Chapter Four
= Be Karkat
You groan as the sun shines through your window, signaling that yet another day has begun. But, you have a feeling the day wont be so bad. As you lay awake in bed, not entirely ready to get up yet, your mind travels back to yesterday. You remember the new kid. Sollux Captor. Just thinking about him made you smile, as cliché as that sounds.
When you had gotten to the office yesterday and were assigned to show some new kid around, you weren't expecting him to stick around you all day or even try to make conversation with you. But he did. Even when you got angry at him and made it clear you didn't want to be his friend he just laughed and continued talking.
Everything about him annoyed the shit out of you, but, in the same sentence, you loved it all. His lisp, how tall he was, the constant smile on his face, his weird black and yellow themed clothing, even his obnoxious 3-D glasses. For every bad thing about him you found two good things. And you don't even know the guy for fucks sake!
And then you gave him your number. Where the sudden confidence came from, you will never know. In any other situation you would've waited for the other person to ask when you wanted to work together. Never would have given them your number and told them to text you. But you did it. Why you did it, again, you will never know. But you're glad you did.
There was one down side to what you did. Your dad had came home early and you were too busy texting Sollux to realize it. You only figured it out when your dad screamed at you mother, asking where you were. You tried to hide that you were texting someone but your dad had come into your room right as you had hit send.
Needless to say your dad wasn't too happy about you having some-what of a social life. If you could even call it that. You'd rather not think about all that he ended up doing to you after that cause it was painful just to think about it. When he was done hitting you, you had checked your phone again, seeing the last message Sollux had sent you had made you smile despite yourself.
You flung the blankets off your body and, like every other morning, the coldness engulfed you. You did your morning routine. Shut the window, sneak to the bathroom, check your injuries, brush your hair and teeth, sneak back to your room, and change.
Today your body looked like one big pin cushion. Not many places on your body didn't have a bruise or cut of some sort. Even the bruise on your face had gotten darker, impossible to miss, and your lip had swollen slightly. You could do nothing to hid the obvious fact someone had hit you. Not that anyone would ask anyways.
Once back in your room you threw on a random pair of jeans, a plain red t shirt and your gray sweatshirt with the cancer symbol. You grabbed your backpack from your desk where you had dropped it and walked out into the hallway.
You knew for a fact that your dad wasn't here, his car wasn't in the drive way and last night while you lay awake you heard him complaining to your mother about how somebody had screwed up all the paperwork and how he had to put in extra hours to fix it. Lucky break. For you anyways.
You walked out of the hallway and into the living room. You found your mother passed out on the couch with an almost empty bottle of god-knows-what on the ground next to her. You roll your eyes and continue to the door.
You start your very shot walk to school. For once in your miserable life your some-what looking forward to school. You're not saying your jumping for joy at the thought of sitting in a cold classroom surrounded by douche bags but you're more willing to sit through it today.
When you finally see the school building in the distance you start to look around for a certain tall, black haired boy. Not that you'd actually do anything if you did find him. You'd probably pretend you didn't see him and keep walking. That's just you and your 'I don't give a shit' façade.
But you couldn't see him anywhere. Maybe he's not going to be here today. Not that you care. That just means you wont have an annoying prick following you around all day. Well, its not like you particularly minded or whatever. But you'd never admit that out loud. Ever.
You walked up the steps of the school to the front doors with much difficulty. You had obviously spent too much time daydreaming this morning so now the hellhole you call school is packed with teenagers. Its not really that hard to maneuver around them since you're so small. Though you sometimes have trouble when they're all moving in the same direction because you kind of just get swept in with them. Which is what's happening to you now.
You get dragged along the hallways until you reached your locker. Surprisingly you were able to get away from the crowds and open your locker without much fuss. You grabbed your English book and a note book, closed the locker and turned around.
Have you ever heard that the first rule when playing any horror game is to never turn around? Yeah, well you felt like you were playing a horror game and you just disobeyed the rule. When you turned around Captor was standing right behind you, looking like he had just got there. You jumped back, hitting the locker and drop your English book on the ground with a loud bang. You hissed in slight pain and glared up at the nerd standing before you with that annoying smile. "What the fuck captor?!"
He just chuckles, obviously amused with your reaction. "Wow kk, you're jumpy today" He snickers. You just growl and roll your eyes, but the fact that you want to be pissed at him right now doesn't stop the fact that your cheeks flush slightly. It also doesn't help that he bends down and picks your book up, handing it back you, that smile still plastered on his face.
