Chapter 4
Will hadn't told a single soul about what had happened between Hannibal and himself in his room late that dreaded night. Weeks had flown by rapidly, and with Halloween barely two days away, Will decided he was going to leave the drama and confusion that Hannibal normally brought into his life behind.
This year was going to be different for Will. He normally never went out and did anything special on Halloween, even when his grandmother had been alive to care for him, and even so when Bedelia had adopted him at a young age.
Something about dressing up in white sheets as a ghost, or dressing like a perverted vampire with slicked back hair was not really an interest to Will. He had always given out candy, however, whenever other children had come to his street trick-or-treating. Will merely enjoyed looking at their costumes for a brief moment of amusement rather than for legitimate fun, and he figured this year was going to be different.
While he was not going to go around begging for candy like the rest of the children, he was definitely going to attend a large first year student party hosted by many other first year students and guest returning alumni. Will would do anything at this point to get out of his house as often as he could, and to try and forget Hannibal.
Will had invited Miriam as well as Brian and Jimmy to the party, and all three people had happily agreed to join in.
Will was bustling about in the kitchen of the house, checking each and every cupboard carefully as he searched for the bottle of the chardonnay that Jimmy and Brian had brought him. After moments of frustrated and fruitless searching, Will gave up and rested back against the counter in the middle of the kitchen. The cold marble made him shiver and he backed off of it immediately.
Will had debated asking his roommates to join, but Charlie was going to frequent the bars around town, trying to drink himself to the limit and pick up as many young girls looking for a good time. Philip was going out with his girlfriend's nephews, so he was pretty much in and out of the house throughout the last few days, and Max seemed to be the only one in the house with Will even at this point in time.
Will hadn't asked the older boy, but he decided to give it a shot. He walked out of the kitchen and turned off the lights.
He played with his cell phone as he walked down the short hallway, flipping through his list of contacts, when he stopped at Hannibal's name on the list. Will wanted to right away throw his phone at the wall. He had been meaning to remove Hannibal as a contact on his phone, but for some reason or another, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Will didn't want to be naive, but he knew that Hannibal hadn't meant to attack him the way he did that night. Something or someone, rather, had either done or said something to turn Hannibal that demented. Will had spent a lot of time with Hannibal, and he just knew for a fact that Hannibal wasn't the type who would ever force himself on anyone at any random time.
Will and Hannibal had had ample opportunities for foreplay and sex whenever they had been alone together in the summer. If Hannibal never once attempted to attack Will back then, why would he start now? It just didn't make sense, the more Will thought about it.
He shoved his phone back in his pocket and reached Max's door; the last door on the right of the upper hallway. Max's door had a large Lamb of God poster hoisted on it, with a few little stickers displaying profanity and plenty of curse words plastered on whatever was left of the white that had once been the door.
Will reached up a shaky hand and knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" Max's voice called out muffled through the thick door.
"Hey, it's Will." Will waited patiently behind the door. Charlie had unfortunately made the mistake of entering Max's room both without knocking and without Max's permission during the last week of September, and it provided him only with a sleek swing at his chest. The bruise had lasted for days on end, but Charlie quickly learned his lesson, as did the rest of the house. No one entered Max's room without knocking, period.
After a few moments of silence, the door was opened and Max faced Will, wearing large dark purple headphones that hung over his neck with the earphones resting on either side of his neck below his ears, the music still on, however.
Will looked past Max at his room; it was a bloody mess as it always had been. "Sorry, am I bothering you or interrupting, Max?" He asked, wondering if Max had even cleaned his room once since they moved in.
"If you were, then why would I have opened the door?" Max asked, lifting an eyebrow at Will as if he had already tried his patience.
Will shrugged. "Good point."
"So what do you want, then?" Max barked as he played with the doorknob.
"Cutting to the chase, I like it." Will ran a hand through his hair. "Well there's this party down at the barnyard in the little country-side road and farms not too far from here. Did you want to come along with me? I'm bringing Jimmy and Brian-you already met them-and Miriam Lass."
Max snorted. "Why would I attend a stupid first year party?"
Will only offered another shrug. Max was a second year student, and he wasn't seen socializing with anyone of his age group anyway.
"Would you rather just sit here day-after-tomorrow in your room all night long?" He asked as he looked at a pair of boxers hanging halfway off a night lamp on a night-stand next to the bed.
Max looked down and growled at the floor. "Fuck off."
"Your choice." Will turned to walk back to his room, when he heard the door creak as Max opened it more and stepped out into the doorway.
"Alright! Alright! I'll come!"
