i like you but i cant say it

CHAPTER 2: something's happening (page 8)

Kenji strolled along the narroy sidewalk that surrounded the park on his rollerblades. Feeling the still icy air going into his lungs as his black hair and the maroon scarf around his neck flowed in the air.

He was having fun until his eye caught sight of that alleyway again.

He stopped in his tracks and stared into the shadowy area, seeing if he could see that figure from before, and figure out if it really had been Caleb all along.

"..." He kept staring intently, until the sound of a jinggle caught his attention.

"Caleb?" Kenji thought, surprised at the large blonde boy that had just left the little brown café. His expression looked tensed, and there was a small red cut on his right cheekbone. Purple bruises stained the rest of his freckled face, and for a moment Kenji saw that Caleb was wincing at the pain.

The black haired boy was taken aback, looking upon his school bully in such a state.

Suddenly, the two boys made eye contact, and both looked surprised and shocked to see each other.

Then, Caleb's expression changed, and now he looked furious. With a lunge, he collapsed.

Kenji turned and started skating away- wait what?

Kenji stopped and turned back around and saw Caleb on the ground. His legs had seemed to have given into the pain as the blonde boy struggled to stand back up. Kenji all of a sudden felt kind of sympathetic for him now.

The black haired boy tried to step away but couldn't.

He saw a new wound had opened up on Caleb's elbow, red and bleeding.

"..."

Caleb hissed at the pain as he limped aside and sat on the sidewalk. He held his sore legs in pain and grunted. Suddenly, a bandaid landed on the ground between his shoes.

Kenji looked down at Caleb, his expression was calm but internally he was ready to escape if Caleb makes any wrong moves.

"You should patch that up." Kenji told Caleb, his voice void of any emotion.

Caleb abruptly became agitated again, "What? Do I look like I need your pity!?" he yelled, trying to hide the fact that he was clearly in pain. The anger inside him grows everytime he thinks someone is questioning his ability to hold himself up.

"Look, I-I'll leave if you want me to, okay?" Kenji said with his arms raised in the air, "I just-...I don't know.." he looked away rubbing his arm with furrowed eyebrows.

A moment of silence accured between them.

Caleb's face twitched, but he stayed quiet. Something inside Caleb made his chest feel heavy.

"Why is he doing this?" Caleb took in quiet and short breaths as he looked to the ground, then at the bandaid, "Is he- ...is he trying to trick me? Use me?" his tired shoulders gave in and his arms fell flat out of his control.

Kenji looked upon the clearly puzzled and exhausted delinquent.

"I can call you a cab or something..."

"No." Caleb answered, too exhausted to even think at this point, "I'll be fine on my own." his voice rasped tiredly but Kenji just pretended like he didn't notice, nodding his head and turning around.

He paused, black strands of hair gently drifting in the cold air over his worried eyes as he looked over his shoulder.

"Hope you get better..."