Garou's Rival

Chapter 10 - Garou the Human Monster

I hear a knock at the door to my hospital room.
"Hey, Maki, open up!" shouts a horribly familiar voice.

I sigh in resignation. There's no getting rid of her now. "It's open," I reply. Lily opens the door carrying a large bag. "What do you want?"

"Hey, is that any way to talk to your best friend forever and ever and ever and-" I put my hand over her mouth to stop her from talking. Even if it's just for a second, silence around her is bliss. I open my mouth to say something, but yell when she bites down.

"Ow! You animal!" I shout angrily.

"I'll show you..." she mumbles, reaching into her bag. "Take this!" She throws a schoolbook at me and the corner hits me on the head. She throws more at me until the bag is almost empty. "I told you not to do that anymore!"

I rub the back of my head. "Well I'm always telling you to not talk anymore, but you never listen to me." I pick up a book and look at it. It's a chemistry book. "What's this?" I ask.

Lily suddenly looks uncomfortable. "W-well... I'm not doing so great with... exams and all? So..." She thrusts a book into my hands. "Please help me with this!" she cries. Now I see. She's been failing subjects left and right and wants me to act like her personal tutor.

"We're not in high school anymore, Lily. I'm not gonna keep helping you with your homework," I sigh, laying back. This time I have to stay strong. She won't trick me or convince me to help her this time.

"Well, some of us are still in high school..." she pouts. "Besides, what else do you have to do? There's no way being here is that fun or interesting, right? You might as well help me to pass the time," she says.

I open my eyes. Crap. She's right.

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I flip through her worst tests. "You mixed up mitosis and meiosis here... a xylem only transports things in one direction... and Darwin thought of evolution, not Isaac Newton," I correct her.

She passes me a blue book and looks through my notes. "Physics next."

I sigh and open it. "Ok, see, here's where Darwin went. Newton invented gravity, not old Charles. Magnets don't attract all metals, just nickel, iron, cobalt and steel... and the equation for momentum is not 'how fat you are times how fast you're going.' I mean, technically it is, but it's mass times speed! Or velocity, I can't remember. Vectors and scalars are annoying. Ok, I don't think I can do this any more."

Lily blushes a little at my scolding and pushes another into my hands. "Oh c'mon, please! If I don't get at least 10% more in all my tests next time, I'll have to redo the year! And you don't want me annoying you to help me with my homework for another year, right?" she says with a smirk.

I think about it for a moment. "If you graduate this year, nothing will change. You already have a job, and it barely takes up any of your time with how strong you are. So if you didn't have any more school, you'd just have a lot more free time to pester me endlessly," I explain.

She hits my hand with a book. "You're being very selfish right now, I hope you know that!" I'm being selfish?! Suddenly it looks like she has an idea. A very dangerous precedent. She slides up the bed, closer to me, with an innocent smile. I don't trust her. She's up to something. "You know, it must get so boring and lonely up here all by yourself, right? It sure would be nice if there was something that could... take your mind off it?" she says softly.

I'm suddenly very uncomfortable, until I realise what she's talking about. "Oh yeah? So what did you have in mind?" I say with a smile.