Breath With In


Chapter 8 - The Big Idea

Author's Note: Well, guys... I ran out of hole puns. 😩 It was good while it lasted, but now I'm just "sinking" into sadness. I "dug myself into a hole" (again, see what I did there?), and now I'm just "stuck." I tried everything, but the puns are gone, and I'm "empty inside" (but not in the good way, like the plot). RIP hole puns, you will be missed. 💔

It was the day after the last, which was Thursday, I think? I was still trying to figure it out while sipping my COKE-A-COLA™ BEVERAGE DRINK, the official drink of every Thursday. I've been drinking it every day since yesterday. Anyway, I got to school. Or was it a prison? Who knows at this point. The walls were yellow. Not the good kind of yellow. The kind that made you feel like you were going to be trapped forever. But then, stuff happened. I walked in and BOOM. A fight was happening. Two guys, who definitely looked like they were in their mid-20s—maybe 30s?—were punching each other like it was their last day on Earth. They were going to kill each other for sure, unless someone intervened. But who would intervene? I was in too deep.

Then, like a movie, a gunshot rang out. A single shot. BAM. One guy was holding an AK-47. How did he even get that into the classroom? Did he hide it in his locker? Who keeps an AK-47 in their locker? The mafia, obviously. Or maybe the FBI, I don't know. Anyway, I had to get out of there. But then I saw her. She was standing near a locker. She had the kind of eyes that looked like they had seen things. And by things, I mean... things.

I decided to walk past the sea of people fighting, but then another shot went off. This time it was a gunshot from my COKE-A-COLA™ BEVERAGE DRINK can. How? Why? It didn't matter. The fight was still going on. And I still had to talk to her.

"Yuuki?" I asked. It was her. She nodded slowly.

"Yes?" she said, looking like she had no idea what was going on, but was pretending to care.

"Hi," I said, awkwardly. Like, really awkwardly.

"Okay…" she responded, but it wasn't the okay I was hoping for. It was the "I'm already dead inside" okay.

"Bye!" I said, because why not? What's the point of dragging out something that was never going to happen? So, I rushed to my second class. It was math. I was the king of math. No one knew math like me. I could solve math problems in my sleep. I didn't even need to try. I was too good.

The day went on. Nothing exciting. Nothing weird. Just the same old routine. Until I reached the park.

There, a duck was waddling around. But wait. This was no ordinary duck. This was the same duck from the tutorial for my GOOGLE AR GLASSES™. I couldn't believe it. The universe was speaking to me. Or maybe I was in a simulation. I didn't care. All I cared about was this duck.

I stood there for a minute, staring. It stared back. It was a moment.

After that, I went home. I did my homework. I didn't get it all done, but who cares? It wasn't the weekend yet, and that's all that really matters.