GUILTY OF LOVE

Four

ROSA's POV

I entered the office without knocking.

"How times do I have to tell you to knock before entering Rosa?", Mr Toppings said in his deep masculine voice. He was sitting on his chair. His long black hair packed in a ponytail. He wore a pink sweater and had a big smile on his face. The picture of his family was sitting nicely on his table. It was a picture of him, Mrs Toppings (God rest her soul), and a very young Claire. He wasn't alone in his office though, he had a guest in a black leather jacket. He had a sleek brown hair that reached his shoulders.

"Ooooh, you're busy. I'll come back later"

"Rosa, oh Rosa, I've missed you soooo much. Don't enter the new school year with a bad habit", he leaned back in his chair and pointed a finger at me to scold me. I knew he was talking about me going to class late so I tried to change the topic.

"Who picked your clothes today? Let me guess... Claire?", I pretended to think for a little while even though i know that it had to be Claire. She's a pinkaholic.

"That was a hard guess, right?", he asked not surprised at all and then we laughed for about a minute or two.

"Claire told me you were going to see me this morning, what's wrong?", he was now turning round in his spinning chair.

I was still standing and I felt weird so I hung my suit on his coat rack and sat down on one of the chairs closer to the door.

"Sat down without permission in my office. You deserve to be punished."

"You know you aren't the first person to tell me that today..."

"Who did?", he asked while adjusting himself on his chair.

"Will. He's back!" I tried to say that happily. I had a big smile on my face but when I heard myself say those words, I myself knew it was a whole lie.

The second bell rang, teachers will close the doors of the class and anyone that enters class now will be considered late for class. The punishment for this is absence in the attendance list. If a student is absent from a particular class thrice, detention is then earned.

"You don't sound too happy about Will being back though...", he stopped talking

I stood up from the chair. It looks comfortable but trust me when I say it isn't as comfortable as the ones opposite his table. I started walking towards the right chair since the left one was already taken by the guy in the black leather jacket. I haven't seen his face since I entered Mr Toppings. I could hear my boots hit hard at the floor with every step I took.

"Will is... well, Will is Will", I started to say something about Will but we weren't alone and I didn't want what I was about to say to get back to Will.

"You are late for class. Today is the first day of school and you're already on bad behaviour, I wonder how David will react to this news", he said joking. This means Claire hasn't told him David is missing. She hasn't told him that I would be here to get an official note from him to leave school. She hasn't told him anything.

"I'm not staying in school today"

The guy in the black leather jacket looked up at me. Those piercing gray eyes caught me off-guard. We were just staring at each other until I heard Mr Toppings say, "sneaking off?". He turned his face to Mr Toppings. Asshole.

"No, what is he doing in here?" I said sitting down beside the asshole and pointing my finger at him while looking straight at Mr Toppings.

"Well, he is... Norman Smith, a newly transferred student of Darwins high. Do you know him?" Mr Toppings shifted forward to open his file in order to confirm his name before leaning back into his seat.

"He's my neighbour. He's an asshole", I whispered the last word even though I knew he could hear what I said clearly.

Mr Toppings just chuckled. He pulled out my class schedule and locker keys, and handed it over to me, 'I kept it for you."

"I need an exeat"

He handed Norman his class schedule, locker key and uniforms.

"Why? Are you sick? You know if you are, you should first get a note from the school nurse."

"I'm not sick."

"We have a problem at home", I added

"Is that all?", Norman stood up and asked Mr Toppings. He's about 6 feet, his leather jacket was so tight around his arm muscles.

"It remains a small tour round the school. Rosa, can you help me with that?", Mr Toppings said

"But I'll have to go home soon. Junior is coming to get me", I complained

"Well, he isn't here yet" he said with an annoying smirk on his face knowing he has won the argument.

"I just honestly want to wait for Junior in your office. I can't really think about attending any class today after what happened this morning."

"Don't bring personal issues to school. I've told you before, go do the tour and I might have the exeat waiting for you when you're back if the main reason for all this drama is necessary."

I got up to leave and the new guy got up after me. I went to get my bag and suit that was hung on the jacket pole. The new guy opened the door and went out and then I followed him.

I closed the door after me. He looked me in the eyes and said, "lead the way". I had another thing in mind though.

I knocked at the door twice before opening, Mr Toppings was surprised to see me.

"Any other thing, Rosa?"

"Yes. David is missing", I said and closed the door before walking away. The new guy kept looking at me but was still following me.

I guess the news hit him hard. He didn't say anything. About three minutes later, I heard his office door open wide and he was calling out my name but I didn't answer. I just walked away.

________________________________

After a long walk of silence.

"Give me your locker keys", I said and he handed them to me immediately

I checked the number on it. It was 318, mine was 315 so it should be close to mine. I returned the keys back to him. We climbed the stairs up, the locker numbers 300 to 399 are in the third floor.

I got to my locker. It had the number 315 written boldly on it, I opened it, it was empty and clean. Thank God, no old chewed gum in it. I let out a huge sigh, "This is my locker, go look for yours". His locker is the third locker next to mine.

I opened my school bag and put arranged my textbooks and some exercise books in the locker. I then glued my class schedule and a picture of my papa on the door of locker and hung a mirror. The new guy basically put his textbooks and some notebooks in the locker and closed it. He came over to where I was arranging my locker and was just watching me.

I closed my locker and opened it back. I wanted to see if it called me, if I made it my own but it felt off. No snack in it, that's the problem. I stuffed it with a pack of bubble gum, a bottle of chocolate syrup, a big bag of cheetos and some snickers chocolate. I found a picture of Claire, Steve and I and I glued it to the door. I put in my pink stationery purse and closed the locker.

When I opened it back, it looked better. The snacks made it look good, so I closed it and turned. He was standing right in my face.

"You're done", I said walking right past him even though I knew that he had finished arranging his locker and was waiting for me.

"I think we started on the wrong foot...", he said trying to catch up with me because I was walking fast.

"You think?" I sharply added

"No no, I know... I just..."

"Not now, Norman Smith. Not in the middle of your tour", I said

"Okay", he didn't talk again.

He just kept on watching me talk on and on about Darwins high. I showed him the field, court, track, cafeteria, laboratories, sick bay, theatre room etc. Darwins high is a really big school, great for coaching future athletes and students.

"Well, you've come to the end of your tour, if you run you can still make it to class early", I stopped walking and looked at him. My suit in one hand and a now very light-weight brown school bag whose one hand hung loosely on my right shoulder.

"Okay. Thanks for the tour", he said

Just then, the school speaker announced, "Rosa Mendes to the counsellor's office. Rosa Mendes to the counsellor office."

"I guess my ride home is here", I said to myself and walked away.

_______________________________

My walk to Mr Toppings office, i kept saying 'be brave, it was just a little dried blood on the floor' but when i got there, standing in his office was Junior and the sheriff, they were talking to Mr Toppings.

"Hello sister", he had a big smile on his face. I ran to him and hugged him

"I don't know how it happened. He didn't come home last night and mama was worried, she was worried. She kept on calling him but he wouldn't pick up. She called all his friends, she even called Jake (I pointed at Mr Toppings and he nodded to confirm my story. He and David are close friends. I call him Jake everywhere else but Mr Toppings in school because that's more formal) and I called you, I called you, I called you but you wouldn't pick up, when you picked you were at a f*****g party...", I said crying and banging his chest hard but he just hugged me tighter and kept saying, "It's ok"

"Ummmm... Jake, thanks for letting Rosa go home early today", the sheriff told Mr Toppings and shook his hand.

"Hey, no problem about it" as he handed the exeat to him