Trust in Me

Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Sorry this took so long. I've been caught up with school lately. And apologies if this was short. Well enjoy!

~~~~

Another Monday. Laura called earlier saying Serah's going to school today. I almost fell out of the chair when I heard that. I got dressed and fixed my stuff. Just then, I noticed, I've been gone from school for how long now? 2-3 weeks more or less I believe. Looks like I got a lot of stuff to catch up on.

I finished packing my books and left the house. My parents are out on a business trip so I'm alone again. Not that I mind much though, I prefer them to be away because of what's currently happening. They're not bad, I love them. They just seem so far away nowadays.

I eventually reached Serah's house and not surprisingly, they just got out of the house and were headed for the bus stop.

"Hey there!" Carla never loses her energy does she?

"Good morning." I waved back.

"How are you doing today Matt?"

"I'm fine. A little sleepy but nothing special." I yawned as I stretched my arms out.

"Well, we'd better move if we wanna catch the bus." Laura continued.

"Right, the bus would arrive any minute now at the corner."

Bus ride wasn't special, mostly quiet besides Carla bugging Serah. Now, I'm stuck with Laura in the back. We got to chat about some casual stuff, mostly school and all.

Now at school they split up to go to our classrooms, with me and Serah going together to ours. I hope no one is suspicious about anything.

But that fell on deaf ears. People were talking about the both of us with stuff like "Did they get married or something?" or "They must have did it together." I swear, whoever starts these rumors will get a beating from me.

"Good morning class. Oh-" He noticed. "Matt and Serah are finally here. Good to know you're both fine." One of us is. "Alright, attendance. Adam."

"Here." And it goes on.

~~~~

During recess most of the girls, mostly Serah's friends, were swarming around her. Considering she was quite popular with them and the guys, it can't be long before she could be suffocating. Some were asking where she was and all. You get the idea.

Some guys were also giving me looks, both threatening and weird. Obviously they were fans of hers. I walked out of the room and headed outside for some air. But wait, I just realized, I don't think Serah would survive back there. I headed back and found her cornered to the wall. I had to do something right now right? She seemed like she was on the verge of faitning or something.

"Alright alright, settle down kiddos." Barging right in and practically covered Serah from all these creeps was what I did. Fixing this wasn't hard, just annoying.

Anyway, I got it under control a minute later as everyone went back to minding their own business. I turned to Serah to see her still slightly shaking and seemed like she was hugging herself in a way. "You OK?"

"Y-yeah..." She walked back to her chair and kept mostly to herself throughout the rest of the period. I still have half an hour left for recess, so I decided to continue going outside for some air. I headed for the roof and this place seemed so relaxing. This area is pretty common in anime stuff, but this is real life right? No excuses. I took a seat on one of the walls and looked at the sky above me.

"Hey Matt." I turned my head and I didn't expect to see Laura there. "How is Serah doing?" She took her own seat beside me.

"Well... How do I put this? She's not comfortable with our classmates. Although it was mostly about them swarming her in a way, questioning what happened and all."

"I'll be honest. I kind of expected this to happen."

"Wha-... If you did when why did you make Serah go to school anyway?"

"Well... It's because she insisted."

"..."

"She didn't want to be left behind on lessons. At least that's what she mentioned. I still think it's something else." I leaned back all the way to let my head rest.

"Even after all that she's worried about her grades?"

"Seems like it. I think it's also her way of showing that she's not weak or something. She always wanted to surpass you and be able to graduate with much more than flying colors to keep our parents happy." Wow... I couldn't say anything. After a moment I decided to ask her something.

"What about you? Don't you want the same thing?"

"I couldn't keep up with Serah's levels of study habits. So, I just left it alone and decided to just be able to pass, even if it's barely."

"With that attitude I don't think you'll find a job."

"Nah, I'm just kidding. My parents wouldn't even allow me to live in the house if I got a B. I remember once when they made me stay outside the house until later that night when they got worried about me."

"Heh..." We spent most of the remaining minutes just looking at the sky. Not a moment of noise.

"Alright I'm gonna head back." Laura stood up and stretched out her arms.

"OK, then so will I."

Time passed and it's lunch time. Another quiet time, I managed to drag Serah out of the room to make sure she eats something because she never bothered to eat breakfast as her older sister had mentioned on the bus. We reached the cafeteria in less than 5 minutes but I was astounded with the amount of people in here. I barely went here as I brought my own lunch majority of the time. The line was long which can be traced until the cafeteria doors. And that's saying a lot because the cafeteria was probably half the size of our gymnasium which is epicly huge.

Luckily though, Carla was sitting there as when she spotted us, she motioned me to get over there. Weird, she already had the food for us sitting on the table.

"Hey, good thing I was here no?" She seems rather happy. "Bigger sis told me big sis hasn't eaten yet. So I ran here as fast as I could and got her the food." Heh, she's still as childish as ever.

We thanked her for the food and I promised I would repay her for the money she had to use for getting us the food. Serah insisted she would pay as well, and I lost the argument for once. She'll end up paying 3/4 of the money. Guilt was getting to me, but I let it go as she'll probably hate me if I didn't let her.

Back to class, I noticed Serah wasn't interacting with any of her friends lately. Probably because of before, but they were already apologizing and yet she didn't seem to notice them. She was quiet again. I couldn't help but sigh at this scene. I guess we're back to square one with the friends thing.