The Tears Devourer

XV

    "He said he was coming back from teaching his friends, took my street, and tripped for not throwing out his coffee." Rachel's eyes focused again on the paper in her notebook. She chopped her pencil, but the tip broke again.

    "Was he teaching? Michael Patton?" This time, Melissa's lips parted a little less but widened into a mocking smile. "I think I need a couple of private classes, you know? I wouldn't bother at all…" She glanced at Thom, hoping the i***t would volunteer, but the boy kept staring at the blackboard as if he didn't care about the conversation between the two girls.

    "If you like, I'll ask him. No problem" offered Rachel, who was on her third attempt to find the sharpened pencil.

    "Don't worry, Chely. I'll find someone else... Michael, honestly... I'm a little scared." Melissa raised her left hand, the one that was momentarily empty, and scratched the back of her neck, furrowing her eyebrows and hiding her eyes at her notes. Rachel noticed it out of the corner of her eye, put the pencil still blunt on top of her disastrous cell attempt, and turned to see what was happening, resting her left arm on the edge of the back of her folder.

    "Are you scared of Michael?" She narrowed her eyes and frowned. "Why?"

    "You don't know?" Melissa's eyes widened for a second. She lowered her head and pressed it to Rachel's loose hair. "He was the last one Ariana spoke to," she confessed in a whisper. "Some guys said he was the one who kidnapped her... That maybe he beat her because she didn't want to... Well, you know, right?"

    "Who's Ariana?" Rachel asked in a thin voice, still stunned by what she was hearing.

    "Ariana is a girl who attended elementary school with me." They both cajoled by backing up the folder and whispered to each other, taking advantage of the moment, since Professor Polley was immersed in his papers without continuing with the class. "Her parents took her out, to teach her at home. They're very Catholic, and they didn't want their daughter to be in a coeducational institution. I think they wanted to send her to a convent, but in the end, they let her stay here. And well, last year she was supposed to have met Michael..."

    "What do you mean?" Rachel interjected, glancing quickly over her shoulder in the direction of Professor Polley's desk.

    "That's how they told me," Melissa smiled. "Are you gonna want me to tell you the story, or are you going to keep interrupting me?"

    "Okay, ok..."

    "Well... So they're supposed to meet after Ariana got out of her part-time job at elementary school. She was a receptionist there, I think. Or was she working in the archives?" Melissa's eyes both lifted to the upper left corner of the globe. She was silent, trying to remember well what Ariana's tasks were, but noticing that she didn't remember very well what gossip was like, she continued without giving it much importance. "Well, the thing is, she worked there. And that's where she met Michael. They went out that same afternoon, and they didn't see her again. They took Michael a couple of times to the police department, and everyone here thought he had done it, but nothing was ever proven, so we had to swallow a couple of dozen talks for students and parents, where they strongly asked us that We shouldn't treat him badly and that it had all been a misunderstanding... although, to be honest, Chely, he has always been very reserved. He's rarely seen with friends, but almost everyone knows him, even before Ariana."

    "But I don't understand. The girl, Ariana, did she show up?"

    "Nope. That's the point, Chely. That's why I'm a little scared, because what if he did it?" Melissa said, raising an eyebrow and grinning wickedly. "Ariana didn't appear again, and until now nobody knows where she is."

    "But... What you tell me doesn't fit him. I talked with him, basically from my house to here, but... I'd never think that someone like him would do something like that."

    "I think he's very nice to anyone too... And well, after what happened, he became even more lonely. Although he has no problems with anyone, I think he just prefers to be alone. That's why I was surprised that you told me about teaching... It's not typical for him."

    "So you think he lied?"

    "I don't know, but I'd be careful..." Melissa's smile got bigger and bigger.

    "She's teasing you," Thom commented. Rachel looked at him and realized that he was watching them, also with a big smile on his face.

    "What? How?" Said the brunette, feeling the pendulous gaze between the two of them. "Are you kidding? None of what you said is true?" Melissa chuckled with her hands. She narrowed her eyes and held back the tears trying to hide her face by putting it between her breasts.

    "Well, what I said about Ariana, that she disappeared and that she spoke for the last time with Michael, yes it's true…" Melissa blurted out when she finally calmed down. "But he didn't do anything to her. Ariana was actually dating someone older, or so Corie told me. She told me she was talking to a guy who wrote her poems and stuff, and well, she used Michael to get away that night. She even left a goodbye letter and everything."

    "And why did you tell me all that rapture s**t, you i***t?!" Rachel was exasperated, clenching her fists and bristling at her neck. "I thought I was in a maniac's car!"

    "I'm sorry, Chely..." Melissa apologized, still killing the echoes of laughter with both hands clasped and pressed to her lips. "But I couldn't help myself! Anyway, be careful with him, at the end of the day, you could end up falling in love with a cold-blooded murderer."

    The bell echoed off the ceiling, cutting off every student in the class's thinking. Professor Polley collected his papers and put them in his suitcase. He said goodbye hastily and left the room ready for the next colleague.

    Professor Nuria Asturias teaches literature. She's the one who begins to tell her life in the middle of stories like Achilles, throwing dirt in her hair instead of crying, or Oedipus when sleeping with her mother; and it makes her personal stories fit with those kinds of topics in one way or another. And that day, as their intriguing connections unfolded, Rachel could only fix her gaze on one particular point: the circular clock strategically placed on top of the blackboard.

    Waiting for the next bell to see him. Melissa continued with the pointless rumors, not only about Ariana, but also, about Michael's father, but despite that, a single phrase from her stupid new friend kept going through her head, a phrase that left her thinking about Ariana. "Be careful... you may end up falling in love with a murderer."