The Last Five Minutes

Chapter Two

Dedicated to Avery because she's so amazing omg ilysfm <3 and because she is coincidentally in this story so ofc I should dedicate it to her.

You can deffo see my music nerd attributes shining through in this whoops

I'm fab xoxo

~

Grayson Williams.

Grayson Williams.

Grayson Williams.

I wake up with his name in my head, repeating itself over and over again like a broken record. He once was only a scrawl in my Math notebook, then the sworn love of my life, later father of my only child, and most recently, irreconcilably hostile rival.

Grayson was a mid-term transfer to North Hamilton Collegiate Institute from a small high school in Guelph - or that was he told everyone. In less than two weeks, he had already made more friends than I ever did during those three years spent at that wretched place. People from every grade - from Freshman to Senior - knew him, and greeted him with a spontaneous kind of enthusiasm every single day.

I think the main reason for why he was so celebrated, was solely because of his differences. No matter if you were infamous or antisocial, Grayson was the one who chose to take notice of you or not. Unlike the rest of us, he did not travel in groups and care about wearing a different shirt each day. Grayson was opinionated, blunt, and unafraid; and that was why we loved him.

When he walked inside a classroom, everybody's attention was his to keep. Everyone would stand up and talk to him. Though many of us would not like to admit this - he was treated like an idol who never failed to do the right thing, even when the toughest circumstances blocked his way. And when he didn't, we simply ignored it.

It took only a few months down our road of our friendship when my attributes, which still define me up to this day, became prominent. I wasn't all that average as I thought; I was ill-tempered, sarcastic, and sadistically mature.

I remember the days when we argued over world issues and misfortunate happenings; I almost always saw reason in the wrongs which villains of today's society have committed, and supported their cause with a grudging respect while Grayson called bullshit on me.

He said that being able to survive and thrive in this world was my second nature. I agreed; I could calculate the taxes on items faster than a cash register, and considered analyzing the stock market as a pastime.

The turning point of our relationship was the first time he had visited my house. When Grayson saw the bookshelves which lined the walls of my room like a proud display, all filled to the brim with text ranging from classic novels to Nazi Germany history encyclopedias, he was quite surprised. That was when I told him about my dream of becoming an author. How lovely would it be to have another person from another city, or another province, or possibly even from another country, to cherish a book containing a world created purely by me and rereading it over and over again?

Grayson couldn't believe me. He couldn't believe that Claire - pragmatic, matter-of-fact Claire - had the single incline in becoming an author, a profession notorious for its resemblance to nothing but chasing paper.

But he had a theory for my compassion, something that even I still haven't provided a good reason for: Being chained to a mundane job certainly did not possess appeal nor uniqueness to it, and to him, I was all about originality and freedom.

Grayson revealed a number of things about himself, too, like how he preferred chocolate flavoured ice cream over vanilla, or how he listened to heavy metal instead of mainstream pop, or how immeasurably hummus disgusted him. They were small things, but I nonetheless kept them all close to my heart.