Teaching A Thing Or Two

Chapter 3 This is Hard

Finley's POV

I cry uncontrollably into my hands as I practically collapse to my knees on my front porch. "Are you ok ma'am?" I hear softly from beside me. I glance over, wiping my eyes, trying to look ok for the construction worker from before.

He has a worry-filled look apparent across his face, just staring intently at me. I'm sure by the yelling I did that he heard everything, so there is no point in trying to make up or deny anything.

"Thanks for caring, but no, I'm not ok." I say slowly, standing up as I sadly wave heading into my place. I shut the door behind me as I break down even more, holding onto the door as if it's my only lifeline.

I look at the clock, and it's about time for me to actually head to work. I wipe my eyes groaning again as I make my way across the house to try to fix this mess of a face for work.

It takes longer than expected to not make my face look like a train wreck. I put my glasses on covering up as much as I can of my swollen, red eyes.

I leave my place, quickly getting to my car, avoiding that construction man again because he has seen more of me and my personal life in 10 minutes than most have seen in my whole life.. I couldn't be more embarrassed, and what makes this worse is that I will have to see him over and over again because him and his other men are working on the house next door to me.

I speed off before he can see me again, getting to my work in no time at all... I park, taking a couple deep breathes in, then letting them out, trying to calm myself before I have another breakdown.

I grab my bag and head into the school with smiles and waves sent my way, and I politely wave back in response. I quickly get to my room, trying to hide before my friends interrogate me.

I hear a knocking on my open door along with them singing out. "Finn!"

I look up and see my two friends. "Hey, beautiful. Happy Valentine's Day!" Kimmy says as Kacee gasps at the sight of me so sad. "What's wrong? What happened?"She asks, but I just shake my head, not wanting to answer as I feel the tears building up once again. But I take a couple of deep breaths, feeling like I'm not going to cry. I look up, matching their concerned gazes, and just like that, the tears I thought I got rid of appear again like some awful magic trick.

"Are these tears because of Maverick?" Kimmy asks as I nod, looking even more mad now. "What did he do?!" Kacee demands, looking as if she wants to kick his ass before even knowing the story for herself.. But all she really needs to know is that her friend is hurt and she is there.

"He dropped off some nice things like coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and roses for me this morning but dropped his wallet when he left for work in a haste.. So I followed him to give it back since he wasn't picking up my call.. and he pulled up to some girl's house, bringing her flowers and making out with her like there is no tomorrow, just mauling each other like animals desperate for their touch." I explain to them as their mouthes drop open in shock.

"So what did you do?" Kacee asks with anticipation, wondering what happened next. "I threw his wallet into the back of his head, softball style.. Then he told me I didn't understand and wanted to explain things to me." I say with so much sarcasm in my voice, knowing as well as they do that he would have just lied to me. "So what did you do next?" Kimmy asks as I scoff and reply. "I slapped him in the face multiple times, threw the roses, he got me, plus the vase and all almost hitting him in the face.. Then, I told him to leave me alone. He eventually left." I say to them as they groan with me with their shocked faces. "I think that was the same look I had on my face when I saw it." I say humorously, trying to just not cry.

"s**t, I'm so sorry, Finn.. he didn't deserve you in the first place." Kacee says to me as I scoff even louder at that.. "You act as if you hadn't ever seen Maverick before... he was drop dead gorgeous, and that woman he was with was more beautiful with practically no makeup on, then I am dolled up by a professional.. She was stunning.. they looked too good together. I just wanted to punch her in the beautiful face so bad. I knew from the beginning that he was trading down for me and that eventually he would want to get back up to his standards, and I'm not that.. I'm realistic." I say to them as they both start criticizing my comment, making me join them in the groaning.

"Don't you say that! He doesn't deserve you because you're better than he could ever work to be on the inside. I don't care what that woman looked like she is still not as good as you because you're one of the best people I have ever met. You're one of my best friends for a reason and it's not because you're hot it's because you have the best personality." Kacee says playfully, I bet just trying to make me smile, and it works only slightly as I smirk.

"Hey, sorry to hear about the breakup. If you honestly need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Kimmy says sweetly to me as we all hear. "Hey Finley, I'm sorry to hear about your break up.. I wasn't expecting that, especially since these are for you from him." Joseph, another teacher that has his room right across from mine. He is holding a vase of two dozen roses.

I groan, rolling my eyes as I state to him. "Just throw them away.. please, Joey." I state as he brings them in. "You don't want these at all?" I shake my head as Kacee speaks up. "You can put them in my room they are pretty, but my class is also working on plants at the moment, so I could use these as test subjects." Joseph nods as he leaves the room, flowers in hand.

"So what are you doing tonight? I don't want you to be alone." Kimmy says to me as I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I don't know.. Drinking." I sarcastically reply as Kacee responds without hesitation. "No, you're not drinking alone.. I'm canceling my plans." She informs me as I vigorously shake my head in disapproval.

