Chapter 6 • Pride Month
I look down at his hands and blush. I pull mine away and ask. "U-um, so what's wrong with that?"
"Remember when I ran away from you yesterday?"
"Yes...?"
"Well I called my mom to talk about the breakup and my dad overheard. My mom supported me and already knew, but my dad didn't know. He's really homophobic. I've been trying to hide from him all day, I already know he'll beat me for it, even if I'm at school." Itsuki whispers.
"HE BEATS YOU?!" I say a little too loud. No doubt he could hear me within the stall.
"KAITO-"
"Itsiii!!" Itsuki's father yells from outside the stall. "Is that you?!" I hear him walk over to the nurse's office and start talking to Mrs. Sato. I feel a sharp pain hit my stomach. She's going to tell him where we are. I know it.
"You still haven't seen him?" Mr. Sato asks her. Here comes the guilt. Itsuki gives a silent 'shh!' to me.
"Nope." She says. "They came to my office today, but left a while ago. Not sure where they went after that." She lies, as she clearly saw us run to the bathroom.
I do a silent praise in my head. After I hear Mr. Sato leave, I stick my head out of the stall door and thank her silently. She salutes me and I stick my head back inside the stall.
When I get back inside, Itsuki's face is close to mine and he's staring at my eyes. I look away and blush. "Um- he's gone, if you want to go." I say.
"Oh! Um- okay!" He forces a smile and unlocks the stall door. He looks out and immediately sticks his head back in, his face is pale.
"W-what's wrong?" I ask in panic.
"He's talking to my mom again." He says shakily.
"Should we just sneak past him?" I suggest.
"No no no no no no no." He looks like he's going insane.
"I can distract him! I'll introduce myself to him or something."
"Um-" He looks at the wall, then at me. He's crying, I can tell. He wipes his face with his shirt. I blush. I grab his hand. "It'll be okay." I smile. I grab the stall door and push it open.
'Why did I do that?! He's going to think I'm weird!' I think to myself. I sneak out of the bathroom so Mr. Sato doesn't see me come out. I walk over to the nurses office.
"Are you sure? It doesn't seem like they are-" Mrs. Sato stops as she sees me walk in.
"Oh, hello Kaito! Nice to meet you! We were just talking about you, where did you come from?" Mr. Sato says, trying to be polite.
I panic and glance back at Itsuki. "The library! I found a really good book and was just reading it!" I say.
"What do you mean? The library was closed all day today. Only the computers were available."
"I'm so sorry I didn't know! I'm still new and all so-".
"Shush! I'm looking for a guy named Itsuki. Do you know him? You two aren't... dating, right?" Mr. Sato asks suspiciously.
"No sir! Not at all! I don't even recognize that name!" I look at Mrs. Sato, she's pretending to slit her throat, then points to the school entrance. Itsuki's sneaking out of the building. The bell rings.
"Well, it was nice meeting you two, but I need to go now, bye!" I say quickly, as I start walking away.
I hurry out of the school with Itsuki several feet in front of me. "Itsuki! Wait up!" I yell.
He slows down, but not enough that I can catch up to him.
"Itsuki!!!" I shout.
I ran after him, not paying attention to my surroundings. Itsuki reaches a crosswalk and runs on it. He looks back at me and smiles.
'He's so cute.' I think. I slap my face. 'What am I thinking?! I don't like him, no way.' I start to walk across, I try not to stare at Itsuki, who is sitting on a bench waiting for me. I'm blushing enough already.
A car comes along, I'm guessing the driver doesn't notice me crossing.
"LOOK OUT KAITO!!!!!" Itsuki yells.
Chapter 7 • The Streets
He runs up the street and pushes me out of the way. I touch my face and feel my arms and face are covered in blood.
It is blurry, but I look up to see Itsuki staring down at me saying something. 'What the hell is he doing? Sign language-?' I think.
I look down and see Itsuki is injured way worse than me, his leg looks dislocated and his entire face is covered with blood.
"I- I- Itsuki?" I weakly ask. "A-are You ok-kay?" I point to his leg. I look at my hand and realize my hand turned to ashes, and was blowing away. I hid my hand from Itsuki.
'How is he talking to me? My vision is so blurry I can't even see his face anymore, yet he looks completely fine with a dislocated leg and a torn up face.' I think.
Itsuki stopped talking to me, he passed out. He falls into my lap and I immediately know what to do.
I rushed back to the school carrying him on my back. The person who hit us didn't even stop to say sorry. I healed pretty quick, as I'm a demon, but my arm still hadn't come back. I noticed a bag on Itsuki's back and thought 'Maybe he has something to stop my arm from fading?' I set him down and looked through his bag, I found a pair of knives with weird loops at the end.
I take one out and cut my hand off before the ash can spread to my head. I finally get back to the school after what seems like forever, and it looks like no one is there. It seems I'm doomed. I notice a singular car outside in the parking lot. I smile and run over to the door we came out of earlier. I bang on it until I see a shadow walk by the door.
I get ready to tell them what happened, but they walk right past the door. I finally realize what I have to do. I make sure no one is looking, then snap my fingers.
