Chapter 9

✦Sean✦

Looking back to where I left Sasuke, he's gone by the time I make it over to Andy, Sam, and Nick.

"Where did ya go just then, Sean?" Sam asks, putting an arm over my shoulders. Including most of his weight. Thankfully, I'm able to adjust my pressure quickly so I can support his fucking ass. I more so want to just push him off me more than anything. But if I do that, then what'll happen?

"Sorry I saw something, and I wanted to go check it out. It was nothing really," I have one of my usual fake smiles that I've grown accustomed to using around these three.

"It had to be important if you just wandered off like that," Nick mentions as we walk down the sidewalk. I carefully slip out from under Sam's arm using a lady about to pass by us as a silent excuse to get out of his grasp.

"Really, it was nothing," I glare at him slightly, trying to get him back off. I don't like these questions in the slightest. Why on earth do I hang out with these three? It can't be just because they're on the swim team. Maybe it's because I'm trying to fill a gap that I feel from moving away. No…that gap that's there, these three idiots can't fill. It's because I feel like I've pushed my own best friend away from me. The only person that didn't look at me like I was some sort of infectious disease. He stood up for me…and he never blamed me for him getting hurt when we were little.

"Oh guys, let's stop in here," Andy said, and I look up to see what store that we were in front of the little convenience store in town.

I just don't want to hang out with them. Is Sasuke going to be okay? His knees looked really banged up. He was really dehydrated, too, so was he able to make it home, alright?

"Sean," Andy's voice pulls me back to what I was doing, "Ya comin' in or not?" He questions, raising an eyebrow at me.

I shake my head, "Sorry, Andrew, I have to be somewhere." I take a step back from the entrance, "I'll see ya back at school." I smile a little, turning on my heels, and I jog away from them. When I round the corner, and I know that I'm out of eyesight of the three of them, I pick up the face and run. The pace of my shoes tapping on the pavement quicken as I brake into a sprint.

I just have to make sure he's okay. I shouldn't have let him go alone like that. I know we're not on the best of terms, but that was so stupid of me to just let him go. My breath blows out of my nose and mouth a bit heavier than when I started. The quick starting and stopping to avoid people isn't helping in getting to the park any faster. I should have taken him home right then and there. I'm so stupid. God fucking damn it legs go faster. Picking up the pace, I go my hardest I possibly can into the park.

Slowing down, I bring my hands up and rest on my head as I try to calm down my breathing. I'm here. He couldn't have made it through the park that fast he was fucked up…so where is he? I look around and start walking. Geez from sprinting so far, one would think that I'm out of shape. I chuckle at the thought as I look around.

"There he is," I mutter, spotting a messy black head leaning against a tree.

I step towards him, and a particular teenage boy with a head of white hair runs up to Sasuke and quickly kneels down to talk to him. Sasuke must have been sleeping or something because it looks like Snowflake woke him up. But after they exchange a couple of words, he manages to get Sasuke onto his back, and they start walking in the direction of Sasuke's house.

I feel like I'm a few steps behind them. Like I'm always just a few seconds too late. If I was just a little faster, would snowflake and I have switched places? Would I have been in front of Sasuke and taking him home? I drop my hands from my head and down to my chest, clutching my shirt as I watch the two walk away. Why do I feel like I've been kicked in the chest? Why do I feel like I've inhaled a breath of water and swallowed? Is this how Sasuke felt when he stepped into the fight between Snowflake and myself? Letting my hands drop down to my sides before shoving them in my pockets, I let out a small sigh and head in a slight angle from where Toshiro and Sasuke went and head back to the school. I have homework to do anyway, and I don't want to get behind on the reading that I have to do.

The walk feels like it's dragging on. Like it's a walk of shame. I deserve it though for being such a fucking piss pour friend since I've gotten back into town. I should have stopped by that day. When I saw the house, I should have done it. Sighing and looking down at the ground, I kick the small pebble that was close to my foot. "I'm so fucking stupid. I've probably lost a good friend because of how I've been acting… It's all my fault he got hurt…I'm such a fuck up," I grab a fist full of my pockets. Tension built up in my shoulders, and my body starts to shake a little.

