Ironies of life

Chapter 15 Taste your own medicine

The next morning Naoki made sure to pretend he was sleeping all morning, but at some point in the afternoon he got bored and silently took his computer to watch videos. He kept himself occupied for the longest time and by five in the evening he was starving.

'But I don't want to have to see Dante in my life anymore than I absolutely have to, and I don't want him to put that lotion on me or even look at me again.'

He tried to send Loin an email but his friend didn't respond at all, and he couldn't really think on anyone else he wanted to see. Of course, Gala had disappeared without a word and his mates from the swimming club were gaining a certain distance with him since he was kicked out of the club.

Naoki felt the loneliness and despair building to a familiar level and sighed despondently. He had always been immersed in his emotions, especially the feelings of loneliness and rejection, and he was never very good at controlling those feelings, so he had fallen into depression many times. His parents were so grateful with Loin, who was a great help in keeping Naoki from relapsing again. But his parents didn't trust Naoki anymore, after the party they must've thought that Naoki had finally changed into a common teenager that goes to parties so they didn't have this detail in mind when they punished him by isolation.

'I've no one, no one at all. Not even my family is here and the only person I could possibly talk with... NO. I would rather die.'

"Naoki." Dante knocked at his bedroom door.

'Speak of the devil and he shall appear.' Naoki thought with an eye roll.

He knocked again insistently. Naoki checked the time, the clock reading 6:13pm.

"Get lost, Dante. You interrupted my show." He lied, he didn't even have his laptop out anymore.

"Open the door." The blond dude demanded.

"I've told you that you're not allowed in my bedroom. Is that so hard to understand?" Naoki retorted from his place on the carpet in the middle of the room.

"I don't think you understand, Hiro. Either you open the door or I'll open it my way and mine is not the conventional one." He threatened. Even his muffled voice sounded scary from the other side of the locked door.

"If you break the door you will have to pay for a new one and my parents will notice so I don't care what you say, you are not going to make me see your face again. I won't go out."

"Gosh you are the most childish jerk I've ever had to deal with."

Naoki grinned triumphantly. His enemy sounded so desperate, making him that upset was a huge achievement.

"Aw thanks, Hartell. I'm glad I'm making your life as miserable as you made mine."

But all his happiness was gone when at nine his stomach began growing like crazy. He was hoping to hear Dante going to sleep to be able to go down and prepare something for himself.

'Where is Dante sleeping anyway?' He was wondering when the door sounded again.

"I've told you to get lost, idiot." Naoki yelled at the door.

"It's April." April replied, sounding shocked from behind the door.

'April? What is she doing here again? Please don't tell me Dante called her again and told her about the situation. I'm going to die of embarrassment.' Naoki sat up quickly and reluctantly got up. 'When did she arrive? I didn't even hear her on knocking the door downstairs.'

Naoki opened the door and she was waiting at the other side with a plate of two sandwiches waiting for him.

"First of all eat that, then I will see to your shoulder." She sounded really serious about the matter.

Naoki obeyed immediately and ate half a sandwich so fast he even surprised himself.

"Okay, you can finish later, now take your shirt off." She started pulling things out of her bag and lecturing him. "You know it's not healthy to starve yourself. You don't starve yourself in a common situation, and you definitely don't starve yourself when you are injured. More than ever you should be eating to get energy for your shoulder to recover and I'm being dead serious when I say you have to use the cream as I told you and as many times as I said." She was rubbing his shoulder harder than usual and she seemed a bit upset about the whole thing. But Naoki couldn't complain, after all she was right, of course. "I'm going on vacation so I won't come again and the most important thing... Dante mentioned that you like swimming."

Naoki nodded, his thoughts full of concern. Swimming was one of the most important things in his life, the only place where he could be alone and feel okay was in the water.

"If your shoulder doesn't heal properly you can forget about swimming anymore."

That was the coup de grace for Naoki. He would never survive without swimming. The pain from his shoulder was insignificant to the phantom pain in his heart, he wasn't even hearing her lecturing him anymore. He could only think about the horror of never swimming again.

Naoki panicked.

He didn't even bother closing the door once she was gone, he stayed rooted in place and after what felt like forever, but was only a few minutes, a firm decision was formed in his mind.

'I'll do whatever it takes to heal my shoulder. Starting tomorrow I'll do things right, even if I know Dante mentioned that to make April scare me I won't take the risk.'

At midnight he woke up starving again so he went downstairs and prepared something to himself trying to make the least amount noise possible, and it wasn't until he was eating his sandwich that he saw Dante sleeping on the couch.

Apparently he was more expressive sleeping than awake because even if he wasn't moving his face was relaxed and in some way he looked vulnerable. Naoki approached him eating silently and stared at him.

'He really doesn't seem like the demon he is while he is sleeping.'

Although there was nothing you could use to learn about his life. His pyjamas were plain, no logos or characters from his favourites movies. They weren't expensive, but they weren't cheap either. It was the most common pair of pyjamas one could buy. His posture was plain too, he didn't seem completely comfortable, but he didn't seem uncomfortable sleeping there either.

'It's just impossible to read this guy.' Naoki interrupted his own thoughts. 'What am I doing? Why would I even analyze him?'

Dante moved his head a bit, making his hair bunch up messily against the couch and Naoki tensed in alarm.

'I've to go back to my room before he wakes up.' Naoki scurried away like a mouse in the night.