Will turned and smiled craftily at him. "I knew you'd come around."
Max scoffed. "Smart-ass."
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"Hello?"
"Hey Brian, just me, Will."
"Oh heeeeey man! Long time no talk, what's good?"
Will wanted to hang up when he found his ears were assaulted with the slang talk not even five seconds into his conversation with Brian over his cell phone.
"Well, nothing really. I can't seem to find the bottle of chardonnay you bought me when you last visited."
Brian gasped and then made a sound that resembled a burp, but it still wasn't one. "Dude! We spent so much money on that!"
"Can we head out to buy regular beer, though? Everyone is required to bring at least one food or beverage for the party tomorrow night." Will explained as he tried to ignore the hiccup frenzy Brian had started having out of the blue.
"Oh sure man! But-"
"But what?" Will interrupted. He had been planning a night out anyway, but if Zeller wanted to back out, he was going to personally kill him.
"Umm I got my license suspended for a bit..."
Will rubbed his temple and sighed, trying to keep calm. "Alright, I don't even want to ask...what about Jimmy? He drives."
A silence, and then a hiccup from the other end of the line.
"Brian." Will warned.
"Well he's out with Xanadu. And you know how they get whenever she's in town." Xanadu was the goth girl Jimmy had started dating in Baltimore State High School, and she had moved out of the house and was living in an apartment with her sister so she could work and attend a University to study biology.
"True." Will said as he tapped a finger against his aching temple gently.
"Exactly. Those two fuck like bunnies, man. Seriously, fuckin' nuts, the way they go at it."
"Brian." Will warned again, trying to put on his most serious tone of voice.
"One night after our usual game night, I'm tryin' to sleep on the couch downstairs right?"
"Brian."
"And all of a sudden, I hear Jimmy and her going at it, literally shaking the walls of the room next door so badly that dust from the wall had fallen onto my face on the couch and woke me up!"
"Brian!" Will's tone grew louder, but the other boy did not seem to want to stop anytime soon.
"I couldn't really make out what Xanadu was sayin', though, and I was listening alllllllll night long. He was fuckin' her like the safety and preservation of the world depended on it, man."
"Brian!"
"Sadly Freddy and I never got that far, though. I'm cool with being a virgin still, though! Don't judge! But let me tell you, one night alone with that mouth of hers, and she'll drive you wiiiiiiiiiiiild! Gives the best blowjobs, I'm tellin' you."
"BRIAN!" Will suddenly erupted.
Brian suddenly gasped and hiccupped one last time. "Hey! My hiccups are gone!" His smile could practically be heard and seen in his voice over the phone.
Will wanted to reach through the telephone speakers and choke the life out of him.
"Can we go to the damn store already?" He knew his tone was begging, but he didn't care. He just wanted to stop hearing about how everyone else around him was relieving their sexual frustrations in the most productive and non-threatening manner without being emotionally and mentally scarred. Not that Will was foolish, however. He knew all too well that College life was not the sex-fest the media and movies had made it out to be. But he was still hoping he would try out new things with Hannibal at least and if it ever came to giving himself to Hannibal, the act would be committed out of love and true yearning; not merely doing it just because everyone else was doing it so they could brag or show off.
"Who's gonna drive us?"Brian's question almost went unheard as Will silently mourned losing his trust and hopes in Hannibal.
Will thought about the question for a while when he suddenly felt a presence behind him. He turned and saw Max looking through the cupboards in the kitchen.
"I have just the person in mind now. Meet you at your place in less than fifteen." Will said and hung up before Brian could mutter out anything else scary and disgustingly embarrassing.
"God damn it!" Max cried when he opened the top cupboard above the fridge and a box of cereal fell down onto his face.
"Who the hell put that there?" He asked as he rubbed his face and kicked the cereal box under the kitchen table.
"Max." Will said as he picked up the box and set it on top of the counter.
Max spun around and glared at Will. "Whatever it is, I'm not doing it. It's bad enough that I agreed to go to the dumb Halloween Party with you." He picked at his spiky dark brown hair and flicked a piece of gel into the air.
Will nodded. "Oh, ok, that's fine."
"Mhm. Gonna go work out." Max said to himself more than Will, and walked past Will towards the basement.
"Although, I thought we could definitely stop for Twinkies..." Will called out casually.
Max stopped right away in his tracks.
"Up to you, though." Will smirked internally.
Max sighed and threw on a dark grey sweater he selected from the closet in the hallway. He grabbed his car keys from inside the pocket, and pulled down the hood onto his dark hair.
