Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth Behind Demons ❯ Proposal of friendship ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13.

After cleaning himself up, Rei followed Kai back to the cafeteria surprised to see one Tala and Bryan missing from the table. Though, it wasn’t so surprising he did knock stainable food over on to the loud mouth Russian, chances are the two of them were taking up life space in some other bathroom on the floor- thank God. Last thing Rei wanted was another encounter when he already had to prepare for the end of the days therapy session with Ms. Ito.

Finishing the rest of his cold and, hopefully, untouched lunch. He dragged himself into math class with agitation already setting in. Bryan was in fact in class now and since he walked with the short male Ian of course was too. The Chinese boy did not have a good feeling in his stomach and odds were it wasn’t because of the cold Italian food.

“Alright class, we’re gonna do some basic math today so take out your books and turn to page 714.”

Half the class groaned knowing that they didn’t have their books on them and would probably either have to get permission to share or get a bad grade for being ill prepared. Rei thanked God his backpack always possessed every book he needed within it that way he wouldn’t ever have to borrow with someone.

Bryan raised his hand and waited for the teacher to finally notice him and when that clearly wasn’t going to happen he snapped his fingers. The man looked up at him, lowering his glasses over the bridge of his nose. Rei never got why people did that. Was it to look smart or something? If you need the glasses why lower them to see what you’re looking at?

“Yes Mr. Kuznetsov?”

He put on a fake smile and said. “I don’t have my book today because I left it in my living room at home.”

The man merely cleared his throat as if to say ‘and what am I supposed to do about that?’ So going on Bryan says.

“Can I share with Rei.”

Rei looked up at the sound of his name. Why the hell would Bryan wanna share books with him? To pass on a death sentence from his boyfriend? And why not Ian? They’re already friends! Rei was starting to wish he had taken Kai’s offer and just skipped to stay over at his place and hang out. But then again, Lee had come to pick him up, so that might not have worked out so well anyway.

The man took a while answering Bryan’s question then finally he gave in and said. “It’s up to Mr. Kon.”

That really threw him. Wasn’t it a teachers job to decide everything that went on in the class room? He couldn’t say, no. But he didn’t wanna say, yes. Then again, if he worked on the group from the inside maybe things wouldn’t turn out as badly as he thinks they will.

“Move it.” He says to some poor girl who was just turning the page in her text book. She looked horrified of the 100 pound Russian sneering down at her, and quickly shrank away to his seat in the back of the room.

Don’t wait for a yes or anything. Rei thinks as Bryan sits down. Smiling kindly at the other male, he slides his book over a bit so he can see the pages easier. If we can just avoid talking to each other-….

“I wouldn’t worry too much about walking home after school,” he says breaking the silence Rei hoped for.

“…-Oh yeah, why’s that?” Keeping his voice low incase the teacher didn’t want them talking.

“Because Tal’ went home.” He spoke as if he couldn’t care less whether or not the man wanted total silence in the room.

“Because of a stain? It’s a black uniform, no one would see it.”

“You don’t know how Tala is….” He glanced at the text book a moment then back up at Rei. “Either way, you shouldn’t let him get under your skin. You know it only excites him to see someone bring a challenge.”

“I never got that about people like you,” he thought for the words to say in the mass jumble of sentences that went through his head. “Why do you bother with picking on people? Is it really some low self esteem thing?”

“Are you kidding,” the gray haired boy held tightly to his pencil as he spoke, hand shrinking in on it with each word. “It’s for the fun of making someone crack.” The pencil did just that as if to make some type of emphasis to what Bryan has just said.

“Well what if some people don’t crack like others, what if they start to fight you?” With a shrug he wrote down an answer to one of the problems. “Usually, guys like that are full of hot air and get the shit beat out of them.”

This got a shocked expression on the usually self humored face. “Really? Are you saying you wanna try to beat up Tala?”

Rei shrugged again. “I might,” though he didn’t sound as confident as his words intended to.

“Ahahaha,” Bryan shook his head. “Save yourself the hospital trip. Tala’s father trained him like a dog, he would make you look like you’re a four year old going up against a heavy weight boxer. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Now Rei was almost curious; could Tala really beat him up that badly? It wasn’t as if he himself were defenseless. He knows karate a very good style passed down by his father- well, in all the time he had to teach him that is. But he still knows a great deal and had broken many a wrong gaze from him with just one glance. So bring Tala on if that’s what the obnoxious boy wants.

“We all like you Rei, some of us just need a little more time with the idea of someone else coming along. Especially someone that’s gotten Kai’s attention when he’s in a grade lower than our own.”

