The third (and the longest) chapter so far. enjoy
Dont own.
~~In the dark~~
Alvin could feel her eyes burning the back of his head. He could see her too. Using the metal protractor placed on his desk as a sort of reflector, Alvin could see every detail of Brittany Millers face, from the wispy tendril of dirty blond hair sticking to the side of her lip gloss- to the hateful glare pulling down the muscles in her brow. It was eldest chipette's eyes, however, that cased the tuff of fur on his neck to bunch and bristle.
At this angle, Brittany's eyes were cold dark marbles.
Despite himself, Alvin swallowed. The Hell was her problem?
"Mr. Seville!"
He snapped to attention with a start, his back sliding into the upward slope of his chair. Ms. Gonzales, his pre-cal teacher stood hunched with her claw-like hands on her knobby hips. Her wrinkle invested skin appeared almost sickly in the baleful green of the blackboard.
"Why don't you answer the problem on the board, Mr. Seville."
Her voice scraped like gravel and the fingers of Alvin's left hand tightened around the mockery there. It took nearly all of his reserve to fight back the retort yanking at his tongue, but Alvin bit it back all the same. Bit until he tasted copper.
He was on thin ice at this school and nearly four years of playing devil had put him in a bad way with the Principle. He saw again the resolve in the bloated angry man.
"You've got one more time, Seville!" He had spat, the purple veins in his meaty neck bulging. "I catch wind of one more negative thing concerning you and you're out! I don't care how close to graduation you are!"
Alvin watched the lines in Ms. Gonzalez's mouth deepen around the edge of her smirk.
He couldn't say anything back and the ancient bitch knew it. Instead, Alvin turned away, careful to avoid looking at Brittany or revisiting the empty desk next to her. The liquid metal of its legs were rusted and bent with age and, without Theodore in it, appeared to bow forward in sorrow as if mourning a lost child.
Instead, he aimed his silent hostility at the empty chair nearest the classroom window.
Simons chair.
Simon who hadn't showed up in either second period English literature or fifth period Stats.
Apparently, the other chipmunk had skipped school and it agitated Alvin to no end that he couldn't figure out why. As far as he knew, Simon had always been practically anal about reserving his perfect attendance record, and if anything the tallest Seville often lectured him on school participation- but it that didn't change that fact that this particular pattern had now been going on for days...
"ALVIN!"
A resounding Snap punctuated his name and Alvin found himself following the tip of a ruler up into the beady coal eyes of a witch. Ms. Gonzales, peered down at him over the rutted crook of her hooked nose.
"Answer the problem!"
The class, who had at first found great amusement in watching current spectacle, grew deathly quite and rage surged through Alvin so quick that his world spun. However, before he could even fix his lips to spew the venom boiling inside him, fate intervened like a wayward angel and the bell rang.
All around him, students hurried out the door as if possessed.
School was over.
Alvin made a point to step around the seething teacher before grabbing the book bag beneath his desk and storming out of the classroom. Once outside the door, however, he waited. He waited for Brittany Miller and grabbed her arm when she attempted to pass by him. This was one thing he was going to get to the bottom of.
Pulling her close he hissed. "What is with you?"
Brittany pulled away so fast that Alvin imagined that his touch had in some way seared her.
"Don't touch me!" She roared. "Don't ever touch me!"
He faltered a little ,stunned, but fury eventually followed what he saw to be a severe injustice served on his part. He hadn't done anything wrong, Just who did she think she was yelling at!
Alvin's first instinct was to grab her again, but he stopped when he saw the tiny black tributary's streaking down her checks.
Crying.
Brittany Miller was crying.
Alvin felt his tongue stumbled over his argument. First Theodore and now this? His hands fell to his sides and, suddenly weary, peered down both ends of the thinning hallway. Maybe he was wrong to assume that this was about him...
He turned back to face her. Turned back to the wreak. Perhaps this had nothing to do with him at all…
God, he hoped for it . He prayed for it.
He tried again, taking care to soften his voice. "Bri-"
"Don't!" orbs of blue fire lashed out at him with unblinking hate. Alvin witnessed the chipette's normally pretty face contort into something approaching savage."Don't." She growled again and suddenly she was not two inches away from his face. He dug his heels into the floor, fighting the urge to leap back.
"This sick game may help you cope," She hissed." - but don't expect the rest of us to play along."
Alvin was relieved when Brittany finally backed away from him and started down the hall towards the exit. He let her words scramble and unscrambled themselves in his mind, struggling to complete a puzzle with pieces that just didn't fit. Just what was she going on about? Had she completely lost it?
His throat knotted over with questions and in his loss he struggled to get his lips to perform them for Brittany's retreating back. All that managed to tumble out of his mouth, however, was a strained, barely audible "Why?"
The chipette was nearly out the door when Alvin saw her turn toward him once more before continuing on.
"Because you've hurt her." She said simply. Sorrowfully.
He felt the muscles of his stomach knot up. She was talking about Jeanette. He pictured the messy haired chipette in his minds eye as he had saw her this morning. Peering up at him with red swollen eyes before burying her face back into the crook of her elbow.
"And for that I will never forgive you!"