"You owe me big time, Graham." He hissed lowly as he threw the front door open and walked out to unlock his car doors.
"Appreciate it, Max."
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When they had reached the driveway of Brian Zeller's small townhouse, Will told Max to wait in the car as he ran to the door and rang the bell. A disheveled Brian answered the door, and then put on his coat and shoes slowly as he turned back and yelled at his parents that he was heading out and would come home within an hour maximum.
Will pulled Brian aside gently before he could see Max sitting and waiting for them in the car.
"Yo, what's going on?" Brian asked as he shifted his eyes nervously.
Will pushed him against the side wall of the small house. "Shh. Now Max is going to be giving us a ride, Brian, and I'd appreciate it if you-"
"Holy shit why didn't you tell me before!?" Brian cried, eyes widening as he panicked and ran his hands through his hair and tried to fix his overall appearance as best as he could.
Will coughed and tried to clear his throat while trying to hide his distaste for being interrupted so crudely. "I was just going to ask you to watch what you say and think before you speak."
Brian snorted and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I always do that."
Will cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really?"
"Yeah!" The stubborn boy countered.
"So you're a liar too now, Brian?" Will glared.
"Ugh! Fine! I will do my best to shut my trap!" Brian said as he rolled his eyes and took a step away from the wall, but Will pushed him gently back against the bricks of the house.
"Wait," he pushed Brian back to the wall before he ran off in the direction of where the car was, "...I know you are fond of Max. So I'm telling this for your own sake, Brian."
Brian's eyes opened up so widely that Will thought they were going to grow over his entire face and forehead.
"Woah...dude...wanna tell the whole damn street about my man-crush? Jesus!" Brian hissed and looked around nervously.
"Just play it cool, and for the love of St. Peter, don't do anything stupid when we get to the mall." Will pushed Brian towards the car as soon as he had finished his little piece.
The wind seemed to guide both boys along forward as well, shaking off whatever was left of the rest of the dried, dead leaves down from their branches and onto the massive piles people had raked and collected in bags in front of their homes to be taken away. A few houses had already had pumpkins, Jack 'O Lanterns, and a few Halloween decorations such as the witches who had flown and smashed into garage doors as well as little home-made ghosts hanging from their front doors or trees swaying in the wind.
"Finally! I was freezing my ass off in here!" Max cried and shook violently when Will opened the passenger door and the back seat doors for Brian to get in.
Brian gave Will a weary glance before he ducked down and inside the back of the little black Toyota Camry that Max's father had given him before he upgraded and brought a newer car for himself.
The car lights automatically went on when the doors opened, and when Brian slid in, he froze and nearly gulped loudly when Max's green eyes met his through the rear-view mirror.
Will closed his door and watched the two boys stare at each other like two blundering fools. He resisted the urge to face-palm. He couldn't speak for Max, obviously, but he was more than fully certain that Brian had moved on from Freddy Lounds and set all his romantic hopes and dreams on Max. Max, despite his harsh, masculine exterior, seemed to be very reserved and shy. Will wasn't too sure about Max's sexual orientation, and for the time being he didn't witness a sign of a growing attraction or even admiration from Max's part, but he figured at least the two boys could become friends.
"Are you going to say 'hi', Brian?" Will asked, as if he was talking to a child rather than a seventeen year old going on eighteen in less than a month and half.
"H-h-hello." Brian said bashfully. Luckily, the car lights had dimmed down due to the doors being locked and closed properly.
The engine's low purr was the only response for a long minute, and Will was about to reach over and poke Max when the older boy spoke up.
"Hi."
Brian perked up in his seat and smiled lightly. "I'm Will's friend from High School. I was over a few weeks ago."
"Yeah you were covered in water and looked like a soaked dog."
"Ouch." Will thought to himself as he watched Brian literally deflate and turn his head to look out the left window in mortification.
"Where to?" Brian asked to Will, even though he kept his eyes on Brian's reflection in the mirror.
"The mall." Will said as he made a silent wish that nothing else would go wrong for the rest of the night.
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In less than twenty minutes they had reached the mall. Will and Max walked ahead of Brian, chatting among themselves when Will turned and saw Brian looking down at his feet and practically dragging them along like a pouting, petulant child. He suddenly felt bad for the other boy and slowed down his walking pace.
"Hey Brian! Do you want to go check out some new video games first?" He asked, hoping to get the other boy to gain some interest in their night adventure.
Brian walked a little faster but acted nonchalant as Will had instructed him to earlier. "No." He answered and walked right past both Will and Max defiantly.
