10:08
It's beautiful. Silver and black, chrome and hard plastic. Smoothly clicking and clacking, locking and loading parts. Something this beautiful, thought Shaun, was something to be shared with others. So, he brought it to school.
Dave woke up around 9:36. That gave him just enough time to shower (but not shave) and get his sorry butt to school for first class. What a day. The sky was blue and the snow was white, and the tires on his Chevette still weren't too bald to drive in the snow. So, he showered most unceremoniously, leaving the dandruff shampoo until tomorrow to save a little time. He grabbed a hat and his keys as he went out the door.
Sarah sat in class at 9:41. Early class today, one which she was almost late for. She was a flurry of long purply hair, greenish jacket and swinging bags as she burst through the classroom door. That was nearly an hour ago, however, and since then she had returned to her waking state of slothliness and drowse. A thing or two had worked their way into her brain purely by means of osmosis... since there was such a high concentration of knowledge in the ait, and such a low concentration inside her head. She needed coffee and needed it fast if she was to salvage part of the morning.
Stella, ever the art student, had been forced into gentle slumber by a very charming sandman late last night. She had almost slumped over right on top of her term drawing, but managed to slip her great big pig picture into her portfolio case before her eyes drooped shut for the final time. The idea of driving home was a ludicrous one, and there was a couch right in the Common area, so she wandered over to it and found a comfortable groove. Other students working late did it too, however, if she was a little more alert she would have seen that she was teh only one there on this particular night. No big deal, someone or something would wake her up in the morning.. maybe even in time for her first class.
Jeremy had decided not to bother with his first class today. A number of things made the idea come into being, and he knew he made the right choice when he walked into the Common, late. He found himself in the Common after coming in the front doors of the college and following the hall to it's end. This was where the Common area opened up. The far wall was 30 feet high and all windows. At strategic points, islands of consumerism lived and thrived... the Tim Hortons stand, the Candy Wagon, and the door to the campus bar on the right wall. None of that really caught his eye with any fervor. What did, was when he saw a certain girl enjoying a hard earned slumber on one of the bland grey couches. She was all curled up in a hooded sweater, brown cords and Chuck Taylor originals. As pretty as ever too. She was in Jeremy's second class and he had admired her all semester. Her hair was still perfect in all it's little multi-coloured braids, and she wore a contented, dreamy smile. That's when he decided to stick around, and maybe he could be the one to wake her up for class... and just maybe strike up a conversation. Hmn, 9:55... plenty of time to admire her.
Shaun came through the double doors at the front of the school. His Timex read 9:56, though the school clocks might have been a little ahead. He stomped his feet on the black rubber floor mat to shake the snow off, and secured his golden-yellow backpack on both shoulders. He strode down the hall towards the Common area with an anti-expression on his face.
Dave's Chevette chugged to a stop in the school's back parking lot. He thought about what a lucky bastard he was to have gotten a space so close to the back door of the Common. Normally he'd spend the next ten to fifteen minutes walking in the thick snow to the door, but not this time. Now there was time enough for a coffee, if there's enough change in his pocket. He steps out of the relative warmth of the car and into the natural cold of the outdoors... then into the man-made heat of the Common area after a few short steps.
Sarahs class ends with promises of a new assignment on Thursday. All the students stumble out of the small room, Sarah leading the pack with her bags and purse whirliing about like a miniature Texas twister. Straight to the Common for one blinding FUCK of a black coffee. Hmn, no... fuck that... more like a big-ass cappucino and some gummi bears. Fuckin' A. The rest of the class heads the otehr way down the hall, towards where most of them have another police foundations lecture, towards the front of the building.
Stella shifts around on the grey couch, fading out of her piggy dream. Not just a dream involving piggies... but where she was a pig, rooting around in filth... and loving it. Snort snort, hee hee! Piggies are so cute. With their snouts and their hooves and their little curly-fry tails. And damned if they didn't taste good too. Stella's eyes gradually opened more and more, until she was convinced she was awake. Aww, no more piggies. Too bad. It was just a matter of time before one of them hopped up on her back and tried to start humping her anyhow, a thought which made her snicker. Piggies tryin' to do it... that was a funny picture. She rubbed her eyes with her palms, her ringed fingers outstretched. Hmn, morning. But what time? She didn't need to miss colour concepts class again... where were the clocks around here anyhow? Then she noticed someone across from her, someone in her concepts class, someone who she knew had a crush on her... someone with a watch. "Um hey," Stella said, stiffling a yawn, "what time ya got there pardner?"
Nervous, Jeremy glanced open mouthed as his Swatch and replied, "Umm... almost 10. Nine-fifty nine actually." And then he immediately followed what he said with the thought, "God, I'm such a fucknut". She didn't notice, he guessed out of drowsiness. He had to say something though, this was his chance. "Yeah, uh... just enough time for a coffee before class..." and she smiled and said that was a good idea... except she didn't drink caffiene. But a hot chocolate would be nice. Fuckin' A! He got up and offered her a hand up, which she took, and they went over to the Tim Hortons kiosk.
