Eventide
Chapter VIII
"Okay students!" Our teacher Sid in Physical ed says. "Today we have a special student with us." The door to the gym opens and a person all dressed in white protective gear comes inside.
Tsubaki and I are standing at the front of the group with students and I can feel Soul staring into my neck, leaving two hot spots. Since I told him off, he hasn't touched me. He didn't break hard when I rode on his bike in order to get close to him. At lunch I sat with Tsubaki and Hiro while Soul sat far away from me beside Black*Star. Hiro and Soul definitely did not like each other. They both ignored each other while Black*Star could give Hiro hateful looks.
"Today you will try out some sword fighting." Immediately the guys start to cheer happily and clap their hands. "I know you wanted it so now shut up so we can continue with the exercise. You are wasting time." The guys, except for Soul and his gang had cheered, which I understand, they fight with swords and weapons daily. This isn't anything new for them. The guys quickly shut up and look kind of offended. "I borrowed a student from the martial arts class so he will be the one to lead the class. You can introduce yourself."
The man dressed in white takes off his helmet and… it's Hiro. He smiles wide toward me. "My name is Hiro the Brave. I'm taking the martial art class and Sid asked me to do a lesson for you guys, so yeah, that's it." Hiro kneels down toward a bag that Sid had brought with him earlier and took out two swords. "The swords are very dull, but if you are hit, it can still hurt so I want all of you to go and put on the protective gear. It is inside of the gear room."
The guys all run inside at ones while Tsubaki and I walk inside of the gear room casually. The guys rip the gear off the walls and brings it out where they then put them on. It is kind of hard knowing which one to take because all of them are really large. I grab the smallest they have and put it on outside of the gear room.
"Hey Maka." I turn around and find Hiro standing there with two swords in his hand. "I was wondering if you could be my partner, you know, show some stuff what you are going to be doing." Hiro offers me a sword, which I take, it is much heavier than I thought it would be. It will be hard to swing it around.
"Sure, you never said you took martial arts classes."
Hiro smirks while we head back toward the group. "Ditto, I don't know all of the classes you are taking, you know just like you don't know all of the classes I'm taking." Hiro leads me toward the front of the classroom and it is kind of embarrassing standing there in front of the class. Soul doesn't seem very happy because his mouth is shaped into a line and his face is tense.
"Maka will help me with the exercise. So you can team up in groups of two."
I thought Soul and Black*Star would team up, but Soul didn't even give him a single look and instead went up to me and Hiro. "The class are even to be divided in groups of two." He says without looking at Hiro.
"Okay, then you will be with Maka, but I will borrow her to demonstrate what you will be doing."
"No." Soul says.
"What do you mean no?" I snap at him. What kind of trick is he pulling this time?
"You are going to demonstrate with me. Not her."
"You aren't the one to make the calls. I'm the one who is leading the class. You follow my instructions and it is Maka I will demonstrate with." Hiro narrows his eyes at Soul and the space between them reduces. Oh, it looks like they are going to fight.
"You son of a―"
"Stop." Quickly I get between them and push them away from each other. "We are in class. Soul, Hiro is the one in charge. Let him lead. Don't go and pick on him." Soul growls and looks very displeased. He crosses his arms over his chest and takes a step backwards.
"Fine."
"Good, now I'm going to show you how to hold a proper posture." Hiro shows the whole class how to hold the sword correctly and have a nice stance. Of course the ones in Soul's group nail it immediately along with Soul. Black*Star and Tsubaki did group up and they seem awfully close to each other and may I say, kind of kinky with the sword. Black*Star stands really close to Tsubaki while she gently caresses his sword. I bet Black*Star would want her to stroke something else than the sword.
It was awfully awkward being around Soul. During all of the exercises he kept looking at me with those kinds of eyes. Eyes that send shiver down my spine with want to close the distance between us and kiss me passionately. The way his muscles curve underneath his shirt, stretched and moved was utterly delicious as he jabbed his sword at mine and successfully got my sword to fly through the air before he caught it in his hand skillfully.
"You aren't concentrating." Soul says while we stand in front of each other. He hands me back my sword, which I quickly accept without touching his hand. "Want to tell me what is on your mind?"
How the heck did he know that? I'm wearing the protective gear, which Soul refused to wear, it covers my whole body and my face. He can't possibly see that I'm not focusing. "I'm fine. You are just imagining things." I circulate toward the left and he follows my lead, sword raised and ready to leap toward me.
"You can't cover it up. I can see you are far away from here, tell me, what is going on? You can tell me anything." That is the problem. I can't tell him everything. We aren't even supposed to be around each other because I'm mad at him and I want to hate his guts, but I can't. I just can't hate him for what he did toward me. It is so hard to stay away from him especially when he is like this, all kind and concern about me. I hate him for making me feel this way, I'm not supposed to feel safe and well in his presence, I'm supposed to want to run away and never see him again, but then again, I can't stay away from his eyes, his beautiful scarlet eyes. They truly are intoxicating.
"Just stop it." I say leaping toward him with my sword but he quickly parry by blocking my attack and switch places with me. "Stop acting concern when I know you never cared about me. Just stop with this whole charade. I told you to stop hurting me but you keep doing it again and again. Haven't you had enough of it all?"
