Zachary Rawlins - The Academy

“The Mission,” Eerie answered, grabbing Alex by the arm and pulling him along. “There are some places I like around here. We’ll be able to find clothes and stuff.”

The Mission was an older neighborhood, grimy and dignified, poor and yet overflowing with optimistic entrepreneurs and vividly colored street art. The majority of the people on the street seemed to be Latino men, but there was fair representation of hipsters and young families on the busy street as well. They passed a flower stand staffed by a Vietnamese family, and Alex returned a smile from a cherub-faced little boy, who stood on top of the counter his grandmother worked. Outside, on the sidewalk, a half-dozen enterprising homeless had laid out blankets, and were selling second-hand books and knickknacks. The neighborhood was bustling and vibrant, the air thick with exhaust and the smells of a dozen different cuisines. After his time in Central, it seemed fantastically crowded and loud to Alex.

Eerie dragged him a couple of blocks up Sixteenth, turning at Valencia Street. She released Alex’s hand in front of a skate shop, explaining that she wanted to visit the boutique next door, which only did women’s clothing. Alex dug through the stock at the skate shop for a while, coming up with a couple black t-shirts, a pair of baggy drab green pants, and a heavy, dark grey sweatshirt for the evening. The sullen, heavily tattooed man at the counter took the money Eerie had given him with an air of bored resentment, slowly counting out change and then haphazardly shoving his purchases into plastic grocery bags. Alex stepped out of the skate shop, glanced at the boutique and didn’t see Eerie, and figured she was trying stuff on.

He wandered down the block and then across the street to a discount clothing store, where he bought a package of generic tube socks and a couple pairs of boxer shorts. By the time he returned the boutique, Eerie was waiting for him, a bag shoved underneath one of her arms.

“What now?” Alex asked, scratching his neck. He wanted to go somewhere and change, as he was tired of wearing dirty clothes, and it was too windy for pants with a hole in the knee. The breeze coming off the San Francisco Bay appeared to be every bit as cold as he’d been led to believe.

“I still need to go to some more places,” Eerie said with a frown. “Are you finished already?”

Alex shrugged.

“Sorry, I guess I didn’t think too much about it,” Alex said, feeling a touch embarrassed. “I bought the first things that fit, and looked alright, you know?”

Eerie bounced from one foot to the other, hopping around oblivious pedestrians in the pursuit of some private game, while a disturbing thought occurred to him.

“Hey, do you think I need to buy anything special for tonight? I mean, like, clothes? Do they have a dress code or anything, wherever it is you want to go?”

Eerie smiled at him, clearly amused.

“Alex will be fine in whatever, because he is a boy, and no one cares what boys are wearing. But, I still have to do some shopping.” Eerie pondered for a moment. “I don’t come to San Francisco often…”

Alex sighed inwardly, but fixed a smile on his face.

“Well, lead on, then,” he said with forced cheerfulness. “I’ll carry your bag for you.”

To his surprise, Eerie turned away and tucked her bag further under her arm.

“Well, no,” Eerie mumbled, her back to Alex. “That wouldn’t be good. If you are done, then, would you like to wait somewhere for me?”

Alex found himself abruptly abandoned at a small, green Formica table, in front of a cafe, waiting for a cappuccino to cool. Eerie had deposited him there rather firmly, leaving him money and instructions to stay until she got back. Alex leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, stretching out his legs and trying to convince himself that the weak sunlight was somehow warm. He dug his headphones out of his pocket and put them in, letting it play at random. The song that came on was ambient, electronics simulating the distant rumble of thunder and the chattering of insects over a textured, looping washes of static. By the time the vocals kicked in, Alex was half-asleep.

Alex drifted, letting the world pass him by, his head resting against the cool brickwork of the building, his legs stretched out underneath the table. The battery in his mp3 player must have died at some point, and he must have nodded off, because when Alex woke, Eerie was talking to him.

“You have a bad habit of falling asleep whenever you’re left alone,” she scolded. She wore a new t-shirt, a white jersey with three-quarters-sleeves in red. Her black skirt hung in folds a bit above her knees, and her black socks cut off a little below. Alex rubbed his eyes and tried to compose himself, hoping he hadn’t drooled while he slept, or anything. Eerie twirled in front of him, her skirt flaring. “What do you think, Alex?”

“It’s… you look very cute.” Alex stammered. “Um, yes. You look good.”

Eerie nodded seriously, and Alex was relieved that he had apparently said the right thing.

“Okay,” she said cheerfully. “And I have flyers, also.”

“Alright,” Alex said, nodding uncertainly. “You have flyers?”

“For tonight,” Eerie clarified. “Also, this is for you,” she said, tossing him a disposable Korean cell phone. “My number is already programmed in. Just in case.”

“Good idea,” Alex said approvingly. “Glad you thought of that.”

Eerie mumbled something and appropriated his coffee, sipping at it and then making a face.

“Bitter. Cold. How long were you asleep, anyway?”

Alex shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he said, yawning. “How long were you gone?”

Eerie looked embarrassed, and then laughed self-consciously.

“I don’t know either. Hours, I guess.”

Alex nodded uncertainly, wondering again about the girl. She was so dreamy, most of the time, tempered with strange periods when she could be alarmingly perceptive. He didn’t know what to make of it; she was nothing like anyone he’d ever known before, in one sense, but, when she’d shown off her new clothes, she could have been any girl he’d ever met. With one important difference, he reminded himself — this girl seemed eager to have him pay attention to her.

“Did you get everything you needed?”

He tried not to sound hopeful, putting the phone in his pants pocket and gathering his bags from underneath the chair, pleased to find they had been left alone during his nap.

“Pretty close,” Eerie affirmed, glancing through the bags she was holding. “Let’s go get a room at a hotel, Alex. We’ll need some place to shower and change, anyway, before we go out. Don’t worry,” she said reassuringly, misreading his expression. “I can afford it. Money’s not a problem for me.”

Alex spent so long contemplating the amazing ramifications of her suggestion that, by the time he got moving again, he had to hurry after Eerie, who was already halfway down the block.

Alex woke to the ringing of an alarm, and he came up fighting, struggling with a mess of sheets and blankets that he’d wrapped around himself in his sleep in a protective cocoon. It took him a minute or two to remember where he was, to find a clock to inform him that it was a little after seven in the evening, and then another to be grateful that Eerie had apparently woken up before the alarm, and headed off to the shower, thereby missing the spectacle of his awakening.

Stumbling and cursing, he made his way to the room’s secondary bathroom, itself an impossibly immaculate expanse of faux marble countertop and chrome fixtures, and inspected himself in the acres of mirror there, deciding that he didn’t look a whole lot different than he had on arrival. His chest was still mottled with bruises, but it didn’t hurt as much when he took a deep breath, and his arm had settled into a periodic dull throb. He felt a sense of profound disappointment, and a great deal of embarrassment, every time he thought about the girl in the other bathroom.