You snatch the book from his outstretched hand, grumbling a quiet thanks. You turn away from him, walking towards the stairs, knowing that he will follow you. Once you get to the English room you hurriedly make your way to the back corner and sit down, seeing Sollux take the seat next to you. He was looking up at the front of the room so you took this opportunity to look him over.
He's, again, wearing tight black jeans that look just loose enough to be comfortable, accompanied by a black and yellow belt. His shirt is plain black and the end of the sleeves are yellow. What is it with this kid and black and yellow? You also noticed that his shoes were mismatched. One was black, the other white. That's weird..
Your eyes reach his face and you find (to your immense gratification) that he hasn't noticed your staring and is still trained on the teacher. His hair is the darkest shade of black you've seen and it sticks up on the sides. How does he make it do that? You doubt he's the type of guy who stands in front of the mirror and does his hair. Either way you like it. It looks kind of cool you guess.
Your eyes travel to his and you realize you hadn't actually seen his eyes yet. That's kind of odd but whatever, to each his own, you guess. He probably has a good reason for hiding them, but you do kind of wish you could see them.
You never really looked to closely at his face before (why would you?) so you never really noticed how attractive he really was. You kind of halt your train of thought and back track. You think he's attractive? He? Him? This BOY? You've never really cared much about your sexuality, or anybody else's, so you never really thought about the possibility that you could be gay. Not that it's that big of a deal. Because to you, its not.
What bothers you is the fact that you think a boy you barely know anything about and have know for only a day is attractive. Its not like you actually like in a romantic way or anything, cause you don't. He turns his head towards you and its not until then that you realize you're staring at him like a love struck school girl. You quickly look away, the yard outside the window suddenly becoming very interesting.
Well, that was embarrassing. You can feel your cheeks flare red as you replay what just happened over in your mind. You lay your head down on the desk, almost groaning out loud. You cant believe you actually just got caught staring at him. If you've learned anything about Sollux, it's that he's not going to let you live this down.
The rest of the day went by basically the same as yesterday and thankfully Sollux never brought up your staring session in English. Algebra was the same as everyday, boring as hell. You guys had a test today and even though he just started here, Sollux was the first one done. You were almost the last one done. In biology you guys just went over what you had discovered yesterday and shit. At lunch Sollux continued to pester you, asking you the most random questions ever. Spanish and History were your worst classes just because you got so bored and found it hard to concentrate. Also Sollux isn't in those classes with you so its kind of lonely.
Currently you are both sitting in art class. Sollux is sitting next to you and you both have started your projects. The teacher had filled him in on what he was supposed to do and he even asked you a few questions. You have your sketch book propped up on your knees and you've skipped to a new page. You had already started drawing at home and so you already have the outline of a women's head on the other wise blank paper.
You looked over at Sollux, he was drawing something but you weren't quite sure what it was. But it looked like it was supposed to be abstract and it was actually really good. He had drawn a eye on the right side of the paper and it looked like it was being held up with two chains. You couldn't say for sure though.
You both stayed silent for the whole class, completely concentrated on your drawings. An hour later you both are still quietly working when the bell rings. You jump and basically throw your sketch book across the table. You hear Sollux laugh loudly and you look over at him and glare.
"oh shut up Captor" you growl, getting up to grab your sketch book. He continues to chuckle while gathering his things and you feel your cheeks getting warm again. You grab your book and hold it to your chest, walking out of the classroom with Sollux close behind you.
You walk to your locker and stuff all your crap into your backpack before turning back to Sollux who already had his backpack swung over his shoulder. "You ready?" He asks and you nod your head, a little nervous to be going to his house. You barley knew this kid, he could be a murderer for all you knew. Okay you seriously doubt he's a murderer but still.
You follow him outside where kids are mingling around and cars are driving around. You two walk to his car and you have to admit its pretty nice. He climbs in the drivers seat and you get in on the passenger side. He throws his backpack into the backseat and you just put yours between your legs.
You both stay silent the whole ride, but it was a comfortable silence. You stare out the window, still slightly nervous about the whole thing. You look at Sollux out of the corner of your eye. He's concentrated on the road with one hand one the wheel and one on his leg. He seemed very relaxed.
Sollux pulls into the driveway of his house and you both get out, grabbing your backpacks. You swing yours over your shoulder and follow behind him as he walks to the front door. You stay behind him slightly as he walks through his house to his dining room. "You can just throw your bag here" he says, throwing his own bag onto the table top. You put yours next to his as you hear another voice from somewhere else in the house. "Sollux, sweetie, is that you?" The voice is obviously a womens and it has a motherly tone to it.
