I'd never admit it out loud, but Axel was starting to grow on me. Barely. A microscopic amount, maybe, if I had to make an estimate. When he wasn't being a douche canoe, he was actually sort of okay. Then again, when wasn't he being a douche canoe? Not very often. Still, he intrigued me for a couple of reasons but the main reason? I knew he had a story to tell, and he wasn't sharing anytime soon.
Kairi and Sora are always saying that my curiosity will be the end of me. They're probably right but that's never stopped me before and it wasn't going to stop me when it came to this. I was determined to find out about him, make sure he didn't find out a lot about me, and solve the mystery once and for all. And thus began my investigation.
"Kairi, I need your help." I let myself into her room and seated myself on her bed. Her bed is simultaneously the girliest and most comfortable bed I've ever seen. Three words: lavender. Silk. Sheets. She didn't seem to mind that I just barged in given she was at her vanity and applying makeup.
"With what?" I didn't stay on her bed for long after that. Getting up, I moved in behind her and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
"Your eyeliner's smudged." Kairi blinked and squinted at herself.
"Dang." With that said she immediately grabbed a makeup wipe to start over. "Anyway, what did you need my help for?"
"So. You're sneaky, cunning, tactful, and know exactly how to get people to talk, right?"
"Hey!"
"No trust me, it's a good thing this time. Anyway, I need you to teach me how to do that and shit, your eyeliner's still not working out." Gently batting her hands away, I snatched the liner pencil from her hand and began applying it for her. I was done within seconds and after I let go of her face, she kind of glared at me and shook her head.
"Thanks," she said flatly and pulled out a tube of mascara. "Do you trust me to put this on by myself? …Roxas?"
"Hmm?" I looked up from the eyeliner in my hand. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
"About?"
"If this color would work for me. You know, for whenever our next real show is." I'm pretty sure I didn't need to explain myself to her and I'm not sure why I was embarrassed. Kairi knows I've worn stage makeup before, but it's not really something we talk about. She tilted her head and examined my face for a second, grabbing the pencil back.
"Close your eyes." She hardly waited before she went to work. "Anyway, why do you need my help to be cunning and sneaky and all that other stuff you decided I was?"
"Because I want to find out more about Axel." I could almost audibly hear the gears turning in her head and I shifted in place.
"Stop squirming or I'm going to end up stabbing you. And you want to find out about whom?"
"You heard me."
"I know. That's why I'm a little afraid. You can open your eyes now." I opened my eyes and glanced in the mirror. "I think it looks better on you than it does on me. I'd offer to do your mascara for you, but your lashes are so long anyway." She almost sounded disappointed, but I couldn't let that distract us.
"Maybe later. I seriously need your help with Axel because he won't tell me anything and I-"
"Need to stop being suspicious and not pry into his life?"
"Yeah, exactly. Wait, no!" I backtracked as Kairi started giggling at me. More often than not I feel like a lot of my life is made up of me saying stupid things and Kairi laughing at me instead of helping. You'd think I'd remember that before asking for her help, but maybe I'm just a sucker for her. "Kairi, I just want to know his story!"
"Did you ask him about it?" She reached into a drawer of her vanity and came up with a tube of lip gloss.
"Of course I asked him. He told me no."
"Well then obviously he doesn't want to share." There was a brief pause before she turned around and grabbed my face to dab some gloss on my lips.
"No sticky stuff!"
"Just testing." The innocent smile didn't fool me at all and I headed back to her bed, sprawling out as she headed into her walk-in closet with her work uniform in hand. It was Saturday; it had only been a few days since the detention incident but it was the first time I'd had enough time to try and bring it up. This wasn't exactly working in my favor though.
"Test on somebody else, like Sora. You know he'll say yes to anything you ask."
"So will you. And you're closer." Even though I could no longer see her, the tone was pretty straightforward. Even she knew we were both suckers.
"Whatever. Anyway, obviously Axel doesn't want to share, but that's why I'm enlisting you to help me make him crack."
"Roxas. I love you. I support you. But I'm not going to help you. First of all, it's none of our business, second of all, he must have a good reason for not wanting to tell us and third, I don't feel like it." She finally came back dressed in her uniform and gave me a skeptical look. "Face it, you're on your own."
"What the hell." I rolled over onto my stomach and looked at her. "No help at all?"
"Nope. I'm hoping it will discourage you for the time being."
"…and you're my best friend…why?"
