Hello people. I haven't been writing and I bet some of you though I was dead (I hope not). But I live and I write!
Sorry if I'm a bit lacking in some stories. I'm trying really hard to write and I'm currently working on about three stories right now so I'll have lots of stuff for you to read!
Anyway, enjoy!
Warnings: Nothing…. Yet…
WE LIVE EVERY DAY LIKE ITS OUR LAST DAY
I felt a book tap my head and awake me from my sleep. Opening my eyes groggily I first looked around the room to find my fellow classmates staring at me, some girls giggling and whispering across the room while some other boys snickered with stupid smiles. Then I looked up to find my teacher glaring down at me, arms crossed over his chest, his foot tapping impatiently on the floor.
"So, would you now please go up to the board and answer the question?" he asked impatiently. I sighed and walked to the board, answering the math problem like it was simple addition. I always liked showing people that even though they can try and embarrass me, they can't succeed.
After quickly finishing the problem I walked back to my desk and resumed my seat, still feeling half asleep. I heard my teacher thank me, sounding a bit disappointed that I hadn't made a fool of myself in front of everyone, and resumed his lesson.
I lay my head back down, but this time on its side, facing my friend who sat next to me. His silver hair reflected the sun, making his presence almost angelic. He stared at the front of the room up at the teacher, occasionally looking down to take a note or two down.
"Psst, Riku!" I whispered, but not all too softly. He turned to me and smiled, closing his eyes to the sun. His skin looked paler with the light shining down on it. I smiled back and pretended to snore making it seem that the teacher's lesson was putting me to sleep which, in truth, it was.
Riku chuckled quietly and I loved it when I could humor him. I saw the teacher give a sharp glance I my direction but didn't really care. I let Riku return to taking his notes, even though he really didn't need to.
Riku was only about a year older than I, yet a few inches taller. He was the star athlete at pretty much everything, while I was only the second place swimmer in our school. Still, second place is really good when you think about it since I'm the second best in the school (not to brag because I'm not a bragger, really).
Suddenly, a boy around my age raised his hand. I remember him because Riku and I had grown up with him, but only actually hung out when we were little. He wasn't very big and was often bullied. He stood up to read and he looked even smaller than I had remembered. He was slightly hunched over, like he was afraid of being hurt. He was a quiet boy and his "unpopularity" may be the reason why we lost contact.
Riku was watching too, his head turned at a slight angle to look at our old childhood friend. For some reason, my thoughts began to drift to the CDs that I had ordered online a couple days ago. I had ordered a new Bloc Party CD as well as the latest Radiohead, Interpol, and The Editors albums. God those bands are great. My favorite is Bloc Party because their music is like rock mixed with pop. "The Mainstream" called the band's music Brit trash, but I called it awesome. Besides, I hate categorizing music by certain genres. I thought of it as confining a band's music to only one type.
Anyway, when the boy had sat down, I noticed that he had bruises along his arms and face. He wore arm protectors that were a bit too big for him along with his school uniform. I felt guilty for not being there for him even though we had been friends.
I felt sorry for the boy. He seemed nice and when we were young he would always be laughing and smiling, joking around all the time. In fact, I was the one that was always trying to hide from others (don't laugh at me. I was little…).
The bell rang for lunch and I went to grab my lunch with Riku. Other classes emptied into the halls and the halls were filled, bodies bumping into one another without a second thought for one another. It was a typical school. But ours was a boarding school. It wasn't anything special other than being a place you send your kids if they are too crazy and hell bent to stay at home.
I finally made it outside the school and fresh air rushed against my face. The sun, always brighter than through a classroom window, shone down and heated my body, cool from the air conditioning. I heard Riku call my name and I turned around to find him struggling through the mass of teenage bodies as he tried to get outside. I couldn't help laughing at my friend who was usually so cool trying to push by people in the hallways.
At last he broke free as if from some sort of clutch and walked towards me, brushing his striped hoodie off. His skin looked even whiter in the light and he smiled at me with his smile that always put me in a good mood.
