Chapter 4:

I woke up to the sunlight breaking through the blinds, and I automatically covered my eyes, because my head was throbbing. I groaned gently and turned to look at my alarm clock, immediately hopping out of my bed when I realized I was going to be late to school. "Fuck!" I cursed under my breath, running to my closet to grab a quick change of clothes and to the bathroom sink to quickly wipe myself off. When had everyone gone home, because I sure as hell didn't remember them leaving. Though it was possible that I had fallen asleep and they decided to head to Yuffie's place, she did live walking distance from me. I grabbed my tooth brush, rushing through the process of brushing my teeth, and quickly gargled some water. I turned and practically sprinted back to my room while pulling my t-shirt over my head. I grabbed my backpack from the floor next to my bed and grabbed my flip flops from them and ran to my garage, slipping my bag over my shoulder as I ran. I hated driving to school because it was so close, but today was an emergency. I grabbed the keys from the hook next to the garage door and sprinted to my car, hopping in at record speed, then before I left, I checked my phone and groaned, because it was Saturday.

I got out of the car very slowly, because if I were to do things quickly, the anger that was oozing from my pores would be even more evident. I slowly, ever so slowly grabbed my keys out of the ignition, and closed the car door, quickly, walking to the house, I kicked off my flip flops and went to the kitchen sink for a glass of water. "Of course, I would be the idiot who gets ready for school thinking that he's late, on a Saturday." I muttered and checked my messages, still sipping water from the glass. Only a couple of messaged, all of them from Yuffie. They had all gone to her house last night, after I fell asleep, as I thought, but only because her little brother got sick and her mom had to work. The four of them had been at my house every night this week anyway, so a little bit of alone time was more of a relief than anything. Of course we hadn't drank every night they were here, Yuffie was only able to score the vodka because she had a friend who bought it and didn't want it. But the night we did drink, was so much fun, I don't think I've had that much fun since my sixteenth birthday when we went to an amusement park for the entire weekend. It was the best thing I had ever experienced up to that point.

I smiled looking back on it, my parents were so proud that they were able to afford that weekend, and they never stopped talking about how happy they were that I had so much fun doing it. This memory brought tears to my eye, though not sad ones, these were happy memories. I sighed and pushed myself off the counter, placing the now empty glass in the sink, and walked toward the refrigerator, pulling the door open and grabbing out the milk, plucking the cereal off the top of the fridge and closing the door silently. I hummed gently as I walked over to the cabinet that held all of the bowls, pulling one out and poured the cereal into the bowl, then the milk, I pulled the drawer out that contained the silverware, plucking a spoon from the spoon slot, and took a spoonful of the fruit loops in my bowl. My phone buzzed and I looked at it as I chomped on the cereal.

It was a text from Riku. "Hey." He said with a little smiley emoticon next to it.

I replied with. "Hey, what's up?" and took another chomp of my cereal, chewing it slowly. At that moment Squall walked in with his duffle bag.

"Hey you." He said with a smile on his face. "Same room as always?" He asked, trying to make conversation with me. I nodded and offered a small smile in return. He nodded and swiftly turned to go upstairs. Thing about Squall was, he was only ever talkative on rare days, and I was fine with that. It was going to make this living arrangement all that much easier, because he made himself scarce. Though, with him there was always Rinoa, and she was the talkative type. I rolled my eyes and sighed. How those two have survived together as long as they have, is a mystery to me. I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs and he walked into the kitchen sitting at the table with me.

I swallowed the bite I had just taken. "So how are things?" I said quietly.

He sighed and looked at me. "Things are… well they could definitely be better. This whole thing, it's turned my entire life upside down, not that moving back in bothers me, it's just Rinoa and I were set to move in together next month." My eyes widened, because I had never heard him speak so much in my entire life.

I blinked and proceeded to say, "Why don't you just move her in here with us? It's not like it will bother me, and that way you two can kind of start saving your money together toward a new place next year." I then proceeded to take another bite, because I had shocked myself at how mature and thought out my statement was. He looked at me in thought, and was apparently surprised himself at my maturity in this entire situation. I was handling things better than any normal person should be handling it. As I chewed, he seemed to be in thought about the idea that I had just come up with, he knew that in the long run that it might be the best idea as much as I did, because of monetary reasons mostly. Why pay bills in two places when every bill could be focused on the one place, both of them would be able to save toward a home of their own for after they were married, and still be able to go out with each other every once in a while.

"Good point." He said quietly standing up from his chair, and briskly walking toward the kitchen exit, I immediately heard him talking to Rinoa on his cell phone, and smiled a bit to myself. Yes, the house would be a little more crowded, but maybe it would feel a little more like home when it wasn't just squall and I all the time. My phone vibrated and I looked down to see that I had a text from Riku and Yuffie. I smiled to myself and went back to eating my cereal and texting.

By the time noon had come around, I had already made plans to go out with them, I ran up to my room and snatched a t-shirt from my clothes rack, along with a pair of jeans and some underwear. I sighed gently and grabbed my amplifying speaker for my phone. I put on my playlist, and ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. The was a slight thud from my phone and speaker as I laid it on the sink, the music filled the rest of the silence with all the emotion that the artist singing had injected into her words, and I began to strip off my clothing. I cringed at the metal to metal sound of the faucet as I turned the water to a perfect mixture of hot and cold, though I knew by the end of the shower the water would be so hot that steam would be erupting from the room when I opened the door. I placed a towel on the towel rack and stepped into the tub, closing the shower curtain behind me.

