I'd Rather
X.--------------------.X
A perpetual sunset, that's definitely what it looked like; but, of course, people always said I was wrong so I didn't dwell on it. Even as I sat here, just licking away, I had premonition; A foresight that somewhere, somehow, I was being watched.
Even as the wind gingerly nipped at my lobes, I felt I had a stalker, and believe me I did not like it one bit. The sea salt ice cream was great, as per usual, but it seemed off today and for many other days when I felt this uneasy feeling.
Even with the grand sight of buildings, I – Aw hell! Enough of my philosophical thinking, when I want to say something I say it, and that's what makes me, me!
"I know you're there; quit being a pest and get out of here!"
A stumble over his feet; that's pretty much what I could tell what my stalker did in response to my shouting.
Damnation or salvation. At least that's what I believed he thought when he came out of his corner, despite my earlier command. He walked over to the ledge, half afraid to sit on the edge of the clock tower like I was, and, quite frankly, I couldn't blame him – Not everyone could be like the great Hayner.
Lazily, I turned my neck to mildly glance at him and turned back to settle back to my frozen treat; he wasn't very appealing to the eyes. It wasn't that he was ugly; he was pretty damn handsome, not in a homosexual way, but he rubbed me in the wrong way – again, not in a homosexual sense.
He was about an inch or two shorter than me, give or take a couple of centimeters. A bit chubby for a guy around my age, but I couldn't really blame him for something as stupid as that. Amber eyes and hair styled up with his headband, what really unnerved me was the stupid grin on his face.
Honestly, seeing that plastered on his face, made me prefer him as my stalker who stayed hidden all the time. It was like he'd been my friend for the longest time and he hadn't seen me in like forever.
"Can I help you?" I roughly called out, not once taking another glance at the guy. I didn't need to see it to know that his face contorted with a plethora of expressions ranging from confused to frustrated to depressed. He was that obvious.
"Not really."
Smirking placidly at his answer, I continued with my inquiry. I'd definitely get this guy out of here and out of my awesome looking hair for good.
"Then don't you think it'd be a smart idea to get out of here? Not only is it dangerous here, but I'd rather not have you sticking around."
To my surprise, he chuckled. He chuckled? That didn't really make sense. He continued to keep me in my moment of astonishment by sitting next to me. How exactly did my words prompt this?
"I like that game."
"What?"
"That game, 'I'd Rather'."
Shaking my head in disagreement, just barely stifling a laugh – I didn't want to give this guy anymore ideas that he was my friend – I corrected this idiot.
"It's 'Would You Rather'."
He chuckled. Again with the chuckling; exactly how am I so damn funny today?
"My bad..."
It got quiet for some reason, and I, for one, wanted to relish it. He didn't speak, I didn't speak, and although I'd rather he wasn't here, it was bearable. The silent mood remained in place for about several minutes, the bell tower clock rung indicating it was six o'clock, but it wasn't like I was heading in any time soon.
"So where's that girl you always follow?"
I stopped my ice cream licking to look at him in bewilderment. I figured my eyebrows rose inquisitively, but who really cares for that stuff anyway? It was then, not seconds after he asked the question that I realized who he was talking about.
"I don't follow Olette around!" I found myself barking at this stranger for no reason; it felt natural for some reason. "If anything, she always follows me." I lowered my tone just a bit the second, keeping it to my inside voice.
"Alright, whatever you say." He held his tongue on his next sentence, I could tell. It pissed me off knowing that he was going to say something, but wasn't, just for my sake – I hate that!
"Finish what you were going to say."
"What? I wasn't goi-"
"Finished that unfinished sentence." I seethed through my teeth in sudden anger, but it dissipated fast. Like a type of false anger you express to friends just to show them that you're serious about something. Man, just talking with this guy is giving me weird vibes.
"...uh, well... I forgot..."
There it was. Like some rumor spread all over the school only to be later revealed as something as insignificant as finding dirt on your shoes. I got all hyped up for nothing.
"You suck; getting me all excited like."
Again he chuckled, but it was this time I realized, that he wasn't chuckling because I was funny or anything – though I sort of hoped it was. He laughed because he found me interesting. Like I was some kind of dare he had to do for his real friends and every time I showed an indication that I was becoming friendly with him, he'd laugh. That damn bastard!
"Get out of here; go back to your friends and tell them to shove this joke up thei-"
"Don't have any."
His real incentive for following me all the time.
He wasn't out to get me or pull some elaborate prank on me on behalf of the people who were out to get me – and believe me, they exist. This guy really didn't have friends and some how, probably in the way he spoke, I believed it the first time he said it – none of my usual skepticism surfaced for some reason.