We grabbed lunch at a café close by. We both bought a coffee and a sandwich and found a seat outside. Spring had barely started, yet the weather was warm and clear.
"So are you ready for summer?" Riku asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich. I nodded my head and took a small sip of my coffee, hoping that it would keep me awake during the last few classes I had left. The café was bustling with other students and workers on their lunch break. I was feeling lucky that we had gotten a seat.
Several people said hi to Riku as they walked by. He was a popular kid compared to me who only mingled with groups of Riku's caliber. If people were in a pyramid ranked by popularity, I'd probably be somewhere in the middle where the normal people associate. Riku would probably be at the very top. Or somewhere close.
But actually, he didn't really hang out with the popular groups that much. It was usually just me that he was with and I'm sure that puzzled others more than I. He was a grade above me so he had had more time to make friends and in fact he was leaving for college soon when this year ended, being a senior and all. I, on the other hand, was going through the hell of junior year and dying.
I looked at Riku as he smiled at a friend who I didn't know. His smile seemed forced compared to the ones he gave me, which made me happy knowing that I was a true friend to him. I failed to suppress a small smile at the thought.
Riku looked at me now as he took a sip of his coffee, catching my smile and giving me a puzzled look. "What's so funny?" he smirked as I wiped the smile off my face. Can't let him know what I'm thinking now can I?
I never answered because what caught my eye was a person who would probably be considered by boy students as the manifest of perfection and lust; Kairi. Of course, I grew up with her too, like Riku, and didn't feel that way towards her anyway. She wasn't my type.
But my feelings were probably overwhelmed by the rest of the boy student body. She walked up to the café with her group of friends; the girls who were popular, stylish, cool, and bitchy for the majority of their time in public.
Being Kairi's friend, I knew some of them, but also having a great distaste for all those stuck up and bitchy, I didn't really try very hard to remember their names. As Kairi approached our table, I turned away and returned my attention to Riku, hoping the girls would just pass by. Unfortunately, they didn't.
"Hey Sora!" Kairi said cheerfully as she pulled up a chair to our table, her groupies following in suit. I had always found it a bit eerie that they would always copy their leader. Eventually, our table was a mass of girls, popping their gum and talking about either boys or nails, I didn't bother to listen.
"Hi Kai-." I attempted a greeting, but cut myself short, noticing that all the girls had turned their attention to Riku as usual. I didn't mind being ignored as much as I felt sorry for Riku for having to constantly be surrounded by these drooling fangirls. Requests for prom and dates shot from all directions of the group as I only sat and watched.
I spaced out for a moment, enjoying a sip of my coffee and trying to block out the incessant giggling and chattering of the girls, only being brought back by I sharp kick to my shin. I looked up at Riku and saw that, subtly, he was giving me his "Let's get the hell out of here" signal.
Immediately, I stood up, gathering my half eaten sandwich and half full coffee, and scooted my chair out. "Let's go Riku. I have to see a teacher about something." I said, hoping that the girls wouldn't follow us. Unfortunately it was worse.
"Hey, Riku doesn't have to go with you. He can stay with us." A girl said whose name is slipping me at the moment. I looked at Riku, though I already knew the answer. "Um, sorry ladies but I have to go with him. Who knows what kind of trouble he could get into." He said. I didn't particularly like that answer though since it made me look bad in front of other people.
"Hmm well I guess you're right…" the girls said unhappily, which made me even more peeved since they believed him. But whatever; anything to get away from these fanatics right? So I dismissed the thought and finally made my way away from the girls who were still jabbering.
"Ugh, why is it always like this…?" Riku said, brushing a few strands of hair out of his face. I laughed at his remark. "Oh yeah, like so hard to be the most revered guy in school and get all the ladies. So terrible!" I said mockingly.
Riku laughed and put an arm around my shoulders. This was actually the closest I've been to Riku physically in a long time and I savored it like it was something to treasure before he took his arm away quickly.