"Because I'm the coolest person you know." Her focus was on strapping her black-heeled sandals around her ankles. The silence between us said enough about that statement. "What are you going do while I'm at work?"
"Please. It's not like I don't have a life that doesn't involve you." She gave me another skeptical look that said she clearly didn't believe me and that was all it took. "…okay, so I was gonna call Demyx and ask if he wanted to come over for practice. I wrote a new song that I want them to hear."
"For your bet?" She had moved on to rummage through her dresser even as she kept the topic casual. She already knew about the bet Sora, Demyx, and I made against each other. I told her the day after it happened and she's been following along with both sides. Not that she should ever take a side that isn't my own, but there's pretty much nothing that remains sacred in our friendship. It's just the way things have always been. She knows all of my secrets, I know all of hers, and although sometimes it sucks…
…yeah, I don't have a follow up. Sometimes it sucks.
"Yeah, for the bet. I'm hoping so at least since it's the best I could come up with so far." I finally sat up again and watched her triumphantly hold up a white tie, beginning to loop it around her neck.
"So do I get to hear this song?"
"Do you really want to?"
"Of course I do."
"But…I don't have any music or my guitar or-" She sent me another flat look and tapped her foot against the ground.
"Stop stalling. I know you can sing without a beat, you've done it plenty of times."
"But-"
"Roxas…please?"
"Ugh, fine. Just stop looking at me like that," I muttered and racked my brain for the right pitch. I opened my mouth but closed it upon having a different thought. "Promise you won't laugh?"
"Now why would I do that? You know that if I wanted to laugh I'd wait until you were gone." She finally managed to get her tie on straight and gave me her full undivided attention. "Come on. I gotta leave really soon and you're driving me there."
"Fine, fine, fine." I couldn't keep stalling because she had a point, but eventually the words came out. "I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold, I don't want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul, you're the one I wanna chase, you're the one I wanna hold, I won't let another minute go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul…" I stopped singing and looked at Kairi, only to find her with a look of approval on her face.
"…Roxas, that's cute! It's different than your other stuff. I like it though!" And as much as I appreciated the feedback, I still wasn't satisfied. I couldn't tell her that though. Kairi's been one of our biggest supporters since we started the band and she'd just tell me the same thing she always tells me.
'Roxas, you're being way too critical.'
If I didn't argue, I couldn't give her the chance to say that.
"Thanks," I said, and what else could I do? I didn't have a follow-up that would make her happy and instead I shrugged and rolled off of her bed for the last time. "Anyway, let's get going. You have work and I have a song to figure out."
There wasn't any argument and the drive over to Noon Moon was pretty uneventful. By the time I dropped Kairi off for her shift and drove back to my own house I came to two realizations. One, Demyx was already at my house and two, he was parked in my driveway. Mine! I've told him countless times to park on the curb so that I could park in the driveway, but no, he still doesn't listen to me. Instead, I ended up parking on the curb and ran into my house, racing up to my room without stopping and kicking the door open.
"How many times have I told you to not park in my driveway?" Demyx merely blinked at me and shifted the guitar in his hands, ignoring the fact I was glaring and pointing a lot.
"Lots? Look, sorry, but you weren't here and I took what was available." It was about the kind of apology I expected, but given I wasn't that mad it was good enough. I couldn't help but glance around the room, curious to why Sora wasn't busy defending Demyx.
He wasn't even in the room. That was probably a good excuse.
"Where's Sora?" I changed the subject as I picked up my bass from the corner of the room, noticing Sora's drum pad at my desk.
"Downstairs grabbing sodas and stuff."
"Actually, I'm right here." Sora appeared in the doorway not long after, carrying an armload of chips and cookies.
"I thought you were grabbing sodas?" He shrugged before he dropped all of the junk food on my bed.
"I was, but Axel decided to grab them since I didn't have enough hands."
"Wait, what?" I immediately asked, whipping around and looking at the door just as the redhead came in carrying four sodas. He sent me a cheeky grin and set three of the sodas down on my desk a safe distance from Sora's drums.
"Hey, what's up?" he greeted me, making himself comfortable on my bed amongst the Oreos and Cheetos.
"I…you…what are you doing here?" I finally managed to spit out. I at least had enough tact not to say "why are you in my house."
"Demyx brought me along."
"Yeah, I didn't think you'd mind, Rox," Demyx jumped in, looking up from his guitar.
'Then again, Myx, you usually don't think at all.'
