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‘The world works in mysterious ways’ people are used to saying this as a way to comfort those who they deem too preoccupied with fitting into the world they exist on. Yet it's such a cheesy line, half the time people don't even take it seriously.
But then there’s the other saying about cheesy lines... "there's always some truth behind them."
Which in his opinion was complete bullshit.
But it didn’t really matter, Alfred F. Jones loved to fool himself with those kind of ideas. After all, there was nothing wrong with fantasizing what destiny, love and faith had in store for him... He was also very fond of the idea that science held the key to answer every question in life, but even with that belief, there was only just so much things science could answer for him... So here he was, an ordinary man with a major in Physics, a love for baseball, a good job and the foolish belief that destiny played a giant role in his decisions in life.
But even with all his believes and his scientific facts. Alfred could still not understand the reason why such things as half-life wristwatches existed.
Before anyone wonders what the hell half-life stands for, they are small wristwatch given at birth as a form of virtual countdown. They are thin enough to be consider a bracelet, yet people decide to call them watches, mostly because of their “purpose”, of counting down to an important ‘life changing’ event that reshapes our lives and guides us to “the beginning of another chapter in the book called life.” Or so his mother used to love saying.
As fate might have it, one cannot take it off until its purpose has been completed, of course its ‘purpose’ is to announce the individual when they have met their fated "other half" or ask Alfred likes to call them, "The awkward meeting of whom you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with."
And if one thought about it, the young blond was mostly right about the awkward part.
In every corner, every room, every public place there would be the so familiar ding of the bells in the bracelets going off and there you would have the perfect couples. Quite frankly, Alfred was oh so very tired of it all, nothing annoyed him more than hearing the annoying sounds (which curiously, to him anyways, all of them never repeated in tone, and no it is not something he had notice consciously, thank you very much!) of yet another pair of matching wrist watch dissipating and of course the awkward and surprise laughter that followed from the new couple.
Many strangers would stop and clap for them, congratulate them on reaching the beginning of another journey before walking off, at those times where Alfred would find himself trapped in the social obligation to ‘congratulate’ them, he would somehow had the good fortune of getting away or, of course, had to stand around and fake a smile before congratulating the ever so blushing new couple.
It really was a strange phenomenon, a thing many had tried to research and explain, but had found little to no answers. Of course being him, Alfred did his own fair amount of research, believing that if he searched far enough he would get as many logical answers as possible... Of course all that only concluding in more questions and the curious finds that other systems of beliefs gave different meanings to them.
For example, the Greek thought that it was a gift from the gods bestowed on humans in order to find their perfect other half. An opportunity believed to be only available for the gods to use, but now given to humans so we must look upon the god with gratitude for giving us such opportunity of eternal happiness. Other systems consider it a curse for humanity. A punishment given by God in order to pay for our constant sinning. Specially for those who ended up with their watch broken. Which meant their other half had their life ended suddenly and that they were destined to never find that sort of happiness others did around them.
Today’s society just accepts it as something that everyone has to deal it, a norm that is not look at as weird or a curse, but a social novelty, just like once dating was the thing going around (or so the books say).
Most of his friends had already found their other half, even his older brother Matthew had found him, his other half. He was a smoker, just like Mattie… One of the many nights Alfred had been forced to follow his brother in order to bring him back home safe and sound, it had happen. They had been about to leave the party when a new guest had come and that’s when the bells appeared and Mattie had dumbly stared at Jan, his future partner. Alfred remembers actually being happy for him at that time, but deep inside he knew he was a tad jealous of his twin brother finding his stupid other half before him.
Not that it matter to him, Alfred didn’t care if his other half never showed up… The fact that his watch read 94 more days to go did nothing to his nervousness. Why would he care anyways? He had everything he ever needed or wanted. A good job, really great friends, an annoying but amazing brother, and a legal way to show off his intelligence and skills on Physics and Chemistry (not to mention the ability to play with fire as much as he liked, a total bonus he absolutely loved from being the AP teacher of Chemistry and Physics at East High).
It was with an optimistic mind set and a promising fun new year with eager young minds waiting to be let loose on chemicals and experiments that Alfred promise himself to live his life the happiest he could ever be (as well as making it impossible for him to notice the numbers in his watch slowly move closer to zero). With the opportunity to work at East High, it also came the opportunity to see his high school best friend Arthur Kirkland, head teacher of the English department, and favorite teacher of most students. It was like this, his days filled with happy students, lunches and dinners with Arthur and his partner, and weekends spend with Mattie and his boyfriend that Alfred made his mission of ignoring the days pass by.
All in all, he was having the time of his life, that is, until Arthur pointed out that his watch indicated that three days from now he was to meet his so called “perfect other half.” Which successfully send him into a spiral of nervousness for the rest of the day (and the days to come). Oh how he wished Arthur had not brought it up, now he was force to face seven different classes while faking a smile and slowly panicking on the inside. That was his reality, if it was not for Arthur actually noticing the distress within him and quickly sending him back home, promising him to be there as soon as school was over and explaining to their boss why exactly had the blond professor left without a word.
It was the best Arthur could do for him at the moment, yet it did not meant his nervousness was suddenly going to disappear, in fact, being alone just made it harder for him to be distracted and so his constant running thoughts drowned him in many insecurities of what the next three days will bring to him. Arthur arrived a few hours later, finding the physics teacher lying on the floor beside the couch he had tried to lay down on a few hours before; his blue eyes wide with fear and slightly puffy. Yet, this did not alarmed him, being friends with the blond for years had made him accustomed to these sort of things and had trained him enough to know exactly what to do to comfort him.
