My friend was someone I trusted. She was very nice and funny. Everyone liked her and admired her. Including me.
Perhaps it was something I did that made her go away. She had gotten pretty popular and simply up and left me. She made new friends and started all over. She forgotten about her old friends completely. But I don't mind. That's life. People just need to start over sometimes. I understand. I'll always remember how she was though.
She used to come to me and tell me about all her problems. She would explain how she felt and everything. But she was completely different when she was outside. You won't be able to know that she had cried at night.
So it all started one day when I just arrived at school. Usually I arrive pretty early, along with my friends and we just sit under a tree and talk. However, when I headed over to them I waved hi. I saw them look at me then turned their heads and pretend not to notice. I smiled and shrugged it off, because there were times when we pretend that we were disgusted with each other. I jogged up to them and put my hand on one of my friend's shoulder.
"What's up?" I had asked.
She quickly slapped my hand and pushed it off. "Don't touch me."
I was taken by surprised and stunned. It confused me. "Sorry." I murmured. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, of course not…" She stated and faked a smile, then it quickly turned into a frown. "Of course there is!" she stood up and so did the rest of my friends. They stared at me angrily, then walked away.
I really didn't understand what had just happened and I was bewildered. I was also saddened that they didn't even bother to tell me what I did. Or what happened.
When I entered the halls however, almost everyone seemed to be angry at me. I really didn't understand why though until an angry boy dropped the school newspaper on my desk and stabbed at the front page. "Why did you do this? And how did you know all this? Have you been secretly spying on all of us? Or are you just making stuff up?" He questioned forcefully.
I knew my eyes had grown wide and I just stared at the page. It had unpleasant facts about almost everyone in the whole school and it was said to be written under my name. "What? I didn't do this!"
"Sure, you didn't. You promised that you would tell a single soul. So you decided to write it huh?" My friend's voice came behind me. "I trusted you." Her eyes were sad for a second, then they hardened.
"It's always the silent ones." Another person spoke up.
I felt all eyes on me. "I didn't do it." I stated firmly. "I can't believe you guys won't trust me."
"You lost my trust." My friend stated and turned to the rest of my other friends. "You guys too." They were shocked.
So since then, my friends left me, and she left them. No one bothered to listen to me. No one wanted to know the truth. The school teachers and principal didn't even bother with the drama caused by the newspaper. They didn't seem to care. No one got in trouble. I had tried to solve it myself, but I didn't get very far because of my limited resources. I gave it up altogether. Even if I did prove my innocence, my friends wouldn't care anymore. For what reason? I don't know. But that's how it started. The whole school avoided one another like a plague. I believed that they were too ashamed of themselves. High school is the weirdest thing I have to admit. So I last that whole week without a single person talking to me, but I knew everyone was talking about me. It was isolation until another thing came up the week after.
I arrived at school and sat at my desk as usual. I heard crying however, and I turned around in my seat to see about five people in tears, sobbing their hearts out. They weren't dressed in their uniforms, like everyone else, but casually dressed. I noticed that among them was my ex-friend. It seemed like the five were explaining what had happened to them. I only caught on a few words, fire, house, family, and hair.
After they finished, they saw me watching them. They pointed at me and said something I couldn't catch and everyone stood up and walked over to me. I felt afraid at that moment. I wasn't sure what was going on had anything to do with me.
They surrounded my desk and stared at me. I was waiting and watching them. "What?" I finally asked.
"It was you wasn't it?" One of the students pointed out.
"It was me what?" I bite my lip. I didn't want to be accused again.
"Cloud. You are the only one with long brown hair." Another student spoke up.
I stood up now. "What does that have to do with anything? You guys are so vague."
My ex-friend finally said something. "We know you are the one who killed our families and burned our homes, Cloud."
"WHAT?" I shouted. I couldn't help it. They accused me of doing something that heartless. I couldn't believe that they would think that I would do something like that. "You can't accuse me without proof Sam!"
"Well, we all agreed upon one thing! And that one thing is that we all saw a person with long brown hair! You are apparently the only one who has long brown hair. Everyone has either dyed it or cut it." Sam cried out.
