Side Strung

I'm Gonna Worry \\ Karma

This chapter is a lot longer than my other chapters and is a little under 5000 words. Yet it's actually early... anywho, I kinda forgot that E-Class is actually in a completely different building. So, uh, it's just part of the main building but in pretty bad condition for convenience okay? Okay.

- Karma's POV-

Blinding rays of sunshine filtered through the window I just so happened to sleep next to. The slight reflection it gave off didn't show a sleeping bluenette. Instead, it just showed a familiar redhead with the same old pajamas and the same old ombre eyes that could make a kid cry without as much as a single stare.

I sat up, the previous weight on my chest last night not present.

'He couldn't have walked back to that place. He can barely even walk, let alone deal with the psychological torture he apparently goes through daily.'

A sudden wave of panic rushes over me, the thoughts of the absolute worst scenarios keeping their place in my interests.

I raced out of my bed and into the bathroom conveniently located in the same facility as my bedroom, hoping and praying I wouldn't find a razor or an empty bottle of pills laying on the floor, along with a lifeless body facing down.

When I slammed open the door, I was only met face to face with my reflection. I don't know what was worse. How completely and utterly terrifying I looked in the morning or the fact that I actually thought the lad I was talking to not even 24 hours ago was gonna end up dead on my bathroom floor. Either way, I groaned at my appearance.

"Karma! Can you come down here?" I recognized that as my dad's voice somehow, considering how angry he usually sounds. His voice, though booming, didn't sound like he was trying to lecture me in the next five minutes.

Hesitantly, I opened my mouth to shout back a reply, not afraid to wake up my other neighbors since the first yell from the Akabane's residence should've done so. "Alright!"

The trip downstairs wasn't anything special, but my mother's soft gaze when I reached the first floor certainly caught me off guard. She had her hands together, like she was preparing to clap. And who knows, maybe I got a scholarship and she's actually proud of me. But the chances of that happening are the same as the moon blowing up in a matter of seconds.

"Yeah?" I asked my dad, still pretty creeped out and focused on my mom's kind eyes. "Did something happe-?"

"You're damn right something happened!" He stated. For once in my life, an actual expression of happiness was diluted on my father's face, and I was the source of it. Well, maybe not me, considering the shortie I was worried about moments before was sitting across from my father at the breakfast table. Nagisa had his hair down and a slight crimson on his face.

Oh god, they think I brought a girl home didn't they?

"S-Sorry Karma. I didn't know your parents were home and I got kinda careless," Nagisa choked out in a nervous laugh. His voice was still somewhat hoarse, but not enough for someone to realize it's from probably screaming and sobbing.

"Were you trying to hide from us? There's nothing to hide from dearie!" My mother apparently teleported from behind me to behind her husband since I didn't even realize she disappeared. She patted Nagisa's head, his eye slightly flinching in pain when she did so. "It's nice to know my son's got some friends he actually invites home."

"Especially a friend who lives right next door. I'm proud of you Karma." My dad gave me the weirdest sign with his hands, something he's never given me. A thumbs-up.