Tears fill my vision, and I just let them go. This needs to come out. It's needed to come out for a long time now. Even before I came back here. I haven't cried in years. I think since I left back in middle school. I cried after I was far down the road, and Sasuke couldn't see me cry. I didn't want him to see me cry. I've always felt like I'm an older brother to him… "But he's always been the one protecting me…" I laugh a little between my hiccups from crying. I bring my sleeves up and wipe away my tears. "I'm so pathetic in thinking that I could be an older brother. Especially to someone who's always protected me and gotten hurt because of me." I feel myself come to a stop in front of the school gates as I look up at it.

I don't go in till I calm myself down. After taking a few more deep breaths, I head into the dorms, grabbed my swimming trunks and my spare towel, and headed to the pool. Swimming has always helps me calm down. It helps me think. It's been the one thing that's metaphorically been my rock throughout my life. I had actual leggings for competitive swimming, but I didn't feel like grabbing them. I also have jammers, but I like wearing leggings a bit more for competitive swimming.

The pool is heated. Walking into the locker room, I can already smell the hint of chlorine coming from the pool. It is a pleasant smell to me. It's comforting. Changing into my swimming trunks, I brought my towel with me out to the pool and set it down in one of the empty chairs. There are a few kids and teachers here in the pool. The kids are playing, and the teachers are lounging out on a floatie or watching the children make sure that they aren't going to hurt themselves. I dive into the pool, and the first thing I do is always swim all the way down and grab hold of the grate and sit there, holding my breath for as long as I can. I've gotten a lot better. I can hold my breath for about a minute. But with teachers and kids here, I decide against it, just so I don't make them panic and think that I can't swim. I still at least touch the bottom with my hands, feeling the smooth tile. I open my eyes, burning slightly from the chlorine, the deep blue racing line directly under me. I can't help but smile ever so slightly, letting some of the air that I was holding in escape before I push off the bottom and launching back towards the surface. Releasing the air that I have trapped inside as I went.

Once I break the surface, I take a breath of the fresh air. I shake my head to get my bangs out of my eyes. Swimming back to the side of the pool and go over to the deep end and start doing some slow laps. I'm in a fast pace mood at the moment. Just something to help me relax before I go back to the dorm and work on homework. It really helps. I lose track of time whenever I swim. It wasn't till after I was floating on my back and glance over at the wall with the clock that I notice it's closing in on seven. I have been here for almost two hours. I need to get something to eat and start working on my homework.

Sighing a little before taking a breath and diving in backward from lying on my back to swimming down to the bottom of the pool one more time and pushing myself more so at an angle towards the edge of the pool so I could get out. I rinsed off in the locker room, got dressed, went and got a bite to eat, and took an apple back to the office. There's no one here. The three of them must have decided to go out to dinner while in town. Whatever, I don't give a damn. It keeps it quiet in the room anyway. Hanging my trunks on the edge of my hamper, I put my towel on the floor under them to drip off on the towel and grabbed what I needed to take a shower.

Then it was for homework once I get back to the room. I didn't get too far into my homework before Andy came walking into the room laughing obnoxiously with Sam and Nick.

"There ya are," He comments, still laughing, and he slaps my back somewhat hard, "Where did ya run off ta Sean?" He questions, pulling me into a headlock.

"Maybe he knew we were gonna get somethin' to eat while we were out and didn't want to bum food off us," Sam snickers. That stung…

"I forgot something at home, and I didn't want to forget it. Sorry for ditching you," I state, not taking my eyes off my book. The first book that we were reading was Beowulf.

"What did ya forget?" Nick queries I glance over at him when I hear someone's hands hit my desktop.

"It was nothing important," I respond in a monotone.

"Na, come on, it hasta be important if ya had to run off like that," Andy objects, and I feel him lean on me more, not letting go of my neck.

"It was just an old necklace," I answer flatly, quickly remembering that when Sasuke and I were little, his parents bought us friendship necklaces. It wasn't really a friendship necklace because it didn't say anything like that. It was just a simple black chain with three beads on it: two metal beads and one deep blue pearl. Sasuke's had a red bead in the center.

"What's so important about an old necklace?" Nick inquires, curiosity in his voice. He is usually the more so soft-spoken one out of the three of them.

"You can call it a good luck charm if ya want," I respond, resting my head in my left as I held my book open with my right.

"That's cute ya have a good luck charm," Andy chuckles and pats my bicep then pushes off me.

