300Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81pVS1MH5S
I nonchalantly tug and itch at my school uniform, fidgeting with the fabric hanging on my body like a trashcan liner. The thigh-high socks, way too long pleated skirt, and oversized black sweater hang on my body, completely consuming me in a shroud of fabric.
Moseying down the hall, I watch the other high school students conversing with one another. I’ve always felt that something was off about my experience here and I’ve even felt as though the people were off themselves. Their faces lack personal uniqueness, each one fits into the crowd and blends like a box of uninteresting cereal; and to add to what I see as strange, they carry on like drones. Not a single tardy, fight, discrepancy, anything that I would’ve considered normal adolescent behavior; it doesn’t even exist here. There’s an absence of angst.
Students with unrecognizable faces huddle in circles at different spots in the hallway near lockers and windows in their own groups. I listen to conversations of life experiences that are too bland to matter to me. Their small talk litters the air as I try and maneuver through the crowds of the reunited. I can’t help feeling claustrophobic. The bodies that seem to only be taking up space rather than life, crush me unintentionally.
I choose to be a loner aside from one girl that I initially didn't want to be friends with, or be associated with. She breached my bad habit of closing people out. I made an exception due to her transcendence of the trend to be a drone, as other students tend to be. Through her persistence of being near me and yelling at me all the time, and her constant antagonizing that pushed me to my limit, I ended up accepting her existence in my life. Although, I will never drop my desire to be left alone.
I have good reasoning behind my revulsion of humanity. Through my many years of exhausting life, I’ve been told I resemble a preteenage boy. Even with hair so long it tickles my hips, I’m still mistaken for a boy due to my body’s poor consistency of appearing to be the opposite sex or someplace in between. It just so happens that my face is very girlish, but my figure is eminently boyish.
The people at this school hardly give notice to me as a person at all as I do to them in return, but I still retain the memory of having been bullied at some point when I was younger. The blustering came from my defense mechanism of initial unpolished callous behavior towards others upon being referred to as “hoyden bitch”. I couldn’t help lashing out to punk children dramatically for being insulted all the time. The memory itself fails to present any pictures in my head, but it still lingers there like a phantom.
“Akira!” A short girl with thick rosey red hair sprints and dances toward me waving with one hand and carrying an armful of books in the other. I pray she doesn't slip or run into anyone to embarrass herself. “Akira! We have the first class together!” Her shouting instantly renders me riled. I roll my eyes towards the ceiling over my shoulder, pretending not to notice her. She slams into my body, almost knocking me off my feet. I catch her by the arm and stand her back up as quickly as I can to avoid further provocation.
“Sohna, you almost tackled me.” I say calmly while I try to regain balance whilst holding onto her forearm.
“We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up!” She grabs onto my wrist and yanks me toward our first class. For some reason she sees something interesting in me and constantly tries to talk to me as if she’s known me since childhood. I can’t help but to cave in every single time for reasons I can’t yet consider tangible. It’s as if she knows I have a soft side that is neither cynical nor brutal.
“For a girl that disappears when she turns to the side, you sure are strong…” Sohna whispers as we walk into the classroom. “Do you think a boy will finally ask me out this year?” Her large yellow puppy-like eyes peer up at me, “We haven’t had any luck since...ever!” Sometimes Sohna sounds like a junior high girl off of a really bad tv show. I can’t decide if it’s annoying or refreshing.
Upon entering the classroom, I observe Sohna straightening up and smiling brilliantly at the whiteboard which reads, “Assigned Seating”. Her mannerisms imitate a light bulb flickering on. I, on the other hand, am less than pleased.
“You know I love you, but this is my perfect chance to make a boy fall in love with me. I heard this teacher assigns each table a boy-girl order, too! He apparently thinks it’s the only way to keep people from talking, but I think it just sets us up to be flirty. He’s like a matchmaker that way!” She giggles and begins to skip to her new position in the room.
I neglect to feel the same way about the seating as she does. Needless to say, I seldom interact with the other people. I usually prefer it that way for several reasons. I don’t have to be hostile towards other students who look at me the wrong way because I rather appear emotionless and quiet.
Humanity, in general, perturbs me.
I drag myself to my chair and set my bag on top of the table to get settled. Each row only sits two people and whoever I would sit next to today, I would sit by for the rest of the year. I study the name next to mine on the whiteboard, Haruka Rokisan.