Will watched Max try to pretend he wasn't look at Brian and smirked a little to himself. Although Will hadn't lived with Max long enough to even know him partly, but he knew exactly when the older boy was curious, upset, amused, angry, disturbed, disgusted, and intrigued. And Max was absolutely intrigued at this moment.
He was the first to follow Brian to the front doors of the mall, and held the door open for Will as they all entered the warm mall.
Will soon temporarily took his eyes off Brian and Max and began to enjoy the various mall outlets and stores within the mall overflowing with Halloween candy, decorations, signs that read: COSTUME SALE, 75% OFF ALL KID AND TEEN COSTUMES!
Black and orange colored ribbons were winding their way along the stores as multiple teens and young children raced around trying on werewolf masks and growled at each other or put on fake vampire fangs and hissed and laughed.
The pleasant mood was contagious, and Will felt as if most of his troubles had disappeared. He just wanted to live in the present and enjoy the moment before it flew by too quickly.
He walked into store called : ALL SPIRIT HALLOWEEN, which was known to be a widely based Holiday store specifically for Halloween only.
"Hey, Will! Where are you off to?" Brian called.
Will turned and looked back at Brian, who was trying to head into the opening of a grocery store known as Hilly Farms. Max had probably convinced Brian he wanted to stock up on food and Twinkies for the upcoming winter.
Will was about to speak up, when he saw Max's curious eyes peering almost in awe at Brian's thick, dark brown curly hair.
Will was about to laugh out loud and point, but he held back and instead decided to give the two boys a little privacy to themselves. He knew all too well that certain types of people-male or female-behaved differently around friends than other groups of people they normally did not associate with on a regular basis. He wanted Brian to at least have a chance to open up and talk to Max.
"You guys go on without me, I just want to check out this Halloween store is all. Maybe grab some candy. We'll meet at the little indoor waterfall in the center of the mall in say, fifteen minutes?" Will asked, and took off his gloves as he began to feel heat and sweat building up in his hands.
"Sounds good." Max answered before Brian could open his mouth. The younger boy turned around so quickly, he had nearly thrown himself off balance.
"R-really?" He asked as he looked up at Max with hopeful eyes.
The older boy nodded, his eyes never leaving Brian's. "Sure, let's grab some beer too for the party."
That was all Will needed to hear, and he grinned like the devil as he watched Brian and Max turn around while looking only at each other, clearly engaged in a wonderful conversation as they walked on into the grocery store.
"I'm such a sly bastard!" Will chuckled to himself as he began browsing the Halloween shop, admiring a shelf of household decorations such as dragon and gargoyle styled mirrors and evil garden gnomes with shiny red eyes. He peered at the bottom of the shelf and viewed a few mugs that had vampires, skeletons, and the Frankenstein monster decorated on them. He held a few up close and laughed at their silly designs.
As he walked forward into the store, he looked up and down the make-up and hair accessory isles, tempted to try on a Morticia Addams wig. He tried on a Spiderman mask and a Batman mask, looking at his own reflection in a large, vertical dragon mirror in the far back left hand side of the store.
"Terrific!" Will cried in legitimate excitement for the first time in weeks.
He gazed at himself for a few more minutes before he turned to return the mask back to its spot on the shelf. A thick lock of his own curly hair had come loose under the Batman mask however, covering his eye and momentarily shutting him in messy, confusion and darkness. Will stumbled a little over something thick and rough, and before he nearly went sailing into god-knows-what, a strong grip held him back up on his feet.
"Holy cow! Thank you!" Will huffed as he ripped off the Batman mask carefully by the ears, ready to properly thank whoever had saved him.
When the mask had come off, Will straightened his hair as best he could with his hand, and put his glasses back on. He nearly imploded when he saw he was face-to-face with Jack Crawford.
"Hello, Will."
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"What the hell are you doing here?" Will growled under his breath, his eyes growing dark and dangerous as he glared at the boy that had been the bane of his existence all throughout high school.
"I work here, not that it means much to you." Jack was wearing a goofy convict costume, with the classic black and white stripes and a matching black and white striped hat on top of his head and a little ball and chain attached to his right leg to go along with the costume. On Jack's left shit lapel was a small green name-tag that read: MY NAME IS JACK.
Will wanted to run and just get the hell out of the mall. It was bad enough that he had tried his best not to think about Hannibal for the last two and a half weeks while trying to go to classes, hand in his essay for Criminology, as well as study with Miriam and try to keep whatever bit of a measly social life he had left. The last thing he needed was running into his old arch-enemy!
