Page 18 of Defined and Defiled
I try to squeeze past them but Mike reaches out to grab my arm. He must register that he's holding on to me too tightly because he quickly releases and rubs his hand on his chest. His work shirt is already wrinkled and features aprominent black stain. What could have gotten him so ruffled before seven am?
“Excuse us, Mr. Rogers.”
Tony shoots me a smile, clearly glad that a new sucker has to talk to Mike as he walks off. Mike leans close to me, his breath warming my cheek.
“When do you want to go to the basement again?”
I jump.
“Oh, I. I need some more time with the book, it's not fixed yet.”
Mike leans back and looks at where I'm hugging Richard to my chest. He quirks an eyebrow.
“Then why is it here and not at the bookstore?”
I don't know why I don't want to tell Mike about Richard. I'm sure he'd understand it but I still feel the way his fingers had dug into my arm.
“I wanted to let my students use him for their papers before we returned him to the basement.”
“Him?” Mike's eyebrows come together.
“Oh,” I laugh but it sounds too high-pitched. “Just something I've been doing with the kiddos. Working on empathy and all that. 'Don't snap your binders like that, she wouldn't like that. Make sure you take your jacket home, he's lonely!”
Mike looks down at Richard and then back at me nodding slowly.
“Of course. You know, I'm sure it's fine if a couple of pages are ripped, I'd rather just return the book and be done with it.”
Mike reaches out to grab Richard but I hold him firm to my chest.
“Oh, but then my class wouldn't be able to use him as a resource.”
“They can always just look it up online.”
“And that's,” I pull Richard away from Mike's hands, “the problem, I'd like them to work for it.”
I take a minute to catch my breath, no one should have this much excitement in the morning. Then I put a stand of my hair behind my ear and put on what I hope is a sweet smile.
“I promise we'll bring the dictionary back. Just not yet.”
Mike looks at my hands and for a second I think he’s going to try to grab Richard again, before he puts his hands in his pockets.
“Tonight then.”
“Tonight?” I squeak.
“Yes, you can show it to your students today and then we can return it after class today.” Mike smiles, “then maybe that dinner?"”
He walks off before I can deny him, waving down Lucy who starts walking faster into the building.
I lean Richard away from my chest so I can see his face.
“What are we going to do? You can't go back there.”
Richard's eyebrows are pinched, and he is lost in thought.
“Let's go talk to Marge.”
I hurry us into the office. We only have about fifteen minutes until I need to be in the classroom for the first bell. Marge is already seated and ready to go. I would not be surprised to find out she sleeps at the school. She smiles at me when I walk in but her smile quickly grows cold.
