The Boy With The Blank Stare: The Promise

Chapter Forty Two: Just A Kid

Aito's POV:

I shifted around nervous in my school uniform, cursing myself for not changing out of it before meeting them.

I already know what they were thinking when I sent those messages, asking- no begging for them to meet me in a local cafe but now I wonder if that was a mistake.

I mean Seiko only told me to say sorry so maybe it isn't to late to just bail on this and go home and-

"Danuja?" A voice called out and a pretty girl with blonde hair and music note hairpins walked in followed by a man with green hair and another girl with glasss and long blue hair.

I took a deep breath, "hi...thanks for-"

"Hasn't he grown up Shiro?" The blonde haired girl gushed, "remember how his brother used to share pictures of him when he was sooo tiny oh gosh" she asked.

I felt myself blushing, "I-I wanted to call you here to..." I started when the green haired guy looked over at the two girls, "what's your orders?" He asked.

"Mocha" the music girl told him, I felt myself getting redder in the face, "wait can I-" "I'll get some water, my doctor says I have a caffeine addiction" the blue haired girl said.

I bit my cheek frustration growing in me "Please can I just-" "I'll be right back then" the green haired man said and turned away.

I shook my head and tried to gain control of the conversation, "W-wait-" "oh we should introduce ourselves huh? So I'm Akamatsu-"

"Please just listen to me!" I finally blurted out and felt instant regret as the two girls froze at my sudden outburst.

"I'm sorry...I just...I only have an hour before my parents get home...and I need to do this today or I'll never..." I started and cursed how my eyes were burning with tiny tears.

The blonde, Akamatsu, looked at me with pity, "sorry we got carried away...how are you? How old are you actually now..." she started but trailed off.

"I'm doing ok, I'm in middle school" I told her, she paused as if shocked by that, "time really does fly by..." she mumbled biting her lip.

"I don't want to waste your time so I'll be quick, a few weeks ago I met my brothers old friend Ouma Kokichi and I wasn't exactly the nicest and said a lot of bad things...and now I finally think I know why." I started.

"It's cause I missed him, I missed Takura. I don't even remember my brother that well but I miss him, and to me that was crazy because all I had left of him seemed to be bad memories, and a cause of death.

"But...well I've been learning a lot more about him these past days, his hobbies, more about his friends and things he wanted to do in life. It wasn't just all the things he suffered from, for the first time I actually could see him as a person not just a pity card or looming presence.

"That's also when I realized more how awful I've been, and what I said. Because if what I found out are just scraps of who my brother was in life, then I've been hurting the only one who probably still remembers what my brother was really like, who knew all of him.

"And there's more people like me isn't there? All of my brothers friends had families at home didn't they? Other friends? People who cared about them even if they didn't know it...so...I just..." I tried to say but then I sniffled and brushed back a pathetic tear.

The glasses girl looked worried. "Hey calm down, it's fine you're just a kid you probably didn't know what you were saying-"

"I'm not a kid!" I quickly countered, "I'm not a child, I haven't been a child for years! I just...I want to move on past my brothers death, I want to finally get closure...I wanted help to make sure everyone who suffered on that day can move on because...

"Everyone deserves that chance right?" I asked biterly as the room turned quiet.

I spoke to much didn't I?

The teen male nodded, "yeah. Yeah they do" he told me.