Part 11 Lifelong
//The future. The
hope for a bright future lies within the hearts of all men. A new beginning, a dream on the verge of
taking a hold of you.
The present. Moment
by moment, each second developing, unfolding. Ever changing.
The past. Fixated,
forever caught in the web of time. Etched for all eternity.//
~~ After spending over half the day
wondering from one end of the academy to the other, the sight of our shared
room brings me great relief. The campus
is surprisingly large for a military school, yet oddly comforting and
home-like. The smell of fuel overpowers
the senses and it's not unusual to feel a tremor through the earth as a mobile
suit makes it's decent. For some reason
the mobile suits don't affect me as much as they should. They were the beasts that destroyed my home,
yet I feel a sense of inner tranquility when in the presence of the monstrous
beasts.
The room is highly decorated with posters of scantly clad
women causing my eyes to switch to viewing the floor and a blush to rise to my
cheeks.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing."
"Trying to avoid answering the question?" Jeremy waits for
any reaction from his roommate. "Ahh
well, guess I'll just have to do the talking for both of us then." He says
falling into his desk chair and propping his feet up. "Yup, it was getting boring around here since it is holiday and
all. Not many people stay around here
during break, unless they've fallen behind in classes and need minimum
distractions to catch up."
"Is that why you're here?"
"Hell no, I'm a genius. But when you got no home, there's not really a place you can go to."
"You have no family either?"
"Just my brother, my parents died two years ago. Left us everything, but we can't touch it
till we get out of school. My dad was a
rich son of a bitch who was always working. We won't even go into my alcoholic mother who slept with anything that
was moving. What about your family?"
"I have no family." I state solemnly never taking his eyes
off the floor.
"Well, it's not all it's cracked up to be anyways. Living in a house with constant
fighting. Watching some random guy
sneak out the back door as you come down for breakfast in the morning. If you don't have a family, at least you can
imagine some caring people who for some reason or another lost you in some
way. Tragic if you think about it… the
son who was stolen away during the dead of night only to fall prey to the
onslaught of human reality. Such a
tragedy really. Do you imagine what
they would have been like if you did have a family?"
"No."
"Not even once?"
"Never."
"Damn. I would have
considered myself lucky to be able to not have known my parents. Then I could have made them these really
kick ass people in my imagination. But
at least I get a sweet amount of money out of the deal.
"Anyways, enough of this boring stuff…let's go see the
mobile suit hangers. I'm sure my
brother will be there right now. Maybe
he'll even let you sit in the cockpit!"
"Are you sure about me meeting him?"
"Of course! He's
super awesome! I'm sure you'll like
him, he's smart, dashing, and of course…all the ladies think he's a hunk. Plus he was the one who got the cool
name. Man, if I was named Trieze I'd
probably have all the chicks hanging on me also. Lucky guy."