"There are hundreds of people in this city, yet you limit it to me. Why is that? There are endless possibilities. Yet you want it to be only me. Get a grip. I don't have the time to waste it on burning your house." I was becoming a bit angry now.
"Why? I'll tell you why. I don't know you anymore. I told you something and you just blabbed it out. I can't trust you." she pointed out.
It had became a one-on-one argument now and I could feel everyone watching me and her. I placed my hands on my desk. "I didn't do it." I stated plainly and stared blankly.
"You can't deny it because you were the only one I told. I lost my family now because of you!" She shouted and started crying. "Just because yours abandoned you and you watched your brother die doesn't mean that you could kill mine to make me feel the way you do!"
I winced. Her words stung so badly and it hurt. I bit my lip and glared at her. I didn't say anything and I knew she realized she went too far.
A couple more people entered the room crying and before I knew what was going on someone grabbed me and slapped me across my cheek. I felt blood oozing out of my lip from the cause of the person slapping me when I was biting my lip. Then I was pushed against the wall and I opened my eyes to see a bunch of angry looking bunch from a different class. A guy kneed me in the stomach and I crumpled to the floor. "I can't believe that you would do something so horrible like burning people's homes."
I couldn't stand it anymore. How could people not be able to see other possibilities? It was like they became brainwashed. "You don't know anything. You have no proof. Quit accusing me." I stood up with pain. "Quit attacking me." I glared at Sam. "You don't know anything!" I shouted and pushed past them to run out the door.
The teacher was walking in at that moment so I dodged past her and slipped away with her calling after me. I ran out of school and kept running. I didn't know where I was going, but all I knew was that I had to get away. Away from lies and fake people. Away from who I thought were friends. I felt lost. Therefore I kept running.
-----
Yoh Asakura was walking home from school along with Anna and Morty beside him. He had his hands behind his head as Anna was talking to him about cooking dinner tonight. Things were going pretty slow since the Shaman tournament was postponed. They were all just aching for it to start over again and hopefully, it would start soon. Everyone was back home except for Ren and Jun, who were sometimes staying with Yoh and Anna or staying somewhere close by.
A girl sped past them and ran across the street, nearly getting hit by a car. Yoh suddenly snapped out of his lazy expression and looked over worried. Anna's eyes were also following the girl even though her face was masked from concern. The girl tripped and fell onto the sidewalk. Anna's voice was stern. "Morty, go see if she's alright."
"Yes Anna." With his short little feet carrying him, he ran to the girl on the floor with Yoh and Anna following behind him.
"Hey, are you alright?" Morty asked the girl on the floor.
She turned her face away from him and didn't answer. She pushed herself up and began to walk away.
Anna grabbed her arm. "Hey girl, he was talking to you."
She didn't look back at them, but answered. "I know. I'm sorry." She tried taking another step, but Anna spun her around to face them.
Her face was stained with tears. Her lip was bleeding and one cheek was a tint of red. She didn't meet eye contact with Anna and just simply stared at the floor. "What do you want?"
Yoh stepped forward. "Are you okay?"
The girl didn't answer, but she looked up at them and taking in their features. She saw Morty, Yoh, and Anna, who was still grabbing her arm.
"Who slapped you?" Anna asked directly.
She mumbled. "No one."
Yoh placed a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Anna…" He said gently. "Let me ask."
Anna glared at Yoh, who was smiling, and let go of her arm. Yoh took another step forward. "It looks like you go to a different school than us. Your uniform is different." Yoh pointed out and Anna rolled her eyes. "Would you like to tell us what happened?" He asked and she didn't replied. Yoh scratched his head. "Come over to our place, we'll clean you up. Is that alright?"
She gazed directly at him and her soft blue eyes met his. Even without her answering, Yoh took it as a yes and stuck out his hand. "This is Anna and Morty and my name is Yoh Asakura." He introduced.
Her eyes shifted back to the floor and she closed it. "My name is Cloud Yuumi." She whispered.
