Chapter 5: Words Can Be Knives
"Taurtis! Get up! We need to get ready for school! Taurtis!" Taurtis groaned and rolled over muttering something about 'five more minutes'. "Taurtis! Wake up! There's an intruder in the house!" That seemed to do the trick seeing that Taurtis shot out of bed "Not in my house! Fight me you- oh. Morning Sam." Sam just giggled to himself before walking to the door "Hurry up and get ready Taurtis. We gotta get to school soon." The black haired male groaned and tried to roll back into bed, only to get a bag of Toritos thrown at him in response. "Get up or I'm leaving you behind." "Noooo, Saaaaam. I'll get up I swear!" "You better." After the boys finished getting ready, or rather, Taurtis finally finished getting ready, they rushed to CrabManCarl and PufferFishPete's store to get their lunch before bolting to the school. Luckily, today they had plenty of time so they didn't have to run nearly as fast as yesterday. A few moments after arriving, it was time for roll call. Roll call went quick enough, only Yuki, Chan,Pepe, Ellen, and Patty were absent. "That's the second time in a row, wonder what's up with them?" Sam whispered softly to Taurtis. "Chan, Yuki, Pepe, Ellen, and Patty haven't been back in a while. It's kinda weird." Sam nodded softly and was about to speak before Okami cut him off. "We will be doing math today, so please get your books out." A collective sigh rang out as everyone got their stuff out. "Today we will be working on inequalities. Turn to chapter 3 in your books please." The rest of the class was fairly uneventful as everyone did their homework. "Okay everyone, homework on page 243 tonight, numbers one through 12. Make sure you get it done." The bell rang, clearing them to head off to lunch.
Sam smiled cheerfully as he and Taurtis headed down to lunch, he hadn't had a nightmare last night, so he felt infinitely better. Of course, Dom had to go and ruin his mood by shoving him down the steps. "Seriously Dom! Leave Sam alone!" "Ha, not my fault the loser can't walk to save his life." "He'd walk better if you'd stop tripping him." Dom just waved his hand with a laugh as he walked away with Hidden and JTS to their table. Taurtis quietly helped Sam up. "You okay Sam?" Sam nodded before shaking his head and smiling. "I'm okay Taurtis." Taurtis sighed as he went over to their lunch table and sat down, Sam quick behind him. After a few moments, J caught up. "Hey J!" Sam said with a soft smile. "Hey Sam, good to see you." "Where's my hello?" J grinned. "Do I know you?" "It is I, the ever perfect, really cool, friend of yours named Taurtis!" Sam rolled his eyes with a soft smile as J laughed. "Whatever you say 'Taurtis'. Whatever you say." Taurtis pouted, which made the other two laugh. Suddenly, Sam quietly excused himself to the bathroom and hurried off. After a few more moments, J broke the silence "Say, Taurtis, can I ask you something?" "Uh,sure?" "Why were you walking around last night?" "What are you talking about?" "I saw you walking around last night, you looked hurt." Taurtis grimaced, did J see the clone? "I wasn't." J shook his head, looking serious. "Don't lie to me Taurtis. I saw you." "Honest, I really wasn't out last night!" "But I saw you, you were covered in blood and walking funny!" Taurtis grimaced as he glanced around to make sure no was listening before leaning in. "That wasn't me. I think I have an evil clone." J was silent for several moments. "You don't believe me, do you, J?" J shrugged "As crazy as it sounds, there's been a lot of weird stuff that's happened around here." Taurtis sighed in both relief and apprehension, he wasn't sure how to continue. "If… If you see me acting weird, or bloody, or if I have red eyes you should avoid me. That clone is me J, promise me you'll be careful." "Alright Taurtis, I promise I'll be careful. And- hey wait, did you warn anybody else?" "I warned Rowan and soooorta warned Sam?" "Sorta?" "I warned him I had a clone and told him how it looks! Isn't that good enough?" J gave Taurtis a plain glance. "Did you mention he was evil?" "Well, no." J facepalmed and looked back up at Taurtis. "Taurtis you really should tell him before-"
"Hey guys I'm back!" The both looked up to see Sam returning, J then sent Taurtis a warning look. "Taurtis I mean it-" "-Sam! What took ya? Carrot go down the wrong way?" Taurtis yelped, hoping to interrupt J. Sam rolled his eyes and swatted Taurtis on the arm before glancing at J, and immediately looking concerned. "J, you okay? You look kinda upset." J faked a small smile at Sam. "Just tired." Sam smiled sweetly at him and patted his arm in return. "I can relate, hope you feel better in time for gym class." The three spent the majority of lunch joking around and smiling, but J kept giving Taurtis a warning glance, as if saying 'you better tell him' without any words. After that, they all talked for several minutes, mostly about random stuff. "So then I actually managed to beat Taurtis at Mario Kart! It took me forever but I finally won! And…" Sam's voice trailed off as his eyes followed something at the window and paused for a minute. "...-ou okay? You suddenly cut yourself off." Sam blinked in surprise as the voice brought him back. "I'm sorry, what? I got a little distracted." "Is something wrong Sam?" Taurtis and J both glanced over at the window, wondering what had distracted Sam, but whatever it was, was gone. Sam shook his head. "It was nothing, I just managed to derail my train of thought. What were we talking about again?" Taurtis and J both shared an uneasy frown, they noticed that Sam's ears were pinned back and he wasn't quite making eye contact, he was lying. "Sam, is something wrong?" J said, concern filling his voice. "If anything is you can tell us!" Taurtis agreed. "Yeah, what Taurtis said!" J pitched in cheerfully. Sam merely shook his head with a smile, though it seemed strained, "Honest, I just lost my train of thought, I'm fine!" The other two boys sighed, knowing he wouldn't open up so easily.
"Sam, you know you can tell us anything right? We're here for-" It was around that time that the bell rang, signaling lunch's end. "-...you." Taurtis finished softly. Sam quickly sat up and stretched. "Let's head to gym! We don't want to be late!" However, before Sam could run ahead, Taurtis caught his arm. "Sam." Sam slowly glanced back. "Yeah?" "If anything is wrong, tell me or J, we can't help you if you push us away." Sam softly tugged his arm away. "I'm okay Taurtis, everything's...fine, honest." "Promise?" Sam hesitated to respond, "...I..." he still had no answer. "Sam?" "..I promise.." Taurtis locked eyes with Sam, or at least tried to, Sam wouldn't keep eye contact. "..Sam. It's really unlike you to lie, I really wish you would tell me what was wrong." "I told you, it's nothing Taurtis!" Sam was slowly looking more and more upset the more Taurtis insisted on Sam telling him. Meanwhile, Taurtis was a little stunned, Sam rarely yells out of anything other than excitement. Taurtis backed up a bit, trying not to show how hurt he was. "Fine Sam. If you insist." Without another word, Taurtis turned away from Sam and started walking towards the gym, "W-wait, Taurtis-" "We need to hurry so we won't be late Sam." Sam stayed quiet for several moments as Taurtis continued ahead without him. Shaking his head softly, Sam followed without talking. It was probably going to be very awkward between the friends for some time to come.
-Ahhhhh that took forever! But none the less, another chapter is out by yours truly! Note, I also have this story on my Wattpad account, so if you see it there it wasn't stolen (as long as it was by Starfire Shadowmist there of course) so no worries! Anyways, hope you enjoyed!
-Firre