"How far do we have ta read in Beowulf again for tomorrow?" Sam questions leaning on my desk.

"We have to read to here," I answer after finishing my sentence and showing him the thirty-some pages. It's a good book. I'm enjoying it.

"That's not too bad." Sam comments.

"No, not really. It's not too bad of a book either," I reply, going back to reading.

"Come on, Sam, we have ta go do our own homework," Nick calls out. He sounds like he's already out of the room.

"I'm comin'," Sam pushed my head forward a little, just enough to push my cheek out of my palm before heading out himself, "See ya in class tomorrow."

"Bye," I answer flatly, not turning around to look at the door.

"So what's this good luck charm of yours look like?" Andy asked after I hear the door click.

I stop reading to see him hop onto his bed with his bag, "It's just a necklace." I sigh and go back to my book.

"Come on, I wanna see it," It was more so Andy saying. Stop reading, and fucking show me the damn thing.

I put my bookmark in Beowulf sideways to mark the line that I'm on and got up. It was in the top drawer of my dresser in the left front corner. That's where I've always put it, no matter where I go, it's still there. I pulled it out and showed Andy, "I told you it was just a necklace."

"Damn, that thing is simple. I thought it was gonna have some classic lookin' charm on it or somethin'," He has a look of disappointment on his face, "But it suits you. Your simple." He snickers as he pulls out his history homework.

"Yep, that's me, simple as fuck," I mutter more so to myself and hopefully low enough so he can't hear it as I put it back in my dresser and close it before going back to my book.

We had random short conversations throughout the rest of the night until it got around eleven. We decided to call it. I woke up with Andrew's alarm. He offered me to come and do a morning swim with him, but I declined and told him that I like going for runs in the morning instead. He left the room as I got on some spandex and my running shorts and a t-shirt. I went to my top dresser and grabbed a pair of socks when I stopped and looked at my necklace. I blink a few times as I stare at it and then pull it out and put it on. Over the years, I've had to get longer chains so it would still fit. The chain was cold against my skin when I tucked it into my shirt. Then I head out of the room. I passed by Toshiro's room and stop for a moment when I saw another name in the room.

"So, Sasuke's going to be coming to the dorms…" I mutter, standing there and taking it in. A small smile makes its way onto my lips. Turning away from the door and continue on my way down the stairs and out the side door.

The few hours before classes start seems to fly by, and now that school as actually started for the day, it seems to be dragging a little bit. Though, I am happy to see that Sasuke managed to get to school. He looks like he was in a lot of pain, though. He had a slight limp when he walks around the room. I don't know if a lot of others notice or not. Considering that he decided to wear shorts today, I can see half of the wrapping around both his knees, and he had his hands and elbows bandaged. He hit the pavement really hard yesterday.

Some of the girls in the class ask him what happened, and he just tells them he fell, which isn't a lie he did fall. But he was able to just leave it at that. We are continuing on our watercolor project. Then it's powering through the rest of the day, and when the final bell rings, I head back to the art room. Sasuke is there too, and he's working. Walking in, I set my bag down in my chair before going over and getting my project from the counter. I'm a couple of layers in, and I want to get some more done before going and working on homework. "How were your classes for you?" I ask Sasuke as I set down my stuff.

"They were fine," His answers a little quiet.

"Hey boys," Ariana calls out, coming into the room.

"Hey, Ariana," We say in unison. She moves around the room, getting her stuff together. When Ariana trips and her water, she was carrying spills all over me and my painting.

"I'm so sorry, Sean, I didn't mean to," She panics and put my hands up.

"It's okay; it's just my shirt, and I wasn't liking how this was turning out anyway, so it's okay," Sasuke grabs a roll of paper towels, and we clean up the mess. I dry my shirt off as much as I can. Thankfully no a lot spilled on my jeans. Then Sasuke and I move over to one of the islands. He continues to work on his watercolor as I get a new sheet of watercolor and tape it to my artboard.

Lightly I sketch out the new image on the paper, trying my best not to smug it, "My legs hurt." Sasuke grumbles from the other end of the table as he worked on his watercolor.

"So sit down," I comment, not looking up from my paper.

"I don't want to," He said like a child, and I chuckle.

"Then stop complaining," I smirk a bit, looking up at him quickly to see him frowning at me, and it fell silent between the two of us again.