Soul sighs loudly, running his free hand through his hair, a very Soul-like habit. "Maka, I'm not going to stop with anything since I do sincerely care about you. I did care about you all along and I'm sorry that I hurt you, but I'm not going to stay away because you know what you are and you are one of us and we stand up for each other. I'm not going to leave anytime soon."
His eyes. They are looking at me like that again. With concern and care. Why does he always have to do this? I hate it. Why does he have to play with my heart like this? "See! You only cared about me because I was one of you. You never actually cared about me as a person. It was all because of your damned duty. Do you even know how much that hurts?"
"I never―" Soul lets go of his sword and it clatters as it hits the ground. He takes a step toward me and I quickly point my sword to his chest. He looks between the sword digging into his shirt and me. That is when he slaps the sword away with the back of his hand and pulls me into a rough hug. "Listen to me. I was never with you because of some damn duty that you keep telling yourself. I was with you because I genuinely liked you. You are an awesome chick and very fun to be with. You are so interesting and―"
I can't help but to cry. Tears trickle down my cheeks and I'm very grateful for wearing the helmet. "Stop Soul!" I push him away from my chest. "Just stop playing with me! I'm not your personal toy you can keep toying with!"
"Maka, just let me explain―"
"No! I don't want to hear it!" I find myself walking away from Soul and the class. I exit the classroom and find a bathroom I lock myself inside. The tears trickle down my cheeks, while my heart bleeds.
He just had to play with my heart like this, haven't I already done enough for him? He was tired of being with me and playing with me, he went back to Jaqueline but still he keeps doing this to me. It is very hurtful and I can't take this kind of treatment from him. I can't be close to him knowing that he has hurt me before and he will do it again and again and again. I can't do that, that's just one of the things I can't do. What is he expecting me to do? He is just around there and hurt me with his presence alone, what is it he is trying to achieve by doing this?
I don't know, but he is trying to get something out of me. We never went the whole way, so is that what he wants? My virginity? Is all he cares about sex? It does seem like him since he couldn't keep it in his pants.
I can't keep sitting like this and trying to analyze him. He is a mystery and I know he is the only one I won't ever be able to figure out with the help of logic, and quite frankly, I don't want to know him. I don't want to know what drives him to do such horrible things and what it is that keeps him going. I don't want to know Soul. I need to break everything off with him. I will no longer train with him, I won't look at him. I won't let him come close to me.
Yeah, that seems like a good plan of attack.
After I wiped away the tears and my eyes didn't look so puffy, I walk out of the bathroom and heads toward the gym where our class takes place. I hope I didn't worry Hiro or Tsubaki. They must have seen me walk away.
Entering the classroom, I was not expecting to find this, the whole class standing in a half circle and cheering loudly and whistles. When I walk up to them and elbow myself to the front, I shouldn't be surprised when I see Hiro and Soul having their swords raised toward the others. Hiro's hair is ruffled and his helmet lies forgotten on the ground. Soul has a bruise on his cheek and his hair is even messier than it usually is. They are fighting and I really shouldn't be surprised since there has always been tension between them which would have to release sometime. This just happened to be the time.
Soul looks absolutely pissed off, he clenches the sword in his hands and if looks could kill, he would have killed Hiro over and over.
They leap toward each other, growling loudly. Their swords clash and I can barely keep up with them. All I hear is the clatter of their swords. They aren't playing around, they are going at each other with everything they got. If someone doesn't stop them, then they might end up killing each other.
I'm about to throw myself into the fight but then a hand lays on my shoulder, pulling me back. "This is their fight." I look over my shoulder, seeing Black*Star and Tsubaki. "Soul and Hiro need this. Don't interfere."
"What?" I look baffled at Black*Star. "But they will end up really hurting each other if this keeps going!"
"They need this to close their wounds. They can't move on if this doesn't happen."
Move on from what exactly? So they did know each other before and now they hate each other because of it. What did they do toward the other?
Soul kicks Hiro in the stomach which sends him flying.
"HIRO!" I exclaim and I can no longer stand and watch them keep fighting like this. I run up to Hiro and he smiles weakly toward me.
"Oh, hi Maka, I didn't know you came back. Did you enjoy the show?" He looks kind of gone. His eyes are moving in circles and I swear I see stars over his head.
"Idiot! That wasn't a show! You were going at each other like you were going to kill each other!" I put my hand over his. "Are you hurt? Do you need to visit the nurse's office?"
"Don't worry about me." Hiro gently sits while he rubs his back. "I'm fine. I just need to walk it off. I will be fine in a couple of minutes."
"I'm glad to hear that." I smile toward him before I turn toward Soul who stands a couple feet away from us, completely dumbfounded. I glare at him. "Don't you know better than to engage in a fight like this? You two are crazy!"
"But he―"
"No buts!" I stand up and glare at him. "You should know better! I can't believe you would actually hurt someone like this! You are unbelievable!" I help Hiro up on his feet and he starts to walk away, winching in pain. "I have had enough of your stunts, just leave me alone already! I don't want anything to do with you!"
"Just let me explain―" Soul looks pleadingly at me. Wow, I can actually read what he is feeling for once, but it is too late now.
"No! You could have explained a long time ago but you chose to keep everything a secret! I'm sick and tired of you! Just do me a favor and leave me alone! I don't care about you anymore! I don't want to see you ever again!" I turn on me heel and catch up with Hiro, leaving Soul and the whole class behind who had silently watched everything unfold.