*:･ﾟYou Bet I Stare ･ﾟ:*

CHAPTER 32 - yume utsutsu

SOUSUKE
—❁—

"Sousuke! You're going to be late for the festival! Hurry so that I can take some photos of you before I have to get going to work!"

"Okay okay! Geez.." I stand in front of the mirror that I have hung up on the back of my bedroom door and look at my outfit choice, accepting the fact that this was going to be the last time I'll ever step foot on the school grounds of Kamome Gakuen. It felt like a ginormous weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I was excited to start the new chapter of my life and leave all the nasty bits in the past. I was proud of myself because I got accepted into the university that my Dad attended with a photography scholarship, so I pretty much had my future set in stone.

I then exhale and grab a jacket to slip on before refilling my cameras film and grabbing my phone, then I stepped out and grabbed my coin pouch off the counter and slipped it in my pocket.

The jacket that I was wearing was the one that that stupid exorcist boy let me wear after we almost destroyed each others reputations completely. It feels like I've never taken this thing off, and it shows through the large graphic on the backside. What was once a jacket by some fancy brand called Underground Ideals with a print of the words "Learn To Forget" in some fancy font largely spread across the back, was now just a crazy chipped up version of that—with over half the letters missing.

"Learn To Forget".. yeah, what a great undertone that served as. The sweater wasn't even black anymore, it was now a harshly faded darker gray color.

And did I still wear that stupid ring he got me? You bet I did. I always wanted to contact him and tell him that I want the thing returned, but every time I opened his contact information, I felt my body get flooded with an immense amount of guilt. His sweatband? Yep, still have that. It's now just wrapped around the doorknob on the door that opens up to my bedroom, which is still heavily decorated with girly decor. Just like it was way back then. I can't help it, feminine decorations are just so pretty and cozy—unlike boring decorations for dudes. Those decorations are always just built for efficiency reason, and not aesthetically pleasing reasons.

You're probably wondering about the whereabouts of my one hair clip that he snagged after absolutely shattering me—and frankly, yeah.. no sign of that. Now I've had to substitute all my for another brand new set, because I can't bring myself to wear all the old ones if there's one missing. It's just the way that I grew to be.

Anyways, back to the coin pouch. I was definitely gonna need this for some grub money. "You ready to go?" My mom looks at me and smiles as she grabs her keys. "Yeah, I'm ready to get there so I can hurry up and mark the end of my horrid highschool career." I smile back and open the front door for her. "Do you have all of the money I gave you so that you can get some food? I don't want you to starve while at the festival because I won't be able to come and pick you up to go get food." I nod in response and walk out behind her, shaking my pocket so that she can hear the coins in the coin pouch jingling around. "Alright! Let's go get you to that festival!" She smiles and rubs my back with her hand as I walk with her down to the car. "I can't believe my baby boy is already done with highschool.. you're going to be leaving me on my own in no time." "Oh god, Mom.. please don't remind me. Independent living is not something that I'm ready for." She chuckles and uses her keys to unlock the car. "Well don't worry, you have an entire college career to get through before that happens.. and I'm sure that you'll be more than ready to live on your own by then."

I get in the car and buckle in, looking out the window as my mom pulls out of the apartment building parking lot. I was pretty excited to see how crazy the student body got with the decorations this year since everyone usually likes to take things top notch. I didn't exactly have anyone in mind that I wanted to hangout with once I get there, so I figured that I would just hang around for an hour or so, take some pictures for memorial, and eat way too much food before heading back home for the night.