I'd Rather Be Their Victim (Maniggy)

Chapter Six: Coma White

Brian woke up like he always did. Cold, alone, and sort of angry.

He groaned as he got up and cracked his aching back. His makeshift bed just wasn't made for a prolonged stay.

He squinted up at the sky and estimated that he still had time, so he walked out of the abandoned house to the river close by.

He bathed in the river, the icy water invigorating his stubborn senses, and also washed some clothes. He walked back to his humble abode and hung up his wet clothing on a wooden railing. He swung a jacket too hard over it and it came back to hit him in the face.

"I hate mornings."

~*~*~

Jeordie walked into class nervously. He didn't want any of the other students knowing that he and Brian were... involved.

Last night, Jeordie's mom had left to do a double shift at work. Brian was glad that he had waited outside Jeordie's window. Needless to say, they hadn't gotten any homework done.

Brian almost stayed the entire  night, but he couldn't come up with a valid excuse to cover up the fact that he was homeless. He couldn't just page his mom to ask for permission.

(A/N: I might change the time period for convenience later, but for now, it's payphones, landlines, and pagers. Bless the mid 80's.)

So he walked back to his lonely wooden palace, and decided to sleep under the hole in the roof to look at the stars.

And remember.

He woke up with the bright sun murdering his poor eyes.
"I hate mornings." Morning meant a departure from sleep, and from comfortable darkness. At night, only the sleepy moon looks down, peacefully washing the earth in its borrowed glow. In the day, the sun blazes, harshly judging your every move. There is no escape from the sunlight and the day, where you rub shoulders with the people that hate you, and they use the sun to point out your flaws and your lack of light.

Brian preferred the darkness.

He thought of all this as he dressed for the morning and walked from the woods to the school. As usual, he was the first to arrive.

Sometimes he liked to be so early, he beat the sun. That way, it was still almost dark when he went inside the school, and he could pretend it was an afternoon, and the sun was about to set far away. He could only acccomplish this in the winter, though, when the days were shorter. He liked the winter for that reason. He didn't really like the snow in his cabin, though.

Jeordie walked in, interrupting him from his thoughts. He had barely been conscious of coming into class, but he had automatically gone into his corner, prime staring spot.

Jeordie seemed nervous, with good reason. Last night he learned that the dresses belonged to Jeordie, not his sister. He didn't even have a sister, or a girlfriend. The thought made Brian happy.