I am so sorry for the delay! Lots of things to do! Lots of things that have yet to be done! Here finally...chapter twelve! Enjoy!
"Um..." I began as soon as we got just before my front door. He for a reason had decided to make me company through the three blocks that separated us from where the taxi had dropped us off and my home. From time to time, I chance a glance at him and there he was, hunched with his eyes towards the ground, his hands on his jacket's pockets and with a slight shivering that would come from every once in a while. Sometimes our eyes would meet and I would be able to read the fear on his. But...what was he afraid of? What could I say to make it better? And so, our walk towards my home was an awkward one, filled with unknown silence and incomplete thoughts. So, here we were, before my front door. "Thanks." He just nodded. "Yes...umm..." I scratched my unruly mop of hair.
"See you tomorrow." He cut and began his walk back towards the street. My manners wouldn't leave it like that and so I yelled.
"Would you like to dine with us?" He turned and I swear I saw a spark of amusement and hope in his sky blue eye. "I mean...due to this magnificent project you came with...I owe you one. It's the least I can do." I smiled nervously. His blue eye analyzed me and I gulped feeling a bit exposed. "W-Would you like to or not?" Damn! Why was I so unlike the confident me at that moment? He walked my way and without even meeting my glance he answered so softly that only a dog could have heard him.
"Yes." I smiled happily and rested my arm on his shoulder. His cheeks immediately turned pinkish. Well, aren't we shy? I chuckled and guided him into my humble home.
"MOTHER! LINK WOULD MAKE US COMPANY FOR DINNER!" I screamed and for a strange and peculiar reason, I was quite happy.
Dinner passed with just me retelling my mother of our bright and amazing discovery and the occasional surprised sounds my mother made upon hearing of our great deeds. I told her everything. About the palace, the marks, the drawings, what we believed and what we still have to discover, of my first impression, about the forest, the doubtfulness of our project, how great we will become, I told her of everything. I even commented about what an excellent partner Link turned out to be and what a great mind he held. My mother just laughed while Link was awfully quiet, eating from his plate the lasagna my mother made, the pinkish tint still present and turning bolder and bolder.
"So Link, tell me...how do you do in school?" My mother asked with a warm smile.
Link gulped a a bit of water and a bit bashfully answered. "Good." I couldn't believe my ears.
"Good?" I exclaimed. " It is better than good. Mother, Link is number one in our generation and we are barely even starting high school." He bit his lip and his pinkish cheeks turned red.
"Ohhh!" My mother covered her mouth. "A natural genius are we?" She giggled.
"You have no idea." I added, a bit offended for my mother now may think of me as an average student. I hoped she didn't think any less of me at the end of the day. Out of the blue my cellphone vibrated. I could feel my mother's scowl as I took it out.
"What have we agreed about cellphones while we eat Cloud?" I heard her ask as I looked at the caller ID...Aerith?
"One second." I said, excusing myself and walking towards the hallway. My heart beat was frantic as if I had run the entire way back home.
"AFTER THIS WE WILL TALK YOUNG MAN!" My mother yelled as I answered.
"Hello?" I greeted a bit embarrassedly.
"Cloud?" An angelic voice came through the receiver.
"Hello? Aerith?" I asked still not believing what my ears were hearing, still not believing this was happening to me. Sure, Aerith and I were friends. But, she rarely called.
"Hello, Cloud!" She giggled. I melted. "How are you?" It can't be. It can't be! IT CAN'T BE! My heart was beating a mile an hour. Aerith, the lady of my dreams, the sun of my days, had dialed my number! She was calling me. She was calling me! Me! I couldn't explain the everlasting and growing sensation in my chest and I prayed that when I opened my mouth, my heart would allow my voice to sound as calm and collected as possible.
"Pretty good. What about you Aerith?" I was dying of excitement.
Her melodious laughter was my answer and miraculously I didn't faint right then and there. "I'm pretty good." After her response, a filling and tense silence came forward. I bit my lip. I had to say something. Anything! The wonderful ambience we had a while ago was gone, blown away by my own bashfulness. Aerith would think of me as a fool! But..what could we talk about? What could I possible say that wouldn't sound prodding but also not so superficial? Maybe if we talked...