“Seriously, I do not understand how you are able to even teach when the aspect of meeting this one stranger scares you to death,” the English teacher mumble to himself as he set for the kitchen, preparing the well know “Alfred-Aid kit” he had been taught to make by Matthew during their college years.
A few days later, Alfred was back to his usual self, wristwatch/breakdown accident forgotten and a very manic-like grin on as he put on a show for his students while preparing to light up the perfect mix of chemicals that will cause the highly desired reaction of burning down the whole science building, that is, if he actually had the right amount to do such thing. This was mostly for demonstration purposes only, after all, there was just so many things he could make explode legally… it would probably burn his eyebrows if he is not careful thought. Making eye contact with his students, the blond teacher nodded before allowing the small flame to come near the test tube, really it had barely touched it before he had a small jet of fire coming out of the test tube which was being hold by the test-tube holder. The flame reach just below the ceiling light above him which cause a great reaction from his students, from whistles to claps and some frightened gasps.
Of course the fire didn’t last long and once it was over, the blond teacher set out to put things safely away for later cleaning, it was not until he actually turned around that he notice there was someone else watching his class. It was a dark-red haired man… around his age who was occupying the entry way between the storage room for the chemicals used in his class and the other science room beside his. Alfred frowned at him, confusing clearly showing as he did not expected any teacher to be on the other room (or remembering any teacher who had such hair color).
“I have to say that I am impressed, Mr. Jones” The man said, his ivory eyes meeting with the azure blue ones from the physics teacher. Alfred nodded at the statement, his eyes turning back to his students and showing off a grin before directing them to start working on the worksheet he had handed out before the demonstration.
Once he was satisfied at seeing everyone working, he turned to his guest and offered the same smile he’d given his class “well there is no way better to learn how to avoid something than by showing the results of doing such mistake! Not to mention, safely playing with fire is always fun.” He stated before moving in to start washing up the tubes he had used for said experiment. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the man now and continue to stand by the door, his ivory eyes keeping a constant glance between Alfred and the classroom.
“May I have a word with you?” The man asked once he saw Alfred finish his task and with a bit of hesitation, the blond nodded before following the man to the other classroom, which happened to be empty.
“So, I’m guessing you’re a new teacher here?” The blond asked, leaning back on the wall next to the closet door, eyes keeping a slightly close watch on the other man.
The dark-red haired man nodded, his ivory eyes keeping eye contact with the physics teacher and a lazy smile gracing his lips.
“I’m the new Health teacher as well as Biology II,” he explained his figure leaning back before slightly jumping up to be able to sit in the table behind him. Alfred nodded at that, his shoulders slightly relaxing at knowing the other was in fact a teacher and not just some intruder to the school grounds. “That’s great! I did not know they had hired someone for the position. Well, welcome to East High! I’m Alfred F. Jones, AP Physics and Chemistry teacher.”
“Thank you very much, I’m Al Collins Jones, Health and Biology II teacher.”
Now it was always a courteous thing to exchange handshakes, but what neither of the two expected was the familiar, yet unique sound of two wristwatches chiming in synchronization and faintly glowing before detaching themselves off the wrists they had been attached to and dissolving in mid air. Of course, neither of the two parties expected this to happen, even though both were aware of the time left in their watches at some point. Slowly looking up, the two men gazed at each other a little dazed by the event that occurred, holding in breaths of disbelief and maybe, just maybe, relief.
The next set of things that happen were very confusing and rushed for the both of them to remember. Once lips connected with exposed skin, they really didn’t care to notice exactly what and how it happen. Soft pink lips kissed everywhere and anywhere they could, hands roamed clothes bodies in an almost desperate way before finding their way to exposed necks and hair. At some point, Alfred had ended leaning forward, automatically following the body which happened to be leaning back on the table it was sitting at; lips that belonged to the physics teacher kissing up a rich dark neck and coming up to softly reddened lips which he softly kiss in the most sincere and loving way… which for many, might seem too eager.
Yet, the body underneath him said other things, like “fuck what everyone else thinks of rushed things,” and “please never stop kissing me.”
Still, they both knew that going further than wildly kissing each other in an empty classroom was as far as they could go. With a regrettable feeling, they both separated, Alfred going back to leaning against the wall and Al sitting back up, slightly fixing his button up shirt and running his hands through his hair. Both stayed silence for a few minutes, their eyes never meeting as they allowed what happen to settle in as well as a wave of embarrassment (mostly in Alfred’s part).
“I need to go back to my class… before.. you know they start destroying things by trying to do the same things I showed them,” Alfred begin, his head looking in the direction of the closed door that connected his classroom to this one. He was ready to leave, really, if it was not for firm hands grabbing at his shoulder and slightly shaking him, making him to look back at the ivory eyes of the man he just kissed (and yeah is fated to be with for the rest of his life or whatever it was that the watches meant).
The man gave him a once over glance before nodding and giving Alfred a small smile, “you look presentable except for up here,” he said pointing at the blond’s hair and softly ruffling it to make it look like it was before. To this, Alfred blushed, not expecting such sweet action from the other, but not unwelcoming it either… It was cute how Al had tried to help him go back looking as the same teacher as before.
And he probably was, after all, what changed was the fact that he no longer wore a wristwatch. He was further convinced by this once he got to his classroom, his students barely looking up from their worksheets. Taking his seat, Alfred decided that it was all going to be alright and that his nervous breakdown a few days ago had really been a waste of time… After all it was not as if the small change completely ended the world…
And yes, maybe making out was a bit too rushed into meeting a complete stranger, but it didn’t really matter, after all, he had all the time in the world to get to know Al in every way possible… And of course, it’s better to get that over with than be just another pair of awkward other halves.