Chapter 11: PART-TIME

Cindy was absent from class that day and Jeff had already dropped. Mac hadn't spoken to Cindy since that night at the club, but she had sent him a text asking if he had gotten home alright. Mac left it unread. It had been a few days now.

Today, he purposefully sat in the row behind Chez who always sat in the same spot. Would Chez recognize him?

Like clockwork, Chez appeared. He took his seat without a hint of recognition; he didn't even look over. Sitting so close, Mac was able to take a perverse pleasure in identifying patterns in Chez's daily behavior. Chez always wore plain and functional clothing. He wore buttoned down shirts, even when the weather was hot. Although he never wore product in his hair or aftershave, he smelled of soap.

Class began. Mac shallowed. His heartbeat increased. He leaned forward and tapped Chez on the shoulder.

"Do you have a spare pen?"

Mac's excitement faded when Chez didn't turn around. He hesitated a moment, enough to make Mac wonder if he was being ignored. Then Chez rummaged through his bag and handed the pen over his shoulder with an upturned wrist; never once making eye contact.

The pen was cheap; the kind you buy in sets of ten. Nothing about it was special, but it retained a slight warmth from where Chez's fingers had been. At the end of class, Chez left, and Mac slipped the pen into his coat pocket.

Later that day he entered an on-campus sandwich shop. It served good coffee and a cute dessert menu with items big enough to share making it especially popular among couples. Cindy and Jeff waved to him from a table in the corner. After sitting down, he fussed with his drink, adding a sugar packet from the table.

After a time, Jeff and Cindy shared a look.

"Oi," Jeff exclaimed, grabbing Mac's hand. Shaken from his daze, Mac looked at Jeff in confusion. "You've made it undrinkable."

Mac looked at his coffee and the five empty packets of sugar next to it. His hands gripped a sixth packet mid rip. It was too late to save the packet.

"Why're you acting so weird?" Cindy probed. She grabbed the packet and poured it into her own drink to prevent the waste.

Mac rubbed his eyes and apologized, admitting he was just a bit distracted.

Cindy and Jeff returned to their original conversation while Mac strayed again into his own thoughts.

Eventually, he blurted them out. "Have either of you ever seen that freshman kid, Chez, hanging out with friends?"

Jeff and Cindy were silent, glancing at each other with blank stares. Jeff asked if he was talking about the wunderkind with glasses. Nodding, Mac added he'd never seen him even walking to class with anyone. It seemed he had no friends. A knot in his stomach tightened, but he tried not to examine too closely why.

Jeff rubbed his chin, thoughtful, and remembered a time he'd seen the freshman in the company of a heavily tattooed kid. But just briefly across the quad so maybe it wasn't him after all.

Cindy stared at her coffee, rubbing her thumb across the brim of the cup. Frowning in thought, she added, "No, I've seen him a few times with a tattooed guy also. Swoop bangs?" She gestured the style with her hands and Jeff confirmed. "Yeah. I don't know if they're friends though."

Cindy looked at Mac, noting his puzzled expression. "Why? Something bothering you about him?"

Mac nibbled the inner corner of his cheek. He didn't answer right away. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his brow with a sigh. "He just seems lonely."

Jeff made a sound of consideration. "From what I've heard, he's sorta been pushing people away. I kinda got the impression people have tried to invite him to hangout, but he shoots them down. He has a bit of a reputation for being rude."

"Perhaps he's too busy to realize he's alone?" Mac wondered.

Jeff sighed and looked around the café full of couples. "Must be nice."

Mac finally sipped his coffee and flinched at its sweetness. "I just think I should do something," Mac admitted.

When Jeff asked why, Mac tried to think of a reason. "Maybe I feel like it's my duty as the Student Body President. As the school's wunderkind, I should make sure he's adjusting well to student life."

Jeff said that sounded like a stretch. Mac had to agree. Why was he so concerned? It wasn't any of his business and Chez himself didn't seem troubled.

Mac sipped his drink, noting it was much less sweet now. It had a nutty hazelnut flavor and a deeper bitterness. He glanced at Cindy who was sipping her coffee like nothing had changed and Jeff who only wrinkled his nose slightly. At some point while he'd been distracted, his friends had mixed theirs drinks into his to cut down the sweetness.