A bag slams down next to mine as a screech of metal on tile tears me from my thoughts. I look up to find a boy with silver colored hair and bangs that dangle in his eyes. His hair is styled in a bed-head mess and his green eyes glare at me. He’s a foot taller than me just sitting down. A harsh scowl points my direction and is followed by a grimace overflowing with hatred. The animosity drips from his lips.
Haruka Rokisan makes me feel uneasy.
“Don’t expect me to like this arrangement.” He looks away from me and slouches down in his seat, pushing his legs out straight in front of him. “Sitting within close proximity to you leads me to feel nauseous.”
I stare at him with a blank expression, proving his speech ineffective. I struggle to hold back the fiery desire to explode into a violent fury and hit him on the head with my chair, calling him an imbecile. Instead, I push for my go-to emotionless reaction, tilting my head slightly and blinking my lazily-opened eyes at him. A pity gaze.
Haruka stares back at me with an identical gaze that I have yet to receive from anyone. Usually the person on the receiving end of my eyes physically moves away from my gaze. He irritates my nerves instantly, and it’s only been a few seconds since he spoke to me.
“I didn’t realize how just being beside you would disturb me to no end.” The green eyed boy relaxes his head back in his seat, facing the ceiling with his eyes closed. He opens them for just a second to look at me; I hold his eyes with mine in a challenging way. Animosity mildly creeps up inside me, I hate him.
“I don’t like y-” I allow a bit of my defence to seep out on this rare occasion.
“I prefer it that way due to my predisposition to already hate you.” He cuts me off in a heartbeat without a flash of movement.
“You don’t even know me.” I try to regain the balance I had before he yanked a world of confidence from under my feet. I’ve never been provoked like this. My stare-down always works against people I want to leave me alone.
“Unfortunately,” He squints his eyes, deepening his stare at me, “I do.”
Something dark stirs inside of me, buried in my gut. As I try to place a picture on this feeling, my mind draws up a dark image. It looks and feels like a black hole from out of this world. A black hole without an end. It’s not quite a blackhole as the ones in outer space as it doesn’t desire to suck everything up and destroy mercilessly. This black hole has come to seek any source of light inside me and devour it for its own good. This black hole is less of a destructive power, and more of a consumptive faculty.
Haruka’s brutal tone of voice brings me back to the present after dozing off while staring at him.
“You value things that are meaningless. You lack substance. You’re uninteresting, and therefore; I despise your mere existence.” He says each word without even glancing at me once. For the first time since I can remember, I feel disconcerted looking at these vilifying emerald eyes.
“I don’t care what you think-”
“Yes you do.” His eyes close and his body relaxes into the chair. A spark of fire ignites in my stomach, a colorful rage, building and growing with every slap of a word from his mouth. “You try too hard, and it’s completely obvious. So obvious, in fact, that I could guess what you were thinking without even looking at you.” I feel the heat from anger touch my cheeks as I ball my hands in tight white fists, continuing to hold back my violent fury. “Do I make you angry?” He turns his head to gaze at me.“You are indeed a coward.”
“And you’re a cretin.” The words slip from my gritted teeth out of the heat of the moment. It's not much of a comeback, but I refuse to take the brutal blows lying down. I’ve never exploded into a thoughtless outburst before. I always think these things through, but not with him.
Haruka arouses a different side of me, one that is easily flustered. It’s a side of me I didn’t know existed. In the past I easily scared off or intimidated those who opposed me. Even though they called me names for being so brutally mean, I was still able to sway things in the direction I desired. Students knew of my history with being cold, so they simply avoided me at all costs. They cowered under my gaze, calling it “The Eyes of Sheeno”. I ultimately decided the best reaction to have in opposition to the constant abuse was to not have one.
“Is that your only retort?” He continues speaking, lacing his fingers together behind his head and still reclining in the small plastic chair. “Not much of an insult.” His body reads ‘smug’ in such a vexatious way that it makes my skin crawl with goose bumps. I feel like an angry cat with its fur standing straight up.
“I have no words for how small of a person you must be.”
“Now you’re just repeating what I said to y-” He halts his harassment speech the moment his eyes reach mine.
