Old Debts Paid Off

CW: School shooting, violence

Bailey walks into the classroom and is greeted with an assignment on the whiteboard. He dreads math class, especially the teacher, Mrs. Jenson. Bailey hates how she talks. She has a lisp and is loud and proud about it or so it seems. He is usually tired when he comes in then leaves with a pounding headache. He sits in the far back corner, farthest away from her desk, with a nice view of the front lawn, and gets to work on the assignment. Bailey is one of the top students in the class, so it doesn't take long for him to complete it. Some of the classmates, mainly the jocks, pay him to do their homework. It's becoming a regular thing, and he makes some good profit from it.

   Tanner Philip, one of the running backs for the football team, comes in and catches Bailey’s eye. Tanner had told Bailey he would pay him twenty dollars to do last night's homework. Bailey got Tanner’s homework out of his bag and gave it to him.

   “Thanks, man. I owe you one,” Tanner says genuinely.

   “No, you owe me twenty bucks,” Bailey says back to him. 

   Tanner snickers and takes a crumpled twenty out of his front pocket and slaps it on Bailey’s hand.

   “Thanks. Now go away before Mrs. Jenson walks in,” Bailey says to Tanner and puts the twenty in his backpack. Tanner walks over to his desk without saying a word. Bailey didn’t do this to make small talk. It was all business to him. 

   Mrs. Jenson walks in and yells to the class, “Hello everyone! I hope you had a great morning!” Bailey’s head is already throbbing. She reaches her desk and calls out to take last night’s homework out. Bailey reaches down for his homework to give to Mrs. Jenson as she walks around the class gathering them up. Mrs. Jenson reaches Bailey’s desk, and he hands it to her. She thanks him, but it came out as “Fank you” which Bailey cringes at. 

   The next student isn’t so lucky. Hank Reeves is his name. He’s pretty much the school “weirdo”. Everyone excluded him and some of the jocks picked on him. Hank isn’t a super skinny guy though. He’s six foot one and has some muscle, but isn’t nearly as big as half the football team. He comes to school smelling like cigarettes and has oily, long hair that covers the bad acne on his forehead. Bailey never picks at him. Hank and Bailey are pretty close friends, to say the least. 

   “Where’s your work, Mr. Reeves?” Mrs. Jenson asks, knowing the answer. Everyone turns to look at him. Mrs. Jenson smelt him by just standing there and tried to sly a step back without him noticing, but Bailey noticed. Hank paid no attention. His head is down looking at his hands which lay on his desk. 

   He took a deep breath and broke the silence. “I was busy.” 

   “Too busy for homework? Must have been important,” Mrs. Jenson says in a passive-aggressive tone. Hank stays silent. This time Mrs. Jenson broke the silence. “What were you doing?”

   “Not showering,” one of the classmates says under their breath. That side of the class roars with laughter, but Bailey remains silent. 

   Hank clenches his fists and slams the desk and yells at the class, “That’s it!” The class went silent immediately. Hank grabs his backpack and heads for the door but Mrs. Jenson yells, “Mr. Reeves!” Hank stops in his tracks but doesn't look back. “Go to the principal's office, now! We do not yell at our classmates!” Hank thought that was ironic. “And you Mr. McCulkin can join him. We do not make fun of our classmates,” Mrs. Jenson continued. 

   Hank says under his breath, “Whatever,” but Mrs. Jenson didn’t hear him. He walks out of the room. Mrs. Jenson turns to McCulkin, and he got up immediately. After McCulkin left and closed the door, Mrs. Jenson took a deep breath, and continues to pick up homework, then headed back to her desk. The class stayed silent. No one wanted to upset Mrs. Jenson, or they’d be a dead man walking. 

   Mrs. Jenson finally got up and started teaching. Bailey looks out the window and saw cars passing by on the main road in front of the school. He’s in his own world paying no attention to what Mrs. Jenson had to say. Bailey’s mainly thinking about Hank. He’s worried about him and kind of scared of him as well. What Hank said didn’t sit right with Bailey.

   That’s it!

   It gave Bailey a sunken feeling. He couldn’t shake his mind off it. It was as if it was a threat. Not just to McCulkin, but to-

   “Mr. Reech!” Mrs. Jenson exclaims. Except she said it as “Reeth”. 

   Bailey darts his head to the front of the class to where Mrs. Jenson stood. “I’m sorry, can you repeat the question?” Bailey asks politely. 

   Mrs. Jenson was too tired to get upset at him, so she did as he asked. “Can you solve for the area of R?” 

   Bailey looks at the board and went blank. Hank is still haunting his conscience. 

   That’s it!

   Mrs. Jenson calls another student to ask and let it be. Bailey goes back to looking out the window. Bailey actually cares about Hank. He sits by him during lunch and helps him with his classes. Sometimes they smoke together in the bathroom. Bailey is Hank’s closest friend. Maybe his only friend. 

   Hank would talk to Bailey about his rough home life. His father is always drunk and abusive and would leave cigarette burns on Hank’s arms and clothes, which explains the smell. Bailey also knows his father has a gun collection, and a pretty big one too. 