"Hey, Cloud." Aerith broke the tense noiseless moment. The air caught on my throat. "I wanted to know if...if you had free next Saturday night?" My mind went blank and the air became dense. What? Wait...what? Was...was she asking me out? Aerith was asking me out? Was asking ME out? Me?...OUT? Was it possible that...My heart stopped beating due to the implications. Did I drive her as mad as she did me? Did she also believe that I was an unattainable angel as I believed her to be? Could her world rotate around me, as mine did around her? I noticed that I had yet to answer her and that she might mistake my silence for a rejection. So as fast as I could I muttered, it sounded like a jumble of words with no apparent meaning. But she seemed to get the meaning of them and giggled slightly. My cheeks couldn't get any redder.
"Great! How about dinner at the small cafe at the central plaza, the one with the bluish roof?" Her voice timid and shy, made me chuckle a bit. Apparently she was as nervous as I was about our incoming date.
"Sounds perfect." Although silent, I could listen an excited "yes" at the other side. I chuckled once more. This wonderful lady just had me head over heels for her.
"Well then, until Saturday Cloud." She said gently.
"Until Satuday, Aerith." A smile was drawn on my face as consequence of the swelling of my heart. That day couldn't get any better. That day had been simply the best day of my life.
"Good-bye, Cloud." She sighed so beautifully that inside me I felt the raging fire of longing.
"Good-bye, Aerith." I added calmly, although inside my entire being was a boiling inferno. Once she hung up, I bit my fist in order to contain my joy. GOD! GOD! GOD! I stomped the floor repeatedly. I could barely contain myself. The ever growing happiness was even beyond me! I wished to scream, to jump, to run outside like a mad man so that the world would know who was it that was going out with the most beautiful girl in the world. I desired the world to know that Cloud Strife was having a date with the lady of his dreams, with the lady of his illusions, with the utmost perfect being on Earth.
"CLOUD! AREN'T YOU DINING WITH US?" My mother screamed from the dining room.
"COMING!" I said quite on a daze, my heart fluttering inside me. I must have looked like a love sick teenage girl who had just been invited to prom by the man of her dreams.
"So...who was it?" Link asked while I prepared the makeshift bed where he would sleep. This was the second time he stayed over due to an extended dinner. Since tomorrow we had school, mother thought rude to sent him at twelve in the night back to his home. So, we agreed that he would sleepover and early tomorrow we would head to his house in order for him to change. Many would have thought weird of us if we arrived to school together and a plan came to me. While mom, washed the dishes I told Link that it would be better if we arrived to school from different angles. He agreed without hesitation. Could he feel as weird as I about our unofficial friendship? Anyway, so here we where, at my room, getting ready for bed. Link had just walked out of the shower when he asked me that bomb kind of question. It made me blush a bit to be reminded of my date with Aerith and so I fussed over the pillow I was placing. Why was he curious of who called me and whatnot? Upon seeing a fine blonde brow arch, I sighed and resigned myself to answer his doubts.
"It was Aerith." I said and dropped the bedspread on the floor. "She asked me out next Saturday night." Our blue eyes clashed and I swore I saw how his icy blue iris became even colder and gelid. He seemed angry. Why?
"She asked you out?" He spat. What was wrong with that?
"Yes." Weird. Link looked quite tense and stiff.
"Aerith Gainsborough, asked you out? You?" His voice was getting offensive and the way he referred to me as if I was some kind of roach made me clench my teeth.
"Is it that impossible to believe?" I asked rudely. He seemed to analyze my question and chuckled darkly, almost like if the whole situation appeared to be a joke to his silly mind.
"No. Afraid not." He crossed his arms. "That bitch would date and jump anything that moves. Hell...she has been the basket for more than half the bananas of our generation." He laughed at his own joke, but I found it quite insulting and...damn did I got mad. Apparently, he wasn't disgusted with the picture of Aerith dating me, but with me dating Aerith.
"Don't you fucking speak of her that way." I growled, my fists clenching until I could feel my nails piercing the bedspread I had just begun to accommodate.
"What?" He chuckled and wiped a tear drop. "Have I offended the poor angel of Cloud's? Oooh, boo-hoo. That whore practically holds a neon sign that reads INSERT HERE! I just state what I see."