"Yeah mum, its me" Sollux says back, gesturing for you to follow him. You walk behind him as he heads towards another room. He stops in the door way and you stand back so you can't be seen by whoever's in the room.
"Is there somebody with you?" There's that voice again. "Yeah my friend's here, we have a project to work on" He looks back at you from behind his glasses and waves you forward until you were standing next to him. You finally got a look at the person that was obviously his mother.
She had the same black hair that he had and bright blue eyes. She had a petite figure an she couldn't be much taller than you, maybe even shorter. "This is Karkat" You were slightly surprised when he spoke because that was the first time he had used your real name. He had just called you kk since you guys met.
The women stands up and - yup, she's about an inch shorter than you. She sticks her hand out while giving you a warm smile. You don't really want to shake her hand but you don't want to be rude to her so you hesitantly grab her hand and shake it. "Well Karkat, im Elizabeth. It's very nice to meet one of Solluxs friends" You smile back at her and say a quiet 'Its nice to meet you to' before letting her hand go.
Situations like these always made you uncomfortable so you were glad when Sollux spoke up and said you guys were going to go work in his room. He led you up the steps to the second floor and down the hallway to his room. When he opened the door you cant say what you saw surprised you. It was pretty organized with a large bed in the corner and a closet off to the side. His desk had a computer on it along with some other electronics and tangles of wires that all had to of done something.
He walks over to his bed and grabs his laptop from the small bedside table and opened it. You hesitantly sit next to him without saying anything. "Why are you so quiet?" So Sollux noticed your lack of communication. "Because there's nothing to say, asshat" You shoot back, somewhat defensively.
He just chuckles and starts typing. "Whatever you say dude. But seriously what the fuck is an asshat?" He asks looking up and you with a confused face. "It doesn't sound pleasant" He comments and you shrug. "I don't know but it's fun to say" He chuckles and shakes his head, turning back to the laptop.
You two spent the next two hours searching facts about the condor bird thing and fucking around. You probably laughed more in the few hours you spent in Sollux's room then you had all year. When you noticed the time you realized you should be getting home.
"Hey, I should go before my dad flips his shit on me" You say, standing up. Sollux looks up at you and smiles "Ok, do you want to meet at your house on Friday so we can get the rest of this done?" He asks and you're taken off guard. "Oh, uh.. no I don't think that's a good idea" You say, pulling on the sleeve of your sweater. He scrunches his face up and tilts his head. "Why not? I'd say we could do it here but my moms got friends coming over and we really need to get this done." You shake your head "No, we can't do it at my house" You were starting to get pissed off.
He narrowed his eyes - at least, you think he did - and set the laptop aside. "How come?" You glared at him. "Because I said so douche bag" He sighed. "That's not a reason. Look, I want to get this done as soon as possible so I don't see why we cant g-" You interrupted him. "Because I fucking said no Sollux! I don't need to explain myself to you! You need to learn to mind your own god damned business!"
You spin on your heels and stalk out of his room while he calls after you. You keep walking down the steps, into the dining room to grab your backpack, then out the door. Sollux follows you and calls out for you "Don't you need a ride home?" You ignore him and keep walking. You've lived in this town long enough to know the layout of the streets and how to get home.
You walk angrily as you think about how much of an asshole Captor is. Well, you know to him it seems like you over reacted but he doesn't need to pry into your life. You don't want him to know why he can't come to your house and he should respect that!
You continue home, angrily ranting in your head, so preoccupied that you didn't see your fathers car in the drive way. You walk up the steps to your door and open it. Once you close the door you feel a sharp pain to the side of your face and the momentum send you to the ground. You look up to see you dad standing over you with an unbelievably pissed off expression on. "Where the fuck have you been?!" He all but screams at you.
You cringe and stay silent, knowing that you talking will only make it worse. He curl up as he kicks you hard in the stomach. You curl into a tight ball as blow after blow showers down on your frail body. Once he feels satisfied with the damage done he walks away to go down stairs, leaving you on the floor shaking and you mother passed out on the couch still.
You struggle to your feet, tears spilling over your eyelid and down your cheeks from the imence pain. You eventually get to you room and lay down on your bed gently. You sigh and wipe at the tears on your face angrily. You were pathetic and you knew it.
Your phone pinged and you carefully took it out of your pocket.
'Karkat, iim 2orry, ii didn't mean two make you mad"
You ignored the text and put your phone away. You rolled over, wincing in pain and tried your best to get some sleep. You weren't sure what you were going to do about Sollux tomorrow but you weren't looking forward to it.