Short Stories

Meet Me on the Brighter Side Of Grey

Lukas walked down the hallway, books hugged to his chest as he looked down, avoiding eye contact with everyone. He was nervous. It was April 28th, the day they had their first ever official volleyball match against another school. Lukas was well aware of this and he didn't want to go. He just wanted to run and hide, he wanted to go home and embrace the comfort of his devices. Games were his safe place, they were the one thing that really made him happy... the one thing he feels that he's truly good at. However, he cannot do that today, he has to be at the match for he is a starting player.

Lukas grumbles at the thought and makes his way to his locker. With a sigh, he let his guard down and started to twist his lock, inputting the combination.

"11... 03.... And 7." He spoke out loud as he did the combination. With a click, his locker opened. Another click could be heard. He turned his head to the side cautiously, not knowing who was there.

His expression dropped, standing next to him was his captain, KiKi Suzuki. He stiffened, really hoping he wouldn't talk to him. Luke removed his backpack from his locker and slipped his books inside, like he normally would. He removed both his phone and headphones from his bag, relieved they were in his hands once again. However, that relief soon faded as the captain turned to him. The magenta-haired boy grabbed a hair tie and tied his hair up. He didn't have super long hair, it only went to his shoulders, but he hated his hair being down. He had a rather feminine appearance, but he didn't let that stop him.

"Heyy Luka! Are you ready for today's game?" He cheered with a genuine smile. He knew that Lukas was a rather self kept person, so he was always sure to be nice to him.

Luke hesitated, "Uhh, n-not really." He looked away, not wanting to see his captain's expression.

"Aww why not? You're such a good player! Don't let those intruding thoughts get to you!" He chirped, placing one of his hands on Luke's shoulder. "Trust me on this. We can't win without you." He gave a reassuring smile.

Luke wanted to smile but he couldn't, he loved getting praised, especially from his captain, however he knew something was going to go wrong. He backed away, "No, that's not it..." He trailed off. "Thank you though." He faked a smile. KiKi, seeing through this act, lowered his hand and tilted his head to the side.

"Luka, what's on your mind?" He asked in a soft tone. The truth was, Luke had a lot of things going through his mind. He was internally panicking, he knew something was going to go wrong. Most importantly, he was afraid of his brother, Lorenzo. Lorenzo is really competitive, so if you mess up, you have one foot already inside the grave.

"It's just, I know something will go wrong. No, I KNOW something will go wrong." He looked up, seeing KiKi's... unreadable expression.

He sighed, "Try not to worry too much about it, mistakes will happen, no one's perfect. People make mistakes and that's fine because that's what makes us human." He smiled, giving his shoulder a pat. "It's our first game, so let's give it all we got!"

Luke, for the first time, felt touched by his words. He believed his captain, and trusted his captain with everything he had. Lukas for the first time in a very long time.... showed an actual smile. It wasn't a very big one, but he showed a true smile. KiKi, seeing this, could tell his words got to him.

He held out his fist with a smirk, "Let's do this. We will come out victorious!" Luke hesitantly nods, giving KiKi the fist bump he wanted, a small smirk of his own on his face.

~Time Skip To The Game~

Four hours later, the boys were all frantically running around. It was the second set, and they were in the lead. The team, obviously seeing this, were determined to win and give it their all, but that was quickly falling apart as the team began to stumble out of line. KiKi was even starting to panic, and that was rare for him. At this rate, they were going to let the opposing team score a point.