Chapter three! :D Enjoy!
"DAMN IT!" I cursed loudly trying to put on my pants as quickly as I could, every now and then I'll collide against whatever there was around me. "DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!" I yelled like a madman, making a racket out of something so simple. The fight between my pants and I seemed never ending and in a moment of fury I hit my smallest toe against the acutest angle of my desk. "CHRIST! MY TOE!" Even with this pain inflicting event that could have very well cause my small toe to be broken, God didn't want my bad luck to end. A series of loud and heavy footsteps coming from the hallway just behind my door got closer and closer. I immediately flinched and my senses became as sharp as a hawk's trying to find a way to avoid a possible deadly confrontation. A few seconds later, that seemed like just a single breath, my door opened with a loud bang, the impact causing many of my prized possessions and books to fall off their respective places on my shelfs. I slowly and quite frightened looked over towards the threshold my eyes landing upon the figure of the most horrible and terrible witch in the far west. Her pink melon pajamas a mess. Her curly hair floating everywhere around her head as if something had exploded before her face. The killer aura threatening to fulminate my very person to smithereens. I gulped before such a twist of fate and waited with unkept terror for the witch to make her first move...which didn't took that long.
"CLOUD! WHY ARE YOU MAKING SUCH A SCANDAL! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" The witch screamed in fury, her shiners a bit much more noticeable due to the mascara that had smeared during the night. I stared at her paralyzed and hoping she couldn't smell my fear. Maybe...maybe that way she'll leave without nothing occurring to my person. "WELL?" She screamed once again. This was one of the main reasons why I left the house before dawn. The witch was not a morning person and in the past thing had happened to me, a series of unfortunate things, that taught me that it wasn't benign to cross paths with this wrathful creature during the first two hours after her waking. I was so into my musings, praying and begging to whatever supreme entity up there to take care of my soul before this fatality that had befall me, that I didn't notice the witch had gotten closer until she yelled once more. "WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?" Apparently, she still held that small piece of humanity in her, for I hadn't been hurt yet.
"Well...You'll see mother." I began slowly and with the outmost respect I could muster. To this type of creatures one most show submissive. "I forgot to set up my alarm you see, and...well...I'll appreciate it very much if you could take me to school." I gulped loudly. "Please?" She looked at me blinking in disbelief and slowly raised her hand. My soul unpinned itself from my body, flew up to the heavens, inhaled the pure air and enjoyed the little time it had on earth, taking pleasure from whatever landscape it could gaze upon. At least...that's what I would've liked. Or, maybe it did happen but the bang that was released upon me was such that I couldn't distinguish reality from fantasy. Or...that's what I imagined that occurred, because nor the first nor last actually happened. I was never hit and I divagated to protect myself from what I presumed would have happened cause I dared to ask something from the fury so early in the morning. I stared amazed at what the wrathful beast was actually, unimaginably, doing. She was, cutely, if I may say so myself, rubbing her eyes and yawning silently. Staring at me a bit drowsily she answered. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever." She said unabashed. "Just put on some pants, will you?" And she closed the door. I stood dumbfounded, my pants halfway up my legs and my eyes almost rolling out of their sockets. I just couldn't possibly digest the idea of such a tranquil fury. I waited patiently, my mind trying to muster up what kind of trick was the witch plotting against me. Yet...nothing occurred. My room didn't blow up and I was still alive. Could it be the fury forgot? Yes. Most likely.
"Hurry, mother!" I said biting my nails once more.
"Look dear..." She hissed while pressing the honk repeatedly with her white hand. "It isn't my fault that you forgot to set up that nasty clock of yours. You well know that after 12 traffic is bound to be a pain. It's the hour people usually go out to eat."
"I know but..."
"Shh!" She silenced me. "We'll get there. Be patient. ARGH! Why aren't they moving?" She hit the honk, her face a mask of anger. I looked at the traffic, sighed defeated and rested my head on my hands. The traffic went by me as slowly and boring as it could. The witch had yet to wake up completely, I was late for school and the traffic was just plain awful. My day couldn't get any worst...Or so I thought.