"I FUCKING TOLD YOU NOT TO REFER TO HER THAT WAY!" I yelled and threw myself at him. How dare he? How dare he said stuff like that of my Aerith? What? So now that I had a date with the woman I had fancied for as long as I could remember, did he get jealous and decide to ruin it? Like hell will I let that happen! Besides...what does he care who I date or don't? But, in any case...I wasn't about to let some fucktard talk about my girl that way! I about to bash his face in when he spoke once more.
"What's wrong if I say the truth?" He said quite relaxed taking into consideration the position he was in. "Don't let her dolly girl act fool you Cloud! I swear to you that I'm not lying! That girl is like a flea! She goes from dog to dog! Whatever it is that..." I punched him with all the rage I could muster to the point that his lip split as soon as my knuckles touched his face. I took him by the collar and pulled him close. I was going to kill the bastard. Bad-mouthing my girl before me isn't something to be taken lightly. And I was bound to teach this shit that very lesson. Nobody messes with Cloud's girl ever!
"Listen you piece of crap." I hissed. "Aerith isn't just any girl. She is my girl and the purest person I've ever met. She's honest, kind and sweet with everybody she crosses paths with. If you are jealous of that well you can shove that into your ass. Hell I care what you think of her, but before me you will not utter a single offense about her. Who do you think you are?" I punched him again for good measure and once more just to make it clear to him that I wouldn't tolerate any more of his attitude. That's when an idea came to me. What if he wasn't jealous of me dating Aerith, but actually jealous that I was just dating, that he wasn't loved by anybody like I was loved by her. The hatred flowed in my veins. "Poor Truant." His ice blue eyes locked with mine, the orbs shining with...was that despair? "Poor, poor Truant." A voice deep inside of me told me to stop it, to lock the negative feelings away for I would regret letting them out later. Yet, I was blinded by fury and anger and the thoughts brought about by these two flames smothered the single voice of reason that I had. "Jealous of somebody loving me? Tsk. Tsk. Why? It's quite normal for someone who isn't a fucking freak, a weird bug, to be loved. But I guess that's just who you are. And nothing you ever do will change that. Hell...you aren't even worth the try. Who will ever date a weirdo like you? Hm?" I tilted my head a bit to emphasize the strength of my words. "Hm." I took him chin and turned his face this way and that, my glance cold and cruel as I analyzed the man before me. "No. I don't see anything worth loving. All I see is an aberration of nature, something that isn't even worth pitying. So, get it in your head that you'll keep on talking to your imaginary shadows or whatever you have been relating to forever. For that is how it was and will always be. Start getting used to it you fucking asshole!" And once the cruel lashing was finished, I pushed him away from me. Breathing heavily, I frowned and stared at him. His hunched shoulders, the crimson trail from his mouth, the stricken frame, but most of all: his icy blue eye. That marine iris that emanated so profound grief and distress, such sadness and sorrow that in my chest I felt a pang. He looked so betrayed, so impossibly condemned that I...well...I don't remember how I felt for it was empty. I was empty. And upon seeing that same icy blue eye a tad bit wet and that same face of complete resignation, did I realize that I had just broken someone beyond repair. What had I just done? What had I just become? What had made me become such a cruel being? Why did I turned into a savage with no restraints? Where had I lost myself? Why? I stretched my arm in an attempt to grasp him, but he recoiled. "Li...Link I..." He shook his head and stood up quickly, aiming for my door. "Link! Wait!" I tried to stop him, but he was quick and before I knew it, I had my door closed before my face. "Link!" I had to stop him. I had to apologize! I had to! But as soon as I opened my door, I heard the telltale sound of footsteps going down the stairs and after them the resounding noise of the front door being slammed against the wall. All I could do was stare dumbfounded at nothingness, with the trail of his tears the only painful memory of him in my room. I fell on my knees.
"Is the aberration myself?" The dense silence of my room was all I got as an answer.
I pull out the entire wooden cabinet and throw everything upon my undone bed. Yet I know that tonight the pills won't be enough. It will never be enough. "Hah..." I throw myself at my bed. The ever present shadows looming before me. Growing. Waiting. "Nothing...nothing matters. Not anymore." I watch them grow closer and larger and deadlier. "Nothing matters." The hazy blackness is all I see. "Not anymore." I see black and then...more black.