Time Travel

If I could time travel, I would return to that tiny secondary 2 classroom.

I would walk into sex ed just as the teacher was saying that one sentence. 

It was the first and last time I would ever hear something that concerned me in sex ed.

She was about to leave and added the sentence almost as an afterthought, hurried, and without introduction or conclusion.

''Oh and girls, if you start feeling any kind of attraction towards a (female) friend, don't worry. It's just a phase.''

And that was it. 

No '...most of the time.' or 'And if it isn't, you still shouldn't worry because that's okay too.'

Had she said it today, to my sixteen-year-old face, I would have laughed at her.

But at the time, I was thirteen and lost, and scared, and confused and alone, and she was an adult, a teacher, so I believed her. I spent the next two years of my life not understanding what was wrong with me, and hating myself for not being strong enough to get over this phase. 

If I could, I would march right into that classroom and punch that idiot teacher's eyes out.

I would walk up to my thirteen-year-old self, take my face in my hands, look into my eyes and say,

''It's okay.''