Maybe it wasn't entirely Demyx's fault, but it was also kind of Demyx's fault. All I could do was force my expression back into its usual cool façade and shrug my shoulders.
"Sure. Whatever," I mumbled, trying not to let on the fact that I was irritated. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sora giving me a suspicious glance but I ignored him in favor of my bass. "Anyway, let's get started. Dem, do we have any new gigs in the nearby future?"
"Nope, but I wanted to talk to you about that. I think we should just focus on Battle of the Bands and forget about all gigs until next summer. That way, we'll have somewhat of an advantage to the other bands." He joined Axel on my bed with his guitar in his lap, tuning it a bit as he went.
"I do and don't agree with that,." Sora settled into my desk chair, a cookie dangling from his mouth as he drew the drum pad to his lap. "We shouldn't put our primary focus on shows, but I don't think we should go dark to the public either. That's not going to help us at the battle either."
"You guys have your own battle?" Axel, who was attempting to open a bag of chips, sounded more interested than usual.
"Yeah, every year! We've been trying to enter for the past two years but we always end up either not making the cut or just not being able to enter. Point being, we're gonna get in this year and we're gonna win something!" I only wished I felt as confident as Demyx sounded about the whole thing.
"We're not going to win anything if we don't start getting our act together." It was a little awkward the way the others stared at me the moment I cut in. "C'mon guys, look at us! We're sitting on our asses talking about how we'll wipe the floor with everybody, and yet, we're not making an effort to do anything about it." I couldn't help that I was ranting. I'm used to ranting.
…okay, I lied. I never rant. In fact, I couldn't care less if we didn't get any work done until the week before the battle because I knew that we'd be able to pull it together. I knew I was ranting to make myself sound more important. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that I was doing just the opposite. If Axel wasn't in the room I wouldn't have had to make it sound like we were professionals and I wouldn't have to prove we were. This is why practices should be closed! The others would never agree with me, and judging by Sora's expression he would have been the first to disagree.
"Okay Roxas, let's lay off the coffee for a while. But sure. We'll get to work. You told me this morning that you had a new song to show us, didn't you?"
This was about the point that my words came back to bite me in the ass. My eyes darted around the room briefly and landed on Axel. Somehow he was staring at me again and while it was unnerving, I didn't want to linger on that for very long. Instead, I had a brand new problem to deal with.
There was no way I was going to sing my attempt at a love song in front of him. I just couldn't. I had enough trouble trying in front of Kairi. It didn't make sense to try and debut it in front of a practical stranger. I'd like to think that I'm smart and witty enough to come up with a plan B, but I can fully admit I've just gotten good at saving my own skin when I need to. Without any tells, I nodded and walked closer to my desk.
"Yeah, I did. Give me a second to find the finished draft." It gave me enough time to grab my music folder and flip through until I found three sheets of paper. I'd written the sheet music for another new song I wrote about the time I was working on the song I sang for Kairi. Sora and Demyx wouldn't know the wiser. I handed them their sheets and set mine on the floor, waiting for a few moments for them to read over the music and learn it a bit. The one thing I'm grateful for is that my friends are fast learners when it comes to this stuff. I must have been staring for too long though because Demyx suddenly raised an eyebrow and gestured to me.
"What are you looking at me for? It's your start," he informed me, pointing down at my own paper on the floor.
So it was.
"Oh, right. Um." I ended up shifting my bass that suddenly felt too big for me to be holding. Looking back at my bed, I caught Axel's eye again. No matter where I looked it felt like he was watching me. I normally didn't have a problem with distractions during practices, but having him here and in my personal space was a little more than I bargained for. I knew my bandmates were waiting on me and I knew Axel was going to watch no matter what. In the end, all I could do was start playing a low, slower chord knowing Demyx would start playing even after I started to sing.
"Hello again, this scene should end before it begins. You missed your mark, toyed with my heart, and pressed restart. Now that you're here we're shifting gears and breaking rules. You thought you knew what I would do, but you're confused. You're chasing my love, a spark of fire…it's meant for you, but out of reach…it's out of range, it's so strange…"
The musical interlude gave me enough of a break to focus on Sora's drums filtering into one ear and Demyx's guitar in the other. I looked at my fingers solely so I wouldn't have to look at Axel, playing the notes that I'd practiced by myself until the next set of lyrics rolled around.