“Kai’s attention? I don’t know who’s going around telling everybody that I’m with Kai but it’s not true.” He turned to look the boy straight in the eyes. “I’m going out with someone in my own grade level, at my own school…. Kai isn’t even a second thought to me.”

“Tala doesn’t seem to think so.”

“So they are seeing each other?”

“No. He’s just territorial… like they say, you can’t see the owner if you can’t make it past the dog at the gate.” Standing, he pats Rei on the head. “And at the rate you’re going, he’ll never like you.”

Rei thought about that. What was so great about Kai that everyone was so hell bent on keeping them apart. Did it have anything to do with that stupid birthday party that happened so long ago? It couldn’t be. Maybe he said something that was taken the wrong way and every one really does think he has a thing for Kai. He needed answers, someone has to talk to him. “Bryan?”

“Hm?”

“What can I do? I mean… do you know? He talks to you most of all it seems, maybe he told you something.”

Bryan shrugged. “I don’t, sorry.” Taking his seat; Rei was about to say something about sharing a book, when Bryan pulled his from his book bag. “Well look at that, I had it the whole time.”

For a moment Rei wondered if Bryan were trying to help him or was he just making stuff up so that he could get himself in worse trouble with the bitter red head. Shaking off the thoughts, he focused on another aspect of what the usually silent Russian had told him. About him liking Kai. Did he? Maybe as a friend but nothing more- at least, he doesn’t think so. Scratching his head, he grumbled mentally to himself about how he hated it when people put ideas in his head. It was just like when he was a kid and someone told him that he should go out into the woods and call out the name of some spooky guy that was supposed to live out there. It of course wasn’t true but it frightened Rei to no end and he can still feel the vines he had run into pulling at him like the hands and fingers of some ragged clothing, nonsense speaking lunatic. If it weren’t for Lee coming outside when he did, he might have died from fright a long time ago.

Rrr, I’ve gotta stop thinking and focus on my work. With a firm nod, he placed his pencil to the paper and looked over the questions. Halfway through his assignment a little bell chimed and the class looked up to the p.a. system all but Rei who had no clue what the sound was, but a brief glance to the other students and he looked up as well.

P.A: Rei Kon to the front office, please. Rei Kon to the front office.

Everyone looked at said person, making him wish he was invisible. Why on earth was he being called to the office. Did something happen to someone? His uncle Stan, to Lee? It didn’t sound like an emergency but then again these people probably didn’t know the difference anymore since they’ve probably heard every excuse in the book about why this person and that person is absent.

Gathering his things, he waved a hand to Bryan and Ian then right after wondered if that were an uncool thing to have done. But when the two boys waved back without a hint of ‘you screwed up again’ written on their faces he smiled to his self as he walked out. As he passed each class room glancing back and forth wondering Kai were in any of them, another thought crossed his mind.

Do I even know where the office is in this school? Looking around he turned at a left, guided by a big yellow strip that read: Attendance office. Rei doubted the high school would care that he was late at his own school. But when he saw Ms. Ito sitting on one of the couches his breaths stopped in his chest. What the hell is she doing here?! He thought about hiding, but right then she turned around and saw him beyond the big glass window. Waving, she then motioned for him to come in.

Rei wasn’t sure what a panic attack felt like, though, with the way his body began to tremble like it is, he thought that this should be pretty close. Taking a shaken step toward the office he pulled open the door. Miki stood up and walked over to him.

“I hoped to catch you,” she smiled warmly as if nothing were wrong with her choice of actions. “I didn’t want you to have any other excuses to ditch me this week, so I came to get you. The middle school knows as well.”

The trapped boy felt that cold lasagna boiling back up in his mouth, or maybe that was something else. But he felt tears now, he knew that much, he couldn’t cry. Crying wouldn’t help and crying would make them start talking again.

Miki placed her hand on his shoulder as she guided him out of the building, Rei felt like he were being sentenced to death and he hated her for doing it to him. But at least no one could see him now. Maybe it was better this way. “There’s my car,” she points to a champagne colored thing beside the street. “Pretty nice isn’t it? Bet a kid like you would like to drive one someday.”

“Don’t do that!” He hissed at her, as he waited beside the passenger side of her car for her to unlock the door.

“Do what?” She sounded so innocent it was making Rei feel sicker.

“Do this to me and then pretend to be my friend!” He looked up at her, cheeks soaked with tears that he didn’t feel fall. “I hate you for embarrassing me like this! No one is supposed to know that I go to therapy!”

A passer by glanced his way at his outburst but didn’t miss a step as she went by. Miki looked at the boy as if he had lost his senses, but unlocked the car door and slid inside. Rei did the same knowing that he had scored a point on her since she didn’t have anything to say back to that. Climbing inside the car, he pulled the door closed and his seat belt on; it wouldn’t have surprised him if the child safety were on the door, so even though he was tempted to test it, he didn’t.

