"Geez Fotete you read the weirdest stuff"
Fotete looked up from the thick murder mystery she was reading to look at her friend Kumeme.
"It's not weird. It's interesting. Don't tell me you wouldn't mind if I told you what happened to Punini in the most recent episode of 'Stone Cold Blood'?"
She promptly received a pillow to the face.
"Don't you dare tell me what happens, you know I haven't had time to catch up yet!" Kumeme giggled "That one doesn't count anyway. It's like the one murder mystery that isn't creepy and sucky"
"You're creepy and sucky"
"You are just so original, Fotete"
Flicking through a couple more pages, Fotete slipped in her book mark and slid it into her little bookshelf.
"You need a bigger one of those, there's like, no room for any of your books anymore"
"I stopped buying them. I just rotate through all the library books and only buy the ones they don't have"
"One day you'll have to-"
"Hold that thought, Kumeme"
Kumeme watched impatiently as Fotete whipped out one of her many note books and messily jotted down several words and phrases. This time they seemed to be a kind of review of what she'd read, which was the most common thing she'd write down. The different entries were sprawled out haphazardly, like she just flung the book open and just wrote on whatever part of the page she saw first. It was messy, but strangely pleasing to look at.
"No offense Fotete, but could you not wait until I've finished my sentence before you randomly jot stuff down? It's not very polite, you know"
"Sorry, sorry" Fotete hummed as she finished what she was writing and flung her notebook on top of the pile of other books she's just borrowed from the library. Kumeme looked at Fotete silently.
"What?"
"Just… nothing"
They sat quietly together for a while, occasionally chatting about their favourite shows or the dreaded exams that were coming up. Fotete seemed to take each of the topics on cheerfully and loudly, something that Kumeme quite liked about her. These were the times when being around Fotete wasn't such a drawn out chore.
Fotete and Kumeme had met during primary school, and had been friends ever since, so the two knew each other very well, more so than Kumeme knew her little sister, who was born only four years back.
Fotete thought of this as she watched her friend while they talked. She and Kumeme had been friends for nearly ten years now, and although it may sound sweet to the impartial observer, sometimes it really wasn't. Knowing someone for so long meant that all of the pleasantries were well out of the way, and acting like a perfect version of yourself wasn't necessary anymore. That's when sometimes hurtful banter and arguments would crop up, and recently, Fotete couldn't help but notice Kumeme's patience wearing thin. Sometimes she wondered if Kumeme only stuck around because, well, it had been this long already, hadn't it?
Kumeme had been there for literally everything. They'd been at each other's birthdays consecutively since the year they met, they went on holiday together, they had sleep overs nearly all the time, and she had even been with her when she was first diagnosed with ADHD. Kumeme had had so much patience with her through all of this, so why did she have to appear so agitated when around her now? Was there a problem with her general character?
"Sorry, I was miles away, what did you say?"
Kumeme looked at Fotete with a raised eyebrow.
"I didn't say anything, Fotete. This is like the sixth time you've asked me that now, the jokes losing its charm now buddy"
"What joke? You clearly just asked me a question"
"I was silently flipping through my planner… something you ought to be doing if you want to pass these stupid tests"
Fotete leaned back at the passive aggressive tone of the comment, and obediently took out her own planner. Three exams lined up this week. Keronian literature, yay! Statistics and history, not so yay.
"If you don't ace the Literature test I will literally question the validity of the exam"
Fotete chuckled at that. The witty comments were one of Fotete's favourite things about Kumeme.
"And I'll sue whoever marks these things if you don't get talent spotted for a dance troupe, Kumeme"
"Hush, hush" She giggled back, though she appeared to be enjoying the idea of being picked to join a real performing arts agency.
"Well, we won't get anywhere if we don't work. What's say we get started?"
"Aye aye!"
Fotete walked around in circles in the sixth form hall as she waited for Kumeme. She felt pretty good throughout her exams, but she couldn't help but fear for her results.
"You're going to wear a hole into the ground" came a deadpan comment from behind her. Turning around with a sheepish smile, Fotete meandered over to the wall Kumeme was leant on.
"I really want to see my results but don't want to at the same time, you feel me?"
