Red Is All Around

Chapter 1

'Monday. It's Monday, you know this. You're going to be okay.'

Kyojuro flexed his hand around the pen in his hand, the plastic feeling warm and sure in his palm.

This was something that he was good at, he excelled when he was in-front of people; even if the only people in-front of him right now were just his two best friends, Tengen Uzui and Giyu Tomioka who weren't even paying attention to him.

In-fact, at that very moment, Tengen had his head bent down, frowning as he marked English Lit papers; occasionally the other man would run a hand through his pale white hair 'It's a personal choice, Ky.', muttering about how kids today don't know anything about making things FLASHY.

Giyu, on the other hand, was staring out the window, a bored, almost expressionless look on his face. However, Kyojuro knew better. Even though Giyu looked like he might be watching paint dry, his second best friend had something else on his mind, and by the movement of his head, Kyojuro was sure he was counting down until…..

"I simply can't do this anymore. There isn't a hint of Flashy or Flamboyant work in here whatsoever. If I have to stare at this one more second, I'll slice my arm off."

Giyu lost his composure for a second, chortling and muttering 'Five seconds more than last time.', before spinning around in the chair, the same expressionless look back on his face.

"Why did you even bother to bring your papers to Ky's tonight when you know they just piss you off?"

"Plus, isn't tonight meant to be 'guy's night', as you so called it?" Giyu held up four fingers, inverting them around the words Guys Night, all whilst staring at Tengen, his expression bare.

"You know nothing, do you, Tomioka? Of course, it's going to be guy's night. And no inverted commas of yours. However, if I don't get these done, Heart'll have me for breakfast. Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually taste that good."

Tengen smirked up at Giyu, using one hand to shove his half marked test papers back into his multi-coloured folder until he was able to sit back again, his booted feet propping up onto the table in-front of him.

"Well, maybe I just wondered as you've never seemed to care about work before. I would like to see Heart try his luck…."

"What, you want him to eat me?"

"No. I was simply saying that if he tried then…."

"What? What would happen, oh dear Tomioka? Why don't you tell us? I'm sure we'd all love to hear your great story of victory. It's no wonder no-one likes you. You're not flashy enough."

"I… I don't think I'm unlikeable."

"Ha! You don't think you're unlikeable? Wow, dude. You should see all the females in that school, they run away from you and ...."

"Please. Stop."

"What's wrong, Ky? Don't like hearing the truth? No one likes you. Except for me. So why don't you just cut those losers out of your life and come live with me, huh?"

"No. That's not true. They're my friends."

"Some friends. They've not even been in touch with you for the last seven days now, have they? I mean, why would they even bother? You're useless. At everything….."

"A….."

SMACK

"DID I LOOK LIKE I WAS FINISHED TALKING? Now, where was I? Oh yes, you're completely and utterly useless. You keep on whining to me that your friends aren't contacting you. Well, wake up, Kyojuro. YOU. HAVE. NO. FRIENDS."