Audacity chapter 5
*Still in need of a beta reader but that's old news, in case you're wondering my character is a little mentally unstable, and has a tendency to go into a bit of a violent tangent. My character also is constantly frustrated by how weak Lelouch 's body is and will refuse to cut corners when it comes to forms of exercise or exertion.*I was unable to edit most of this chapter, but rest assured once you see this explanation of my bad grammar deleted, it will mean that I have successfully corrected all the grammatical and spelling errors in this chapter.* **
It had just begun raining as I slid into the student Council room ignoring the fact that I felt sort of out of place considering I knew nothing about it. I immediately noticed Shirley having a salad so I strolled over to her and picked up one of the red cherry tomatoes on her plate.
"Sup?" was my short greeting to her as I rolled the cherry tomato between my thumb and forefinger. She jumped a little, being surprised by my sudden entrance and actions.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that Lulu." I smirked a little at that and popped the cherry tomato into my mouth. Only then did I realize I was rather hungry- I hadn't eaten anything since I woke up this morning. Considering the living hell I've been going through since then, no one could blame me. I sat in a spinning chair next to computer in the corner. Placing my forearms on the headrest and sitting down on it I flung myself over next to her.
"Anything new happened lately?" it wasn't a grasp for information was a genuine question, I was just trying to make small talk. She thought about it for brief moment, putting the fork up to her bottom lip in thought.
"Now that you mention it, Nuna chan said you been acting weird this morning, and you didn't have breakfast with her." I opened my mouth to try and defend myself but was prevented from doing so. "you didn't blow her off to go gambling did you?" despite the fact that I was slightly upset at the random accusation I transferred that feeling into a genuinely hurt look.
"I had some stuff that needed to be done earlier this morning…" I said looking away sadly. This memory loss thing is going to take a lot longer than I thought to put behind me. Immediately after I had this thought, Milly walked through the door. She then immediately stopped and pointed at me.
"There you are!" she walked over angrily her arms at her sides. I froze.
Did she somehow gain her memory of her actions during her Geassed state? I thought in horror. Milly crossed her arms just under her bust which in my opinion only served to announce the size of her breasts even more than they usually did by themselves.
"There was no reason to skip out on this morning's meeting, you made it so I had to do extra paperwork." I looked away feeling ashamed for some reason.
"About that… Sorry." I said still not meeting her gaze, hoping she would drop the subject. She didn't.
"What? No excuse from the great Lelouch Lamperouge resident lazy genius extraordinaire?" At the time I didn't pick up the playful nature in her tone and returned her question with a medium to light death glare.
I've had one of the craziest cluster fuck, shit storm, all-around debacle of a day anyone could possibly have, and she has the audacity to be upset with me for missing a meeting? I grit my teeth still holding the death glare on her, previous feelings of shame completely gone now. The playful look on her face disappeared and turned into one of genuine worry.
"Listen here… I am having a very bad d-" I was cut off as Rivalz came in with two boxes.
"Somebody give me a hand here!" he said while teetering on the edge of dropping both boxes. I jumped to my feet and caught both boxes as he leaned to the right almost falling. The weight felt crushing to me but knowing my body's physically weak stature it couldn't have been more than 50 pounds. Grunting I lifted both the boxes regardless and carried them over the table and set them down separately.
"Thanks man!" Rivalz said while panting slightly and slapping me on the back. I then turned to smile back and ask.
"Where's Nina?" barely remembering the girls name from the conversation with Milly. Rivalz only shrugged and began rifling through the boxes.
"She should be here soon, or at least I hope she does. I need help setting up this cool new high definition projector." As if to prove his statements he held up the heavy looking black box with a knob on the front of it. I walked up to it and briefly inspected it.
"This looks pretty cool." I stated, I then hiked my thumb towards the other box. "What's in the other one?" Rivalz was still pulling out cords, wires and what appeared to be a frame for a stand.
"Just a bunch of movies, the AV club gave them to us in order to try out the new projector with." He paused to try and untangle some of the cords. "Go ahead and pick one, we can all watch it once we get this thing set up." For moment I was confused.
"Wait it's only lunchtime and you guys don't have enough time to watch a whole movie."
"It's Friday man remember? We only have the first three classes, the rest of the day's open in case you don't recall." I was unable to respond in order to make an excuse about me forgetting, for I was cut off by a short lecture.
"What do you mean you guys, Lulu… maybe if you actually applied yourself and attended these classes you would remember your schedule-" I cut her off abruptly.
"I told you I had something I needed to take care of this morning." I said a little bit more harshly than was necessary, my eyes hardening.
