The class was quiet, almost as a sign of respect to the awkwardness that seemed to radiate from his expression.
“I guess a handful of students are more intimidating then a room full of adults.” Bryan thought to himself.
“What is history?” The professor repeated. All this repetition did was add a hint of incredulity to some of the blank stares. Of course it would be Kelley who would intervene.
“Umm, records of the past?” She chimed in. Her voice was enough to send Bryan on edge, but it was the snigger that was heard from the back of the class that caused him to tense slightly and turn around along with half of his classmates.
Naturally it was Dave, everything obnoxious was Dave. Incredulity turned to eye rolls and everyone faced forward again. If the professor had been uncomfortable before it was nothing compared to now.
“Well,” he spluttered, seeming to cling to Kelley’s answer like a life raft. “Almost Miss…” a quick glance down at his roster, wiping the beads of sweat away from his upper lip. “Yaw.” He looked up and gave her what was his version of a quick smile, though to Bryan it looked more like a grimace. “History is the study of fact through primary…”
Bryan returned to the sketch in the corner of his “Term 1 Syllabus”. Sure this class was boring, but making an awkward teacher feel uncomfortable was stupid. Then again, everything Dave did was stupid.
Several moments passed with the monotonous buzz of the professor droning on, and then it happened, Bryan got that feeling. THE feeling. The notion he was being watched.
“I stopped that stuff” he told himself “I stopped that ages ago.” Yet these words of comfort didn’t stop him from taking a glance up at the ceiling.
“There’s nothing there, I told you.” He thought. He had not realized his body had tensed up until he felt it relax.
“Hey Bwyan!” Obviously Dave had noticed his body’s reaction as well. “Bwy Bwy you ok?” Bryan felt his body tense up again as Dave’s whispered baby voice reached his ears.
He had promised himself this year, no more taunts. Dave could no longer push him around. He could no longer make fun of a condition he had taken care of.
“C’mon Bwyan, I just wanna talk wiff you.” Bryan’s hands were shaking. “I just wanna be your fwend. So you can at least have one real one.” Only the people sitting around Dave could hear what was going on, unfortunately for Bryan, Kelley was one of them.
“Dave, stop. Just leave him alone.” Most people might have looked at this as Kelley’s way for standing up for Bryan, but he knew better, and so did Dave, the whispering was distracting her from Professor Em’s lecture.
Bryan continued to face forward. He would ignore Kelley and he would ignore Dave, he had to. Yet that red pulse was starting to cover his brain, the one that caused him to shut down and follow his instincts…
“Shut. Up. Dave.” said Bryan, through clenched teeth barely above a whisper. “I’m warning you.”
A symphony of sniggers ran through his ears. Dave and his cronies had started the game, and if they didn’t heed his warning, he was going to end it.
“Like I’ve never heard that one before.” Dave said with his usual sneer creating a whole new batch of fresh sniggers.
“Not Today.” Bryan said, still facing the front of the class and forgetting to whisper. Heads turned to look at him.
Why had he decided to sit exactly in the middle of everyone? “Oh ya,” he thought “Self Control.” With a deep breath he helped steady his shaking hands and slowly the pulsing in his brain turned light. Keeping his mind off of Dave, he concentrated on his surprise that Professor Em hadn’t noticed anything. He kept droning on, Bryan guessed that once he got into his element he hardly noticed anything.
Bryan returned to his sketch. Moments passed and Professor Em continued buzzing about the early neoliths. It was when he began adding his final touches to his sketch (A cave painting where he brutally portrayed himself shooting flaming arrows at a Dave stick figure.) that he heard it again.
“Psst, Bryan.” It was Dave, again. But he wasn’t using his baby voice this time. Bryan turned around.
“What?” he whispered, trying to sound as calm as possible.
“Logan just left,” said Dave unnecessarily gesturing to empty seat beside him. “I was just wondering if I could ‘borrow’ one of you invisible buddies until he…” but he never finished his sentence, Bryan had had enough. Closing his book as he stood up, ignoring the imploring looks from classmates and the annoyed look from Kelley, he focused on Dave with a disgusted stare.
“I told you Dave,” Bryan said entrusting an odd sense of calm, not bothering to keep his voice down. “Not today.” The last two words rang through the silent room, Professor Em had stopped lecturing.
To Bryan’s great pleasure, Dave finally looked unnerved. Bryan wasn’t aware, as he thought his expression was calm, how terrifying he looked glowering down on Dave.
“Not today,” he muttered to himself looking down. He took a deep breath and gripped his book more tightly. “Not TODAY!” Bryan yelled the last word as he flung his history text book across the room. It spun on its side like a frisbee and with a sickening crunch the thick spine met Dave’s face.
Bloody, Dave slumped back into his chair. His eyes rolled back into his head and then made no more movement.
“Is he DEAD?” Kelley screeched? Her question was met in stony silence, most eyes watching Bryan’s figure sit back down and continue to draw, completely oblivious to the panic now consuming the room.
As Professor Em called the office and his fellow student crowded around the now injured Dave, Bryan scribbled out his old sketch and began to start a new rendition of it. His stick figure was now sitting on the smooth cave floor, looking absentmindedly above him. Dave’s stick figure was lying on the ground a few inches away, dead.
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