My eyes have changed into something dark, I can feel it. I’ve flashed him a look that could kill ; all the hate in the world in my eyes at that moment. Pride fluctuates through my bloodstream as the teacher walks in and begins lecturing before Haruka can say anything back.
For a long moment his eyes scrutinize mine. He then narrows his gaze for a brief second before closing his eyes and returning to his normal reclined position.
I pull out my pen and notebook to start drawing while the monotonous teacher drags on an introductory speech. I can feel Haruka staring at me as I start drawing in my notebook. I have never known a soul to challenge The Eyes of Sheeno...Haruka must lack anything human in his body. He’s different from the other students because he’s like Sohna, standing out against the drones. Then again, in a negative way, he strays from the compassion that humanity pridefully claims as instinctive. He’s definitely weird.
As the time gruelingly passes on, I keep my head down to look at my sketch of a solid black crow with snowy white eyes. He’s surrounded by a deep, thick pool of blood; his scowl grows gruesome and vulgar. He wears a metal collar around his neck with a dangling tag that reads ‘dog’. I’ve drawn the crow of death, smirking at the blood as if it is his own.
Haruka’s eyes neglect to leave me while I neglect to leave the comfort of my hair fort. I keep him from intimidating me with his eyes. I know I will grow to despise attending school since half my day will be spent with my worst enemy, but I have hope for the other half of my day. Now that I think about it, fifty percent of my last year in high school will be spent sitting next to the kind of person who feeds off of others’ pain.
The release bell chimes and my teacher hustles out of the door before anyone else. A tall boy drone, with light blonde hair, walks up to my table as I gather up my things to stuff in my bag. He begins talking to Haruka as if they’re close friends. The strange thing is the way Haruka talks to the other boy, he’s sort of kind and genuine in a passive way. It’s the polar opposite of the way he is with me.
I scoot from my chair and stroll into the hall, irked from the past hundred-twenty uncomfortable minutes. Sohna slides into place at my side in seconds. I am nowhere near being in the mood to talk; I just want to put a distance between that boy and me as soon as possible, the further the better.
“He was so cute!” She hugs her books and nudges me, “You are so lucky to sit next to Haruka, he’s insanely beautiful!” She shrieks a little and grabs my arm with a grip that could kill. "Those gorgeous green eyes and that mysterious smirk he gives girls, I could die from happiness if I ever got one!"
“He’s a real nuisance.” I mumble, prying her hands off of me. I hesitantly trudge towards my next class.
“There’s no way that’s true! Haruka Rokisan is the most charming boy in our grade and maybe even in the whole school! I’m still not sure how you lucked out on sitting next to him, out of all the people in our class…” She trails off in bewilderment and jealousy.
“He called me a coward.” I finger the metal spring on the side of my drawing notebook. I wish I had known how to ask Haruka what gave him that impression of me, but I don’t know how to ask. I’m not very good with expressing my true feelings...
“That’s a weird pet name…” She touches her index finger to the corner of her mouth to contemplate. “He’s like the perfect boyfriend! Don’t you think?...” She continues to rant like a never ending fountain of annoyance. “What’re you going to do when he confesses his love for you?” Every word rushes out of her mouth in the hurried excitement of a five-year-old.
“I wonder when this pen will run out of ink...I’ve been using it a lot lately...” I twirl the writing tool in my fingers.
“Are you even listening to me?” Sohna squirms around and yanks the pen I hold out from my grasp. Her large eyes squint and her small hands ball into fists by her sides. I trace my finger around my drawing.
“If you take it from me I can’t use it...” My relaxed facial expression flares up Sohna’s animated emotions in a heartbeat. I do it on purpose when she truly gets ahead of herself. I guess I just like pushing buttons...
“I’m sure he meant that pet name in a cute way, he’s really charming like that.” She smiles sweetly, ignoring my indifference to human emotions, as always. “Just you wait; he’s probably in love with you or something. I’m still not sure how you got that lucky…are you doing charity work to gain good karma?”
I roll my eyes and walk away from her out of pure frustration.
“Tell me your secret!” She shouts, running after me.
