Count on Me by Melyssa Winchester

stairs and there was this second before I turned to Ms. Taylor, that I felt a sick feeling in my stomach, something I couldn’t place. It wasn’t because she walked away from me though. No, this was something different and I didn’t like it.
    “Kayden, I need to speak with you.”
    Of course she does. S he knew, just like Isabelle that I screwed her around by not showing up yesterday. I have no doubt I’m about to hear how disappointed she is.
    I don’t need this now. All I wanted to do was meet her and take her to lunch. Prove to her that I wasn’t just gonna give up and walk away even though it’s what she wants. I want to show her that the way she is doesn’t scare me. I didn’t sign up for a reprimand from a teacher.
    “Do we really have to do this now, Ms. Taylor? I wanted to take Isabelle to lunch since I didn’t make it yesterday.”
    It wasn’t exactly a lie, but not the entire truth either. I actually want to get as far away from here as I can right now because no matter what I do, I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. That I should have chased after her instead of leaving her alone. It’s made even worse by the fact that I know Dillon saw us this morning. There’s no telling what he’ll do if I’m not there to stop it.
    “This will only take a minute of your time and then you’re free to catch up with her if you like.”
    Doing as she said, I make my way into the classroom and while she follows after me I take in my surroundings. I’d been in here yesterday but didn’t really take the time to check out the class. Now that I’m getting the chance though, I can see that it’s not all that different then my classes. There were a lot less seats, but other than that, everything looks the same.
    “It’s not all that different is it?” she asks as she takes a seat behind her desk, motioning at the same time for me to take one of the now empty seats across from her.
    “No.”
    “Kayden, the reason I wanted to talk to you, it’s about Isabelle.” She says her face all business, matching the serious tone of her voice easily. “There’s something I think you should see.”
    Well, this isn’t the way I expected it to go at all. When she said she wanted to talk to me, I assumed she would drag me in here and let me know, in no uncertain terms, what she thought of the stunt I pulled yesterday. Not to mention what she assumed I was probably pulling now. The last thing I expected was that she would want to show me something.
    “Show me what, Ms. Taylor?”
    I watch as she opens her desk drawer and pulls out a piece of paper that I can see has writing on it , but I can’t make out what. She passes it across the desk to me and as I reach out to take it, she speaks again.
    “I gave the class an assignment today. I thought after everything that happened yesterday, she would enjoy it. I’m not entirely sure she was expecting it to be what it was, but with Isabelle, it’s hard to honestly tell if she enjoys it or not.”
    “What was the assignment?” I ask, knowing that I have the answer to the question in my hands, but wanting to hear it from her.
    “I wanted them to write a letter to someone in the future. Sort of like a time capsule assignment. I’m sure your teachers have done the same thing over the years in different ways. Anyway, writing is something Isabelle enjoys, so I thought this would be good for her.”
    I’m not sure how I feel about this. I have no doubt she’s handing me Isabelle’s paper. The one that she wrote to the person in the future and holding it now feels wrong. It’s like in some way I’m invading her privacy even being this close to it, let alone actually reading it.
    “Why do you want to show it to me?”
    “To be honest, I’m not sure I know the answer to that myself. You just seem conflicted when it comes to Isabelle and I think that reading what she wrote, given that it is to someone in the future, might help.”
    Holy shit. Is it really that