Free Soul Mates by Thomas Melo

, Lilith; what I need to speak with him about is between him and I. If he wants to share with you later, that’s up to him. Now please go to your next class.” She gave her teacher a glare and then did as he requested…well, sort of. She left the room, yes, but instead of moving along to her physics class, she stood against the wall right outside of the class room door so she could eavesdrop. Mr. Colabza followed her as far as the door and closed it after her, realizing what she was  probably  doing, but choosing to pick his battles. He knew Tyler would be no match for Lilith’s interrogation as to what she had missed earlier anyway. So, he moved on and got down to business with Tyler. 
    “Ty,” his teacher began. Tyler just looked back at his teacher, who at this point in his life he had known for five years. “Ty, remember the only other time I asked you to stay after class? Back in seventh grade?” 
    Tyler nodded. 
    As he asked this, Jim Colabza thought back to the memory of the barely-teen version of Tyler, the seventh grade Tyler, sitting in the same area of the class room which he had always chosen (near the windows) in his casual, but neat outfit that his mother would lay out for him the night before. In the instant it took for Tyler to nod at him in acknowledgment, he compared the overall look of the Tyler who was before him five years earlier to this one, and didn’t like what he saw. It wasn’t that Tyler was dressed like a dirt-bag or even dressed ratty; he wasn’t. Tyler had shed his baby-fat and was now a very handsome young man with surprisingly blemish-free skin. Instead of Tyler and Lilith looking like a comical mismatch, they now looked like they  belonged  together.  That  is what frightened Mr. Colabza the most, in the end. There was something odd about Lilith, anyone could see that, but it was a feeling much darker than simple oddity or eccentricity; but what did he know? Teens could be, and often were “little shits” for the duration of their teens, and sometimes longer. Perhaps he was overreacting. 
    “What’s going on with you? I remember last time we had this talk, you told me that you were having trouble concentrating. You used to be an “A” and “B” student, but since our talk, you’ve been a “B” and “C” student.
    “How do you know  that ?” Tyler asked with a pinch of agitation. 
    “Because, believe it or not, your teachers care about you, just like we do the rest of the students. We get together and try to decide how to better teach you material, but we also clue each other in on any issues we may be having with our students so that we can help.”
    Tyler just stared blankly at his teacher and counted the seconds until he would be reunited with his girlfriend.
     
    *   *   *
     
                     Ray and Cindy had noticed the drop in Tyler’s grades as well. They also noticed that this dip in his GPA had taken place right around the time he had been seeing more of Lilith. They noticed the grades drop, then go back to normal, and then drop again. Furthermore, Cindy had noticed that this was right around “the day the Superman poster came down,” as she referred to it. Cindy cleaned the house on her days off while Ray was at work and while Tyler was at school, like many part-time homemakers do. When she went into Tyler’s room to dust, vacuum, and straighten up a bit, she noticed the Superman poster, a gift from one of the leaders at his church’s youth-group, crumpled in his wastebasket next to his desk. When she first noticed this, she thought it was cute; that here little boy was growing up. She discussed this with Ray when he came home from work, who, while he thought there was nothing wrong with a boy Tyler’s age admiring Superman, was also more than willing to see it go. 
    “Our boy’s growing up. That’s all,” Ray comforted, along with a wink, confirming his wife’s suspicion. 
    Ray and Cindy had discussed Tyler’s