"Oh my God, I think you're cool but I don't really see us like that." The words rang loud in his head and the pain that followed was like nothing Rinier had ever experienced. Ever since Chloe said that to him this morning he'd been on autopilot. If there was anything for Rinier to be proud about in that moment it was the fact that he took the rejection like a champ – at least in the moment.
"Ok, that's cool", he managed to get out. In the moment, his hands broke out in an uncontrollable sweat and he got fidgety but he fought the impulses to turn and run. Chloe started laughing.
"You're doing it again, slurring your s's." Despite what had just happened, her laugh continued to be the prettiest thing he's heard in his 17 years alive and hearing it brought a smile to his face.
"I don't slur my s's. Why does everyone keep saying that?"
"Because it's true", her laughter came to an end and she furrowed her brows. "Does this mean you're going to stop talking to me?" for the first time in the conversation Rinier stripped his eyes away from her bright blue eyes and he turned around sensing the end of their conversation was near.
"Of course not, where'd that come from?" with those words Rinier removed himself from that impossibly awkward conversation. It wasn't until he heard the cheering around him that Rinier refocused himself on the matter at hand. The boy in front of him readied himself for a fight, Rinier with a quick glance was able to tell that this person was very new to fighting. As it should be, as around his waist was a white cotton belt, the universal symbol of a beginner martial artist. Rinier levelled the shinai preparing for the teacher start the match.
"Begin," the teacher's voice boomed through the hall and the match begun. Despite Rinier's lack of practice on the weapon in his hand it was very simple for him to execute the maneuver that the teacher wished for him to demonstrate to the class. The boy swung the bamboo sword over his head at Rinier which he parried with ease and like clockwork Rinier shoved his sword to the left causing the boy to lose balance and capitalizing on his opponent's loss of balance quickly and gently nudged him with the end of the shinai's handle causing him to tumble to the ground. After holding the sword over his opponent's head the match was called in Rinier's favour. Rinier wasted no time in helping his opponent up off the mat.
"Well, Sensei I'm going around the back now." He gestured to the weight room.
"Of course." His teacher replied, then he turned to the class. "Pay respect to Senpai Rinier."
"Osu!", the class chanted. Being a black belt in this karate class came with certain perks, for the most part you were exempt from the rigourous warm up exercises and could come and go when you pleased with your entrance and exit being heralded by the class paying respect to you. Even though it was the result of his hard work Rinier wished they would at least take it easy sometimes are he'd go deaf sooner or later. Even though he went to and spent most of his time in the weight room, Rinier wasn't a muscle head if anything you'd call him skinny. Closer to the truth however was that he was lean, Rinier didn't like the idea of being buff and strength eventually hit a point of diminishing returns when it came to combat ability. The weight room wasn't anything special it was about the size of a large living room – much larger than his at least – concrete walls that matched the rest of the building with mirrors to ensure that both weight lifting and fighting form could be properly observed. Rinier found his way toward the punching bag in the center of the room and he began to throw his anger at it. Doing a hundred and fifty kicks and punches was his usual routine but today was special. Recounting all the now cringe-worthy moments he spent agonizing over text messages and all the time he spent staring at Chloe and imaging how good things would be when they got together. Before he noticed he'd lost both count and track of time as his Sensei interrupted his sandbag beat down with the news that it was time to close up. In the five years Rinier had been attending this dojo there was rarely a day that he went home before evening came and this day was no different. Not bothering to take his phone out of his pocket and actually check the time he decided to take a guess. December was soon approaching and you didn't have to look too far to realize it. Stores anxious to incentivize holiday shopping had already started putting up trees and candy canes on their doors, that information along with the fact that the sun looked about an hour off from setting Rinier came to the conclusion that it was near 5:30 p.m. Now Rinier usually took the longer - and safer - route to his house from the dojo but he was feeling daring today and wanted nothing more than to jump in his bed and be sad. So after looking around, he dashed into the alley way beside him. He jumped on top of the classic New York dumpsters, over fences, through someone's yard much to the anger of the dog on the premises and after clearing the last fence he arrived at his back door.
Rinier made sure to walk around to the front door before he entered as entering from the back door was a telltale sign to his mom that he had taken the shortcut. After he jumped over the fence to find her hanging out clothes, a couple years back, she strongly reprimanded him – nice way of say she beat it into him – into never taking that route again and I should at least walk where people can see me. Rinier walked up the steps and turned the key in the lock to reveal the interior of the place he called home. It was a two story house and it there were many people that called it home, aside from his mom his uncles Mikey and James and his grandaunt Margaret. Rinier quietly headed up the stairs careful not to rouse Mikey who fell asleep on the couch with the television on. He ended up running into his mom at the top of the steps.
"Good evening, Mom", Rinier tried to squeeze past her without much conversation but of course that did not, has not and would never work on her. She followed him to his room and planted herself on the door as Rinier crashed unto his bed. She ran her eyes over him as he threw is school bag to one side of the room and this clothes bag to the other.
"Did you run through the Blake's house again?" He always wondered how his mom always knew, he should have been sweaty from practice regardless and the Blake's stopped calling about the disturbances years ago. Rinier didn't answer instead he started to count the amount of tiles that were on the roof of his room, even though he knew the answer already – 24 and a half – since questioning like these had happened so many times before. His silence was more than enough for his mother to draw a conclusion.
"You never look in someone's eyes when you tell a lie. Did you know that?" his mom mentioned. Rinier had begun to notice it about himself as well, it realized that she was the cause. He looked so much like his mother same dark skin with cool green eyes that conveyed emotion so well, he couldn't dare to lie seeing himself in such expressive eyes.
