Till I'm Gone
Sora Matasuki
Chapter Seven
Hiro's day - while brightened by the correspondence between himself and Tomoko - only got worse from lunch period onwards. He had rinsed out his toilet soaked hair in the sink, using liberal amounts of hand soap as a shampoo. He just knew hand soap was not good for his hair. He would prefer not having to get a buzz cut just because of some stupid hand soap causing clumps of hair to fall off. But the idea of walking around the school with hair that smelled like the underside of the bathroom would be even worse. So threatening his hair with crappy soap was basically the only option he had left.
He ducked underneath the hand drier and winced as hot air blew out and seemed to scorch his neck and fingers as he combed through his shaggy locks to make sure it didn't clump together in awkward places. Well… more than it did naturally.
Eventually though, when Hiro was relatively more dry than when he'd first started, he acknowledged that his attempts to stall himself had finally run out of steam. It was time to exit the relative safety of the bathroom, despite being the scene to a lost battle, in a war Hiro felt completely out matched and outnumbered in. This scene of defeat was asfer than the halls where most people had probably seen the video by now…
Hiro approached the door and froze, hand on the door handle as he fought an inner war with himself.
"C'mon, you big baby…" the twelve year old whispered to himself, biting his lip. "It's just words. People probably haven't even seen it yet."
A sick feeling in his stomach told him he was wrong.
Thomas Mathews let out a startled snort as he was shaken out of his dozing state by the buzz of his phone. He leaned forwards, the front legs of his chair hitting the ground with a thump as he dug his phone from out of his pocket.
It was from one of the little freshies he'd taken under his wing and corrupted when Tadashi wasn't looking and contained a link to a youtube video. A follow up message soon appeared: "Headphones necessary if Papa Hamada is nearby. Took the Rookie swimming." directly after Thomas entered his messaging app. The lazy seventeen year old raised an eyebrow at the caption then eyed a deeply engrossed Tadashi - who was cramming unnecessarily for an AP Anatomy test, weighing his options. He shrugged, and dug out his headphones. Nope. Wasn't gonna risk it.
Tadashi would murder him if he knew what he'd been up to on the internet. And no, he didn't mean his browser history - though he'd probably be murdered for that too. With a snap, he was connected to his phone and the sound was safely rerouted to his headphones. His thumb hovered over the link as his eyes did a final examination on the states of his fellow classmates, landing on Tadashi in particular. No one noticed the illegal usage of phone and likely no one would care, this period being Study Hall and full of nerds. They were all too busy cramming.
He tapped onto the link, the sound blaring in his ears too quiet for others to notice as his eyes were drawn to what his little proteges had titled it: 'GENIUS GOES FOR A SWIM'
His other blond eyebrow moved to join the one already raised. Well he didn't tutor them for their creativity… With a snort, the seventeen year old exited out of the app and went back to his message app.
With a press of his thumb he had copied the link and with a flick of his fingers he had sent the link zinging off into the school by way of his well established contacts.
In a moment of deliberation, Thomas entered the youtube app once more and went to the comments.
Fingers flying across his screen, he covertly typed his message. With barely a hesitation, his thumb pressed the post button, uploading his 'LOL what a loser' to the internet without any thought towards how it would effect the younger Hamada.
The kid was smart, he'd figure how to navigate highschool soon enough. The nails that stood up always got hammered down after all. You had to be cool.
Thomas put his phone away and leaned back in his chair, eyes observing the elder Hamada as he bent over his work and scribbled something before frowning and erasing it just frantically.
It had been touch and go with Tadashi, if Thomas was being honest with himself. The kid's saving grace was the natural charisma that practically all the girls gravitated towards. Didn't help that he was the "nice guy" type (whatever that meant). If it weren't for that and the fact that his science projects were something to be feared, had kept the elder from suffering the same fate as his little brother.
How they'd been able to keep the rumors and videos away from Tadashi was still a mystery to Thomas. It was probably that stupid obsession he had for college. When he got an idea that deeply hooked into him, there was no way to distract him from the tunnel vision. Thomas knew that from previous experiences with the Science Fairs that usually swamped the guy down even more. Those days were torture for the blonde, since Tadashi was usually the dude who funded his burrito raids.
Meh. Whatever, he was tired. Thinking wore him out. Why did the Hamadas even like it so much?
Five minutes later, Thomas was dead to the world once more, unaware of the hurt he would contribute to. Or at least, unthinking of the consequences. The universe was unsure of which was worse: willful blindness or unflattering stupidity in the face of human compassion.
Hiro hated the whispers and laughter that followed him around now. He hated that he flinched whenever there was a loud noise like a locker slamming, terrified that his tormentors might shove him into one of them just for kicks and giggles. It had happened before. He was certain it would happen again.
Hiro just wanted to curl up into a ball in a dark deserted corner and just sleep away everything. His heart ached, not in a physical way, but with a pain that couldn't be dulled by medicine. He was tired. But the day wasn't over, and Hiro couldn't sleep just yet. There was one more class he had to suffer through.
With a trembling sigh, Hiro glanced up at the sign that announced to the world the boy's locker room and hesitantly pushed open the door. Laughter and jeering rushed over his ears and he automatically flinched back, despite how he logically knew they weren't directed at him. In his experiences with high school, laughter always meant some form of imminent pain and so his body was now conditioned to react as if he could really avoid it.
Hiro let out a weary hum and quietly made his way to his locker, eyes firmly fixed on his feet. If he could just make it to his locker and get changed, he wouldn't have as many troubles.
He hoped.
AN: Hey guys, sorry for the late update (and the shortness of this chapter TTATT), but life kinda grabbed hold and gave me a firm uppercut to the face all the while yelling "NO". PE has been evil and exhausting (I need a Baymax so he can go tell the PE department that their workouts are too grueling and that we need to warm up better because one of the workouts actually left me in exhausted emotional tears and I don't cry over physical education...) and by the end of the day I didn't have the mental energy to sit down and write this, because lets face it, I'm getting depressed by writing this too.
Mental and physical exhaustion + depressing story = depressed author and unmotivated muses. So take heart, because you guys aren't alone in being depressed by the fandom. (Can I hug all of you? Because we just need a group hug. And fandom therapy.) (TTATT) I keep getting slammed by Hamada bro feels. Plus, a friend was having some troubles with an evil teacher so I needed to focus on motivation instead of the downward decline of Hiro's mental state. But, hey! Here's an update so you all know that I'm not dead, life is just being really mean right now. (XP)
Hopefully my muses will be back to their two day writing schedule now that a weekend is upon us! Yay for Fridays~!
Big thanks (and heated hugs via Baymax) go tooooo~: Treasured Sanctum, Snowflake, LadyWendy202, Phsychotic Fruitloop, Chibi Atariel Tsukai, darkprincess1990, Waterlilly49, BlueD, Highcrest Tomoko, Aleita and Hiro, DreamweaverAki, Sushi Hawkeye, Wheee, DisneyandWildKrattfangirl, QueenPersphoneofHades, KanaMac, TheShyShadow, LizzyAnnG, aaaaaand Anymoose13! Thanks so much you guys, you are all wonderful people. I wish I could hug all of you and give you all hot chocolate in person. (TTATT)