Disclaimer: i do not own Kingdom Hearts, or anything else that i may have mentioned in this chapter that could lead to a lawsuit.
A/N: Thank you to zombiecupcake'eats-you, Daniel Jasper, mudkipluvr4ever , fallenofthedark, Nauru, and TheAnnoyingVoice for reviewing my first chapter.
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Hardcore :D
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You all made me so happy. *sniffs*
Chapter 2: There's always drama in the school hallways.
"Roxas..."
I knew that it was too good to be true. The annoying voice in my head had warned me that those blissful, Axel-not-plaguing-my-thoughts days were going to come to an abrupt and painful end.
And here it was.
Almost two weeks of ignoring him at school had led up to this.
The scene: Axel and Roxas standing in the middle of the school corridor while crowds of curious high school students stood around idly, expecting something dramatic to happen.
I could almost imagine what the curiosity on their faces meant.
What in the world did Axel, the most popular, most sought after senior in the school want with me?
Okay, so I may be exaggerating just a tad. Axel wasn't THAT popular in school, but he was well known. And on the other hand...I was just the shy, quite, gay blonde kid that kept out of everyone's way and didn't answer questions in class.
"Axel...please, just let me go." My voice cracked as I refused to look up into his envy-green eyes. I knew that if I did I would just see the pain, which was so apparent in his tone, reflected in his gorgeous eyes. And I was the reason for his pain. I could feel the guilt start to work its way up my throat, threatening to choke me if I attempted to say a word more.
Wait...when did I become the villain in this equation? I was the one who had gotten shoved into his closet so that his perfect girlfriend didn't catch her perfect boyfriend feeling up his MALE best friend.
He looked down at his hand that currently had a vice-like grip on my wrist and, as I briefly looked up, I caught the look of surprise that ran across his features. He retracted his hand but instead of letting it fall to his side he let it rest on the sleeve of my black-and-white-checked jacket. I could feel the warmth from his hand warming the skin of my forearm beneath the thin material of my sleeve. He always radiated warmth. It seemed like he had an internal fire burning inside of him that not only warmed him, but those around him too.
And...I just realised that I might have a future in writing cheesy romance novels.
Really? An internal fire burning inside of him? Maybe I should sell my cheesy; Axel related thoughts to the author of those awful vampire novels that Naminé enjoys reading so much.
...Not that I had ever read them, of course.
"Look...I know that you don't want to see me right now, "his voice was hesitant and dropped to almost a whisper. I guess he had noticed the people, who were subtly standing at their lockers and pretending to not listen in to our conversation, as well, "but I need to speak to you, Roxas. You don't have to be my friend; hell...you don't even have to like me. But I can't do this; I can't just not speak to you when I'm so accustomed to hearing your voice every day. I-." His voice faltered and he gripped my arm. "I miss you, Roxas."
I felt my breath hitch and I finally allowed my eyes to meet his. "Miss me?" I seethed, "I love how you just let that word fall so easily from your mouth. You're...just what are you so scared of, Axel? You wouldn't be here if I didn't mean anything to you so why don't you just admit it to yourself? Stop being a coward."
His eyes narrowed into a glare that matched my own and I saw anger take over his features.
"What the hell, Rox. I was just trying to freaking apologise to you. I want my best friend back."
I wrenched my arm from his grip and narrowed my blue eyes into what I hoped was a death glare. "Axel, you paragon of ignorance, you-you don't understand, do you?"
I shook my head in exasperation.
"I can't JUST be friends with you Axel. I love you too much to JUST be your friend."
I felt my eyes widen when my brain caught up to comprehend just what my mouth had so readily admitted.
WTF mouth, you can't just drop the L-word that casually into an argument!
Before the blush that was slowly crawling up my cheeks made itself known to the rest of the world I turned on my heel and started to briskly walk away from the scene.
Eyes followed me as I made my way down the corridor to where my locker was situated. I felt my eyes burn but I fought back the tears. The last thing I needed to add to this nightmare of a day was to start crying. At school, no less.
Especially at my school. They practically lived on drama here.