In all my thirteen years of living, I've never heard someone say something like that, and I got to say, it really caught me off guard. My astonishment kept me speechless until he spoke once more.
"...I guess I can't say that anymore though; My name's Pence, by the way."
Like a reflex I just couldn't ignore, I responded. "The name's Hayner, but don't think of adding any crappy nicknames."
Definitely not for the last time, Pence chuckled at my words again – I wasn't that funny, I know that, but he enjoyed my company, and at that time, I sort of enjoyed his.
I figured, now was a great time to go back to eating my ice cream when I noticed that all I had was but a mere popsicle stick.
"Argh! My ice cream melted!" In my anguish, I looked to Pence for some sort of retribution; it was completely his fault anyway. "Pence, go get me another ice cream."
Seemingly not the least bit surprised at my order, most likely since my scream foreshadowed it, Pence stood up, careful not to slip and fall to his doom. Feigning a servant's type of bow, he spoke with such a fake, butler voice.
"Of course. Excuse me, I have to go appease the stupid oaf." With that he left, laughing openly, leaving me throwing shouts of anger and profanity for his insult, and despite how angry I may have seemed at that moment, I found myself grinning several seconds later – I had two friends now.
X.--------------------.X
Despite the fact that I was a bit fond of Pence - the guy managed to make things fun – I couldn't help but feel odd.
"What?"
Nah, this wasn't what made me feel awkward.
"Just do a pose already, Hayner."
Three months. Me and Pence continued this close-but-still-not-close-enough friendship for about three months already and to say we we were used to each others company was pretty much an understatement. It wasn't difficult to talk with him in the least bit, but still, it weirded me out on exactly how our relationship worked out.
"Like this?" I flexed my muscles.
"Yep, that's works! Sort of..." A flash and the picture was taken.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not as surprisingly, Pence was an avid, amateur photographer and it just so happened that I turned out to be the guinea pig model for Pence's new camera. Not much of a choice on my part, really.
"Whaddaya mean 'sort of'?!" I bellowed, my voice cracking a bit I noticed.
He chuckled; that same chuckled that pissed me off so much! And yet.. I knew it was all in good nature; it was that same chuckle that would cheer me up when I was feeling down. Some kind of bi-polar laugh, I guess or something.
Not too interesting, but for some odd reason or another the sandlot turned out empty this morning. A real shocker considering how the jackass and his cronies always made their usual appearances.
"Check out Twilight Town's dweebs."
I stopped my muscle flexing to glance mildly at the ear grinding voice of the head of Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee. As per usual, hanging not too far from him, were the duo only known as Rai and Fuu.
"What do you want?!" I barked carelessly, already peeved at the insult thrown at me and Pence. It was like a slap to the face and nothing pisses me off more than that.
"Nothing much..." Seifer clicked his tongue. "Just wondering what the hell you two were doing."
"Taking pictures." Pence responded quickly, you could hear the eagerness in his tone. He showed the camera as proof of what he said.
"Wasteful." The normally silent Fuujin seethed.
"Seifer doesn't like the idea of you losers taking photos here, y'know?" Raijin could be so predictable with his sentences, y'know? Ugh, I felt stupid just thinking that.
"Like we give a rat's ass about that! It's not like you own the sandlot or anything." I quipped, balling my fingers into a fist, shaking them erratically.
"Seifer doesn't have to take that, y'know?" Raijin responded shaking his fists much like how I did.
" 'Lax, Rai." Seifer lulled, disapprovingly shaking his head and wagging his finger at me – the very nerve of that bastard!
Clenching my teeth, my demeanor mimicking my expression in every way, I made an attempt to make a quick response in regards to his gestures, opting to say a few choice words, but the jerk interrupted me.
"Your name's Hayner, right?"
"And if I am?"
"I heard you just barely managed to pass the preliminaries at the struggle tournament." Seemingly out of nowhere a struggle sword landed in the center of my palms. I looked to Seifer in confusion, my eyebrows knitted and forehead creased. In his hand, a struggle sword of his own, even decorated slightly in his favor, was currently being swatted against his palm in an annoying, taunting manner.
"Gotta see whether or not you deserve a spot in the tournament." Seifer readjusted his posture into his typical fighting stance. Smirking that devilish grin of his, he looked over to Pence in amusement. "Winner gets his photo taken with the loser on the ground. Got that, tubby?"
"Hey! Don't talk to Pence like that!" I barked, furious now at how he could think that he could get away with something as rude as that. Gripping the handle of the sword tightly, I charged at him.
