Sympathy For The Devil

2. Imprudence

Surely she would be arriving soon.

She had promised, after all - and she had warned of her impending tardiness. She was cutting it close, but there was still time. Barely, but it existed. Besides, he was otherwise completely ready, both physically and mentally; he was appropriately dressed, his cap was in place, and his goggles rested on his forehead. All that was left to do was wait for Marie's arrival, hand his dogtags off to her, and do what he did best - win. But first, she had to be physically present. She had promised.

The sudden appearance of a certain bespectacled senior in a green sweater was a welcome distraction. To the swimmer's mild and distracted amusement, said distraction actually noticed Eddward's presence early on and made an honest attempt to appear less conspicuous as he passed. Eddward smirked, waiting until he was walking past to address him.

"Running a bit late, are we, Pumpkin?"

His classmate kept walking, admirably resisting what must have been a tempting urge to turn his head or respond. Trying to pretend Eddward wasn't talking to him, apparently. But still, there was the curling of fists, the clenching of the jaw, the turn of his head and the angry furrowing of his brow. Eddward was a stickler for details, after all. And schadenfreude was nothing if not cathartic. It calmed his nerves, if only a little, which made his returning anxiety concerning Marie's attendance somewhat more bearable.

He had little choice but to trust her. If he could not trust Marie Kanker, then there was no one that he could.

So when his coach passed by for the third time with an impatient look in his direction, with no sign that Marie would be arriving - not even a single word from her - Eddward's heart sank.

He was confused; she always came. Eddward took comfort in routine, in consistency, and Marie's presence at his meets had always been a constant. He depended upon her attendance. Why wasn't she coming? Had something happened to her? She must have a good reason. But if that was the case, then why hadn't she alerted him?

With one last surveying look at the hallways around him, Eddward turned and hurried back into the locker room. Ideally, he would have liked to find Jimmy in the crowd and leave the tags with him, but he had left it too long in waiting for Marie. He would simply have to store them here, and hope for the best. As much as he hated to leave things up to any level of chance, he was left with little choice at this point.

He could leave them in the coach's office, but the drawers were locked and the man had not looked like he was in the mood to waste more time unlocking them. The desk surface was hardly a possibility; it was far too exposed, with little cover to be found next to the cup of pencils and the oft-present roll of duct tape, whatever that was for -

Duct tape.

He was grasping at straws at this point, but the clock was ticking and he was quickly running out of options. Darting into the office, he grabbed the roll of tape and hurried back to his locker. He could hear his fellow swimmers calling for him to hurry up as he opened it, carefully arranged the tags underneath his neat bag of folded clothes, and shut and locked it again. Then, with a grimace at the thought of having to clean the residue off later, he taped over the edges of the locker door.

Theft was a crime of opportunity and convenience, after all. Thieves tended to be lazy, and any difficulty would have to be discouraging.

...Right?

Oh, who was he kidding, this was a psychological reassurance at best.

With dread hanging heavily in his mind, Eddward replaced the roll of duct tape and sprinted out to join his teammates by the pool.