"Give me some space, you know this isn't a race, so let's change the pace. Got nothing to lose, so give me some proof you won't be a waste. Now that you're here we're shifting gears and breaking rules. You thought you knew what I would do, but I refuse. You're chasing my love, a spark of fire…it's meant for you, but out of reach…it's out of range…it's a dangerous trick, a game of chance, it won't be long to break the trance, and move away, away and up and out of range…it's so strange…
It was only during the last few lines of music that I dared to look up, fully expecting Axel's attention to still be on me. To my surprise, it was actually on Demyx. And then it shifted to Sora. He was watching their hands and their expressions, absorbing what he was hearing and paying attention to the music itself. I couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself for that, but as the song ended his eyes wandered back to me even when I turned to face my friends.
"So yeah, that's my latest." Even after I said it and even after we played it, Sora seemed perplexed.
"I dunno, Rox, that doesn't sound like a love song to me."
"It's not."
"I thought you said that it was?"
"Not exactly."
"Well whatever it is, it's good," Axel finally spoke up, stopping Sora and I from arguing any further and causing both of us to look at him.
"…really?" Like I said, I'm a little overly critical. I'm not even sure why I felt like Axel's opinion had any weight at all. Maybe it was because we didn't really know each other but something about someone else liking my music held a little more weight than Kairi's usual praise. That alone was even more confusing and a little frustrating.
"Really," Demyx took over. "I agree with Ax, it's a cool song. But I also agree with Sora that it's not a love song. It's like, a hate song or something."
"I'd like to see you do better." I set my bass on the floor.
"We're just saying that maybe you should focus more on writing that love song instead of…you know. Your usual stuff." He didn't mean it as an insult, but Sora's lack of tact wasn't exactly helpful. In the end he set his drum pad aside and stood up. "I want ice cream. Anybody else?"
"Ditto." Demyx set his guitar down next to mine and followed my cousin out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Axel and I alone and surrounded by snacks that were soon abandoned. Without looking up I could tell that he was watching me again as I slowly crossed the room, replacing the music sheets into my folder. It was silent as I stood at my desk, back toward him and only a few feet away from the foot of my bed. I heard him shift to turn and look at me but didn't say anything as I continued occupying myself, starting to organize my music by date of creation.
I was definitely keeping myself busy so I didn't have to talk to him, but I didn't have anything to say anyway. It was my room, my house, and my space. I shouldn't have had to say anything at all. Too bad it didn't work for too long.
"I didn't peg you to be one with a good voice," he started out, shifting again to get more comfortable.
"Yeah. Surprise?" I shrugged and kept my back to him.
"You guys are better than I expected. I wasn't sure what Demyx really meant when he told me about you."
"Like I said, we've been together for three years. It comes from practice, I guess."
"Can you just take a compliment from me without countering it?" To no one's surprise, that was what finally made me turn to face him even with my folder still in hand.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're being picky with what I can and can't say to you." There was an obvious "duh" tacked on at the end even if he didn't outright say so. Setting the folder down I took a seat at my desk and turned to continue facing him.
"…remind me why you're here?"
"I tried telling you that you couldn't avoid destiny, Roxas, but did you listen to me? No." He tucked a piece of loose hair behind his ear, but the smirk was fairly obvious, too.
"I mean, I didn't listen to you because you sound kinda crazy. So really, why are you here?"
"I told you," he started to say.
"No more of that destiny crap!" I cut him off. He gave me a flat stare.
"Actually, I was going to say because Demyx brought me with him."
Oh yeah. Oops.
"…any reason why?" I asked in a futile effort to make myself stop looking like an ass.
"He needs a reason to bring me with him?"
Apparently making myself stop looking like an ass was a very futile effort.
"No, that's not what I meant."
"So what exactly did you mean?" There was something in his tone that wasn't sitting well with me and as he started to glare I continued trying to shrink back.
"I-I just meant that…I mean…why…" I couldn't even finish a sentence because it dawned on me just how much of a height advantage Axel had on me, not to mention how he looked when he seemed to be kind of pissed. It wasn't a picture I liked and I realized that I was in trouble the moment he stood up and took a few steps toward me.
"You wanna know why I'd sit through your practice?" It was a low tone, unsettling almost. There wasn't that much of a space between us to begin with but he closed it in a few strides.
"Uh…"
"It's because…" He stopped talking and stood right in front of me so that my nose practically bumped into his chest, especially since I was still sitting.
"B-because?" Stuttering isn't usually a thing I do, but there are some cases it happens. Like this. This was a good case.
