Everything belongs to CP Coulter
"Mr. Larson? What would your speech be on?"
"Hate, sir."
The teachers sat back, surprise colouring his tone, "Well then, you may proceed."
Julian marched up to the front of the classroom. Logan looked up, confusion on his face. There was something about the actor that seemed… off.
Julian turned to face the class, his shoulders hunched over, head down low.
"T-the," he cleared his throat, trying to mask the definite quaver in his voice.
Was Julian nervous?
Logan nudged Derek, who was sitting beside him, and shot him a quizzical look. Derek shook his head, his features grim. The prefect turned his attention back to Julian as he began to speak.
"The brief of this assignment was to talk about your true feelings, discuss them, and say how you think they originated. My profession is acting, so I can manipulate many emotions, even if I've never felt them before. That can also make finding what I really feel hard. Because sometimes, I get lost.
"But there's one thing that never really goes away. Hate. It's always there, hiding under my skin. And it's always directed to one person. One person I'm supposed to trust, to depend on.
"Many people these days use hate too easily. They don't feel the burning passion behind it. The strong desire to just want to end. It feels horrible. It's like a dark cloud filling up you're entire being. It's disgusting. It's dirty. And no matter how many times you shower, it won't come off.
"But I can't, because my emotions wreck havoc with me and I hate them. I don't know how this hate has started, or where it came from, but before I knew this person, I was relatively happy. Not overjoyed at everything in life, but average.
"Now, I can't do anything. I think about this person all the time. I leave and try to forget them, but this hate inside of me, it grows and festers and I can't stop it.
"I hate how annoying this person is. I hate how temperamental they are. I hate how they look at me. I hate how they don't notice me. I hate how good they look. I hate how confident they are. I hate how they made me fall for them.
"But most of all, I hate this hate inside of me, because I know that's it's not hate. It's the opposite. And it scares me how close they are."
There was a chilling silence. Julian dropped his head and walked back to his desk. Derek closed his eyes, sighing.
"Mr. Larson, that was well under the expected time."
No one else said a word.
"I said all I needed to say."
The actor picked up his bag from his seat next to Logan, discreetly leaving a scrap of paper behind
Julian marched out of the classroom without looking back.
Logan picked up the note and opened it. In Julian's linked script it read
"It was always you.
Thanks for three painful good years.
-Jules."