I leaned down, pulling up the mechanism that turned the shower on. I immediately stepped back, not letting the initial water that flowed from the shower head hit me, it was something I had always done, when I was a child it was a game that I played, to see which was faster, me or the water. I smiled at the memory, and stepped into the water, the warmth of it making me shiver off the last of the cold that was left in me, and letting me relax. That's when the flood of tears hit, every time. I didn't like people to see me cry, that wasn't my sort of thing. And when you're soaked from head to toe, you couldn't even really tell if you're crying, unless you make it to the point where you sob uncontrollably. Shower time was the times where I could really let it all out without worrying everyone else around me. I reached behind me, making the heat that much more intense. The heat relaxed my muscles a little more and soon I found myself sitting in the floor of the shower. Sometimes when I showered, and a lot had been going on, I would just sit there, and contemplate my life up to that point.

After what seems like forever I manage to get up off the bathtub floor, and grab my shampoo. I squirt some into my hand and run my fingers through my hair quickly, then use both of my hands to make the soap lather up and do its job. After I finished with that I tilted my head back into the almost scorching hot water and let it rinse the shampoo from my hair, I ran my right hand through it just to help the process along slightly. I then reached for my bottle of conditioner and applied it to the tips of my hair, like my mom had taught me. Her best friend was a hair dresser, and she had always told me that the conditioner on your roots made your hair really greasy, so just putting it on your tips keeps your hair healthy and less greasy. A winning situation either way you look at it. The soap was next, because while I let the conditioner set it, I liked to get other things done, it was a lot better than just letting it sit there doing nothing. I thoroughly washed my body with the bar, making sure to get every crevice of myself with it. I sighed and repeated the process of washing my hair out. When I finally finished I found myself back on the floor of the tub, just thinking everything through. I ran my fingers through my hair, and contemplated some more, thinking over just the last couple of weeks. All the events and craziness, along with all the change that had happened. It was all so much all at the same time. I sighed and tilted my head downward, letting the water hit the back of my head.

I bit my lip and let my mind wander about aimlessly. Just sitting there as the shower pelted me with the steaming water. I don't know how long I had sat there, all I know is that by the time I was up the water had run cold. I turned off the shower first, then the running water, sliding the shower curtain open. Then I yanked the towel from the towel rack, pulling it directly to my face to dry off.

After I was dry and dressed I looked into the mirror, and brushed my hair out, making sure that there would be no tangles when it finally dried. I walked in slow deliberate steps toward my room and grabbed some socks from the top drawer of my dresser and grabbed my black canvas hi-tops from the floor next to it. I pulled those two items on, and then tied my shoes tightly heading out my bedroom door and down to the kitchen where my car keys were. I grabbed them and was out the door quickly and straight into my car. I pressed the garage button and waited for it to open before I backed out and closed it, heading to the mall to meet Riku and Yuffie. The music from my radio combined with the wind flowing from my open window was oddly calming in combination. To be perfectly honest, ever since my parent's accident, I have had my qualms about driving, because what happened to them, could just as easily happen to me. That in itself is a horrible though, but to actually have dreams that it was me instead of them, that's a nightmare.

Sometimes I blame myself too, like I should have known something was up when I hadn't heard from either one of them. They usually kept me updated with those kinds of things. I shook my head, because I knew it wasn't my fault. It was the drunk driver that hit them, going fifty miles an hour in a thirty-five zone… He's damn lucky he died on impact too, because he would have spent his life in jail. I growled under my breath. I didn't understand people and their stupidity, they don't realize how much their bad choices affect other people. Like a rock being thrown into a lake, there is always an outward ripple.

Then again, where did I have the room to talk? I make bad choices all the time, not even really thinking about them. Human nature often leads us to make many mistakes, and bad choices. I wonder though… if he had lived, would he have regretted killing two people because he decided that wherever he was going was too important than the lives of the people around him. I would never be able to live with the guilt of having two innocent peoples' blood on my hands. I wouldn't be able to cope with the thought that I had ripped someone's children or parents away from them in my recklessness.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I pulled into the mall, smiling a bit when I saw Yuffie at the entrance waving her arms around like an idiot with a big grin on her face. I waved back and hopped out of my car, walking up toward them, smiling as brightly as possible. She ran the distance in between us and pulled me into one of her giant hugs, giggling like a child who had eaten too much sugar. Her giggle was infectious, because I couldn't help but chuckle with her. Riku walked over to us, slowly and almost awkwardly wrapped his arms around the both of us. My friends, I was lucky to have them, they have been like family since we all grouped together, and they were my comfort in these horrible times.

"Okay, okay, enough of this mushy stuff." Riku said with a small smirk on his face. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, leave it to Riku to ruin a moment.

"Ah shut up Riku, we can't help that we like hugs!" Yuffie said jabbing him in the side with her elbow. He immediately grabbed her into a headlock and ruffled her hair. "Hey!" She complained, squirming in his grasp trying to get free. I broke into laughter watching them pick at each other. It was proof, in a way, that we had become a family over the years that our friendship stood, and at that moment, I knew that they would be around for a while.