1 It's that time again.
The bell for class rings and Red is seated at his desk in history class. He's surrounded by familiar faces. At least, they're familiar to him. As if they recognize him.
Red pouts and stares down at his desk. It's clean, aside from the little carving in the upper left corner, a heart with the letters "L+P" inside of it. He runs his fingers over it, feeling the dents in the wood. The teacher is talking, but he's only half listening. Besides, it's the first day, what do I have to worry about missing?
Red is naturally a sweet boy. He's nice, fun, and absolutely adorable! What more could you ask for? Probably a lot, because Red is on the verge of friendlessness. Actually, forget the verge, he's fallen off the cliff of friendlessness and into the pit of loneliness. Friends are out of his reach at this point. They never were in reach in the first place.
Red looks around him. He bets he could name everyone in this class if he tried hard enough. He had gone to school with most of them for at least four years. He's seen their faces, heard their voices, knows who they're friends with, the rumors about them; he's practically an expect on the kids at this school. He can recite all of last year's gossip by heart- in fact, he has, when no one else was around in he was all alone in his room.
It's not that he doesn't want friends- he really does- it's just so hard for him to make them. Aside from his family, he has trouble talking to people. His heart beats, his face flushes, his palms get sweaty- he's a mess! He hates having people see him like that.
As he scans the room, reciting everyone's names in his head- Ruto, Ralph, Fado(1), (gulp) Vaati...- he comes across someone he hasn't seen around before. This boy is sitting in the next row over, a few seats behind Red. He has deep, dark purple hair in a style almost identical to Red's own. He has dark hair and tan skin- Red notices- but he has blue eyes. Blue eyes that are drifting in Red's direction.
Their eyes make contact for a second- just a split second- before Red turns his head away. He feels really embarrassed for staring, even more so for getting caught, but new kids don't come around too often. He wonders what it feels like, to have everyone be new to you, when, really, you're the new one in their eyes. Would it be better or worse then what I have now?
He turns his head back up to the teacher, letting out the slightest huffy exhale. What he wants- what he really wants most of all- is to wake up in the middle of the night hearing the sound of pebbles tap-tap-tapping his window. To open the window and find his (nonexistent, of course) friend standing outside waiting for him in the rain. He smiles a bit at the thought. Then to run outside in his pajamas and walk around town together, shielded by only a shared umbrella. Perfect. But wait...
With widened eyes and a sudden shock, Red realizes that maybe what he wanted all this time wasn't just friendship. Maybe it was something more than that. Or maybe...
Maybe, just maybe, all this time I just wanted to be loved.
AN- Yessss! Second chapter get! This was fairly simple to write, but it took forever 'cuz I kinda hit a rock on the feelings.
(1)- Fado from OOT, incase you're wondering. I'm considering giving her some little role in this story somehow.
Okay, question time!
4)- Did I make Red too gloomy?
5)- Do you see any hope in all this angst?
6)- More importantly, this angsty stuff isn't annoying, right?
