Slammed (Slammed #1)(62)

When I'm finished with the details and the questions have all been asked, I’m released to return to class. As I get up to leave, Mr. Chorizo calls after me.

"Ms. Cohen?"

I turn and look at him.

"I just want to say I'm sorry. I apologize for my son's behavior."

"Thank you," I say. I turn and make my way back to the classroom.

A substitute is filling in for Will. She's an older lady who I've seen in the halls before, so she must also be a teacher here. I quietly take my seat. I can't think about anything other than Will, and if I'm about to be the reason he loses his job.

When the bell rings, the class begins to file out and I turn to Eddie.

"What happened?" she says.

I tell her what happened, and that I still don't know anything. I linger outside the classroom door for a while, waiting for Will to return but he never does. During fourth period, I realize I'm not in the state of mind to learn anything, so I give myself the rest of the day off.

When I turn onto our street, Will's car is in his driveway. I pull my jeep up to the curb and don't even bother pulling into the driveway. I throw it in park and quickly run across the street. As soon as I'm about to knock on the door, it swings open and Will is standing there with his satchel slung across his shoulder and his jacket on.

"What are you doing here?" he says with a surprised look on his face.

"I saw your car," I say. "What happened?"

He doesn't invite me in. Instead, he walks outside and locks the door behind him.

"I resigned. They withdrew my contract," he says as he walks toward his car.

"But you only have eight weeks left of student teaching. It wasn't your fault, Will. They can't do that!"

He shakes his head. "No, it's not like that. I wasn't fired. We just all thought it was best if I finished my student teaching at a different school, away from Javier. I've got a meeting with my faculty advisor in half an hour, that's where I'm headed."

He opens his door and removes his jacket and satchel, throwing them into the passenger seat.

"But what about your job?" I ask as I hold onto the door, not wanting him to shut it. I have so many questions. "So you're saying you don't have an income now? What are you going to do?"

He smiles at me and emerges back out of the car as he places his hands on my shoulders.

"Layken, calm down. I'll figure it out. But right now, I've got to go." He gets back inside, shuts his door, and rolls down his window.

"If I'm not home in time, can Caulder stay with you guys after school?"

"Sure," I say.

"We're leaving pretty early to go to my grandparents tomorrow, can you make sure he doesn't eat any sugar? He needs to get to bed early," he says as he slowly backs out of the driveway.

"Sure," I say.

"And Layken? Calm down."

"Sure," I say again.

And he's gone. Just like that.

18.

“Close the laundry door

Tiptoe across the floor

Keep your clothes on

I got all that I can take

Teach me how to use

The love that people say you made.”

-The Avett Brothers, Laundry Room

Chapter Eighteen

I spend the rest of the afternoon helping my mother clean. It keeps my mind occupied. She never once asks why I'm not at school. I guess she's leaving the mundane things up to me now. When it's time to pick Caulder and Kel up, Will still isn't home. I bring both of the boys back to the house and we begin another discussion on Halloween costumes.

"I know what I want to be now," Kel says to my mother.

She is folding clothes in the living room. She lays a towel on the back of the couch and looks at Kel, “What are you going to be, Sweetie?”

He smiles at her. "Your lung cancer," he says.

She is so used to the things that come out of Kel's mouth, she doesn't skip a beat.

"Oh yeah? Do they sell those at Wal-Mart?"

"I don’t think so," he says as he grabs a drink out of the refrigerator. "Maybe you could make it. I want to be a lung."

"Hey," Caulder says. "Can I be the other lung?"

My mom laughs as she grabs a pen and paper off the bar and sits down. "Well, I guess we better figure out how to sew a pair of cancerous lungs."

Kel and Caulder flock to her and start spitting out ideas.

"Mom," I say flatly. "You're not."

She looks up from her sketch at me and smiles. "Lake, if my baby boy wants to be a cancerous lung for Halloween, then I'm going to make sure he's the best cancerous, tumor-ridden lung there is."

I roll my eyes and join them at the bar, writing down a list of the supplies we'll need.

***

After we return from the store with the supplies and materials needed for the cancerous lung costumes, Will pulls up in his driveway.

"Will!" Caulder runs across the street and grabs his hand, pulling him toward our house. "Wait 'till you see this!"

Will helps my mother and I grab the supplies out of the trunk and we all head inside.

"Guess what we're going to be? For Halloween?" Caulder is beaming as he stands in the kitchen, pointing at the supplies on the floor.