He turned his head away but I caught him blush a little and, to be truthful, was a bit flattered. "Race you back!" I said, trying to end the awkwardness. I sprinted off and could only hope that Riku would follow so that I wouldn't look like a total idiot running towards school. Luckily for me, he did follow.
Being the better runner, Riku easily beat me, mocking me when I ran up to him out of breath as he waited by the school. "Geez Sora, get out and do some jogging." Riku mocked as I wiped a couple drops of sweat off my forehead. Riku, though, wasn't even winded in the least. I glared up at him as I tried to catch my breath. He simply gave me a joking face that made me break my glare and laugh.
When I had caught my breath, we walked to class. Back in the room I noticed a new face talking to the teacher. He was a young boy about my age with blonde hair. I saw the teacher point to me and the boy turned and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back, trying to be friendly.
As more students filed into the room I saw Kairi with much fewer of her friends and the boy with the bandages and bruises. He looked sick, but I didn't pay too much mind to him as usual. I sat down in my usual seat and took out my things from my bag when I saw a figure sit down next to me. I didn't remember having a person other than Riku sitting next to me in this class and I looked up to see the new kid.
He turned to me and smiled again, his smile warm just like before. Before I could say anything to him he introduced himself. "Hi, my name's Roxas. I just moved here." He said, holding out a hand to me. "I'm Sora, and this is Riku." I said, shaking his hand warmly while gesturing to Riku.
Roxas looked at Riku and for a second, I thought I felt a hint of wickedness in his smile when their eyes met, but it was gone too quickly for me to actually tell.
"Hey. Nice to meet you." Riku said, holding his hand out just as Roxas had done for me, but the boy had already turned and was facing the front of the class again, leaving Riku awkwardly holding his hand out. I shook it jokingly and smiled so that Riku wouldn't be too mad, but I could feel tension between the two already.
The teacher began speaking and we all turned to the front of the class, the sound of pencils scribbling down notes that the teacher wrote on the board. Once again, I felt sleep begin to overtake me. I guess the coffee didn't really help. The writing on the board blurred and before I knew it, the bell was obnoxiously ringing again to end the period.
I groggily got up and packed my things. I really should get on a better sleep schedule. Riku had already put his things away and was patiently waiting for me by the door as everyone passed him, which reminded me of what a good friend he was.
I tossed my bag over my shoulder and started to walk towards Riku, an apologetic smile forming across my face, when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Roxas standing behind me, smiling like he was an old friend of mine. I usually didn't take too much of a liking to superficial people that always needed friends, but he seemed different.
"Hey do you need something?" I asked. "Yeah, do you know where the band room is?" he asked politely, which is not something you would think to find in a high school student of our age. Luckily for him, I also had to go to the band room. I played the trumpet in the jazz band at my school, something that was no easy feat.
"Yeah, actually I'm going there myself. You can just follow me." I replied. Strangely, there wasn't that awkwardness that people usually have being a new student. Everything with Roxas was fluid, like he had always been here.
I turned around to leave with Riku, but strangely, he had left. Something was definitely weird with him. But I disregarded my anger until I saw him again and made my way to the band room through the crowded hallways.
When we arrived, Riku was already tuning his bass. I walked over to him, feeling a bit frustrated at the memory of him leaving me before. "Hey what the hell was that for?" I asked him angrily. He just shrugged, not even looking up at me. This made me even angrier at him. What had I done?
"Screw you…" I snapped, which I rarely did to anyone, let alone a friend. I went and grabbed my instrument, still feeling sour about Riku's weird mood swings. As I went to my locker in the room, I saw Roxas talking to the band director. The man seemed elated that Roxas was here and was making big hand gestures to show his excitement while Roxas just stood there and smiled.
I took my instrument over to my seat and unpacked my music. But, not being one to dwell over things much, I went over to Riku again to ask what was wrong. He was finished tuning and had started playing a complicated line that was by one of our favorite Japanese band called An Café. I sat down next to him and listened for a bit before talking to him.
"Hey what's your problem with Roxas?" I asked, "You don't like him?"
"No, actually I don't." he replied.