After I finish sketching, I wander over to the back wall where the tall stools were and brought one over for Sasuke, "I told you I didn't want to sit."

"It's there if you want it," I shrug and go back and grab a stool for myself. Placing my paints and water on it so I could get some books to prop up my board without having to worry about knocking it over. "How much pain are you in. On a scale of one to ten?" I ask, wanting to keep a conversation going, "One being the worst ten being the best."

"I wanna say about a four. But you know what they say, the day after is always the worst," We both laugh a little.

"You know I could have taken you home yesterday," I sigh a little, looking up after finishing the water wash on the painting to dampen the paper.

"You were hanging out with friends," His red gaze locks with mine, and his words sting slightly.

"I'm going to go on my walk, if you boys need me I'll be walking the halls with Mrs. Butler," Mrs. Clark says.

"Okay," We said in unison.

"I can't really call them friends. They more so pick on me more then anything," I answer truthfully as I brought my paints and water back onto the countertop.

"So why do you hang out with them?" Looking up again at him, he's just working on his project.

But I ended up looking up at him with a slightly annoyed expression. "Because Andrew is my roommate. And he just kinda drags me places." I answered. "I find them kinda annoying and frustrating to deal with."

"So why hang out with them?" Again…it was a blunt question, but it was right to the point.

"I don't know to be honest," I mutter, breaking my gaze away from him, "I'm roommates with Andrew in the dorms, so I guess I feel obligated that I have to hang out with them.

"Yo Sean," I look over to see Sam and Nick standing at the door, "Andrew wants ta talk to ya," Sam calls out. There was a slight smirk on Sam's lips, and I was getting a bit of a bad feeling.

I sigh a bit frustrated and rest my brush on top of my cup. "Fine. I'm coming." I groaned and shoved my hands in my pockets. "Why couldn't he come and talk to me here. He knows that I was going to be here. I told ya'll what I was planning on doing at lunch today."

"Just humor him and come," I can tell that Sam was holding down a laugh.

"Sean," I stop and look back at Sasuke. He has a concerned look on his face, "Make Andrew come here. You don't need to go to him. You're really busy, and he knows that."

Sasuke had a good point, but Nick and Sam were a bit faster then I was with a response, and they drag me out of the room and down the hall with them. I have an awful feeling about this. The two of them brought me outside and out to the side of the building towards the cross country trail. Sam slammed me against the brick wall and held me there with his forearm across my chest just under my collar bone.

"What the fuck is this?" I glare at the two of them.

"Spill it, you've been hanging out with that pipsqueak, haven't you?" Sam interrogates me as a devious smile starts playing with the corners of his mouth.

"Why the fuck do you think I've been hanging out with him? And that pipsqueak has a name ya know. It's Sasuke," I retort, debating on knocking his arm off of me.

"So ya have been hangin' out with me,' and that's why ya ran off on us yesterday," Nick snorts, and I glare at him.

That split second of shock that I show to the two of them was just enough for them to make it seem like they hit the nail right on the head. Sam slaps me across the face hard enough to burn, "What do ya think yer doin', huh?" Sam growls at me, and I don't bother looking at him, "Out of the goodness of Andy's heart, he let ya into our little group, and then ya go behind his back and start hanging out with that freak."

My hands ball into fists, and my heart starts to pound. I want to throttle this guy. He has no right to call Sasuke names. Does he have to begin with, "What are we pissing ya off, Sean? Did we strike a nerve with ya?" Sam practically giggles in delight. They were both enjoying this. They knew if a fight breaks out that they would be fine. I was just some delinquent that didn't have a real home, a real family.

"You better fucking back off," I warn them.

"Or what?" Nick smiles wickedly at me.

"Yeah, what are ya gonna do about it?" Sam asks, and then I saw his eyes land on my neck. He reached out, hooked a finger under the chain of my necklace, and pulled it out from under my shirt, "So much for your good luck charm," He snickers.

"Hey, maybe it's some stupid thing that he and the pipsqueak decided to make as a form of their friendship when they were little," Nick comments, and that was the last straw.

I push Sam's arm away from my chest and grab hold of my necklace and rip it out of his grasp, "Just fucking leave me alone," I turn away from them to go back to the school when Nick sucker punches me in the mouth. I wasn't ready for it at all, and the back of my head bashes off the wall behind me.