"Because…I was curious to see how you guys sounded." He grinned and stepped away, dropping the act while I stood there with a slightly dropped jaw and a dumbfounded look on my face. "Plus, it's always fun to psych you out."
I couldn't believe that I fell for that. So of course, I did what came natural.
"You didn't psych me out," I immediately denied. It didn't take a genius to know he didn't believe a word I said.
"Uh-huh, okay. You keep telling yourself that." He opened his mouth to say something else (probably to tease me again) when Demyx's voice rang out from downstairs.
"Axel, let's go! I have to get to work iand/i take you home now!" Axel moved away from me and grabbed Demyx's guitar from off of the floor, giving me one last look.
"Hey Roxas?"
"Yeah?"
"Nice eyeliner. Off-black's definitely your color." He grinned widely, making a show of opening my bedroom door and waltzing out into the hallway. I gave him a blank stare for a few moments, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about when I reached up and wiped at my eyelid, looking down at the small smear of black on my fingers.
I'm not sure if Axel took my total silence as confusion or embarrassment, but he didn't seem to mind either way. Instead, he gave me a two-finger salute and twirled on the ball of his foot to exit my room.
"Until destiny makes us meet again!" And with that he was gone.
I didn't move for a while after that, listening to the commotion downstairs as the front door opened and closed. Looking out the window that was above my bed, I watched as Demyx's car drove out of our driveway and disappeared out of sight. Even after they were both long gone, I continued to stare out the window, puzzled by what had just happened and mildly embarrassed that I let it happen.
"See anything interesting?" Sora's voice caught my attention and my gaze jerked away from the outside world. He stood leaning against the doorframe, a bowl of ice cream in his hand and spoon spinning against the rim slightly.
"No…not really." I shrugged, unsure of how else to answer as I dropped myself on my bed. Sora took a few bites of his ice cream slowly, seemingly pondering his next words. I wasn't in any real hurry to hear them though; it wasn't like I was going to leave anytime soon.
"So," he started off after that long pause.
"…so?"
"Axel seemed pretty interested in you today." Sora's never been great at being subtle but sometimes it's like he's not even trying at all.
"Yeah, he's a weird kid with a staring problem. What do you want me to do about it?"
"It was just a comment."
"Yeah, but you're trying to imply something, aren't you?"
That was about the point he lost his patience with me. It happens a lot for both of us. "Okay look, if you're going to be offended by something stupid, I'm gonna go downstairs, put this bowl in the sink, and go to Riku's. Have fun sulking." Pushing himself away from the door, he used his free hand to grab the doorknob and shut the door behind him. Even as I heard his footsteps fade I half-expected him to come back.
"I'm not sulking," I said to no one in particular, and it was then I realized I was finally alone. I like when things are quiet. I like when I can hear myself think. But I can't say I always like my own thoughts, and this was one of those times.
I wasn't sure why, but Axel kept worming his way into my thoughts once every thirty seconds or so. Just kidding, I don't know how often it was, but it felt like it was that often. Was that normal? I was pretty sure it wasn't. I kept wondering why he was looking at me like that and if that red really was his natural hair color. I also kept finding myself asking why he was convinced that our meeting everywhere was destiny.
Who knew? Maybe it really was destiny trying to push us together. Maybe we really were supposed to meet and become…friends. Maybe we were just bound to find each other.
Oh yeah, and maybe there really was a chance that I'd sprout wings and fly away.
I don't tend to believe in all of this supernatural stuff like fate and destiny. If it happens, it happens just because. There is no higher power controlling every move that I make. There's no one I answer to but myself, and there's no one who created me for a greater purpose I don't know about. The idea sounded kind of scary, like being a pawn in somebody else's game of chess. But whose pawn would I be?
…ugh. I've never been really good at this philosophical stuff. That's more Kairi's department. Hell, that's even more Axel's department than mine. But what can you expect? Not much, I can tell you that. But maybe if I were a bit more philosophically inclined, I'd have an answer to what to do about Axel and how to get my brain to stop thinking about him.
Maybe I should have just settled for figuring out a way to stop my thought process all together. That would have saved all of us a bunch of trouble.
Lucky for me, the rest of the weekend went by without any more incidents like Saturday's. Monday rolled around and everything seemed to be normal…or about as normal as normal could get. The only difference was that Axel was suddenly everywhere. He'd decided that it would be okay to join us on our side of the room during our Government class, lunch, and art, acting like he was our friend.
Then again, everybody else was acting like he was our friend too.
