Awkward Silences.
Despite Chris's efforts Madame did not believe Gordie's story at all and for the second day in a row he found himself in Mr Bonds office. Today he felt a little more nervous though, a little less justified in his actions. After all yesterday he had been sticking up for Chris.
Mr Bonds spent the first few minutes just glaring at Gordie as if he were some kind of cockroach, something that needed to be squashed. Quickly.
"Here we are again Lachance." Mr Bonds stood up and crossed to the window, he stared out coldly across the school grounds.
"Yes sir." Gordie answered after another minute's silence.
Mr Bonds turned around to face him. "Yesterday was some trouble with Christopher Chambers and today I hear you were with Teddy Duchamp."
Gordie just nodded; did this guy even have a point?
Mr Bonds scowled. "Two weeks detention" he declared.
Gordie stayed silent. He tried to do the 'Chris Chambers' and refrain from reacting. This however, was not what Mr Bonds was hoping for.
"Three weeks detention!" He thundered. "How does that sound?"
Gordie just nodded. It was kind of interesting to see how far he could push Bonds.
Mr Bonds was desperate for some kind of reaction, but what else could he do? Three weeks detention was excessive enough; it wasn't like he could add to it.
"Get out of here Lachance, I do not want to see you again for a while."
"Yes sir!" Gordie said in an artificially bright voice. Under his breath he whispered, "you asshole".
Mr Bonds' eyes widened. "What did you say boy?"
"Nothing Mr Bonds." Gordie said sweetly and let himself out.
Chris was waiting outside for Gordie and as the door swung open he jumped to his feet.
"Hey Chris." Gordie said dully.
"Gordo" Chris acknowledged. "How was it?"
"Three weeks detention." Gordie said, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
"Three weeks?" Chris couldn't believe it. "For skipping one class?"
"Yup" Gordie said flicking his hair irritably out of his eyes. "I'd hate to know what would have happened had I done something really bad like get three tardies in a row." He smirked.
Chris laughed slightly. "That guy sure is a bastard."
"Tell me about it," Gordie said.
They were walking along now, and just like that the conversation died. It was hard to put a finger on the change but it was there. Somehow their speech failed them and they lapsed into a moody silence. Chris idly kicked the ground, sending dust flying up from the old chipped floors.
"This place is falling apart," he offered.
Gordie nodded. "Don't I know it."
Chris sneaked a look at Gordie. His friend looked unusually morose, his brown eyes boring holes into the tiles.
"Gordieā¦" Chris began as they reached room 302 where Gordie was having detention.
"Yeah?" Gordie glanced up questioningly.
"Nothing." Chris said feeling the words die in his throat. He suddenly wanted to be far away. Never had he experienced such an awkward silence with his best friend. He wanted to say so much but he couldn't find any words. He wanted to help Gordie with his problems, he wanted to talk about Teddy, and he wanted to talk about his own problems. But somehow he couldn't say anything. He felt like anything he might say would just be another burden to Gordie. He hated the thought of his friend feeling even a trace of resentment to him. Chris Chambers stood alone, that was the way it had to be. With this realisation he felt a weight settle in his stomach and curl up and around his heart. Though earlier Gordie talking to Teddy rather than him had hurt him, now Chris felt like maybe it was a good thing. Okay, he would rather Gordie choose someone other than Teddy Duchamp to confide in but still maybe it was better than Gordie and he didn't rely on each other quite so much. Maybe.
"See you around." Chris said in an effort to be cheerful. Then he turned and left, resisting the urge to break into a run, at least until he'd rounded the corner.
Gordie watched his friend walk away and though he wanted to say something, anything, he kept silent. When Chris turned the corner and disappeared, Gordie turned around and opened the door to the detention room.
"You're late." The supervisor said, without even lifting his eyes from his page.
"Hey Gordie." Teddy mouthed.
"Hey" Gordie whispered and settled himself in a seat at the back. Twenty-four hours could be an amazingly large space of time.