I'm, seeing stars from hitting the back of my head so hard. I quickly took my hand off my necklace and covered my mouth as I can taste iron rushing into my mouth. Sam and Nick laugh hysterically as I lean against the wall trying to get everything to stop spinning.

"Back off!" Sasuke?! I open my eyes enough to see Sasuke land a solid punch on Nick's cheek and made him stumble away from me and collide with Sam, "Sean, you okay?" He asks, shaking his hand. He was panting a bit. He had to of ran; he looks like he's in a lot of pain. His eyes are watering slightly. He ran through his pain, just to come to protect me…

"Are you stupid? You're already in a lot of pain, why did you come?" I practically scold him as I pull my hand from my mouth to just see blood on it. Nick easily split my lip open. At least one of them, if not both.

"You're a friend. I'll fight through any type of pain to help," He answers with a stern expression on his face. I want to say something to him, but my voice gets caught in my throat. My chest hurts…just those words…those simple words have so much of an impact on me…why?

"You little fucker," I look from Sasuke to Nick and see that he has his fists cocked back and ready to give Sasuke the same treatment back.

I don't know what it is, but my body just moves. Before I can even process anything, I grab Sasuke's wrist and switch places with him and take the blow to my chest. I'm not going to let you protect me this time…I'm going to protect you. I put my hands out. I can feel blood trickling down my chin from my mouth. "Leave Sasuke out of this. Your problem is with me," I said every word pain to get out. "Whatever it is, just take it out on me. I'm the one that pissed you off anyways, aren't I?"

"Ya wanna play the hero Sean?" Nick snickers and rams his knee into my stomach, making me couch out some of the blood I was about to swallow.

"Fine by us," Sam laughs.

"You better make it good, because you're not going to like the outcome if I can still stand when you're done," My voice quivers ever so slightly as I try to stand up straight.

Sam had the most maniacal look in his eyes, and he cocked his arm back and, at full force, hit me square in the temple. Everything went black for what felt like a minute, and there's a deafening ringing in my ears. But I'm not on the ground. I don't feel pavement on my arms or anything. So what's holding me up then? Someone's screaming. It's a deeper voice. It sounds angry, that's for sure. I feel like I wanna throw up.

"Sasuke, call your mother," I can finally hear a full sentence. Was it Sasuke dad that was holding me up? But why?"You two are going to come with me."

I feel really drained. Like I wanna take a nap on top of wanting to throw up. "No, Sean don't fall back asleep," I hear Sasuke say to me, though his voice sounds a bit distant. Am I against a wall now? No, I'm moving, I can't get my legs to function though. One side was icy, and the other was really warm and lower down. I kinda feel like I'm being dragged a little. I'm on something soft now. My head is pounding, and Sasuke's voice is drowned out by the high pitched ringing in my ears again.

I fell asleep again. But, I'm laying down right now. There's a white ceiling staring back at me. A groan escapes my lips from the throbbing in my head, "He's awake," Mrs. Carlson's voice hit my ears, and my chest instantly tightened. How many times today has my chest hurt like this?

"Sean," This time, it was Sasuke's voice. I look over to where the sounds were coming from. Mr. and Mrs. Carlson, along with Lilly, Sasuke, and Mr. and Mrs. Kaisai, even Snowflake is here.

"You had us scared to death," Mrs. Carlson said with relief in her voice as she came over with Lilly in her arms.

I get my arms under me and try to push myself up. I'm shaking, am I really that weak? I felt a hand on my back. It was Mr. Kaisai's; he was helping me the rest of the way up. "I'm sorry…" I said quietly and look down at the blanket that I was under.

"Do you remember anything?" Mr. Carlson asks me as Mrs. Carlson hugs me quickly, followed by Mrs. Kaisai. Mrs. Kaisai was so warm. It feels nice. I honestly don't want her to let go, it felt so comforting.

"Um…" As if out of habit, I bring my right hand to my lips, and I want to go start picking at my lips."I remember getting socked in the mouth and Sasuke coming in. Still, everything around that is kind of fuzzy," I answer truthfully, and it hit me like a truck. I can't remember…I have a concussion. What was going to happen to me?

"Can you remember anything else? What day is it?" Snowflake questions me in a very calm voice.