I think that was about the time I clued in and realized that maybe I was being a bit unfair about the whole Axel thing. It's not like he really did anything to me in the first place.
"Hey, Shortstack."
…other than make fun of me every chance he could. I guess what I should be saying is that he didn't really do anything to me when everybody else was around. But when we were by ourselves? That was a whole other story.
Sixth period was slowly becoming my least favorite class, especially when you added Mr. Teitzel to the mix. The guy should have retired years ago, but there wasn't much I could do about that. Instead, since everyone else was trying to befriend Axel and bring him into our group, it was probably time I tried the same since it was something I could control myself.
"Um…hi." I never said that my efforts were igood./i Axel didn't seem to mind though and he settled into his desk, flashing another grin as he leaned his arms on my desk instead.
"No makeup today?"
"Fuck you."
"Can I?"
That certainly threw me off. I couldn't help it when my head snapped up and I looked over at him, certain that I had the weirdest look on my face by that point.
"What?"
A beat. Two beats. And then: "Just kidding."
"I swear to god—"
"Relax, Roxas. You're not exactly my type for that sort of thing, you know? I'd probably break you in half."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
Well duh I heard him. I was just about ready to ask him about it again when Teitzel walked into the room, beginning to already lecture us about…something to do with Pip's characterization in Great Expectations. I had a feeling we were going to be studying this book for a while and truthfully I couldn't care less even though I should have been paying attention. Instead, my eyes kept drifting over to Axel, almost like they had a mind of their own. Despite the fact that Teitzel was pacing the room and lecturing us, all I heard was Axel's voice with his stupid sexual innuendo echoing in my brain.
"Mr. Mihara, do you think you could help us out here?" Teitzel was suddenly in front of my desk, looking down at me.
Talk about cliché timing. I looked up from my desk and stared at Teitzel, unsure of what to say. First of all, I went completely blank because he put me on the spot like that and secondly, I didn't even know what we were talking about in the first place. I knew I had to answer though if Teitzel's death glare was any indication. My best bet was to say the first thing I thought of.
"Green!" I blurted out. Teitzel raised an eyebrow as a few giggles arose.
"Pip was fascinated with Miss Havisham and Estella because they were green?" he repeated, raising the other eyebrow.
In retrospect, saying the first thing I thought of wasn't such a smart idea. There wasn't any way to make green fit into any sort of context that made sense and I found myself trying to come up with a better answer. Turns out I didn't have to though.
"I think what he meant, Mr. T, was that Miss Havisham and Estella were rich, i.e. green," Axel quickly covered for me, looking over out of the corner of his green eyes.
…maybe green made more sense in that context, at least. Even though I had just gotten busted for not paying attention, I found myself staring at Axel even as Teitzel accepted that answer and moved on, leaving me alone and continuing his lecture. I'm pretty sure that he thought it was some young hip teenage slang he wasn't up on, but I wasn't going to be the one to tell him otherwise.
"You could say you're welcome," Axel muttered out of the corner of his mouth. My eyes drifted back to my own desk instead.
"How about we settle for I hate you less?"
"That works." He shrugged and that was that. I was determined to ask him a few questions after class, but as soon as the bell rang Axel shot out of the classroom before I could even close my binder.
You can bet that added to my suspicions about him. What was he trying to hide? Did he have some sort of split personality? A double life? And goddamnit, why did he have to look so good in those jeans?
…so maybe that wasn't one of my original questions, but inquiring minds needed to know. I was determined for answers no matter how hard I had to try and how much of an ass I had to make of myself.
I'll tell you this right now; I 100% made myself look like an ass on multiple occasions.
About an hour after school found me at my computer, browsing through my email and half-listening to Kairi on the phone.
"So what's new?" I asked her, knowing she probably didn't have a reason to be calling.
"Nothing really, working on homework. Although I think when I hang up with you, I'm gonna call Selphie and see if she wants to go do something. Oh by the way, I gave Axel your phone number and oh my gosh, my mom bought more strawberry ice cream!" She all but squealed. That I caught though, despite how much I was tuning her out.
"What?"
"I know, that's what I said! She told me that she wasn't buying me any more!" All I heard was the sound of her opening and closing the freezer and not the sound of her explaining that bomb she just dropped on me.
"No, not that! You gave Axel my number?"
"Oh, yeah, that. Sure did."
"Why!"
"Because he asked me for it?" I was slowly getting used to people with red hair ending their statements with invisible "duhs."
