Arthur Stone - Chapter Two

Chapter Two

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Arthur bolted up from his unsatisfactory sleep. He looked at the time, and flew out of bed. The lecture was to start at eight o clock, and it took at least an hour to get to the lecture theatre where it was to be held, and would be the only lecture from this professor to be held before the holidays, and, to make things worse, it was for the exam that would be sat the day they returned from the holidays! He had no time to lose. Arthur speedily put on his shirt, trousers and socks, before pulling on his sneakers and grabbing his back pack, jacket and notebook and running out of the door. Racing past the kitchen with the scent of freshly boiled coffee and burnt toast wafting through his nose, Arthur ran out of the house, to the bus stop. He would be an hour early to the theatre, but that would give him enough time to get his notes together so that he would be able to get the best seat before the other students arrived right on time.

It was just that dream. That blasted dream that had caused him to feel so exhausted. Not that he wanted to recall it, but it was too fresh in his mind, only broken with the bleep of that wretched alarm piercing though his mind like needles through his ears. He'd heard someone calling out for him, a voice that he didn't quite recognise. It had called out his name, telling him that he was the love of its life, and begging to know why he was forcing it to be in a relationship with someone else. He'd tried to run away from the voice, racing though deserts, wilderness and woodland to try to escape from this strange voice, but it had chased him, followed him into the unknown, until he could run no further. He'd screamed at the voice to stop tormenting him, to let him sleep in peace. But, out of the shadows, a woman with green hair and bright eyes walked out, and begged him, with the strange voice, to stay with her forever. Terrified, he'd carried on running, running, running…

Until he'd fallen off of the edge of the dream, as the sound of the alarm clock shredded the dream, thankfully awakening him. It wasn't a dream that he'd had before, it was rather bizarre, but a dream none the less, for he hadn't been dreaming in his sleep for quite some time, years, even. It was progress, even if it was a nightmare.  

When he finally sat down, Arthur noticed, much to his shock, that quite a few people had already showed up. What made things even worse, was that his seat had been taken! The seat everyone knew that he sat on, and came in at this ungodly hour to claim for his own. It made his blood boil to think about it, the whole injustice of the scenario. He then calmed himself, remembering that people always attend early, with the belief that they would be able to leave earlier and head home for the holidays, although this was a myth that would soon be demolished, and he knew it. No matter, he would have to find a different spot, which, if anything, was rather irritating to say the least.

He sat down, and placed his books down in a neat pile after taking them out of his back pack, before placing his laptop onto the surface and logging in, opening up a word document. He had already started on the paper that he would give in for this class, and he knew that the exam that he would be taking would also be about the essay, so he thought it best to get some more of it done. Arthur took off his jacket, and tried to ignore the buzzing of voices as he typed up some more of the notes taken from the class the week previously. It would be difficult to concentrate on the task, but at least he could attempt to be the model student and try to in order to get the assignment done so that during the holidays he could focus on other things, like working, and writing…

"Hey, Art!" a cheery voice said brightly, "Why the long face?"

Arthur turned round to face his friend Will,  who was broadly grinning at him as he popped his books down onto his desk, allowing them to spill across the area like the wake of the ocean smashing against the sand of the shore.

"You're not enjoying this much, are you?" Will continued, as he gestured to the buzzing students around them, "You should of known that everyone would be unusually early for the last lecture of the term."

"Not particularly," Arthur replied, "I was intending on trying to beat the early bird rush, but I overslept, and my normal alarm woke me up, in turn causing me to scramble wildly out of bed!"

"Were you up all night writing again? You know that's not the most healthy thing to do, especially at the moment."

"Actually, I went to bed at around midnight, so I could try to get some sleep. But something out there is determined to ensure that I stay up for most of the night."

"Really? That is the worst excuse for 'I was online all night looking up sexy pictures of Kira Knightly' that I've heard for a while Art, and you bloody know it!" Will chuckled, nudging him on the arm with a saucy wink, "Anyway, it looks like Professor Smith has arrived…"

Arthur grabbed his notebook for this seminar, and a pen, ready to start taking the notes that he would need for the exam and the rest of the essay that he could focus on over the holidays.

