Page 2 of My Turn

“I’m good, I’m good,” she crooned.

“Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, I wanted to check in. It’s been a while.”

“We talked earlier this week.”

She took a step closer. “About work, yeah. I wanted to see how you’re doing. It’s been almost a year.”

I clenched my teeth and focused on clearing the last of the words from the board. When it was clean, I considered using the spray on it, but I was pretty sure Jane was going to stay here until I left, so screw that.

“Everything is good,” I said with a smile. “Time heals all wounds, as they say.”

“Is that true?”

I sighed. “I don’t know, Jane. Excuse me.”

After grabbing my backpack from under my desk, I moved toward the door. She followed me out, then waited as I locked it. If I thought I’d escape by heading down the hall, I was mistaken.

What could she possibly want?

“Halloween is in two days,” she chirped from my side.

“Yes, it is.”

“I noticed that you didn’t sign up as a volunteer for the trunk-or-treat event.”

“No, I have plans.”

We were here five days a week, sometimes more. Not only did we deal with teenagers suffering from raging hormones, but we were also underpaid and overworked. It baffled me that anyone would want to volunteer to spendmoretime here. For free, nonetheless.

Maybe I was a bad person. It was something I’d thought about a lot since Jake died. More and more, I found myself being cynical and feeling a general sense of discontentment toward humanity in general. So many people were kind after it happened, but I couldn’t help convincing myself that they didn’t actually care. They were going through the motions of what altruism was supposed to mean and doing what was expected when someone died.

Worse, they could be acting genuine. That sort of made me nauseous. I didn’t want their pity and their kind gestures. A fridge full of shitty casseroles was meant to help me through the ‘dark times.’ They didn’t help at all. In fact, my best friend Jayce threw most of them away because I barely ate the first month and he hated casseroles. According to him, they were a crime against humanity and disrespectful to the grieving. He might be a little dramatic.

I didn’t purposely waste the food, but I still felt shitty about it. My parents always guilted me by reminding me that there were starving kids in the world. Sorry, kids. Grief was a bigger beast for me at the time.

“You should really stop by,” Jane went on. She might have been talking the whole way to the parking lot, but I’d never know. “Principal McKay works so many hours. Any stress we can take off of his shoulders would be a blessing for him.”

Offering her a sickly sweet smile, I unlocked my SUV. “I’ll totally consider it.”

“See you tomorrow,” she called as I quickly shut the door and backed out of the spot.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” I muttered. “Unfortunately.”

If one of my seniors tried to make another ridiculous excuse for not having their project finished, I might decide that sacrificing my soul to Lucifer was a better option than working at a high school. Seriously, why had I thought teaching minors was a good path for me? I’d always intended to go back to school for a higher degree so I could teach at the university level, but that dream seemed impossible now, so it looked like I was stuck with seventeen-year-olds. Better than kids, but still.

As I pulled up to my apartment, I grimaced. My old duplex I’d lived in with Jake wasn’t anything grand, but at least it had a driveway and a small backyard. Plus, I wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of other tenants. I’d managed to get a second-floor unit here, which I’d been adamant about for obvious reasons. If someone really wanted to hurt me, I was sure they wouldn’t be deterred, but it made my place less desirable for crimes of convenience. Allegedly.

After Jake died, I stayed with Jayce for a couple of months. He’d insisted that I should just move in with him so that I wouldn’t be alone, but I needed my own place. He was amazing and had helped me through the initial pain of my loss. We saw each other at least twice every week. Living together, though, was bound to fuck up our relationship. I’d seen friends have a major falling out after trying to be roommates and I couldn’t stand the idea of that happening with us.

Besides, I was twenty-six. It pushed my budget to live by myself, but it was the natural progression of life to go out on your own.

Since he’d been worried about me, I’d let him install a digital door lock system that would alert both of us if anyone tried to break in. That made me feel a little better. The only two who had a code were me and him. He only lived a couple of miles away, so he’d be here within ten minutes if anything ever happened- probably faster than the police. He was huge too and I had no doubt he’d take down anyone who wanted to hurt me.

I punched in my code to open the front door, then let out a heavy breath once I stepped inside. Another day done. Another to get through tomorrow. Halloween was on Thursday and the school decided to give the students Friday off. I was going to do everything in my power to catch up on my work so that I could have a free day too. God knows I needed that.

My phone started vibrating, making me groan. Speak of the devil. He always seemed to know when I got home.

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