"Well you could have lied and said you didn't have it!" No sooner than I said it did I realize just how stupid of an idea that was.
"Yeah, because that would be believable."
"I can't believe you gave it to him though! You could have at least asked me about it before you did! I don't give iyour/i number out to random cute guys!"
"Not yet you don-did you just call Axel cute?"
"Uh. No…?" Everything about the phone number suddenly didn't matter once I realized I sealed my own fate. I should have realized that denial was not my best friend.
Unfortunately, Kairi was my best friend and she was determined to not only humiliate me but also prove that she was right.
"I think you did," she drawled out, on the verge of giggling.
"No I didn't and you can't pro-, okay, yes, fine, I said he was cute! Are you happy now?"
"I knew it! Roxas, when did you decide to admit it?"
"Just now apparently."
"So…what does this mean?" I already felt the beginnings of a headache.
"Um, it means I think he's cute? Look Kairi, I don't know if there's really any other meaning to—" I was cut off suddenly by a beep on the line. "Hey, somebody else is calling, I'll talk to you later." I hung up before she could object and looked at my cell phone, not recognizing the incoming number.
"Hello?" I answered, leaning back further in my chair.
"Hey."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is about the time I lost my balance and fell out of my chair, sprawling out on the floor. The worst part was either the fact that the chair came with me or the fact that I let out a high-pitched yelp in response.
"You okay there?" Wonderful. Axel was ready to laugh at me, too.
"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Hi." I finally just gave up on the chair and migrated over to my bed, scooting closer to the window.
"Hi. What's up?"
…it was a weirdly normal start to a conversation, and nobody could (or should) blame me for being suspicious. "Nothing…just kind of hanging out. I was talking to Kairi a little bit ago."
"Oh. That's cool I guess." He paused, awkward silence filling the line for a few seconds. "…sorry for just randomly calling; Kairi gave me your number after school."
Was that why he rushed off right after the bell rang? It would make sense, not to mention that explained why Kairi was late meeting me at the car. Even if that were true, I didn't quite understand it. Why would some guy I have no interest in suddenly approach my best friend for my phone number? Then again it's not like they didn't know each other already; they worked together, they had class together, and god only knew what they talked about when they were together. Were they talking about me? Did they have conversations about how to talk to me?
Maybe I was being paranoid, but it was better than just accepting everything.
"Yeah, she told me," I said shortly.
"Oh. Uh…hope that's okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Okay."
"Yeah…"
…and insert awkward silence take two. We sat there on the line for a few moments, both of us unsure of what to even say. As before, Axel was the one who broke the silence.
"Anyway, I just called to say hey."
"That's all?"
"That's all."
"…really?"
"Now really, Roxas, why would I lie?"
I could think of a lot of reasons he'd lie, but at the same time most of them didn't fit. On the other hand I barely knew the guy and he was expecting me to trust him? Who said I could do that so easily? I was just about to point that out to him when I heard a door close on his end of the line, followed by another voice.
"Axel?"
Demyx?
"Hey," Axel suddenly said. "I gotta run. Guess I'll talk to you later?"
"Riiight…later," I echoed and soon heard the dial tone ringing in my ear. Pulling the phone away from me, I dropped it next to me on the bed and began the process of trying to figure out what just happened.
Were all phone calls supposed to be that awkward?
Not to my knowledge, anyway. I'd spent years listening to Sora talk on the phone with Riku to know that conversations shouldn't be that stiff. I've talked to Kairi for enough years to know that. Why was Axel so different? I couldn't wrap my brain around it and truthfully, I didn't really want to. In fact, I was ready to just forget about it all together.
Axel obviously had a different idea though because he called me again later that evening, right after dinner. Same stiff conversation, same awkward silence, same unresponsive me. I was sure that was going to drive him off this time. Who wants to talk to a silent asshole?
Despite my best efforts to ignore him, he called me again the next afternoon, and then the next, and even the afternoon after that. About a week into the awkward phone calls, I finally came to the conclusion that I was going about this all wrong. So, it was time to try the next best thing; actually having a conversation.
"Hey Axel," I answered, turning the page of one of my textbooks.
"What's goin' on?"
"Working on that assignment for Government. Did you understand it? I mean, I understand part of it but I'm stuck on number three because seriously, we're not answering five questions if each question has five questions inside of it." I continued to turn the pages and was met with silence. Axel was silent for a solid minute and I was beginning to wonder if he had hung up on me when I heard his light breathing.
