Rain poured onto the window screen, blurring his vision of her walking into the school entrace. He drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel and turned off the engine.
He checked his shirt pocket, making sure the letter was still in there. He felt the edge of the envelope and sighed. "here goes nothin" he muttered as he got out of the car and headed into school.
Walking down the corridor towards his locker, Jordan kept his head lowered to the floor. He hated school, hated the way people had their cliques and attitudes. You had to be someone in school or be a nobody. Jordan was a someone but for the wrong reasons, he had a reputation as being a slacker, with no real interest in anything other than the occasional PE lesson.
He had never really bothered with lessons before she came along, not that he didn't want to, but because he couldn't ask for help. He had difficulty in reading and it wasn't until she pushed him to address that problem , that he really started to make changes he needed to make.
She bought out the good in him, his potential to make something of himself rather than drift and if he had learnt anything from the time he spent with her, it was he could be someone.
He wasn't going to quit now she didn't want to know. He would continue with his assisted tutoring and actually graduate this year. He owed it to her but above all, he owed it to himself.
As he got to his locker he paused, looking around for a glimpse of her Red hair. She was no where to be seen. He closed his eyes and opened his locker.
"Yo Catalano, dude..I need a ride later on, I need to get to Tino's before practise tonight.." He turned to see Shane looking impatiently at him.
Shane was Jordans best friend, had been since they were 7 years old. Jordan grimaced and shook his head "Dammit Shane, I'm tired of ferrying your ass around man, when you gonna get your own wheels huh?" he said frustrated at Shanes lack of caring for anything other than his own selfish needs.
Shane laughed and slapped his shoulder "Chill out dude, it's not like I'm asking for a new kidney off you or something, geesh it's a fuckin ride..chill, I'll get ya some smokes if it's that bigger deal"
Jordan sighed and shook his head "nah it's cool, sorry bro..I'm just kinda tired. Sure, I'll take you to Tino's, I need to see him anyway"
Shane frowned and looked at his friend concerned. "You look kinda stressed..wanna skip english and go for a smoke? Maybe you can tell me why you have a stick up your ass today?" he said nudging his arm jokingly.
Jordan laughed and nodded "Yea fuck it, let's go for a smoke.."
They walked towards the school exit passing her locker on the way out. Jordan slowed down his pace and reached into his shirt pocket, taking a firm hold of the envelope.
He stopped outside her locker and looked at the letter in his hands.
Shane was talking to himself a few feet ahead of him. He turned and frowned when he realised Jordan had stopped. "Dude! C'mon already.." he said agitated.
Jordan looked from Shane to the envelope and then slipped the envelope through the slats in her locker. Shane walked towards him with his eyebrows raised. "What are you doing man? What did you just put in her locker?"
Jordan couldn't help but smile at Shane taking on the appearance of a concerned parent. Shane was stood with his hands on his hips glaring at Jordan, waiting for a reasonable explanation.
"I got some stuff I needed to like say to her.." he said quietly not looking into Shanes eyes.
"I see.." said Shane still frowning. He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes trying to read Jordans mind. "So like closure right?" he asked.
Jordan nodded "Yea..um closure, that's all man..Just closure"
Shane smiled at Jordans answer. "Good, cos I'm telling you dude, you need to forget that chick..seriously, she's like weird " He said as they continued to walk away.
Jordan took one final glance at her locker. That's all I have, all I can say and all I feel in that letter..Read it, please, either way just read it and try to understand he thought as he headed out of the school door.