One Month Later

Saul was surprised by a knock on the door of the apartment he’d moved in to 5 months ago; he wasn’t expecting anyone.  He looked through the peephole and smiled.  It was Cameron.

“Hey babygirl! Why didn’t you use your key?”

“I didn’t want to just barge in.  I didn’t want to surprise you if you were entertaining company”.  Cameron said sheepishly.

Saul’s face fell.  He knew that the remark was based on the reason he and her mother divorced.  Now his daughter thought he was some over sexed manwhore.  The truth was, he hadn’t had sex since that night with Alicia.  A night he was still disgusted with himself over.

“Cammie, you’re the only company I’ve had in six months”.

“Oh”, she felt just the slightest bit embarrassed for assuming, but it’s not like there wasn’t a basis for such an assumption.

Eager to change the subject, Cameron inquired about her father’s physical welfare.  “Dad, have you been eating?  You look like you’ve lost weight”.

“I’m okay, Cammie.  I’m eating enough”.

Cameron eyed Saul skeptically.  She knew he hadn’t been eating well and she was sure he hadn’t really been sleeping.  He had started going to a therapist a month ago, but she didn’t think he was still going.

“Daddy, when was the last time you saw your therapist?”

“Cammie”, he said with an exasperated sigh.  “I jus-”

“No SAUL”, she used his name in order to get his attention and to stop him from indulging in a bout of self-pity.  “No excuses.  You’ve been cloaked in your depression for months now.  You’ll never get past the divorce if you don’t start dealing with the reasons you cheated in the first place!  Work on your issues, Dad or your life is going to spiral even further down the tubes”.

Cameron never pulled any punches.  She always held a mirror up and forced him to face the cold hard truths about himself.  “You’re right honey.  You’re right”.

“I know I’m right.  Now, I want you to make your appointment first thing Monday morning or I’m gonna make it for you”.

Saul looked at his daughter and chuckled.  “Yes ma’am”.  Saul decided to broach a much more painful subject...Malachi.

“How is Mal?”  Saul asked, cautiously.  The subtext of the question wasn’t lost on Cameron.  He wanted to know if his son still hated him.  She skirted the issue.  

“Mal’s fine.  He’s actually performing in a talent show at talent show at the Belmont Drama Center next week”.

“Wow, that’s great!  I’m sure he’ll knock’em dead; he’s so talented”.

Cameron hesitated for a moment and then said softly, “You should come”.

Saul’s eyes misted over.  “He won’t want me there.  You know that”.

“He doesn’t have to know your there.  You could sit in the back”.

“Maybe Cam.  Maybe”.

No maybes, Dad.  You’re going, if I have to pick you up and drive you myself”.

Saul smiled at his daughter.  “Okay, I’ll be there.  He moved to the other elephant in the room.  “How’s your mother?”

“She’s good, Dad.”  Cameron wasn’t going to elaborate, pretty much for the same reasons she wouldn’t elaborate about Mal.  Mom didn’t hate him, but telling him that she seemed to be smiling more since the divorce, especially in the last couple of weeks, wasn’t going to do him any good.

“That’s good”.  He knew there was something Cameron wasn’t telling him.  He also knew that he didn’t want to know what it was.

*****************************

Lynne walked into the teacher’s lounge to find her best friend Angela and Malcolm already at the table the three of them sat at every day.

“Hey, Chica.  What’s the haps?”  Angela said cheerfully.

“Not much, although I might be choking Kevin Blankenship out before the day is over.  He is the biggest pain in the ass”.

“Tell me about it”,  Angela and Malcolm said simultaneously.  The three of them laughed.

“What did the little bugger do?”  Angela asked.

“The usual.  He’s disruptive and combative.  I don’t mind a student challenge ideas, it means they’re thinking and absorbing the lessons.  He challenges without even knowing what he’s talking about half of the time!  He does it to waste my time, not to mention his classmates.  I end up spending most of our class time dealing with him”.

“Yeah...having him in my homeroom is no picnic, but you two have to deal with him for a longer period of time.  I don’t have to teach him, I just have to deal with him being a little asshole”.  Malcolm whispered the last part of his statement.  It wasn’t appropriate to say such things about students, no matter how true they were.

“Time to call another useless PTC”.  Angela said.  

Lynne groaned at the idea of meeting with the boy’s mother.  She was convinced that her son was a special snowflakes who challenged ideas he questioned and could generally do know wrong.  Conferences were absolutely useless.

Lynne dropped the matter and opened her lunch bag.  She pulled out two sandwiches, one for Malcolm and one for herself.

“Ah, turkey.  My favorite!”,  Malcolm took a bite of the sandwich and closed his eyes.  “This is SO good, Lynne.  What’s the spread on it?”

“Pesto.  Just decided to spice it up a bit.  You like?”

“I do indeed, now stop talking to me so I can eat.  And don’t look at me.  I’m about to inhale this bad boy and I don’t want you thinking I’m a greedy pig”.

“Too late”, Angela said with a smirk.  Malcolm flipped her the bird in response.  Angela cracked up.

Malcolm started to dig back into the sandwich when one of the other teachers, Mrs. Gunderson burst into the lounge.

“Malcolm, there’s a fight in the cafeteria.  Can you help?”

“Sure Alice. Right behind you.”  Malcolm dropped what remained of his sandwich and headed out of the lounge.

Angela looked across the table at Lynne, with a sly smile on her face.  “So, how come you don’t bring ME sandwiches?”

“Oh stop it, the food I bring him is probably the only proper meals he eats all week.  If I didn’t bring him sandwiches, he’d be subsisting on pb&j.”

“Uh huh”, Angela said, smirking.  “You’d have to be a blind person to not see that you two clearly like one another”.

“Please...he’s 10 years younger than me.  That’s FAR too young to even ENTERTAIN the thought of dating him”.

“Girl, this is the age of the cougar.  You better snatch up that cub before someone else does”.

“Shut up, Angie”, Lynne chuckled, nervously.

“Well you don’t have to DATE, just hang out.  Invite him over for dinner, use the kids as a buffer in case you end up feeling like jumping his bones”.

“For goodness sake, Angela”.

“I’m just sayin’....”

Just then, Malcolm came back into the lounge.

“So who was fighting?” Lynne asked.

“Anthony Bell and Thomas Landers”.

“Anthony?  But he’s so sweet and quiet.  He’s never been ANY trouble”.

“Well, you know how Landers is.  I guess Anthony got sick of it and just snapped”.

“Good for him”,  Angela said.

“Now, now.  We mustn’t encourage fighting, although, I kind of wanted to give Anthony a chance to get in a few more licks”.  When Malcolm received admonishing looks from both women he quickly added,  “I didn’t though, I swear.”

The bell rang and lunch time ended.  Angie looked at Lynne and jerked her head towards Malcolm a couple of times to encourage her to ask him to dinner.  Lynne waved her off.

Lynne and Malcolm were the last ones in the lounge.  He was headed towards the door when Lynne called out to him.

“Hey, Malcolm.  I-I wanted to ask if...if you’d like to come over to my house for dinner.  Don’t feel obli-”

“YES”, Malcolm practically shouted before offering a much softer response.

Lynne smiled and said, “Saturday night?  7 okay?”

“Sure.  Is there anything I can bring?”

“Nope.  Just your appetite”.

“Okay.  Okay!  Saturday at 7 it is”.

Malcolm couldn’t stop grinning as he walked out of the lounge.

Lynne just happened to be looking towards the door when Angela leaned in and gave her two thumbs up.

Lynne couldn’t help but laugh at her friend.  She also couldn’t help asking herself what she’d just gotten herself into.