"Glad to see you up to the challenge." Seifer laughed, jumping to the side of my vertical slash easily. He took a swipe at my feet, seeing as I was a bit astonished to see him dodge my attack. He laughed even harder when I crumbled to the ground helplessly.
I rolled, managing to narrowly miss his jab at my side. I jumped to my feet, wondering how in the hell did I get myself into this situation.
"C'mon, quit playin' around already. I wanted to fight, not babysit."
I gritted my teeth just to choke back a curse. Was he, was he enticing me?! Aw, man, was I gonna kick his ass!
I charged at him once more, prepared to hit him hard with a technique I just developed in my match during the preliminaries. When approaching Seifer, I let loose a reckless slash dwindling in a downward direction as a warm-up, only to bring it up as a surprise atta--
He managed to block my attack?!
"Oh please!" He lashed out his arm throwing me back a couple of feet. Seifer, then jumped into the air, somehow defying gravity, and thrust his entire body towards me. His sword gutted my stomach and blew me onto the ground on my back.
"Like I hadn't seen that move in the preliminaries. The motions were too obvious!" Seifer said solemnly, the mood suddenly getting serious. He sounded bored and it really bothered me.
Frowning at my loss, I moved to stand on my feet again, when I felt a stomp on my stomach. Keeping his boot firmly planted in its current location, Seifer glowered at me with an indignant smirk.
"Now, now. We can't have you leaving without fulfilling your end of the bargain, right?" He chastised, digging his heel deeper into my stomach. "Now let's get this photo done and we'll let you go, no problem."
"Uh..." Pence spoke up, fumbling around with his camera in an awkward way. He was about to be bullied and there wasn't a thing I could about it; how frustrating.
"What's the matter? Seifer wants his picture taken, y'know?" Raijin said in a gruff manner, shoving Pence in Seifer's direction despite his not wanting to.
"Portrait." Fuujin murmured thoughtfully, glaring at Pence with her lone eye.
"That's right; make it look nice. I wanna be able to hang this up on my wall." The jerk stated, adjusting himself into an odd pose.
I looked at the hesitating form of Pence and felt a bit bad for the guy. He didn't want to be dragged into this at all. I spoke up, despite the foot on me, pressuring my voice pretty low. "Hey, Pence, don't do it, if you don't want to."
"You're not going to do it?" Seifer inquired, looking extremely displeased.
"No." Pence said defiantly, and I gotta say I really felt like cheering him on for his attitude. But even still, it really wasn't his personality to think so unevenly; Pence always thought realistically, but now... what had gotten into him? Was he... was he trying to protect me? That idiot!
"Not a smart thing to say, y'know?" Rai said, cracking his knuckles.
"Beatdown."
"Exactly." Seifer muttered, stepping off of me to stride over to Pence. His face contorted with an annoyed type of rage, that you really wouldn't want to mess with.
"Run, Pence!" I shouted with everything in my voice.
Funny thing is, Pence never got that chance to run. Rai managed to grab him just in time, and Fuu and Seifer beat him up just as they said they would. Seemingly, when I made the attempt to help him out, they beat the both of us even harder. It was there that I realized that Pence was far more than a close-but-still-not-close-enough friend; I think maybe even more than a friend.
X.--------------------.X
"So what did you do after that?"
I nodded quickly to Olette, jumping on the furnace pipes that were currently inactive. Crossing my arms with an indignant look, I recalled exactly what I did as a result of that day.
"I hunted him down."
"Really?" Pence inquired, his eyes and tone suggesting a disbelieving attitude that annoyed me to no end.
"Yeah!" I said, stressing the word to indicate that I was indeed serious about my actions. Moving my hand to my chin, I nodded thoughtfully as I continued. "I hunted the low-life down and challenged him to another brawl."
"You won?" Olette asked, her green eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as it always did when I told a story of my heroic ventures. To this day, I'm still not exactly sure why she cared all that much; not even Pence was this enthralled with my tales and he liked my stories. Just not to Olette's standard.
"Nah..." I said closing my eyes in frustration, an indignant frown bearing on my face. "He creamed me, but it was what he said that day that caught my attention. 'You've got guts and I respect that.'"
"That's eerie hearing that come from Seifer." Pence shrugged mildly.
"Isn't it?" I responded.
"What did you say back?" Olette interrupted.
"Oh right! Well, I told I didn't give a damn about that and that I'd kick his butt one day." I spoke, adding a reassuring nod; it was mostly to myself, really. I smirked inwardly thinking about how that day, Seifer became my 'bully-friend' You know, a friend who will act like a total ass to you, but if you were to ask him a favor, he'd do it, reluctantly.
"Did you?"
