Soul Mates by Thomas Melo Read Free Book Online

essentially the same building at the Alan B. Shepard School District, but they were in completely separate wings, and those wings were separated by a lon g  hallway which was always patrolled by an ardent hall monitor, Mrs. Darling, who was anything but. No one listened to her at home (especially her husband), so, by God, they damn well better liste n  to her here!
    “If I guess correctly, will you tell me?” Mr. Colabza asked. Tyler just shrugged his shoulders, but the message was clear: take your best shot, Teach.
    “Is it that ninth-grader, Lilith?” he asked, not without a shred of apprehension in his voice. Not much, mind you, but it was there for the trained ear to hone in on. Tyler was not surprised that his teacher had guessed correctly because Tyler would spend every minute he was allowed (when the high school and middle school students intertwined as the buses dropped the kids off at school and when they lined up to take them home) with Lilith. He had assumed that some people would have taken notice, he supposed. Not that he was hiding it. As a matter of fact, he  wanted  people to see.  Tyler Swanson, just hanging out with older ladies…no big deal, boys. Let me show you how it’s done . Even though Tyler had all of this going on in his head, and knew who he had his eyes on was painfully obvious to any onlooker, that didn’t strip him completely of his astonishment at his teacher’s guess. 
    “How did you know that!?” Tyler said with genuine bewilderment.
    “That’s why they pay me the big bucks, Tyler. I’m observant!” he triumphed as he raised a finger in the air in jest. And as quick as he was to joke with his favorite student, he was just as quick to bring it back down to have a little heart to heart, with the hopes of getting Tyler back on track. “Listen, Ty, I know that when you go through school, especially at your age, that you’re going to be checking out girls, but you can’t let it affect how you do in school. Most likely, girls will come and go in and out of your life, but you only have  one  ride on this Ferris Wheel that they call school. You know? Right now, your other teachers tell me that you’re doing excellent work in their classes, and up until last week’s quiz and today’s unit test, the same went for my class.” 
    Tyler looked down at the floor in shame. “I’m sorry, Mr. Colabza, I’ll do better,” Tyler promised. 
    “I know you will, Ty, and I’m not yelling at you, I’m just concerned because I know you have a lot of potential and I don’t want you to waste it, because that would be a very sad thing, that’s all.”
    Tyler nodded, and he liked his teacher for saying so, but somewhere deep down in him, a place that he was not in control of necessarily, he resented Mr. Colabza for implying that pursuing Lilith would be a waste of his time in school, and by extension, his potential. Furthermore, he hated how his teacher implied that Lilith would be one of many girls to come and go out of his life. This voice, that spoke up from deep down within Tyler, was confusing him. Tyler never thought anything but pleasant and respectful things of Mr. Colabza, but to put down his woman like that? 
    Tyler slipped the late pass from between his teacher’s fingers and headed for the classroom door and on to his next class. As he walked down the vacant hallway towards the class that he was now five minutes late for, the subtle indignation he felt kindling deep down somewhere melted away as he began to think, once again, of more important things…Lilith. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
                   
    Dinner time was an important tradition in the Swanson family. Importance was not attached to the provision that they actually consume the meal traditionally known as dinner or supper, depending on what region of the country you hail from (in New York, it is