I'll Be

Chapter Three: Request

I slammed my locker shut, staring at the lackluster metal and leaning forward. I rested my head against the frigid surface, and stifled a groan. It was starting to cool down outside, which meant that snow would soon be sticking itself to the ground and making it next to impossible to do anything in regular tennis shoes. I looked down at my Chucks and sighed, ignoring the fact that my snow boots were hiding in the back of the Honda.

            “Frozen to your locker?”

            I looked over, Sawyer’s impassive gaze making me angry with him all over again.

            “Bite me.” I snapped.

            He dropped his bag, walking over “Look…I…”

            I shook my head, “Whatever it was that made you bug out yesterday, I don’t have time for it. I have shit I have to get done, and the stupid snow outside, and you, are not my worst obstacles for today.”

            He closed his mouth, waited for a beat. “Fine.” He said, “Forget I said anything. Bye, Teddy.”

            I started down the hall, checking my phone. I had twenty minutes before class started, and…

            I passed the orchestra room, low rumbling from behind the door, and I kept my head down, trying to listen closely. But the louder the voices got, I was inflicted with fight-or-flight syndrome, and began slowly moving down the hall as the door busted open.

            “Seven-hundred and eighty-nine!” Reeve hollered, and I’m pretty sure that he gave the entire lower level of the building a heart attack. I turned, and he proceeded to do the Electric Slide halfway down the linoleum.

            Dustin laughed, “Dude, be chill. So we broke ten thousand; it’s not that big a deal.”

            They proceeded down the hall, and Robbie commented, “Once we break one-hundred thousand, we can start talking.”

            Before the boys dispersed, Sawyer put his hand on Reeve’s shoulder. Reeve’s smile thinned, and he pulled out his phone. Sawyer was walking him through something, and they stared at the screen intently for a few seconds. The boys looked at each other, voices low, before nodding and Reeve slid his phone back in his pocket. It wasn’t until he looked up that I realized I’d been staring. Just standing in the middle of the hallway and gawking at them.

            My feet forced me in the other direction, and I imagined a catapult launching me into another universe. But of course, it had to get worse.

            “Teddy!” Sawyer called, and I removed my left earbud. He hesitated, “I know you’re mad.”

            I rolled my eyes, “What was your first clue?”

            He ran his hands through his hair, biting his bottom lip. He wobbled, and I thought he might trip over something and smack- hit his head on the tile. He recovered, and raised his hand slowly.

            He took a breath, “Look, we…we need your help.”

            “With what?” I looked over his shoulder, where Reeve and Robbie stared me down while Dustin attempted to hide under his hat. My weight shifted, and I could hear the metal buckles of by bag click against my button pins. I glanced down at my Lloyd Dobbler button on the strap, and wondered if it would fall off soon. Teddy, focus.

            Sawyer took a breath, reaching into his back pocket “Well, there’s this gig thing that we’re playing at The Slope, and we…we need someone to open. Would, I don’t know, would you be cool with that?”

            I stared. I looked down the hall, up the hall, and back to Sawyer. “Are you really this callous, or do you think I’m just stupid?”

            He chewed on his cheek, handing me a slip of paper “Last night—I didn’t mean to be rude. I just wig out sometimes, because you…you…”

            “Don’t even.” I raised my hand, looking at the clock hanging over the staircase to the second level. I still had ten minutes to kill, so I said, “Don’t blame me for the fact that you acted like a jagweed and embarrassed me in front of all of my friends. And now you’re acting like we know each other, and everything’s cool? Fuck that. That is such bullshit and I won’t have it.”

            He looked down before daring to glance at me. “I get it.” He said, “What I did was fucked up, and I’m sorry. I know that you and your friends are trying to come up, so I thought it would be cool if you came and opened for our show.”

            I began to walk, and gestured for him to follow when I asked, “How did you know we were even a band?”

            “Come on.” He laughed, shot me a look, “You guys have been banding since I’ve known you.”

            “And how long was that?”

            He leaned against the lockers and smiled, “Well, you guys got together, what? Junior year?”

            I nodded, “Summer before, actually.”

            “Even before that.” He smiled, “You always had your ear buds in, and swear you knew every word to every song I’d ever heard. Once I heard about the band, I sort of…filed you away for future reference. And now here I am, feeling like an idiot.”

            “Why do you feel like an idiot?” I asked, weaving through clusters of students wandering aimlessly like herds of cattle, “Because you don’t think we can do it?”

            I reached the door to my history class, and Sawyer cut me off. He looked down at me, tried to laugh off whatever he was feeling; “Because I’ve been talking to you for the last five minutes and you haven’t let me relax. I’m tuned tighter than an E string and you’re pulling punches left and right.”

            “Oh.” I said softly, “Sorry. Um, what was the question again?”

            He adjusted his bag and glanced over his shoulder, “If you were okay with opening for us on Friday. The show officially starts at seven, so you’d be on at about seven-fifteen. Three or four song set, nothing too crazy; we’re only playing about six ourselves, and then another band from Longmont. Does that sound okay?”

            I calculated the logistics “Shouldn’t be a problem. If I give you my number, send me the information and I’ll forward it to everyone else. Cool?”

            “Cool.”

            “Cool cool cool.” I said quickly, and smiled in spite of myself.

            His eyes widened, “Abed.”

            I gasped, “It’s the Arc of the Covenant! Run away!”

            He laughed, “You know ‘Community’?”

            “Know it?” I asked, opening the door to the classroom, “I am Annie Edison.”

            I walked inside, and smiled in spite of myself. Sawyer might actually be half as decent as I had first thought.