Far Behind

Chapter 4: Dazed and Confused

The sun had rose into the sky and Tori was wide awake to start the new day. She had finished cleaning up and getting dressed and had exited her dorm. She pushed back her soft blonde hair and put it up into a pony tail. She smiled, excited that today was the day she would be able to see her old friends again. It was Saturday and a three-day weekend for all the students on the college campus, giving her plenty of time to spend with them. She slowly made her way down the stairs and out of the building and looked at her watch. She had a few more minutes to do things before she had to go to the visitor center, so she decided to take a walk. The cool air was blowing by as she walked along a pathway, keeping her eyes out for anyone. A few minutes had past and she spotted someone laying in the middle of the campus field. She squinted to get a better look and recognized the chestnut curly hair from the distant. She stepped onto the grass and towards Dustin who was still sleeping silently.

"Dustin?" Tori checked if he was awake.

There was no response and Tori crept a bit closer. She bent down on the grass near his head and tapped his shoulder. A soft groaned came from the child of earth as he scratched his messy hair and turned over to go back to sleep. Tori rolled her eyes and plot herself fully on the ground and began to shake him violently. The former yellow ranger groaned loudly and pushed her away, trying to go back to sleep. Tori chuckled and kept on doing it, till Dustin got up and pushed her away. She fell back on the grass, a bit shocked at what he did. He glared at her and rubbed his eyes, yawning. Tori sat back up and looked at Dustin. She could tell he looked terrible, his pale face and tiredness in his eyes.

"Hey Dustin.." Tori trailed off.

Dustin sat up and ran his hands through his dirty hair. He looked at her and forced a smile, crawling over and sitting next to her. The innocent blonde sat there and starred at him, thinking about what Shane had said yesterday.

"Tori. I didn't expect you to be here." He faintly laughed.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be sleeping in the grass. Did you ever go back to the dorm?" She responded.

He nodded and yawned, "Yeah. Shane and I got into a fight so I just came out here. Guess I lost track of time."

"You look really tired." Tori said with sweet concern.

Dustin softly laughed, looking down at the grass. He sighed and closed his eyes as Tori pulled her knees close and placed her head on top of them, waiting for a reply. She watched as his best friend tore some grass and threw them in the air. The grass began to dance with the wind as it swirled around, before falling to the ground again.

"You know Tori, I thought I could make sense of everything but I guess I can't." He whispered.

Tori raised her eyebrows, a bit confused. She moved over and pulled Dustin in for a hug, sighing deeply. She didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't want to bombard her friend with questions. Knowing something was wrong, she wanted to be there for him. Dustin broke away and pushed himself up, stumbling a bit. He pulled Tori up and she brushed the grass and dirt off her light blue pants.

"Hunter and the others are coming soon. Do you want to.."

Dustin interuptted her before she could finish, "I got a lot of home work to do. I can't get kicked out, my mom's going to kill me or something."

"Since when did you start caring?"

"When I realized I'm fucking up." He snapped back and stormed off.

Tori watched as he made his way towards a building. She sighed, sticking her hands in her pocket and looking over to see Shane walking towards her. She turned to face her other good friend, noticing his bright red T-Shirt. He smiled at her, but all she could give back was a concern and hurt look on her face.

"Dustin.." She trailed off.

"Look, we'll worry about it later. Cam and the others had arrived. There at the Visitor Center." He informed her.

Tori nodded and they walked across the campus and towards a small building. They entered a lobby where three familiar men were standing around and chatting. She was able to spot them from the crimson, green and navy shirts. Tori gasped as she ran towards them.

"Hunter! Blake! Cam!" She exclaimed.

She grabbed each one of them and pulled them into a hug. Tori had missed all three of them dearly, ever since she had departed to college. Blake had gone with Factory Blue, Cam and Hunter had taken over as Sensei at their respected academies. It just felt so good to see them again. Shane made his way towards them with a huge grin on his face. Hunter smiled and waved to him.

"Dude, it's been a while."

Shane nodded, "Heck yeah man. So good to see you."

"It's good to see all of you." Blake added.

Cam adjusted his glasses and light-heartily laughed, "It wasn't easy getting here."

Tori brushed back her long bangs and glanced at Blake. The navy ranger smiled at her, revealing his pearly white teeth.

"What happened?" She asked.

Hunter bursted out laughing, which Tori always loved to hear. She preferred the happier and fun Hunter then the dark and brooding one. She waited eagerly for one of the boys to tell fill her in on what's so funny.

"Well the problem wasn't getting here. We just got side tracked." Cam glanced at Blake.

Blake rolled his eyes and walked over to a chair and sat down, fixing his navy button shirt. Shane and Tori glanced at him before looking back at Cam, letting him explain further.

"We went to a rest stop and got out I decided to move my car while they were at the bathroom. So this same exact car pulls up where I was parking and Blake comes walking out and gets in the back and the freaking car drives off with him."

Tori bursted out laughing, "Wait what?"

"Apparently Blake closed his eyes and laid in the back, so the women didn't see him." Hunter added.

Shane walked over to Blake and crossed his arm, "So what happened while you were in the car?"

"The women realized I was in there and started to hit me with her damn purse. She then kicked me out and I had to walk all the way back the rest stop."

"Yeah, we searched an hour and a half for him. If it wasn't for him, we be here a lot earlier." Cam smirked.

"Don't forget you took the wrong turn Cam." Blake pointed out.

