Everything had been silent upon walking into the cafeteria. The raucous of wild students filled his ears. Part of him felt relief, the silence kind of bothered him. He cut in line, grabbed two pizzas, a pear, an apple and three cartons of chocolate milk. He sat at his table, while his friends shared their homework and made plans for the weekend. Jackson was only half listening to Maxine complaining about Roger. Half because he really needed to speak to Roger.
“Where is he?” Jackson started shoveling food down.
Maxine shrugged and George piped in after scribbling something across the paper “He had to finish up something in chemistry.” Jackson rolled his eyes, it annoyed him how reckless Roger could be. It especially annoyed him that he had to listen to his girlfriend go on about the cheating. Jackson didn’t have the patience to feel bad for Maxine and didn’t care enough to stop Roger. So he remained impartial.
“George, what is the possibility of-
“I am working on it Celeste.” George scribbled some more, scratched his head and scribbled some more “Did you get the same?” he passed the sheet over to Celeste. She studied it and shook her head. “Uh, for heaven St. Marie!”
“Chill out, you guys.” Jackson called at them “Here.” He reached into his back pack and retrieved the physics work they needed.
“Jackson, you’re a freaking genius.” Celeste copied the sheet frantically.
“Hey, only I am allowed to copy off his work.” Roger had finally showed up. Jackson looked him over once and sighed.
“Enough, for a second.” Jackson said, he leaned into Roger “What kind of f’d up shit did we smoke yesterday?” Roger frowned and ignored his question.
“So I was just listening to Principal Hall rambling on about a drunken idiot spray painted the girls bathroom” He laughed as if everyone was supposed to know what he was speaking of. Jackson, of course knew because he was Rogers’s apprentice.
“A drunken idiot?” George narrowed his eyes.
“I bet we can guess who the.” Maxine’s hands went up into quotations. Jackson did a double take. Maxine’s hands turned to bunny ears. As she quoted her words the ear bent “drunken idiots were.” Jackson looked down, rubbing his eyes. Maybe he was going insane.
“Roger, answer my freaking question.” All day Jackson was able to keep his cool about this, why was it eating at him now? Everyone at the table looked taken back.
Roger leaned into him “Dude, I didn’t lace the Afternoon Delight.” He looked around nervous “the fact that you think I would, offends me.” Roger had a sarcastic tone but he was being serious. Jackson could tell Roger was telling the truth. The problem now is what could be causing the hallucinations. Nothing in his schedule had changed that morning. I brushed my teeth and then got dressed or did I dress before I brushed my teeth. Did I put the left shoe on first or the right? Jackson tried shaking off the doubt. This whole thing is ridiculous.
“Side bar.” Jackson tapped Roger on the shoulder.
“No, No, No.” Celeste waved her finger at them “I know what side bar is and Roger needs me to edit his first draft of summary of A Tale of Two Cities.”
“It’ll only take a minute.” Jackson frowned “This is very important, beside Roger doesn’t need to see you edit his paper.” He said annoyed, Roger nodded in agreement.
Celeste sighed heavily “He does so he knows how to edit mine.” She half barked.
“Good God, Celeste.” Jackson rubbed his temples.
“We only have ten minutes left of lunch.” She complained.
Jackson and Roger turned and ignored her. Jackson pulled Roger by his arm. “Listen, I apologize for accusing you but you don’t know what kind of day I am having.” Jackson teetered with the idea of telling Roger what was going on. And so he did, starting with the bird and then Ursula’s toe and the freezing, all the way to Maxine’s hands shaped like pink bunny ears. Roger blinked unsure of his friend’s sanity. Jackson laughed and Roger joined him. “I know I sound crazy right now but I am seeing stuff that is unexplainable. Should I…”
“Tell someone!” he scoffed “like a shrink, hell no.”
Roger looked Jackson over, he wasn’t the type to have mental break down. Although, he would be surprised if Jackson didn’t freak after the divorce and losing his chance to go to Stanford. “Just let your mind work itself out. Maybe, the imagination part of your brain is running haywire.”
Jackson laughed, “Right.” He would except for now and continued eating.
