Props & Mayhem

November 16th, 1999 is just like any other day for Alex Gaskarth. The seventeen-year-old wakes up at 7:15, rushes to pull his shit together, and makes it out to Zack's car, parked in front of his house, by the third honk of the horn.

"Come back here, twerp," he says to Rian playfully, sliding into the seat behind Zack.

When Rian moves obediently to the seat behind him, Alex slouches into him on the brown seat. He gives Rian a quick kiss on the cheek before beginning to pick at the stuffing spilling out from a tear in the seat. He sighs audibly; Alex has always been the dramatic one of the group.

"Did you study for Woolery's test?" Alex asks Rian.

"Duh," Rian says, shoving Alex lightly with his shoulder. "Unlike you, I actually want to graduate this year."

"Shut up," Alex mumbles, muttering some grouchy nonsense, but he brings his knees to his chest and curls lightly into Rian's side. Rian puts an arm around his boyfriend's shoulder. "Wann' sleep."

He closes his eyes and nuzzles closer to Rian.

"You guys are so gross," Zack grumbles. "Get your nasty feet off of my seat."

"You're just jealous 'cause you don't have anyone to cuddle," Alex says, uncurling his feet from his chest and stretching them across Rian's lap, instead.

xxx

Toward the end of fourth-hour Calculus, Alex is tapping his pen on his desk impatiently. He's already bored of the day, and he can't focus. He leans over to Zack, who's sitting in the seat next to him.

"Let's ditch next hour," Alex whispers.

"Dude, lunch is in an hour. Can't you wait?"

"No," Alex pouts. "I'm hungry and bored, and I have Woolery's test, which I know I'm gonna fail. I wanna go drive up the mountain and get stoned."

"Fine," Zack agrees. "What about your boy-toy?"

Alex brushes him off.

"Ri doesn't smoke. Besides, he'd never miss a test. Let's just go; I'll see him after school anyway."

"Okay," Zack shrugs. "Sounds good."

xxx

After class, Zack and Alex sneak out of a side door and bolt to Zack's car, which is parked across the street. Ten minutes later, they're parked at the lookout and Alex is fumbling for the box of rolling papers that he remembers leaving in Zack's car last week. He finds them, and Zack hands him the grinder and the bag of weed.

Alex's nimble fingers roll the weed into a joint, and he runs his tongue along the paper before sealing it. He puts the joint between his lips and lights it, taking a long drag. He isn't even thinking about Rian when everything goes to hell.

xxx

The first gunshot goes off while Rian is at lunch. He's so shocked that he can't even place where it's coming from. He doesn't have time to scan the room before he hears it again, and then Jack Barakat is emerging from the hallway holding a smoking pistol in his right hand.

There's a moment of dead silence before all hell breaks loose. Kids are running in every direction, but Rian is stunned, stuck in his place. He knows Jack, knows him because they were friends in freshman year until Jack got too clingy and Rian stopped talking to him. He hears another gunshot, and a girl from his math class is falling to the ground. Blood is flowering from a wound in her chest, and Rian hears screams, crying, absolute chaos. There's just one issue: Jack is right in front of him.

He barely feels it when it happens.

xxx

Just after their lunch period ends, Alex ashes the joint and tells Zack that they should get back to school.

"Music next hour," he explains. "It's the only class I give a shit about."

Zack nods and starts the car, backing out of his parking spot.

xxx

The first things Alex and Zack see when they turn the corner to the school are police cars. Then there are fire trucks, and ambulances, and a huge group of people in varying degrees of panic. Zack pulls up across the street, and the two boys climb out of the car.

"Maybe the school caught on fire while we were gone," Alex laughs nervously, avoiding the dread in the pit of his stomach.

"I don't think so, Lex," Zack says, bile rising in his throat.

Alex grips Zack arm as they walk across the street. He's terrified, and he just wishes they'd taken Rian with them. Who knows where he could be now?

"What's going on?" he asked, tapping a police officer on the shoulder.

"Where did you two come from?"

The officer was startled, to say the least.

"We left for lunch. What happened?" Zack asked.

"A student shot up the school."

xxx

Rian wakes up numb. He opens his eyes to nothing but white light, and slowly begins to regain feeling. He feels a dull pain in his right shoulder and a large hand holding his own in a death grip. As his eyes focus, they zero in on small details of the room: a vase of flowers on a white shelf, a heart monitor, and an IV drip that he vaguely realizes is stuck in his arm. He can't seem to feel anything much, and his head is swimming. He realizes that he's probably on some sort of pain medication, but he can't place why. Then it all comes back to him, and it's like he can still hear the screams of his classmates ringing in his ears. It's like Jack Barakat is standing in front of him all over again, with a gun pointed at his head. It's like Lisa Ruocco, the girl from his English class, is tackling Jack to the ground right as he shoots, making the bullet graze his shoulder instead of piercing his skull.

Jack has always been pretty scrawny, Rian thinks, so it makes sense.

Now, Rian just wants to know how Lisa is doing. He wants to know if she got shot. That's all lost, though, when he realizes that it's Alex holding his hand.

"Oh, God, you're okay."