"Why?"
"Because."
"C'mon Riku…"
"Okay well I just think there's something wrong with him. I don't like him, okay?" he said bitterly. I had never seen Riku so cynical about someone before. Usually he got along with everyone just fine. I looked at him, analyzing his unusually sullen expression. I've only seen him this way once in elementary school when he got in a fight with one of the middle school kids. He felt like they were unfair ro us just because we were smaller than they were, which had been entirely true, but he was the only person to actually do anything.
As the director walked in I patted Riku on the shoulder and smiled at him, knowing that he'd catch it and feel better when he started playing his bass again. He really seemed at peace when he was playing his instrument, like people didn't matter and he was simply enjoying life.
The director introduced Roxas excitedly, saying that he was a great musician and never seemed to miss a chance to compliment the boy. Roxas played the piano and apparently played it beautifully. When the director finished, Roxas took a seat at the piano and the director signaled us to start our warm up blues piece. As Riku started playing, Roxas seemed to simply be listening for the moment, then suddenly, he lifted his hands and began to play. It was like nothing I had ever heard before, and I have heard plenty of jazz pianos before.
Roxas played with passion. You didn't have to look at him, you could just feel it. it was like he poured all of his soul into every single note, chord, phrase, riff, everything. It reminded me of how Riku played, with everything he had like his life depended on it.
Suddenly, I noticed the director point at me for a solo and I hurriedly put my instrument to my lips and tried to play as impressive as possible to impress the new pianist. I played my heart out, trying to be like my friends, but I never really had the musical knack and genius that they had.
When I finished, I looked up at Riku, who was smiling faintly. At least I entertained him a bit. E had a concert coming up next month and I needed to get better at improvisation. I wanted to impress the crowd with something that they had never heard before.
When the song ended, I flipped through my music to find something that I could suggest we play. A lot of our pieces were complicated and interesting, yet since we'd played through them so many times, I was bored of repeating the same old thing. I always found repetition boring and always wanted something new.
We played through a couple tunes I liked and then the period was over. Today seemed to be going by faster than normal. As the band filed out of the room, I tried to find Riku. When I spotted him, he was still putting his bass away. He wasn't usually this slow. I walked over to him, backpack slung over my shoulder. He looked up at me and smiled, his bad mood seemed to be gone. We walked to our last period together which was English and through the last boring period I sat by the window, wondering about the new kid. We had just met today, but what was so strange about him?
I agreed with Riku that he wasn't exactly normal, but I didn't find anything really wrong with him. I stared outside the classroom window, watching two squirrels fight over a nut. The teacher explained something about clauses, but I didn't catch what she said. Instead I looked over at Riku who was across the room. He, too, seemed bored by the teacher's lecture. He sat sullenly at his desk, doodling on a piece of paper.
Riku had always been a great friend to me. I remember that he had always stuck up for me and supported me when I was little. He kept me sane when my parents got divorced. He even did little things like waiting for me after class and buying me lunch when I was broke. I don't think that we had ever really fought about a lot because he was always so much smarter than me and always pointed out how I was wrong or how he was, simply trying to avoid conflict. Compared to the other popular boys, he was definitely the best, at least to me.
I looked up at the clock to see that the period was almost over and I swear that every time I see this, my heart skips a beat. To me, the last bell is like a chorus from heaven singing sweet freedom to me. When it finally rang, I jumped up and grabbed my stuff quickly before leaving the room and waiting for Riku outside.
"You were unusually quick today, Sora." Riku said when he came out of the room. I simply smiled and shrugged my shoulders a bit. We walked to our room and tossed our stuff on the ground, our books making a loud thud on the ground. I grabbed a couple of waters form our mini fridge and tossed one to Riku. He deftly caught it, opened it, and took a sip before closing it again. He liked to pretend he was a flashy performer like some of the other popular kids. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey there's a jazz gig at Swing City tonight. Want to go?" I asked Riku. Swing City was one of the few jazz clubs around the area and even though we weren't supposed to be off campus after ten, we always made it back into our room fine.
