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After the room was put back to normal, Will was talking with the guys when Janessa approached them.
“Thanks for all your help, guys,” she said, giving the boys a brief smile before shifting her attention to Will. “I’m heading home. I’ll talk to you later.”
Though Will wanted to walk out with her, she didn’t give him the chance. Just said goodnight and turned to head out of the room. He watched her go, hoping that whatever was making her feel bad passed quickly.
“Is she mad at you?” one of the guys asked.
Will frowned at him. “What?”
“She just seemed like she couldn’t get out of here fast enough,” he said. “Not like last time, when she hung around to chat with us. With you.”
“She’s not feeling well,” Will told him. “I’m sure she just wants to get home.”
The teen’s eyebrows lifted like he didn’t quite believe Will, which made no sense since he’d told him the truth.
“Anyway, we’d better go.” The guys said goodbye, then left Will alone in the room.
He glanced around to make sure everything was as it should be, then he left the room, turning off the lights behind him. In the foyer, he ran into a handful of people who had been there for the other meeting. He chatted with them for a few minutes before he continued out of the building.
As he drove home, Will thought about texting Janessa to make sure she’d gotten home okay. Or maybe he should check with Jay to see if he knew more about what was wrong with Janessa. Jay didn’t work Mondays, though, so he might not even know that she wasn’t feeling well.
Aria would definitely know, but Will didn’t have her number. Plus, it would feel odd to be texting her when he didn’t know her super well. That left Gareth or Charli.
Would they think he was weird to be asking how Janessa was doing? It was hard to know now that his actions were motivated by something more than friendship. He would like to think that he would have checked up on her, even as a friend. But he no longer viewed her as just a friend, so his concern went deeper, and it was possible her siblings would pick up on that.
By the time he got to his apartment, he’d decided he’d text Charli, and then maybe Janessa.
He sat down at the table where the papers he’d been grading earlier were spread out. Holding his phone, Will considered the message he’d send as he brought up Charli’s contact information and opened a text window with her. It was probably a stupid thing to do, but he just couldn’t help himself.
Hey, Charli. Just wanted to check that Janessa made it home okay. She said she wasn’t feeling well at the meeting tonight.
When he didn’t get an immediate response, Will put his phone down on the table and focused on the last few papers he had left to grade.
Now that they were several weeks into the school year, he was past the lessons that reviewed what they’d been taught in previous years. With the review complete, he could see that there were a few students who were going to struggle to grasp the new concepts.
He’d breezed through math when he’d been in high school, so he’d had to learn how to present the concepts in different ways. Not everyone learned the same way, and he’d made it his mission to discover how a struggling student needed to learn the concepts in order to help them.
His after-school math club would officially be starting up soon for the students who wanted extra help with the subject. It was his goal to never have to fail a student, but the students had to do their part and actually take advantage of the help he offered.
He was gathering the papers up to put back in his bag to take to school the next day when his text alert sounded.
Picking it up, he read Charli’s response.
Charli:She’s gone to bed. She said she didn’t sleep well last night and that her stomach was bothering her today. No fever or anything, so hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow.
Thanks for letting me know. She didn’t seem herself tonight, so just wanted to make sure she was okay.
Charli:I’m sure she’ll appreciate your concern.
Charli:BTW, how was your date?
Will frowned at his phone. How did Charli know he’d gone on a date?
It was fine.
Charli:That’s good. Already have another date lined up?
Will was starting to regret having contacted Charli, since apparently, in doing so, he’d opened himself up to questions he didn’t want to answer.
