Hello Again, Sir {s/t - complete}

What About Now?: 7.

      I hastily opened the door to the office of the principal, making my way in as soon as I was told that he wanted to see me. The Principal, his name was Chester Montgomery, was sitting at his desk with a tired expression. His glasses were propped against his nose and he looked up from his desk as I opened his door, not bothering to push them up his nose. I sent him a sheepish expression before taking shutting the door behind me. As I did so, I took a large breath of air, hoping to god that I wasn’t in trouble already. It was only my fourth day. I turned around and saw Thomas sitting down in one of the two chairs and suddenly I didn’t know what I was in for anymore.

     “Oh.” I said. “Thomas?”

     “Mr Clarke.” Montgomery said, raising his arm to gesture towards the chair. “Please, have a seat.”

     With caution I moved towards the two sitting men, a suspicious look on my face. “Have I don’t something wrong, Mr. Montgomery?”

      “Oh no!” the man was quick to say. “You haven’t done any harm.”

      I nodded my head as I got comfortable in the seat I’d just taken. At least I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet now I was confused as to why I was in here. Thomas caught my eye and I frowned, silently asking him what we were doing in here. Instead of saying anything, he sent me a sad smile. I turned back towards the principal and cleared my throat.

      “I’m sorry but is Thomas in trouble for something? I haven’t reported any inconvenient behaviour because there hasn’t been any. I assume that’s why we’re here—”

      “This is about Thomas,” Chester cut in. “But not what you assume. Thomas is not in trouble, but I’m afraid young Mr. Burke here will not be attending your class any further for he has been put in a position that compromises his education. I have tried to help—”

      “What do you mean by compromise?”

      The principal sighed. “Thomas, would you like to tell Mr. Clarke why you’ll be absent? You did, after all, request this meeting.”

     The boy nodded and shyly turned to face me. He seemed tired and his eyes were red. This wasn’t like the usual Thomas. This wasn’t the boy that was in my class. Better than the first class he cooperated yesterday in class. I wondered if something had happened to him, maybe with another of the students. “Do you remember that I told you my sister Sarah wanted me to carry on? With college? I said I wanted to quit but she pleaded I continued.” He whispered.

      I nodded. “Yes,” I replied. I remembered.

      “Well the reason behind that was because I wanted to get a job, to support the family and help with the income as my father was very sick.”

      I had a feeling I knew what was coming with the use of the tense, and felt my heart drop. “Yes?”

      “My father died of Lung cancer late last night. Sarah and myself would be considered orphans now and with one godmother who lives in Canada, I decided that I wasn’t going to just move my sister and myself and sell the house to go and live with her. I am eighteen years old now, it was my birthday yesterday, and so I am dropping out of college to support the funding for my sister and the money needed in order to keep the rest of my family afloat.”

      “I’m sorry to hear about that.” I said quietly. I hadn’t lost my father, or my mother, I had both and a decent growing up. I had a weekend job, but who didn’t? This poor kid was going to have to grow up before his time. His youth destroyed before it had barely started because of a natural accident of the passing of his father. He was handling it well, though, I thought. When Hanna awoke in the hospital I was there, in the back of the room, when her mother told her that he hadn’t made it. That he’d died at the scene. She’d cried for days and when her mother left to go home sleep and then work I had always stayed and held her hand. For days that’s all I did, held her hand as she cried and then she began talking to me, but she never stopped holding my hand.