~*D-L*~
I slept restlessly that night, only to wake from Link's voice in the doorway with a jolt. I sat up and let out a breath, rubbing my eyes slightly as I looked up to see Link standing there, a smirk on his face as he leaned against the doorway. He nodded once, solemnly, and turned around, leaving. I blinked a few times and turned to look over my shoulder, my eyebrows arching way too high when I saw that I had woken up half an hour late.
Yep, not going to be a good week.
First, it was the waking up late, then my seminar was kicked to noon on Tuesday, Wednesday we had to pay rent (that's never a good day, even when you're having a good week), on Thursday Link told me he had a date on Saturday, and on Friday, well… Friday was different. Very different.
I was walking around the city, knowing full well that Link was spending time with Teion and his boyfriend (who still remains anonymous!) as I cooled down. I had given my shift to a woman majoring in medicine and desperately needed the money—I needed a break anyway.
I ended up near the park from years ago and stopped to look out over the pond, watching the ripples in the water as I bought a one-way ticket on the train of thought going to Possible Candidates for Link's Boyfriends.
I got nowhere fast.
Finally, I checked my watch and sighed, turning to walk out of the park and down towards the college again—I needed to meet up with my study group so that we could, you know, study. But then some idiot walked in front of me, cutting me off. I glared daggers, "What do you want, Skull?"
"What? Two old friends can't stop and chat for a while on the street?"
"Sure they can," I shrugged, "Now where are they?"
"Oh, you hurt," He fawned, rolling his eyes. "I just wanted to ask you how Link was doing."
"Why do you care?" I snapped my eyes narrowing as I let every bit of the ice I felt into my voice.
"I can't check in on an old friend?"
"Old friend? Sorry if I can't wrap my head around it, but I don't exactly see that worked out. Now, how'd that work out?"
A smirk touched his face as he remarked "Why don't you tell me, D-L?"
"Why don't you go to hell?" I replied, just as "sweetly" as he had asked his question. It was true though: I wanted him to rot in hell for the rest of eternity. He didn't respond and I stepped around him, heading toward the college when I heard the most daring, most insanely stupid line he'd ever dared to say:
"Hey, while I'm there, I'll say hello to your lord, Satan, for you."
I spun around and slammed the side of my fist into his nose, watching as he stumbled back until the back of his heel caught on the inside of my foot, tripping him onto his back. "Fucking jackass, just try that one more time," I warned and turned around, determined on walking away from the entire thing, going to my study group and calming down.
He, of course, had other ideas.
I heard him stand up behind me and the rush of hurried rubber on sidewalk as he ran at me, but I just sidestepped and kept walking, not even so much as glancing at him as he stumbled and turned to me, punching wildly. I stood there, motionless as he repeatedly hit the air around me, punching in a wild fury.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" Of course, I had to antagonize him.
He stopped and drew his fist back, launching it at my face when I caught him around the elbow and ducked under it, watching the pained look that crossed his face as I pushed the part of my hand between my first finger and thumb into his ribs, jabbing as hard as I could. He grunted and I replaced my elbow into the middle of his back, releasing his arm.
He fell forward and landed on his side. I stepped back and looked down at him, saying, sternly "Try it again and you'll get away with way more than one bruise and a bloody nose. You're lucky I held back because I don't tolerate being called a Satanist."
Skull tried to say something back, but I kept walking away.
Anyway, yeah, that was pretty much the bad thing that happened on Friday—or at least I thought that until I got back from my study group to see that Link was there, reading over a notebook. The moment the door closed he looked up and sent me a stern look. I arched my brow at him and pulled my jacket off, hanging it up on the hat tree that had been left there from the last tenant (I didn't even realize that you were allowed to do that until Link asked if I had been here before him, which I denied).
His stern look turned into a glare and he turned back to his notebook. I stood there, shell shocked at the sudden glare until I finally let out a breath and shook my head. I guess that's just one of those things that you have to ask about, huh. "What was that for?"
"What for?" He grunted, angrily.
"The glare." He looked up at me, still glaring until he stood up and walked into his bedroom. "The fuck?" I muttered to myself, cocking my head as I walked through the place searching for something mindlessly.
I only realized how deep I was in when I finally growled inwardly and thought the hell did I put that razor?
My eyes widened and I stood straight at a board, every one of my muscles rigid as I tried to process what it was that I had just thought.
I sat down the next morning, running my fingers through my black hair as I tried to force myself to think about nothing but breathing—last night, all my dreams had been filled with all the bad comings in my life (hurting Link when we first met, letting dad beat me up, joining a gang, not ratting on something and costing six people their lives—gang hit—not going to see why the house smelled worse than usual before my mother was found dead, not fighting back more as I was pulled into that adoption home, not helping that kid that was stuck in a tree because he was scared up it by Skull, not turning Skull in for being a rapist sooner) all the reasons I had to be self piteous, really. And it didn't help that slumping all those things together made me want to find that razor more.