"Nope." I said, my frown resurfacing once more. "But, I got close one time."
"Oh yeah, at this summer's struggle tournament, right?" Olette questioned, her eyes twinkling at the remembrance of it.
"Yeah, I only needed a couple of orbs too and I would've won." I balled my fist, getting angered about the event all over again. It was extremely close, but the guy managed to land his signature move on me when I dove for a few of his orbs. He ended up winning the entire thing, too – that's what really added the salt to my wound.
"You can't still be hung over about that!" Pence jeered, knowing something like that'll get me riled up for a moment and then I'd calm down out of my stupor.
"Nah, I'm not. Can't say I'm not still frustrated about my mistake though." I trailed back to the furnace pipes, sitting on it recklessly as always. I'd better be careful I don't get burned one of these days.
"That reminds me..." Pence spoke up. "If I recall, from what the struggle promoter announced, I heard Sora managed to beat Seifer."
"What?!!" I bellowed, angry, surprised, bewildered all at the same time.
"I heard that too." Olette piped up. "I heard that Sora beat him ten times, actually."
"You've gotta be joking; you just HAVE to!" I barked, my tone getting unusually squeaky with all my yelling. Puberty was so freaking annoying sometimes.
What really annoyed me was the fact that I mentioned the entire struggle event to him. On the contrary though, another part of my brain mentioned, the guy might have found about it anyways, what with him always searching the areas as though he expected to find treasure hidden in places and talking to people he might not have even known for possibly a clue to where he needed to go next.
"'Afraid not." Pence deadpanned. A mild shrug came forth from where he and Olette were sitting. I can't honestly remember where we got that couch though.
"Oh c'mon. Now I'm depressed." I could have sulked. I could have pouted. I might have even screamed if it was deemed appropriate but I didn't. I just sat in contemplation, seeking an answer to to alleviate the gravity of the news told to me. "Let's play 'I'd Rather'"
Both Olette and Pence kept their silence for about a minute, and frankly, I didn't like it. Maybe a couple years ago with Pence, I might have relished in the quietness, but now, as things stand, I didn't have the patience for it.
"I thought... I thought you said it was 'Would you Rather'" Pence spoke up, his tone a little hoarse for some reason. I glanced at him, throwing a smirk and jumped off the pipes once more. I have trouble staying in one place for too long. I can't even keep my arms straight for a minute.
"I never said that. I don't who you're thinking of, but the game I want to do is 'I'd Rather'". I stated placing my hands on my hips to give off a commanding pose of leadership. I was the leader, after all.
Looking at each other in mild amusement, just barely stifling a laugh for some odd reason, the two nodded, chorusing that they both wanted to the play the game with me.
I grinned openly, placing an index to my chin in thought. Speaking, I was first to managed the first part of the game. "This one at you Pence, would you rather eat a bucket of sand or a tub of lemons?"
"That's bizarre." Pence chuckled evenly. He slowed his laughter to decide on a choice. "I guess I'd rather have the sand. It's smaller and I don't think I'd be able to take all those lemons."
"Makes sense." I nodded in agreement with Olette.
"Alright, Olette." Pence waited until she looked in his direction. "So would you rather streak naked through market street --"
"What the heck, Pence!" Olette screamed. Pence could only laugh aloud in response.
"Lemme just finish!" He quickly said, stifling bits of his laugh. "Or would you rather confess a love to a secret crush of yours, only to get rejected?"
"Nice one, Pence. They both sound difficult." I applauded, clapping my hands as a sort of jest.
"I try." Pence nodded to me, grinning while he spoke. "So Olette, you decided on one?"
"I think..." She paused momentarily. " I think I'd rather confess a love to someone."
"Care to elaborate?" I urged.
"Didn't think you could use the word 'elaborate' correctly, Hayner."
"Shut it, Pence. So, Olette?"
She looked mildly to the sides in hesitation before giving an explanation. "Well I chose that because at the very least, if I got rejected when confessing my love, I'd know what would actually happen, instead of wondering what could have been. Also, the fact that I could get over it proves that my heart would be strong."
Both me and Pence remained silent, unsure on how to exactly process such information and casually laugh about it like it wasn't a big deal – That was impossible. I don't know if it was me, but it looked a lot like Olette had put some thought into something like this even before today; did she have a crush on someone?
The quiet remained still for just a bit longer before Pence spoke. "You know, what Olette said kinda reminded me of that story Kairi told us about what Sora did to find her."
"Oh right, that romantic story!" Olette gushed, placing her palms to her cheeks.
"Yeah, Sora seemed to have gone through a lot of trouble for her." I spoke up, remembering the most dramatic parts of Kairi's story.
