Arthur was a good student (at least the best in his class. What else can you ask for?), but whoever spoiled Alfred's weekend should be damned.
I'll strangle the kid if he dares ask me for a textbook, Alfred thought to himself. But Arthur seemed as surprised as Alfred.
"I didn't know it was you, sir." Arthur said, his fingers tangled nervously. "I came to tell you Mrs Wilson wanted you to help with her weed in the garden 'cause she wasn't feeling well."
Nasty old woman. Alfred sighed impatiently. "But why did she send you to tell me?"
"Um, I was just passing by, to get myself some... Nevermind what I was doing here, Mr Jones. Mrs Wilson wants you in the garden."
"Very well. Tell her I'll be outside in five minutes." Alfred stretched himself reluctantly, a bit angry at Arthur's rudeness, but that couldn't bother him a lot. Kids are like that, and Alfred couldn't care less about those stupid trolls. He shut the door in Arthur's face. Nevermind what he'll think of it.
Alfred grabbed a shirt and put it on over his head. Such a clean shirt, soon to be soaked in sweat, Alfred couldn't help but felt a bit sorry for it, although it wasn't a nice shirt. The only reason he kept it was because it was a gift from his ex-girlfriend, but that seemed years ago. Actually about five months ago, but having nearly no one to talk to in three weeks made days seem longer. God, he missed her- he misses her. He almost sank into his own emotions until he heard a knock on the door.
"That was five minutes, Mr Jones! Mrs Wilmer wants you in the garden NOW!"
Fuck you, Arthur.
Alfred slammed the door open to see Arthur shocked and scared.
"I'm sorry, Mr Jones." He lowered his head, which made Alfred feel a bit guilty. You should practise on holding back Al, he told himself, and sighed.
"That's fine, Arthur. You can go to do what you were intending to do now. I'll be in Mrs Wilson's garden within a moment." He closed the door, this time gently, not wanting to scare Arthur again. Poor kid, he cares more than he seemed to, while Alfred cared far less than he seemed to.
"Are you done there Mr Jones? You said five minutes and now it's almost ten minutes! Don't be like a French!" Mrs Wilson shouted in her garden.
"I'm coming, Mrs Wilson, and it's only six minutes."
"That's how you rough numbers- six makes ten, surly you know that, you are a maths teacher for heaven's sake!"
May Lord take good care of me, Alfred thought. When he opened the garden gate, he looked back in search of that blond student, but there was already no sign of him.
"I wonder what he's doing here," he said.
"Oh, don't you start about that little bastard!" said Mrs Wilson.
"What happened?" Alfred was surprised. Arthur didn't look like the bastard kind. Honestly, he himself would be more of a bastard than anyone he's ever known, but he probably hasn't really known anyone.
"That kid followed me home. Twice!"
"I beg your pardon?" Alfred frowned, "When was the last time?"
"Friday afternoon. When school was over he followed me home. I was shopping there!"
"Friday after school?" That's after his maths class. If Arthur followed this Mrs Wilson home, he certainly has followed Alfred home, too, yet Alfred has never seen Arthur around till just now.
"Yes! Right when you were back home, Mr Jones. You should really teach that kid a lesson." Mrs Wilson waved her left arm firmly, which reminded Alfred of the raging workers in Russia, only without a hammer in her hand.
"I'll see what I can do tomorrow, Mrs Wilson, but you should understand that as a maths teacher I don't have the right to go into students' private lives, and I'm not responsible for anything they do outside school, or more precisely, outside maths class."
"Oh, for God's sake, just talk to him, Mr Jones! It's not going to kill you!" Mrs Wilson cried.
It is. Alfred thought. But he nodded anyway. "If that is what you please, Mrs."
Arthur felt his heart pounding in his chest. It certainly wasn't an incident that he appeared in front of Alfred's door. He followed Alfred home on Friday- and it didn't end well. An old woman- well, it turned out she was Mrs Wilson- thought he wanted to get his hands on her. How awful to have a neighbour like that, he thought, poor Mr Jones! He laughed, imagining Alfred being suspected by her. He would be frowning, and all sarcastic. Arthur found himself attracted to that image shamefully. A sarcastic Alfred- for some odd reason, he thought that would be cute. And for the same reason perhaps, he wanted to know where he lived.
He's done a lot of that kind of silly stuff before. Knocking on teachers' doors then go away, leaving them wondering who on earth did such silly thing. Following a new teacher should be the easiest thing to do, but Arthur had made a deadly mistake: he talked to Alfred, and Alfred knew him. There were a few times he thought Alfred would turn back, so he hid behind street corners with great fear, and that was probably what made Mrs Wilson think he had dirty ideas.
Arthur never cared about what teachers might have thought of him, but strangely he wanted to give Alfred a good impression. His English teacher said (and he was a jolly old fool) that first impressions are really important. He wondered if he had given Alfred a good impression. Probably not, 'cause he seemed all impatient, but maybe that's what he is. He's just the kind of people who are never friendly to anyone. Arthur liked that.
Oh, God. Arthur felt his heart go whibly-whoobly again, and he blushed. He always loved a challenge, especially with cold people. The more they hate him, the more he likes them. He wanted to beat their egos, to hurt them and see them in pain. Oh, what pleasure. But that wasn't the only thing he liked about Alfred. This young American also had a perfect figure- those tight muscles made Arthur jealous so much. He could never have muscles. He was skinny, a bit too skinny that no girls fancied him. They all wanted a bit of muscles. Alfred was a gentleman, too. Being a world-weary guy (at least he seemed to be), he really tried hard to pretend to be nice.
"May he curse me," Arthur started to laugh at himself, "Please don't let me fall in love with another git!"