I stop dead in my tracks as she runs right into my back, “Ouch! Hey what’s the hold up?!” I look back to her and attempt to tell her with my eyes. She rubs her nose and follows my gaze. “What’re you looking at?” Her small head whips back and forth in my peripheral vision as she glances between my wide open eyes and what I am staring at. “Are you kidding me?!” She groans and sighs heavily, “Honestly, you must be feeding the homeless and tutoring at-risk kids because your luck is beyond reason.” I can imagine her pouting like a twelve year old.
I don’t feel very lucky.
“Why aren't you saying anything? This is truly weird if you think about it...” She squeaks. I barely see her hand waving in front of my face before I snap out of it.
“This is an inconvenience.” I stare blankly at the same mean, green eyed boy from my last class, sitting in one of the chairs in my next class. “I wonder if that empty pen could be of use to me now…” I begin a plan of projectile motion towards Haruka’s thick skull.
“I think it’s your fate to be with him. If you’re assigned to sit next to him again, that’ll be official.” She pats me on the back, “Good luck! I’m rooting for you two!” She slips away as I stand motionless in the doorway, unable to move my feet.
“I’ll meet you by the south parking lot!” A boy’s voice shouts from behind me a moment before his body slams into mine, knocking me and everything I’m holding onto the floor and mixing in with his stuff. I end up sprawled out on the floor on my back. The boy hovers closely over me inches between our bodies. The muscular arms that hold him up are placed right next to either sides of my ears. His face is inches from mine.
The other students overdramatically gasp and shout surprise reactions to this awkward display. The boy hovering over me slightly blushes and sits back on his heels away from me.
I pick my stuff up off the floor, attempting to ignore the comments of the people around me. My calm, cool, and collected facade fractures.
The boy stands up and holds out his hand to me, “I’m sorry about that,” he rubs the back of his head with the other hand, “I didn't see you there.” He proceeds to give me a shy and innocent smile, his eyes squint. I take his hand and stand up, brushing any dirt from the tile floor off my skirt. He’s no drone, that’s certain.
Upon closer inspection, the boy could really be considered handsome. His hair is sloppy and black with auburn tints to it. His right eye is deep violet, the other is a dark shade of red. His skin is light, and he’s just as slender as Haruka Rokisan. He shakes his layered hair out of his eyes, the longest part drapes over one side of his face. He delicately holds my drawing with tenuous hands that demand to be used for some sort of defensive fighting.
“My name is Kappie Dean.” His smile doesn't cease.
The students around us begin to whisper “The Eyes of Sheeno”, “He’s just walked into a death sentence”, “Why can’t she be like any normal human being” and “what a boyish bitch”. I feel my face turn red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. I grow anxious watching my notebook and hope the boy doesn’t look at the depressingly dark drawing of the death crow. I also pray he ignores the other students.
“I am Akira Sheeno, it is nice to be acquainted with you. Thank you for helping me to my feet.” I glance at him through my hair, keeping my true thoughts from being identified. I wish he too was a drone so I could easily avoid this situation.
“You’re cute, Sheeno.” He shakes his head as I freeze like a statue. This boy is different. “Do you mind sitting by the guy who knocked you over before properly introducing himself?” He slightly tilts his head to search my eyes.
“I don’t need any help from someone who can’t watch where he’s walking.” My voice crashes through the barrier I’ve built, leaving my mouth with a bitter aftertaste. There’s no going back now, I must follow through. The other students comment on how I’ve snapped. They pity the boy in front of me for feeling my wrath. I train my eyes on the drawing, neglecting to respond any further to the boy. Kappie follows my gaze to the notebook and I instantly regret closely watching it.
His eyes widen and his lips part softly. He bypasses my moment of brutality, focussing solely on my drawing. The expression on his face is difficult to understand, and the moment I begin to recognize it as etched and entranced, his lips spread in a smile and his eyes blink to change their seriousness. “Charming.” He hands me back my notebook and I follow him into the classroom, puzzled.
Kappie tosses his messenger bag onto a table in the middle of the room. I stare at the canvas pack, carefully considering my options. Part of me would rather sit in the very back with a drone than sit next to someone who clearly defies any sort of commonality.
After careful debate, I reluctantly slide into the seat next to Kappie’s bag and tuck my notebook back into my bag for safe keeping. “Haru! You’re in this class?” Kappie slaps Haruka’s shoulder and smiles at him. My worst enemy retains a seat directly in front of me, slouching in his chair with his legs stretching out in front of him, just like before.