She left then, leaving Alvin with nothing more than the vision of her yellow ponytail swinging in time to the fury of her steps.
He felt a headache surge forward for the second time that day.
What. The. Fuck.
Alvin bowed his head, focusing on the serene dingy pallid of his scuffed vans- until he found himself staring at another pair of shoes that were decidedly not his own. They were formal black Orbison cap-toe lace ups with a familiar silver 'S' emblem hanging from one of the strings. He looked up quickly.
Simon!
His brother stood before him in the same overly formal attire Alvin had seen him in that morning. His slacks devoid of a single wrinkle and the white of his shirt bright in the beam of the empty hallway. Alvin also noticed that, unlike him, the other chipmunk carried no backpack. No notebook. Nothing that gave any hint to exactly where he had been all day. It dawned on him that perhaps there was a school performance that he might have missed. Feeling the light weight of his phone in his pocket, however, he doubted it. Ursula would have said something.
He was tired of being in the dark.
If he wanted answers, now was the time to get them.
"Where have you been." He tried, winching at the failed resolve in his voice. The encounter with Brittany had, mentally worn him out.
"…"
Simon tilted his head toward him, his silver iris's dancing above his square thick rimmed glasses. "I've been searching." He replied and Alvin heard the suppressed chuckle riding the wave of his words. His brother took a step toward him.
The same sharp smell of mint from this morning pierced his nostrils. "Ah!" Alvin shut his eyes and when he opened them again , Simon's hands were stretched toward him, the long thin fingers cupped heavenward as if offering up a prayer.
"My cuff links, have you seen them?"
It was then that Alvin noticed Simon's undone French cuffs, the loose fabric splayed forward like dove wings. Frustration mounted in Alvin's already throbbing head, his brothers words yet another added pain to what he had already deemed a long and difficult day. Fine. Simon, he decided, could fuck around all day if that's what he wanted to do. It seemed to him that, in the past few weeks, everyone around him had been replaced by some outwardly menace. He didn't have time for this shit!
Alvin turned to leave.
The other chipmunk pitched forward, suddenly, into him and Alvin could feel the hot breath wash over the side of his neck as he tried to steady himself. Simon's fingers dug into his shoulders, though, planting him there.
"My outfit isn't complete with out them," he breathed and his voice dropped slightly into Alvin's ear."You know how important they are to me, don't you."
Alvin felt his whole body freeze over. He did.
A long forgotten memory resurfaced in his mind as though placed there by some unseen force..
"Happy birthday boys, you're twelve today!"
High pitched cheers erupted and filled the kitchen with infectious merriment , much to the delight of Dave who joined the boys' verbal celebration and then smiled warmly down at them all. "Or perhaps I should say 'young men', because that's what you three are becoming now.." He ruffled all of the chipmunks heads proudly.
"And as young men, I figured that this year I should get gifts commemorating this fact."
Soft mummers of anticipation hovered in the air and Alvin wondered what specifically the brown haired guardian had got them. An iPod, perhaps? Or, better yet, a laptop! Inwardly, he confirmed the former when Dave left and returned with three small black boxes in his hands. He shook with excitement when one of the felt squares were placed into his waiting hands.
Excitement that disappeared as soon as he undid the clasp.
Cuff links, small and immaculate sat as Rubies connected by ornate gold links. On each button , some calligrapher had fastened a tiny bullion 'A'.
Utter. Boring. Crap.
He peered across the table at Theodore who didn't look too enthused either but was smiling gratefully all the same. Alvin shook his head. What a bust! He thought, looking back down at the formal fasteners. So, he was surprised by Simon's sudden outburst.
"I love them,Dave!"
Alvin turned to his immediate right where Simon sat, his face twisted in awe by the personalized cuff links he now held to the light. His brother's, Alvin noticed, were a lot like his own, only cast in what appeared to be silver and set in some dark bluish stone.
"I'll wear them with every dress shirt I own Dave," Simon continued. "I'll wear them till I die!"
Dave chuckled, pulling his brother close and patted him fondly. "I'm glade you like them, Sy." He said before going on to explain how the little dark stone was called Lapis Lazu-something or other. Alvin didn't really care. He excused himself and left for his room. It had been his must disappointing birthday gift to date.
"Where are they, Alvin!"
The indignation in Simon's voice yanked him violently back into to present and back into the brilliant hallway lights. He remembered that Simon had been true to his word, polishing the cuff links diligently and fastening them religiously whenever the occasion called for it. He, however, had let his ruby pair sink into the dusty clutter of his room. He was ignorant of they're exact location to this day.
"Where are they!"
Alvin couldn't think and, it appeared that he didn't have to. The words fell numbly from his lips as though they'd been hiding there cramped in wait the entire time.
"My car. They're in my car.."
Icy palms slammed into his chest, shoving him backwards toward the exit.
"Then go get them."
A buzzer went off some where and each of the hallways ceiling lights began to shut off one by one.
Alvin picked up the school bag that had fallen at his feet and ran toward the school's exit, looking back at his brother's eerily still form only once. Looking only once at how his bother's figure seemed to shift and transform into something else in the reseeding light.
His nostrils filled with the smell of mint and his ears ringing with the sound of flying glass,
Alvin ran.
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