We drove into town without speaking again on Saturday after my dad got home from work. We passed by the school, and I watched it the whole way past, a part of me wildly hoping to see Chance. It was Saturday though, nobody was around.
The hospital my dad worked in served four towns, Turnbridge being the largest which was more than a little sad. It was a fairly large hospital though, easily the biggest building anywhere in Turnbridge. We parked, and I followed my dad inside.
We took an elevator to the third floor, apparently devoted to mental health. I refrained from commenting on the fact that this town needed an entire hospital floor devoted to the whackos, mostly because I myself was there for good ol' American head-shrinking, as they say.
The office we were heading toward was halfway down the first hallway, not far in. There was a big waiting area, and several doors leading off the big triangular lobby. A positively ancient woman sat behind a desk, and a few people sat in the waiting chairs. My father walked right up to the desk and addressed the woman.
"Ryan Jacobs here to see Doctor Sadler," he said loudly. I winced. As if the whole school thinking I was crazy wasn't bad enough. Let's just announce it to the whole town, shall we?
"Please have a seat, Mr. Jacobs. The doctor will be with you momentarily," the woman replied, with no traces of the local accent.
I had already gone to sit down. My father sat beside me for only a minute or two when one of the office doors opened, and a middle-aged woman with curly reddish-brown hair poked her head out.
"Mr. Jacobs?" she said. My dad and I stood, but she pointed to my father. "Just you first, please. I'll be with you in a few more minutes, Ryan."
She smiled at me as she said it, but the obvious message was that she wanted my dad's take on things before talking to me, which to me meant she was already going to favor his word over mine. I disliked her already, but I sat back down. I was halfway through a Popular Mechanics magazine that was almost eleven years old when someone sat down beside me.
"Hey Ryan," a girl's voice said. I looked up. It was Jennifer. She smiled at me.
"Hey. Jennifer, right?" I said casually, though I was more than a little surprised to see her. Her smile brightened at my recognition.
"That's right! Rumors sure get around, if we both know each other's names without havin' been prop'rly introduced," she said in her soft accent.
"Yeah, they must," I said bitterly. "Which is why I'm surprised you're talking to me."
"Well, I did hear about th' library, and your fight with Noah. Don't worry though, I know Noah an' I don't doubt that he started it," she said, to my surprise. "The library shelves were probably an accident, though. He might be a bit rough 'round th' edges, but he wouldn't ever take it that far. And I sure don't think you pushed them over like Noah told everyone you did." I considered her for a moment. She seemed to be serious, so I smiled.
"Thanks," I told her. "That's... that means a lot."
"That's okay," she said, "a lot of nasty stuff goes 'round in those rumors. I know better than t' listen to 'em. Is it true about your friend, Chance?" I looked at her.
"What, that he's gay?" I asked. "Yeah, he doesn't make any show of hiding it or anything. He's cool with it. So am I, though I'm not gay myself," I hastened to add. She hesitated, and seemed about to say something, then changed her mind.
"Glad to hear that, though. It'd be a shame if a good lookin' guy like you was gay," she said. I felt my cheeks getting hot.
"Wouldn't be that great a loss to womankind," I said jokingly. She smiled at me.
YOU ARE READING
Without Chance
Teen FictionRyan had lost everything. His mother recently died of cancer, and his father had completely shut down after her death. His father even dragged him away from the city he'd grown up in, forcing him to leave all of his friends to move to a tiny, backwa...
