What If He Didn't Die?

Chapter 53: The Game

The bike comes to a halt pushing me against Robert's back. The student's parking lot is way less crowded these days, than the usual parts of the year. Most students in sight are wearing decent clothes. Nothing too casual can embarrass Drakedon high and stain its reputation in the eyes of the visitors from colleges.

Monday morning at 8 am, as we all sit silently on our chairs attending a guest lecture, a few yawns are heard every now and then from somewhere in the class.

A lady looking to be in her late twenties dressed in a proper decent formal attire, named Elisabeth, stands in front of us with a presentation running in the background, talking about how we can invest our summer break and add value to ourselves.

Slowly, I turn my eyes towards the chairs on the extreme left of the room. Jack sits there looking like an ideal student while his one hand is running on his phone underneath the desk, and the other is covering the ear hiding his Airpods. I turn my eyes towards Robert sitting next to me and he nods lightly.

Gulping on the lump of nervousness in my throat, covertly I adjust my Airpods in my ear hidden behind my hair. Under the desk, I hit play to check the audio one last time and Daniel's unadulterated voice hits my ears.

Hi Jack, Daniel's back!
What did I miss?

I figured this is just fine for a start.

With one deep breath, I hit the send. My eyes automatically avert to Jack. He frowns lightly, the reason behind which is I'm sure a certain popup notification saying 'Dead' bright and bold.

I watch each and every one of his movements as his foot starts shaking under the desk. His fingers linger on the screen for a minute.

With his feet shaking more vigorously under the desk, his finger leans in closer to the phone and the anxiety starts shooting up in me.

And then he hits it.

It all happens in less than a minute. In just one second of him touching the screen, the peaceful silence of the conference hall is murdered by Jack's curses. All eyes and ears turn away from Beth towards him as he jumps out of his chair and kicks his desk, throwing the phone away. His Airpods, which he throws out, hit the wall next to him and goes bouncing off way further from where he's now standing, shaking and breathing heavily, blabbering meaning fewer words, behaving as if he's seen a ghost.

Or perhaps, heard one.

"Jack?"

"What the-"

"Jack!"

"What happened Jack?"

Shouts fill the hall but Jack seems deaf and blind to his reactors. That's when Eric jumps in towards him.

"Calm down Jack, what hap-" He asks with almost genuine concern.

"No- no. No, leave I- th- there in that phone, I-" Jack struggles to form one meaningful sentence and fails.

"Jack what-"

"Fuck no! Leave me alone- I-" Jack clenches his head with both his hands and paying no heed to the now baffled Beth, he storms out of the door.

The look in Principal Shawn's eyes pleases me as he stares grimly at the empty doorway. A smile curls up at the corner of my lips. I turn to look at Eric and he shares an understanding look with me before picking up Jack's phone and Airpods and soon he too is walking out.

"Back to your chairs everyone!" Principal Shawn announces and soon everyone is back in their seats, except for Jack and Eric. I, who never left my place just sit back down, waiting for the next step.