Rumors and Toilets

Just shut up already. Ash rolled his eyes, ignoring his friends talking yet again about the onyx-haired musician who had somehow managed to catch up to himself in academics. Not only were they now battling for top student, but his quiet mannerisms and mysterious past seemed to entice everyone into becoming his best friend.

Ash wasn’t fooled, though. There was something off about the new guy. He just hadn’t figured out what.

In the meantime, Ash carefully made sure that everything was as it should be with his experiment. His lab partner hadn’t shown up today, but that was no matter. He would have found the classmate more of a nuisance than a help; they always were. No one was able to do things the right way.

Calling the supervisor over, Ash proved the experiment went according to plan before getting the approval to clean up and leave. That was when his supposed ‘partner’ decided to show up. After talking to the professor for a moment, he wandered over.

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” he grinned at him as if he expected Ash to have waited for him, “So, what are we doing?”

“I’m cleaning up. You can talk to the professor about missing the entire experiment,” Ash retorted before completely ignoring his peer to finish cleaning the work space. Once done, he grabbed his backpack and left, brushing aside the looks of complete and utter betrayal.

He needed to refill his water bottle, so he headed towards the bathrooms. There was a water filtration system hooked up to the water fountains between the male and female restrooms. It may not have been as good as purified bottled water, but it was definitely better than the tap.

He stepped up to the fountain before noticing the janitorial cart blocking access to the female side of the restrooms. Poor soul, he thought as the water began to spill into the container, I pity whoever has to spend their time cleaning toilets all day.

He turned back to the spout and pulled it away as it reached the top. He was going to take a step back when he heard a couple of girls approaching. They looked at the cart as if it were an alien object.