Disclaimer: No.
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"Thanks..." I mumbled.
I pulled the blanket from my face and wrapped it tightly around my shoulders. They probably kept it so cold to keep Mello's precious chocolate from melting. I frowned and averted my eyes to the screen. There were two characters, Matt's completely destroying the enemies opposite from us. Mine was hardly doing half the damage Matt's was, but it was fun and a little addicting nonetheless. I probably would've been able to join Matt in that little world of his, had it not been for the loudly dramatic bites of Mello's chocolate. I wasn't jumping anymore, since it was constantly in the back of my mind. I still blinked, but that was it for now.
"We win." Matt seemed to have snapped out of it, and he smiled triumphantly.
"That was fast." I wasn't really sure how long we had been playing due the lights being off and the lack of working clocks, but it seemed pretty quick. Or maybe time flew by quickly in the world of Matt.
"Not really, it's been about 3 hours." Had it really been that long? Not like it really mattered anymore, I highly doubted a place like this had a curfew.
"Oh. Cool, this is a really good way to pass the time." I would definately do this again, me and Matt had quite a few things in common and we had been chatting about any random thing to pop into our heads the entire time.
"Yeah. You should probably unpack though. Just come back right away afterwords." I cracked my fingers and stretched my arms. Gaming can really make a person stiff.
"Probably. Why should I come back right away though?"
"Does it matter?" No.
"Yes."
"We have your schedule, summer break's almost over, afterall." Mello spoke up from his place on the couch, the box of chocolate signifigantly less. He had a book in one hand, the obvious chocolate bar in the other. His eyes were glued to the book, though I'm pretty sure it was in a different language.
"Fine." Why question why they had my schedule? They proabably just took it from my room before I got here. Did they always do that? I contemplated this for a little bit as I discarded the blanket on the couch and quietly closed the door behind me to a crack.
"Don't take too long." Matt said behind his shoulder before completely zoning out again.
I went back to my room and took a look at it for the first time. It was pretty plain, white walls and black furniture. I grabbed my bag and dropped it on the bed. The bed had enough room for two people to lay down comfortably, which was way more than I was used to. I jammed my clothes into the dresser drawer, setting everything else on the table at the side of my room. The table had two small drawers, so I figured I could put some of the more 'valuable' things I owned in there. Opening the first drawer, I saw that it was already occupied. Inside of the drawer was a notebook. It looked relatively old, but not too old. Probably from the eighties or so. It had an A on the front cover, so I wondered if maybe I had gotten a book from a former resident. Immediately I started flipping through the pages ( I had virtually no respect for other people's belongings), only catching occasional sketches that were never finished. Only the very last pages had anything particularly interesting on them. The last 3 or so pages were filled with sequences of random numbers with dashes in between each letter, and spaces between each "word". It was in paragraph form, so obviously this was a code meant for someone to decipher. I vowed to myself right then and there that person would be me, and me only. I was going to figure this out by myself.
When I had the time, of course. Right now, I had a schedule to learn. I kept the book with me though, just in case I got bored.
"HEY, hurry up!" There was a faint voice behind one of my side walls, followed by an assemble of banging. I blinked a few times, and realized that all that time watching their TV had made my eyes rather sensitive. No wonder Matt always wore those goggles around his neck or on his head.
"Yeah." I muttered too quietly for them to hear. I took one last look around the room and strode to the door. The banging stopped, but it didn't take me long to realize how low in patience the two of them were.
I whipped my door open and almost jumped out of my skin at the figure in front of me. It was just Matt, but the lack of social interaction between these past few weeks left me a bit more vulnerable than I was comfortable with. I relaxed a little, and looked up at him. He was about Mello's height, maybe even taller. That still meant he was almost a head taller than me.
"Sorry, but I gotta go...take care of some things down stairs. Mello will help you though." I tried not to let the dissapointment show on my face. Luckily for me, I was one heck of an actress.
"Yeah, sure." He waved and left down the hall. Mello was the last person I wanted to spend an hour or so with, but what choice did I have? I've been in much worse situations than this by far.
It took me two steps to get to Mello and Matt's room, which could be really good or really bad. I didn't open right away. I guess I was just hesitant to face those cold eyes of his. Were mine like that? I hoped so. I had a small feeling that not many people picked on Mello. He was extremely lean, but had some muscle on his arms and I'm pretty sure he isn't afraid to use it.
"Are you coming in or will you just stand there?" The familiar deep voice of Mello rang out from the door in front of me. Once more it was him that snapped me back to reality. Why I was daydreaming when I was only two inches away from a door that could be violently swung open at anytime was beyond me. I took a few steps back at the thought. The doors open outwards, afterall.
