Chapter 4 :D Yeai! :D Enjoy!
I dried my hair which mysteriously returned to its natural spiky state and like if it defied all laws of gravity as soon as I removed the towel from my head. I sighed tiredly. I had had a rough day, but...Bless the heavens! It's Friday! No school tomorrow and I could rest and enjoy the well-deserved weekend. Even though, I had yet to study for my Biology exam next week. But...that could wait. Today and the morning of tomorrow I would devote myself in repose and take a time off from school related stuff. Besides...I don't wish to brag. Actually, I am a pretty modest person and humility is almost my second name. Nevertheless, I don't find it unnecessary to tell you this...But I am actually a student with near perfect scores. Therefore, I don't find it of any use to immerse myself in studies today. Of course, I'll kill myself later studying till I drop after my rest. I ain't like some other people I know of. And by other people I specifically mean Truant. Yes. I am intelligent and an innate genius. But, I am not the kind of smart that, just because they are far cleverer than the rest and gifted with unlimited knowledge, laze around and don't put any effort. No. With me, it's exactly the other way around. I double the effort in my work. And that extra push I give is always reflected upon the impeccable notes I get and the constant letters that the school principal send to my house.
To say that my mother shouts out of glee doesn't make justice to the happiness she emanates whenever she is reminded of the genius she has for a son. There is nothing more gratifying than to see the big wide smile drawn on my mother's face. She deserves it. She deserves all the joys of the world. Our life...Hasn't been exactly a fairytale. It has been filled with numerous obstacles and discouragements. From someone else's point of view it will look like some sick melodramatic novel. You see...ever since my father passed to the realm of the dead, my mother has had it black and gray. Working like she were a woman from the Industrial Revolution breaking her delicate back in harsh labor and long shifts just to keep up with the lifestyle we have. The least I could do is to show that her work does repay. It is the least I could do since she prohibited me from finding a job myself to aid the family economy. But, please don't take it wrong. Our life isn't that bad. In fact, we could be considered a middle class type of family. Yet, it pains me to see my mother so emaciated and with so lifeless most of the time. Each day after work she arrives exhausted. And as soon as she steps into our home, she eats, bathes and goes to bed. I feel even more miserable seeing her getting old quicker than any woman her age. And all because of stress and excessive work. I wish I could do something more. I really wish. But, the only thing I can give her are the tiny joys of a prodigal son. But...these ones will be multiplied when I grow up and have a nice job. I will repay her the way she deserves. A big, gigantic house with a mountain view; plenty of dresses, so many that she couldn't count them all; a spa day every week; butlers and maids everywhere, a chauffeur that will take her anywhere any time. In a few words: I'll give her the good life. Never will she have to raise a finger to meet the day's end. Never will she have to work till ungodly hours to keep our life in balance. No. It will be the other way around. I'll work. I'll become an important CEO of an important company founded by me. A company that will be the top everywhere and will reach the skies with its big skyscrapers. And my mother...My mother will be beside me. A proud mother beside her important, world-reknown son. It will be perfect. The perfect life that she longs for. I'll make it to fulfill all her wishes and more. She will be the happiest person there has ever been. Happier than she had ever been. Happier than what my father made her.
I finished dressing and stepped out of the shower rooms. Today, I had stayed till six to do a bit of gym. It was one of my ways to remove a bit of weight from my shoulders. Like some form of meditation. It relaxed me and allowed me to think in stuff I didn't usually have the time to. This time...I thought of my scene with Zack. We will always be friends. I am sure of it. Yet, beside a confident streak...there is always that little bug of doubt and unrest that lives along it. Inside of me, deeply inside of me, I fear that if something were to be born between Zack and Aerith...Zack will forget me. Even if my heart was strong and firm, the column that supports it, along with my ideals, possesses a tiny witty crack that step by step is transforming into a fissure that would, one day, make my whole security crumble to the ground like a pile of cards on a table. If his love for Aerith causes him to forget all about me...I don't know if I could ever raise at mornings ever again. I could put up a mask of happiness every single day. Internally though, it will be like a hemorrhage killing me slowly and unnoticeably. If I ever lost Zack's attention, if I remain like a ghost of his past...I won't be able to stand it. For me, all of my other supposed classmates were just acquaintances, pseudo friends. But Zack..nobody could ever replace the friendship I had with him. Nobody could ever fill the gap Zack could leave on me. I dislike being alone. My loneliness is my holocaust. I can't survive it. Being alone, feeling utterly forgotten is the worst fate the heaven's could ever designate for me. I fear solitude. I fear the incomparable silence of living with just one's self. It drives me insane to think of myself with no one beside me. But...If Zack wishes for it to be like that, if he really does...I'll be there supporting and standing by his choice. From the shadows I will keep vigil of him. Like a guardian angel, I'll see with my very own eyes that his happiness is ever lasting. For my very best friend, I'ld throw away everything. Even my love and our bond. His joy...His happiness is be worth it. I could keep on for a while; pretending that everything is as fine as it could be. Alone. The love towards my mother would keep me going for a few years. Nevertheless, the persona known as Cloud will be bound to slowly vanish. I will become like a living carcass of someone you knew. I could be, but not exist. Like a robot, I'll live my life by means of autopilot; a puppet with strings. Yes. If Zack were ever to leave me behind, that's how I'll end. Alone. And all because of a woman. A woman whom I love and Zack loves as well. After getting to such a conclusion, I ended up not wanting to exercise anymore.