"Good for you. Now kindly leave me alone." Will said sternly as he walked over to the array of masks resting on hooks embedded within the store wall and placed the Batman mask along with the other Batman style masks on the hook.
"Nice try, Will. I can go get the manager and that's all it takes. My word over yours any day."
"I thought the customer was always right?" Will muttered as he walked quickly over to a glass show-case in the middle of the Halloween store with tons of swords, knives, blades and little decorations such as rings and bracelets inside it.
Jack shook his head. "Nah, that only works in the world of fast-food joints, I'm afraid."
Will threw him a dirty look.
Jack backed away a little at the intensity of the look. "It was a joke..." He assured calmly, though he remained a few feet behind Will.
"I'm very glad you shared it with me." Will replied dully, debating whether or not to make a run for the exit at once or not.
Jack took off the goofy looking cap and sighed. "Believe it or not, I'm actually not going to push you or do anything stupid."
Will snorted. "I don't believe you."
"That's a given." Jack retorted quickly.
"Anything I can help you with, young man?" A soft feminine voice suddenly broke Will out of his angry thoughts, and he jumped from the show-case to look at the back of the store, where a tall, heavy set woman wearing a pointy black witch hat with a purple sash decorated around the brim, with the black dress and boots to match stood, smiling and smearing her blood-red lipstick all over her teeth in the process. Her green name-tag read: MY NAME IS NORA.
Jack cleared his throat, suddenly wearing a serious expression on his face and he put the cap back on over his head. "It's ok, Nora, I was just helping my old high school buddy, Will Graham here, look for some rings for his girlfriend."
Will quickly nodded, catching on immediately to the gravity of the situation, and he played along immediately. "Yeah, mostly browsing, too."
Jack's manager smiled some more and waved her black and purple striped nail polish colored fingers at Will. "Well good luck then to you, sweetheart. I'll be in the back if you have any questions or want to make a sale. Just ring the little bell on the desk!" She disappeared into the back room of the store without another word.
Jack sighed a breath of relief. "Thanks for having my back. She's a real bitch sometimes."
Will smiled lightly. "I think you mean a bitch with a capital "W"." Jack suddenly burst out in the loudest laughter Will had ever heard coming from him. Of course he had heard Jack laughing and rolling on the floors before in happiness, but to Will's ears those past cases of laughter never seemed truly genuine. This laughter he shared with Will, however, was truly genuine.
Will could see little tears coming out from the sides of Jack's eyes as he bent over and rested the palms of his hands over the black and white striped knees of his costume. He cleared his throat after a few long minutes of hearty laughter and clapped Will on the back. "I've gotta hand it to you, Will, I never laughed that hard in a long time!"
Will suddenly stopped smiling. "Well it's ok. Your manager is gone, now, and we can go back to being mortal enemies."
Jack stopped smiling at once, his mouth set to thin and firmly by his lips. "It wasn't about saving my ass! You know, the last thing I needed was you being judgemental. I've been through a lot of shit this past year, Will, I don't need more of it."
"Neither do I!" Will cried out in anger suddenly.
Jack backed away a few steps. "Woah...I'm sorry, Will...I mean I know you always had it rough, no thanks to me, but what's going on with you? You're in University now. You can start all over fresh!"
Will laughed a very strained laugh, feeling like he wanted to break each and every little item in the store. "Oh you think it's that damn simple, huh? The answer is just sitting and waiting for me, is that it?" He paced back and forth impatiently, wanting to leave the store before the conversation got too personal too quickly, but for some odd reason he felt no threat at all coming from Jack. Like Max, Jack was the type of person who tried to put on the guise of being the strong, dedicated leader type in social groups and situations, when in actuality, he was influenced the most by others around him. That did not necessarily mean they were both bad people, however. They were just easily influenced, but Will knew he didn't need to worry about that now, seeing as how Tobias Budge wasn't going to miraculously appear out of thin air to bully Will along with Jack.
"You're right, perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to say," Jack began, playing with his cap as he held it in his hands, "...but look at the positives, Will. At least you weren't expelled from school and had your hopes for sports college and doing the things you actually enjoy stripped away from you. You were placed in an accelerated program and skipped a full year. You made a great friend in Hannibal, and you're well on in your way doing something that makes you happy." Jack explained wisely.
Will didn't know what to say to all that. Ninety-nine percent of it was true and he couldn't play around it. The only part that stood out and hurt him the most was the fact that Jack assumed Hannibal and Will were still close friends.
Will scratched his head and kept his eyes on the back of the store from time-to-time. "Look it's not that easy. You're right in many ways. We all had a lot of growing up to do, and I'm glad we're having this talk now as opposed to never having it in the first place."
