Instead of Me

∆37∆

"How are my sloppy seconds, Anastasia?" she called without turning around. 

Annie rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her textbooks and binders. I walked over and grabbed Annie's scarf. "Here."

"You know, sometimes I really really hate that you dated her or slept with her or whatever you did with her." 

I snorted. "Yeah, me too." 

As the crowd in the hallway was thinning, a locker slammed shut not far from us. Annie jumped, startled, holding her hand to her chest and turning her head every which way to find the culprit. At the end of the hallway, Heath stood with his backpack slung over one shoulder, glaring at the two of us. He dropped his gaze to his shoes then turned around to walk to class. 

Annie cleared her throat and hung her scarf and coat up inside her locker. "I should get to class." She hastily zipped up her backpack and tucked her hair behind her ears. "I'll see you at lunch?" 

I nodded, watching her head off to Mr. Rush's class. She hunched her shoulders over and kept her head hung low. 

After debating for a minute in my head, I decided to head outside of the school and smoke a cigarette. It was too stuffy in the school and I could use the fresh air. Besides, my hands had been itching for one since I woke up. Once the bell rang, I waited for all of the teachers to close the doors to their classrooms so I could sneak past without getting caught. 

The air was finally starting to warm up a bit. Granted, not as though Spring were just around the corner, but maybe after a few lefts and a right. I buried my fingers into my pockets, searching for my lighter and pack of cigarettes. There was only one left in the box. "Crap," I muttered under my breath. That was the one thing my dad was good for. He would buy cigarettes for himself, and I would just take a pack or two from him while he was blackout drunk and he would never notice. I still had a few weeks until I could buy them legally. 

I took a long drag, tossing the empty pack into my backpack and the lighter in my pocket. I thought about Doctor Lopez. She called me earlier in the morning before school to tell me that she was working her hardest to keep social workers away from me. She said that it was especially hard since Mrs. Valentine, my last emergency contact, was in the hospital, but I had yet to have one on my door step ready to take me away in the blink of an eye. For Doctor Lopez, I was forever grateful. She went above and beyond what was necessary for her. I wished there was something I could do to thank her, but I was literally the most untalented person I knew. 

Then, I remembered that Annie's special edition of the school newspaper was supposed to make its debut today. Since her and Heath broke up, he doesn't come by her locker with one copy ready to give away while she has coins ready in her hand. I took one last drag of the cigarette and turned around, but when I did, I was met with a man with one real eye and one glass eye.

"Mr. Robertson, what are you doing out here?" Mr. Rush's voice was grouchy, like that grump from Monster House, and they way his glass eye bore into me was chilling. He had an evil smirk, as if he knew he was going to catch me. "What is this?" He gestured to all the cigarette butts, ending with the one in my hand. "Seems like you smoke on campus quite a bit, Mr. Robertson. That must mean you have a lighter-"

"Sir, I-"

"Which is cause of suspension, Mr. Robertson." He puckered his lips to the side, counting the amount of cigarette butts in his head. "Hmmm. . . Come with me." 

I threw the one in my hand to the ground and stomped on it, slumping my head forward and following him as he led me to the principal's office. I rolled my eyes. How did he know I was out there? Wasn't he supposed to be teaching Annie in AP Euro? As we passed his classroom, I glanced through the small window in the door. There was a substitute.