Echoing Back (BxB)

※ 𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕕𝕖 𝕍𝕀𝕀𝕀 ※

(18.05.24)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

There was an ancient plaza in the business part of our town; it was the go to hangout spot for teenagers, fully decked out with an arcade. Half of the games there were probably outdated by five decades, but the establishment had played into that, marketing themselves as retro themed. It was kind of cool, honestly. And plus, they did have a couple of new ones as well.

There were some shops, but personally, the best thing there was the food court. There was anything that your brain could imagine there. Like ice cream, milkshakes, and even a small pizza place. Okay, sure, they were a little generic, but food is food.

I forced Zain to buy me a milkshake, two slices of pizza, and those giant swirl lollipops, then felt kind of bad and gave him a pizza. We went to the arcade, and honestly, we had a pretty great time. I beat him 3 nil on Mario Kart, and then he absolutely wiped the floor with a DDR machine. But even if it was fun, I still couldn't stop myself from getting distracted.

Had he seen the text? What if he ignores it? Could I really fault him if he did?

And I guess it showed.

"So.." Zain said, stepping off the DDR and wiping sweat off his face. He had insisted we go for another round, even if we both knew that in no world would I win. "You haven't actually told me about what happened."

I knew he was asking about Kagan, but I didn't really want to talk about it. Thinking about him in my head was one thing, but actually discussing this with another person? That was something else. "We just got into an argument." I shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal. Like it hadn't been the one thing on my mind since it happened.

He looked like he didn't know what to say; he knew that I didn't want to talk about it, and he knew that he should probably just leave it. "Alright..."

But I didn't want to not talk about it anymore. I was tired of making up excuses and lies about how everything was fine. I wanted to share with someone, but the thought was... daunting. "Hey Zain?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you don't draw anymore?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, taken aback by the question.

"You used to draw so much; back in freshman year, you had little comics, and I even managed to get you to do that art contest. But you don't anymore."

"Well.. I found better things." He said, shrugging, "There's more things that I'd rather do that have become more important now that we're seniors. Like the student council, like tests, like getting into a good university."

I frowned. "So you gave up on art?"

"Not really; I still keep a notebook in my room, but like I said, art just became less important as I got older. I'm finding new things, and art probably will never be as important to me as it was before, and that's okay. It means I'm changing."

So he knew, huh? He knew that, even if I was asking about him, I was really just looking for something I could compare to. And goddamn, did he have a way of making me feel better. Even if he had no idea what I needed advice on, "Thanks; that helps a lot more than you think."

"Anytime," he said, though as he said that, his gaze traveled past me. "But I have a feeling your time is about now." I followed his gaze, and it took me a while to figure out where he was looking—out the doors of the arcade, into the atrium. Leaning on a pillar, his hands in his pockets, and his gaze nervously flitting from person to person as he watched people go by was Kagan.