And I still hate him. How could someone hate me for no logical reason at all! He doesn’t even know me.
I glare at the back of his head, burning a hole into the thick skull of my enemy. I begin to muster a master plan of action to take him down, destroying him for good, when Kappie interjects my thoughts.
“Have you met Sheeno?” Kappie yanks Haruka’s chair and spins it around to face me. His grin juxtaposed to Haruka’s harsh glare sends chills up my spine. My enemy’s loathsome eyes persistently send daggers to me like poisoned arrows. I send similar daggers into his eyes as we create a dark aura in the classroom full of students who are just starting to pay attention to us.
“I actually thought I’d get away from you this time. And to think this round would be a good one...” He crosses his arms and continues to glare at me through his narrowed eyes. I feel the black hole in my gut, from earlier, churn inside me like an awakening. I wonder if this boy will ever let up.
“You two know each other already?” Kappie looks to me then back to Haruka. He grasps the back of the chair near Haruka’s head and leans in to whisper loudly, “Stop acting like a brat and be grateful.”
“You grow too attached too quickly, Kappie.” Haruka gently removes Kappie’s hand from his chair and swivels back around to face the front of the class.
“Well as long as you’re acting as your normal self!” Kappie leans on the table in front of Haruka to minimize the distance between their faces, “You must tread lightly, Haruka.”
“I can’t stand her,” he says swiftly, leaning back and lacing his fingers once more behind his head in a reclined position. “I can’t fake admiration for someone I’ve grown to despise.” He knows I can hear and comprehend his words; he’s saying things just to spite me. After acknowledging this, the darkness boils inside me.
“You sure are a clown, Haru!” Kappie returns to the seat next to me and slips me a grin that makes the growing animosity recoil. “You clearly intimidate him.” He whispers to me under his breath. I tuck my hair behind my ear and pull out my drawing notebook and pen, ignoring a comment I know to be false.
“I was wondering when I’d get to see that pretty face.” Kappie lifts my bangs and looks into my eyes. I feel the black hole sprout like a flower inside me. I spastically turn away from his hands. That was too close too fast. “You’ll get used to me.” He beams as if he read my thoughts.
“Keep your hands to yourself, idiot!” I hide my face from his sight, still watching him from the corner of my eye.
His arms stretch behind his back and above his head as he leans back in the small chair. I can’t help but stare at the muscles on his arms flex and his arms extend behind his head. His torso stretches thinner, I can count some of his ribs through his shirt. Kappie looks at me from under his black hair, “I’m sorry, do forgive my irrational behavior.” He rests his head on his fist, waiting for me to react. I have a feeling he doesn't grasp the concept of personal space, and his reactions to my outbursts are just odd.
“I’m pretty sure she’s the one with irrational behavior,” Haruka huffs, shaking his hair out of his face. I didn’t realize I had an eavesdropper. The culprit glares once more at me, daring me to do something.
Haruka is like the darkness of humanity. Though, it is odd to have met two people who conflict with the drone normality of the other students, I truly wish I had never met him.
“What do you even see in her, Kappie?” He glares at me upside-down.
“What is your issue?” Kappie’s expression changes from cheerful to cynical in a heartbeat. Haruka uses a long moment to reply. Before he does, he leans back in his chair, looks me up and down once, and sneers.
“She’s a coward.”
His remark rips open the black hole feeling inside me that I have been suppressing. The darkness overwhelmingly spreads like blood in a tissue, through my body. Flashes of unfamiliar images rack my brain and take over my vision.
Visions, pile up inside my head, of me in a place I’ve never been, doing things I could never imagine doing. In one of them I hold two swords, one in each hand, above my head. I leap into the air above a man grovelling on the ground in front of me. In one swift move I rip him to pieces with the blades. The black hole of darkness feels like hot blue flames licking my nerves and taking over my body. Flashes of similar snapshots reel through my mind. More blood, more ripping, more death.
I scoot my chair out with a screech. The harsh noise rips me from the engulfing flames of darkness. I grab my stuff and hurriedly walk out the door while hearing comments consisting of, “There she goes, having another episode”. I can’t handle the mental torment. I stagger to reignite my lungs and jump start my breathing. My footsteps are the only ones to echo the hall when a few moments later I hear sneakers running toward my direction.