And well...Here I am, walking to my warm home. Normally, I would leave gym at seven thirty. But today after my meanderings, I ended my activities an hour and a half earlier. My depression impeded me from keeping on. Sometimes, the best choices involve self-sacrifice. Sadly, although we are willing to do so, we later on regret them and start to conjure up different scenarios in which we could have ended with different results. What's done, it's done. It doesn't matter how long we wish for the consequences of our actions to be different. Nothing will change. "Well, time to go home I guess." I sigh pathetically. " I hope mom cooked something delicious." Mother had asked to take the day off. And of course they allowed it for she had been a really hard-working employee. She undeniably deserved it more than any other worker.
As I walk and think of what had my beloved mother cooked for dinner, to my ears comes the sound of laughter. Evil and cold laughter. For a few moments I am dumbfounded. Ever since I can recall, only students who are of a representative team and I are the only people around six o'clock in school. Especially on Fridays. The laughter came once more and with it my recognition system triggered. These laughters belonged to the four most vile and terrible peers I had ever met in this school: Ganondorf, Ghirahim, Sephirtoh and Loz. This could mean no good whatsoever. Wherever this quartet of guys where...it only meant trouble and pain. Against my survival instincts that told me to flee like a deer followed by a puma, I run towards the direction those macabre laughs are coming from; ending up in the entrance of the building I was located in. Silently, I creep behind one of the columns of the frontage. I know it sounds coward, but for now it'll have to be this way. I could fight off one o two of the boaster club. I am pretty strong myself. Against four...that's a different story. Suicidal at the most. I search around the visible school-grounds for the caravan of buffoons. I am worried about the things they could have done for them to be laughing like a bunch of noble ladies sipping tea. They are pretty well-known around the school for their achievements as athletes. They are the stars of our football team. Yet behind that facade of strong and athletic men, there laid the true colors that made them up. A bunch of troublemakers and bullies. I was amazed at how the school did nothing to set them right. And curiously it made sense the lack of school's involvement. The four are the stars and therefore held privileges for being the pride and joy of our school. Still...that was absurd. And since almost all the others students feared them...well the sickly cycle kept on and on.
Finally, four shadows catch my attention. And indeed, the shadows are the quartet of rascals coming behind a corner of the very same building I was in. They are merrily laughing and giving each other a few pats in the back in a victory and well-done manner. With my eyes, I follow them as a hawk does its prey. Waiting patiently until they got lost in the school entrance. I have a pretty detailed idea of what they could have possibly done and, if I am not mistaken, it involved a poor unfortunate soul who happened to cross paths with them. Poor kid would be pretty beaten up and bleeding. That was the job of those four. Although, I wish to help my fellow classmate I couldn't until the four brutes left the school for good. I don't want to end with a black eye. And so I wait and wait till the last tip of Sephiroth's long, flowy and silvery hair disappeared. As soon as it did, I pounce in the direction from where they had morphed from, hoping the poor soul was still in an acceptable condition.
I stop when my eyes land upon the bleeding mass who rested against the bricked wall. The clothing clawed at and stained with reddish spots that kept growing in size due to the cuts along the victim's body. The hair clogged together due to the carmine liquid that oozed from the victim's forehead, its arms and legs filled with bruises and cuts as well. In a few words, the poor soul before me was the pure representation of a massacre. I desperately run towards my fallen classmate and kneel before him. I take the victim by the shoulders carefully, in order not stress the wounds anymore. Those bastards! They had left this person to die so easily. I wish to claim revenge as seething rage brews within me. But that could wait. For now, my priority was the person in my arms. The hate I have always felt for the strong abusing the weak would have to be forgotten for now. Besides, I can't handle all four of them by myself. Look what that kind of idea lead my classmate to. I gently shake the person by the shoulders. "Hey. Can you hear me? Hey." I shook as kindly as I could, hoping to receive any sign that the one in my arms was still alive. Should've seen the surprise I underwent when a cold blue iris landed upon me, the other covered by a veil of golden bangs. To say I am shocked to the point I forgot how to breathe would be a lie, for never have I seen such person look so vulnerable in all of the time I've known him. How couldn't I have recognized him if just the feel of his presence sent me to uncontainable anger? How couldn't I have? Cloud could never miss a detail.
The victim in my arms was none other than the person whom I loathed with all my soul...
The victim was none other than Truant.