*:･ﾟYou Bet I Stare ･ﾟ:*

CHAPTER 33 - are we still friends

KOU
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Sousuke and I sat next to each other as he just stared off into space. There was still a relatively good amount of distance between us, probably a good couple feet. "It bothers you, doesn't it?" He mutters, not breaking his eye contact with the sky. "Hm?" I look over at him, admiring him almost immediately. "It bothers you." "What bothers me?" "The incident.. and the way you treated me. What have you been up to since then anyways?" I exhale and look away from him for a second. "How much of it are you wanting to know?" "Well firstly I want to know who's bracelet that is on your wrist." My eyebrows raise as I raise my wrist, looking at the bracelet that he was talking about.

It was a red, blue, and orange beaded one that my ex girlfriend Hana made me when we first got together. She was a nice girl.. but we decided to end things between each other after both agreeing that a relationship wasn't really something that either of us (mostly me) were necessarily equipped for right now.

"Oh.. uh, it's just a bracelet my ex Hana made for me a while back. She was the one running the sweets booth with me.. but it doesn't mean anything now. We're just good friends." I look at Sousuke as I finish my sentence, preparing myself for loads of backlash. "Did you actually like her or did you just use her to help you get over me?" He looks at me, raising an eyebrow. When did he get so good at reading people? "You did.. didn't you?" Sousuke just stares at me as I stare back at him. I was afraid to tell him that I actually did really like her, but I mostly wanted to try things out with her so that I could forget about Sousuke. "Yeah, I did actually really like her, believe it or not.." I look forwards and shrug. "I don't know." I hear him sigh as I speak. "When are you going to explain the bullshit you bought a time slot for? Because I'd much rather be at home preparing for the next chapter of my life instead of sitting here with you to go through the old stuff that I completely forgot about until I saw you."

Ouch. God he's such an asshole.. I don't remember him being this cruel.

"Listen Mitsuba.." I scoot over and sit in front of him, that way we're seeing eye to eye. "I understand that you're angry with me.. and believe me, I get it. Now are you gonna let me explain myself or are you just gonna keep being a massive bitch to me?" He silently stares at me for what feels like forever, but he eventually opened his mouth and answered my question. "I'll listen, but if I don't feel like listening to you anymore then you will let me leave and you won't hold me back. Do I make myself clear?" I nod my head. "Honest." I watch him sit crisscross as he wraps his arms around his legs to hold his knees up, preparing himself for what it is that I'm about to say. It was only fair that I start at the beginning.

"Remember the day before we split up? We had that massive argument about my dad and what he would've said if I told him about us.. and you were being difficult about it? And it almost ended in us doing something that I'm glad we didn't? Considering how things between us are right now." He nods as he watches me speak. "Mhm.." "Well.. later on in the evening I thought that I could be daring and I figured that it would be okay if I broke the news to him about us, and he hated it." "Enough for you to treat me like shit the next day." I sigh and look down at the ground, picking at some of the grass before looking back up at him.

"He threatened to disown me, Sousuke. He told me that if I didn't leave you, he would make you leave me himself. He took my phone and destroyed it.. and he rummaged through my room and all of my belongings when I was away at school for the day. I've hardly seen him since. I was angry about everything, and I let that reflect on how I acted towards everyone. Including you."

I look down at the grass as I pick at it some more, feeling like an absolute idiot. Now that I was saying it out loud, it sounded to me like I was just trying to play victim and get him to feel guilty for me. I hated that it was the truth, and that the real reason wasn't actually something that didn't sound like a massive lie. I bring my face back up to look at Mitsuba once again.