~Rox POV~
My mind wanted to tell me that it meant something, 'It' being, Axel actually met up with me and we hung out like he said. But, I couldn't go down that way, I couldn't look at everything like they were signs, because in the end, it would just hurt me. I wasn't that stupid, I just needed to be myself, and let Axel make any and all moves. At the same time, I hate having to sit on the back burner, I like being the one to initiate everything.
Like our first kiss.
Sitting in his car, I kept my mouth shut, trying to prep myself emotionally and build my wall. I could pretend that I didn't care about him, after all, me being myself was what was going to get him to like me, not me bending over backwards for him. I wanted to 'mean' something to him, not just be a tool he used and threw away.
Then again, what if, after getting to know him better, I learned that he wasn't worthy. What if he thought the government was amazing? What if he thought kangaroos could jump backwards? Or... what if he thought grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were gross? No, that wouldn't be okay.
I looked over at him, seeing his bright red hair, the tattoos under his glowing green eyes, feeling my heart begin to race at just the sight of him. Shaking my head, I looked forward, telling myself 'no, he doesn't like grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches'. It was stupid, but effective, it became a mantra in my head.
We pulled up to a park, and I couldn't help it, I got excited.
Running into the jungle gym, I pretended for a moment I was in some parkour video, subtracting all the fancy flips and flawless pull-ups. So, I looked more like a distorted beaver attempting to collect things, but instead just bouncing off every object.
The ground was covered in wood chips, that looked more like brown sludge, but I was glad they were there. When I had jumped, I failed to look ahead and notice that there wasn't anything in front of me except ground. The wood chips dug into the heels of my palms, and my knees, but otherwise cushioned my fall.
"You okay?" The pb&j hater said.
Smiling, I rolled over and stood up, "Scars or it didn't happen."
He gave me a questionable look, opening his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by his own surprise. Beside Axel stood a tall metal swing set, and with little ease, I grabbed the legs and began to shimmy my way up to the top. Once at the top, I sat on the long bar, the chains connected to the dangling swing a foot or two away from me. There was enough room, and i'm pretty sure I ended up giving Axel a heart attack.
With one leg in front of me, and one leg behind me, I sat on the bar. After careful placement of my hands, i leaned forward. My whole body dropping off the pole, connected by only my hands, my shoulders were pulled tight, and when the strain began, I let go. Landing on my feet this time, I rolled my shoulders for a moment. I hadn't done that since I was in school, which was longer ago than i cared to admit.
Turning around I saw Axel's face, I couldn't help but laugh.
"What was that?" He questioned me.
"I don't know, a flip?" There probably was a name for it, something to specify the cause of death on a gymnasts death certificate, but I didn't know it.
"Aren't you worried you're going to hurt yourself?" Again, what was with the sandwich hater's questions?
"Why would I be worried?" I sat on the top of the swings again, prepared to do it another time. He was silent this time, and instead just stared at me. Landing on my feet, I looked up at him, "It takes, usually, a maximum of five years for the body to complete all five steps to repairing and healing a broken bone, but it'll feel all fixed after about six weeks. That's only if I get hurt though. It takes 1,700 psi to break a femur, but that varies from person to person, I'd be more likely to break my collar bone, which only needs about 7 pounds of pressure to break."
I took a seat on the swing and began to kick my feet gently, listening to the groaning of the metal chain as he held my weight. "It's fun," I summarized, "I'm not going to stop doing things I find fun, just because I 'might' get hurt." As I watched the sandwich hater, I couldn't continue to think of him as such, the Axel I was falling for was shining through again. I stopped kicking my feet, staring at the mud mascaraing as wood chips, "Getting hurt is a part of being alive... if I'm not going to risk anything, I might as well be dead..."
Axel stayed silent, his arms crossed as he continued to stare at me, like what I had said was a quadratic equation I intended him to solve.
It wasn't that complicated though, not that the quadratic formula was either, but it was simple Life. We're born, we live, we gamble our chances, and even though we're running on a timed clock, we try to get as much living done as soon as we can, as if it'll make our time seem longer. If we're just going to live safe, we might as well jump in a grave now.
It's like looking at the foods on a shelf in a convince store. Looking at the package it says it'll expire in 10 months, but that doesn't mean it needs to get thrown out right away. it has 10 months to fulfill its purpose, to be found by some grabby child and bought by their mother, only to be devoured in the car. But, it was food, it was going to disappear one way or another off this Earth, in it's known form, but the journey to that destination is the only thing that's important. We're born, knowing we're going to die, so why not have fun with the chance we've been given.
~Axel POV~
This kid is crazy.
I mean, he's going to hurt himself, and I'm not really in the mood to see this brat's crying face. I'm betting this brat is the kind of kid who cries when they're in pain, and he probably has a nose that just oozes snot in the process. Really not in the mood for that.
But, he didn't seem to care about getting hurt. Pain is a big fear for everyone, it's a fucking instinct, but he doesn't give a shit?
I mean, it is pretty fun to watch him do stupid things, like his little flip. It's also really dangerous too.
"Hey," He was being quiet for an awfully long time now, if he was going to slip into another one of those crying moods, I wasn't going to have it. "How about you climb to the top of that little steeple?" I pointed behind me at the jungle gym, the tallest point on the whole thing, and didn't say a word as I realized how fucking stupid I was.
The only way he could climb to the top was by scaling the side, and I was just thinking about how I didn't want him to get hurt... yet I just fucking asked him to do something that he would end up hurting himself doing.
