After a tragic past, Claire Elric is left alone in this world to fight against her mind and screaming thoughts, especially after her best friend, Leo, decides not to remember her and start a new life in which she is just a girl who studies in the sa...
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Conrad and I did a class project together when we were 14.
He found me oddly quiet and lonely. I found him obnoxiously hazardous and destructive with a cunning 'I'm gonna do something wrong any minute and you won't know it' smile on his face.
He tried offering me to have recess with his group of friends but after a continuous decline for three days, he stopped asking and we were just people whose paths intersected for a little while.
I hadn't seen him properly since then until now.
"What's up with you?" he spoke up when I kept staring at the place where the tree supposedly was.
"Umm..... Nothing. It was just... I saw something there and well, it's gone and... it was just weird."
"Uh, I'll just pretend I understood what you just said. So, got kicked out of class huh? That was a nice comeback you said to Sir Justin. I'd do anything to see those facial expressions on his scorny face again."
"Yeah.........." I just started walking again, like always, getting lost in the one place where every impossible thing could happen—my brain.
It called out my name... wait, no it didn't.
It was someone from outside, someone I knew.
"...... Claire!"
"What?!" I growled as I whipped my head to see who it was. Conrad.
"Stop following me," I whispered, a little embarrassed by the way I had screamed at him.
"I'm not following you; I just wanted to offer you a ride back home. I could drop you off, you know."
With a little thought, I accepted his invitation.
The car ride was slow—or maybe made slow purposely—I couldn't tell. We just had the basic conversation for the first five minutes like........
"So, how are you?" "Fine." "How's life?" "Terrible." "..........."
... And after that was silence.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Your house hasn't changed at all."
"You remember the way it looked four years ago?" I questioned him since he only came here twice or thrice.
His lips curled into a smirk as his steel eyes peered into mine. "I never forget. Photographic memory, remember? I still remember you from nursery, a little sparkly-eyed girl who couldn't stop jumping with excitement. You were so optimistic, so. . . happy. Your hair was always in pig-tails and you'd always wear floral frocks with matching buckle shoes."
"Wow," I said dryly. "Why did you notice so much about me?"
He shrugged. "I never really intended to notice anyone this much but I always did. One glimpse in front of my eyes and I'd always remember it."
"Like your brain just took a picture of everything."
"Yeah, something like that."
"Didn't your gallery run out of space or something?"
He tittered at my weak attempt of cracking a joke. "I guess I have a big capacity then."
He strolled into the kitchen when I asked him if he'd like something to drink. He took a seat as I opened the fridge to take out the apple juice when I heard him say, "Nice tree, by the way. It looks nice in your backyard. Especially the lights."
