Ten minutes and an "I've definitely missed the bus at this point" from Roxas, the two were seated on a massive custom bike that was definitely not a street model. Cloud wasn't really supposed to drive it in public except in emergencies, but he made his peace with this rule by saying that a little bit of excitement was good for the boring people of Destiny City.
The bike roared out of the garage, quite possibly waking up anyone who wasn't already awake or had tried going back to sleep in a three mile radius. Roxas clung to Cloud for dear life; the bike- called Fenrir by Cloud- rose immediately to well beyond the speed limit of main street standards and pulled smoothly out into the road, racing onto the main street and darting past and between vehicles at lightning speed. Roxas was sure he was going to vomit. Or faint. Or both.
Cloud seemed to be enjoying the looks of shock. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying everyone's discomfort with the military-grade bike, including Roxas's.
"You gotta let up, Rox," he laughed. "I can't breathe."
"IF YOU CAN LAUGH YOU CAN BREATHE," Roxas roared, and Cloud responded with another throaty laugh.
They got to the school before students had even started boarding, Cloud pulling what was most likely an illegal move and spinning the bike into a parking space right next to the bus. The force of the move would have completely unseated Roxas from the motorcycle, but it appeared that Big Brother had thought of this. He tapped the accelerator, and Roxas- currently falling off of the bike- followed the movement. This gave the appearance that Roxas had hopped off the bike fluidly while it was still in motion, making him look far more badass than what had really occurred.
"Try and have some fun, Rox," Cloud called, laughing at Roxas's absolutely murderous expression before turning Fenrir back on and roaring off into the distance.
"I'm going to kill him," Roxas said in a strangled voice. "I'm going to kill him and then burn that bike and dance on both of their ashes."
"Roxas!"
The blonde turned to see Hayner, Olette, and Pence waving to him from a somewhere in the line. Everyone else was staring in blatant shock and admiration, though if they'd known the truth they'd have probably been dying of laughter. Roxas wasn't yet sure that he hadn't wet himself.
He walked as calmly as he could to go and stand with them, but it was definitely a hard task. His legs felt as though they were going to fall right off, and his heart felt as if it were about to burst.
"I thought you hated Cloud's motorcycle," Olette said once Roxas had joined them.
"I do." Roxas shuddered. "That was a horrible experience. It took me longer to get ready than I'd originally hoped for," he added, looking with discomfort at his nice clothes. He could see that some of the students were now ogling his ensemble. High school was a bucket-load of fun and jdugement.
"You look fine, dude," Hayner drawled. Roxas noticed that the rebellious teen was also wearing one of Olette's mother's sets of clothes. Hayner also came from a poorer family, but unlike Roxas he never looked free clothes in the mouth. He was adorned in his favorite camo patterning, though it was a nice black and green mix. Skin-tight jeans- something Hayner would almost never be caught dead in- finished off the look with a chain hanging from his belt loops. Combat boots were laced up his legs, though those in truth were his own and therefore worn half to death. He looked exactly how he felt he should look: rebellious.
"Your mom is really talented," Pence added, nodding in appreciation at Roxas's outfit. He was wearing a full set of Twisted Fate clothing pieces, from his headband to his shoes. It was borderline creepy.
"I know," Olette giggled. "Still, it takes the fun out of shopping. No one makes clothes like my mom." Olette's favorite color was orange, and it showed in a pretty tank top with hibiscus designs and a cute flare at the bottom. Her skirt was long enough to be considered classy but short enough to be considered cute and had light orange and white highlights. Sandals covered her feet. In all, it was a simple design, but it made her come off as very sweet, cute, and mature. Glancing down the line, Roxas could see that many girls were more than making up for Olette's sense of modesty. He was actually shocked some of them hadn't been sent home.
The line began moving then, and they all moved toward the first bus, the excitement beginning to mount. The concert wasn't really going to start until about 12 noon, but the drive to the stadium would no doubt take an hour in the morning's traffic, and the school was required to get there early for their seating. People had most likely slept overnight outside the entrance, so they weren't going to enjoy the fact that a bunch of high school teens were essentially cutting in front of them.
"I'm so excited," Olette squealed. "I practiced singing all of the lyrics to my favorite CD's last night."
"That's a lot of CD's," Roxas snorted, who knew enough to know that Olette had at least 4 of Twisted Fate's CD's, two of which were signed copies.
"Okay, so maybe I skipped my least favorites and stuck to the really good ones, but if I'd had more time I would have sung them all!" She jumped for emphasis. A sudden hand appeared on Roxas's shoulder, and he jumped about a mile high. Judging by the weight of it, it was none-other than the school's own Seifer, the head of the discipline committee.
"You losers are so adorable," a mocking voice drawled out, and Roxas looked up to see that he'd been right. Such a shame that Seifer towered over almost all of them, let alone Roxas. "You think you actually have a chance of being noticed by Twisted Fate?"
"Nope," Roxas immediately cut in, and his friends rolled their eyes. Seifer raised an eyebrow.
"Well, look who's the little rebel today," he grinned, shaking Roxas's shoulder a bit. As he'd of course known, Roxas was shaken nearly off of his feet; he was very light weight, and Seifer was very strong. Hayner had to jump forward to steady Roxas when the bigger teen decided to let go, nearly flinging the smaller blonde forward.
"Piss off, Seifer," Pence muttered. "You're such an ass."