"Shut up, Fotete, everyone knows you'll do just fine"
Fotete looked sadly at her friend, who was scowling at the ceiling as she spoke. She rarely ever looked at her when they spoke now. Not only that, but she seemed less than pleased to be around Fotete as of late. Obviously, the exams were working her up.
"Don't worry, Kumeme, you'll totally kick my ass at most of the other exams anyway. You're good at everything"
"I don't need a suck up, Fotete"
Fotete sighed, giving up trying to converse with her. Instead, her gaze wandered around the room. So many fellow classmates of all genders, colours, social standings and personalities were mentally poring over their tests, hoping they hadn't made any kind of slip up. She saw a couple other people snapping at each other too, and she managed a small smile. Once the test results were handed out, all of this agitated emotion would be gone.
Speaking of which, the teachers had moved into position by the tables at the end of the room in order to hand out the results. Kumeme had noticed too, so they both got up and zipped over in order to be the first to receive theirs.
Collecting the envelopes, the inspected them for a moment before glancing at eachother. Fotete was about to open hers when Kumeme pulled her out of the sixth form building.
"Let's head to the library – we can open these in private that way"
Fotete nodded at her, though she honestly didn't see the point in not just opening them then and there, but she could tell Kumeme had reached the pinnacle of her stress, so it looked like disagreeing was a bad idea.
Once in the library, the two of them huddled together between a couple of bookshelves before silently reading over their scores. Fotete smiled. She really had aced the literature exam, AND the grammar one. She was also relieved that she'd scraped enough points not to fail her history exam. She had mostly As and Bs, with the occasional C. She was happy with herself.
She looked up to tell Kumeme, but found her still staring at her results.
"Kumeme?"
"Shut up"
Fotete buttoned her lips, but she still moved around so she could read over her shoulder. Most of her grades were fine, her dance and drama grades being the highest they could be at A*. Looking further down, she noticed that Geography was a D. That wasn't such a big deal, Geography was Kumeme's least favourite subject, and didn't impact her future in the performing arts industry one bit.
Then she saw the math grade.
U.
Ungraded.
"Oh Kumeme… but you're way better at maths than I am. You had to help me though some of it! It doesn't make sense"
"Shut up, alright? I know, it's pathetic. Mum's going to kill me"
"No, she won't. We have to get it re-marked. That's clearly wrong, if I got a C, you should have at least gotten a B if not an A"
"There's no point, Fotete"
"No, there is, come on!"
Grabbing Kumeme's arm, she dragged her out of the library, ignoring embarrassed or angry comments from her as they went. They ran all the way up to the teacher offices and knocked on the administration room door. Kumeme continually grumbled about the pointlessness of it, and how embarrassing it was to be seen outside a teacher's office on results day no less.
Once a teacher appeared, Fotete shoved Kumeme's results into her arms and demanded a re-evaluation, which the teacher did after a short staring contest. Fotete turned and gave her friend a winning smile, which received an exasperated glare in response.
The teacher returned with the results, having corrected the U to a B. Fotete turned to Kumeme and smiled happily at her.
"Oh, I knew it was marked wrong! That was worth it!"
"That was embarrassing"
Kumeme glared at Fotete with a red face. Fotete looked around and saw a few passing students giving them odd looks. She looked back to Kumeme and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"Sorry… but we fixed your grade so it's all good!"
Kumeme glared at Fotete for a while longer before she cracked a small smile.
"Yeah. You're right. Anyway… we need to celebrate, yeah? You still have that cook book?"
"Of course I do, who do you take me for?"
The two of them left the school without a care in the world. Well, except the obvious awkwardness that hung over Fotete at what just happened. The stress should be over now, though. Time to go and cook some awesome food to celebrate!
"Oh? Mine was a C, I thought I told you?"
"Fotete, what are you talking about now?"
"You just asked what my math grade was!"
"I didn't say anything. Geez, Fotete, are you attempting to brag about a lower grade?"
"What? Why would I do that?"
