Halo - 3. Chapter Three

Eyes. Dark eyes. Dark eyes with broken vessels and surrounded by cracking, flaking skin stared at me widely. They were expressing anger, horror…and most of all, intense hatred as they bore into my soul, unnerving me immensely.

Why me?

I opened my eyes, feeling the vibrations of my phone in my pocket and relieved to have returned from that strange and sinister dream. My room was dark and quiet. There was the distant sound of a television airing a sporting event, most likely being watched by Dustin in the living room.

My phone continued to vibrate, so I pulled it out of my pocket to look at the screen. It was Mike calling.

Quickly tapping on the button, I pressed the phone to my ear and answered, “Hey, Mike. What’s up?”

“Hey, nothing much. I mean, I just finished talking with Claire and… Is it okay if we can talk, one on one, at the park close to your house?” Mike asked, sounding strange.

“Oh, sure. That’s no problem at all. I’ll be there in five minutes,” I said.

“Great. See you there.”

Mike ended the call and I quickly got ready. As I did, plenty of scenarios played inside my head about what happened with Mike and Ms. Smith. However, I would reserve my judgement until I heard the truth coming from Mike’s own mouth. Right then if he needed someone to talk to, I would be there for him. I wasn’t the greatest conversationalist, but I did know how to listen, how to comfort somebody, and I was more than willing to do that for Mike.

Exiting through the front door, I took the five-minute walk to the park. It was lit by soft-glowing streetlamps and the sound of crickets added to the calming aura of the area. I sat down on a wooden bench facing a small playground and waited for Mike to arrive.

I remembered playing with Dustin as very young child at that same playground. Climbing up the rope ladder and going down the spiral slide was so repetitive when I look back, yet so fun as a child. Even back then Dustin was competitive, always trying to race me around the playground’s obstacles. We both did it for fun. It was a more pleasant time of my life when I didn’t have many worries or struggles and was carefree, as children should be.

It didn’t take long for me to hear someone approaching and I turned my head to see Mike who had his hands in his pockets and a tired smile on his face.

“Hey, Mike. Good to see you again,” I said.

“Yeah, you too, Duncan. You too,” Mike said as he sat down next to me. “What have you been up to? Well, I guess not much since we just talked only a few hours ago.”

“Heh, you’re right, nothing much. Just slept a little, woke up and now I’m here. Pretty normal day actually.”

“Good. Good.” Mike then sighed heavily as he pressed his back against the backrest of the bench. “I wish I could say the same.”

I furrowed my eyebrows from the response and asked, “Are you okay, Mike? How was your talk with Claire?”

Mike chuckled humorlessly and said, “Not well. Not well at all… Can you keep a secret, Duncan?”

Nodding, I said, “You can trust me.”

“Good.” Taking a deep breath, Mike continued by saying, “Well, here it goes. I was having an affair with Claire, while she was my teacher a decade ago.”

I suspected that much, but to hear it from Mike himself was still jaw-dropping. Ms. Smith seemed so strict, not tolerating even the slightest disruptions in her classroom that having an affair with a student made my mind do a total flip.

“Really?” I said.

“Yup. I mean, I was sixteen at that time and in plenty of states and countries, you’re legally an adult.”

“Yeah, but Claire was still your teacher and her having an affair with you is an abuse of her authority,” I specified.

“Yes, I know. I guess I tried to justify our forbidden relationship by saying things like age didn’t matter. That was what we mostly talked about this evening. What I didn’t expect was for her to say she wanted to continue our relationship that we had before my vacation to the Philippines.”

“Oh… Do you want that?” I asked, not wanting to hear the answer that he wanted to.

“No…I don’t. Claire…she’s a great person and she deserves someone much better than one of her former students…but apparently, she didn’t think the same way. I mean, I tried to explain to her that what we had wasn’t right and wouldn’t work, that so many things have changed for me and for her. I just wanted to end it in a good note.”

“Did it?”

Mike laughed. “Nope. Not. At. All. Do you want to know what she said to me? She said that I should be ashamed of myself for taking advantage of our student-teacher relationship as if she had no part in what we did together. And that was right before she splashed sake on me and left me to pay for two hundred dollars’ worth of unfinished sushi.”

“God, I’m sorry, Mike,” I said sincerely and that was when I noticed the stain on his dress shirt.

“Eh, I guess I should be ashamed. She was the shy student-teacher back then and I was the popular jock who always stayed after school in detention for constantly being the class clown.”

“Sounds like the plot of a really bad porno,” I stated.

Mike laughed heartily to that and said, “Oh, God, you’re right. It was more of my ego wanting to see if could score a teacher and now that I look back it, it was stupid. Beyond stupid.”

“Well, at least it’s over regardless of how it ended,” I said.

“That’s true,” Mike said as he stretched his body with his hands behind his head. He then turned his head to face me and said, “Hey, thanks for taking the time to hear about my problems. I very well couldn’t talk about this to someone like Miranda and come back from that unscathed.”

