3 - (Fiyaz/Mr. Britty/)

I don´t have time to mutter even a small sour farewell to the boy before I zip out of the bathroom. I repeated the turns I made earlier, panicked, mind running faster than my legs.

Mr. Britt typically isn’t loud and rarely raises his voice. Especially to yell.

I approach the once-darkened hallway, surprised to now see it intruded by camera lights. All crowded around my teacher’s room. I sling my backpack off of my shoulder and lean it on the wall.

The boy in the bathroom must have had good hearing because he was able to hear this explosion of loud voices two hallways down. I, on the other hand, do not have good hearing. But, don’t worry, I can certainly hear them now.

I push to throw the crowd of camera lights, and a good number of teenage boys. They’re just all standing there. With the flashlight of their phones ablaze, peaking into the small window on Mr. Britts´ closed door. Although I´m pretty sure all of them were older than I, at least a good 2 inches taller, I plowed through the crowd.

The room was dark. From what I could see, there was nothing but a quiet, empty room. But, a bit of me knew that that was not the truth. I need to get everyone out of here.

But, I need to do this right.

I look for the leader or conductor of the group. My eyes land on some dude hollering with a bottle of coke in his hands. He has a strong build, a skin-tight T-shirt, and a sharp glare that doesn´t settle right with me. This was a guy that sees a guy like me as an easy target.

Bingo.

He was standing on just the outskirts of the crowd, so I stomped my way over to him. ¨Hey! You...¨ I trail off, knowing he isn´t listening to me.

Therefore, I take my own flashlight from my phone and flash it directly into his eyeballs. ¨Bro. what the fuck, put that down!¨

I swear 50% of the noise just quieted down only because this guy spoke.

I don´t move and continue to speak as if there aren't a dozen pairs of eyes watching my back, ¨You and your boys need to get out of here before the administration gets here.¨

He tries to shield his eyes from the flashlight, ¨You´re bluffing.¨

¨Mrs. Collins stays till 6, and she loves to call her parents. Plus, crowding a teacher’s room, disturbing the area, being annoying little shits-I don´t think she´ll be happy.¨

The boy considers this. ¨Flashlight down, first. Then maybe I´ll listen.¨

¨Well-¨

¨Don´t try it, pretty boy. I´m not here for a fight, so calm down, and put the light down.¨

I get all up in his face, ¨You must be crazy. I have something to say. And you are going to listen. No buts, maybes, or a possibly. You are going to listen to everything I have to say.¨

¨Why?¨

I bring my flashlight closer to his eyes, daring him to wince. ¨Because, pretty boy, if you want to go and be arrogant, and thrust your dicks up at the world; you need to know not to do it here. So you are going to listen to my words and then scurry off.¨

He smirks, ¨Fine. Get on with it.¨

Against my better judgment, I lower my phone flashlight and stuff it back into my pocket. ¨Alright-¨

¨Collins is the big shit, I don´t think I want to mess with her.¨

¨Ah, she´s the counselor for your grade, correct?¨

¨Yup.¨ he answers sourly.

¨So you made me do all of that just to agree that quick?¨

He shrugs, ¨Pretty much, yeah.¨

¨Then what was the point? You could've just been gone already.¨

¨You´re lucky you just got even be in my presence for as long as you did.¨

I scoff, ¨Do you even what the word ´presence´ even means?¨

He ignores me and then yells at his little boyband,¨BOYS! The old jumbee isn´t coming out anytime soon, we´re wasting our time! Move, c´mon.¨

Okay, that worked out weirdly too well.

And believe it or not, the guys actually powered their phones off and scampered away. Of course, they were still loud. You could hear their singing, screaming, and hooting till they had got to the bottom of the staircase.

I didn´t think that would work. I smile, pretty proud of myself.

The leader stays behind as the last boy leaves the hall. He then turns back around to me and reaches a hand out to shake.

¨The name´s James, I don´t believe I´ve seen you around.¨

I take his hand, ¨Fiyaz. And, that´s entirely your loss,¨

James chuckles. That´s when I noticed his eyes. They were beautiful.

He has these gorgeous, faded amber eyes.