"That's what I'd like to know…"
Rolling her eyes, Kumeme took out her communicator, and began messaging away. Fotete frowned disapprovingly at her, but said nothing. Kumeme had made a friend online a few months ago, and now she claimed to be 'dating' him. Fotete thought it was utter nonsense. Having an online friend can be fine, but when it comes to a relationship… you just can't have one without having met the person first. It was mind bogglingly stupid, but if she dared say a word about it, Kumeme would never forgive her. It was a delusion she was happy with, and Fotete couldn't see any real harm as long as nothing came from it. It was just annoying to see her giggling stupidly at a text post from a faceless man she claimed to love. Foolish.
Once they had made it to Fotete's house, and Fotete had managed to drag Kumeme's attention from her communicator, they set to work clumsily cooking a foreign recipe with probably all the wrong ingredients. They didn't mind though – they were having a legitimately good time together, and they were so pathetically rare that the two simply bucked up and enjoyed themselves.
Later that night, when Kumeme had gone, Fotete logged into her favourite gaming client, so she could speak to her own online friend; known by the username CyborgMechanic . She liked having conversations with him, though she was almost certain he made a lot of stuff up – he claimed to be just approaching thirteen yet claimed to be a trained tech expert. Either he was a smart kid with big dreams or an adult who didn't feel like growing up, because he certainly didn't act like he was trying to be perverted to anyone.
"So how did the exams go?" was the first question to appear in the chat.
"Awesome. Got mostly As and Bs and like two Cs"
"Hurry up and write a book already"
Fotete laughed aloud at that and drummed her fingers against the side of the laptop. Did she really want to bring up her worries again? CyborgMechanic had heard out many of her problems and she didn't want to push him away.
"How was it with your buddy today?"
It was like he could read her mind. Either that or he had hacked her webcam and could see her dithering. Despite the doubt that that would happen, she still draped the end of a scarf over the lens.
"She was… ok. Near the end of the day, when there was less stress"
"What were her scores like?"
"They were good. She got one D, and we had to correct her math grade from a U"
"I'll bet that made her snappy"
"You'd win that one, dude"
Fotete felt so horrible talking about her best friend with a stranger this way, but she didn't really have anyone else that would keep her little anxieties to themselves.
"Is she still going on with that online boyfriend nonsense?"
"YES, and it REALLY annoys me"
"I can tell. Nothing should come of it though. She'll realise that the need for physical companionship isn't something that can be overlooked"
"Yeah…"
"You up for a game of TF2?"
"Oh, you know I am"
For the next few months during the summer holiday, most of the social interaction Fotete got was from simply making an effort to get Kumeme to hang out with her. Sometimes it worked, but a lot of the time it didn't. She wasn't really sure why – she and Kumeme often did the regular things they would do whether they were together or not, and she didn't remember hearing about any important engagements. For all intents and purposes, it seemed Kumeme just wanted to stay holed up in her room. Fotete even noted that she would occasionally skip the dance group she was in.
"Kumeme, what's wrong? You spend most of your time at home now, and you won't even go to the dance sessions you love so much"
"What's it to you?"
"You're my best friend!"
Kumeme only looked at her. Just sat in silence and watched her with a bored expression. Fotete was getting antsy under the weirdly intimidating gaze.
"S-so… you been talking to uh… 'Azkohl' recently?"
Kumeme instantly brightened up and grabbed her laptop, scrolling through conversations.
"If you mean Nisese, then yeah. He keeps saying he'll come over here one day… I hope he does… so we can finally be together"
Fotete frowned at the conversations. They were sickly for sure, but they also seemed sort of… sinister.
"Did you really offer him money?" She asked, pointing to one of the posts.
"Well… yeah. He doesn't have the money to come over here so I suggested we both save up"
"So that's why you haven't come to the arcade in ages! How's it going for him then?"
"He's so forgetful… He's constantly impulse buying and stuff" Kumeme giggled, gazing lovingly at the pixels the displayed his message.
"What if… he keeps forgetting?"
"Then I'll pay it all for him… I'm going to meet him on the street he first messaged me via text"
Fotete's expression was grim with concern. Not only had she given him her number, she was planning to meet him in the streets? Fotete remembered the exact street it was, as she remembered Kumeme questioning who this 'Azkohl' guy was. It was isolated, to say the least.