Mac glanced at the drink again and smiled. "I just think, everyone should have good friends." Yeah, that was probably it.

A few weeks later, Mac stood in front of his mirror considering his appearance. He was dressed more casually than usual: dark button-down shirt with an opened collar, dark jeans and new sneakers. They were still brand name clothes, but not overtly labeled. He tussled his hair so that it fell naturally and styled it today without product.

Turning from side to side in the mirror, he tried to determine if the image of the casual Mac Whitter felt like himself. He grinned, thinking it felt quite nice. He pulled out a pair of fake glasses and slipped them on. Realizing what he was doing, a look of shock flashed across his face. He snatched them off and tossed them aside with a look of repulsion. Just whose reflection was he trying to see?

"Jesus, Mac. Get some fucking help." He chided himself.

Jeff and Cindy didn't say much about his sudden wardrobe change, though they did share another look between themselves when Mac wasn't looking. Since that day, Mac started to integrate a more casual style into his wardrobe.

Since scholarships didn't pay for all of Chez's expenses, he made extra money working part-time at a 24-hour convenience store near campus. One evening, Chez was working the cash register when the bell over the door rung. He looked up from his textbook and pushed it aside, ready to assist the customer.

Mac strolled in for some late-night shopping. He wandered around, looking blankly at the shelves and contemplated his next move. Worried that he was taking too long, Mac selected a few items and brought them to the counter.

Mac had never been inside a convenience store. He couldn't image needing anything from such a place and, after examining the shelves, didn't know what brought people to such places.

He had struggled to decide what necessities could be so important that they'd send a person out after 10 P.M. to purchase them, but he finally settled on what he hoped were reasonable items: a small bag of chips, a pack of cigarettes, and a box of condoms.

Chez began ringing the items when Mac leaned over the counter and asked, "Hey, aren't we in the same engineering class?"

Over the course of several months, Mac had developed a plan. He had made it his mission to befriend Chez. For Mac, finding the perfect way to introduced himself became his fixation. Tonight was the climax where all his clever planning and scheming came together. Despite his natural charm and charisma, Mac felt nervous. His heartbeat thumped wildly inside his chest.

Over the beep of the bar code reader, Mac made his move, holding out his hand. "I'm Mac Whit-" he started but was cut short.

"I know who you are." Chez ignored the outstretched hand and focused on bagging the items. "How could I not know the campus 'prince'."

Mac cringed at the title. He rubbed his neck awkwardly and laughed. "Yeah. There's a lot of unfair rumors about me," he admitted.

Puzzled, Chez wondered aloud. "Oh? Then you aren't the unserious type who parties every night – despite this being your junior year – and you haven't slept with half the female student body?"

The casual bluntness stunned Mac, and his only response was to stare dumbfounded with his mouth hanging open like a fish. He closed and opened it twice, trying to find some excuse, but nothing emerged. The embarrassing moment was made all the worse when three of his mates, tired of waiting in the parking lot, came in.

"Mac!" one whined, "Hurry up. We're gonna piss the girls off if we're late." Another approached the counter and whimpered that it was his birthday, and he didn't want to spend it at a convenience store.

Indifferent to the disruption, Chez held out the bag. "Your condoms, sir. Have a good night."

Mac left amongst the snickers and jeers of his friends. His ears were ringing, and his jaw clenched. He was pretty sure Chez had mocked him. There had been the slightest grin on his face when Mac had reached for the bag.

Mac didn't know if he felt angry or embarrassed, or maybe a third feeling he hadn't yet identified. He stared out the window while his friends continued to tease him on the way to the club. He wasn't responding to their jabs, so they moved on to discuss their plans for the evening. This was interrupted by quiet laughter coming from the corner of the car. It was low at first, but gradually that changed.

The guys looked back and forth between themselves unsure what was happening. Mac's laughter escalated until he doubled over, gripping his sides.

Finally, one of the guys spoke. "Mac?"

Mac gasped for air, his lungs straining, trying to calm down. He leaned back in the seat and brushed back his hair which had fallen into his face. The corners of his eyes were damp. One long high-pitched sigh escaped his lungs.

"Fucking shit fuck," he swore, digging his palms into his eye sockets. "All that planning and I'm just some floozy fuck boy to him."