Jack nodded and sat down on a little skeleton designed chair on the right side of the store wall. "Look, Will, we both know full well that what Tobias and I did to you in high school was absolutely wrong and uncalled for. It was bullshit, and I do not expect you to move on and forgive me any time soon. Hell, if it had been a reversed situation, I wouldn't forgive myself either. I was a bloody right prick, man."
Will raised an eyebrow. "So are you sure you're not just telling me what I want to hear right now?" He half joked. He truly didn't feel a lie or misleading motive that Jack had. He honestly felt this was a turning point in Jack's life, and he was finally learning the error of his ways.
Jack shook his head. "Will, I know you have the right to never believe me, and I've accepted that. I am willing however, to apologize for what I did to you, what Tobias did, and even Alana."
Will raised an eyebrow again this time, but it was to show that he was impressed in a positive way with what Jack was saying.
"I know we can't really start "fresh" either, but can we maybe try to be friends? Only if you want it, though." Jack looked up at Will for a long time.
Will tried to spot signs of wavering or a lie, but Jack kept his eyes strongly and firmly on Will's, and didn't even blink.
Will finally let out a sigh. "It's worth trying."
Jack nodded. "That's the biggest lesson I learned after all the crap I went through, Will. Getting angry at someone is easy; but forgiving them and trying to help them so they can help themselves? Now that's the challenge."
Will straightened his posture. "What do you mean?"
Jack finally stood. "I'm talking about second chances, Will. I think everyone deserves them. Of course, certain acts are absolutely unforgivable, but if you know that the other person is not truly an evil person deep down inside, then I say give them a second chance. Life is a living hell as it is, and we're all alone in it. But if you try to find someone who is like you-and that is hard enough, trust me-then why throw that aside so easily? Why not make the effort and go against your grain and natural order to try and make something work?"
Will couldn't believe he was unconsciously receiving relationship advice from Jack Crawford. If anyone had asked him years ago to approach Jack and speak about anything at all, Will would have laughed in their face. But now, he found he was actually listening fully to Jack, and taking in everything the boy was saying.
"I'm not saying you have to be a fool and fall for everything and excuse bad behaviour if it is repeated and no one has learned their lesson. I'm saying that part of being a good person to yourself and to others is knowing when to say "yes", and knowing when to say "no". You decide when, though."
Will walked closely to Jack and looked intently at the other boy. "Jack, you have no idea how much you just helped me."
Jack shrugged. "Another person would have said I was pulling all that out of my ass!"
Both boys laughed loudly, but when Nora cleared her throat from the back room, Jack's expression became a mixture of worried and serious.
"Shit, I better get back to work, Will. I still have an hour left of my shift." Jack backed away a little bit, keeping an eye out and open for customers to walk in.
Will nodded and straightened his coat and pulled out his gloves from the pocket. "Hey is it ok if I add you on Facebook or something? I never really go online, but I'd like us to chat whenever we can and I'm kind of behind on paying my cell phone bills, so you'd be best to reach me online."
Jack smiled. "Hey it's no problem, Will. You can add me whenever you feel you want to chat."
Will waved before he headed for the opening of the store. "Will!" Jack's voice at his back suddenly made him turn and face the other boy quickly.
"Best of luck, man." Jack said in a loud, clear voice before he turned back and headed for the cashier's desk in the small store.
"You too." Will called back before he turned and headed to the right of the mall's large hallway, heading for the center of the mall with the indoor waterfall as quickly as his legs could carry him. He was already more than five minutes late to meet up with Brian and Max.
The colours of the customers and Halloween decorations buzzed past him in a horrendous rainbow from another world as Will sped up the pace so he could catch both boys in the middle of the mall.
When Will had arrived, he was happy to see that the large statue standing in the middle of the waterfall still had water pouring out of its hands. It was a tall, thin woman with short wavy hair, and her hands were holding up flowers that water poured out of in a beautiful downward stream. Tons of children and couples would often sit around the pool the statue stood in the middle of, and toss loose change in the water for fun.
Normally the mall turned off the water display around this time of night, but Will thought that due to the excitement of the Halloween season and in order to attract more customers, the mall had left it on for show.
Will was about to look down at his watch for the time, when he looked to his right and caught Brian and Max sitting side-by-side on a small metal bench in front of the decor bushes and indoor trees that surrounded the back of the waterfall and statue beautifully.
He wanted to take off his glasses, clean them, put them on, squint, and clean his glasses after pinching himself a few times before he finally registered that Brian and Max were sitting and laughing together as comfortably as ever. It was almost as if the two boys had known each other all their lives. He couldn't believe how comfortable they were with each other.