"Um…" What day is it? Tuesday? No, no, I feel that it's not Tuesday, I think today was the third day of school, and strangely enough, labor day landed on a Sunday, so we started school on a Monday this year right? "It's…Wednesday, right?" I said a bit quiet and not really sure of my answer.

"The Doctor's said that you can come home. But I don't know if you'll be okay being home alone," Mr. Carlson mentions.

"If you would like to, I'm a stay at home mom, he can stay at our house for a few days," Sasuke's mother offers. Is she a stay at home? I thought she worked?

"Y-you don't have to do that," Mr. Carlson said as Mrs. Carlson finally let Lilly have her way and come onto the bed with me.

"We really don't mind. You do have your little one to take care of. That way, you don't have to worry if something will happen like him falling out of bed while you're at work," Mrs. Kaisai continues making valid points. Like seriously, did she quit her job or something??

"Sean's one of my best friends, it'll be like when we were younger, and he would sleepover," Sasuke adds in, and my lip quivers a bit at it.

I felt Lilly's hands on my cheeks, and I looked at her. She mushes her face against mine. He was her way of giving me a kiss. It stung awful, and I felt hot tears leak out of the corner of my eyes, "No, no Lilly, Sean is hurting you can't give him kisses that hard," Mrs. Carlson said.

"You're not going to send me back to the home, are you?" My voice cracking. My throat feels parched.

"No, no sweetie, why would we do that?" Mrs. Carlson's voice was soft and caring. It's the voice she uses with Lilly when she's trying to get her to sleep. She put a hand on my back and lightly rubbed it. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"You were protecting a friend. You didn't throw any punches. We were all young once. Hell, I've gotten in fights before when I was growing up," Mr. Carlson reassures me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Are you willing to spend a few days and the Kaisai's house?"

I nod slowly, and soon enough, I was being taken out of the hospital. I refuse to sit in a wheelchair even though I keep feeling like I'm going to blackout. All the strength is just spilling out of me and onto the floor. It got to the point where Mr. Carlson just had to poke me, and I fell back into the wheelchair. Sighing in frustration at how weak I am. Mr. Kaisai pushes me out into the parking lot and helps me into Carlson's car. They follow the Kaisai's as I lean against Lily's car seat, and she pats the top of my head, "Alllll done." I chuckle softly.

"Lilly, sweetie, don't hit Sean's head," Mrs. Carlson warns.

I look up at her, "That's right, Lilly, all done," I smile a little even though my face hurts.

When we got to the Kaisai house, I was shaking a bit. I don't know if it's from my head or because I didn't really eat anything at lunch. I said bye to Lilly and Mr. and Mrs. Carlson, then they went the rest of the way home, and Sasuke and Snowflake helped me into the house.

"I didn't expect you to be here snowflake," I said, and I got a chuckle out of Sasuke's dad from behind us.

"It's Toshiro," He grins through his teeth.

"Lighten up a bit Shiro," I laugh softly. "I'm not gonna stop, you remind me of a snowflake."

They got me on to the couch, and I lean back into the cushions, "The doctor said it's a minor concussion, but you're not allowed to go back to school for a few days. The earliest is Friday. And you can't do any heavy exercises for a few weeks," Mr. Kaisai explains, and I nod slowly.

"Thank you for letting me stay here," I mutter quietly, looking down at my lap.

"Of course, Sean. It's not a problem at all," Mrs. Kaisai says, but I think her voice came from their kitchen.

"You didn't have to protect me like that, you know," Sasuke mentions, and I look over at him to see him sit down next to me on the couch.

"Yes, I did. Ever since we knew each other, you've always protected me. I think it's about time that I try to protect you," I state. A smile crept on Sasuke's face, and he starts laughing, "What's so funny you jerk?" I ask and push him a bit then cross my arms, "Geez, I try to be nice, and ya go and laugh at me."

"I didn't mean to Sean; it's just I can't help it," He giggles, wiping a few tears from his eyes.

We start bickering back and forth till I had to stop because my head was pounding, and Mrs. Kaisai yelled at both of us to stop; otherwise, she'll make sure that both of us don't wake up till the morning. As weird as it is…I feel comfortable here. But I'll never say it to any of them. I'm too embarrassed to say it. I'm seventeen now, there's no point. I just need to graduate, and I can make my own life. I'll keep Sasuke as a friend though, that's for sure.