Disclaimer: "So what am I, a creep or a genius?" "You're a creepy genius."
(An: Be nice, ok? This is my first CL fanfic and I don't know all that much about Sam. I'm just kind of winging it here and going from the info on Lyokofreak. Since Sam's not gonna be in the second season, there's gotta be a reason, right? So, this is my little take.)
I sigh, watching my friends splash around in the pool.
It's a holiday at Kadic- end of year tests. The various forms had all agreed on a trip to a big waterpark.
"...Odd... Odd," says a voice, and a hand waves in front of my face.
I blink.
Ulrich steps out in front of me, a teasing grin on his face. "Your brain take a vacation, buddy?"
"We're heading into spaaaaace," I warble, taking refuge in insanity, "we're leaving Mother Eaaaaarth..."
Ulrich rolls his eyes. "Man, you're weird."
I shrug.
Ulrich turns to the pool, tales a few steps, and then glances back at me. "You coming or what?"
"Yeah, in a minute..."
He shrugs and takes a running leap into the pool, soaking Yumi. "Oh, yeah, thanks," she says, putting her hands on her hips and acting annoyed.
Ulrich just grins (way wider than he had at me) and pulls her into the pool.
Yumi's shriek turns into hysterical giggles.
I sit on one of the pool chairs. They've turned into such saps since Ulrich finally asked her out. It was sweet... usually. But today, sweet was the last thing I liked.
Now Jeremie joins them, and they're trying to convince Aelita (here on one of her visits) to jump in.
I sigh again and rest my head on my knees. YumiandUlrich and JeremieandAelita and Odd... Dot dot dot. I think those dots may just kill me.
My friends are clueless to my funk. When they talk to me, even Ulrich- my best friend- just thinks I'm spacier than usual. Just kind of... out there.
They'd be clueless to why, even if they knew I was depressed. Sam was nobody to them- a nobody who showed up, made a little trouble, moved on. Oh, yeah, and she was my girlfriend who broke me. But who cares? It's just Odd, right? Short for Odd-one-out.
Aelita finally escapes and sits next to me. "Hello, Odd," she says, smiling that beatific smile of hers.
I nod, smile back, and wish she would go away. Aelita's cheerfulness usually makes me grin and crack even more stupid jokes because I know she'll laugh at least, but today it makes me want to barf.
She frowns slightly. Oh, no, here it comes, ladies and germs... "Is something wrong?"
Being the self-appointed jokester of our group sometimes makes it easier to put on a happy face. "I'm great. Just didn't get much sleep last night, y'know?"
Aelita nods and smiles again. Jeremie calls her over and she gives me another smile before going to join him.
I didn't get much sleep last night. Nope, not me. I just sat up in my bed, exactly like I am now, staring straight ahead and listening to Ulrich snore, three words running through my head, over and over, "I'm sorry, Odd."
I close my eyes now, warding them off with the sounds of my friends's happy splashing. This doesn't help, much, but what could?
Unbidden, I think back to seeing Samantha standing there, in my doorway. I should've known something was wrong just in the stiff way she was standing, her hands at her sides and her eyes on the floor. Instead, all I felt was the same idiotic, sappy happiness that came over me whenever I saw- the same idiot happiness that probably comes over Jeremie or Ulrich, now that I think of it. I'd probably still be feeling that stupid happiness, if Sam hadn't shown up yesterday.
I think back, not wanting to and at the same time needing to, trying to analyze the situation as I'd done last night so many times, trying to find something that I did, that I could've done to fix it, to keep my life from falling apart like it had.
I was lounging on my bed when the knock came. I was about to answer "It's open," when I remembered it wasn't. If I'd said "it's open," things might've gone differently. Strike one for Odd.
Instead, I hopped up off my bed and opened the door, my face breaking into an instant smile when I saw who it was. Sam, in her usual grey shirt and plaid skirt. "Hi!" I said, instantly going from my usual ADD happiness to the sappy kind I've mentioned.
Sam nodded, but her gaze was on the floor.
"What's up?" I asked her. She very rarely visited my dorm room. Usually we talked on the phone, or met in the park. Some neutral spot, quiet and dark, far from Kadic.
She met my eyes now, but only for an instant. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, then closed it again.
Suddenly I was nervous. That was when I spotted the wrongness in her expression- something about her mouth, her eyes... impossible to name, except that it was bad, very bad.
"Sami?" I asked, quieter.
She flinched at the nickname, closing her eyes for an instant. "We need to talk."
The death words. A lot of people know that's usually a killing blow for a relationship. Not me, clueless, cheerful, zany Odd. Strike two.
I stepped aside and let her in, feeling even more nervous for the fact that I didn't know why I was nervous.
I sat back down on my bed, silently inviting her to do the same, to come closer, to stop whatever she was doing and just let it go, but she just stood there, stiff, her hands playing with her skirt and her eyes on the floor. "Odd..." she said, slowly, stiffly. "It- you-" she sighed and closed her eyes, as if she couldn't even bear to stare at my floor, much less at me, "...we're over..." She said it quietly, almost apologetically, but to me it couldn't have been louder.
"W-what?" I asked, not quite believing it yet.
"Look, Odd," she said, looking up and again meeting my eyes for only an instant before flicking back to the floor. "I like you. A lot. Really. But just lately... it seems like I can't take anything you say seriously. You're never there. You're never focused. I don't know the real you- I don't think even you know who you really are. I've seen something different- rarely, but it's there... but I just can't take it anymore." She bit her lip and closed her eyes, and I realized she was trying not to cry.
"Oh..." I said, and it felt like my heart was breaking into a million pieces. "Ok..."
She looked up at me, hopeful.
"I- I understand." I love you. "It's- it's ok, really." I always will. Strike three for Odd, oh master of the double meaning.
She met my eyes now, and kept them there. "I'm sorry, Odd. But you know my number and you know where I live. Call me when you grow up... please." She turned and walked out. Strike three, and Sam's out. Out of my life.
Not even a goodbye, I thought, and that's what did it. I fell backwards onto my bed, not just feeling my heart break but seeing it too as I remembered how her skirt had flared when she turned to leave.
Getting water flicked into my face is what brings me back to the present. It's Yumi, and apparently she's been doing it for a while. "Oh, good, I thought you were dead," she says, and her grin is so... happy. Exactly what I'm not.
"'Course not, there'd be trumpets going off and Jim'd be doing the can-can," I reply, my usual irreverent grin on my face, but with none of the irreverence behind it.
Yumi pulls a face at me, and then seems to glance deeper, seeming concerned. "Are you feeling all right?"
Like in my room when Sam was talking, everything I reply seems to take on another meaning. "Yeah, sure." No, I think I'm gonna die. "Just normal, freaky Odd. Spacing out is my hobby." Just me, broken up inside.
Yumi frowns, and she doesn't seem as convinced as Aelita.
I wink at her and say, "I think somebody's staring, my friend." God, I envy you.
She turns bright red and whirls around, to see Ulrich still splashing around. He grins at her and waves. Yumi gives me another of her "knowing" looks, but goes to join him anyway.
To them, now that I think of it, it's probably still UlrichandYumi and JeremieandAelita and OddandSamantha. None of them have to deal with the dotdotdots. None of them are broken.
(Huh. This one's kind of weird, but I like it anyway. Review, people!)