"What's with that face, Fotete?"
Fotete sighed. She knew Kumeme wouldn't like this but she had to say it.
"Kumeme, I think you're being manipulated"
Kumeme furrowed her brow.
"By who, exactly?"
"Azko- Nisese. It's not a coincidence that he keeps accidentally misplacing money. I can see here-", she said, pointing to another comment "-that he was the one that suggested you meet there. It's clearly a dangerous place!"
"Oh, so you're saying that you know him better than I do?"
Fotete winced at the venom in her tone.
"Neither of us truly know him, Kumeme. He's still a stranger from the internet. A couple of video chats doesn't change that"
"Shut. UP."
Fotete held her ground. If this was going to turn into an argument, it would be one she wasn't going to lose. Not for her sake, but for Kumeme's.
"I'm not saying he's definitely a creep, but the fact he's basically sucking money from you and encouraging you to meet in an alley way of all places doesn't scream 'trustworthy' to me"
"You know NOTHING about him"
"Neither do you"
The two stared each other down for the longest time, and Fotete began to notice that Kumeme didn't look like… well, Kumeme anymore. She had a cold gaze that showed distrust and hatred, and it was aimed directly at Fotete's own eyes.
"Are you really about to put some random internet persona before your best friend of ten years? Do you not think that maybe I'm trying to protect you?"
"You aren't protective, you're possessive. I get it, you're jealous, it makes sense"
"I'm not jealous; I'm genuinely worried what will happen if you meet him"
"He wouldn't hurt a fly"
"It's all words, Kumeme. He is able to tell you whatever he wants and know you will always believe him!"
"Because I have no reason not to trust him!"
There was another silence as the two threw their gazes to opposites sides of the room. The tension was truly palpable, and Fotete couldn't hold back a thick swallow in the deafening silence.
"I'm not like you, Fotete. I don't have the confidence to greet new people like you do. Even if you constantly get brushed off or ignored because you're far too noisy and in people's face."
"Aww, come off it, Kumeme. You know it's only ADHD that gives me those compulsions"
"Well not all of us are as screwed in the head as you"
Fotete was about to laugh at that but cut herself off as the words sunk in. Screwed in the head? Not even school yard bullies had called her that. Granted, she didn't go advertising her condition to everyone but still. Also… Kumeme? She would never ever say that in a million years, not even if she was grumpy or pissed off.
Fotete looked up at Kumeme and saw no sign of regret on her face. She meant what she said.
"Screwed… in the head" Fotete repeated, her eyes suddenly hardening, daring her to confirm her suspicions.
"Yes, Fotete. I know you've always had your… condition, but that doesn't mean I can deal with it. I'm not used to it. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is when you do things on impulse, speak too loudly, assume I've said things I haven't, seen things that aren't there and now judging a sweet man who you've never met? You're a psycho, Fotete. You should be grateful I've dealt with you for this long. I'm not cut out to be your personal carer."
Fotete had to remove her glasses, now steamed up and damp, not quite believing what she was hearing. Kumeme had felt that way about her for all these years and said nothing? Their friendship was failing just because she had a label now?
"Are you being serious?" Fotete asked, not meaning to sound as quiet as she did.
"Of course I am"
"You were never this way before I got a designation!"
"That's because we were kids, Fotete! I grew up, and I don't have the energy to drag you behind me"
Fotete was sure the sentence continued into another rant, but suddenly it sounded as though she was submerged in water. Everything was muffled, and there was an ambient liquid sound all around her. Spots and lines started appearing at random, and she wondered if this was what it was like to have a seizure. She was nervous, especially when her vision blurred, and only the rough silhouette of Kumeme reaching to the side to grab something was truly visible…
Her vision snapped into focus again, but the underwater sounds remained, though the ambience was long gone, and now that she could see the needles apparently sticking from Kumeme's hands, aiming at her face. So Fotete could only do one thing. And that was strike.
