Marwan

MARWAN

When the clock on the wall hit 8:45, he asked to be excused. Ms. Lynch rolled her eyes, but Marwan shrugged as if to say, when you gotta go, you gotta go. At least here he didn’t have to compete with his sisters for the bathroom. Not that he even really had to go. But once he walked in, it was like some Pavlovian response. So he took care of that, then washed his hands and waited.

Without his phone, he couldn’t know exactly what time it was. It felt like Eli should be here by now, though.

Christos came in, surveyed the scene, and said, “What are you doing just standing there?”

“I’m washing my hands,” Marwan said, and started washing his hands again.

Christos waited and watched.

“Is there a problem?” Marwan said to him in the mirror.

“Just gonna wait until you leave is all.” Christos folded his arms.

“Suit yourself,” Marwan said, then dried his hands with painstaking care.

One paper towel.

Pat-pat-pat.

Then another.

More patting.

When he pulled a third paper towel from the dispenser on the wall, Christos said, “Why are you so annoying?”

“Me?” Marwan laughed. “I’m the annoying one?” He headed for the door, with no other ways to stall.

Eli wasn’t coming.

“You working tonight?” Christos said brightly.

Marwan turned, holding the heavy door open. “What’s it to you?”

“Just making small talk.” Christos unzipped his fly at a urinal. “Friendly chitchat with a fellow student.”

Eden appeared in the hall. Her hair was hanging down over one shoulder and seemed to pull her head into a tilt. The shine of it made the hall around them seem even more dull and gray.

Marwan let the door to the bathroom float closed and stepped into the hallway. “Well?”

“I ran to my locker just now and checked my phone real quick, and he texted me.” Relief was apparent on her face. “He says it gave him until four o’clock for the handoff and that we all need to meet him at Astoria Park, by the Hell Gate Bridge, after school.”

“Why Astoria Park?”

“We need to find Ilanka,” she said, not registering or maybe just not answering his question. “Do you have any classes with her?”

He shook his head no.

“I’ll try to get to her at lunch.” She seemed frantic.

Christos came out of the bathroom and gave them the side-eye before wandering off down the hall.

“We better get back to class,” Eden said.

“Why doesn’t he just come here?” Marwan was only realizing how annoyed he was. “I have to work after school. I don’t have a ton of time to be running down to Astoria Park just because Eli said to.”

“He said the device didn’t want to come to school.”

“Oh, come on!”

“What?” she said. “That’s what he said.”

“This is ridiculous,” he said.

“Just please come to the park?”