December 20 | Friday #2
“Seriously? Did you see his backpack? It’s a Greta Hamlin. Limited edition. It’s worth more than all our clothes combined. In fact, it might be worth more than most of our stuff in general.”
“You’re exaggerating,” Will muttered skeptically.
“Dude.”
Danny took out his phone and found Blake’s backpack in a search engine. When Will saw the price, his jaw dropped.
“Holy shit…”
He felt faint.
“Exactly. They are that loaded,” Danny stated firmly.
“I’d be afraid to leave the house with that,” Will declared, his eyes drifting to Blake.
The girls sitting behind him were whispering amongst themselves, staring at his back. Sandra Stevens walked into the classroom. She smiled broadly and walked confidently over to Blake to take the seat next to him.
…And she hurried away half a minute later, unable to bear Alden’s disapproval.
“He’s an asshole,” Will concluded.
“Yep,” Dan confirmed. “But a handsome asshole.”
“Yeah. Damn it.”
For a moment, they both stared at Blake with their mouths agape.
“It’s weird,” Danny said suddenly, frowning. “I’m not usually into effeminate guys.”
“What are you talking about? He’s not effeminate.”
“Totally is.”
Blake glanced over his shoulder, glaring at them menacingly.
“Quiet,” Will hissed. “I think he heard us.”
“Are you kidding me? I can barely hear myself.”
After surviving two hours of literature, they had separate classes but met up afterward to get some fresh air. Together, they started walking along the sports field.
“…a tragedy. Homework should be banned,” Danny was sermonizing. “On what grounds do they…”
Suddenly, Will felt a blow to his back. He nearly lost his balance. He turned to see a basketball that, after a close encounter with his spine, had bounced a little farther away. A group practicing nearby was cackling unpleasantly. One of its members ran up to Will.
Liam Warren. Captain of the basketball team, well over six-foot-three. Dark-skinned, muscular, quite handsome, with dreadlocks that reached past his shoulder blades. And a personality just as insufferable as Blake’s.
“Sorry,” he said casually. “Can I get my ball back?”
Will pressed his lips together. He imagined himself hurling the ball straight into Warren’s face, but he wouldn’t be able to actually do it. Besides, Danny had already picked up the ball and tossed it to Liam.
“Thanks,” Liam said. “Later.”
And just like that, he was gone.
Will and Dan walked on, still hearing laughter behind them.
“What a dick,” Will hissed.
“Come on, it was an accident.”
“An accident? Seriously? How many times did he hit us with a ball last year? I don’t even want to count.
You know why he does it?” Danny didn’t bother to answer, so Will continued.
“Because he can. Because he thinks no one will stand up to him. I bet if someone finally did, he’d run off with his tail between his legs. ”
“So why don’t you do it?” Dan asked, almost challenging him.
“I would,” Will replied cautiously. “I mean, with you.”
Danny laughed mockingly.
“Uh-huh. Nice. So you want me to have the courage that you don’t? ” Will reacted to this with an uncertain smile. “Besides, it’s a terrible idea. I’d rather have a few bruises than get on the bad side of Liam and his buddies. You should drop it, too.”
Will bit back the comment that he, not Dan, was usually the victim of these attacks. It was never anything severe, but it just irritated him. He had no idea why Liam had singled him out.
The rest of the day passed in relative peace. After his last class, he met Dan by the lockers. The thickening crowd heading for the doors suddenly parted. And once again, Will knew who it was for.
At least once a day, the main hallway turned into a fashion runway where Liam and Blake strolled proudly right down the middle.
“They’re totally together,” Danny muttered under his breath.
“They’re not,” Will replied with complete conviction. “Someone asked Liam once, don’t you remember? He said no.”
“Right, because the captain of the basketball team is going to openly admit he’s into guys. Although, he doesn’t really have to, it’s plain to see.”
“But Liam has a girlfriend. Or he did. More than one.”
“Officially. Besides, he could have both.”
“No,” Will insisted. “I don’t sense any chemistry.”
“Dude, they don’t fit together in any way. None. Only sex can explain this friendship.”
Will laughed quietly under his breath, but he had to admit Danny had a point on one thing—he saw no similarities between Blake and Liam.
Blake was the epitome of elegance, preferring collared shirts, dress pants, polished shoes, and various pieces of jewelry.
