Chapter One
I was lonely.
Truthfully, this thought had crossed my mind several times before this, but now I realized how lonely I felt as I stared at myself in the mirror. My hand rested on my reflection as I continued to stare deeply into my own eyes. They say that the eyes are a passage to the soul. Why is it whenever I looked into my own I saw nothing, but a creeping darkness that threaten to swallow up my entire being?
I hated looking at myself. It was just a reminder of my mum and little sister. It was also a reminder why I don't have any friends. I looked at my hair and combed my fingers through it slowly. My hair was an odd color. It was pure white, almost whiter than freshly fallen snow. It stood out.
That wasn't the only that that stood out. My accent was clearly British and my grades were at the top of my class. I was quiet compared to the majority of the school and since I had very little friends at all, I was usually alone. One even declared that I was some anti-social emo. It was just so easy for someone to pick on me. Ironically enough, my number one torturer was a classmate that stood out even more than I did.
My name is Ryou Bakura and honestly, I don't know why you're reading my tale. Perhaps you were bored and you wanted to peek into a teenager's diary? Maybe you wanted to try to dig into my life and take some juicy bits out to taunt me at school?
Frankly, I don't understand how my life got so interesting all of a sudden. I was just trying to live my life, but I think that something wanted me to suffer. Something wanted me poke and push me until I fell into my own form of living hell. So obliviously that something had to be Bakura Yami. He was the one that wanted to push me until I broke, but I will not break.
"Ryou! How long are you going to stare at your own reflection?" my best friend called out from the kitchen that was located on the first floor of the house. He was Marik Ishtar, an Egyptian that was sharing this house with me. We shared almost everything ranging from bills to sex life, not that I have a sex life.
I sighed and made my way downstairs once I was fully dressed. I took my bag and smiled at Marik that was clearly breaking the school's dress code by showing off his midriff.
"Marik, you're going to get yourself suspended again," I told him with a laugh. He looked at his clothes and pretended to be shocked. He acted like he didn't notice that he put the clothes on.
"It's not my fault that the uniform needed some flair to it," he whined to me. "But if you insist I'll put on the ugly thing."
He made a face and went upstairs. It wasn't long before he came downstairs with the proper uniform on this time. I had to admit, that the uniform didn't really look that good on him. It barely fit him! Maybe it would have been better for him to wear the girl's uniform, since he was too thin for any of the men's.
"Let's go before we're late," I said as I opened the door.
"Is that prison the only thing you care about?" Marik asked with crossed arms. He smiled and ended up dragging me. He wanted to get some breakfast in before class started.
Seeing him now made me feel like our horrible pasts were behind us. When I was around him, I didn't feel lonely anymore. I didn't feel that I was empty on the inside or was a corpse that was just moving through the motions. I wasn't a homosexual, so don't you dare think that I felt those feelings about him. He was just the person that would make jokes when you're down to cheer you up. What else could I say? He was my best friend. He'd probably help me hide a dead body if I needed to.
When I was younger, I lost my mother and sister. My father wasn't ever around so I decided to move in with Marik that didn't have anyone else either. He had it worse than I did though. Marik still had nightmares about his father and his older brother Malik. He missed his sister, but he couldn't stand being in that place anymore. He moved away from abusive figures and it has served him well. He could live on his life as a normal person. Well…Malik was pretty normal, except for his strange urge to wear women clothing.
"Ryou!" Marik's voice shouted out, snapping out of my daydream.
"Huh?" I answered back. That was probably going to be the most intelligent word I ever had.
"Geez! I was trying to snap you out of your daydream for a while now," the tan boy whined as he leaned over my desk. When did we get to our class? Did I really space out that badly?
"Nevermind," Marik said as he waved his hand dismissively. He looked like he was trying to shoo away his annoyance. "I bet the reason why you're daydreaming is because you have a crush on someone! Tell me the lucky gal!"
I blushed, because he had raised his voice a tad too loud for my tastes. What if someone heard? How embarrassing that would be!
Marik, however, mistook this blush as him being right.
"Oh, so there is one," Marik said with an all-knowing smirk. "Or is it a guy?"
It felt like I could have spit out blood right at Marik, but that would be kind of sick.
"There is no guy or girl," I told him truthfully, but he didn't want to believe me. He wanted to believe that I actually fell for someone in this rotten school. But, honestly, what was there to love? Any girls that had some interest me were practically insane, as far as I could tell. The majority of them belong to this girl anime club that only had the interest in these books that were literally just porn without plot. If any of them came up to me, it was always a question about either Bakura or Marik.
Then the guys were much worse. Even though I am not the slightest bit gay, most of them are assholes or unattractive. The only one that was actually okay in my eyes was Marik or Yugi Moto and I am not going to date either of them.
Yugi was also my friend, but not as close as Marik. He was a peppy boy that was around my age, but a lot shorter than me. His hair was an odd color and shape. He didn't have any bullying problems, because of his friends helped him. I don't really consider his friends my friends, because they often forget my existence with a lame excuse that I blend into the wall paper. They were fun to talk to once in a while, but that was really it.
"You're day dreaming, again," Marik said. "A lot on your mind huh?"
"Y-yeah," I replied.
"Well don't worry about me judging you if the person that you like is a male," Marik said with a grin. "It's not like I have the right to criticize you anyway."
It was true. Marik was gay.
"I don't like anybody like that," I told him as I took out my note book for class. That was then when Bakura kicked down the classroom door, even though it was unlocked, and walked toward to me.
"Hey, Brit," Bakura said to me in annoyance. He must have been having a bad day. Unfortunately, he sat right next to me so avoiding him was near impossible when he say down. "Those creepy damn squirrels kept squeaking about how we'd look good together."
