Drowning In Darkness: Chpt 3

  The next thing I realized after the initial shock of me being so late was the fact that I was driving, fast, too fast, and all because I was frustrated and scared over these stupid nightmares. I sighed, tightening my grip on the wheel, and slowed the car to the speed limit, and even that felt too slow. School wasn't far away…or I might've gone insane just from the feeling of being alone for too long, I needed people around to keep me from losing it. I needed Aria and Jules at a moment like this, they knew my secret and accepted me, just like my brothers did. But my parents…they avoided looking at me, at all costs and being in the same room was always out of the question, and if they did happen to look at me their gazes were filled with such hatred it burned me.
  I needed to stop thinking about that, or I'd quicken my spiral into madness for sure, I shook my head as I pulled into the parking lot of Tokyo Preparatory International High School, my high schools, parking lot. My eyes immediately found the spot I always parked in, I glanced at Aria's giant red Hummer, and she really did love that car. I pulled into the spot next to hers and my car was dwarfed by the sheer hugeness of her car. My Porsche stopped easily, which I loved, I thought as I grabbed my ratty white messenger bag from the front passenger seat. I slid out of my car and into the cool weather, only to spot Kei O'Shea's infamous Ducati motorcycle, the 2012 model go racing behind my car.
  Kei O'Shea himself wasn't infamous, he was the dark kid who sat in the corner, and you expected to be sitting there plotting ways to murder you slowly and painfully in your sleep. Nobody really talked to him, and he seemed okay with that, but we all knew he was the smartest kid any of us had ever seen. He would've been attractive had it not been for his creepy status, straight jet black hair, and the black eyes most Japanese had, but he also had high cheekbones, perfectly straight white teeth, anything you could want. I shook my head, I really needed to make an effort to talk to him, he seemed like he would either be understanding of me, or shun me like I knew most would. I walked into school's crowded hallways, my green eyes darting around the urban jungle of faces for my friends faces.
  I saw each of them, one by one, at their lockers, Jules, Karlie, J.T., Ryan, Vann, Ichiro, Sol, and Kauro. They all smiled and waved knowingly at me, but only Jules followed me. And I hadn't seen Aria.
  "Hey V," he said looking me over. "I just noticed something."
  "Hmm, and what would that be?" I asked as I spun the combination of my locker and opened it. Jules smirked wickedly as Aria popped up slamming my locker shut just as I grabbed my book. Jules never replied.
  "Hey bitch! Hey bitches future boyfriend!" Aria piped up excitedly. I shoved her shoulder, Jules gave her the finger. I rolled my eyes.
  "Hey hoe! Where's Aki?" I said looking around for the familiar boy in Aria's life. He was Aria's boyfriend of nearly four years. Aria rolled her eyes.
  "Having a bromance with the new boys, Hikaru and Kokurai, I think it's stupid." Aria said angrily. She hated to be ignored, it was just one her insane ticks, you'd think she'd love it after being sexually abused, no one ever just 'left her alone'. I didn't really care what the guys looked like, but something told me through Aria and me's understanding she wanted to tell someone. So I sighed softly and asked.
  "Well, Kokurai is dark, sexy, and bad ass biker. Hikaru is the opposite, he's jeans and a plain t-shirt type of guy," Aria said looking around the History room, neither of us were sure when we entered or when we'd lost Jules, but we took our usual seats in the back of the room. She sat on the left of the table; I sat in the middle chair. It seemed as if the new guys were already there. A Japanese boy with shocking yellow eyes, and thick black hair sat in the middle of the room, a crowd of people around him. Aria nodded toward him. "That's Hikaru."
  I shrugged. He was good looking, I had to admit, but not what I wanted, girls flocked him, but he didn't seem to really care. Mr. Yoshi spoke in his usual loud voice, instantly shutting the class up. "Class, this is Hikaru Akane. He and his brother Kokurai will be students here for the rest of the year." Hikaru simply nodded.
  "I hope to enjoy a year of high school here. I've been to many high schools you must understand." It was almost cryptic the way he said it. Mr. Yoshi spoke again. "Hikaru, take a seat by…Koji." Koji stood; he was class president and smiled. Mr. Yoshi nodded, "Yes go sit with him." Hikaru did as was asked of him.
  "So class, I'd like to know what," Mr. Yoshi broke off mid-sentence as Kei rushed in, flying to the first seat he saw, the one next to me. Another boy was walking slowly in behind him. He looked just like Hikaru but with black eyes, he looked dirty, with an old grey shirt, beat up leather jacket, almost demolished black jeans, and combat boots. He smirked.
  "I'm Kokurai Akane." He said. Kei passed me a note, and I opened it slowly afraid of the contents. I smiled as I read it.
  "Sorry for sitting here…I don't mean to frighten or anything."  I smiled writing my own note under his messy script.
  "No, no. It's fine. If anything you should be frightened of Aria over there."
  "Why does she murder orphans or something? Cause if she does I'm totally screwed beyond belief."
  "You're an orphan?"
  "Yeah, don't look so surprised about it. It's alright; everyone knew there was something wrong with me before. I just don't like to talk about it too much, as is understandable."
  "There wasn't anything wrong with you, you just didn't talk much or anything so nobody knew what to expect from you or anything."
  "I still don't talk much you know? Doesn't mean you're scared of me does it?"
I wasn't sure if I'd ever been scared of him. Just a little frightened of the stories some people said about him. I was about to write another note as the bell rang; he sprang out of his chair and gathered his books in one fluid movement. "Hey, I'll uh…see you around." He said, and bolted out of the room. Aria gave me a suspicious look.
  "Were you cheating on Jules with Kei O'Shea of all people?!" Aria asked as we walked to Science. I shot her a look.
  "Jules and I were never together." But we both knew that was a lie. The history between us really was brief and we'd both understood that I couldn't have any relationship with him because he was from my life before. After all the years of practice I still couldn't look at Jules knowing he'd known Archie just as well as I had, and Archie had loved him. It was hard to admit, but I hadn't looked at him quite the same since Archie's death. Aria sighed as Aki appeared next to her, and glared. I was already lost in my own thoughts, seeing their lips move but not hearing their words.
  "Hey…Aria, I'm gonna go. I have some stuff to do before Science, have fun with Aki," I said awkwardly and walked away without grabbing my Science book. I felt sick and cold…and not quite myself, my stomach was churning bitterly, and so were my thoughts. I blinked and swayed, before I could close my eyes again the floor was rushing up at me, and then everything was dark and quiet.