“Sheeno!” Kappie yells. He just met me and yet he acts as though we’re more than strangers, I question how someone could be this comfortable in a stranger’s presence. “Stop running away for a moment!” I slow down and let him catch up to me. “Don’t let him get to you. He’s never been like that to anyone so I’m not sure why he does that to you…” Haruka wasn’t on my mind as I was rushing out of the room, but now I sigh heavily as the problems pile up before my eyes.
“What makes you think I care about what anyone thinks of me?!” I yell fiercely at Kappie, my cheeks are flushed and my eyebrows are pulled close together in a sharp V.
Kappie brings me back to the moment, grabbing one of my hands and holding it with both of his. I feel like ice in his warm grasp, the hands that seem dangerous are delicately wrapped around my fingers. He leans down to close the space between our faces with my hand near his mouth. I freeze as the hallway instantly feels like a furnace.
“I won’t allow him to hurt your pure heart.” He smiles widely at me. I can't help but feel awkward and small and embarrassed to have my hand held by some strange boy I hardly know.
“Who do you think you are, idiot!” I shout, yanking my hand back. I shove him away from me, still feeling the heat from blushing. Kappie beams in an excitement I cannot comprehend.
"I used to get bullied all the time and even beaten up for being too smart and excelling at things others had difficulty with. I was also picked on for being thin and tall like a beanstalk." He bends over to meet my eyes with his and tilts his head just a hair. "Then I met Haruka. Believe it or not, he was the one that treated me nicely. He didn’t give me any sort of special treatment aside from his kindness." Kappie stands back up and brushes his fingers through his hair while looking at the ceiling. "He gave me tough love. The only other person who was realistic with me..." Kappie puts a finger to his lips and shuts his eyes tightly, "Never mind!" He puts his fists on his hips and looks at me again, "My point is, he really is a kind person. He just struggles with showing it."
"No one asked you about your past.” I blurt out. My eyes widen at my own harsh reaction. I fight myself from covering my mouth in embarrassment. I just mutilated an important moment for him without a second thought.
"Haru isn’t like other people.” He continues as if I haven’t said a thing, “He can truly be very defensive with others and he’s difficult to get on with. I know that, at the present, he may not seem like a cheerful and loving person, but I think he just doesn't know how to express his feelings the right way at the right time." Kappie places his hand on the top of my head and lightly messes with my hair.
"Not that I want to break up the blood curdling event taking place here, but you two need to return back to class or this ploy will fail." Haruka leans his back against the wall of lockers twisting his thick bangs between his fingers. “Especially if this futile plan must prevail this go-round.”
"Oh, right you are!" Kappie ignores the interruption and Haruka’s comment. He winks at me, "See you there." I watch as he pats Haruka on the shoulder and walks toward the classroom. I’m still stuck on what Haruka means by ‘plan’ and why he and Kappie tend to speak in an old fashioned way like elderly people.
"He was lying to you. I do not act falsely toward anyone." Haruka continues to twist his hair in his fingers. "If you sicken me, I will not pretend to tolerate you." He looks up and crosses one arm over his chest. “Do not consider the possibility of receiving special treatment from me, it will not happen.”
"I don't waste my time on it." I whisper under my breath. Haruka's glare falters for a split second, something catches his attention.
"Excuse me?" His hand relaxes to his side.
"You said earlier that I lack substance and will. But I don't believe in allowing myself to become consumed in other’s thoughts of me. So, I don't waste my time on devoting myself to changing the feelings of others." Before he can say anything, I grab my stuff and continue in the opposite direction I need to go to return to class. I stop in my tracks and look back at him over my shoulder, "Nor am I a coward." I continue on to the door that leads to the parking lot just as the black hole feeling in my gut dissipates.
Outside, the wind blows and tickles my skin as I listen to the exit door slam shut behind me. It locks from the inside so that late students must go to the front entrance to enter the building and be penalized for tardiness, when and if that ever happens.
"You don't look like the type to skip class." A boy's voice interrupts my thoughts, cutting through the silence like a machete. I look in the direction it comes from and see Kappie.
"Kappie?"