Hunter stretched his arms out and yawned, closing his eyes. He rubbed his neck and opened his eyes back up to see Dustin standing at the door. His eyes widen as he looked at his friend. Dustin stood there, he had a glazed look in his eyes and a small grin on his face. His hair was a little bit neater from this morning and it looked like had cleaned up a bit.

"Hey..Dustin.."

The others all turned and also noticed him standing there. Shane and Tori exchanged worried looks as Blake stood up and ran over to his friend to give him a high five and a hug.

"Dude Dustin! What's going on?" Blake exclaimed.

The yellow ranger shrugged, following him over to the others with a smile on his face. He nodded his head as he looked at everyone and then chuckled.

"Hey, it's so nice to see everyone again." He finally spoke up in a mellow voice.

Hunter and Cam exchanged looks and smiled as everyone began to catch up on old times. Tori and Shane decided to put any suspicion or worries aside as they joined in on the chatting. They walked around the campus for the whole day, talking about how much they missed being power rangers and what they have been up to. Dustin was a little wired as ususal, as he gave himself a little bit of a boost with a needle and his favorite substance before he had showed up.

"Dude!" He shouted as he ran around them in circles and started to pull of his marital arts move, "I'm so pumped. I can take on an army of kelzaks. Or even Lothor!"

Blake blinked for a couple of seconds, scratching his dark gelled hair, "Um Dustin. Lothor's gone remember?"

Dustin laughed as he twirled his body around and crashed onto the ground, turning himself to look up at the sky, "Oh yeah..how could I forget."

Everyone but Shane laughed at him as they walked over and sat down next to the fallen goof ball. They got in a circle and let the sun warm their backs as they continued their normal conversation. Hunter ran his hands through his dirty soft blonde hair before snapping his fingers.

"Hey Dustin. I have been meaning to ask you. When your dad races, doesn't he.."

"Hunter." Shane interuptted.

The mentioning of his father, shut every good emotion down. His head was still pounding and the sensational rush was still there but the depression canceled it all out and all he felt was a big headache and pain in his stomach. He stood up quickly and turned to walk away, increasing his pace. He felt sick, as he tried to make his way to the building. His body was sweating, the effects of the heroine was getting to the point where he was losing all control of his body. Where he was tripping out, as his mind surged with different thoughts and his body shuffled through all kinds of emotion. Hunter looked at everyone, unsure of what he said. Everyone exchanged looks, everyone surprised but Shane.

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked.

Shane shook his head, "No. It's not your fault." He explained, "Um, Dustin's father died a few days ago."

Tori gasped, "What? Are you serious?"

Hunter was speechless. He couldn't even push the word 'Oh' out of his mouth. Blake and Cam looked down at the ground, the bad news even bummed them out.

"I'm sorry." Hunter finally spoke.

"That must be hard." Cam added.

Shane sighed and nodded, "The funeral is tomorrow. His mom called and left a message on the answer machine in the dorm room. All I know is, Dustin's been acting a bit weird lately. I think he's taking this really hard."

Tori turned to Shane, "I guess your right. He looks so tired and pale. He just doesn't seam to be the full energy kid he use to be."

"He seamed fine a few minutes ago." Blake pointed out.

"Yeah. That's what's weird. He's down one minute or he's really hyper and freaking out the next." Tori tried to make sense of it all.

"All I'm saying is. Keep an eye on him. He's doing something and I can't put my finger on it." Shane spoke.

Dustin made his way back to his dorm. He closed the door and walked through the messy room and towards his bed. He noticed 3 messages on the answering machine. He pressed the button and jumped onto his bed and listened closely.

Saturday, June 25th 9:08 AM.

Hey Waldo, it's your mother. You're probably at your classes or doing something college related. I hope your learning a lot, and taking the courses serious. It's not like High School, remember. This university did cost a lot of money.

"God, shut up." Dustin groaned.

Anyways, the funeral for your father will be held tomorrow at the church on Carvi Street. Um, I don't know else to tell you..Dustin.. I hope your doing okay. This must be very hard.

Dustin mumbled. "Why isn't this hard for you?"

I'll see at the church. John will be there. I love you.

"...My stepfather.."

Dustin rolled on his back and starred back at the ceiling. He seamed to be doing that a lot. He figured he should hang a picture up there to look at or something. The message ended and then it started up the second one.

Saturday June 25th, 11:23 Am.

Hey Dustin, it's Kelly. I would like to talk to you about your motocrossing decision. Please reconsider, everyone is counting on you. Especially me. We've worked so hard to get where we are. Are you honestly telling me, that you are willing to throw it away. Call me back, bye.

Dustin groaned, rubbing his hands down his face. Kelly was still bugging him about motocross, pressuring him into coming back. He loved motocross, but he just didn't seam to have time for it. He didn't think he would make it to the nationals anyway. He never had too much confidant in himself, even though it seamed he did. The last and final message played.

Saturday June 25th 12:03 P.M

Shane! Dustin! It's Marah. How are you two doing? I hope everything is all right. I have great news for the both of you. I'm engaged. Isn't that wonderful? His name is Ryan and he's such a good guy. I'll send you the invitations to our wedding, I really hope you guys can come. And Dustin. I know, we ended up our relation ship on bad terms, but can you just put it aside and come too? I miss talking to you. I wish you would return my calls. Hope to hear from you soon.

Dustin groaned and turned over to try to drift to sleep. He had pushed the whole Marah issued out of his head, hoping to never hear from her again. He never told his friends the real truth on why he broke up with her, and quite frankly, he didn't care. He didn't care about anything at this point. Like an average teenager once said, "Life just sucks".

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