This is retarded. Couldn't he just let me exist without him? Of course not, he just had to come up to me ,his red hair flowing behind him in that naturally spiky style that suits him but would make anyone else look like something out of a Japanese video game, and attempt to fix our broken friendship.
Although, could you even call what we had a friendship anymore? Because as much as we would like to pretend that that's all that we were, we both knew that best friends don't make out.
Constantly.
Stupid Axel.
Stupid Axel with his red hair and green eyes.
Stupid Axel and his ability to make me forget all the pain and teenage angst that he had put me through.
"ROXAS!"
I flinched as his voice echoed on the walls around me. Everyone's ears perked up at that as they eagerly anticipated a fist fight or something.
The blood-thirsty bastards.
I carried on walking slowly so that, if he did have anything to add after that unnecessarily loud exclamation of my name, I'd be able to hear him.
But once again, he allowed me to walk away from him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"He told me, you know."
It was the end of the day and I had just finished stuffing my bag to the brim with textbooks. Slamming my locker shut, I turned to confront the owner of the voice that was speaking to me.
Or at me. Seeing as I had yet to reply.
Larxene was standing directly in front of me, her blonde hair slicked back in its usual style. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked pissed off.
It was moments like these that made me curse my height.
"What?" I replied, tilting my head slightly to look at her.
"Don't play innocent, Roxas."
The way that she almost spat my name out caused me to wince and drop the innocent act. I knew that Larxene would want an explanation, and as surprised as I was that Axel had actually confessed to her, I still had no excuse for what I did. I had an affair with her boyfriend; there is no justifying that with a good reason. I mean, what could I say? 'Sorry for helping having an affair with your boyfriend, who you probably thought was completely straight. Lolz, my bad, we're still friends right?'
Ew, did my internal monologue just include the term 'lolz'?
I realised that Larxene was expecting an answer from me.
"I know that you probably hate me for it, and that my apology won't fix things...but I am sorry Larxene."
"Sorry? How can you live with yourself after what you did? Axel and I were dating for almost two years, and then you came into the picture and ruined everything. You're heartless." I could hear how hard she was trying to keep the edge in her voice, trying to not let me see just how broken she really was.
I sighed and slung my backpack onto my shoulders.
"I may be a nobody in the school, Larxene, compared to you and your 'popular' friends, but I'm not heartless. I was the one who told him to tell you."
As I was walking towards the doors that led to the outside of the school I heard her speak again, her ice-edged voice cracking as she started to cry.
"He broke up with me."
I forced the surprise out of my voice when I spoke again.
"I'm...I'm sorry. But it's not my problem anymore."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I kicked the toes of my well-worn black sneakers into the seat in front of me and earned myself a glare from the occupant of said seat.
"Sorry." I muttered, allowing myself to sink further down into my uncomfortable seat.
"Why do we have to attend these stupid assemblies anyway?" my friend, Hayner, complained, slouching even deeper further into his chair than me. The four of us, Hayner, Olette, pence, and myself, were all in the school's hall, waiting for the morning assembly to begin.
"Because the leaders of the school need to address us, "Olette stated simply, "and sit up properly. Your posture is awful. Both of you."
I grinned as I sat up a little straighter in my seat. Olette was the mother hen of our little group of friends, always fretting if we hadn't completed our homework, or scolding Hayner if he managed to get himself into another fight with Seifer. As much as we complained that she babied us, we loved the attention that she gave us. I heard Pence snort with laughter in the seat next to Olette.
"Leaders of the school? You're making them sound important."
"Yeah, ", I piped up, "they're just the annoying assholes that were chosen to do all the work that the principal couldn't be bothered with."
Olette glared at us but, as she opened her mouth to argue with us, the head-girl took the stage and started the assembly.
"General announcements: the tennis match this afternoon has been cancelled-"
I groaned and placed my head in my hands. I hated these assemblies.
Not only did they drag on forever, they also normally had nothing to do with me.
...I didn't participate in much.
Or anything, actually.
"The charity committee would also like to remind you about the bake sale that will take place- what?"