"What's that supposed to mean!" she said only getting angry instead of backing down. This caused a crack in my composure and made me grit my teeth for what I hoped would be the last time today.
"It's nobody's business but my own!" I had to restrain myself from raising my voice.
"Lelouch come on now, won't you tell us what's going on?" Milly asked trying to mediate a sense of peace. I looked around the room- everyone was looking at me, expecting an answer. The stress combined with the anger and frustration as well as being pressed by nearly everyone caused another crack in my already weakened mental stability. I felt the urge to lash out in order to defend myself.
"Rivalz." I said in an attempt to change the subject.
"What?" he asked in a somewhat worried voice, obviously not quite sure what to expect.
"How long do you think it would take for just the two of us to set up the projector by ourselves?" Rivalz only paused for a brief moment then responded with.
"Dunno… depends on whether or not it needs to have some sort of software set up. But even if we were to set it up, we would want to put it upstairs where we actually have a wall that is completely flat." I nodded and picked up the heavy black box that was the projector off the table and motioned for them to follow.
"Girls." I directed towards Shirley and Milly. "Select a movie for us to watch, but we will have to wait until Nina arrives in order to watch it… Just to be fair." Not allowing anyone to get a word in edgewise I began to walk out the door and ascend the red carpeted stairs. It took us all but 10 min. to set up the projector, metal stand and all. Nina had arrived sometime during the middle of the set up, but by that time we had determined we could get it to play the disc just fine and simply need to arrange it to point at the wall and erect the stand. While Rivalz was tinkering with the focus on the lens, I went and gathered five chairs, arranging my chair so it was facing the only entrance to the room: the furthest left side closest to the window.
"All right guys all set." I declared as I motion for Shirley to sit down next to me. Rivalz walked over to turn out the lights as the projector began playing the opening menu. Nina clicked the 'play movie' option on the startup screen just as everyone, including Rivalz, had managed to take a seat
The movie was obviously a chick flick. In hindsight I should have known better than to leave the two girls to pick something and actually expect me to enjoy it. It started out simple, and then a woman who had already been married before the movie had begun was taking a trip to the beach. On the way to the beach they began to sing along to the music on the radio.
Oh my God! Something explode or something, for God sakes. This is about as dull as old people porn. I couldn't help but snicker at the thought of old people producing any type of pornography. Apparently noticing my random outburst, Shirley turned to her left to peer at me. At first I thought this was a perfectly acceptable reaction due to my unusual response in a perfectly ordinary scene. However by viewing her out of the corners of my eyes I noticed for a long period of time she had yet to take her eyes off me. I then immediately became hyper focused on the movie ahead of me, for some reason feeling nervous.
"Holy crap, something please happen." I stated in a show of exasperation. And almost as if my prayers were answered the couple's sedan was struck by a large semi, causing almost pained reactions from the girls.
Not what I meant but cool enough… I thought to myself as I found the sense a plot forming. The next 15 min. of the movie spent in almost equal boredom as the first. It consisted of the woman getting out of the car, noticing her husband was bleeding from a head injury, and then calling an ambulance. She then proceeded to climb in the ambulance once they had hoisted him into it and set along for the ride as they made their way to the hospital, quickly afterwards rushing into intensive care leaving the woman to wait impatiently while sitting on one of the many incredibly uncomfortable looking waiting room chairs. Unable to take the monotony I leaned my head back and sighed loudly.
"Rivalz man, got any popcorn or something…?" something… like cyanide? I continued in my head. Rivalz only shook his head barely acknowledging my question, seemingly engrossed in the incredibly attention redirecting movie. In an attempt to not lose my mind my looked for something to do. Noticing the way Shirley's hair splayed out on the back of the chair near the headrest, I then gathered an idea.
Reaching over both carefully and slowly, trying my best to not draw attention to myself, I grabbed a lock of Shirley's hair. I then began twirling it around my finger playfully, in plain sight of everyone. However the only person to notice was Shirley herself. Keeping my eyes perfectly straight, I had no idea what her reaction was. Her left hand then came up and made contact with mine in a weak attempt to dislodge my grip on her hair.
"What are you-Epp!" save for the last part she said in hushed tones, however being unable to finish her question as I then traded her hair for her left hand, holding onto it in a gentle but firm manner while intertwining our fingers and resting them both on the armrest of the chair. Then of all things the movie took a turn for the exciting… Well as exciting as a diagnosis from a doctor can be. The doctor walked out of the husband's room holding a clipboard and looking tired. He tells the woman that the man received extensive head trauma but would live and should be fine once he wakes up. Then predictably the woman broke into tears and hugs the doctor, thanking him for doing his job.