How did it go with the girl at school today?" Rinier sank deeper into his bed with that question. His mom asked a lot of questions and he told her anything she wanted to know and more. She was his greatest confidant and he had told her about his crush as well.
"Got another classic rejection." Rinier breathed then in his best impression of Chloe, "I just don't see us like that." His mother burst out laughing, while Chloe's might have been the best sound he loved seeing his mother happy more than anything. She raised him on her own, his dad died when he was young and his uncles were useless in that regard, and for that she earned his eternal love and respect.
"Can't you help me out here mom, you were once a girl right?" Rinier pleaded. His mother just smiled at him.
"I've never had to seduce a girl before so that's not my expertise I'm afraid. Also where I'm from taking advice from women about women more often than not leads boys like you to ruin. You'll slither in to someone's heart one day." Rinier groaned as his mother played in his hair and then made her way out the door, she loved to use the words 'slither in' as much as she could you would have never taken his mother for a Potter person but there she was in the flesh. "Also, take a shower you're sweaty dinner will be ready when you're done."
It was less than ten minutes after his conversation with his mom that the smell of her Sweet and Sour chicken lead him down the stairs. He stomach would have taken him straight to the kitchen if not for the doorbell that rung and interrupted is hunger-induced trance. He sauntered past his sleeping uncle looked through the peep hole and saw a fair skinned girl around his age with brown hair standing outside the door alongside a really short man who was trying to get high enough to look through the peep hole on their end to no avail due to his vertical challenges. After years of doing martial arts, fighting in tournaments and living in New York, Rinier made the judgement call that these people meant no harm to him after locking the grill he opened to door so they could see each other and converse properly.
"Hey, can I help you?" Rinier smiled. They didn't get many guests at their house but his mother was adamant that he learn to greet people nicely.
"Is this him?" the short man inquired impatiently.
"Yeah there's no mistake, this is him." The girl confirmed.
"Uh…" Rinier cut in, "I'm right here, and who am I supposed to be to you two?"
"No time, you gotta come with us now" the man said he was hopping from one leg to the next, now greatly showing his impatience.
"Well, I don't know either of you and I don't want to go anywhere so have a good day." Rinier was about to close the door when his mother made her way beside him and wrapped her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder. She loved doing this to him, her head used to land on top of his but with his growth over the last years that became impossible.
"No need to be apprehensive dear son surely they mean no harm." His mother cooed. Prior to his mother's appearance at least the girl whom Rinier had come to realize was quite pretty was being somewhat normal but when he turned to look at them again. The girl seemed to have pulled a baseball bat out of nowhere and was holding it in front of her as if to fight with it and the short man produce a large stick he must of found somewhere on the lawn and both of them went white in the face.
"Kid, get away from that thing right now do you hear me we'll save you." The man said he voice sounding unsure.
"What do you mean thing, this is my mother!" Rinier shouted.
"Look, kid if you don't want to get, eaten then get away from your mother and - " Rinier slammed the door and put a full stop to his sentence.
"What was all of that about?" Rinier hadn't run into much racism in his life since most of the people in his area were either his colour or accepting of it. He figured that must have their problem. He stormed straight into the kitchen without a care for the banging on the except that both his uncles were blocking the door.
"Oh Uncle James you're finally here, also excuse me." He tried to step past them to no avail. He tried to push past them which also brought about the same result, Uncle James wasn't skinny but Rinier had been able to move him with no difficulty if he were sleeping on the couch when he wanted to sit, so this phenomena was quite shocking. While Rinier was all in his head, he felt a tug on his shirt and not too soon a fist was swung right through the spot where Rinier's head had been a second ago. Uncle Mikey retrieved his fist from the now shattered concrete wall and Rinier quickly realized that nothing in his current situation was normal. His mother, the person responsible for keeping Rinier in one piece had a fierce look on her face. She began speaking to his uncles in a language that Rinier had never heard before. After her unintelligible rambling his mother turned to him.
"Take the bag on the couch and go with the people outside." she commanded. Rinier was reeling, what is going on, when did that bag get there, so many – too many questions on his mind that he simply stood still.
"Rin! Now!", his mother only called him that when she was angry and it spurred him into action. He grabbed the bag and started to work on opening the grill, he looked behind him to see that his now extremely buff uncles trying to punch his mom into oblivion. He finally got to the door, which ever since the first punch had been thrown was constantly being hammered down by the two strangers. Against the gradient that was the door's constant shaking Rinier managed to get the door open.
"Ah, kid you managed to – Oh gods we need to get out of here now" the short man wasted no time pulling Rinier down the steps. "No kid don't –", Rinier broke free from his grasp and fumbled his way back up the steps.
"Mom, what is going on?" he called out desperate for any sense of normalcy. The battle in the house came to a pause as his mother quick approached him. She kissed him on the forehead and as she moved away something like steam seemed to billow off his face. When it cleared he saw two large humanoid figures where his uncles stood so large that if they jumped they could have easily put half their body through the ceiling of the first floor. He turned around to see the same girl and man but the girl's baseball bat was now a sword of glowing bronze and the short man now had goat legs and a slightly more intimidating stick.
"Sslither on Rinier, you must get away." With horror he looked up into his mother's green eyes the same eyes he'd be looking into his whole life but the smile that should have been there was spoiled by what was quite clearly a forked tongue.
A/N: Drop a review if you like it, I don't really know if it helps but it's just nice to see.