As he worked, he decided to listen to some music. He found his wired earphones in his desk drawer and opened his phone.Usually, he wouldn't listen to music at work, but he needed something to make the next few hours bearable. When he opened Spotify, he realised that the top recommendation was the playlist that Haiden had made for the pair of them. "Xeno + Haiden playlist" stared back at him from his screen.
As he worked, he was in his own world. There was a decent walk to Dr. Carmazan's office from his, made worse by the planetarium's stairs. Luckily, the hours blended into each-other as he worked, to the point that when he next checked his phone, he realised it was an hour past when it would've usually been time for him to leave.
He sighed as he remembered the three hours of extra time he'd have to do. It was likely that he'd be the last one in the museum by the end. About half an hour after that, he finished moving everything into his new office. He realised he had little to do, and so he just sat in his office chair, killing time any way he knew how.
When Ms. Pepper walked in, he was playing a round of online bullet chess. He quickly closed the tab, knowing that it'd cost him the game. "Hi, Xeno. I was just swinging by to give you this." She walked over and handed him a silver key. It felt heavy in his hand. "This is the key to the astronomy entrance, around the back. I'm going to lock up the museum at the front now. I trust you'll do your last hour and lock up?"
"Yes, ma'am." Xeno said, pretending like he'd been typing something important on his computer. She looked like she was about to say something else, before turning on her heel and leaving him.
He clicked back onto the tab, and was glad to see that he hadn't yet lost the game. For the next hour, he wasted time. He felt bad,considering he was getting paid for this, but what else was there to do? "This is a weird tradition." Xeno thought to himself.
Despite that, he finished up with no problems, and began walking to the astronomy door. When he reached it, he closed it behind him. The key locked with a satisfying "click". As he walked to his car, he made himself a promise.
"I'll make up with Haiden tomorrow." He whispered to himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:
When Xeno came into work the next morning, something felt off. As he pulled his car into the astronomy car park, he noticed furtive glances being cast his way from not only the palaeontology members but also people from all sorts of departments. Brushing it off as simple paranoia, he went through the astronomy doors. It felt satisfying to unlock them; When Dr. Carmazan was still the head of Astronomy, and she'd had a day off, the entrance was locked all day, and they all had to go through the museum doors, a detour that often took five to ten minutes.
Coming into his office, he was surprised to see Jess and Aruda already in there, both of them looking anxious. He realised that they'd probably had to walk all the way around the front of the museum to come in and felt bad for not being there sooner to unlock the door- but what could he do? He was five minutes early to the museum every day.
The pair of them looked up. He met Aruda's eyes first, and she had a look of dire seriousness on his face. "What's going on?" asked Xeno, anxious.
"What did you do last night?" Aruda asked. Though she tried to keep her voice steady, worry seeped in through the cracks, causing her concerned tone to shake slightly.
"My overtime?" He asked. He didn't want to admit that he'd spent almost the entire last two hours of it playing games on his desktop. Surely they wouldn't care about that?
"No, Xeno, we're serious." Jess added. "Promise me you didn't do anything stupid yesterday."
"All right, you caught me. I was playing games on my computer. What's the fuss about? I don't complain when you bring your sketchbook everywhere." Xeno said, his worry turning slightly into annoyance.
Jess turned to Aruda. "It really wasn't him. I mean, I knew.. we both knew that it couldn't be. But we had to make sure."
"Make sure of what?" Xeno was getting agitated. "Guys, what's going on?"
"Something happened late last night.." Aruda began. "People are saying it's you, because you were the last person in the museum. Or so they think, anyway."
"What happened?" asked Xeno, terrified.
"Come with us." Jess said. "It'd be better for you to see for yourself." The three of them walked briskly through the astronomy wing. Luckily, his new office was closer to the entrance than his old one, so the journey only took them about a minute and a half.
When they got to the main hall, he saw what they'd meant.
Papier mâché was strewn all over the floor in the main hall, creating a trail that led into the palaeontology department doors. Hues of green and blue and purple laid on the ground, some shaped into a wing, some into a head. A lone googly-eye stared at the ceiling a little way away from the carnage, still close enough to be recognisably part of it. This was Steve. Or what remained of him, anyway.
Upon seeing Xeno, Mr. Crossley stormed up to him.
"There you are. Are you happy now? All our desks, our displays, everything's covered." He stared aggressively. For a moment,Xeno was sure the man would lunge at him. "Did you honestly think that you could get away with this? Why would you do it, anyway? Is this because of the argument you had with Haiden? Wanted to get back at him, did you?" He snarled. Xeno recoiled instinctively.
"Henry, stop." Stated a familiar voice.
He looked away from Mr. Crossley to see Haiden. he was wearing the same dinosaur jumper that he'd been wearing for the first party, his golden, curly hair was messier than usual, and the stubble around his chin and jawline was thicker than usual, it looked like he'd foregone shaving for a couple of days. It wasn't a bad look for him, Xeno thought, before realising this was absolutely not the time. "Haiden, why are you defending him? I know how much that ruddy thing meant to you; we all did. He's gone and ruined a bunch of our displays too. And don't try to tell me it wasn't him; who else could it have been?"
"I'm not defending him." He turned to look at Xeno; his misty blue eyes met his with a mixture of hurt, suspicion and worry. "I'm just saying that you don't have to treat him so unkindly. We'll see whether he's guilty later." They remained at an impasse as Mr. Crossley tried to think of an adequate response. His expression shifted between accusatory and sympathetic, as if unsure which to choose. As if on cue, Xeno heard the tinny museum PA system blare.
"Xeno Baxterson needs to report to my office effective immediately." It was Ms. Pepper's voice. She sounded upset, but not angry. Perhaps Xeno could try to reason with her? He practically ran to the stairs, desperate to be away from the staring eyes and accusatory faces. As he was going, he was conscious that Jess and Dr. Aruda weren't too far behind him, but he couldn't face them now. He just wanted this all to be over.
He knocked once on Ms. Pepper's office door before it opened. It was clear that she'd been waiting behind it for him. "Please come in, Mr. Baxterson." She said, gesturing to a chair in front of her desk.