You're fucking brilliant Axel.
Of course the kid didn't even question me, I watched as he ran to the mini amusement park, and he climbed it like he was born part monkey. A smile spread across my face, and I couldn't help it, it was definitely dangerous, but it was also definitely cool to watch. He made it look so easy too, at first at least. He got to the very top and smile back down at me, I should've known he would do it, and I should've known he would do it and not get hurt.
It was pretty cool though, knowing I could tell him to do something and he would do it, without fear or hesitation. Was that what it felt like to everyone around me who always did the same thing?
"Now you," he called down to me.
"Now me what?" If he thought I was climbing to the top, he was on serious drugs. He was looking around, but then pointed at the swings.
"Climb to the top."
"What?" I turned around to look at the hunk of metal, there was no way I was climbing that, "Hell no."
He slid off the steeple and landed on the ground, a little roughly, I thought the kid might have broken something, but he didn't even act hurt. Walking up to me, he pointed to the top again.
"Come on, you can do it."
His smile was the only reason I moved my feet, I walked to the legs of the swing, standing where he had before. Placing my hands on the cool metal, I noticed my arms were longer than this brat's, it wouldn't work the same way he shimmied up. Looking up I noticed how high it was. Even if I did climb up the legs, once I got to the top, I wouldn't be able to get my feet up on the top, and how the hell was I supposed to pull my whole upper body up onto the top bar? Not too mention, once I got up there, how the hell was I going to get down?
"No," I stepped away from the metal poles, walking back over to where the brat stood.
"Why not?"
What the hell was this kid's problem? I didn't want to fucking do it, it was as simple as that, I'm not stupid, I'm not going to go up there and get hurt and lie to myself that it's just a part of being alive. Because I can stay with my feet on the ground and feel just as alive as I would if I had climbed the stupid thing. Same as I can stay going to the same shitty college my father wants me to go to, and it'll still be a college. I can stay in the same shitty ass relationship with Larxene, because all other relationships will all just be exactly the same. What the hell was the point of risking things, there wasn't.
And I'm just a fucking coward in the end, who acts like the big tough guy but is too afraid to actually do anything that could physically harm me. I'm just the stuck up spoiled rich kid that always has to rebel against my father.
Looking at the blue eyes in front of me, I couldn't say any of that. It wasn't this kid's fault that I felt like this, and it wasn't his problem to try and fix.
"Come on," I started to walk away, "We should get back..."
The brat followed me without even pausing, running to the car like I hadn't just upset him and killed the 'carefree' mood that was going on. I'm not him, and I can't be like him.
By the time we got back to the bar, I expected it to pick up, but it hadn't. There was still barely anyone around, and it was interesting, because there was one vehicle in particular in the parking lot, and when the brat saw it he practically flew inside.
Sitting in the car, I thought about my options. I could go home, and deal with my faggot ass father, I could drive around, I could hit up my bitchy ass girlfriend, or I could stay and hang out with this kid.
It took me a few seconds to come up with an answer. Stepping out of the car, I took my time walking into the bar.
Looking straight ahead I saw the blond, he hadn't even changed into his uniform yet, but there he stood, serving alcohol to an old man. Roxas looked so carefree and happy, it was almost 100 times more intense than he was with me just now. Why was he suddenly so happy.
I took a seat at the bar, Roxas flashed me a smile and got me a soda and a shot of rum. Man, this kid knew me so well.
"Axel," the way he said my name sounded so different than I've ever heard it, in a good way, "This is my dad."
It took me a second to comprehend what he had just said. It never really occurred to me that Roxas had actual parents... I mean, we kind of talked about it once, but not really.
Looking to the side I saw a dirty blond man with black eyes, sipping off of a scotch.
As soon as it was gone, his father said, "Give me another," and it was right back to where it was before.
He sounded like a dick, way meaner than I'd ever been to Roxas, but he didn't even care. Neither of them did. They just continued on like it was nothing unusual.
"Hello," I finally said to the man. Roxas had introduced us, but we hadn't even acknowledged each other yet.
And all the man gave me was this weird nod with his head, but he didn't take his eyes off the wall of liquor in front of him. Cold shoulder much?
"Axel is my friend," the little blond started talking. "We've been hanging out a lot lately."
There was a silence, his father should have said something, should have acknowledged that something was said, but instead he just sat there and made a grunting noise.
Even though his father seemed like a distant ass motherfucker, Roxas never lost his smile. He looked like a child who had just caught Santa Clause.
In my pocket, my phone began to vibrate like crazy, I didn't have to take it out to know it was Larxene calling me.
Once it stopped, I gave in though. Pulling my phone out, seeing that I was right, and she quickly followed her call with a text. Of course she did.
She wanted me to come over, so we could 'hang out' with a winky face.
Of course she did.
Looking back up, I noticed the small flash of disappointment that graced the blond's face. It was like he just knew that my phone going off meant that I was going to leave. Well, it didn't. I'd seen that bitch already, I wasn't ready for another dose of her psychotic ass, I was good right where I was sitting.
And curiosity was also asking me to stay, I wanted to know more about Roxas' dad, about his parents that I never even thought about him having.
.
.
So... this wasn't intended to take as long as it did...
I haven't had internet, because of bullshit reasons...
Soo... Today is Wednesday... I've no idea how soon I'll upload again, I'm just so out of routine that it's just a headache.
Thanks for the reviews, they really mean a lot.
Thanks for the favorites, alerts, and follows too.
Uploaded: March 29th, 2017