Will snuck forward a little closely, keeping his ears trained hard on the two boys on the bench as he walked with caution so he didn't make a sound.
"After exams it's usually not so hectic. I mean everyone is cramming during the reading week anyway, so by the time exams come in, everyone's getting their immune system shot to shit and it's suddenly flu season all over again." Max explained calmly as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a shiny silver dime and toyed with it in his hands.
"It makes sense, because the body is doing its best to keep you healthy and strong so you can reserve that energy and prepare for exams and then give those said exams successfully before the body goes back to un-hectic mode." Brian explained back as he watched Max fiddle with the dime.
"Exactly." Max said, and he raised his arm in the air to throw the dime into the water as tradition practically begged, when Brian lifted his own hand and placed it on Brian's hand to stop him gently.
"What?" Max asked gently, and turned to look at Max with an amused and happy expression on his face.
"This is going to sound silly, but can we toss it in together?" Brian asked, hiding his face away from Max's in bashfulness.
Will had never seen Brian behave this way, even when he was with Freddy. Will thought he could have been wrong, but in his own personal opinion, Freddy's relationship with Brian had been nothing more than a silly teenaged experiment. This however, seemed to be a more romantic and spiritual awakening for Brian. Will had observed Brian and Freddy do silly things together such as share ice-cream or buy each other coffee and donuts, but this act of tossing in the silver dime in the water together blew Will away with such happiness for his two friends.
Max smiled a dopey smile Will had never seen him smile as he nodded. He leaned in closer to Brian still wearing the dopey smile on his face. "Sounds like a wonderful idea."
As Will watched on with his mouth half-open in shock, Max grabbed Brian's hand in his own gently, stroking the skin for a long time before he took the dime and placed it in Brian's open palm carefully. He then took his own hand and placed it directly under Brian's as he held the dime, and on a silent, connected internal count to three, he guided Brian's arm to toss the dime high and perfectly into the air and they watched it together as it dove into the water near the base of the statue.
Will wanted to jump up and squeal like Bedelia had back when he had graduated and taken his picture with Hannibal...Hannibal!
Will suddenly felt a little saddened, and he looked away from the two boys on the bench to gaze around the mall. He hadn't noticed it before, but there were an awful large number of couples in the mall tonight. Will watched an elderly couple walk together, with their grandchildren laughing in front of them as they chased each other wearing little shoes with heels that lit up as light bounded everywhere on the floor. Near a gazebo towards the right of the bushes and trees near the waterfall, a younger heterosexual couple sat and made out passionately with their arms around each other.
Will couldn't take it; he needed to see Hannibal at once. He raced forward and pulled out his cell phone, pretending he was texting instead of watching Brian and Max growing closer and sharing their little moment tossing the coin into the water.
"Will!" Brian cried, gasping and straightening his composure, though he did not get off the bench.
Will looked up. "Oh hey! Guys, sorry I was late, I ran into a few people from high school."
"That's pretty sweet." Brian said.
Will wanted to gasp out loud. Normally Brian would have gotten all upbeat and asked until the end of time "Who did you see?!" as he bounced around excitedly, but the fact that he hadn't meant that something or someone else had captured his attention...Will wondered who it was.
"Yeah, so did you guys get the beer and Twinkies?" Will asked.
"Yep, check and check!" Max grabbed the case of beer resting by the side of the bench with a little bag of Twinkies on top of the case and smiled proudly.
Will nodded. "Let's go."
He could have sworn he heard both Max and Brian sigh in distaste.
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Will knocked on Hannibal's door impatiently. He stood back after trying to peer into the peephole in the door, but all he saw was a dark home. He had tried calling Hannibal, but he must have turned his phone off, for it didn't even go to his voice mail.
"Come on..." Will hissed through his teeth as he knocked for the fiftieth time.
"Hannibal! I need to talk to you!" Will called as clearly as he could.
"Where is he?!"
He suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and heard his neck emit a little "click" due to the force he had used to turn his neck so suddenly in fear of the sudden footsteps approaching.
He saw two circular gleaming light reflections in the dark hallway before the figure stepped under the lights of the front door.
"Good evening, fellow human." Mason's nasal voice touched Will's ears, and caused the younger boy to shudder from a brief moment before he stood up tall and glowered at Mason. "
You. What do you want? Go to bed!" He ordered as he felt the tension and jealousy rise within him. It seemed as if lately wherever he went, Mason was always lingering by, observing him. Will didn't want to know what reasons the boy had for this odd behaviour and frankly, he didn't care; he just wanted Mason to go away and act like a normal human being for once.
