AN: Hey everybody! I forgot to mention in the last chapter: thank you for the marvelous reviews. They always make me smile =)
Also, heads up. I'm gonna upload another chapter tonight because I've gotta go into school during this week for Drama rehearsals, even though it's the holidays, and due to that the updates after that might come a tad later than usual. But I'll still try to update as often as possible.
=(
Sorry folks.
Education comes first, orly?
Borderline
"Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to."
-Harriet Lerner
20 ; We All Scream For Ice Cream
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, and this storyline is absolutely, positively fictional. I mean no offense to anyone.
Tristan is leaving today.
He's leaving on a cool January day.
Ryou slides on a black jacket over his already present purple sweater and swallows.
The window outside is dotted with frost (They've actually gotten a fair amount of winter weather. Frost, cold temperatures, and more recently a soft snow shower showed up), and the world outside shimmers with a clear sort of sparkle. The faint, filtered winter sunlight shines through the small icy designs, and reflections dance around the room and on Ryou, lighting everything up.
He can't believe how time has flown.
When he first came to Rockford, he had just finished up his high school graduation. That was back in June. June, with the warm, dry nights, the dusty, pastel rainbow sunsets, the cracks in the ground, and the confusion and the hope and the fear and the excitement that swirled in his oh-so naive self.
Now, it's over half a year later, and Ryou feels completely different.
He feels more grounded in himself.
Like he knows who he is, in a way.
Ryou walks over to the mirror hanging on the wall. He stares, taking in the person looking back at him.
He's got a pale complexion. Everyone always tells him that. He's not tanned. But he kind of likes it that way, and in these winter months, Ryou feels like his skin is paler than usual, which he likes. He thinks that, especially in this white, shining sunlight, it makes him look really unique.
Kind of like a ghost.
His hair's a pure white (some call it bleach blonde, and he likes to tell them they're wrong when they do), and at the moment it's styled neat, as usual. It's not spiked drastically in the front or back like Bakura's is.
Ryou's kind of short for a guy—5'7''. But he doesn't care. Height never mattered much to him, anyway, and he's got time to grow, still.
Ryou shakes his head suddenly.
It just feels weird to have felt and seen himself change so much.
Before, back in high school, he was immature. His daring, reckless games were just a childish way to rebel, and he looks back on them and laughs now. Before, he didn't really know how to use his unique, "sociopath" personality.
Now, he does.
Now, he's full of clever remarks and confidence and he knows how to use himself to the fullest extent.
It's…nice.
All of a sudden, the door opens to his room.
Duke pops his head in.
"Hey Ryou, we're leaving," he announces.
Ryou nods. "'Kay. I'll be right there."
The door closes, and then with one last look at himself in the mirror, Ryou walks out of the room.
"They're taking us for ice cream in 30 degree weather," Ryou mumbles, pulling his jacket closer to himself. "Makes you wonder who the real whack-jobs are."
Yugi and Bakura surround him as they stroll down the stone walkway (They saunter carefully because of the still relatively icy/snowy sidewalks) from Rockford to town—Bakura to his right, Yugi to his left. Both are also bundled up in warmer clothes; Yugi's wearing a probably too thick, light blue winter jacket that his mother sent him especially so that he "wouldn't get sick", and Bakura's wearing a long, dark brown jacket that's tied closed only because of the biting wind that's picked up.
Bakura smirks in response to Ryou's comment; Yugi laughs. Ryou shrugs.
All of a sudden, Joey hops up. He looks surprisingly cheerful as his face is tinged with pink and he's wrapped completely in a scarf, hat, and jacket.
"I think it's nice," he says, smiling innocently in that way that he does. "I think it's nice that we're doing something nice on Tristan's last day."
All three boys nod politely, even Bakura. Then, when Joey scampers off again, they erupt into chuckles.
"That boy is too innocent for his own good," Bakura mumbles, shaking his head.
Ryou sighs; Yugi shrugs.
All of a sudden, Bakura rushes forward and dashes to the side of the sidewalk. He hops up and is soon walking on a mound of snow without making a single indentation.
Bakura smirks and puts his arms out. "It's a balancing act," he announces.
Ryou swallows.
He thought that very same thing 6 months ago, while sitting in the principal's office and playing with a pencil, waiting for his permanent record to be read and revealed to his father.
Then, Jared appears. He frowns at Bakura.
"Bakura, get down," he instructs. "We don't want you to fall and hurt yourself."
Bakura gives a small glare at the head guard, but then he hops down and rejoins Yugi and Ryou wordlessly.
The ice cream shop comes into view suddenly, and that's the end of that.
The boys are all crowded by the counter.
Jared is ordering.
He turns to the group.