They´re the kind of eyes you´d expect from a doe or a lady in a shampoo commercial. But no, they stayed darkened beneath his permanent glare. There was a lot that sticks out about him.

He stands a bit straighter than the others, his lips curve in an interesting way, and I feel as if who he is right now hasn’t been seen by that group of boys. This was his nicer side. I could tell a lie when I see one.

He has an excellent build as well. He is a good inch or two above me. Probably makes him think he's intimidating, huh? I almost snort at that. He also has some nice hair. He had that stupid white, f-boy cut. He had dark brown roots with bleached ends.

¨If you don´t mind me asking, what was the deal with everyone around Britt´s room?¨

He lets go of my hand, ¨We were being stupid, parading in the hallway after Greg asked this girl out-¨

¨Oof, unlucky girl, Mareda?¨

¨Mareda Hewitt.¨-he chuckles-¨Anyways, the old dude came to tell us off. But he....¨

James looks around as if someone else could be listening. Then lets his eyes land wonder right back to mine.

¨He began to get really dizzy, like, out of nowhere and, he just kind of collapsed against the wall. And, everyone just got so quiet, because we all thought he was gonna pass out-¨

My whole body went rigid, ¨He told you to go away, didn’t he?¨

James takes a nervous swig from his Coke bottle, ¨He did...¨

¨That´s what he always does. Keep going.¨

¨Is this normal for him?¨ he asks.

¨No, no it isn´t, this is new for me, now please continue.¨

¨Well, once he told us to go, only half of us left. But then, he started, like, shivering and you could see how badly the guy was sweating. He wrapped his arms around himself and ran into his room.¨

¨So you guys swarmed him?!¨

He answers quietly,¨Well no....but also yes.¨

I repeat my previous question, only to get a shrug.

This is when I feel being protective can get you in trouble.

¨He was obviously sick, so you just screamed and crowded outside his door?¨

¨Well, hey, some of us wanted to help-¨

I cut him off, ¨So why didn´t you?!¨

The boy counters, ¨What were we supposed to do?! The admin and other teachers wouldn’t believe us!¨

¨You could’ve at least tried. If anything, the worst would be to go and scream outside of his door.¨

James puts his hands up in defeat¨Look, it wasn´t all of us.¨

¨This isn´t about blame, James. This is about Mr. Britt´s health. At the end of the day, you guys worsened the situation, no matter whether your head was with it or not.¨

James sighs ¨If I hear anything, I´ll contact you.¨

¨Sounds good man...sorry about all of that. I´m just a bit close-nitt with Mr. Britt. On top of it all, I´ve just had a long day¨

¨It´s all good, bro, I could...I can understand that.¨ James admits. He pulls out a slim pen and writes his number on a stray piece of paper that he´d torn from his backpack.

I take his number and stuff it in my pocket¨Is he...still in there?¨

¨Yes, yes he is-but I don´t suggest you go in.¨

God, how did he know I was just about to bolt?

¨I have his number, I´ll check up on him.¨ I say, although it´s not what my gut wanted to do at all. But, I´m not sure if I should listen to my gut, even though I know it gets me in trouble.

The boy looks at his watch ¨Shit! Peace, I´ve gotta go, text me!¨ Before I can even say goodbye, he already fled the scene, leaving me behind.

I walk over to the wall on my right and sling my backpack over to my shoulder. I can´t help but take one last look into Mr. Britt´s quiet room. Although, I know it isn’t truly quiet. He´s still in there.

Okay, I know I should give him some space. And it would be wrong to still go in there. But still, the door is already locked, there is no way I can get in.

But, I know that it just simply isn’t an option. So, I lean against the wall and pull out my phone to text the old man. As I´m scrolling through my messages, I notice I have one unmissed call and three messages from my mom. Shit, I´m probably late, practice ended...5 minutes ago!

I ignore it. I scroll to Mr. Britt´s number, labeled ¨Mr. Britty¨. He had only given the team his number for competition times and if our parents had to reach him.

I send a small paragraph of having told him that the crowd has been fully extinguished and how I hope he was doing all right. However, what I didn´t expect was an impatient response from the man.

¨None of that happened. You were lied to, Fiyaz¨