"WHAT?" I screamed unbelieving. This couldn't be happening to me! Not this!
"Damn, Cloud! You are going to make my ears bleed one day!" Zack complained, covering his ears as we made our way towards the cafeteria. I had just barely made it in time and was eternally grateful that I had arrived just in time for lunch. I hadn't had anything for breakfast and my poor stomach was complaining loudly. Yet...hunger was nothing compared to what just had been revealed to me. And I thought my day couldn't get worse. The gods liked to see me in pain. Damn sadists.
"BUT HOW?"
"I don't know." Zack began. "Look... I'm sorry okay? It can't be that bad." He said hypocritically. The bastard fed from my unhappiness and despair as much as the gods did. That was a given.
"This can't be happening." I let myself fall upon the chair, my plate hitting loudly against the metallic table before me.
"Come on! Don't be such a drama queen." Zack smiled and patted my shoulder. Oh! So now you wanted to help? Ha. You didn't mind a few minutes ago did you?
"How...Why didn't you choose me as partner?" I asked, my whole demenur one of killing intent and my eyebrows close together that I feared they could become a single one.
"Well..." He chuckled nervously. "Em...how to say it..."
"Aerith asked you to be her partner, right?" I cut and my glare turned icy. Both of us, unfortunately, held strong feelings for Aerith. So, our silly, strong crush for her was a delicate topic we tended to keep locked up in a drawer at the back of our minds. From time to time it would manage to slip through the gaps and come forth, putting our long and strong friendship in trial. Sadly, love is the strongest of all emotions and therefore sometimes our bond will shatter and bow before it. "Didn't she?" I almost yelled and fixed a hot and angry glare at him, hitting the metallic table hard enough that our plates and glasses and all that was on it trembled. Zack who had been poking his macaroni and cheese lunch set his fork aside. He was strong willed and therefore one of the very few who could put up a fight against me. He fixed a hard and burning glare at me, taunting with his ferocity my very own one. I knew it was foolish to provoke a fight against Zack, for we both could end up in a hospital right away. Still, I couldn't accept the fact that Zack and Aerith could ever end up together, leaving me behind to rot in my loneliness and self-pity and whatever other emotion their relationship could muster up. I wouldn't allow my best friend to run away with my girl and I would never permit that very girl to absorb my best friend. Nevertheless, it could happen for this trick of fate was something my mind hadn't been capable of imagining. Hell, I had a book filled with various ways Aerith could fall into Zack clutches and Zack could fall in hers. For every situation my brain conjured up a counterattack. I was selfish. I knew that. I was very, very selfish. But even within my selfishness...I became unselfish too. I also happened to have an entire notebook of the ways I could counter my feelings for Aerith and of the ways she could ever confess to me. And with every confession and bending of spirit, there was written a way to avoid such situations. I wouldn't leave Zack alone. Never. I cared to much for him to ever let him down. Yet...it seemed he had fallen. Of all the ideas I had imagined, of all the situations that could occur, my mind never created one like this. And it embarrassed me that it was one of the most obvious and simplest occurrences. One, I always teamed up with Zack whenever the time asked for it. Two, if we where ever in separate classes we would managed to convince our teachers that we would make a hell of a project, worthy of a Nobel prize, for us to end up working together. And lastly, it was a promise we had made since our early childhood. So...why? Why did this happen? How could I ever miss this!? It wasn't like me to have failed to see such an obvious situation. But then again, nobody is perfect. Not even someone such as myself. And now...look at me. Here having a glare fight against my very best friend for a girl. I knew we would come through this. I knew we would. But...what would our conditions be after we managed to walk the entire road? Could we still be the best of friends? Or would we become strangers to one another. For now, the only future I could imagine was deep within the blue eyes of Zack, between the fire and fury of his stare. Hated and resented beyond comprehension. So drowned in our fight we were, that we didn't notice the bright blue light at the very back of the cafeteria. So drowned was I in our fight that I completely forgot the major problem at hand. But...I will deal with that later on.