A new start Chapter 2: Friendship
The wolf walked down the hall, very close to going into shock. Not only had someone allowed him to sit at their lunch table and not freaked out when they saw him, but that same person had invited him to sit at his table tomorrow. But as he went to class he wondered what would happen if Kyo found out he was from a linage of witches and had powers. If Rayne didn't know better, he'd say he was well on his way to making a friend.
Kyo walked down the hall, heading straight to his locker. When he arrived at his destination, he shut his eyes and let out a sigh. His locker had been spray painted. Again.
He hurriedly dialed in the combination, grabbing his books and shutting the locker as quickly as he could, eyes looking over the new barrage of insults. He was used to this, and the words didn't really bother him all that much anymore. The poor spelling of the vandals, however, did. He was tempted to take out a marker and make a few corrections, but that would only encourage them. He shook his head and walked away, hoping the janitor would take care of the problem soon.
To Kyo, every class was exactly the same. The only difference was what the teacher's were going on and on about. He spent most of his time writing poem's, lyrics, and drawing, waiting for the bell to ring and signal that his torture was that much closer to being over- "Mr. Muramisa!" The teen turned to look at the front of the class, staring at his teacher. "I'm hoping that you found the answer to this problem in your drawings, because you're going to tell the class what the solution to this equation is!"
Kyo looked at the board for a grand total of five seconds before saying, "the sum Y is equivalent to 16." "Incorrect," the teacher said, a smug smile on his face. "Y equals 10."
Rolling his eyes, Kyo rose to his feet and walked to the front of the room, grabbing the marker out of the teacher's hand and writing the equation on the board, step by step. When he stepped away from the work, it showed that he had been right. The teacher had made a mistake in the second step of the problem.
"...It appears you are correct, Mr. Muramisa," the man spat out. "Tell me, would you prefer to be the one who stands up here and teaches the lessons, since you can apparently do it better than I can?" "No," Kyo replied, shuffling back to his seat, trying to ignore the comments the other kids were making.
"Showoff,"
"Why does he even show up if he knows this stuff? He should just stay home."
"It figures he's smart. After all, he got away with murder."
The last comment made Kyo clench his teeth, hands balling into fists. Somehow, he was able to keep his temper in check, and merely sat back down in his seat, eyes focusing on his drawings once more.
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Kyo wouldn't say that he looked forward to lunch, but it was probably the only period he didn't hate. The reason for that was new kid named Rayne. Rayne was the only semi-tolerable teen in this whole accursed place. He didn't ramble on and on like some people did, and he didn't bother the teen too much. An occasional question here and there, maybe a statement that was a bit odd, but that was it.
Kyo wasn't sure what he considered Rayne to be. Maybe not a friend; but he definitely wasn't one of those people that Kyo could shove to the back of his mind and block out. Overall, he liked the wolf. That was about all he could say for now. Before Kyo left the cafeteria something happened to him like he was having a premonition. He saw the wolf standing up for him but sent a guy flying against a wall.
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"Hey, you."
Kyo inwardly rolled his eyes as he shut his locker and turned to see six teens surrounding him. Their leader, a kid name Cyrus, walked forward, smiling at the emo looking teen. "Did you enjoy the little note we wrote you earlier?" he asked, grinning. "No. You're spelling's horrible," Kyo said, hoping to shock the teen long enough to escape.
Cyrus, however, was unfazed as he stepped toward the teen. "Sorry about that. Next time we call you a freak, we'll be sure to double check the spelling. That better?"
"Whatever," Kyo said, trying to run out of the circle, only to be held in place by two cronies. Cyrus cracked his knuckles and punched Kyo in the gut, making him slump forward. The teen was practically seeing spots. Cyrus knew that in a one-on-one fight, Kyo could take him, so he had his friends hold the teen in place. Coward.
"What's wrong?" Cyrus asked, tilting the boy's head up to look at him. "Can't fight back?" And at that moment, Cyrus made a crucial mistake. He assumed that Kyo had been the one to round house him.
"OOF!" he yelled as Kyo's kick sent him flying. Then a large black aura came from Kyo's hands and sent the others flying back. Rayne had been watching from the inside "You freak!" he yelled, as he ran towards Kyo to knock him down. Kyo dodged Cyrus's futile efforts to knock him out. Kyo finished Cyrus off then took off running to get away from the six teens.