No! I screamed inwardly. No! You broke that once, you can keep off it! A blade isn't the way to handle a situation! You can last, Dark, just get your mind off yourself! Volunteer someplace or something! You have to keep off it! What would Annabelle think?
I growled and stood up, shaking my head and rubbing my forehead as I walked into the bathroom to splash my face and sighed. Damn it all, pull yourself together! What would Naa think?
And that effectively scared me out of that train of thought as of now.
That night, I was trying to arrange my schedule at the Student Union around my study "dates" so that I could still make enough money to keep the dorm until the end of term. I also had to consider classes and social outings and such.
I yawned and Link's door opened. His eyes landed on me and they became daggers against my skin. I grimaced and looked up, asking "did I do something wrong?"
He turned his back to me and I growled inwardly, throwing my notebook and schedule off my legs, standing up and walking behind him. "Link," Nothing. For the last half hour, he'd ignored every attempt I made to talk to him, so it was my turn to draw the line. I'm not someone who gets pushed around—you push me, I push back.
I wrapped my arms around him and he jumped, glaring at me over his shoulder as he pulled into himself, somehow managing to make himself rigid at the same time. "What?" He snapped.
"You've been ignoring me for the last half hour, the least you could do is hum and tell me that you aren't deaf," I snapped in his ear.
"Well you have my attention now, what do you want?"
The icy tone to his voice almost made me shiver—almost—but I couldn't stop the ice cold knife that stabbed through my breast bone, effectively tearing a hole in my heart.
"What have I done wrong that has made you hate me so much?"
"Right now the only thing you're doing wrong is making me late for my date." He snapped and I released him instantly, rolling my eyes and turning the other way. "Link, listen to yourself. You're being crazy! If I've done something wrong, tell me!"
"Being crazy?" He snapped at me. "You left for three years and are calling me crazy, for being myself? What grounds do you have to call me that? You don't know me, Dark Link! I am a normal person! If you really don't know what you did wrong, then why should I bother telling you? You want to know what you did wrong? You left and didn't fight back!" The door was shut before I could muster anything up, and the first thing that came out of my lips was a
"Fuck you, Link."
The door opened shortly after that, as I was texting Naa so that she'd scare me out of my need. I looked up to find her face there, forcing a smile with eyes filled with worry and concern. She held up her credit card to tell me that was how she got in before shutting the door behind her, the auto-lock engaging as she walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me like a mother comforting a crying child. Right then I wished I was one instead of some dumbass young adult bent on keeping the tears off my cheeks.
I hugged back, holding her comforting presence there as long as I could before she finally muttered "I never thought I'd have to say this, but," she muttered in my ear quietly. "I agree with you. Link's a jackass now and I don't know why."
She lead me to the back of the couch, where she forced me down into a sitting position with the inhumanely strong grip of hers that not even Vaati can get through.
She pulled two pillows off the couch, taking one for herself and sitting on it before handing the other to me. I sighed and took it, doing the same only because she was one of the only people who actually succeeded in scaring me shitless.
"I don't know how it happened, but I do know when," she told me suddenly. "March 17th one year ago. He was home sick for a whole week before he returned and it looked like he was in a worse condition then than when he was actually sick. When I asked him what was wrong, he just shrugged it off and muttered that he had a lot on his mind. Since then he's been the biggest jack off I've ever met—and that includes Ganondorf."
I snorted slightly, disbelieving.
"The only reason I stayed with him was because I knew that if I stayed with him, I'd see you sooner than I would without him. I'm just glad that I can be with you and hate his guts at the same time now."
There was a pause and I leaned against her arm as a sort of thanks for cheering me up.
My IM went off.
"But that's not why you need me, is it?" She pointed out, realizing what the lean meant.
Again it rang.
"No, it's not. I have to ask you to do something I never wanted you to do in the first place."
"What?"
Another message rang.
"Slap me upside the head."
"Why?"
"Do it and then I'll answer."
Another message.
She slapped the back of my head. It didn't work, but it made me realize that there were two knots in the hardwood flooring under us. "Now will you tell me why?"
"Because I found a razor with both my and Link's blood on it and right now, it plus my wrist seems like a blissful combination." She slapped me twice as hard this time, but all it did was help me realize that the floor was made of oak.
Again the IM went off and she mumbled "Maybe you should check that."
"Can you shut the laptop? I'll check it later."
Looking back on it, I think I should have checked it right then and there.
When Link returned from his date some hours later, I was smiling sadly and chuckling to something that Naa had said as she laughed aloud. The door shut and she glared daggers at the man that had shut it, but I only closed my eyes and laughed a little more, ignoring him. His room door shut and she wrapped her arm around me.
Really, I could care less about that now, I just wish I remembered why on earth I'd been so dumb as to forget about the IM. It nearly caused me a heartattack!
