "I'm not sure."

"Well, can you be back soon? We've gotta talk."

I felt my eyes roll and I sat up again, staring at a book. "Is this another daddy's not coming back talk, or have you come to your senses?" I asked casually.

Chris on the other line seemed angry, "Just be here soon and don't question me." He ordered, and hung up on me.

Soon after I got back into the book organizing, Charlie set down his things and went to sit by me. "Where's your dad?" He suddenly asked curiously.

"They've never told you?"

"I'm sure they have before."

"He's in the military." I answered, sliding a book against a group of non-fiction. "He's been gone for about seven years."

I felt his stare and didn't want to see what it was. Sympathy? I didn't get that often since I didn't often talk about it, but I knew for a fact it made me uncomfortable. "Do you write him?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't sent anything back in... about a year." As I spoke I realized how long it had been. It seemed longer, and it probably was. I missed him again.

"Why not?"

I shrugged. "The guys think he's not coming back." I spoke passively, though feeling deep inside how it was more than that. "They think he's dead."

"Well they would tell you if he was, right?"

I nodded. "I don't think he's dead."

"What about your mom?"

"I can't remember her."

He was quiet for a while, but I knew he was trying to ask the right question. "Do you miss her?" He asked curiously, seeming not to know whether or not it was a stupid question.

"I don't know." I said honestly, wishing I did. Wishing I had someone to miss. The closest to motherly love I got to was Erin's mom, and she was probably back to being rich and oblivious.

I felt him stare at me and I was thankful he stopped talking about it. It wasn't that it upset me, or made me sad... It just made me uncomfortable. I didn't know how I was supposed to feel, or what I was supposed to say.

Finally looking back at him, I was about to ask him what it was that made him so angry at his family, but he stood up quickly and pulled me up along with him. "It's been hours, I think you're done for today." He told me as we left the library, him pushing the case back in place.