The boy standing before me wears slim jeans worn thin at the knee and a long black hoodless jacket as thin as a cardigan yet it still causes him to appear slender just like his doppelganger. The ends of his jacket are loose around his wrists, and his white school uniform shirt is sloppily buttoned with the collar flipped up. His dark hair lacks the auburn tint of Kappie's but their faces and figures are identical. This boy's nails are painted black and a long dull silver necklace hangs past his lower stomach. The silver and black pendant dangling from the chain is a fiery claw wrapped around the hilt of a dagger.
There's something dark and domineering about him.
"My name is Ezra. I'm Kappie's twin." His arms are crossed over his chest. He looks at me through his dark hair; I notice the black crystal earrings in his small ears and the rustic silver rings he wears on his fingers that match the pendant. His hair has one streak of white silver that leads from the top of his head directly to his right eye. "You don't talk much do you?" Ezra continues to prod.
"I'm not skipping." I finally respond to his comment earlier with The Eyes of Sheeno. The wind whistles around us and Ezra smiles with teeth that shine white and fearsome. He pauses for a long minute before saying anything else.
"If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and quacks like a duck...It’s a damn duck.” He crosses one arm over his chest and rests his elbow on his fist, “It's only the first day, aren't you worried your teacher will have a bad impression of you for not attending his class?" The way he sarcastically emphasizes the words he speaks, as if they lack any truth, mock me. He begins to play with his rings without breaking his eye contact with me. The intensity of his nature sends similar chills through me as before, like deja vu.
I continue to stare at him, trying to make him squirm uncomfortably. This battle continues for minutes before Ezra pushes himself away from the wall and walks over to me. The ends of his jacket blow in the wind.
"So what's making you skip class, Sheeno?” He lightly touches my cheek and I flinch away from him. Our eye contact still doesn't waver, and our closeness reminds me of standing next to a rose bush, pretty but dangerous. He leans in to my personal space just as Kappie does. The distance between us is significantly smaller than before. My stomach turns after realizing I haven’t told him my name. I can feel myself start to panic.
"I required some fresh air, that’s all." I'm the one to break the eye contact as I shift my binder around in my arms and nonchalantly move a few inches away from him. This boy has the essence of a sly cat, he gives me a mischievous vibe. "I have no obligation to tell a loser like you what I’m doing."
"You’re a lot more feisty than I remember." He winks at me and lightly touches my nose with the tip of his index finger. I slap his hand away and hide my vulnerable skin from his grasp.
I hear the door behind me click open, and as I turn around, Ezra smiles wickedly at the person standing in the doorway. Haruka crosses his arms over his chest and glares at me. Ezra waltzes out from behind me and waves once at Haruka.
"What the...hell...You're back?" The shock in Haruka's voice sends me on a double take between him and Ezra. His glare disappears, he raises his eyebrows and widens his eyes at the boy next to me.
"Haruka Rokisan, is that you?" Ezra laughs at his own sarcasm and playfully puts his hands on his hips, tilting his head as if he is talking to a child. "You've grown up so fast!" He clasps a hand over his mouth. Haruka's features harden on the defense. "Don't tell me your goody little two shoes self is skipping class too." Ezra wraps his arm around me and tugs me to his body. I squirm under the pressure of his clutch.
"Actually, I came to fetch our coward." I feel Haruka's harsh eyes on me, but I refuse to look at him. I wait as Ezra figures out I'm the "coward" Haruka is referring to. “Hand her over, you have nothing left to do with this.”
"No, not my little duck!" Ezra starts to play with my hair, I shove him away from me and begin to walk away from both of the insane boys who rattle on about subjects that lack logic.
I turn back towards the parking lot to escape this nightmare. In the process of walking down the steps to the grass field behind the school, my foot catches on someone else's poorly tied up chained bike and I fall flat on my face, scuffing up my knees along the way. The embarrassment hurts worse than the cuts.
"Sheeno!" I hear a familiar voice yell to me. I sit on my heels and brush off my knees, blood starts seeping through the broken skin and soon my knees are blotted in ugly crimson. I look up to see Kappie rushing to my side and helping me stand up. "Where do you think you're going? I came out to find you and Haru since you hadn't come back in awhile...Are you okay?" Kappie’s expression spells out worry and concern from every facet of his face. He tucks my hair behind my ear. I hide my face behind my bangs like I did before to avoid the anger I can no longer hold in.
