This is the second story from the cycle “Saturday Evening at School”. The story is translated from English by me personally, but I am not a professional translator, so please forgive for some rough spots in the text. The second part should not be viewed as an independent work; in order to understand what is happening, it is imperative to read it from the very beginning. Please do not edit the categories and tags in order to avoid spoilers. /

Charlie did not know what to expect from Monday. He spent most of Sunday in his room listening to music, thoughts of Michelle, and memories of the Saturday night they spent together. What will change for them in school? Will they have lunch together? Would she go to his locker to talk to him? Should he invite her to go somewhere after school? Or, maybe, wait for Fridays and call her to the cinema, for a real date?

Several times he thought to call her. But I realized that he does not have her number and he has no one to ask him.

He and Michel were in different classes. He did not even know her timetable. When Monday came, he walked through the corridors, constantly turning his head left and right, examining each group of students in the hope of finding Michel among them. Every time he saw long, dark hair, his heart trembled, but every time it turned out to be someone else.

He did not see her until the third lesson. She left the classroom with two other girls, talking to them and smiling when Charlie passed by. She glanced at Charlie. The smile abruptly disappeared from her face, and she turned away.

- Hi, Michel! - he said.

She looked at him:

- Oh, hi...

Her voice was barely audible, and she immediately averted her eyes. She did not stop. She passed by.

Charlie felt such pain and embarrassment that he stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned to see how she was leaving. What just happened?

Reality, he told himself calmly. Saturday night did not change anything. She was still beautiful Michelle, and he was still Charlie-no-couple, and they really didn’t know each other.

Charlie shook his head, as if he could get rid of that cruel voice. He went to the next lesson, but the teacher seemed to be speaking Russian — as much as Charlie could make out her words. All he could think about was Michelle and how her smile disappeared when she saw him.

Despite this first meeting, he still dared to hope for a warmer welcome the next time he passed by on the same day. This time she is alone, and perhaps it will be different. But Michelle diligently avoided his gaze when she passed by, staring at the wall, and his greeting froze on his lips. He felt cold inside, accepting the bitter truth.

He did not interest her. Saturday evening meant nothing to her. Walk holding hands, sex - nothing mattered. She just enjoyed her unusual fetish, but he was just lucky that he was there. That's all.

Nevertheless, he continued to think about her constantly, even when he accepted to silently pass by. Sometimes he even imagined that her gaze followed him as he passed by. But he continued to look ahead like a robot, pretending not to see her, does not know her.

A few days later that same week, in the dining room, he glanced in the direction where Michelle usually dined, and caught her eye. She instantly averted her eyes and turned to her friends. He watched her for a full minute, desperately wanting her to glance again in his direction. Why did she look at him? Did she think about the Sabbath? Or regretted her?

He sat with Andy Meadows and Greg Arden, with whom he sometimes dined, and they were joined by Michael and Dinesh from a video workshop.Charlie tried to find a way to express his confusion, without mentioning anything concrete.

“Let me ask you a question, guys,” he said. - Imagine the model Victoria's Secret / "Victoria's Secret" / comes up to you and says that he wants to have sex. The problem is that after both of you must pretend that nothing happened. What would you do? - already when he said this, Charlie knew how ridiculous it sounds, and the grins of the guys at the table answered him earlier than words.

- Are you serious? - Greg answered, - I would say: “hell, yes!” Who would refuse such a deal?

Charlie tried again, knowing that it was useless:

“But I want to say that she will behave as if this has never happened.” She will behave as if she doesn't even know you after that. And this will never happen again.

“I get it, you say you can't brag about it,” Greg shrugged. - So what? You will have sex with a model of Victoria's Secret. What difference does anyone know?

The rest of the guys agreed with him. Charlie leaned over the plate and put a spoonful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. He did not know how to explain the combination of emotions that were boiling inside him. In a way, what Greg said really made sense. That Saturday, Charlie came to edit a basketball video. Instead, he accompanied a beautiful naked girl throughout the school, and finally made love to her in a laboratory class. How can it look, except as a victory? Is this experience can not be considered separately, regardless of how she behaved with him then?

“Forget about it,” he told himself, and ate another spoonful of mashed potatoes.

And he forgot about it. Or at least tried. But, as the weekend approached, a new thought originated in his head. What happens when the Sabbath comes? Will Michelle come to school? Daryl is back, so they could not repeat the adventures of the past weekend. But Michelle has the keys to the school, as well as permission to be there. Maybe she just seems and finds it in the editing room. Maybe she will keep him company while he works.

She thinks you got there without permission, he reminded himself. She doesn't expect you to be there again when Daryl is back.

But maybe she still comes to school for some matters related to the team of fans, and maybe she will see Charlie's car in the backyard. Maybe she will understand and go to him.

Maybe she will come to explain why she has not spoken to him.

The following Saturday, Charlie arrived at school earlier than usual. He told himself that he still had to edit the video of the basketball game, because last Saturday he had just started working on it. When he arrived, Daryl was already there, and Charlie barely had time to sit down when the guard appeared to greet him. Charlie chatted with him for a while and looked at his photos from Miami.

Daryl was a tall and thin man of over forty years old. His family came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when Daryl was still a child. He worked as a security guard at school for fifteen years, and was determined to continue working until he retired.

“I don't need much,” he said to Charlie once. “All I need is a roof over my head to sleep, and a TV to watch it while I'm not at work.”

Daryl was divorced and rarely spoke about his ex-wife. Charlie believed that he had not heard about her for several years. Daryl never looked too scary. He had a wide smile and easy steps, as if he never needed to hurry anywhere. Pine Hills had a low crime rate, and the biggest problem in most of Deril’s duties was boredom.

Daryl chatted with Charlie for more than half an hour. They talked mostly about Miami, although Charlie really wanted to ask the guard if he had ever seen Michelle Santos at school some day at the weekend. He could not find a way to accidentally switch to this issue, and, finally, Daryl apologized and went back to bypassing his territory.

Charlie tried to return to editing the game of basketball, but was constantly distracted by other thoughts, and soon realized that he was looking for videos with a support group ...