Funny, I'm pretty sure if things turned out poorly for the husband woman would actually be angry with the doctor for a situation beyond his control. I smirked in a dry humor. But another 10 to 15 min. into the story, which had just begun to develop a plot, the husband woke up. The wife, who had not left his side since he had been admitted to the hospital, (which apparently was two days ago in the movie) had been patiently and conveniently both awake and waiting there the entire time.
She began to pepper him with 'I love yous' and 'thank God you're all right' only to realize that her husband was looking back at her with an absolute look of confusion.
"Who are you?" the husband asked clearly not joking. The Wife's only response was to laugh, trying to believe that he was playing with her, and began telling him about how much their family was worried and would be coming down soon to see him. My bones went cold as I realized something.
He has no memory of his wife… the wife became chest fallen as the man redoubled his efforts to assure her that he had no idea what she was talking about, and that he could not recall a single thing about her or any of his past experiences.
Correction he has no memory of anything. Yeah, well join the club and get a room pal. I thought this bitterly as another thought crossed my mind. At least he fucking has someone who knows him well enough for him to fall back on… He has some chance of getting his memory jogged, I have some unnatural fucking force completely removing the possibility of me re-attaining my memories! Tears began to well in my eyes as another crack in my armor was made. I felt weak, almost sick as I realized I had nobody; nobody cared for me in that way and that there would be no moral and mental support for my lack of memories. Tears began to flow slowly but regularly down my face as I steadily let the frustration out, tensing all my muscles at the same time.
"Ow! Lulu you're hurting my hand." Shirley stated loud enough for everyone to hear. I then realized that while my fingers had been intertwined with hers, during the expulsion of my emotions I had squeezed down tightly on her and, apparently too tightly for it was at the point of pain. I immediately began to feel bad even more so than I already did.
"S-sorry…" I said failing to hold back the sob that followed.
"Lulu, are you crying!" Shirley shouted despite the fact that she should've at least remained somewhat quiet due to the movie. This caused everyone to turn and look, prying their attention away from the now moderately interesting movie. Milly then stood up and took three large steps up to the light switch and flicked it on. Nina had apparently paused the movie for it was perfectly quiet for Milly's question.
"All right Mr., what's going on here? The Lelouch I know wouldn't cry in front of anyone." I stood, mimicking the others, turning my head and unable to face them.
"It's nothing, the movie just got me a little-"
"Bullshit!" Milly said loudly, everyone's reaction was that of shock. Apparently Milly rarely used profanity unless it was a serious situation. "You have got to be wound up because of something, there's no way a movie by itself would be enough to do this." I hesitated, taking a step back. "just tell us what's going on Lelouch, we're here for you." She said much softer. And that was all it took, my mental armor completely shattered and fell to pieces at my proverbial feet.
A wicked smiled then broke unto my face as I began to chuckle darkly.
"Why can't everyone just mind their own business?" I said in a tone laced with loathing unable to accept someone was simply there to help because they cared.
"Because we care about you Lulu!" Shirley chimed in while edging closer in order put her hand on my shoulder.
"BACK OFF!" I yelled stepping back and swinging my arm in an outward arc. However everyone save for Nina began to edge forward for whatever reason thinking it was the logical thing to do in order to console me. Unable to fight the urge to distance myself from these people, I reached for my breast pocket slowly, hand twitching all the while. Milly seemed to be the only one who took note of this movement and flinched back some, apparently realizing the inherent threat.
Luckily this time I realized producing a firearm would be very counterproductive considering the fact I wasn't fond of being arrested. Instead I reached into my right pocket quickly introduced the butterfly knife flicking it open quickly. Looking behind me I spied the window and the curtains on it.
"Whoa buddy calm down…" Rivalz said in attempt to restrain some of my insanity. But instead of turning the blade on them, I quickly rotated my body 180° and slashed at the curtains causing the severed fabric to flutter down. I snatch the fabric out of the air and redirected it to the three people advancing upon me, covering their heads, which gave me just enough time to flip the hook and unlock the window. Placing my left foot on the windowsill seal while opening both ends of the double window I catapulted myself out. Not caring that I was on the second story, grabbing hold of the branches of the nearby tree, I made my descent, snapping most of them but then catching one finally towards the bottom strong enough to take the strain. Quickly dropping down after halting gravity, I began to run off in whatever direction I was currently facing… soaking myself in the rain, I gave in to the mental strain and submit to insanity.