Too Late

The Truths and The Lies

"Yoshida-kun, I feel like I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been?"

"Oh, my family and I went to the states. Traveled around there for a few weeks." That was a lie, but Arata grew used to telling his classmates them.

The truth was that his father had drank a bit too much the night before the start of school and smashed the black haired boy's head in on a glass table then proceeded to shackle him to the metal bar his bed frame was made out of. His father refused to feed him a whole meal and only brought him the scraps of his and his wife's leftovers. This went on for a week.

"Well Mr. president, I'm glad you're back." His classmate grinned, which was easily returned by Arata.

"I'm glad to be back." That was true.

Life was so hard at home that the only true escape he ever got was school. His teachers loved him and believed he was going places. His classmates thought of him as an equal and someone to look up to. And his teammates. Well his teammates almost felt like the family he wished he was born with instead, not that he didn't love his brother and sister. Nishinoya and Tanaka were his weird and hyper younger cousins. Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Narita were like the calm and collected second cousins that barely went to the family gatherings but when they did, it was the most fun of times. Asahi was the scary looking uncle but for real, had the heart of a puppy. Sugawara could act like a parent at times but in the end was more like the protective older brother. Daichi could be described the same. Parental at times, but a goofball at the end of the day.

And Takeda and Coach Ukai, they were the greatest things Arata could ever ask for.

Takeda was like a very close uncle to him and he treasured whatever the faculty member would offer to him, be it some counseling or a small afternoon chat before practice started. Arata found the teacher so comforting to be around and would have taken him over his own parents any day.

And Coach Ukai was even better. The old man, who was his grandpa in spirit, pushed him to his limits, and when he reached them, he'd push him over until he was on the ground, dry heaving. The pain of those practices took away the pain of reality. And because of this, Arata never wished for them to end.

But they did, and reality came settling back in quickly.