"Says Fanboy of the century," Seifer mocked, and his two goons- having suddenly appeared, never far from their slightly smarter master- laughed in tandem behind him. Fuu was a violet-haired girl who was always very quiet and kept mostly to herself. She and Rai, an oafish idiot whose insults were never particularly varied, never strayed far from Seifer, who they very absurdly worshipped. Not that they were the only ones; the richest kid in school, Seifer was known for "rewarding" students who treated him the way he believed he should be treated. Which meant that Seifer took great pleasure in pissing off Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They seemed to be the only ones who weren't desperate to kiss his ass.
"No admittance," Fuu called out in a gleeful voice, and Seifer grinned manically. Almost immediately, Roxas suspected that this had been the sole reason for his coming to them, and that Roxas was going to have to pay for it. It usually wound up that way, with Roxas having to make a deal with Seifer (unbeknownst to his friends) to get them out of trouble. Seifer might have been an ass, but he held a great deal of sway and power that no teenager should ever be able to hold. Roxas was only slightly more relieved than frustrated that Seifer's love of making Roxas suffer outweighed making his friends suffer.
"That isn't such a bad idea," Seifer said, rubbing his chin. He gave Roxas a particularly malicious look, and the teen knew that he had been entirely correct in his assumption. He had to work very hard to suppress a very angry growl.
"What isn't?" Hayner demanded.
"You losers never treat me with the right respect." Seifer managed to make his tone sound insulted and injured, dripping with entirely false innocence. "I honestly don't think that you lot should even get to GO to the concert."
The color drained out of the other three's faces, and Roxas's heart nearly broke. He might act like an uncaring asshole, but Roxas wanted nothing more than to see his friends happy and joyful.
"You can't do that," Olette whispered, but Seifer just laughed, the line beginning to move ever so slowly forward again. His blue eyes twinkled maliciously.
"My dad owns the stadium," he said pointedly. He didn't even need to add anything to his voice; the implication carried all the weight he needed. "I can do that."
"Oh," Olette whispered, and it looked as if she might cry.
"Seifer," Roxas started to say in a heated voice, but the taller teen shook his head, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders.
"Let's talk, Roxas," he said, and the blonde ground his teeth. He didn't look at his friends as the taller boy dragged him off, leaving Fuu and Rai to poke and make fun of the rest of Roxas's gang.
"You're a dick," Roxas spat once they'd gotten out of earshot. He immediately tore away from Seifer. "Why do you like ruining people's happiness so much?"
"Because it isn't mine," Seifer said, and for once a look of pure darkness covered his expression. Roxas blinked, taken aback. Sometimes the teen said things when they were alone that belied a deep sort of misery that Roxas wasn't sure he liked. He almost pitied it.
Almost.
"Don't do this to them, Seifer." Roxas shook his head. "They want this so bad. This stupid concert means everything to them."
"But not to you?" The shadow passed, and Seifer looked at Roxas askance, a grin growing. "I'd wager you want this concert more than you admit. You want to have that memory with your friends."
Sometimes- just sometimes- Roxas was reminded that Seifer wasn't actually a complete idiot. He balled his fists and kept his eyes on Seifer's, something that was definitely humiliating to do on account of size differences. The taller teen lowered his head so they were eye-to-eye.
"How about you prove to me just how happy you want them to be," he said quietly. "I'm not banning you… But I'd suggest you find a way to skip out on this concert."
Roxas let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. It felt as if something inside had sunk. Why was he so upset? He'd been complaining about this stupid concert for weeks. Although if he was being honest with himself, Roxas knew that the reason was all that difficult to grasp.
Seifer, of course, had been right. Roxas couldn't have cared if the concert had been done by magic mushrooms or singing cows- he wanted that memory with his friends.
A single glance over at the three uncomfortable and frightened teens that he cared for above almost all else told him exactly what he would do, as if he hadn't already known.
"Deal," he said quietly, and Seifer's face split into a grin.
"I love these little deals we make," Seifer gloated. "They make me feel so good."
"At least one of us does." Roxas turned away and walked back to his friends, his feet almost dragging. Seifer followed a little behind, for once letting Roxas go without humiliating him further.
"Roxas?" Olette looked at him with fear in her eyes.
"I've decided out of the good of my heart to let you losers be," Seifer drawled. He put a hand on a shoulder each of Fuu and Rai. "For today, anyway."
"What did you do?" Hayner demanded once Seifer had moved away.
"Nothing." Roxas shrugged, looking away from their anguished faces. The less they knew of Roxas's "dealings" with Seifer, the better. He liked them happy and carefree more than he liked them bitter and let down. "Just had to yell at him a bit."
"Didn't look like yelling," Olette whispered.
"Didn't want anyone to know how much of a baby he really is." Roxas grinned, but his friends didn't smile back.
"Roxas…" Pence started to say, but it was their turn to get on the bus. Roxas forged ahead, his face straight. This was just like any other time Seifer had made him suffer. This wasn't anything new- Seifer had been picking on Roxas since they were five, and Roxas's parents had died. He seemed intent on reminding the boy that his life was better than Roxas's and that it always would be.
Roxas wound up sitting with Hayner, who seemed uncomfortable to say the least. Pence and Olette were seated a few rows forward, and they kept shooting Roxas concerned glances. It was more than he could bear, and Roxas finally decided to lean against the window and pretend he was asleep. Leave it to Seifer to ruin even more of the day without even trying.
A/N: Don't forget to R and R, Read and Review!