Liam, on the other hand, looked like the picture of sloppiness next to him.
Still attractive sloppiness, but sloppiness nonetheless.
Always in loose jeans or sweatpants, often sweaty after practice, he seemed not to care about the impression he made.
“Because you’re gay, you see it everywhere,” Will quipped as Blake and Liam disappeared from view.
“And you’re not?” Danny snorted mockingly. “You insisted that Jackson and Willis would end up together, even though it was clear from the beginning that Jackson would end up with Mary-Ann.”
Will nearly choked in response to this blasphemy.
“Not true! The intimacy between Jackson and Willis was something special. That was true love. The show creators were insinuating from the very beginning that Mary-Ann was a metaphor for beards, pretense, self-dissatisfaction, and so on… The writers just chickened out because they were afraid of criticism, that’s all. ”
“Bullshit. It was just queerbaiting.”
“No,” Will stated with complete conviction. “Not Jackson and Willis. They were meant to be. Literally.”
“God,” Dan groaned.
Soon after, they left the school grounds.
“See you later,” said Danny.
“You’re leaving already? What time do you have to be there?”
“Four.”
“Don’t you want to stop by the house and grab a bite?”
“No, no point. See you tonight, Will.”
“Bye.”
Will walked on.
He was about halfway home when something glinted in the sun, catching his eye.
He looked up and narrowed his eyes, watching the drifting object.
The speed at which it was descending convinced Will it was a plastic bag or something similar, but the longer he looked, the more details he saw.
The thing seemed to have an ornate structure.
It was relatively thin, but not like plastic wrap.
So it should have been heavier, yet why was it moving so slowly?
Will waited for the object to fall, then located it on a nearby lawn. He frowned, studying the item. It looked like a device. Almost triangular in shape, but with rounded corners. It was white with a metallic sheen, and a green light pulsed in its very center.
He bent down and grabbed the object.
A violent shudder ran through his body.
September 3 | Tuesday
The sound of an alarm.
Will slid to the edge of the bed and reached for his nightstand, trying to find his phone. When he finally managed to turn off the alarm, he let out a long yawn and…
Confusion washed over him. He sat up, trying to recall the previous day.
He remembered school. And he remembered walking home from it, but nothing after that.
For a moment, he was ready to believe he’d had one of those disturbingly realistic dreams and that yesterday hadn’t actually happened, but the display on his phone clearly showed September third.
He got up and peeked into Danny’s bedroom. Danny wasn’t there. So Will went downstairs to the kitchen, where Danny, busy scrambling eggs, was singing happily under his breath.
“…and I’ll never forget you… In my dream, in my dree-ee-eam… Together forever, something something, just us, just usss…”
The song was called Nocturne, and it was the best piece of music Will had ever heard in his life, though Danny wasn’t exactly doing it justice with his off-key singing.
“Danny,” he said uncertainly, sitting down at the table.
“Hey. Figured I’d beat you to it today,” Danny smiled widely at him, turning off the burner. “Want some?”
“Yeah.”
A moment later, Dan placed two plates of scrambled eggs on the table.
He sat down across from Will and immediately started digging into his portion.
Will was building up the courage to ask his question, but he was plagued by doubts, still trying to remember what had happened.
He’d never experienced anything like this before.
“What’s with the long face?” Dan was quick to notice something was wrong.
“Why are you in such a good mood?” Will decided to change the subject for a moment. A singing, breakfast-making Danny was not a common sight.
“I got the job.” Danny beamed. “I think it’s permanent. I mean, long-term.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
A moment of silence fell between them. Will bit his lip nervously, then finally worked up the nerve to ask:
“What time did you get home last night?”
“Hm? Sometime after ten.”
“Was I here?”
Dan gave him a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“Were we doing anything together?”
“No. You were asleep.”
Will swallowed hard, a knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Don’t remember what?”
“Part of yesterday. I remember walking home, and the next thing I know, my alarm was going off.”
“So, you were so tired yesterday that you just came home and crashed immediately?”
“No. I mean, yes. I think so. Apparently. I don’t know. I really don’t remember.”
“Are you serious?” Danny asked, a hint of concern in his voice.
“Completely serious. It’s a total blank. As if… as if I passed out or something.”
“Well… I don’t know what happened before, but when I got back from work, you were already in bed.”
“Did I say anything?”