   One day after school, Hank had invited Bailey over to his house to test the guns out behind his house. Hank had a bird's eye. Didn’t miss a shot. He also always talked about wanting to kill his father but never went with it. Nothing was stopping him from doing it. You couldn’t go five feet without seeing a gun. 

   That’s it!

   Bailey has never had to deal with severe anxiety before, but at this moment, his heart is beating through the roof. He needs to smoke. He always keeps a pack of cigarettes in his bag and snuck them in his pocket when Mrs. Jenson wasn’t looking. He made sure his phone was in his other pocket, then raises his hand. 

   Mrs. Jenson is facing the board teaching how to solve a problem. Bailey’s heart couldn’t rest and he tries his best to remain calm. Bailey decided to call out her name, and she turned around. “Yes, Mr. Reeves?” she asks him. He can’t stand the way she says his last name. “Reeths”. Not only is Bailey’s anxiety through the roof, but now he has a headache. 

   “May I go to the bathroom?” Bailey asks.

   “Be quick, and don’t forget the hall pass.” She replies and goes straight back to teaching. 

   Bailey walks to a cabinet by the door where the hall pass hangs and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. He puts the hall pass on like a necklace and proceeds to the bathroom. He’s patting his thigh with his left hand as he walks. Bailey tries taking small breaths and told himself he was overthinking to try to calm himself down. That was when two security guards run by him. Bailey hears what the man on the radio says. 

   “We got reports of several gunshots being heard on Westview street.”

   Westview street. That’s where Hank lives, Bailey thinks to himself. He finally reaches the bathroom, gets a cigarette out, and starts smoking. He then gets his phone out and dials for Hank. Bailey is walking in circles hastily waiting for an answer. After a couple more seconds of waiting, it went to voicemail. Bailey tries again, but he gets the same answer. Bailey is enraged and confused. He pulls his hair with both his hands and finally had to let it out. He yells and throws his phone at the wall, instantly regretting it. Bailey stands there, too scared to see how damaged his phone is. He walks over to it, sticks the cigarette in his mouth, and bends down to pick it up. 

Broken. There were too many cracks to even see the screen, let alone the colorful lines that went from the top of the screen to the bottom. He puts it in his pocket and continues smoking, but it isn’t helping. 

   Bailey is walking around with a cigarette in his mouth, worrying about Hank when the intercom in the hallway cuts on. There isn’t one in the bathroom so Bailey has to walk to the doorway to hear clearly. What happens next, makes his heart sink to his stomach. 

   Code red. I repeat code red. This is not a drill. Co-

   That was when multiple gunshots echoes throughout the school, along with what seemed like a thousand kids screaming, just for them to be silenced. Bailey is frozen at the doorway. He then takes a step back but trips on his own feet, making him fall. He drops his cigarette and crawls for the farthest stall, which was the handicap stall. He locks it and stands on the toilet just how they taught you in elementary. 

   Bailey reaches for a cigarette and goes to light it, but more shots and screams fill the halls, making him drop the cigarette and the lighter on the floor. Bailey puts his hands to his mouth and tries to take slow deep breaths. This is a life or death situation. He needs to get a weapon. Bailey looks around his stall but only sees toilet paper and a toilet. He notices that he can take off the lid of the toilet so he begins twisting the nobs and takes it off the base and grasps it. Bailey wants to smoke more now than ever. His heart is beating out of his chest, mind wandering on who Hank has killed, and is as shaky as a chihuahua. Bailey kind of hopes Hank would spare the lives of his best customers for his side hustle but ditches that thought immediately. 

   Bailey smiles and continues that thought with a joke to try to humor himself.

   This can’t be good for business. Bailey thinks. 

   He chuckles and then stops immediately and that’s when reality starts to settle in. It was all a shock so far, but now it hit. Tears start to run down his face, but he wipes them away with his arm. More shots and screams fill the halls again, which makes Bailey flinch. This time Bailey could tell the screams were right outside down the hall. Bailey is pleading to God under his breath. “Please, God, save me. Please, please. Please, God.” He hasn’t prayed since he was little and he feels a little silly doing it but doesn’t care. 

   Bailey hears walking. Sounds like boots. It’s faint, but he could hear it. They got louder and louder, then stopped. Bailey doesn’t have to see them to know they are right outside, looking in. Bailey, still grasping the toilet lid, tries his best to not make any sound or movement unless need be. 

   “I know you’re in here, Bailey,” Hank says, breaking the silence. Bailey was right. It is Hank. Hank gets closer to the stalls and kicks the first one open. “I already hit Mrs. Jenson’s class.” Then he kicks the second stall door open. “I’m glad you left on time. Wouldn’t want to kill my only friend.” Hank kicks the third stall door open. One more stall. The handicap stall. Hank slowly walks over. Bailey’s heart is racing and it doesn’t help that his sweat is making the toilet lid slip. 