He gestured to the girls that were obviously from a younger year and looking at me with these eyes that were supposedly cute. They fluttered their eyelashes and I grimace.
"So tell them you're not gay," Bakura demanded with a sharp glare that felt like he was trying to shoot a laser out of his eyes.
"Why don't you tell them that you're not gay?" I asked, wondering why that my bully would even let the two follow him around without throwing them off the roof top. Bakura hesitated.
"Just tell them or else!" he shouted a bit loudly, no one dared to look over at him. They were afraid that they would be caught staring and then something terrible would happen to them.
"I'm not gay," I said slowly to the girls and they looked disappointed. They had finally stopped their squealing, which was a lot like squeaking. No wonder Bakura called them squirrels. "Are you happy now, Bakura?"
"Pleased," Bakura said as the girls left the class room, but his face told me he wasn't even close to even smiling. Marik glared at him, I could feel it. He was over protective of me around Bakura, because of the time that Bakura had caused my stomach to have a series of black bruises.
"Why didn't you just tell them that you're not gay?" I asked again.
"Because, I'm gay," he told me. I was dumbstruck at this news that he had placed upon onto me. I looked at Marik and he was equally as surprised. "What? Don't tell me you're a homophobe or some stupid shit like that, Brit."
"My name, for the last time, is Ryou," I said, annoyed with how he was calling me a Brit. It was just insulting. "I just never thought you would be gay since you have several girlfriends before and don't you dare deny it, one of the teachers caught you having sex with your girlfriend in one of the empty classrooms."
"Fine," Bakura spat towards me, hatefully. "I'm sick of dating those slutty pieces of shits, alright? Besides if I told those squirrels that I was suddenly experimenting then they'll never leave me alone."
I raised an eyebrow and stared at him.
"I'm not a free freak show for your entertainment so stop staring at me like that," he said out of anger as he clenched his desk so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"Don't talk to Ryou like that!" Marik practically hissed out.
Bakura looked like he wanted to say something back to Marik, but he hesitated and looked as if he was thinking about something important. I was really curious to what he was thinking and what he might do, but somehow I felt like I was going to pay for my curiosity. They did say that curiosity killed the cat after all.
"I think we should start all over," Bakura said to both me and Marik. I stared even harder at him. Who was this? This was certainly not normal. "What?! What the hell are you looking at?"
"I don't think that's the right way to start all over. What are you up to?" Marik asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. I knew that Bakura was up to something. It wasn't like him to ask for something like that. Then again, it wasn't like him to tell me that he wasn't straight either. This day was already the second strangest day of my life and class didn't even start!
"It takes too much energy to continue this routine over and over. I'm going through a lot of shit right now so I thought it would be easier to have you as friends, not enemies," Bakura told us with a deep sigh as he looked away.
Okay…now it was the strangest day of my life.
"Give us a reason why we should even trust you," Marik spat out as he stood in front of me protectively.
"Marik," I said, trying to calm him down before he caused trouble for himself. Marik was already missing too many days because of his habit of altering the uniform so it would show his midriff several times. He didn't need to be hurt by Bakura and miss even more classes. Truthfully it would be troublesome for me, since I was the one that helped Marik catch up with the things that he missed in class.
Marik looked over to me, ignoring how Bakura seemed to want to drill holes into his back with his glares. I sighed gently, as I knew that this decision would somehow mess up later along the line, but I just didn't want to deal with Bakura. The rest of the school year might be pleasant without him pestering me in the morning.
"Let's give him a chance," I told Marik. "Not to be our friend or anything, but it would be nice if we stayed out of each other's way."
Marik was about to protest, but he knew that what I said was pretty sensible. If Bakura didn't bother us, then it would be less stress in the long run. After all, lately, Marik seemed to be a bit obsessed with Bakura since I came home with bruises on my stomach. I winced as I remembered those times as I couldn't eat right for weeks without throwing up into the nearest toilet. Marik was instantly very concerned about me and angry towards Bakura.
"So, what? You don't think that I'm worth being one of your friends?" Bakura accused.
I blinked at him. What? Why would he suddenly be jealous? Wouldn't it be better for the both of us if we just ignored each other's existence?
"I-I just thought that since you're having some troubles, you'd like to not deal with me in the morning," I replied, hoping that I didn't cause him to explode. He was seriously worse than a woman. It was like walking blindly into a minefield.
"Who said that I didn't want to be your friend?" Bakura said making a face.
"I don't know," I said. "I just assumed since you always called me a spineless weakling that didn't deserve to walk on the same ground with you, you'd want me to be far away from you."
He blinked at me in shock. I don't think he actually expected me to remember that.
"Why do you still remember that?"
Bingo.
"Well, it's hard to forget when you tell me that about every other day," I told him. I could feel Marik's face heat up with anger.
"I was just having a bad day," Bakura said, making a face.
"Everyday?" Marik asked. "Look, if we can't even trust you then there's no point of a friendship."
It was true. The only people in the world that I trust were Marik and Yugi, and I didn't expect Bakura to suddenly said that he wanted me to trust him.
"Give me a chance," he said so softly, that I barely even heard him. My heart suddenly clenched and I frowned deeply. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place my finger on it. He just looked so…lonely and out of place. Maybe he was telling the truth and he wanted to become friends with me. Maybe it was true that he was just having a bad day everyday he bullied me. Even if there was a chance that he might be telling me a lie, I couldn't just dismiss the possibility that he might just need someone. So before I even notice my mouth started moving.
"Marik, I think I'll give him a chance."