"Well?" That same voice asked from behind the door. I guess I was spacing out again. I've been doing that a lot lately, and to my horror it's mainly been about Mello.
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I sat across from Mello as he explained our classes and who to stay wary of if I were ever to be up to anything. There were even some students he told me I should be careful of.
"Are you scared of them, Mells?" I asked him once he told me of a particular group who mainly lived in the exercise room.
"They don't talk to me. I think their intimidated." He smirked at this, and even though that sounded totally self-conceited I had to believe him. He didn't look intimidating at all (and I mean AT ALL), but his presence was almost scary. It was strange, but simple. He was just one of those people you stay away from. Which is strange, now that I think of it...
"So are you going to let me call you Mells now?" It's not that Mello was long or anything, I just wanted to be able to call him that and not get a kick to the face. I'd feel like I'd have power over others. Of course, even he said no, I'd still call him that. Ever since Matt said it, it seemed to stick with me.
"You wouldn't stop if I told you not to." He was right, that I couldn't deny.
But I had much more pressing questions that still lingered in my brain.
"Oh okay... so do you always do this with new kids?" This question has been nagging me for a while, and I figured I should just ask Mello instead of Matt. He was anything but pleasant, but at least he was modest.
"Do what?" That also meant he was incredibly difficult. I figured not saying anything at all would be best. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows.
"Obviously, you're not stupid." I said after a while of intense staring. He glowered, but replied.
"No." I don't know why he was being so stubborn about it, it was just a question afterall.
"Okay." As though he of all people were going to go into detail. There was no reason for me to push further.
After Mello had finished explaining all of the details that came with the schedule I returned back to my room. Right now I was currently working on the puzzle I found in the back of my new journal. It wasn't too difficult at first, just start with the small words and work from there. For example, a is the smallest word in the entire english dictionary. An wasn't much longer, and it only came before words that start with a vowel. I kept an extra sheet of paper next of me to write down all of the letters to their matching numbers. The only reason why I had to do this is that the numbers chosen had absolutely no relevence to the actual alphebet, and I found to be completely random. This was probably the most difficult thing about it, other than the fact that I had no idea whose this originally belonged to. And since it wasn't mine, I'd never be 100% sure I was right. Nor would I have any beforehand knowledge to have any clue on what this could possibly say.
Oh well, it was probably just something to ease a former resident's mind. Like practice, this was my practice.
Eventually I heard a knock on the door, and I hid the journal and pen underneath my bed sheets. I'm not sure who could possibly want my attention at this time of night. It was incredibly late for anyone to be up.
"It's incredibly late for anyone to be up." The familiar tone was one I was quickly getting used to, and as much as I'd hate to admit, it was kind of attractive. I sighed, but eventually left my bed and walked silently to the door. I walked a little bit slower on purpose, maybe he would get impatient and leave.
"Then why are you up so late?" As I opened the door, I could clearly see he had just started to leave but returned to his original place infront of me once he heard my voice.
"Studying." Studying? Someone as high and mighty as him had to study? I refrained from laughing.
"Studying? Hmm, I just assumed you were at the very top." Wasn't that why he was so intimidating? Or was I the only one who saw him as that?
"I am. Just not as high up as I should be." His eyes narrowed when he said this, and I wondered how I'm supposed to respond. I guess that was a slightly sensitive topic for him. Why, I had no idea. I know I wouldn't really care what my rank was.
"You're not number 1?" I don't know why I was putting him in such high regards, but he just seemed like he was the smartest.
"You thought I was number 1 without hardly knowing me?" He smirked, and I'm sure I was only adding to his probable massive ego.
"Well, you would normally be correct, but as of lately I've fallen below that." His tone was menacing when he said the last part, and it slightly frightened me. No, wait, frightened wasn't the word.
"...Why?" I"m sure we were getting totally off topic, but I couldn't care less. I wanted to know.
He visibly tensed, and I knew that he wasn't thinking when he said the next part.
"It's all that bigheaded Near's fault. He plays everything like a game, and I let my emotions get in the way." My heart panged at the sound of his voice, like he was hurt, sad, longing and angry. So angry. I was so surprised that he would say something like that to me. Something so...raw.
Eventually his face matched my own shocked one. He had realized his mistake, he had realized that he had shown me something I was never meant to see. I was now forced to realize something;
His heart wasn't as cold as I thought it was... he had shown me one of the most cherished, and most dangerous of all human emotion.
He had shown me vulnerablitilty.
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OKAY. So that's how the story got it's name. School starts super soon, but hopefully that'll spark up inspiration. In fact, writings just might get more frequent. Well, I would deeply enjoy reviews. To my very core.
Sorry if it's short, next chapter will probably be longer and more eventful. Probably.