The professor, a middle aged man with black trousers, white shirt, blue suspenders and black shiny shoes walked into the theatre, and put  his books and paper onto the desk, followed by his laptop, tapping at the keys hurriedly so that he could get the lecture presentation onto a white board for the students to take notes from.

And then the lecture began.

The professor talked slowly, droning on with only the slightest of passion in his voice, almost as if he no longer enjoyed the job of teaching. Arthur scribbled down much of what he was saying, as he was talking slowly enough for him to pretty much pen down every syllable that was spoken, although he occasionally looked up to take down some of the notes from the presentation.  It felt like only a few minutes, but soon the two hour lecture ended, and Arthur could hear books being tossed into bags, zips being done up on coats, chairs being scrapped across the ground and people laughing as they headed out into the bitter winter's morning to start their Christmas holidays at last.

"So, you going to the dance tonight?" Will asked Arthur as they finally managed to escape from the lecture theatre,  "I've been planning my whole evening, including my date. And I also heard that most of the university will be there before they leave for the holidays."

"I think I'll be working…"

"What, at half past eight?"

"Might be…"

"Arthur, you're being evasive again! I'm your co-worker, I know both our shifts, and I know for a fact that neither of us have work tonight," Will exclaimed, "You, Arthur Stone, seriously need to let your hair down, find a pretty girl…"

"William, you know better than anyone that I'm simply not interested in finding a girl right now, or letting my hair down, come to that," Arthur replied in an exasperated manner, "I have better things to be getting on with, like my writing, my studies?"

"Nonsense Art! You're much further ahead than anyone else. If anyone deserves a night out, then it's you! Come on, me and my date will pick you up at eight. Dress is formal, or at least half decent and modern, so you might want to pop into town with me this afternoon for something."

"I am sure that I already have something perfectly suitable in my wardrobe, thanks."

Arthur then looked at the frown on Will's face, and realised that he was determined to see this though, and that there was nothing for it but to go though with the plan. They would indeed be going to this dance, and he would indeed be going shopping to purchase an outfit for said dance. At least he'd been paid the day before. But then again, he would fall into the irritating trap of buying more than he'd prepared for, especially when he only needed a couple of things. Not that it mattered overly, he didn't need to buy for anyone else this Christmas, so wouldn't worry about how much he spent that afternoon anyway.

After agreeing where and when they would be meeting later that afternoon, Arthur trudged through the sludgy snow back to the bus stop, and caught a cold bus with a frozen bus driver who was complaining heavily about working in the cold conditions and that his hands felt like they were frozen to the steering wheel, back to the halls. He finally got back into the kitchen to boil the kettle, and, much to his embarrassment, the girl from the room opposite his flashed him a gentle smile of forgiveness as he went to flick the kettle switch. Arthur then decided to visit the bakers on his way into the high street, or on his way back, so that they would be fresher when they went into the tin.

Arthur then made the tea, and as he was feeling even more guilty than usual, offered the girl a cup, who politely declined, saying, "Very kind of you, but I don't really drink tea…" before grabbing a can of energy drink that she'd gotten out of the fridge and wandering back into her room, shutting the door gently behind her.

He sighed, and took his tea set back into his room, and decided to open his wardrobe up to see if he did have something suitable to wear that night anyway. When he did open the door, he looked at the three shirts, two pairs of old, faded black trousers, and the spare tweed jacket hanging sadly, all forlorn on their own in the bare wardrobe without much chance of finding new styles for companions. His underwear and socks, and a couple of pajama shorts and t shirts mingled with his spare sneakers and work shoes at the bottom of the wardrobe in a heap.  He defiantly needed to shopping, Arthur thought to himself dejectedly, as the state of affairs in this wardrobe was clearly affecting his non existing love life. He had lied to Will when he said he wasn't interested in girls, he was, but he just didn't know how to meet and fall for one, that was all. Perhaps this shopping trip would result in him finding the girl of his dreams, perhaps he'd fall flat on his face. Arthur sighed, rolled his eyes at his clothes, and shut the wardrobe door. He resolved to have a very good shop that afternoon. He also resolved to actually try harder to find a nice girl. And he really ought to start wearing those contact lenses…