Page 34 of The Teacher
I guess I could scoop it up. I wish I could just take a hose to the entire thing. And also, I don’t have anything to clean it up with. If I were home, it would be easier, but what am I supposed to do to clean up a bunch of shaving cream in the middle of the hallway at my high school?
“What are you waiting for?” Kenzie calls out. “Do you need us to get you a razor?”
Bella laughs at that. “Don’t give her a razor. She would probably slit her wrists!”
Kenzie says something to Bella, and I can’t quite make it out, but it kind of sounds like she said, “So what?”
Every time I think I’ve experienced the worst day yet, there is a new winner.
Just to make my humiliation complete, Hudson appears to join their little group. He’s wearing his football uniform, but it’s not yet caked in dirt, which means he’s heading over to practice. I’m sure he wanted to see the look on my face as I experienced the locker of shaving cream. Hell, for all I know, he’s the one who cut the lock. I doubt Kenzie did that herself.
“What’s going on?” he says, his pale blue eyes looking right at me for a change.
Kenzie snickers. “Addie is having someissues. Anyway, we better get to practice.”
Hudson is staring in my direction, a frown on his face. Through most of elementary school, he got bullied pretty badly. I remember once on the playground, after a morning of rain, the ground was all muddy, and some kids pushed him so that he fell face down in the mud. He didn’t fight back though. He just took it, like he always did. I was the one who helped him up and took him to the bathroom to get cleaned up after.
To my surprise, instead of joining Kenzie, Hudson walks over to where I’m standing in front of my shaving cream–filled locker. For a moment, I get the urge to throw my arms around his padded shoulders for the hug he would have given me before our whole friendship fell apart. “Addie? What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I mumble. “I just need to get this cleaned up.”
His eyes rake over the gallons of shaving cream in my locker. “Jesus.”
“Yeah.”
He glances over to where Kenzie and her friends are standing, then looks back at me. “Let me help you get it cleaned up.”
These are literally the most words Hudson has said to me in months. He means well, but he has to realize that he can’t help me clean up my locker. Kenzie won’t allow it.
Sure enough, Kenzie’s voice calls out, “Hudson! We have to get to practice!”
“You should go,” I tell him. “Your girlfriend is going to be mad at you.”
His eyes darken. “She’s not my boss. I’m going to help you.”
“Hudson!” She doesn’t come closer to us, but her sharp voice fills the hallway. “We’re going to be late if you don’t come right now!”
“Screw her,” he mumbles under his breath. “Come on. We can get this done quickly.”
I look over at Kenzie, who seems nothing short of furious. She broke into my locker and vandalized it, and I haven’t even done anything to her to deserve it. I can’t imagine what hell she’ll bring down on me for hijacking her boyfriend.
“Listen,” I say, “you’ve got practice. You should go.”
“No,” he says firmly. “I’m going to help you. I want to.”
“Except you’re making it worse.”
He jerks his head back. He was trying to be a good guy and help an old friend, but he has to realize I’m right. Kenzie is getting angrier by the second, and if I let him help me, there will be retribution. As painful as it will be to clean this up by myself, it’s better this way.
“Addie…” he says.
“Really. Go to practice. You’ve done enough.”
Hudson doesn’t look happy about it, but he obligingly turns around to join Kenzie. Although before he disappears down the hallway, he turns around to look at me one last time. And he looks so sad.
That surprises me. I mean, Hudson is now one of the most popular kids in school. His life is infinitely better than it was when it was just us two losers hanging out together. But for a moment, I wonder if he misses when it was just the two of us. I wonder if he misses me as much as I miss him.
But we’re never going to be able to be friends again.Things will never be the way they used to be between the two of us.
