Page 9 of Plot Twist

Riley:I hear ya. Maybe that’s why I wanted to write romance books, so I could pen my own happily ever after.

Me:Spoiler alert! Not all stories end with happily ever after. Far more realistic when they don’t.

Riley:Bah, humbug. I’m a sucker for a happy ending.

The conversation continued to flow– along with the wine– and I even laughed, a tiny bit, feeling a little less like the whole world was against me.

Another message flashed up from Joanna, my closest teacher colleague, asking how the funeral had gone. Joanna had been one of the culprits of the wild-nights-before-marriage-only and had recently come to the end of maternity leave with her adorable baby boy, Tate. She had been asked to cover my class while I was at the funeral today and my leave of absence tomorrow.

I typed back:Thanks for taking my class. Hope they behaved for you. Awful day. Don’t know how I’m going to deal with going back to the classroom.

J:I know, kids are high as kites with the summer hols just round the corner. So hard to match their energy levels, especially when you feel like shit! I can take your class for the next couple of weeks, if you’re taking time off?

I stopped typing for a moment. I had never been absent from teaching outside school holidays. It was more than frowned upon, especially by the Demon Headmistress, Mrs Pender. How she ever managed to become a headteacher in the first place was beyond me, especially with her very apparent dislike of children. She barked at them in the corridors, complained about the noise in the playground and physically recoiled if a pupil happened to come too close to her. In fact, she treated teachers pretty much the same. She snapped if we dared to speak to her, never mind raising any issues (most of which stemmed from her).

Asking for time off for Rae’s funeral had been brutal. She’d asked if it was a family member who had passed, staring at me sternly over her desk. Obviously, I’d had to say no, but explained that Rae was my best friend. She’d sniffed and folded her arms, as though having a best friend was such a childish notion. I’d practically had to beg, promising I would arrange my own cover for the class.

Mrs Pender would have died herself if she’d had to stand in front of a classroom of children. So, she would have a fit at the very idea of me taking extended leave.

Me:Mrs P will have a hissy fit if I don’t go back. Can you imagine?

Joanna typed back:Screw her. You’d be doing me a huge favour too. I need the extra cash coming back part time after mat leave but I can cover the next two weeks.

I paused.

The pit of guilt in the bottom of my stomach took on an extra layer as I pictured their innocent faces dropping at the news I wasn’t coming back to finish their final days in primary three with them. Olivia would almost certainly wail in protest, while Jordan would quietly tug on the new teacher’s sleeve to ask for me every single day. I’d been helping Jamie learn to tie his shoelaces, too. Plus, Joanna would never be able to tell the difference between the identical twins, Faye and Lila. Faye needed more support than her chatty sister, but she had made huge progress over the year. I wanted to tell her how well she’d done. In fact, I wanted to tell them all that I was so proud of what they’d achieved.

But my energy was completely gone. I was drained. I could hardly tell them I was too sad to sing our numbers song at the start of the day or that sports day on the last day of term was cancelled. The thought of trying to scramble my way through was painful but even worse was the thought of letting them down. They deserved a teacher who could give them a lovely end of term celebration, the way I usually did.

Joanna would give them a good summer send-off. Plus, she said herself that she would be glad of the cash. I would be doing them all a favour by staying away and keeping my sadness all to myself.

I found myself typing back to say I would, indeed, take some time off. I took another gulp of wine and sat back, relief flooding through me. I would email Mrs Pender in the morning. I could do that. Joanna was right, screw her. She brought nothing but misery every day, just with her presence.

Now I’d made the executive decision, I could concentrate my efforts elsewhere. I sat back and opened social media.

I clicked on Drew’s social channels. We weren’t online friends, or real-life ones for that matter, so I couldn’t see much of his content. Someone had, however, tagged him in a post in January. Upon further inspection, I realised that Rae was there, in the background wearing a short black sparkly number, with a glass of bubbly in her hand.

Rae had told me she was probably staying in on New Year’s Eve. Instead, she was having what the post described as ‘the happiest of new years’.

‘Best times spent with the best of friends.’

I sighed.

I couldn’t spend the next two months torturing myself by scrolling through social media. I refilled my glass, opening Riley’s latest email with the first few chapters of her new novel to distract myself.

I willed myself to read the words and be swept away, the way it was with Riley’s first book. But the first few paragraphs just fell flat. The main character was meant to swear off men for life after a series of bad relationships to concentrate on her work, but she was coming across as smug and a little bit desperate.

Poor Riley. She knew it wasn’t working. I could feel the tension and the worry about her deadlines coming off the pages.

My mind started to wander as I tripped over her typos. I wondered if Rae and Drew had a big dramatic build-up to their romance. Maybe Rae pushed him away at first because she knew how much it would hurt me. I knew Drew wouldn’t give a shit. In fact, he probably loved the idea of screwing me over. Again.

I picked up my phone and shook the thoughts of them away.

Me:Finished your chapter.

Riley:Don’t even say it. You hate Jessica.

Me:I don’t hate her. But I don’t love her either.