Safety At His Command

She Heard Him

It’s not exactly that he doesn’t know her, per se.

He knew enough to have started a mild collection dedicated to what she likes, but it’s a far cry from what he needs to be noticed.

William locked up and continued on his path to catch up with them on foot but found nothing new aside from her usual responses to the chatter around her, which even then wasn’t much. He did find out, though, that Mr. UFO pants has a name, and it’s Brian. William frowns at that. It throws him deep into thought for the rest of the morning. He’s ignored check-in with his home room, he’s opted to wander the halls instead of managing to sit through his morning classes, still mulling over the guy’s style and name until he remembers the senior commons.

The senior commons  was this large room the school literally had no idea what to do with so they put a couch and a small box television in it for seniors to hang out if they had been given permission. William hadn’t been given permission, but none of the doors were locked to the son of a teacher. He had to admit, that must have been the only good thing that came out of his father’s decision to teach at the very school his kid went to.

It wasn’t like he could get out of that torture either, but if this was the only perk, then so be it… especially if it gave him some headway of understanding the current question swirling about in his mind.

Brian… Brain what? What was his last name? What were his interests? Did he always dress that ridiculously? Was he any kind of intelligent? Or was he left back? That was the question he was dying to know. Furthermore, did Malorie know? Did she care that he was… if he was? And most importantly, what could she see in a guy that got left back?

Did she see anything in him?

She sure kept her hands to herself this morning.

William frowned at the thought. It wasn’t like her to really be touchy with anyone, he thought at least. The several times she had been were the ones he referred back to. What if it was in his head?

It couldn’t be in his head. He saw it happen on both occasions.

William stifled his groan, then unlocked the door, turning several heads but ignored each one of them. He was a man on a mission but still needed to act casual, as if he had just come in to chill, because that was the vibe of the room. Most of the student body that had been in there were athletes that enjoyed a game or two during study hall or the genuine stoners that came to school stoned and simply floated through their day.

It's still a surprise to him that the school lets it happen but he’s no stranger to floating either. Isn’t that what he’d been doing all day anyway?

Once he reached the ground level he took out his phone and stood in the back, pretending to text someone before heading toward the bookcase across the room that housed all of the yearbooks the teachers collected over the years. Some of them went, surprisingly, back to the late fifties, which is quite the trip but not the one he needs to go on. William simply needed last year’s.

He could hear the murmuring behind him about how he must have missed that year and all the s**t he had been put through by the trio on the couch, but they didn’t matter.

Finding Brian did.

William frowned as he opened the book from the beginning, meticulously scanning over each page filled with aspiring students who were looking forward to their bright futures with quotes beneath them that embodied who they were at the time or who they believed in. He spent enough time looking through all thirty pages of them that he hadn’t heard the bell, signifying to him that it was time for English and that he should probably show up for the one class that he’d hear about later that evening when he returned home.

Will sighed, then pulled out his phone, trying to snap pictures of each page before the second bell rang. His phone wobbled in his hand and made it so he had to retake several before he had gotten through each one, making his heart pound just that much more. His father could be unrelenting in class if he was late and if he had to listen to one more person chime in he was going to lose it.

...and then the second bell rang.

The thought of his class being all the way on the other side of the building and up stairs made it harder to stay calm… but as he closed the book, he caught a glimpse of a boy that looked like Brian, and when he opened to recheck, he found exactly what he was looking for.

Brian Zimmerman.

He was a senior last year.

William was correct, he silently cheered in his mind for a moment, but then his joy came crashing down around him when his questions reappeared. Did Malorie like him because he stayed back? Was that her thing? Was he her type?

Whatever the case, he was now late. If he skipped there would be hell to pay and his father could be quite spiteful and so he closed the book, put it away and headed off through the court yard towards the library to avoid hall monitors and make it upstairs to English.

Sure enough, he had the door closed when William arrived. It was the epitome of lateness in his father’s eyes, to have to come in and open that squeaky ass door while he was lecturing. William rolled his head back in exasperation before placing his hand on the doorknob. There was no easy way to open it. No stealth mode. The building was just too old for that which meant the turn of the knob would scream “INTRUDER” or “SOUND THE ALARMS” whenever accessed. The hinges were less giving to those who were smaller physically, but William was bigger than most. Not large or fat, just wide. Broad. That was a better description of his size, he nodded to himself, but the door did not. That door was going to be the death of him, he groaned as it did, furthermore alerting the class to notice his arrival.

“Ah, you made it,” his father, Mr. Saunders, said amused at his discomfort.

“You made it!” other students parroted, making him cringe.

He did not need a list of people to hate.

As far as he was concerned, there were only a few people to give a damn about and these assholes were not them.

“Yeah,” he grumbled, then headed to his seat.

“Why were you late?” Mr. Saunders asked inquisitively.

“Lost track of time,” he replied. His tone aired on the side of a question even though it hadn’t been, just a chance at it being a good enough response so that he would just back off.

Not the case.

“What were you doing that you lost track of time? School is built around time,” Mr. Saunders pressed.

“It’s not if you ignore it,” William mumbled and immediately regretted it.

The sound his father made was very obviously disgusted in him and they would be having that lecture again tonight.

How thrilling…

“...We can talk more about this after class,” Mr. Saunders persisted, trying to get on with his class while the “ooo’s” paraded behind his warning speech.

All he had to do was ignore it, but this carried on for as long as he could remember. His next comment slipped from him like time did today, challenging his father further.

“If you keep me after, won't you be aiding to my lateness for my next class? If you have something to say, why don’t you say it now? You already mock me in front of these people like you’re on some proverbial stage.”

Ah, s**t.

That was the wrong thing to say.

But at the same point, Malorie, who was in his class, turned to look at him standing his ground in front of their teacher. Whether she realized it was his father or not, she gave him the attention he sought after and ignored Brian who sat behind her mumbling something near her ear. He, William Saunders, had Malorie’s attention, and he was going to make something of himself while she stared into his soul.

“Run that by me again?” Mr. Saunders said in a tone that challenged him not to.

“You heard me,” William grumbled his own warning, leaving the class in a surprised silence.