THE TEACHER

Chapter seven

Abigail wasn't the same athlete she used to be in high school, but she still enjoyed a slow swim from time to time. She had slowly lost her competitiveness to make room for her love for teaching, but during her summers in Los Angeles she would work in a pool, teaching little kids how to swim.

It was still her favorite way to release her worries and stress, and even though she didn't have a lot of time for it, that day she had gone to the pool where she used to train with the swimming team, where she had met Alex for the first time, where they had broken up, where she felt Melissa's hand brush against hers for the very first time. It was more than a simple place, it represented a very important chapter of her life, that she still had trouble letting go.

She jumped in the cold water and felt a shiver down her spine, then pushed herself away from the edge and started swimming with her face looking down at the bottom of the blue pool.

Moving carefully and slowly, she spent forty-five minutes just thinking about swimming and letting nothing else enter her brain. She didn't even stop when she spied Melissa entering the building and sitting down on the chairs next to the edge, until her hour of training came to an end, and she finally decided to leave the water.

"You didn't fall," Melissa clenched her jaw, moving her eyes from Abby's arms to her eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Abigail, putting on her robe. "I'm fine."

"Don't push me away, or this time I won't come back."

Fearful, almost terrorized, Abby broke down crying in front of Melissa, unable to control her emotions.

"Sit," ordered the eldest. "Talk to me."

"I broke up with him. He hit me."

"What did he do, exactly?" gently asked Melissa, stroking her hair.

"He started calling me a whore, then he punched me under the eye," she sobbed, with terror in her eyes. "I fell down and he started kicking me on the chest, so I protected myself with my arms. Then he went to sleep as if nothing had happened."

"You should talk to someone about this. Report him to the authorities. He might come after you again."

"I don't want to make this a bigger deal than it already is."

"Exactly because it's already a big deal, you should do something about it. I'll drive you down to the police station, get changed."

The weight that Abby felt getting off her shoulders was unreal. Out of the police station, she finally let out a relieved sigh, letting out a few tears and finally showing off the big happy smile that Melissa loved so much.

"I'm proud of you," she smiled, opening her arms to embrace her. "It took guts."

"Thank you for talking me into this."

"I'd do it a million times over. What are your plans in life now?"

"I don't know... tomorrow afternoon I'll go take my stuff out of the house, while Dale's at work. Can I stay with you tonight?" asked Abigail, lost.

"I was waiting for you to ask me," winked back Melissa. "Let's go."

Unbelievably, it was the first time Abby had entered Melissa's house in the five years they had spent apart. It was even cleaner and tidier than she remembered, with everything right in the spot where it was supposed to be, and almost no sign of any relationship of Melissa with the outside world. The paintings hung on the walls were of some landscapes, the pictures were very few, scattered on some shelves, and there was no hint whatsoever about the personality of owner of the house.