I let out a groan when I woke up, I was unimaginably sore I'd have to get Seifer back someday. Oh, who was I kidding each and every time Seifer and I got into a fight, I would end up with a fresh batch of bruises. I was hurting too much to want to move around, so instead I started to think. I didn't want it to happen, but shortly my thoughts arrived at a single destination, Naminè.
Memories of her and I went through my head, the day we first met, when I first asked her out, and the first time we kissed. I threw all of that away because I had to act like an angry little kid and act like it was somehow her fault I got beat up. Maybe she was right when she had called me a psycho, I really shouldn't have gotten mad at her like I did. I often asked myself why I always got so angry, but I never had an answer for myself even though deep down I knew.
Everything had started when I was about ten years old. For years my parents were always fighting, but I guess it took until then for me to actually notice how bad it was. Nearly everytime I saw my mom she would have bruises on her arms and sometimes her face and her eyes would be red as if she'd been crying. She'd make excuses about why she always looked like that but I knew that it was my dad doing it, and as you can imagine that made me angry, but there wasn't anything I could do. Rather, I would take it all out on my friends, my classmates and occasionally a teacher.
A couple years later when I was twelve it was as if my dreams finally came true, and my parents split. After that had happened me and my mom had moved to Twilight Town, but nothing really changed for me. I don't know why I still got angry like I did, maybe it was that I felt he didn't get like he deserved, maybe it was just all bottles up, I just didn't know. I went through a counseling at request of my mom but that didn't help either, because I never told them anything. Over the course of time things did die down a bit between getting friends like Hayner, and Naminè. I guess the other day only proved things didn't get much better for me.
I was pulled from my thoughts though when there was a light knocking on my door. It was opened and it was none other than my mom standing on the other side. "Roxas." She said sweetly, "You're late for school." I looked over at my clock for the first time that morning and saw it was almost noon, it never occurred to me what time it was or that I had school. The pills I had taken the night before probably let me sleep through my alarm. Unfortunately for me that was the least of my worries at the moment, for if I sent into school today I'd have to see Naminè and that was something I didn't want to do. "Can I just stay home? I'm really tired and I don't feel too well." I lied, well sorta, I was actually tired and I was in pain, but that's not why I wanted to stay home.
"I suppose so." To a normal person it would appear she ate the lie, but I knew otherwise she'd ask me about it later. "Now I have to go to work, stay in the house for today, I love you."
"Love you too mom." I said in response. With that she left my room, and after a few minutes she left the house leaving me alone. I heard her car pull out of the driveway and fell back onto my bed with a sigh.
After a while of laying there it became clear to me that falling back asleep was out of the question. It was as if a cloud of guilt from the day before was keeping me from sleep. There was only one solution to that particular problem in my mind, so I sat up and grabbed my phone of my nightstand. When I unlocked my phone I was actually disappointed to see that there wasn't anything from Naminè, but that was to be expected. There was however a message from Hayner asking if I knew what was up with her, I decided to ignore that. Anyway, after scrolling through my contacts for a little while I found who I was looking for Lea.
Lea was one of the closest people to me, we had met a few summers back when I first moved to Twilight Town. He was the first person to actually befriend me, and introduced me to the best thing ever, sea salt ice cream. In more recent times however he'd began to sell and use drugs, Seifer was right about that. Even though he used the "codename" Axel, everyone in school knew who he was and what he did. I knew if there was one way to take my mind off things, he had the hook up, and I could get it for free perks of being a best friend I suppose.
I sent him a text asking him if he actually went to school that day. Moments later he responded to me saying I should come over to his house. I changed into some actual clothes, put on my jacket, grabbed my skateboard and headed out. I skated to his house quickly in fear that I'd be seen by my mom or one of her friends. I knew very well that she would already be at work, but whenever I went out without her knowing I always got paranoid. Anywho, just a few minutes later I got to Lea's house and walked in his front door, knocking was something neither of us did anymore.
After walking in and kicking off my shoes I went to his room. I could already smell that he had been smoking, but I didn't dare walk in, last time I saw things that could not be unseen. I knocked on his bedroom door and waited, it was just a few seconds before he opened his door. One of the most noticible things about Lea was his fiery red, spiky hair, you'd swear he used gel, but like me his spikes were supposedly natural.
"What's up Roxy." He greeted me casually, "I was just smoking a quick one before you got here. We're going down into the basement."
I just nodded my head in response and shortly after he led me down into the basement. If the outside of his door had smelt like someone smoking weed, his basement smelled like a full on clam bake. Lea threw all kinds of parties at his house, because the lucky bastard's parents didn't care what he did.
"So how's Aqua? She ask about me lately?" He asked me as he was rolling a joint for us. He was referring to my mom, since the first time he came to my house he's always had a crush on her. When I shook my head and chuckled at him. "I swear I'm gonna hit that someday Roxas, even if she is your mom. You just wait and see."