“No problem, Mike. Glad to be a listening ear.”

“Hey, is your vision still good since Saturday?”

“Oh, definitely. Thank you so much for doing that for me.”

Mike smiled, but then he looked down and said, “I’m sure you’re wondering how the hell I was able to do, right?”

I didn’t know how else to respond but to nod.

Mike then looked up at me and right into my eyes. “Can you keep another secret, Duncan?”

I nodded again. “Yes. What you say here will stay with me until I die.”

“Well, hopefully that won’t happen for very long time. I like having you around,” Mike said and placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it.

I blushed hard from that admission. All I wanted to do right then was confess my attraction for him and show it by leaning in for a kiss. But, of course, I was too scared to do anything remotely like that unless I was dreaming, and I didn’t want the risk of Mike distancing himself from me and have this friendship we were developing disappear.

So, I just restrained myself and just smiled.

“So…are you ready to hear it?” Mike asked, looking serious suddenly.

I nodded.

Mike turned his head to look at the streetlamp that was close to where we were sitting. He stood up and walk to the light. With his hand raised to the bulb, he stood there until the light began to flicker and then what happened next astonished me to say the least.

The light from the streetlamp suddenly vanished and Mike slowly turned around with his index finger pointing at something behind me. I turned around to see the streetlamps that lined a paved walkway close by. One by one, from right to left, each streetlamp turned off without any obvious external influences. You could say I was speechless.

I turned back to see Mike wearing a small smile on his face. Before I knew it, all the streetlamps in our surrounding area were off, causing the place to be darker. I could barely see Mike’s figure as he walked back to me and sat down on the bench.

I was quiet for a moment, and then I said, “Please tell me that was just a coincidence. That all the lights turned off on their own.”

“No. It wasn’t. Now look up,” Mike advised.

I did. I saw my name formed of white dots that had to be stars…or maybe they were the lights that came from the streetlamps.

I look back at Mike who was still looking up at the sky with a pleased look on his face. “What the…”

“Does that look like a coincidence, Duncan?” Mike asked.

I couldn’t say anything. I returned my eyes back to my name that dotted the sky and wondered what else Mike would show me. I didn’t need more evidence to admit to myself that Mike was not the same ordinary man who disappeared ten years ago.

“Mike…please tell me how you were able to do that.”

Slowly turning his head to face me again, his eyes locked into mine, he said, “Maybe we should just call it a night. I think you need time to process all of this and I don’t want you to be overloaded with what I tell you. Is that okay?”

I was definitely disappointed, but hid it and said, “Yeah, of course. But can I ask you just one question?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Why…Why me?”

Mike furrowed his eyes at me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, why are you showing me all of this? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not questioning your kindness here. It’s very much welcomed. It’s just…why am I the one you want to show all of this too?”

Mike placed a hand on his chin, seemingly in thought and after a moment said, “I actually don’t have a solid answer to that. But what I can say is that you’re different from the many other people that I know, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Your willingness to forgive other people and you’re lack of a judgmental attitude is what I guess is drawing me towards you. I’m realizing quickly that you’re someone I would like to know at a personal level. Are you all right with that?”

I quickly nodded and Mike gave me another smile that lightened my soul. He then placed an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his body, seemingly in a friendly manner. But when I looked into his blue eyes, I noticed there was something more to the way he was looking at me. The way he was lightly biting his lower lip and massaging his fingers into my shoulder were additional signals.

“Duncan…” Mike said in a husk.

I swallowed. “Y-Yeah?”

Mike didn’t say anything else. He just leaned his face forward and kissed me. On the lips. I felt my soul hop out of my body from the surrealism of it and the utter elation I felt from Mike’s lips pressed onto mine. And what did I do? I kissed him back of course!

However, this was my first time kissing a guy. My first time to kiss anyone. So, I didn’t know what to do exactly other than to press my lips firmly onto Mike’s and open my mouth slightly. I then felt his smile. He proceeded to move in for a deeper kiss. I did my best to mimic the movement of his lips and from the way my whole body was buzzing, I must’ve been doing something right and hopefully Mike was feeling the same way.

It soon became more intense as I finally got the hang of it and loved every second of the contact. I was so turned on right then and it only became more electric when Mike placed his other hand onto my hair and held it, causing me to moan into his mouth as he pulled me in to him gently. Feeling his stubble on my face increased my arousal. Mike was pouring masculinity and I was losing myself.

Mike moved his lips to my neck next causing another moan to escape from the new sensations I was feeling. He then nibbled the lobe of my ear which made me shiver. Before long, he leaned back and looked at me. I didn’t have words to say about what I felt right then and maybe Mike was the same way since we continued to look at each other. Our eyes spoke for us and it was wonderful.

“So, Duncan…are you available to hang out tomorrow after school?” Mike asked.

I smiled. “Definitely.”