The car wheeled away from the high school and down the street up until a u-turn came then it circled back around and went in the other direction where the woman’s office is.

…………………

Rei dropped his things to the chair and sighed angrily as he sat himself down on the stupid long couch in the ugly office that was more like a jail cell than he first thought. Miki took out a manila folder then sipped from her coffee that sat on her desk in the corner. Rei hoped that it was poisoned and maybe she’d drop dead. Or maybe both of them would because a meteor would run into the place or something.

It was silent for a moment until finally the Chinese boy was angry enough to open his mouth first. “Well!?” He crossed his arms. “What am I here for?”

“Judging by your anger you know why I brought you here.”

“No. I don’t know.” He threw his hands up into the air. “You just couldn’t wait to hear the tail of my first day at high school- or some smutty stories about Tyson and me-..”

“Rei?”

“Which one? You’ve apparently got all day since you dragged me out of school,”

“Rei, please, stop it.”

“I don’t wanna stop!” He held his head as he bent over his knees, tears wetting through his uniform pants. “I’m losing my mind, why can’t you just leave me alone? I don’t care about my problem anymore,” he looked up now. “My not coming should have told you that.”

“Rei please, I just wanna talk to you about what’s in this folder.”

He glanced over at the desk to the thick folder sitting there. Where has he seen that before? He knows this. He knows this.

“Rei, I spoke to your previous therapist, Dr. Yang and he sent over a folder with your previous sessions that the two of you had,” she held up her hand, bracelet dangling into view. “I didn’t wanna open it without consulting you first, but since you kept blowing me off I thought it only right-..”

Cutting her off he says. “To violate my privacy?”

“That’s not what I was doing, I just needed to know about your previous history and I noticed a constant pattern when I read a few doctors slips.” Miki paused for effect. “You’ve been put on medication and then taken off when they found out that it wasn’t working.”

“…….So?”

“But here you have many slips signed that say you have continued taking the medication.”

“Well it should say in there that they put me on a stronger dose because that’s what they did.”

“Yes, up until they figured out that your problem wasn’t with panic attacks.”

Rei breathing was harsh and ragged now, he knew what she was getting at and he was prepared to do whatever it took to keep her from telling people about it. The only reason she hasn’t done it yet is so she can look at him smugly when they finally come down on him. Well that wasn’t gonna happen on his watch- no sir! Turning his head to look for weapon of some kind, anything he could use to frighten the woman long enough to get his file back from her would do. But what?

“Rei, I also called Dr. Yang about another bit of information that I found in your file concerning your personal life,”

“Uh huh,” he said as he looked around.

Miki stood up from her desk and walked over to him, kneeling down she took his hand and turned his head so that he would look at her. “Rei, why did you lie about having friends?” When Rei didn’t say anything she went on. “Why would you say that everyone in the village abandoned you up until your parents died because they pitied you?”

“Well what do you want me to say?” His voice was quiet and full of tears. “So I lied…” he shrugged and sniffed back his emotional out pouring. “No harm done. I’m not cool like Lee and the only reason the little neighborhood kids would be my friends is because he was there.”

Miki nodded, sadness washing over her face at the boys slip in speech.

“I don’t want people making fun of me for who I used to be,” he swallowed. “I have friends now, friends I made by myself and a boyfriend who even though he gets jealous- I know it’s only because he loves me… Why would you wanna take that away from me? Why are you being so mean?”

“I don’t wanna take that away from you, but I think that… all the fear of someone finding out about your past is making you paranoid. It’s making you think there’s a timer over your head until someone drops a bomb.

That was it. That’s what Rei felt exactly. He thought that Miki would find out he was a loser, she’d be talking to someone and Lee would hear and being the free spirited loud mouth he is he would let something slip and everyone would make fun of him. Miki watched the boys eyes dart back and forth as he thought; so pulling him into a hug she knew the best thing for him right now was for him to cry it all out before the talked and Rei was right, she did have all day.

He cried on the woman’s shoulder, glad for the comfort, more glad for the fact that she said she wouldn’t tell. But Rei couldn’t help but look to the corner of the room and see the face of the demon following him around. It’s broken fingered hands in the pockets of his hooded jacket, the large puss filled lump on his head beating with the large vein inside of it, his beady eyes staring at him with a laugh on his one toothed smiling face. Rei could smell the soil that covers the mans clothing, he can smell the blood that beneath his shirt. Turning his head, Rei ignored the frightening male and continued to let himself be comforted. If Miki believed that that was his problem than let her. He knew the ugly truth because he was looking right at it.