   Bailey is looking through the crack, and that’s when Hank appears. They make eye contact. “Peekaboo,” Hank says jokingly and has a huge grin, showing off his yellow teeth. It makes Bailey feel sick to his stomach. “Get out,” Hank says in a dead tone. Bailey doesn’t move. He is still frozen. “Get out!” Hank yells. Bailey flinches, takes a deep breath, gets off the toilet slowly, opens the stall door, and walks out to Hank. Then, Bailey swings the toilet lid at Hank but misses. Hank darts his pistol to Bailey’s head and they both get still. Hank tells him, “I don’t want to kill you, Bailey.” 

   Hank has a semi-automatic handgun, a pistol, and a couple of tactical knives along his utility belt. He’s wearing black combat boots and a black trenchcoat. The stereotypical school shooter uniform. 

   “What do you want?” Bailey asks him, trying to remain calm. 

   “Let’s just say I’m paying off some old debts,” Hank replies with a smirk. 

   “The shooting in your neighborhood, was that you?” Bailey asks after a couple of seconds of silence. 

   Hank chuckles and says proudly, “Yeah, it was. Finally killed the old bastard. I shot him twenty-seven times. I had to reload, twice!” Hank roars with laughter, thinking it’s the funniest joke he’s ever heard, but it isn’t a joke. Far from it. 

   “Ho- how many,” Bailey stutters. He takes a deep breath and continues, “How many people did you kill?” Bailey is scared of the answer but has to know if his friends were killed by this lunatic. 

   “Let’s see,” Hank says looking up trying to think. “I first went to Dr. O’Malley’s class. There are a lot of football players in there during this block. Then I shot up Ms. Carrol’s class. Tyler Sweeny was in there but I thought “Hey! Why not take everyone else out!?” so that’s what I did. Then, of course, Mrs. Jenson’s.” 

   Bailey looks at him terrified. He can’t recognize him anymore. He starts to think of his friends and tries figuring out if any were in the classes he shot up. Bailey has a tight circle so he doesn’t have many friends, but they are some of the best anyone can ask for. Finally, Bailey realizes his friend, Henry Calvin, had Ms. Carrol this block. His heart sinks but tries to keep his cool. 

   “What’s the matter, Bailey? You look like you just saw a ghost,” Hank tells him and begins laughing again. Hank takes a deep breath out and continues, “As I said. I don’t want to kill you, Bailey. You are my only friend in this place after all, so that’s why I’m gonna let you go.” Hank lowers the pistol from Bailey’s head. 

   There is a brief pause, then Bailey breaks the silence. “You don’t gotta do this, Hank,” Bailey says as a tear runs down his face. 

   “They deserve this. They deserve everything after what they did to me!” Hank roars. 

   “What about the people that didn’t bully you, huh?” Bailey asks and takes a step towards him. “Do they deserve this?”

   “You wouldn’t understand,” Hank hisses. His throat is closing up and his eyes are starting to get watery. 

   “Understand what? That people don’t deserve to die over some stupid high school drama?” Bailey is right in his face, looking a killer straight in the eye. Bailey’s voice cracks as he says, “You’re better than this, Hank. You were supposed to be better than this.” Tears run down Bailey’s face and Hank’s as well. 

   “If you know what’s best for you, get out. I don’t want to hurt you.” Hank warns Bailey. Hank walks away and heads for the hall. 

   “What makes me different from the others that didn’t bully you? The ones that you already killed?” Bailey yells. 

   Hank stops in his tracks and says, “Because I love you.”

   “Yeah, right,” Bailey scoffs. “You don’t love anyone.”

   “Goodbye, Bailey,” Hank says and gets the semi-automatic in his hands. 

   Bailey runs towards Hank and tackles him, making him drop his gun. Bailey gets on top of Hank and gets two hits in before Hank gets a hit on Bailey, getting him off. Hank’s nose is broken and his whole lower face is drenched in blood. Hank reaches for his pistol which is in its holster and points it at Bailey’s face, but Bailey leaps to Hank and grabs it at the barrel, and points it at the ceiling. Hank puts one hand over Bailey's hand and fights over the gun until Hank accidentally fires it at the ceiling light, making Bailey and Hank scream in pain, forcing them both to let go of it. Hank quickly gets up and takes out his tactical knife and gets on Bailey, stabbing him right in the stomach. 

   Hank is out of breath from the fight and looks at Bailey to only see him barely alive, taking weak breaths. Hank, tears running down his face, crawls for the semi-automatic and gets up. Bailey and he make eye contact. Hank doesn’t even notice the pistol that lay next to Bailey. 

   Hank is enraged that Bailey forced him to kill him. Hank roars with anger, “Why did you do this?! Why?! I warned you! I told you to leave! Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?! I asked you to go! Why didn’t you go?! Why?! Why?!” 

   Bailey coughs up blood, still making eye contact with him. They both have tears racing down their cheeks. 

   “Why didn’t you listen?” Hank asks quietly. Hank gives him one last look and turns around to head to the hallway. 

   Bailey sees the pistol that lay beside him, and lucky enough it’s reachable. It takes all his strength to lift it to Hank’s head. Bailey calls out, “Hank,” in a raspy voice. Hank stops. He slowly turns around, looks straight through the barrel, and before he can react, Bailey pulls the trigger. The bullet goes right through his left eye, killing him instantly. Bailey drops the gun, looks at the ceiling, and is happy knowing no one else has to get hurt.