She could feel such a welcome warmness on her hands, feathery soft and ticklish, as she beat down… whatever was happening in front of her. She felt safe and empowered now. She couldn't really see anymore, but she kept blindly swinging to make sure that Kumeme got the message. Why had she gotten needles in the first place, and why did she try to attack her? She thought Kumeme was bored and annoyed, not homicidal. The warm feeling on her hands was gone, suddenly, and she could only feel lukewarm moisture. Her head hurt for a second, and she screwed her eyes shut and sat still for a moment, waiting for the spinning to stop. Opening her eyes again, she had to wait a moment before her vision faded back, and at almost the same time, her hearing.
She looked at her hands first. They were the wrong colour. And they were wet. Well… they looked wet, anyway, her tactile senses hadn't quite returned properly just yet. Raising her head, she stared at Kumeme for a few moments, piecing together why she was lay so still on her bed, also the wrong colour in places, with other colours seeming to spread along her bed sheets…
As with many criminal offences, some of the offenders were given a psychiatric evaluation to determine the cause for the incident. Fotete was one of them. Everyone involved, even Kumeme, who was too afraid to make a physical appearance in court, said that it was so unlike Fotete to be violent, that she was far too gentle to do anything like that in a sound state of mind. So they tested her, and interviewed her. She numbly went along with whatever she was told to do, still trying to work out why what had happened… happened.
It turned out that what she experienced was a mild absence seizure, coupled with many bizarre visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations, only making her act in a harsher, more confused manner than she'd initially thought. She was told it was brought on by a spike in an emotion, most likely panic or upset. They explained that, because the hallucinations were not a one off thing, and that they had actually triggered a small seizure, that she had a form of schizophrenia that had gone previously undiagnosed. Though mortified to have gained a second label, Fotete was glad that there was a medical explanation for what had happened. Unfortunately, not everyone saw it like she did…
Kumeme refused to see or speak with her out of fear, using a mediator in the form of her wary but mildly pitiful parents. Now that she had more than one label, there was no doubt that Kumeme though she was a psychopath for sure. The wounds Fotete had inflicted upon her just from punching blindly would have made her think the same if the roles were switched. It didn't stop her from becoming broken hearted, however. She cried frequently and locked herself away in her room very often, not socialising with the outside world, and only barely with her parents and CyborgMechanic. This wasn't a major concern to her parents at the moment, as they needed to make sure she was in a safe place, or at least within their sight, encase something like her growing frequency of hallucinations caused her to act in a possibly dangerous way.
She had finished school now, but she was hardly ready to go into further education in the state she was in, much less search for a job. She was kept in a psychiatric hospital for about four years, teaching her ways of curbing and controlling her schizophrenia, and now even her ADHD, the traumatic experience with the seizure, injury and loss of her very best friend causing her to lose all the progress she had dealing with it.
While this all did very well with helping her learn to get back into a general routine and helped her with some of the hallucinations, particularly the olfactory ones, it didn't really have the effect it should have had, perhaps due to the fact that Fotete was so sad and lonely, and felt useless without many skills to speak of past GCSE scores. So, they sent her to an entirely different place.
This series of buildings was huge, like a sort of city campus rather than a therapy building. It was pristine and rather beautiful architecturally, and everyone just seemed so happy. It had given Fotete fresh hope for the future, and lifted her spirits enough that she essentially fled the company car of her old psychiatrist and explored the grounds by herself –even while lugging around her suitcases and a haphazard series of documents and maps. She felt like she was on vacation; and the beaming smile on her face made it look as though the last five years of her life had never happened.
Picking up one of the many sheets of paper she kept dropping, she spotted one of her actual objectives – finding the building she would be living in. She grinned in delight, smoothing out the page and adjusting her glasses in order to get a proper view of the now smudged text on the sheet.
The place she was looking for was called the Caelum building. She recognised the word, hearing it in a book about an ancient Pokopenian language. She couldn't quite remember what it meant though.
Shrugging to herself, she weaved about all the buildings, but found that she got lost rather quickly. She didn't think about checking the actual colour coded map, and simply wandered around. She read on the map earlier that there were supposed to be large signs above each door with the name of each building displayed, but every time she checked she only saw various climbing plants, oddly not seeming to originate from anywhere. It occurred to her that it was probably a hallucination, but she couldn't stop the signs from appearing obscured to her that way, so it seemed she'd just have to ask someone.
