What If..?

Chapter Fourteen - FINALE

Chihiro could have relived that night a million times. For the first time in their relationship, they shared a bed. Nothing more than innocent cuddling, delusional rants, and laughter at three in the morning. But they had slept beneath the same covers, bundled against each other. It felt so warm and comforting. They talked. They talked for hours. About being children. About the broken down swing set in the back yard. And how Mondo plummeted off the metal slide and chipped a tooth when he was nine. Chihiro relived the time when he slipped from the monkey bars. He pretended to hurt his ankle so his father would pick him up from school. Mondo assumed it was because of bullying he endured as a child. The boy informed him that it was actually because he wanted to watch his favorite movie instead of sit in class.

And then they talked about their future. Their plans after high school. Chihiro wanted to continue his education. Mondo wanted to build things. They both wanted a place of their own some day, and Mondo wanted to get a dog. Chihiro was a little frightened of dogs, so Mondo suggested a small one. The more tired they felt, the more intimate the conversation of their future became.

The worry that Mondo's mother was waiting on the other side of the door with a nail studded bat had slipped his mind. She only yelled at Mondo a little bit the next morning. All the way home, Chihiro texted his boyfriend about how excited he was for Mondo to meet his father. Text after happy, blissful text about their future. His father would approve, as long as Mondo didn't mention he drove a motorcycle. And crashed it. And went to jail. Other than that, things would be perfect.

But after Chihiro left the Oowada home, Mondo never answered. He didn't message back, he didn't pick up phone calls. He fell quiet again.

And the weekend wrapped up quicker than Chihiro expected. Before he knew it, he was sitting in class among his other students as if he had never left. Some of them asked questions about Mondo and when he would be returning. Chihiro could only respond with soon because he wasn't sure. Although they had talked things out and Mondo was on the path to accepting himself, he had to actually do it. He had to swallow his pride and storm back into this school. He had to let his fellow students know the truth. But he hadn't returned. And Chihiro hadn't spoke to him since coming back to the academy.

Of course it was on his mind, and he jumped from being impatient to upset to angry about fifty times a day. Anytime one of his fellow students brought up Mondo, it only made Chihiro more nervous. They still all assumed that Chihiro had lied. They thought the programmer visited Mondo to apologize, not to receive an apology. Sitting in the middle of class without a hint of what the boy was up to ushered another apology in Chihiro's eyes. The seat behind him was empty, as it had been for weeks. Maybe Mondo wasn't coming back.

A couple seats to his right, Junko fiddled with the end of her pigtail. She hadn't been sleeping through class recently. Too interested in the chatter between the class about Mondo's state of well being. Or the crumbling relationship between him and Chihiro. She was the most persistent among the crowd, but only when the crowd was watching. Because she knew the truth. But she was intent on keeping up with her lie to make Chihiro feel like an awful person in front of his friends. Although he knew better. He had nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. But he had to pretend his did for the sake of Mondo. If he ever came back.

Chihiro reached down to the side of his desk, pretending to search for something within his back pack. Glancing down, he took a peek at his phone. Nothing. No calls. No texts. Not a single thing from his dear boyfriend. It was like the past weekend never happened. After a successful breakthrough, it was hard to imagine Mondo's mother was preventing contact. She was stern and terrifying, but in Mondo's words, she loved Chihiro. And the way he made Mondo smile. Sighing, he let the phone drop back into his bag and sat upright. He wasn't coming back.