“I’m sorry for any inconvenience this caused,” the raven-haired man muttered through gritted teeth as his eyes tried not to glare daggers into the teenager sitting next to him. He worried what he’d see. Would there be any remorse in their eyes? Any pity? Anything resembling guilt for someone other than themself?

“They can return Tuesday of next week,” the assistant principal stated as her short nails tapped against the black keys, which despite being a small sound was the only thing to fill up the room in the uncomfortable silence.

His head bowed slightly as he apologized again, and he grabbed the teen’s shoulder and forced them to do so as well. After they left and got into the parking lot, he finally looked at them, his annoyance rising.

“You better have one hell of an explanation,” he asked, stopping dead in his tracks and looking at them. After what felt like hours of even more silence, he huffed and pulled you by the collar of their middle school uniform. Not hard enough to hurt, but with enough force to actually lug them to the car. He pushed the adolescent in the passenger seat and hopped in himself, still seething.

“When we get home…” the words trailed off his tongue, and he sighed, not trying to be aggressive but also wanting to knock some sense into their dumb little head.