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Kyo stumbled into his room, still slightly out of breath. He'd learned from past times that Cyrus and his gang would follow him all the way home, so he hadn't stopped until he'd gotten to his doorstep. He'd arrived home to find an empty house as usual. No surprise. He really doubted his parents even wanted to come home anymore. e shut the door to his room, locking it so he could have his privacy. His parents and brother rarely came into his room anymore, unless they absolutely had to.
The teen walked into his bathroom and pulled out a bottle of painkillers, frowning when he noticed that half the bottle was gone. His mother must have been raiding his medication again. The woman was always complaining about a headache, or a toothache, or something else hurting, so she absolutely had to have Kyo's painkillers instead of using her own. He swallowed two capsules, then exited the room, medicine bottle still in his hands. he teen set the bottle on his bedside table, before opening the table's drawer and pulling out a dusty notebook which had something on the front written in Japanese. It was a journal he wrote down things that happened to him on a daily basis. Some pages had drops of blood on it.
Kyo had actually taken the trouble of writing down basically what had happened to him that day and also what he would do to rid himself of Cyrus, each in their own separate columns. The first dozen or so pages were full of things that had been crossed out on both lists. It was only when he hit the middle of the notebook that Kyo's thoughts were brought up to date. Right now, the list of things he would do to rid himself of Cyrus was getting longer than the list of what happened that day
Pulling a pen out of his drawer, Kyo wrote down, "May have made a friend named Rayne." then as he had thought to himself he thought he heard his father come in. "where's your brother Kyo" his father said with a look of anguish on his face. " he went to a friends house". before Kyo could finish his sentence his father had pushed him off the chair and started hitting him repeatedly until Kyo had started bleeding. "that should teach u not to let your brother go anywhere".
Kyo sat up, trying to not think of the pain. Then he realized he was hungry, but then again when wasn't he. He needed to add that to his list; he had a tiny appetite, so he'd never have to worry about getting fat. That would be three things on his list. Three things to help him get through another day.
Kyo couldn't help but think that if the pro list ever got down to zero, he might die.
For the first time in his life, Rayne didn't hate going to school.
His classes were boring, repetitive, and geared towards the kids who couldn't have pointed out their home country on a globe if they were given a map and directions. The teachers were nothing short of being boring, self-centered kids who refused to grow up and had just taken this job to have the two months of summer vacation that came with the job. And if the cafeteria food didn't make you sick, having to stay in the same room as some of these teenagers surely would. Still, Rayne didn't hate his new school. He blamed this on Kyo.
Lunch was only thirty minutes, but it was the best thirty minutes Rayne had all day. Despite Kyo's lack of interest in him, chatting with him, or anything having to do with Rayne, the wolf was kind of attracted to him. Little by little, he was able to learn about him. Just small things here and there.
The first thing he learned was that Kyo had an insatiable sweet tooth. Half the things on his lunch tray were guaranteed to be made of sugar, or sugar coated. How Kyo managed to keep his teeth so white when he ate all these sweets would forever be a mystery to the Wolf.
The next thing he learned was that Kyo rarely ever spoke, and when he did it was usually just a monosyllabic answer. That was the third thing Rayne learned; how to tell Kyo's yes and no's apart.
Slowly, Kyo began to let Rayne know more and more about him. Like how he had one little brother who hated him, and two parents that he hated. Rayne told him he had a brother and sister, and his father was long gone, and his mother was dead. He told Kyo about living on his own, and even a little about the other people in his apartment. All in all, their friendship was going rather well, in the wolf's opinion.
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"...So that's about it you guys," Rayne said, sitting in front of his brother's and sisters headstone. Several weeks had passed since he'd last spoken to them, so he thought a visit was overdue.
"I still haven't told him that you're dead, though," Rayne said. "I'm not sure how he'd react."
"Most people would say it's morbid to talk to a dead person over their grave. Crazy even."
Rayne turned around to look up at Kyo. Kyo was standing there, an unreadable expression on his face. "So, is this your brother and sister?" he asked, sitting down beside the wolf.
"Uh-huh."
"..."
"Kyo, why are you here?"
"I'm visiting a grave as well. My best friend Hita is buried here."
"...I'm sorry."
".."
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened? Did he die in a car crash, or-"
"He shot himself."
"What?!"
Kyo brought his knees to his chest, staring down at the ground, lips set in a grim line. Rayne began to feel uncomfortable, and looked away. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."
"Everyone else knows what happened. You may as well hear it too.
Hita and I had always been really close. And then one day in middle school, we were more close as ever as brothers. But after a while, the other kids started making fun of us. They said it was weird, the kind of relationship we had. It didn't bother me, but their words ate away at Hita. So he finally said were not brothers anymore.
