Love and Litterature

ACT 2: WEDNESDAY

You awake in your room, and rub your eyes. You say hi to your mother, and grab your bag and make some toast for your lonely walk to school, before departing.

When you reach the doors, and are on your way to where you usually hang out, you notice a flier on the wall for a literature club,

For some unknown reason, you grab one of the small slips of paper, and text your mom that you're going to try out a club today.

The day goes by quickly, and before you know it, you're walking down a hallway you've never been in, before finding a door at the end of the hallway.

You go to push the door open, and are greeted by a girl with stunning green eyes.

"Hey new... guy." she says, her happy smile being replaced by a small frown, like she wasn't expecting you, but it goes back to a smile after you blink.

"Come on in! I'm Monika, the president of the literature club!"

That name.... Her eyes... Why were they so familiar?

She points to a girl with Purple hair reading a book in the corner, and then a girl with pink hair and a small stature, leaning against a wall, scowling at you as soon as you enter the room.

"That's Yuri over there, she's kinda a bookworm, and that one over there is Natsuki, she's real sweet."

The girl Monika labeled as Yuri notices you, and stands up, and walks briskly towards you.

"Hi, I'm Yuri!" she said with a grin that felt unnatural.

Something about her gaze felt wrong, too hungry. Her eyes scanned every feature of your face in an instant. You start to feel uncomfortable with how... crazy she looks, but thankfully Monika intervenes.

"Give him some space, please."

Yuri glares at Monika, but retreats to her corner, and goes back to reading like nothing happened.

You wave to Natsuki, but she just rolls her eyes, and responds with nothing.

Monika sits down at the head of a group of 3 tables, but what strikes you as odd is there are 5 chairs, but you don't ask about it.

You sit down, and Yuri sits down next to you almost immediately, giving you another one of her almost crazy smiles.

You smile back weakly, and do you best to avoid her gaze.

"You're kinda cute~" she mumbles, just loud enough to hear.

"I hardly even know you-" you respond, but you feel like that's a lie.

Your head stings for a moment, and you get a flash of... Yuri? No, that can't be right.

You grimace, and turn away, but Yuri isn't done with you just yet.

"Do you like writing?? Oh, you look like you like writing!" she says, leaning in closer.

"I don't- I've never written in my life."

Monika clears her throat. "Give him some space, Yuri, you're freaking the poor guy out."

Yuri looks down in shame, and mumbles a quiet sorry.

"Since the festival is coming up, we should write some poems for examples of what we do here. We'll each write one independently."

Natsuki and Yuri nod, and you get a weird sense of deja vu.

You search your pockets, and pull out a pencil, feeling glad that you didn't have to put up with Yuri to get a pencil.

You got to work writing, trying to convey your confusion and fear with what was happening, how you felt like something was missing, or how you feel like this had all happened before.

Monika... she was the one that felt the most familiar. Her eyes, her tone of voice, you felt that you'd heard it all before. Yuri... something was weird about her. Natsuki was obviously different, she wasn't as open to talking to you.

As you write, you hear something behind you.

"Whatcha writing?~"

You feel yourself tense up at the sound of Yuri's voice, but you manage to croak out a response.

"Just... a poem..."

"Can I read it after you're done?"

"S-sure??"

Yuri gives you an ecstatic grin, and goes back to writing, looking up at you occasionally.

You suddenly don't feel like writing anymore, but you know you have to.

As you scrawl words down on the paper, trying to get your panicked feelings out, Monika sits down next to you, and supports her chin on her interlocked fingers, watching your pen move.

"What an interesting poem." she muses, her emerald green eyes now looking into yours. She gets closer, until she's right next to you.

"I don't know how you remember who we are, but it won't matter for much longer."

You start to get an uncomfortable feeling that you remember who should be sitting in chair 5.

Monika had already stood up and left, going to check in on the other girls.

Natsuki has stopped writing already, reading her poem, occasionally erasing parts that she clearly is unhappy with.

You look down at your paper, and realize you have nothing else you can write.

Standing up, you give Yuri your poem. Her eyes light up, and she gives you a weak smile.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to make it up to you."

Her sudden politeness alarms you, but you don't have time to really comment on it.

Monika gets your attention with a loud clearing of her throat, and hands you a half sheet of paper.

You unfold it, and take a seat, giving it a read.

It couldn't have been me.

See, the direction the spackle protrudes.

A noisy neighbor? An angry boyfriend? I'll never know. I wasn't home.

I peer inside for a clue.

No! I can't see. I reel, blind, like a film left out in the sun.

But it's too late. My retinas.

Already scorched with a permanent copy of the meaningless image.

It's just a little hole. It wasn't too bright.

It was too deep.

Stretching forever into everything.

A hole of infinite choices.

I realize now, that I wasn't looking in.

I was looking out.

And he, on the other side, was looking in.

You look up at Monika, who's still smiling like she didn't just give you an absolute nightmare of a poem.

"What.... Is this?"

"Oh, just a poem. Do you like it?"

You figure it'd be nice to say yes.

"I... I guess."

"Good! I'll make sure to write more for you!"

You give Monika a thumbs up, and look at your watch. Something tells you your time here is almost up now.

You pack your bag with the sole purpose of getting out of here as fast as humanly possible.

You don't want to come back, but you have to, you don't have a choice.

"I'll see you tomorrow~" Monika chirps as you leave the room, making your way home.