"Wow. I think that's the most you've ever said to me. Ever."
Sure, now he notices when I actually say a lot to him? Give me a break.
"Yeah, yeah, can you help me first and gawk later?"
"Oh…yeah, hold on." I could hear him rustling through his bag for his homework. "Okay so which part are you stuck on?"
"…all of question three?"
There was a sigh of mock disappointment. I could almost picture him shaking his head. "Roxas, what are we gonna do with you? Unable to get through one assignment by yourself? What a shame. Anyway, the answers in order are criminal justice, nine, supreme court, jurisdiction, and I didn't get the last one because I was going to wait and ask you." I paused in my writing and raised an eyebrow.
"So basically we're both kind of screwed for the moment?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Great. Whatever, I'll work on it later." I shut the book and threw it on the floor by my backpack. "So what's up?" Again, he paused for the longest time that I thought he hung up.
"You're…actually talking back."
"Yeah. Isn't that what people do on the phone?"
I think he was starting to get a little suspicious about my plan. I probably needed to tone it down a bit so it didn't sound so fake, but at the same time the result was fascinating.
"Yeah, but…wow, Kairi was right."
"About what?"
"You."
"…okay, I got that. But what exactly did she have to say about me?"
"Just that it took you a bit of time to warm up to people, that's all."
Well great. Thank you, Kairi, for completely blowing my cover. Axel now thought that I was acting civil on my own accord. But then again…it really wasn't so terrible talking to him like a normal person. Besides, he wasn't being a dick at the current moment; why should I be?
"Well…yeah."
"Any reason why?"
"…it's a long story."
"Well…I'm not going anywhere, are you?"
"Not really, no…"
"So…?"
"So what?"
"Care to share?" he continued to prod. My shoulders sagged and I looked out the window instead of at my desk, thinking and choosing carefully what I was going to say.
"A few years back, somebody screwed up everything. That's all." I didn't want to think about my dad right then and there, and maybe it wasn't as long of a story as I made it out to be, but I didn't know what else to say to him.
"Sounds like a total dick."
"Might be. I don't really know." Axel must have noticed the change of tone because he quickly changed the subject.
"Anyway, tomorrow's Friday."
"…good job," I couldn't help but laugh. "Now, what color is the sky?"
"Don't be mean. I was going to say that you should come to Demyx's tomorrow."
"What for?"
"Just to hang out. I think he was gonna invite you and Sora tomorrow. Kairi, too. He doesn't mind who's here most of the time, so I figured I'd pass on the message."
"Oh," I replied, for lack of any other answer. "I think we'd have to figure out if we're being forced into something else. Sometimes our Fridays get hijacked by Aunt Seiya."
"Huh?"
"Sora's mom. It's a whole family bonding thing."
"Oh." He sounded a little confused, not to mention disappointed.
I hate disappointing people, no matter who the person was.
"…on second thought, there's always Saturday to hang out with the family if it comes to that." The words were gone from my mouth before my brain could process them.
"Really?"
"Sure."
"Sweet, that'd be awesome."
"Yeah, we'll be there."
"Awesome. Anyway, I should go, I have to get ready for work. I'll talk to you tomorrow though, if not later tonight?"
"Yeah. Sure. Uh, probably tomorrow though, I have a lot of homework I need to finish with," I added quickly.
"Maybe for the best. My shift isn't over until eight or so anyway. I'll talk to you tomorrow then?"
"Yeah. We'll…talk tomorrow."
"Bye, Rox." And he hung up before I could even correct him. Hanging up my own phone, I set it on my desk and got up, grabbing my backpack and hoisting it up onto my lap to dig for my math book.
I was maybe doing a bad job at diverting Axel's attention and driving him away. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was doing just the opposite, pulling him further in and actually warming up to him. So what if my plan had gone off-course? Something was happening to us, but I just wasn't so sure what it was.
And If I'd known I wouldn't be so sure for a long time, I might have been a little more careful with my next move.
Notes: And here we are with chapter 3. Like I said, I'll be uploading all of the originally written chapters as their revised versions but most likely will be finishing the story over on AO3! We'll see. Chapters 4-7 are already finished and ready to go, but they'll be posted little by little. Chapters 8-11 are in the rewrite phase now. Thanks for reading if you're still around.
To the people who were fans of this story in its original incarnation: believe me, this revise will be better. My apologies for mass-deleting the old content! The story was no longer what I wanted it to be and the revised content will be worth it, I promise. Happy readings.