Morning all and welcome to Monday morning. My cold broke over the weekend and while there are still a few sniffles I feel so much better. No strange brain fog and itchy watery eyes. Woo hoo, I am ready for the week. Let’s start with the morning prompt shall we? Timers at the ready and off we go…
Interesting. I think I will have to figure out what the destruction was and why it was done. I also thing Steve is going to become very problematic.
Monday, May 1st: I see where you are going with this.
“I see where you are going with this,” he said. He nodded. “You ae going to pin it all on me.”
Roger rolled his eyes. “No one is pinning anything on you Steve.”
“Oh yes you are,” Steve said. “You want me to be the fall guy, the patsy.”
“I think you’ve seen too many old gangster movies,” Mike said. “Are you going to tell us they will never take you alive too?”
“You still want me to take the blame,” Steve said. The color was rising in his cheeks now, a sure sign his anger was up.
“All we are saying is that we should all own up before it gets out of hand,” Roger replied.
“It’s already gotten out of hand,” Mike grumbled. “What were you thinking?” he asked Steve.
“See,” Steve crowed triumphantly. “You are going to blame me for it.”
“Just the explosives bit,” Mike said. “You added that at the last minute even though we told you not to.”
“I thought it needed a little something …more to make it spectacular.”
“Well it was memorable, even if spectacular isn’t the right word,” Roger replied. “And we are all going in there and we are all going to explain what happened and how it got out of hand. That’s it.”
“But,” Steve said.
“All of us,” Roger said in a voice that left no room for argument. It was his father’s voice and hearing it come out of his mouth made him shiver. He consoled himself with the fact that it had to be done. There was no other way.
“Fine,” Steve said. “But I’m not taking all of the blame. I’ve got a lot to lose you know.”
Roger clenched his jaw shut and saw Mike practically bite his own tongue to keep from replying. It was a familiar refrain from Steve. Somehow the fact that all of them had something to lose made no impact. It was only Steve who suffered for anything.
It was a stance that grew wearisome even before this escapade and he thought about cutting ties with both Steve and Mike several times before. Mike grumbled about things but he always went along with whatever Steve said. This time it cost them all.
They walked slowly across campus and into the Dean’s office. He walked straight up to the admin’s desk.
“We are here to confess our involvement with the recent incident at Houseman Hall,” Roger said.
Her eyes went a little wide. “Names?” she asked. Roger gave all three names to her and she wrote them down. He felt relieved seeing them on the page. Now they were official. Even if Steve decided to bolt his name was on the list. It was known. Roger glanced over and saw Steve realize it too. He had already sidled a few steps towards the door, no doubt hoping to slip out. Roger saw the realization stop him in his tracks. He saw Roger looking and he took the few steps back to stand beside Mike.
Roger turned back to the receptionist. If he made it through this in one piece, he was definitely cutting Steve loose.
“I’ll go tell the dean you are here,” she told them. She stood and went into the back office. They heard the sound of voices, but couldn’t make out any individual words. The admin returned and slipped into her seat. The dean came out. He pointed to Roger. “You first. You two take a seat.”
Ten til Midnight 