I couldn't help but laugh at him, the funniest part was that he was dead serious. "Speaking of which" He started off again, "You get any from Naminè yet?"
Just hearing him say her name made me tense up. I hadn't actually told anyone what happened the other and didn't intend to, so I just kept my cool. "Umm, no" I answered, "We've never really done anything like that." Saying just that simple sentence was a lot harder than it should have been. I felt really weird talking about her right then, especially in that context.
He simply shook his head at my reply, "Roxas my boy there's just something you need to understand. She's probably had a pacifier, lollipops, popsicles, bananas. She's been preparing for her whole life." He broke out into hysterical laughter as soon as he finished, as if he'd said the funnies joke in the world. After calming down for a few minutes he started talking again, "Anyway enough about that, time to get high." Now that I could get behind.
A few hours, and a two joints later we were just laying there, him on the couch he had in his basement, and me in the floor. We were in the process of "coming down" and figured it best if we just relaxed the whole time. We were silent for a while, we just laid there he broke the silence eventually though.
"We need to do this more often." He said, as if just thinking out loud. "We don't hang out enough."
"Yeah, for sure." I agreed with him, between getting high and Lea's company my plane of taking my mind off things was a success. Not to mention he was right, we didn't hang out nearly as much as we had in the past. "Especially since this is your last year at school." He went silent for a moment at that, I actually had no idea what his plans were after he graduated, but I always assumed we'd be split up.
"Yeah." He said quietly, "But look at the bright side, we have the better part of a year before I'm going anywhere!" That made him smile, and me as well. Maybe we would be split up soon enough, but there was still a while before that would happen.
When things got silent again I pulled out my phone to check the time, and I'll say I nearly had a heart attack when I did. '7:56' was what it read my mom left work at eight, and I wasn't even supposed to be here. "Shit!" I yelled out as I got up and ran around the basement searching for my jacket.
"What's up with you?" Lea questioned me, I guess me shooting up and yelling like that probably startled him.
"I wasn't supposed to go out today and my mom is getting out of work soon!" I explained while slipping on my jacket that I had just found laying on the ground. "I gotta hurry up and get home, see ya around school or something."
"If you're still alive that is." He added in, clearly amused by my predicament, and his comment did nothing to calm my nerves. I ran out of his basement and to his front door as fast as possible. I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my skateboard and was out the door.
I can honestly say that was the fastest skating I'd probably ever did in my life. If I was paranoid about getting caught before, it was nothing compared to what I felt right that second. In any case, I got back to my house in what felt like an hour and I was sure my mom would be waiting for me. Although all the lights were off, which was a good sign I still felt uneasy. I unlocked the door and to my relief everything was fine, she wasn't home yet. I rushed into my room and changed back into the shorts I had been wearing that morning and pretended to sleep.
It felt like it had been another hour or two before my mom got home, but in reality I knew it only took a few minutes. I heard the front door open and I was sure she'd find out I went out somehow. After about another minute or two she finally knocked on my door. "Roxas, you awake?" She said, however she didn't wait for a response and instead came in and flicked on my light.
"Well I am now." I said feigning drowsiness
"So I saw Naminè's mother today at work/" She started off, and I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet. How could I have possibly forgotten that our mom's worked together. I wondered how much she knew of what happened the other day if anything. Maybe Naminè hadn't said anything I hoped that was the case. "She told me that Naminè came home crying yesterday and wouldn't tell her why. Do you know anything about that?"
She hadn't known anything other than that Naminè was crying, I could've just lied and said I didn't know anything. That would've just been stupid though my mom knew I walked her home, I would just be suspicious if I said I didn't. Instead I decided to do the only smart thing and just fess up. "When I was walking home with Naminè yesterday we had a fight." I said, purposefully not revealing any details about said fight. When my mom looked at me expectantly I added, "And I may have said a few things I shouldn't have said."
Talking about what had happened just made me feel worse about what I did. The timing couldn't have been worse too, just after I got my mind off of things with a bit of help from Lea. Oh well it was bound to come up eventually I guessed. "I'm not gonna lecture you or anything, but I think you should apologize tomorrow." My mom said to me, "Good night." She gave me a quick hug before going off to her room probably tired after work.
I let out a sigh and sunk into my bed. I thought about it for a moment, I could just go over to her house and apologize. I'm not actually sure why I hadn't thought of something that simple. But then another thought struck me, would a simple apology work? I guess I'd have to find out the next day.
A/N: And there's chapter 2 for you folks! I know I said I'd have this up on Wednesday but there were some complications so here it is on Friday. Anyway please leave a review if you're feeling nice, and I'll try and get chapter 3 to ya in a week or so.