Turning around, she spotted a young woman. Even though she appeared to be leaving, she ran up to her anyway.
"Hey! Hi! Wait up!"
As she ran, a new thought occurred to her. Maybe… she could also make this new person her friend.
The young woman, Kurere, showed her around the Caelum building – which turned out to be the one she was actually in front of before she decided to ask where she needed to go. She felt vaguely embarrassed about it, but she didn't dwell on it, rather trying to start a conversation with Kurere. Despite the fact Kurere had been the one to suggest the tour; she really didn't look as if she wanted to be there. Fotete found it hard to focus on that fact however, as she was gladly chatting with her, finding that she really, really liked her already. She was feeling almost as comfortable talking to her as she used to when talking to Kumeme.
Unfortunately, time flies when you're having fun, and this time was no exception. Kurere had shown Fotete to her door, which turned out to be only a door apart from her own. Just after thanking her for her help, Kurere appeared to be about to leave. Fotete's expression changed slightly, not enough to express how lonely she was already feeling. The incident with Kumeme had obviously taken a toll.
"Are you leaving already? Oh no, did I get in the way of an appointment?" Fotete suddenly felt silly. She'd totally forgotten just what kind of facility this was.
"N-no… of course not…" Kurere responded quietly, awkwardly righting herself, the bag she'd been carrying all the way held beside her hip in a way that looked fairly uncomfortable.
"Yay! You see, I was hoping you would hang out with me for a while"
Kurere's expression made no sign of movement as she continued to stare at her. Confused, but vaguely amused, Fotete mimicked her, waiting for some kind of response. But she was impatient – she wanted to get to know this new person!
"I think we should be friends. No, I know that we are already friends!" She chirped, subconsciously moving slowly forward. Kurere backed away, but Fotete saw it as an invitation to follow her, so she continued to move forward.
"Fotete, no"
Fotete stopped in her tracks, rather confused now. She furrowed her brows slightly, her chipper expression dimming a bit.
"No" Kumeme repeated, slowly making a rather submissive looking retreat into her room, slamming the door behind her.
It suddenly came down on Fotete like a ton of bricks. The reason why Kurere looked so anxious the whole time was very clear now. Kumeme was right. She really was too forward. She was too much for anyone to really handle. She was absolutely mortified. She had never expected that she could bring out such a reaction in a person. Trying to leave this train of thought, Fotete noticed she'd been pacing just outside Kurere's door for a few minutes. She really was digging herself into a hole now. Sadly, she made her way to her own room, sorting her things out a bit, not really bothering to fully unpack or survey the room, before deciding to call it an early night and burrowing into the bed covers in her new home.
Sleep never truly came to Fotete; graphic nightmares that felt very real plaguing any sleep she managed to get. Most of them were about what she did to Kumeme, but from different perspectives, where she saw herself as a villainous psychopath. The last one, however, that kept her from going back to sleep was of the last interaction she'd had - with Kurere - only it looked as though Fotete was advancing in an intimidating, predatory manner. Kurere had looked terrified, as she had before.
Fotete sat up and covered her mouth, try hard to mute the quiet sobs she couldn't hold back. Warm salty tears fell from her eyes, and she suddenly felt trapped and scared. Hopping out of bed, she shakily made her way down the halls, trying to find somewhere – anywhere – where she could feel less confined. She spotted the door to the common room, and pushed it open. Feeling around for a lamp, she flipped it on, and leapt onto a sofa. It was only now, with the very blurred view she had, that she realised she forgot to take her glasses with her. Not that it mattered.
Feeling around, she caught the edge of the sofa cover, which she quickly pulled off and swaddled herself in. It was warm, but the smell was so unfamiliar that it only made her sobs worse. Still she tried to stifle them… she'd be mortified if she awoke anyone with her crying.
Her cries got quieter on instinct when she heard movement outside the door to the room. She really had woken someone up. She attempted to hide herself beneath the sofa cover completely out of shame. Perhaps whoever it was would only take a quick glance inside and not notice anything out of the ordinary.
Of course, it didn't go as planned, as hesitant footsteps could be heard coming towards her. She could only continue to quiver and sniffle quietly, feeling truly helpless now.
