shock and dismay

They went back to her room which was a bit of a change. Maybe.

"You're sure everything is OK with you and Cory?" Ellie watched Eric on her bed as if he couldn't take another step in his Converses. He said his feet were sweaty, but they looked perfectly fine to her.

"Yeah, we're good?" He nodded.

"How good?"

"What?" Eric winced. "I haven't talked to him in a long time. It doesn't matter. I don't care about him anymore."

"All right, I know, but what about him. How do you think he feels about us?" She came over to the bed, and it was nice to be in his arms. Cuddling.

"Why should we care what he thinks?" Eric smiled but she was sure he was doing it for her benefit.

"I just think you two should-"

"No." Eric shook his head. "I can't."

"But why?"

"Because, he doesn't care. He doesn't. I know that, all right." He sighed and hugged her more. He kissed her forehead.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"There has to be something?" Ellie could tell from his hug that he needed so badly as he did his best to kiss away her questions.

"I saw something," Eric sighed. "Before school was out. Actually."

"And?"

"He's involved with someone."

"Like, who, Roger?"

"God, no. Some teacher."

"What teacher?"

"Never mind what teacher, I saw them, all right and I know. Don't ask me how I know, but I do."

"Well, I want to know," Ellie sat up on her elbows. How could he just say that and then nothing?

"You don't want to know." He squinted.

"Oh."

"I walked in on them. Needless to say, it was not for me. And thats when I knew. It wasn't for me. Especially, with like an old guy." He grimaced more. "And yeah, it was just creepy. And I'm not sure if it was just creepy from what I saw or the idea that Cory would let somebody like that take advantage of him."

"I think you should tell someone." Ellie then said sitting up.

"What?" Eric squinted, sitting next to her.

"This teacher might be doing this to more than just Cory," Ellie said.

"I dunno."

"You'd be OK if Cory had an actual boyfriend, wouldn't you?" Ellie asked.

"I guess." Eric sighed. "I just wish I hadn't told you."

"It must have really awful, you know-"

"No," Eric bit his bottom lip. "Its complicated. I mean, it was this shock. Like, 'so that's how they do things' and I was so 'god, I can't look at that. I can't do that.' and then there was this, sadness that I wasn't there for Cory to stop something like that from happening. You know, this is high school. He should really be with somebody he's happy to be with, and he should want everyone else to see how happy he is, being with someone his own age. I just can't see him ever having that, you know."

Ellie kissed Eric knowing he needed to stop thinking about it. She was sad she'd made him tell her. And now she wondered how she'd act around Cory when she saw him.