To Infinity and Beyond - Reki Kyan - 1215 fanfiction

Episode 19

Later that night, after I was home and changed into comfy clothes, and had cried my share of tears while looking out the window like I was the depressed side character in some anime, I decided to suck it up and eat some bread.

Yeah, Reki and I fought. Yeah, I grabbed his collar and yelled over him and all that horrible aggressiveness I used to have as a kid resurfaced.

I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel a little good. Maybe I'd been holding back my own feelings a lot all this time too, distracting myself by just thinking about how much I liked Reki.

In reality, I was restless because my usual outlet was being pushed aside. I was annoyed because Miya, despite being cute, was a little jerk just like I used to be. Now I was angry, so angry, because someone told the girls in my class I liked Reki.

I texted Erika about it right when I got home, and she said the girls were pressuring everyone in telling each other their crushes. They asked about me when I wasn't there, since I was the only girl not there. They were making fun of me too, she said.

She said she told them who I liked because they kept pressing, and she thought maybe they'd consider me better as a girl if I liked someone just like the rest of them. She said it worked, sort of, because they didn't really know who Reki was so they shrugged it off and moved on to something else.

But I guess, some of them took it farther for fun.

She apologized and I told her it was fine, it happens, it's not like I was planning never to tell him. But this wasn't supposed to happen, this is probably the worst scenario that could have happened.

"Every good story has its ups and downs, isn't that right?" I told myself, repeating what my middle school teachers used to say during Japanese Lit.

I scowled, fake gagging when I thought about it, and my phone buzzed. It was Langa, again. Though this was the first time he ever called me.

"Langa? Is everything okay? Did you talk to Reki?"

"Um... yeah. Well, sort of. Well... we, fought, I think."

"You think?" I sighed, taking a moment to listen to the silence from the phone before I pursed my lips and pulled myself together, "Wanna meet up at the park?"

-

"And, then I walked home." Langa finished, and I kicked at the ground as we sat on the bench at the same park we always used to practice at.

"Just before that, we fought too. I tried to help him, but he threw his hand out at me like he was gonna push me, so I snapped. I told him to talk to you..." I clenched my teeth. First I fight with him, and then he fights with Langa? He must feel like crap, "This is bad."

"Yeah." Langa mumbled, looking dejected.

"He's been hearing a lot of gossip you know." I continued, "Gossip about how great you are and how he's just chasing after you. Nobody thinks anything of him, and now he's convinced his friends don't think anything of him either."

"B-but that's not true!"

"Of course it's not. But he even... some girls found out I liked him, and were making fun of me, wondering how I could like someone so lame. He heard them."

When I glanced at Langa, his eyes were wide and worried, even more so than they were before, "You mean... he found out how you felt?"

"I think so. I don't even know if he took it seriously but, now it'll be hard for me to face him."
He opened his mouth to speak again, but seemed to decide against it, turning back to glare at his shoes. Right now, there was nothing either of us could think of.