Story, An Untitled

Part VII of an unfinished story

Copyright Julia Bydulia

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With her shirt on backwards and her feet bare, Michelle unlocked the stall she was getting changed in, gathered up all of her things and ran out of the bathroom without another word.

The hallway seemed impossibly long and her heart seemed impossibly large for her chest. Her feet slipped and slid all over the tiles of the floor and she found that running without shoes in the halls of the school made it hard to keep your balance.

When she did reach the door to the classroom, she gulped down air and let it all out at once before pushing through it and walking back to her seat, her shoes still in her hand and her shirt still backwards. Vincent was sitting in the same way he was when she left him. His hair was still pulled back in that tight ponytail, which was still resting on the back of his neck.

Without another second wasted, Michelle walked to her seat and sat down, throwing her shoes on the floor. Someone was presenting their monologue at the front of the room, but, no one liked him anyway, so the noise wasn't a real disturbance.

"Hi," Vincent whispered when he saw her.

She held up on finger and ripped out a piece of notebook paper:

Vincent, my darling Italian Stallion.

I don't like you anymore or anyhow or anyway except that I love you. That sounds weird. But it's not the same way. So I hope you have beautiful babies someday. Babies that are in no way mine.

She folded up the piece of paper and threw it at him, grinning as she did.

He smirked at the note while he read it, then he stole her pencil and used it to write a response:

My girlfriend, my penis, and I are all pleased to hear it.

He threw the note at her and turned back to the front of the room, watching Mr. No One Likes Me Anyway with a small smile on his face.

Michelle felt naive. Naive and absolutely stupid. How could she have not known that Vincent had a girlfriend? How long had the two of them been dating? Did she know about all of the embarrassing things that Michelle had done while she was chasing Vincent? She dug her nails into her thigh and felt the urge to punch herself.

Still, a smile crept on her face. Whether the girl knew or not, there wasn't anything to know anymore. Michelle's heart was lighter than it had been in a while. She felt like she might be able to go home without daydreaming about him.