"I'm sorry to inform you of this depressing piece of news, but Hannibal isn't home." Mason looked down at his fingernails, his dirty blonde eyebrows set tightly on his forehead as if he was concentrating on solving the most difficult math question.
"I figured that out on my own, but thank you for lending me your expertise, Mason." Will said sarcastically as he reached into his book bag that hung over the right side of his body and pulled out a little notebook and pen.
"No, I mean he hasn't been home all day today." Mason whispered, eyes still on his fingernails.
Will glared at Mason, but started writing in the notebook immediately. "Alright then."
Mason lowered his hand and smiled at Will, though his left eye twitched a few times. "Would you like to come inside my room and wait for him? I'm sure he'll be home before you know it."
Will kept writing. "No."
Mason snickered and put on his best show-man voice. "Is that your final answer, young Mr. Graham?"
Will didn't move a muscle. Only the light scratch of the pen on the paper was heard for stretched out moments of time. Finally Will put his pen back to rest on his ear.
"Good night, Mason." He put the pen in his schoolbag but kept his eyes and sight off of Mason. He wanted to have dreams tonight; not horrible nightmares.
"Too bad; I'd really enjoy your time and company..." Mason said as he opened his door and walked inside the room. He paused and watched Will for a few seconds before he closed and locked the door.
Will finished writing, and looked down at his note for Hannibal.
Hannibal, we need to talk. I have taken a lot of time to think for myself, and I want us to pull through together through every hurdle and obstacle we find in our way. The path won't always be clear and obvious, but having you in my life is the path in and of itself. I don't want to deviate from that. I need you in my life, and I am ready to talk calmly with you whenever you are free.
I still care for you from the bottom of my heart, and I doubt it will ever change.
Will.
He smiled a half smile and leaned down to rest on his knees as he slid he note under the door carefully. He stood and looked at the door for a few seconds before he turned and walked down the hall towards an elevator.
He closed his eyes and sighed when the doors opened, and he stepped inside and got ready to head home and to bed.
Once Will's elevator door had closed, the only sound in the empty hallway was the buzzing of the vents and heaters. Then, as if on a cue, a small "click!" was heard, followed by the groaning of door hinges.
Mason Verger slowly opened his dorm room door, and poked his head out into the hallway, facing Hannibal's door.
He opened his mouth, chewing bubble-gum and blew air into the gum and giggled when it filled with air and let out a small "Pop!" once it could not contain any more air.
Mason crept out mischievously into the hallway, swinging his hands back and forth playfully. He leaned down, resting on the balls of his feet, and then gently lowered his chest and stomach to rest on the floor. He peered into the room through the space resting at the bottom of the door between the floor and the door itself, and he took in a deep breath.
"Hmmmm cozy home sweet home." He murmured to himself.
He blew his bubble-gum once more, and then popped it. He took one last peek into the hallway around him, and when convinced no one was around or approaching, he took out his bubble-gum from his mouth, playing with it as if it were play-dough for a few seconds before he rolled it between his thumb and index finger. Mason rolled and rolled the gum until it became a tight, medium sized ball.
He then rolled the little gum ball forward and under the door, his eyes set on the note that was resting on the clean wooden floor of the room. He squinted and grunted a little, smashing his glasses against the bottom of the door as he struggled to guide the gum ball with his fingers so it would land on the note paper.
After a few seconds, the gum ball latched onto the note.
"Gotcha." Mason hissed, and he withdrew his fingers from the crack under the door carefully and slowly. The gum-ball stopped at the edge of the bottom of the door, but Mason was able to slide the paper out from under the gum-ball carefully anyway. He pressed his cheek against the door as tightly and closely as he could, as his fingers felt around for the gum-ball. He grabbed it within seconds and pulled it out from under the door as well.
He sighed and cheered internally as he held up the paper to the light in the hallway. He leapt to his feet and laughed and took a bow in the direction that Will had left in.
"Clever strategy, but not on my watch, Willy boy." He cheered and danced towards his own room before ripping the little note into shreds and tossing it into his garbage can as he danced and shut the door with his feet foxily, finally encasing the hallway in complete darkness.
Only Mason's faint giggles were heard through the other side of the door all night long straight through until the early light of morning shone through the hallway windows.
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Notes:
Mason, you piece of human filth. You big pile of excrement!
Don't kill me for the cliff hanger. Seriously.
Avixi
P.S. Brian and Max make such a sweet couple, no? Teehee.