Needless to say, I was furious that he'd just dumped me because he didn't like what everyone else was saying about us. I started ignoring him, then just avoiding him. So did a lot of other people. Hita didn't realize it, but when the kids were teasing us, the only one on his side was me. So now, we were both alone."
Kyo's hands clenched into fists, and his voice became much quieter as he went on. "He started acting distant, and didn't even bother going to class most of the time. And then one day, he didn't show up at school. I was a little worried; we'd been friends for years, after all. So I went to his house.
The door was open, and neither one of his parents were home from school. So I just walked in and went straight up to his room." Kyo shut his eyes and stayed quiet for a few minutes before going on. "There was a puddle of blood, and a gun in his hand.
I called the police and everything, but there was nothing they could do. Since I was the only one in the house, and since I discovered the body, they started questioning me, getting my fingerprints, everything. Everyone started saying I killed Hita because he broke up with me. Even when they determined it was suicide, not everyone believed it.
Sometimes, I just come here to see his grave. It's the only time it feels like he's really dead, you know?" Kyo asked, looking at the Rayne.
The wolf nodded in understanding. "He died because I was acting stupid," he muttered, making Kyo raise a brow, intrigued.
"I was outside, and I and my brother gave me a necklace and then I got sent flying out into the street, and a car was coming right at me. My brother shoved me out of the way, and the car hit him. He never had a chance. It's different, but in a way, I guess we both played a part in their deaths."
"..."
"..."
"You're right; it is different," Kyo said, rising to his feet. "But thanks."
"Hmm?" Now Rayne rose to his feet. "For what?"
"...I'm not sure. But thanks." Kyo walked off then, feeling better on the inside than he had in a long while.
A few days after their chat in the graveyard, Rayne decided that not only was Kyo his friend, but probably the only friend he was likely to make while here. Furthermore, from what the cat told him, Kyo didn't have any other friends besides Rayne. That being said, he needed to make an attempt to be around the cat sometime other than the thirty minutes of lunch they spent together.
Currently lunch period was half over, and as usual the two of them had lapsed into silence. Rayne had spent the entire time trying to figure out exactly how he could ask the cat to come over to his place without making it sound like a date. "Just spit it out already."
Rayne turned to stare at his partner, whose attention was still focused on his lunch tray. "Say what you want to say," the cat repeated. "If it's too hard for you to say, just let it go. You've been thinking all lunch period about this, and it's annoying me."
Rayne had to hand it to the cat; Kyo may have no social skills, but he could read people like a book. "Kyo, can I come over to your place for a while tonight?"
"Doubtful. My parents hate it when I make last minute plans." Well there went that idea. "But...is there any way I could come over tomorrow night?"
"Yeah. I don't see why not," Rayne replied, feeling rather happy on the inside. Kyo had at least made an effort to come over to the wolf's house. That was a good sign.
"Besides," he thought as the lunch bell rang, "I'll need time to clean up my place."
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"Father."
"Hmm? What is it Kyo?" Shindara Muramisa turned around in his chair to stare at his elder son.
"I need to go over to a friend's house tomorrow."
"What for?"
"School work."
"Who is this friend?" Shindara asked suspiciously. "And if it's just school work, why can't he just come over here?"
"Because Draco will bother us. His name's Rayne Katake."
"I've never heard of him."
"He's new."
"Fine. But you had better be doing school work. If your grades slip, your whole life will go down the drain, you know that, right?"
"Yes father."
"You've got a haircut next week, by the way. Honestly, it's bad enough you always wear black, but that hair length is too much..." Kyo had already walked out of the room, having completely lost interest in his father after he'd been given permission to go. As for the haircut; he'd skip it, just like every other appointment his father made for him.
He trudged down the hall, passing his little brother's room. He hardly ever saw the fox anymore; probably because Draco made a point of avoiding Kyo. The fox hated him for some unknown reason, and in all honesty Kyo really didn't want to find out what his brother held against him. As far as the cat was concerned, Draco was just another person that hated him.
Somehow the cat made it into the bathroom, and was currently sitting on the edge of the bathtub, sleeve rolled up. He was only vaguely aware of the razor blade sliding across his skin, adding another line to his ever-growing collection of scars on his wrist under his black fur.
As the blood and pain left his body, he began thinking about the kids at school, who thought it was so funny when a person started cutting. How ridiculous it was when those "emo kids" went into the bathroom and cut themselves.
Here's hoping they found this funny.