"Joey, you said you wanted chocolate-vanilla twist, right?" he asks, and Joey nods, beaming. Seto smiles at this and says after,
"I'll have the same thing."
Jared nods. "All right. Yugi, you wanted the chocolate fudge. Tristan, you didn't want anything. Ryou, you wanted strawberry. Duke wanted the mint chocolate chip and…Bakura? Would you like anything?" the guard goes over the list of ice cream orders.
There's this hesitation in his voice as he asks; it's almost like he's afraid to let Bakura even speak.
Everybody turns to the back of the group to see Bakura peering curiously at the menu. They're not expecting him to want anything, because Bakura never really eats actual food let alone desserts, but slowly, the sociopath makes his way to the front and takes a breath in.
He approaches the counter.
For a moment he's quiet.
Then, he opens his mouth.
"I'll have a triple hot fudge banana split sundae with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream, whipped cream, walnuts, caramel, chocolate sprinkles, not rainbow, and a cherry on top."
No one says a word as Bakura walks back to Ryou's side, but they're all smiling.
Honestly…" Duke starts quietly, hugging his jacket closer to himself as the chilliness in the air outside seems to have increased during the twenty-five minutes they were in the ice cream shop. "I don't know where he puts it all."
Bakura had eaten the huge ice cream sundae he ordered in a record of 11 minutes. Without a headache afterwards, too.
The guys are all in one big group, sauntering back to Rockford a few minutes later.
Ryou's got his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"So, you guys, I was just wondering…" Yugi suddenly starts. "Like, what are your guys' experience's with past relationships?"
The group chuckles a little bit.
Yugi smiles. "Well, I mean, I have a great girlfriend I've been going out with for a few years now, but, like, how about you guys? Just curious."
Bakura takes a deep breath in.
"I had one when I was sixteen. When I was sent to Rockford, they cheated on me a couple times with some other guys. Then lied to me about it and cheated with another one before I finally dumped him."
Dumped him, Ryou notices.
Everyone's silent.
That's not exactly the easiest thing to have started a conversation, let alone to reply to.
"I know. I read about it."
Everyone turns to see Tristan, who was trailing behind everyone a bit. He's got a devilish, truly nasty smirk on his face, and his tone is dripping with sarcasm and a teeny bit of challenge.
Surprisingly, Bakura plays it cool. He just stares at the man, not saying a word.
Ryou's heart suddenly ponds so loud he can't hear a thing except Tristan's words repeating over and over in his head.
I read about it.
No.
Tristan just told him that he read one of Bakura's secrets.
One of Bakura's secrets in Bakura's journal.
The journal that they read secretly.
The journal Ryou let them read secretly.
Bakura stares at Tristan.
The group has stopped walking.
Tristan still has that smirk on his face, and to everyone else Bakura appears to still be staring blankly.
But Ryou is standing right next to Bakura, and Ryou looks closely and Ryou can see:
Bakura is shaking with concealed rage.
"What did you just say, Tristan?" Bakura asks.
His brown eyes narrow, and his tone is strained. It's obvious to everyone—Bakura's normally nonexistent emotions are about to snap.
Yugi swallows and takes a small step forward. He puts his hand out.
"Bakura—" he starts.
Bakura ignores Yugi and starts moving toward Tristan.
Ryou is so freakin' terrified that he can't even breathe.
"What did you just say?" Bakura hisses, his anger rising and bubbling out through his tone.
Tristan isn't intimidated.
"I read it." Tristan whispers, and Ryou almost falls over.
Ryou can't really remember what happened next. He thinks that maybe he did black out from sheer horror for a moment, because he doesn't remember anything the other boys claimed to have happened.
Bakura lunged forward as soon as the words, dripping with mockery and bitterness, left Tristan's lips.
Before anyone knew it, Tristan was lying on the ground and Bakura was getting pulled back and restrained by Jared, his arms grabbed deathly hard.
"That son of a—"
Ryou's vision cleared and he watched as Duke and Seto flew down next to Tristan, who was lying on the concrete, eyes closed.
The way Tristan was sprawled it was obvious he'd—
Ryou brings his hands up to his temples and tries to soothe the throbbing.
"Oh, God…he hit his head on the curb—" Duke says, looking closely at Tristan.
The words sound muffled to Ryou; his head is still pounding and he feels the dizzy, sickening, atrocious feeling of guilt rise in his stomach.
"Tristan! Tristan!" Seto shouts, desperate, his voice cracking with terror as he hovers over the man.
Joey is standing behind Seto, his mouth agape in horror and his eyes wet with unshed tears.
For as much as they didn't like Tristan, they couldn't deny it. Tristan had been there for years; there was this bond for him that could never truly leave.
But Tristan doesn't move.
=)