COLLIDE | Tom Hanson

iv.

Don't Pet the Teacher

The group was all sitting around the table for their daily morning talk, Iyla had her head resting on Tom's shoulder who was blushing madly.

"Speeding right along," Jenko said. "Apparently somebody is trying to relocate South Central High School one room at a time."

"Last night was the fourth B-and-E in the same amount of months. No forced entry, no busted windows. Burglary says it smacks of an inside gig. Like one kid gets a set of master keys, the next thing, half the school's drinking free sodas. And on top of that, some teacher's getting free roses from some secret admirer. Here, check it out, Hanson, before the kids walk into an empty schoolhouse." Jenko explained to them.

"Got any suspects?" Tom asked.

"A couple. My best bet is a guy named Jeffrey Stone." Jenko answered him. "Sells everything from hot records to tickets to The Boss's concerts. Third row, center."

"How do I get close?" Tom asked.

"I don't know," Jenko replied. "Ask him to a rock concert, I guess. Anything else?"

"I wanna go to a rock concert," Iyla said when she heard Jenko say rock concert.

They all just stared at her, yet not in shock or anything because it was a normal occurrence for Iyla to zone in and out of conversations.

"Jenk, uh, could you clear me on a couple extra hours at lunch. You know, I got that physical exam today." Ioki cleared his throat breaking the silence.

"Hey terrific, Harry," Jenko grinned at him. "So you're taking your sergeant's exam. Sergeant H.T Ioki. Hey, I can dig it, man. Study hard and fast, Harry. And good luck."

When Jenko had called the meeting to an end, he asked Iyla and Tom to stay. Iyla lifted her head from Tom's shoulder and sat herself down on the table.

Jenko looked at them both and started talking. "Rogers, I'm putting you in this case with Hanson. You seem to work well together.

"Yeah sure, sounds great." She smiled at Tom, who happily returned it.

Since their kiss and couple of days prior, they had been inseparable. They were way more handsy with each other, but they hadn't kissed since they had.

"But I hope you don't mind if you go in as a couple?" Jenko asked them.

They looked at each other and laughed, telling Jenko that it wouldn't be an issue at all.

Once they had left Jenko's office, Tom grabbed her hand. "So, do you maybe wanna, uhm, go out this weekend?"

"Yeah, sure. Where?" Iyla said with a huge grin on her face.

"Wherever you want?" He replied.

"Well, why don't we decide on the day?" Iyla said to him.

"Sure, whatever suits you, Illy." He grinned walking away from her, leaving her in shock.

Iyla's thoughts consumed her 'did he just call me illy?'

————

When Iyla had returned to her apartment that night, she noticed someone standing there that she really wasn't in the mood to see.

"What are you doing here, George?"

"I came to apolog-" He pleaded, but he was cut off by Iyla opening her door and slamming it shut.

————

By the time Tom picked her up from her apartment the following day, she had completely forgotten about the short encounter she had with George.