"And we just let her go with that guy..." Pence reminded, bringing the somber mood back again.
"It's not like we didn't do anything to save her!" I retorted, angry that he was getting sad again.
"But we haven't necessarily done anything to try and get her back." Olette pressed on, shaking her hands in an displeasing motion.
"But we -"
"Have school, I know, but I'm surprised you didn't put you're all into doing this on the weekends." Pence quipped, shaking his head in a disapproving fashion.
I shook my head fiercely, simply tired of this attack on me all of a sudden. "Argh! Enough this, I'm getting all depressed again. Let's get back to the game already." I sighed depressingly, causing goosebumps to prickle all along my skin that unnerved me a bit. "Olette, it's your turn."
Yet she didn't answer me. She wouldn't even look at me right now. How exactly am I the bad guy right now?! I looked over to Pence, hoping he didn't suddenly hate at this point. The mood grew depressing and sad; god this kind of attitude pissed the crap off of me.
"C'mon guys, let's just get back to -"
"Would you rather..." Olette cut in. "continue playing this game, pretending as though a friend of ours did not kidnapped right in front us or would you rather do something about it."
An obligatory answer, I guess that's what it was. I couldn't just ignore this at all, unless I'd be willing to lose my friends, and frankly, I wouldn't trade them for all the money in the world. I sat back, confused on what to choose.
"I'd rather..." I bit my tongue on my next words. I had no idea what to choose, I'd be shooting myself in the foot no matter what I chose. Yet, for some odd reason, an idea, a theory in fact, came into my head. "Maybe there's another Twilight Town out there."
"What?" Pence voiced.
"Think about it for a moment." I looked to Olette to further my explanation. "Your money pouch, you hand made it right?"
Olette nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, it took me about a month to finish it."
"So there shouldn't be another in existence." I stated.
"That would also explain how Sora also got the second orb from the trophy." Pence was finally putting the pieces together so nicely now.
"Okay, that's fine on how there could be another Twilight Town, but exactly what does that have to do with anything?" Olette inquired, her brows raised inquisitively with curiosity and confusion.
"Easy; whatever missing from here has to be there." I stated with a serious solemness in my tone.
"What led you to that theory?"
"Simple Pence..." I paused, finding it difficult to actually find a reply. "Actually... I don't really know. It's just a feeling..."
"A feeling? What kind of feeling is that?" Olette inquired, her voice treading softly that it caught it off guard a bit.
"The kind of feeling that makes want to believe that Kairi is out there and we can do something about it." I jumped off the pipes once more, my arms crossed and I spoke again.
"It's the kind of feeling you get when you see a friend in trouble. It's a feeling that makes you want to defy logic and help in whatever form, even if it gets your new camera taken away." I directed an apologetic glance toward Pence. I bought him a new one, but I still felt bad about it.
"I can't say what this feeling is, but I know I've gotta do something about it; I've gotta find Kairi and bring her back so Sora has less things to worry about."
I flashed a grin towards the two. "Besides Kairi's our friend, and that automatically means we do whatever we can to help her."
"There you go!" Pence cheered, jumping from his seat to stand next to me. "Glad to see, you're not just gonna turn tail and run away from the problem anymore."
Olette jumped from her seat as well, standing on the other side of me. "We might not know what's going to happen, but at least we can say we tried."
"So where to?"
"Where else?" I questioned rhetorically, taking bewildered looks from the both of them. "We head to the mansion. It's the most suspicious place in town. We'll begin our investigation there."
No more was said, not that anything else had to be understood. We all ran in the direction of the creepy mansion. Each one of us somehow realizing the danger we might have placed ourselves in, but we didn't give a damn. We all knew that those freaks in white have been making themselves more visible as of late, but we didn't care. We had a duty and that's all we had to know.
I'd rather call myself a good friend, than a coward. I'd rather fall down protecting someone I admire, than expect someone to fall for me.
I'd rather... be known in the hearts of those few I truly care about, than in the hearts of many who don't even know me.
A strong heart creates a strong person; that's what I know.
This is merely some musing devised from restarting the game all over again. I began to wonder exactly how Pence and Hayner came to be close friends. Eventually that branched off to 'How did Seifer and Hayner begin their small rivalry?'. And simply just for fun, I entailed my own version of what led the entire group to be found collasped in front of the mansion where Sora finds them. I realize there are possibly numerous mistakes and errors, and it would make my day if you, my readers, could point them out for me so I can correct them immediately. I do not necessarily want any reviews, really, but a feedback or two would be grateful. I hope you've you enjoyed.
~Ebo