"No, you are not, we all know he has been planning this night with you for a month now, and you're not canceling it.. I will be just fine by myself." I say, rolling my eyes because I'm an adult who has been alone all my life, so I know I can take care of myself. I don't want to be babied, I just want to be wanted and appreciated. Is that too much to ask?

"Maybe she doesn't have to be by herself." Kimmy says, grabbing my laptop off of my desk, opening it up as she starts typing almost instantly. I can only hear the rapid pace of the keyboard keys clicking, I try to lean in and see what she is doing, but she just blocks my view.

"Kimmy, what are you doing?" I try to look around her again as she blocks my view once more. "Kim?" I groan out, not trusting this suspiciousness.

"Ok, done." She replies, looking up at me, but I'm sure she can see the apparent confusion on my face, so she continues explaining. "I signed you up on a dating website, and I bet you will get asked out for tonight. It's Valentine's Day, and no one wants to be alone tonight if they don't have to." I groan out louder, making sure she knows I don't like this one bit.

We hear a ding from my computer surprising us all. We freeze in place, not expecting anything this quickly.. how is that even possible? Kim reaches over to the laptop, clicking something as I watch her eyes reading through each word. She types away only for a small moment, as she says to me. "You have a date for tonight."

"No way, I'm not doing that!" I exclaim, not wanting any part of this. "Come on, Finn, Maverick was out kissing another woman, so why can't you go out on a date? You were already planning on drinking anyways, and you can still do that.. besides, this guy thinks you're gorgeous." She explains as I groan out loud.. "Yea, sure, how about I go on a date with a random guy just because I'm lonely.. who knows, it might make life exciting because he could be a serial killer.. or oooooh, he could possibly kidnap me and hold onto me forever like some special momento! I don't know this man, so how could I trust this?" I blatantly explain with a sarcastic humor to her.

"Well, just text me 911 if you feel uncomfortable at all because I know where he is taking you for dinner." She says, pointing at the computer screen. "Where?" I ask curiously, making her grin at me.

"That new fancy Italian restaurant on main." She says to me, which makes me automatically sad. "Maverick talked about taking me there." I say sadly as they groan in unison.

"He doesn't deserve your tears. Just please try to have a good time tonight. It's not like I'm asking you to jump into another relationship. I'm just asking to distract yourself for the night. You deserve a fun night, and this Pete guy sounds like he would just adore you. Listen to this that he wrote about you.. You're more beautiful than aphrodite herself. Your eyes are stunning in every sense of the word, absolutely matching that magnificent smile. Counting down the minutes until I get the pleasure of spending some time to get to know each other." She finishes reading, looking over at me smiling.

"This guy sounds cheesey as f*#k." I reply almost instantly, making the both of them burst out laughing with Kacee replaying back, "A cheesy confidence booster is what it sounds like to me. Why not just let some man admire you, treating you like you deserve to be treated for today? You deserve to be spoiled. You're going through a breakup, so it's just implied to do something to make yourself feel better."

I nod reluctantly, causing the both of them to hug me tight in approval.

"We will help you get ready tonight after work, too." Kimmy says to me as Kacee nods, agreeing with her statement. "Ok, perfect. Try to just distract yourself with work, and we will see you at lunch. Have a good morning." Kacee says to me as I nod, watching the both of them wave as they leave my room.

I turn around, and the computer screen is still on his message that this mysterious guy has written for me.. This is so unbelievably corny, I just groan, trying to resist canceling the plans.. but I did just promise them I wouldn't. I look at his message again as I find myself clicking on his profile picture. Then reading about him.. he sounds interesting enough but not normally the type I go for.. but obviously, the men I have been going for aren't the right men.

I look again at the picture. He looks Italian, with glasses and slicked back hair. But the glasses honestly look fake as if they are there for the irony of it. But I guess I'll try something new, at least for tonight.

I just close the laptop, pushing it to the side, sitting down in my seat, trying to think of anything but my break up, but of course, nothing comes to mind. I sulk to myself for who knows how long just hating my sultry existence at this point. I'm almost past the stage of the break up where I'm blaming him now. I'm on to blaming myself.

What did I do to make him want someone else? Was I just not enough for him? Was it the way I acted or looked? I mean, that girl looked perfect, so no wonder he wanted her.. But I don't understand why he couldn't just leave me for her? Why did he cheat on me when he could have just broken up with me and had her.. why sneak behind my back? I just don't understand it at all.

I just keep reminiscing about where I might have gone wrong in the relationship to make him cheat. I honestly want to know when the moment was, that he knew it was over for him. When he knew he was going to break up with me eventually.

I wonder if this was ever real for him like it was for me. Was I the only one who emotionally invested myself into this relationship from the beginning, or was there something that happened in the relationship to change his mind that sent him looking for something else? I know I shouldn't beat myself up with the details of why this all happened, but I just can't help it.