“I don’t need you to help me up, I can take care of myself!” I smack his hands away from me, wishing I hadn’t said what I did.
"I never would've pegged you as a duck lover, brother." Ezra interrupts. Kappie's back stiffens and something changes in his eyes that disturbs me to the bone.
"When did you get back?" Kappie neglects to meet his brother's eyes. I sense hostility between them but I still couldn't imagine Kappie feeling hostile towards anyone, he genuinely seems to have a good heart. I gaze over at Haruka, his eyes are turned downward at the concrete. He hasn't moved an inch.
"You think I'd miss the last first day of high school?" The same satirical tone from before is present in his words again. Ezra meanders to his brother and places his palm on Kappie's cheek. Their similarities are riveting. It's like looking at a mirror or a before and after image of one person.
"Come on, Kap. We have to get back before this all falls apart." Haruka interjects the brothers. No one says anything for a long minute, and I still wonder why I am involved in this situation when I've just met all of them today. It still vexes me that all three of them have defied the drone-like norm of this school’s student body.
The exit door is lurched open, almost hitting Haruka in the back. The words, "Get back to class now," cough out of a woman with light grey hair and sharp edged glasses. She glares at us. The woman holds the door open with her arm outstretched in the direction of the hallway. Kappie softly scoops me up in his arms, ignoring my squirming and protests, and takes me into the school building.
He turns to the woman and smiles, "I'm taking her to the nurse." He then directs his eyes to my beaten up knees to show the woman his credibility as my mode of transportation to the nurse’s office. I look back over Kappie's shoulder and watch as Ezra smirks and walks towards the parking lot. Haruka turns on his heels and sulks into the building with his head facing downward. He glares at me through his hair.
"You're as light as a feather." Kappie smiles at me again, I'm curious if his face ever hurts from grinning so much. He opens the door to the nurse's office with his foot and continues to carry me inside. Upon gently setting me down on one of the beds, he looks around for something or someone.
"I don’t need your help, I could’ve walked here on my own." I mutter while I gather my long hair onto one side of my body. Kappie quickly returns with a first aid kit. I fold my hands in my lap and look down at my fingers. He crouches down to look at my knees with his colorful eyes. I can’t help wondering why he continues these moronic decisions to look past my harsh words and cynical behavior.
"I know," he opens the plastic tub and uncaps antibacterial ointment to put on my injuries. He grabs a few q-tips and rolls the thick cream on my skin with the cotton swabs. "I know we just met today, and I think I might be making you uncomfortable with my persistent behavior," he pauses and looks me in the eyes forcing my attention on the red and purple colors of his irises, "but I feel as though we are tied by the Red String of Fate." I instantly look back to him even with my face bright red. His expression is serious.
“You idiot!” I kick him right in the chest and protectively cross my arms over my chest. “No one says creepy perverted things like that.” I look away from him, staring at the paper covered nurse beds.
I realize how awkward I feel sitting on a nurse's bed in a too short skirt, that makes me feel vulnerable, and toothpick like features, that make me appear to be a ten year old boy, with an overly attractive teenage male sitting back on his heels in front of me claiming we’re destined to be together. His eyebrows are level with my knees. His eyes search mine, looking up at me. We look at each other for a long moment before anything happens. I can feel my cheeks burn.
Kappie moves closer to my face and I flinch, he pauses and continues to keep my eyes locked on his. He places his hands beside my thighs on the bed. He then stands up and leans in closer to me. His fingers brush my hair out of my face, his hand lingers on my jawline. My heartbeat races to keep up with the anxiety and frazzled feelings seeping into my bloodstream. His hot hands spread warmth through my face. He quietly recites a poem.
“I wish my kingdom had kept hold of her freedom.
While I watch as my people pray at their steeple
Their smiles are rare, but I’ve seen one somewhere.
This sadness that ceases, this darkness increases
Take hold of the light and end all this blight.”
My eyes widen and I instinctively reach up to touch his hand on my face. I yank it off of me and stare in bewilderment before asking him, "H-...how-...how do you know that poem?" He pauses in movement for a drawn out minute before taking his hand back from my tight clasp.
"I heard a girl sing it one day and I've remembered it ever since then. Do you know it?" His voice sounds scripted. He already knows the answer to his question and to my confusion.
"My mother wrote it."
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