MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

By Murasaki09

---

Here he comes again. He sits down. All his fans’ eyes are on him. He greets me.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

He looks me squarely in the eyes.

“New ones?”

“Yes, new ones.”

After a while, he grabs my left arm and squeezes it.

I flinch and let out a moan of pain.

“Let go!”

He simply chuckles and follows my order.

I cradle my left arm in my right. He speaks.

“I thought I told you to try to control it?”

“Well, I did.”

He let out an exasperated sigh.

“Do what you want.”

I nod my head in agreement.

“Yes, I will. I always did, always do, and always will.”

He suddenly laughs out loud.

“Are you doing it because you’re bored?”

“Sometimes.”

“Does it still hurt everytime?”

I glare at him.

“Don’t ask stupid questions you already know the answers to.”

“Fine. Then, here’s one question I don’t know the answer to: Does life bore you?”

“No. But you already knew that I would answer that.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care.”

I ignore him and listen to our boring professor.

After a while, I speak up.

“Life’s never boring. There’s too much to discover.”

It took him a second to understand what I said.

“Like what? What’s still there for you to discover?”

I shrug.

“Sex.”

He snorted at my answer.

“Go on.”

“Hmm... smoking.”

“I thought you have asthma?”

“I don’t care if I do have asthma.”

He shakes his head at me.

“You’ll die if you do it regularly.”

“I only want to try it. And anyway, I don’t mind dying. With what I do, no one could say I love life.”

“Yes.”

“I also want to try drugs.”

He chuckles.

“Now where do you plan to get drugs from?”

I shrug.

“I don’t know. But I’ll find a way.”

“You do know that you could get addicted?”

“Yes. And I don’t mind.”

“If that’s what you want... But with all that you want to discover, I might as well just kill you now than let you die slowly later on.”

“Hush. You’re the one who never agreed to do it before. What made you change your mind?”

He looked at me seriously.

“I didn’t mean it that way and you know it.”

I just smirk at him.

“Whatever you say.”

He averts his gaze.

“Why do you draw the patterns of hatred?”

“Simple – because it’s a way for me to cry.”

“I know it’s unfair to ask this of you, but can’t you not control it?”

I shake my head.

“Things are rarely that easy.”

“You know that I hate seeing you like this?”

“I do.”

I squeeze his one shoulder briefly.

“But you see, you have to accept it. This is already part of me.”

He sighs.

My voice wavers.

“Or is it only because you’re doing it, too? Is that why you’re uncomfortable?”

“No. I get along fine with you because of it... Because only you could understand...”

Silence washes over us. I speak first.

“You do know that I envied you before, right? The way everyone looks at you and adores you – just like at this very moment.”

He looks at me apologetically.

“Don’t! Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. And anyway, you have nothing I have to be jealous of, anymore.”

He nods.

“Tell me, do you still think life’s beautiful?”

I don’t even stop to think before I answer.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because i hurt.”

He looks at me understandingly, but still asks for the sake of it.

“What’s good about that?”

I shrug and say:

“Ask yourself that question... You’re wearing long sleeves again, Mr. Hypocrite.”

He simply nods in defeat.

Our class isn’t over yet, but I walk out of the room – away from him and all his fans.

End

---

Soo... for those who didn’t notice, all the italics are the dialogues of our protagonist, while all those which are written normally are those of the guy classmate... Hope you didn’t have a problem in reading this... I know it might’ve been a bit tiring to read because of the extra effort of finding out who is talking at the moment... Well, I hope you liked it, nevertheless...

Please r&r? Tnx...

--murasaki09