13 REASONS WHY// Glorybringer [Completed]

[11] Alone

He went to school the next day.

It was same as usual- bullies cornering the weak kids and stealing their lunch money, smart geeks with their faces pressed on books, the jocks passing a football around the crowded hallway and flirting with cheerleaders.

The whispers. The stares. The lack of voices when he entered the room.

A few months ago, he was Deathbringer Black. The annoying guy with a mischievous smile. The one that flirted with everyone, the one that was impossibly tall and good at basketball. Some random guy that made the varsity team out of sheer luck and quit the next day.

Once. Long ago.

The Deathbringer Black he used to be... was a no more.

The crowd seemed to watch him, avoiding his gaze but staring at him blindly when they thought he wasn't looking. Some pointed, some shouted right at him.

His friend committed suicide, they whispered. His mother died, and he keeps going around the hallway with his backpack and headphones. I bet he's depressed, too.

He clenched his fists. He had the list, right in his palm. They were red by gripping it for too long and too hard, but he was too numb, too broken, to even care.

Did anything even matter anymore?

He only came to his stupid school for one reason and one reason only.

To know the other side.

After a few embarrassing questions and stares, he caught her in the hallway: the startling, I-know-your-secrets eyes. The mysterious smile. The horrifying anxiety at her next post everyone felt.

She saw him, too. Maybe it was the way he looked at her, or maybe the headphones, or the tape he was gripping in his hand. Or the list.

Her eyes widened immediately, and her lips made a perfect O, her chest raising and falling in panic. Her emotionless, merciless expression was replaced by overwhelming anxiety.

She knew everyone's secrets.

Yet, he knew hers.

She didn't try to avoid him. Instead, she let him approach her. She kept her eyes down on the ground, her lips tightly pressed together, and flinched when he put a hand on her arm.

His voice was heavy as he spoke:

"Magnificent."

~

You were fire.

You were flames.

You were sparks.

Beautiful, frightening, impossible to understand. You were a carving. You were a goddess. You were a structure of perfection.

I can't even imagine competing with you. Yet, we had eyes for the same boy.

"Welcome to you tape, Peril Goldenberg"

~

Her voice was shaking. "What do you want?" She clenched her fists at her sides.

"I heard your story. Your tape, I mean," he said. He bit his lip. This was harder than he thought it to be.

She raised a perfect eyebrow. "So what?" She seemed calm and collected, but her wide eyes told a different story.

"I want to know why." People passed them without a glance. "I want to know why you did that to her, Magnificent."

Magnificent pulled away from him, trembling like his touch burned. Her eyes were full of panic and despair, and her cool expression ripped apart. "I thought he made sure you didn't get the tapes."