Chapter 5 - Crossroads

Chapter 5 - Crossroads

I'm glad I came here with your pound of flesh

No second billing 'cause you're a star now – Hole, Celebrity Skin

“Sajan Thapa, people called me Saj.”

“People call me Art." The blonde boy introduced himself, looking searchingly at Saj. 

"Saj… Oh yeah I know you. You’re the head masters kid yeah, the twin of Raveena? The one who got knocked out? I thought you’d left the school?”

Saj had been quite embarrassed about the connection to the head master, and especially wary of talking about the day Thomas Prince had hospitalised him, even with El. Saj was shy, and this shyness manifested itself in a deep and profound secretiveness about his family. Even El, who was his best friend did not know much about Saj's family, apart from his father being the head master. That Art knew this, that Art had remembered this shone a penetrating light into the fog of mystery that Saj had hoped he'd created around himself. In most instances, Saj would have retreated away from the conversation, but not this time.

With Art there was a flow that pulled the conversation from him without the resistance that Saj was accustomed to. 

With a breeziness of someone who hadn't just fled fearing for his skin, Saj began to tell this boy called Art about the day Thomas Prince had knocked him out. The corridor outside of the library now seemed to be completely abandoned, the Squad continuing their search under the watchful eye of their hard-case leader elsewhere in the school. 

The conversation breathed between the two young boys, as simple as it had between Saj and El. Again, Saj found himself in a conversation with someone that he fit with. A curve or break in Saj's make-up that was complemented utterly by a similar failing in Art.

As they talked more, it transpired that Art was not one of  the normal targets of Princes’ rages, he had largely been immune up until now from the Squad, though he had some unfortunate run-ins with them, as had most of the school by this point. 

The aura of violence and danger surround the Squad had grown and spread quickly throughout the school, all of the pupils knew of them and yet no one had mustered the courage to stand up and fight back against them. Not until Art had finally thrown the first punch protecting Prince's most despised target in the whole school.

As the two walked through the school, they were careful to keep an eye out for members of the Squad patrolling for them both. It was common knowledge that the Squad were in constant contact with each other via text, and neither Saj nor Art had any desire to have to flee when hiding was still a valid option. 

The conversation continued as they walked, Saj heard more about the boy who he would always think of now as his saviour. Art was a year older, almost to the day, than Saj and his twin sister Raveena. He had seen Saj and El hanging around in the library a few times over the last few months, but as Art was an avid reader and far more interested in his books than the younger students he had not bothered to speak to the two of them. 

When Art mentioned that he had seen El and Saj around the school, something began to puzzle Saj about his new friend. Art was curious about the two younger boys as he had seen Saj and El around the school waving in people’s faces as they walked down the corridors, only a few weeks ago. It had stuck with Art as unusual, not just because of the behaviour of Saj and El, but because of the fact that all the other students had seemed to ignore the unusual activity. 

This immediately  gave Saj pause for thought, the only person who Saj knew could have seen him whilst he was experimenting with going dim was El, but now it was dawning on Saj that perhaps him and El weren’t the only two capable of this new trick. It did explain what had happened in the library...

Saj directed Art down to the far corner of the school field and away from the main body of the school and traffic of the students. As he walked, Saj began to quiz Art about him why he thought that Si and Hardy had let them go. Art considered the question quietly for a few seconds as they continued to walk, concentration clouding his face. The two boys crossed under an old and now unused football net, Saj noticed and waved at El who had been approaching  the corner of the field from the other end of the school. The corner was a favourite place of the two, their preferred meeting place and they often met their after classes. El stopped abruptly when he saw Art with Saj, puzzled and confused, shaking his head before slowly joining the two out of sight of the main school building. 

Art seemed to still be thinking about the question Saj had asked him as Saj greeted his friend and brought El up to date with what had happened starting with him being grabbed by Prince. As the story unfolded, the danger and horror of his near escape became apparent with the emotions he had felt mirrored in the eyes of El. Saj continued the story, but wound the story down before the moment when he'd gone dim. 

"So, we hid behind a book display until they left the library...." Saj finished, somewhat lamely.

El examined Art with a critical eye. Art, noticing the look flushed red under the scrutiny and thrust his hand out in awkward welcome. “Hi, I’m Arthur Killaine. Art.”

El’s eye darted down quickly to the offered hand, hesitating slightly too long for comfort before he took it and returned the introduction. 

“Hi Art, I'm Elliot Easton. Saj calls me El..." Another slight pause. "I suppose you should too." 

El smiled and released the hand, the moment of awkwardness evaporating slowly, like mist from the ocean.

"It sounds like you two had a lucky escape.” El pushed his long hair behind his ears and bit his lip in a momentary return to his customary shyness. “I hate that Prince. He’s a total psycho.”

“Mmhm, yeah, but what I want to know is why Si and Hardy let us go?” Saj repeated the question. now to the newly formed threesome. “Those guys are like his little robots or something. Usually they can’t wait to punch me, and today they let me go.”

Art cupped his elbow in his hand as he completed the thought from before, looking at the two young boys in front of him. 

“I was thinking about that. I don’t know. If you can believe it, it’s like they didn’t see us. Even after Saj knocked over the cardboard display, they just didn’t look at us… it was weird man. I mean, I’m used to being ignored, but this…” Art chuckled, shrugging his shoulders and making a throwaway gesture. “This… this was something else altogether.”

“So, has anything like that ever happened to you before?” El tried to be casual in his amateur interrogation. “Like, people not seeing you?”

His hand now began to massage the elbow it held, a motion of self comfort, Art took a moment before he answered. 

“I mean, people ignore me.” A statement made stoically, no sadness or bitterness in his voice. It was simply a fact of his existence as it had been with Saj and El. “I don’t get noticed, even when I speak people just don’t want to hear me. This, with you two, has been the longest I can remember anyone paying attention to me for.”

Art looked at the two friends in front of him and sighed deeply. He shrugged a hand in the air dismissively as he continued. “I don’t know, I’m just not a very interesting person I suppose… I just seem to walk through the world in out of a spotlight that everyone else is under.”

El and Saj shared a quick glance. 

It was not a surprise to the two boys to hear what Art was saying. For El it was slightly disappointing; a private bond with his new best friend was being diluted by an outsider, a stranger who had arrived without his invitation. 

For Saj who still saw Art as his saviour, it was joyous. Another outsider welcomed into the group to share and explore this new world with. One who was brave and who had acted like the heroes Saj so desperately wanted himself to be. 

For Art, aware that something intangible and outside of his understanding was coalescing around him, he knew that he was stood at an important crossroads in his life. He could not have seen the crossroads coming, and now he was here he was stood with one foot hovering over the first step down a new path that would be one of the defining decision of his life. He was filled with anticipation, confusion and a deep longing for acceptance. He understood that the two boys knew more than they were letting on, and that if he wanted to find out more he’d need to leave his solitary path and join them, fully and without reservation in the unknown…

“Guys, what’s going on?” Art asked

And they told him.