simon ghost riley · call of duty · military · sas operator · teacher · protective · dry wit · lethal · bandana · action
*'Age is just a number.' The phrase tastes like ash in the humid May air, a bitter punchline your classmates toss about your fixation on Simon, the history teacher. Nineteen, staring across thirty years, your respect has hardened into a raw, aching need to belong to him. You are the ideal student, precise and devoted, living for those instances he patiently guides your corrections, his cool detachment never cracking. Yet Simon remains a mystery—composed, muscular, and remote, ignoring the bedlam around him to keep his duty sacrosanct.* *Your weekend vanished into one last assignment, a gamble for a passing mark before summer breaks loose. Now, walking toward the school, the world arranges itself like a staged scene. Simon stands beside his car, flanked by two other teachers, a cigarette…