51.
Monday
'Where am I?'
A woman stands in front of me. I recognize her as one of my teachers from school. She's always been nice to me; as such, I don't give her as much of a hard time as I do the others. She's a sweet old woman, but the look she's giving me...
'What just happened? Where am I?'
I whip my head around to find an answer, and perhaps an escape from her expectant gaze. Instead, I see a room full of people looking at me the same way. People from my school. I go to school with them.
'What did I do? What did I say? Where the hell am I?'
I look around frantically, trying to look for something – anything– familiar. And as if out of nowhere, the walls of a classroom become apparent. Like I've been here all along and didn't notice. But the room seems bigger to accommodate the mass of people. Staring at me. I feel myself short of breath. My fingernails dig into the dampness of my palms. I shut my eyes, but the fear is still filtering in through my skin, like smoke permeates through curtains.
'I don't want to be here.'
Next, I am aware of a draft as it chills the back of my sweaty neck. My insides feel like they're on fire, yet I can feel the goosebumps on my skin. My body feels ... weird.
'Have I always been this skinny? How long have I been freaking out?'
I don't want to open my eyes and prove that I'm surrounded. Is the draft whistling or are people whispering? I bring my arms up to cover my ears, but they make contact with something metal on their way up. Instinct-slash-curiosity opens my eyes for me. It's a desk. On it, lies a single sheet of white paper. Blank.
Oh God. No. No no no no no.
"Sora? Sora, what's wrong? Are you sick?" Riku woke up to the brunet's heavy breathing and occasional whimpers. Now that he was awake, the boy didn't bother trying to hold back a cry of pain. Although Riku spoke calmly, he was easily distressed at the sight of Sora's right eye and cheek scrunched up.
The throbbing seemed to live on the right side of his head, while the other side just suffered the shockwaves they created. And shockwaves they were, ringing his body with the constant reminder of pain. "Sora. What do you need?"
"Ughhh... Roxas..."
Herein live the new Strife-Crescent family.
The monstrosity of their new house was three levels, all 5689 square-feet formed in a very geometric square on each. The lower level included a three-car garage; two sub-level bedrooms (each with their own bathrooms); and a game room. On the main floor, a study in the north-west corner; a 'great hall' in the east wing; another bathroom; a living room and dining room on the south end; and a five-star kitchen layout tucked on the east side of the middle.
Two bedrooms and a master suite divided the second floor. Sora and Roxas had taken the two mirroring ones, mostly out of habit, even after both being offered the largest bedroom in the house, by its current occupant, Riku. Roxas chose the room with more living space over the built in desk and stand-up shower Sora's room provided. He would be in Riku's Jacuzzi when he wanted a bath over a shower. (And when he wanted other things as well, of course.)
The third floor had originally been a hobby room, complete with slanted ceilings, three windows on each wall, and a decent bathroom in the north-western corner. The two heads of the house turned it into their bedroom. Roxas had snidely made a comment about it being much like a honeymoon suite.
They all knew this new house was quite lavish. They had an elevator. Other than when they had been hauling boxes to begin unpacking, it hadn't been used often, but still. An elevator.
And so, being in such a high-quality house, the noise-resistance in regards to the thickness of the walls was quite adequate, not perfectly soundproof of course.
Sora groans in pain across the hall. Roxas can hear him, but only before he throws open his bathroom door to make a quick dash to his toilet. Even though it sucked to be so urgent and have to run first thing in the morning, puke-y-smelling bedroom sucked more. Roxas added another pro to list: not having to fight over a bathroom.
He heaved and heaved stomach bile, last night's dinner already too far digested to make a return trip then. For some reason, his body's reaction to this kind of headache was to throw up and expel what didn't need expulsion. Roxas sighed when the purging no longer took over.
It was back. Almost a month of peace and it was back.
"Roxas. Are you up?"
A knock resonated from the bedroom and the door opened. Roxas considered dropping his head into the toilet of wonder.
Cloud appeared in the doorway. Here we go again.
"I'm unfit to go to school, but have a good day at work." he said, mock-pleasantly, one hand holding up what his bed-head wouldn't of his bangs. Roxas wasn't in the mood to explain anything to the man and so he gagged for good measure.
Having been all but kicked out of Sora's room, the brunet having desired to puke in solitude then take a shower, Riku stepped out into the hallway when he heard it.
Being in such a high-quality house, the noise-resistance in regards to the thickness of the walls was quite adequate . . . Riku peered in through Roxas' open door . . . when people bothered to close their doors before commencing with verbal sparring.
When Sephiroth walked down to the second floor with a shocked and concerned glimmer in his eye, Riku had not been surprised. Shouting in their old house had been unheard of.
"They do this a lot." Just one other thing you're going to have to adjust to in this new life.
"Fascinating." Sora's hacking drew the man's attention to the room behind his son. "Is Sora unwell?"
Riku closed the door behind him. "Do you believe in the twin thing?" His father merely looked at him, but Riku never expected answers to such kinds of posed questions. It was unlike his father, and answers would most probably be a 'perhaps' or some other one word response. "It's all sourcing from Roxas, though."
"The question would remain: what exactly is sourcing from Roxas?"
"When are you going to grow up and start taking your life seriously?"
"What the fuck are you saying?"
"The fact that you're still swearing at me shows how immature you are."
"Well aren't you a fucking hypocrite."
"Roxas."
"Cloud, I'm not going to school."
"Why?" Cloud asked, adamantly.
Roxas, kneeling in front of the toilet seat, smacked the edge of it and fixed the older man with an icy glare. "You really want me to go to school like this? 'Hi, Mister Highwind, would you mind giving me a garbage bag for my internal fluids as I make it through the day? I don't want to make a mess on your floors.' 'Hi, Miss Maleficent, don't mind me if I pass out from dehydration in your halls. I promise to do it off to the side as to not interfere with your trolling the halls.' You REALLY want me to leave this house like this?"
Cloud inhaled deeply, wiling his son's attitude to roll off his shoulder. "Roxas, why are you really not going to school?" Roxas squinted. "If you keep telling yourself that you're sick, your body is going to act sick. Now tell me why you actually don't want to go to school."
"You think I'm acting sick? Are you fucking serious?" He rubbed his palm furiously at his head. "You think I want this? You think I don't feel guilty for affecting Sora with my little 'act'?" He scoffed. "If I wanted to act, I wouldn't drag other people into whatever I'm deluding myself with."
They looked at each other.
"Whatever. You don't get me. Just leave me alone. I'm not going anywhere."
"Roxas—"
"Holy shit…Get off my back!" he snapped. "Go downstairs and live your newly-fucking-married life with your new fucking husband in this new fucking house and leave me the hell alone!"
"I want to help you. I don't want-." What Cloud wanted to say was: I need you to take school seriously. You fuck up now and you'll regret it. You won't be a kid forever. Because you are growing up. I don't want to see you like this. Roxas just stared at the lifted toilet seat, shaking his head.
Cloud sighed. They'd need to get over this communication problem one day. It was obviously not this day. He turned away. "Call me when you need a father-figure."
"I wouldn't be calling you..."
Your Humble Servant
xDelfin