"It's beautiful, It's so beautiful..." Shaun muttered to himself. But it wasn't enough. He needed something more. Something more. Something... a coffee. Yes, coffee. And then he would show them. Because it was so beautiful... silver and black, chrome and plastic... locking and loading.
So beautiful.
Dave was first in line at the kiosk, followed by the overflowing Sarah, with Stella and Jimmy approaching respectively. Shaun came up to continue and finish the line, sweating. Though it was a comfortable temperature inside for someone like himself, who didn't even have a jacket on.
Dave put his hands through his haid, wondering if the dandruff would stay away for just one more day. Sarah dug trenches in her black shiny purse, while shifting bags from hand to hand and eventually dropping one on the floor. It helped her in her quest for change. Stella absently tussled her hair and secretly wondered how she looked... and more importantly, smelled. You have a certain status to live up to in that regard when you're named after part of a flower. Jeremy started to babble, his tension getting the better of him in his efforts. Somewhere in his rabble he offered to pay for her hot chocolate if she was short on change, while his Swatch ticked away to 10:01. Shaun loosened his backpack, so it was only over his right shoulder.
He wiped the sweat off his brow.
Dave found on the way in that he did have enough for a medium coffee with two sugars. Sarah stopped searching after her discovery of enough coin for a large cappucino. Stella finally noticed where they hid the clocks in this place. The Tim Hortons clock said it was 10:02. Jeremy took a moment to gloss over the beauty of things for a moment... to think a whisper about how things went well sometimes, really well... as the Coffee Jockey behind the counter poured the last of the pot into Jeremys cup.
Nothing left.
'Oh well,' Shaun thought, as he reached into his bag. Shaun pulls his left hand back out of the bag. In it is the beautiful, silver and black, chrome and plastic, locking and loading Magnum. The watch on his wrist starts to say something about 10:03, but it is silenced by Shauns sleeve.
Dave feels the first bullet rip through his shoulder and come dancing out of his chest while his watch changes over to 10:04. His coffee cup slams to the floor and spills all over his shoes. He slumps across the far end of the counter and stays there for a terrible moment, until he slides off onto the floor, dead, with flakes of dandruff floating down to the floor to meet him.
The Timex says 10:05, and Sarah feels the metal slug in her leg before realizing what's happening. Another bullet jumps out of the barrel as she falls to the floor. It splashes intp her supple, eager flesh and begins to pulse blood immediately/ Her cappucino tumbles out of her hand and across the floor. A puddle of it scalds her face when her head hits the floor, but it doesn't matter... she's already quite dead. All sorts of items spill out of her bags and purse, as her liquid center insides spill out of her two bullet wounds.
Stella is still facing away from the gun when her sleep dulled senses start sreaming at her to run. A bullet pierces the back of her head and fragments of bone flake off in all directions, as the skin at the entry wound actually curls up. The wetworks scrawl across the clock above the counter... the plain face of the timepiece simply says 10:06. The bullet slows down through a few inches of brain and stops right before exiting out of her right eye. She drops her hot chocolate which streaks across the floor and she falls as if tripped by an extended foot. Her perfect little nose catches on the counter in front of her and jams her septum into her brain, joining the bullet that's been waiting for a neighbour. Her face is a twisted mess of blood and cartiledge, her clothes showered in sprays of blood. her portfolio snaps open upon hitting the floor, and a final splotch of snotty blood marks her piggy picture.
Jeremy, in total shock and melodrama, does nothing. He stands over the fallen, a useless 'o' etched into his face over his mouth. His only really coherent thought involves the fact that he'll be late for colour concepts class because of this... and he'll have to explain the whereabouts of one seriously bloodied-up girl to his Brit-bitch teacher. For his touching trouble and concern, Jeremy himself feels a bullet in his head, entering just above his right eye. Then another, left of that one. Another, above the second and then just *one* more, directly above the first. The holes form a crude square on his forehead. His coffee splish-splashes across his feet. The back of his head cracks open as he fell first on the counter mildly, then in a wide gash as he strikes the floor. Red and grey bits and pieces everywhere, although it's widely known that red and grey are not compatible colour partners, thank you very much, I hope to get and A on my paper. Jeremy has stopped, precisely at 10:07, according to his wonderful new Swatch his brother gave him for his birthday.
The Timex says 10:08, that's close enough. It's beautiful. Silver and black made so many more shades of wonderful red. Shaun had a smear of stippled red across his face from the array of bullets fired. Such beautiful dancing colour. In the ari, the blood made such intricate ballets of images. It was all delicate and sublime and beautiful. But now it was all gone. His nose was bleeding.
Nothing could be finer.
Shaun wore the biggest smile his face had seen in recent years when he put the gun barrel in his mouth. It was hot, but he didn't mind. It was so beautiful.
He would be beautiful soon too.
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