Book Club To The Head

A short story.

By Simon M. Greaves

The date was not going well and Mark knew it. The woman across the table was someone he wanted for nothing more than a quick one nightstand and instead he felt tricked into a date, one that had dragged on hours longer than it had any right to.

The meal over the drinks all but drank and the bill came. The expectation would be on either him paying the whole amount or simply splitting the total in half, each paying the same.

However he wanting to hasten the end of this failed experiment had forgon a starter or dessert and so, “I just need a quick look of the list.” He put a tick by his orders then added them up, “Here’s mine.” He handed it back to Wendy.

“This isn’t even half.” She said after flicking through the notes.

“Check the paper, that's everything I had.”

“You want me to pay more?” She said a mournfulness tightening her throat a little.

“You wanted to eat more.”

Without anymore words she verified his accounting, paid the difference and left. Mark had stood from the table with her but headed for the bar instead. His drunkenness was incomplete.

Unsurprisingly the next day Mark was in the throes of a migraine his brain felt as though it was pushing its way through his eye sockets.

After cleaning himself up as much as possible, gurgling a quarter bottle of mouthwash and applied far too much of the sour chemical smelling Lynx Africa, he left and made his way to high school. The class wouldn’t teach itself.

“Morning, Morning. Everyone sit… quieten down… quiet !” The dozen and a half room full of young adults finally noticed him and after taking a moment or two to finish up conversations sat in their places.

“Good. A new book today.” The class as a collective moaned as if they expected to never have a new project after the the conclusion of the previous one, “It’s a short one, only…” He flicked through to the end, “Five pages.”

“Gotta piss, sir. Sir!” Sam shouted.

“Class started less than a minute ago, you had time before then to go.” Mark said already exasperated.

“Nah I didn’t, you don’t know that.” Sam pretended to be insulted and angry. Sam was the sort of kid the teachers called a t**d when they were safely away from the pupils. A fat little t**d.

“Fine, just be quick.” He knew Sam didn’t need to go, was probably just going to wander around outside looking in on other classes and would end up smoking in a nook somewhere, but he didn’t care. Letting him go was a victory, he didn’t have to deal with the t**d for a while and if Sam was caught and returned Mark could just say he decided to have faith in a pupil, a faith that was taken advantage of.

“Now he’s gone I’ll ask the rest of you, does anyone need to go for any reason?” Silence, “Good. So back to the short story. Book Club to the Head It’s by Simon M. Greaves. Anyone know who that is.”

“That guy who writes s****y boring sci-fi stuff.” Danny said at the perfect volume to be heard without shouting.

“No swearing! The guy is best known for short his fiction and-”

“What’s it about?” Danny again. This faux interested came at a bad time, Mark liked to keep up the mystic of a teacher, that he knew everything about the topics at hand and having not read a word or the short story he was struggling to think of a way to surreptitiously look at the back cover’s blurb.

“Well you know a little of the writer… so have a guess.” Mark said while walking over to his seat, putting his feet on his desk and maneuvering at an angle so him reading the back couldn’t be seen.

“Was I close… Sir!” Sam shouted.

“What?”

“What I said, is it close to the book?”

“Let’s see, you start from page one.” Mark said, Sam grimaced as though he had just lost a hard fought game.

“Fine. The date wasn’t going well, Mark knew it. The woman cross the table was someone he wanted nothing more than a quick one nightstand and instead he felt tricked into a date, one that had dragged on hours longer than it had any right to.

The meal over the drinks all but drunk and the bill came. The expec- expectation would be on either him paying the whole amount or simply splittin’ the total in half, each paying the same.

However he wanting to hasten the end of this failed experiment had forgon a starter or dessert and so, ‘I just need a quick look of the list.’ He put a tick by his order then added them up, ‘Here’s mine.’ He handed it back to Wend-”

“Stop reading!” His head was spinning, he felt his migraine exploding, his gut dropping.

“Should I carry on.”

“Oh f**k… look at what he wrote about Lucy-Jane!” The noise of the room fell away only for it to erupt to levels even louder than before.

“Lucy-Jane?” She was one of the highlights of the job. Unbelievably attractive, sharp features paired with soft pale skin. Green eyes, long brown hair. A body that was effortlessly both slender and with wonderfully harsh curves where he liked them and since she was sixteen years old he didn’t have to feel too horrible with himself about his distant admiration of her beauty. Wanting to know what was written in the book about her he quickly scanned through till he saw her name. Soft skin, green eyes, curves, sixteen.

“Oh on!” His eyes were shocked into a constant focus on the page till he heard sobbing and the scraping of a chair on the floor. It was Lucy-Jane, tears running down over her soft pale skin from her still inviting green eyes, she ran straight out of the class.

Mark’s first instinct was to give chase but with the context of why she left being potentially alone with her was ill advised.

“Sir you're right, best keep away from her!” Danny said as he kept up in real time.

“No more reading ahead! Everyone return the books to me!” Mark got up and started wrestling copies from the hands of students, Sam returned.

“What’s happin’?” He said with his gormless t**d mouth.

“Sirs a pedo… and he thinks your a t**d… a gormless one and he swears a lot.”

“Danny stop reading! This isn’t me… it’s all f*****g bullshit.”

“See.” Sam walked over looking over Danny’s shoulder.

“How’s it end?” Danny flicked through.

“Like this.”