Student with the Halo

Halo

Halo

Despite our tiffs, despite her nastiness, despite all the fuss and faces she made, and the vulgarity, and the danger, and the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise - a paradise whose skies were the colour of hell-flames - but still a paradise.

-lolita

Autumn was asserting herself fiercely, he thought. It had rained all night and all morning. 7:36am and the night darkness remained unaltered. 'Six weeks to Christmas then we're halfway out the dark', he thought. These thoughts circled around the tired mind of Mr Pyralis as he walked into classroom 3B. Putting down his coffee and taking off his damp coat, he pulled out his chair and sat down. He closed his eyes and sighed. In the brief darkness he encountered upon shutting his eyes, he caught a glimpse of her hair in his mind's eye.

'Fucks sake'. He whispered, quickly opening his eyes and reaching for his coffee. It was one those thermos mugs with a velvety material outside. Warming his hands, he grasped the mug, wrapping his hands around the hot, comforting object. His eyes closed again. He heard the dripping of the internal radiator pipes. The room would not be warm for at least another twenty minutes. Another fourty-five and a half minutes, actually; he thought, correcting himself. She wouldn't really arrive for another fifty.

He had begun the process of resenting his every action, because every little thing and every little thought reminded him of Her. Closing his eyes again, he traced the contours of the thermos with his cold, yearning fingers, trying to imagine how Her thighs would feel to his touch. The black lustrous feel of her tights. Even a second would change him. How she'd be warm as if eternally summery and her sweet youthful essence would emanate from her childish movements and she would be... everything. Summer in fucking November. His eyes ached. Feeling confined, he let out a sigh and put his head in his hands. Sleep had made a habit of evading him, or perhaps vice versa. Forty-six minutes til she'd walk through that door.

He stood up and walked to the back of the room. Pausing at her table, he had an idea. A lightbulb flickered in his tired but cunning mind. Seating plan. She could sit closer that way. 'Yes! Why did it take so long to think of this idea?' He thought to himself. Half an hour.

The desire in Mr Pyralis was awakening...

I waited for her. She walks in, last as always and proceeds to walk to the back of the classroom where her seat used to be. Unbeknownst to her, that seat was no longer hers.

'You're in my seat, mate.' she calmly asserted to her fellow classmate, Lauren.

'He changed everyone's places, new seating plan. I think you're at the front table.'

Ipsa quickly turned around and walked to the front of the classroom, not looking at me. I waited, patiently, professionally- even, for her to sit the fuck down- a mere five feet away from me. Yes, yes, yes. I smiled at her.

'Evening, Ipsa. Glad you could finally make it.' I said, cold and sarcastic. It was 8:45am.

She responded with a lightning like quickness.

'Good evening, Mr Pyralis. I'm glad that you're glad that I could make it.', she beamed at me, smiling. Her sarcasm, teamed with her unmoving smile was so authentic that it was almost undetectable.

I gave her a long look. I wanted so desperately to just look at her. Scan her entire being with my eyes- soaking into my memory the image of her. My later memories of her would never do her justice. My tired mind's image of her was simply a pathetic replica. A smartphone image of the Mona Lisa painting. Watered down Hennessy. She was always prettier- no, electric- in person. I was looking at her for too long. Undiluted, the Hennessy was going straight to my head. I blinked at her slowly then turned around, shutting my eyes and exhaling slowly. My chest felt like thick tar was cooling. I mentally put the bottle down. Grabbing the pile of surveys from my desk, I turned back around and started handing them out to my form class.