The Masks We Wear

Ch 16

I had just walked out of the gym after basketball practice, tired and planning on heading home. Unfortunately, that plan was foiled the moment I came outside to see the dark-skinned boy with white shaggy hair and goat horns sitting on the bench outside the building. When I opened the door and saw him I froze for a second holding the door as he turned to face me, "Hey," he said.

"Hey".

"Are you okay?" Will asked genuinely, I knew he was talking about after what had happened the last night. In all honesty, I was still a little rattled about it, that was my subconscious and even I never wanted to think about that again.

"Yeah, I'm fine, so why are you still here, shouldn't you be at home or something?"

"D-did you forget?"

"About?"

"You said you'd train me."

"Oh yeah, .... fuck," Will's response was a short and offended sigh as I moved out of the way for him to come inside.

"Since you don't really have much workout experience before today you're gonna just join me in my post-practice work," I said as I entered behind him making sure the door was closed. "You have air pods or headphones?"

"... Air what?"

After a pause of me just looking at him I took a deep breath in, raised my gym bag over my head, and with a loud "Don't fuck with me," the bag flew into the goat boy's face knocking him to the ground.

About eight minutes later and me reluctantly giving a pair of headphones I was trying to sell to a teacher. I handed him a jump rope as we entered the indoor track gym.

"Start jumping rope and don't stop until you get to 2000 jumps," my first instruction was met with a look of confusion which began to make my blood boil. "I swear if you ask what that is-"

"No no, it's just ... you do 2000 of these after every workout?" he asked as I put my AirPods in and began scrolling for a song.

"No, I usually just go for about 20 minutes or longer unless something else comes up."

"Many is that?"

"Don't know," I said as I began the song and started jumping rope. Closing my eyes as I flicked the rope; if he wanted to get my attention he couldn't without getting hurt by it. This was my bubble, no matter what was happening in my life this tiny bit of rope was enough to create a space for myself apart from everything else. As I switched to doing running on the jump rope the music blasting in my ears.

One foot at a time, just touching the ground long enough before lifting it back up, generating enough power from that brief instance to launch me up. It always gave me this feeling of calm and grace, for those who play piano, or do ballet, to me this was my way version of those. An action that for the fleeting moment I am doing it makes everything feel right. A time when I can enjoy my solidarity ... at least until I felt the rhythm I had carefully weaved with my flying rope shatter. The shock of the feeling in my rope made me jump back and look to see Will's rope wrapped around mine as he was sweating and panting.

"I-I'm done," he said as he tried to catch his breath. I had to take a moment to collect myself as I dropped my rope.

"Next up two laps running around the track," I said as I got on the starting line.

"I-is it timed?"

"Just try to keep up," I said as I started and begin running, soon after Will took off running in full sprint ... like an idiot. Before the end of the first lap he was winded and I had already passed him by halfway through the second. When he finally finished he sounded as if he had just managed to survive someone trying to suffocate him.

"A-al ... right ... i-is that it?" He said almost as if begging.

"No now give me 20 push-ups," I said as he started laughing, "Do I look like I'm joking?" I said before he quickly got down and did the pushups with me. Needless to say, I finished first but I couldn't help but be impressed before I rolled over and began stretching, reaching down my legs to touch my toes as Will did the same. Struggling he was barely able to get past halfway down his calf. I couldn't help but look in surprise, clearly, it was visible since Wills' head tilted up as he noticed.

"What's up, am I doing something wrong?"

"No, it's not that, but you have almost no flexibility. It's nothing too surprising with you being so tall, but we're going to have to work on that, if not addressed you could hurt yourself, plus it can hinder your athleticism." Wills' eyes seemed to light up as I said that which was strange since they were red. It came somehow came across as both harmless and evil at the same time. "What's with that look?"

"You know a lot about how to train your body. Is that something you wanna do for a career?"

"Honestly, I never put much thought into it. All I know is that I want to always have access to a gym. Whenever I'm not in the best of moods I usually either workout or play video games while drinking tea to clear my mind."

"Huh. That's pretty cool".

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said as I got up and walked behind him getting ready to do to him exactly what one of my trainers had done to me.

"Wait what are you-?" Will then began to grunt in pain as I put my foot on his back, pushing it down further and further until he grabbed his toes.

"Try to take deep breathes okay?" I knew that he was in some sort of pain from having experienced this before. I then did the same thing having him spread his legs and grab his left foot with both hands followed by his right foot and then right foot right hand and vice versa.

"Alright now that's all for today, get some water," I said before I heard a vibration nearby. Going into my bag I pulled out wills phone and tossed it to him. He quickly picked up the phone with a bright smile.

"Oh, hey Jake, what's up?" soon after that, Wills' eyes seemed to widen in shock, so much so that they actually became visible through his hair as he quickly hung up.

"We have to go!"

"Wow, what's wrong?" I asked surprised by the sudden shift in tone.

"Grae was just hurt badly while out doing hero work. He's bleeding badly and-."

"I don't care," Will looked at me confused as if I had just said something absolutely unbelievable and horrified.

"But isn't he your friend?"

"Was, was my friend, things change, people change no matter the cause, what comes out is never the same as what goes in,".

"Well then explain, what could make someone change so much that they don't care about the people who look out for them?!" Will shouted at me. I looked at his eyes as his eyes once again seemed to spark out of pure frustration. 'He really is just so innocent,' I thought at the time.

"It must've been pretty messed up for you to turn your ba-,"

"SHUT! UP!" Will looked at me terrified as I approached him my eyes yellow and to my surprise, a full set of sharp fangs instead of my normal canines, "You don't know SHIT about what I've been through, so stop talking like you know my life and that my actions are immoral," I growled at him. I was lucky that the cameras couldn't see me and didn't have microphones on them. The only risk I had then was ... her. Will glared right back at me as his eyes actually had a dim glow shining in them, he was using ki without even realizing it. "What? Do you really think you can take me on?" I snarled at him. He kept that same look in his eyes before turning around and running off with his stuff. I grabbed my stuff as well and changed my shirt before walking out of the school.

I then walked back to my house to see Will walking into his apartment building as he glared at me. The worst part about getting into a fight with your neighbor. As I walked in I sniffed the air and looked up to see the full moon. The moment I saw it I felt something wild as the smell of fresh blood lingered faintly in the air. I took a few deep breaths and got control over myself before walking inside. Later that night I found myself lying awake in my room. Everything seemed so dark and hopeless as I rolled over and hugged my pillow cuddling it. I couldn't help but look back at what had happened and laugh. "To think ... that kind kid is now so heartless. This world fuckin sucks".