I looked up to see what the interruption was and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion when I saw Axel on the stage trying to wrestle the microphone from the head girl. I would have guessed that this was something planned but the way that the head girl was staring at Axel in horror as he fought with her for possession of the microphone, led me to believe otherwise. I saw him lean closer to whisper something into her ear, and after breaking out into a huge grin she shook her head amusedly and stepped to the side of the stage after relinquishing hold of the mic.
"Uh..." I had to fight the smile that snaked its way onto my face when Axel stood at the podium, his hand rubbing at the back of his neck as he grinned at the hundreds of teenage faces that looked up at him expectantly, "I didn't really think this out that well..." I raised an eyebrow and sat back in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest and waiting to see what this was all about.
Axel cleared his throat and looked into the sea of faces, searching until his gaze met my own slightly confused one. He grinned suddenly and stood up straighter, which further confused me.
What did he want from me? We hadn't spoken in weeks.
"I hijacked this assembly to apologize to someone that I...well I really messed up."
Anger flared in me.
He had the audacity to look me in the eye while he apologized to his girlfriend?
Axel continued to speak.
"I know that you probably want nothing to do with me, but the last time that we spoke, you said something and walked away before I had the chance to reply."
His gaze locked with mine again and I was slightly surprised to see his cheeks turn a shade of red that rivalled his hair.
Almost.
Nothing could match the red of Axel's hair.
"I...er," I watched him stumble over his words as he struggle to form a coherent sentence and rolled my eyes. Here it comes. The confession of undying love to his perfect little, blonde haired, cheerleader girlfriend.
"I love you too, Roxas." He finally said, diverting his eyes from mine and looking at the floor instead.
The students in the hall shared a collective gasp that sounded a little too well planned to my ears, and the hall immediately broke out into a flurry of whispers and unbelieving exclamations.
And then it hit me.
He had said my name, and not Larxene's.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I found him in the backstage wing of the hall after the assembly. He was sitting with his long legs drawn up under him so that he could rest his chin on his knees.
"Hi." I said, standing next to him and allowing a small smile to grace my features.
He stood up quickly, relief washing over his face upon seeing me.
"Hey, Rox." He replied, returning my smile with his own hesitant one.
"Hiding from the paparazzi?" i asked, trying to appear casual and not as if my heart was trying to escape from my thoracic cavity.
Painfully.
He rolled his eyes, and ran his fingers through his hair, further messing up his untameable spikes.
"Yeah, I'm not ready to deal with them," He then looked at me steadily before adding, "at least, not today.", as if trying to reassure me that he didn't regret his actions.
I took a step closer to him, frowning as I looked down at my scuffed sneakers.
"You do know that they're going to hate you now, right? I mean, not only did you break the head cheerleader's heart, but you also just announced to the entire school that you're in love with a guy."
I heard him laugh as he stepped closer to me. Tentative fingers weaved themselves into my hair as I inhaled the scent that was so distinctly Axel. It felt like my senses were going into overdrive after being deprived of him for such a long time.
'Don't you get it, Roxy? I would rather go through the rest of my high school life with 'them' hating me for who I am, than me hating myself for not being able to accept who I am."
I looked up and smiled into those green eyes that I loved so much.
"Hey, you're pretty good at the cheesy romance stuff too. Wanna co-write cheesy, romantic vampire novels with me?" I asked, bringing my hand up to rest at the back of his neck and pull his face down closer to my own.
He frowned at me, the look of confusion on his face reminding me that I really had to try harder at attempting to be normal.
"What?"
"Nothing...just, come here." I said, chuckling as I closed the gap between us to capture his lips.
By the way?
Guilt-free kisses are way better than stolen ones.
And it is now..complete.
Funny story about this chapter, actually. i somehow managed to complete my Afrikaans Language exam, like, 45minutes early so in order to not go completely insane from boredom, as i had to sit there until the 45minutes were up...i decided to write the hallway scene in the beginning of this chapter on every available bit of space of my question paper.
So, of course, when i got home and tried to re-write the scene i drew a complete blank -.-
Anyway :D
I hope that you guys enjoy reading this, and hey...maybe even leave me a review.
Come on.
You know you want to.