A "vertical slice" of fiction.
Conversation
She sipped hard at the coffee, making a loud sucking sound while trying to find the liquid beneath the milk foam.
“They make their coffee too hot here, surely these beans have been burnt.”
“Oli, it literally just arrived at the table, of course it’s hot,” Josh exasperated. “Wanna give it a moment to settle before you try inhaling it?”
Oli rolled her eyes and mouthed a sarcastic “ha ha” in his direction. He was right of course, she was hasty about most things. She had a knack for always rushing and as a result she was often forgetting her car keys, leaving lunch at home, running late for commitments - the list went on.
She realised he was carefully studying her face, she must have fallen into thought. She was pondering a lot recently, much more than she usually would. It made sense though, the scenario warranted a lot of consideration, and she wasn’t sure what to do.
“Are you alright, Oli? It’s nice to see you, but we know you’re not one to initiate a social coffee date.”
“Yes, only…” She squeezed her lower lip while she considered how to bring the topic up. “It’s about a girl at work.”
“One of your students?”
“Yeah, one of the new girls who transferred here last month. I can’t put my finger on it but something isn’t quite right there. She’s well-behaved, pays attention, does her homework. She even performs well in the extracurricular music class.”
Josh shrugged casually. “Sounds like a good student to me.”
“She is, but that’s not it. There’s something about her demeanor, something a bit deeper. It’s hard to describe.” Oli paused for a moment before continuing. “It’s the little things, the mannerisms. If a classmate starts to harrass another classmate, and they make a bunch of noise she’ll keep her head down and keep working, but she’ll keep close attention on them with just her eyes. Does that make sense? Or if I have to raise my voice to get the children to settle she’ll do a similar thing. She’ll look like she’s paying attention to the board or the book in front of her, but really she’ll be watching me out the corner of her eye because I made the noise.”
“That doesn’t seem too unusual to me. Then again, I’m not a teacher…”
“It doesn’t sound like much, I’ll admit that. It’s really hard explain. Something just doesn’t feel right there and I’m concerned. Two days ago she didn’t even turn up to school. We couldn’t reach her parents to see if she was sick or anything like that. Then yesterday, she was present, acting as though nothing was wrong. When I asked her about her absence she wouldn’t answer the question, and instead asked if she missed any homework. It was deliberately dismissive, and it has me worried…”