Miss. Parsons is a fresh-out-of-college high school English Literature teacher who has a passion for love, Shakespeare and apparently, hunky southern cowboys. She pays close attention to detail, including the flirty smiles exchanged by students and...
"You're gonna be okay," Harper soothed as she ran a hand through my hair, passing through the tangles. From the moment I stepped off the plane I had been a blubbering mess and refused to contact Dustin in any way shape or form, he had done the same. "It's his loss." These words rang through my head on a constant repeat.
Two days before Christmas day and I was sitting on my couch as my older sister nursed me back to a healthy state of mind. I blamed myself, I blamed Mabel and mostly I blamed Dustin. "I told him, though, he has no right to be upset with me." As I said the word 'me' I folded my hands together and slapped them into the middle of my chest.
"Shhh, I know." She rocked in a motion that felt as if I was afloat a raft on a lazy river as I laid with my legs strewn across her own and my face snuggled into the corner of her collarbone and shoulder.
"It's not fair." I roughly brought my hand up and vigorously swiped a tear away, sniffling my nose. "I love him so much." I threw my head into the crook of Harper's neck, surrounding myself with her waves of lava-colored hair, wanting to hide in it, away from everyone and everything.
"I can tell." Her words reminded me of one's Aunt Sue had spoken earlier and this caused me to rock out another round of sobs.
My arms hung loosely around her waist, feeling weak. "Suppose I should take a shower," pulling away strands of her clung to my cheek and she helped me detach them.
"If that's what you'd like to do." I was now sitting next to her, her hand rubbing circles around my spine.
"Then take a nap." My voice was still shaky.
"I'll be here." I closed my eyes as she said this and an image of Dustin was painted clear as day.
Standing on wobbling legs I managed to make my way to the bathtub where I decided it would be a better option to run a bath. Grabbing the bottle of soap to make bubbles in my bath, I ran my hand through the water feeling the warmth coarse through my veins. Stripping down, I averted my attention from the mirror, not wanting to be reminded of where Dustin's hands had caressed me, although, I didn't want to forget either. Tying my strawberry blonde hair back into a messy bun I stepped into the shallow water and shut it off as it reached a quarter of the way to the top. As I settled into the bath I felt the soreness in my joints and bones begin to ooze out of every muscle.
From it's spot on the tiled flooring I heard my phone begin to vibrate, I glance over to see it was a text from an unknown number.
I wanted you to know I'm very sorry about what happened, but I also wanted you to know Dust hasn't been holding up too well. -Rodney
Reading this sent a wave of relief through me, and I instantly felt bad. Though, I was still too stubborn to reach out to Dustin, I felt my heart relax in a sense that I wasn't over-reacting. I shot back a quick text that said 'Thanks.', before putting my phone back onto the ground. Feeling the soap water beneath me; letting the bubbles run off the tips of my fingers. Once I noticed the pruning of the pads of my fingers, I reluctantly hoisted myself up and out of the bath. Wrapping a towel around myself and walked out into my bedroom, finding a pair of pajamas to throw on and flopped onto my full-sized bed, allowing sleep to take over my aching muscles.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The sun nipped at my eyes as they fluttered open the next morning, while I had said i was going down for a nap, it turned into a restless night. My mind raced with images of Dustin from dusk to dawn and no matter how hard I tried they wouldn't quit haunting me. Rubbing at my eyes, I made my way into the bathroom, once again, refusing to make any eye contact with the person who stood in the mirror. I brushed my teeth wanting the taste of sleep out of my mouth before padding out into the kitchen where Harper worked over the stove, flipping blueberry pancakes and frying home fries.
"Good morning," Harper greeted as she placed two flapjacks on a plate for me along with a side of potatoes.
"Thank you." I managed, my voice sounding rough, I began to cut up the pancake as I waited for the taste of toothpaste to leave my mouth before I went ahead and began shoveling food down. Silence began to fill the gaps of sizzling potatoes and flopping flapjacks as I drowned my breakfast in a river of maple syrup and washed it down with glass of milk I had fetched in the middle of my meal.
"Say, how about you come to Mom's tomorrow, for Christmas?" The thought of spending a holiday alone, bugged me. I thought about it for a moment, chewing on my food slowly to fill the time.