"H-Hello? Are you alright?"
The voice sounded familiar, but her brain was too muddled to really work it out. She tried to silence her cries, holding her body still to try and calm down.
"I-I'm sorry, I should have respected your privacy, I mean, I-I know that I like to be alone if I cry, because I get embarrassed if someone sees me, a-and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, I mean, what I mean is that I'm just checking to see if you're alright and… and stuff"
That jumbled, almost confused sounding speech pattern… could it really be?
She fidgeted under the sheet she had accidentally tangled herself in, before emerging and gazing up as the unfocussed figure before her.
"Kurere? Is that you? I don't have my glasses so everything's a bit blurry…" she muttered quietly, trying to disguise the shuddering breaths she took while she calmed down.
"Yes, it's me"
"Oh. Hello. I'm sorry I woke you up"
"Don't be… what's… what's wrong?"
Fotete felt truly touched to hear that Kurere was vaguely worried for her. She shook the feeling of mugginess from her head and sat up, clutching the woollen sheet close, like a comfort blanket. Taking a deep breath, she apologised to Kurere, and explained what had caused her to act so full-on earlier. Surprisingly, Kurere claimed she was the one at fault, and began to tell her about the conditions that brought her there – Apseprgers Syndrome and Bipolar Disorder. After briefly chatting about their designated labels, the two managed a small smile each, at the dark, yet humorous notion that they had indeed come to the right place. Even talking about such things, Fotete felt so much happier having spoken to Kurere. There was definitely something about her that attracted Fotete – in a friendly sense, at least. Receiving one final reassurance from Kurere that there shouldn't be a real need to fit in anywhere at all: they were just a different brand of normal for everyone else, and that they were simply here while they waited for the common brand of 'normal' people to understand. Fotete allowed herself a quiet chuckle.
"Good, because I like making friends more than anything in the world" she said only now realising just how integral friendship was to her overall health. She needed to have at least one person to be close to just to function.
Fotete nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt Kurere take her hand to regain her attention after she drifted off with her thoughts.
"Then let's do this right. Start again. Be friends… for real"
Fotete held back tears of relief and squeezed the hand in hers. Kurere gingerly brought her into a hug, and she happily burrowed her face into the warm dressing gown. She almost felt glad for all the recent events that had transpired. Had they not happened, she may have never met this woman, whom she felt so emotionally attached to already. She was finally ready to move on, and this time, alongside someone who would respect her – warts and all.
A/N
Just a note – Kumeme and Kurere's names sounding similar are entirely coincidental – Kumeme comes from the Japanese word for two-faced, and Kurere comes from the musical term 'Cleff'.
This could really have been posted a week and a half ago had I not only done one or two paragraphs a day, but I was busy with other things, and this story didn't come straight to me like the others did, though this one had more planning. I'm glad I didn't rush it though.
Turns out this thing is nearly 6000 words long. That's a lot for me, anyway XD
I don't want to go into a massive amount of detail here, mainly because some of it is based on things that happened to me when I was finishing high school myself, some references more prominent than others.
Kumeme, for example, is partially based on an old friend I had a couple of years ago. This friend, who shall go unnamed had, like in this story, been friends with me for many years, grew unhealthily attached to anonymous people over the internet and, despite her 'online boyfriend' telling me to kill myself because I was autistic and no-one could love me, she took his side and ended our friendship, only for him to 'break up' with her less than a week later.
The main reason I chose such a sensitive subject is because it relates well to Fotete's need for companionship, and it's a good way to get any lingering negative feelings out of my system, if any. Sometimes she can be overbearing, but it's because she needs more love than her family and Kumeme gave her (she's not all that close to her family).I chose to add my disregard of romantic and sexual love and the importance of a true, loving friendship into her own personality, because it fits with the other narratives including her so far. I would go into a bit more detail, but I think I may accidentally spoil something I intend to add to other thingummies XD
I shall end this unintentionally, vaguely melodramatic note with this: can anyone work out who CyborgMechanic may be? I should hope it's fairly obvious :P I added this guy to point out that online friendships can be great things, if not allowed to get out of hand.