"Who's playing?" he asked. Personally, I didn't know the band. They were supposed to be good, but I had never heard of them. I told him I didn't know and so he said he didn't want to go. Instead he said that he wanted to just hang out around the city tonight.
We sat outside our room in the hallway with our instruments, our cases open like we were asking for money. Luckily, we were good enough to actually make about forty dollars. I loved playing for other people. I just love the feeling that you get when you make other people feel better with music. Music is like the whole emotional spectrum. There are minor pieces that are sad and there are funk pieces and swing pieces that are cool and it's something that you just have to feel to understand. Music brings out everything in me and I love it because of that.
I watched people walk by, some smiling at us and laughing at how we sat outside like beggars. Even if they were laughing at us I liked being able to make people happy.
After we has had our fill of music and watching people, we packed up and got dressed to go out to the city.
As we changed, Riku took off his shirt and I noticed that he was sweating a little. I assumed it was from playing in the hall in front of all those people that he knew. I hadn't seen Riku without a shirt in a while, with swim team being over and stuff and we hadn't made it to the pool. He was still as toned as he was before and his skin still pearly pale. His hair looked longer, yet just as silvery as it shined in the light.
Riku put on a shirt and buttoned it up, leaving two buttons undone to show off his chest. He grabbed a pair of jeans and slipped them on. They clung to his legs, but not too tightly so that they became skin tight. He rolled the sleeves up on his shirt to make himself look more casual and finally slipped his sneakers on.
Overall, Riku was a boy to envy for almost everything. I wore a low cut shirt and put on a scarf just for show. We were both ready at about eight o'clock and made it to the city in about ten minutes. The few great things about this boarding school is that it's really close to a great city with bright lights and a fun atmosphere. Though we weren't the only ones who came to the city, but we were the ones who knew it best. For example, we know all the best clubs and where to get the alcohol even though we're underage. We know that if you don't play your cards right, you could go home and finding out that you're missing several belongings. And of course, we know the best places do relax and end a night in style.
As we walked to the city, I could see other people going. Couples going on dates, the jocks going out to get drunk, the drug crowd that wants to go and smoke their troubles away, and of course, Kairi's crowd who were probably going to pick up guys and all that party shit. Riku and I didn't really like that kind of stuff. We liked simply enjoying life in a way that doesn't fuck up our brains like drugs and getting really drunk. My theory about some people that want to get drunk and party is that they have nothing better to do in their lives at the moment, so they decide they want to forget all the crap in their lives and get drunk and wake up the next morning with a killer headache. Trust me. Those headaches suck.
I never really liked partying a lot. The crowds are too much for me. The clubs with the flashy lights make me feel like I'm going to have a seizure and the bodies colliding with each other you can't tell if you're touching a guy or a girl and vice versa. They freak me out.
Anyway, as we walked, we made sure to steer away from Kairi's group, keeping our distance until they entered a club by a rundown bar.
When they left both Riku and I gave a big sigh of relief. We walked a while and talked about school, laughing and enjoying our time until we got to our favorite café called Angel from Heaven. We knew the owner from my parents and got some discounts for giving good business to the store. Well it was more Riku giving good business since when he recommended something; the whole female population of our school had to go.
We ordered a couple coffees and some desserts made by the owner Aerith who was always nice to us. The café was always cozy. There were couches and chairs that people could come in and read in. There wasn't much flashy decoration and that's what most of the customers here preferred.
We both loved this place to death and always gave great business to the place so that it wouldn't go out of business. We fell in love with this place when we were bored and tired and needed to have some sort of company. Aerith took us in and was incredibly hospitable us, even though we were two teenagers looking ragged and bored. Usually people who look like we did are homeless or crazy.
I took a seat by the window on a couch and took a sip of my coffee. Riku sat beside me, placing his coffee next to him on an adjacent table. Letting out a stress relieving sigh, we both relaxed on the soft cushion and let the city pass us by, the night growing older by the second and us absorbing every moment. Because that's what life is about.