MSC (Rewritten)♡•~

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Friendships & Reasons

AKI POV

Jemimah Lewis.

I wish I could tell you everything I wanted to tell you. I wish I didn't have to block you out of so many things in my life. I wish I didn't have to keep it all in.

I wish...I wish I could speak to you.

You and Beatrice are the first people who ever generally wanted to be my friends. Not for using me to your own advantage. Not for making yourself look good. Not for favours. You have never asked me for anything. But you've done more for me than you think.

For a long time, that bench in the playground was, to me, the most dreaded place in the entire school. That was where I had always sat, alone, until the boys came and started targeting me. At first, they had acted like they wanted to be my friends. I hung out with them, but as soon as I was comfortable with them, they exposed their true colours. They only needed me to cover for them when they drank or smoked-I was always the one who kept on a lookout, made up excuses to the teachers who trusted me. If I managed to hide somewhere else at break , I'd just get beaten up the next day.

The bench was my waiting spot for whenever they needed to come to me to do their dirty work. To be their bank for all the stolen money or secretly receive and deliver cigarettes among their other groups. Among other things.

The teachers wouldn't suspect anything if it involved the quiet little Aki. They would never suspect that I was the main source of crime in the school. That's why I couldn't report the bullies. I knew that if they would go down, I'd go down with them.

I couldn't tell Jemimah. She'd never talk to me, if I did. Beatrice, too. She'd probably beat me up.

And it's been happening for so long. I couldn't tell anyone now. But the darkness of guilt that seemed to swim around me every time I sat on that bench was gone. Because now that bench was the place I first met Jemimah. That place was the place we would hang out every break, laughing and fooling around, until the bell rang.

The boys didn't come there anymore. The risk of someone else knowing about their secrets was dangerous.

But that's not the reason Jemimah and I are best friends. We became close because we were both alone. We were loners, together. And things just seemed to click into place since that first day. Jemimah didn't like to speak much, anyway. And I couldn't talk at all.

To most who watched us from a distance, our initial friendship would have seemed fairly boring. The two quiet kids that nobody spoke to. The two little awkward students who either couldn't speak at all or stammered when they tried to talk.

But to us, we were in our own world. The jokes in my notebook. The non-verbal games that we could play. They didn't know us. And being with Jemimah made me care less for what they would think of us.

Now I can smile and have fun again. I never thought that would be possible, after my brother died. After he left me, all the other kids in the orphanage finally got the chance to get back at me, after Haru threatened them to not touch me.

For a long time, other kids were monsters. They always targeted the small one, the one who was most helpless. It continued when I started school. I thought that was all there was to it.

I have a lot to say. I just need to know how to say it.

*******************************

Jemimah and Beatrice were not joking about helping me to speak.

They tried a number of things ; inflicting harm on me to make me scream ( obviously Beatrice's idea) , watching a horror movie with a lot of jump scares to make me scream (also Beatrice's idea) and tickling me to make me laugh out loud ( Jemimah's decent idea), among other things, but all to no avail.

I actually knew that those things wouldn't work, as I wouldn't be mute anymore if they did. But I still had a little bit of hope that my friends would be able to help me.In the end I was forced to face the reality. With the kind of muteness I had, simple things were not going to work.It took professionals to treat my kind of situation. That's why I had a therapist.

I wish I could tell Jemimah and Beatrice the whole truth.

As I walked home from school that Friday, memories of Haru played around in my mind.

"Yo, Aki. You know there's other kids in this orphanage, right"? Haru raised an eyebrow, his head half hidden behind the large sketchbook that he never went anywhere without.

I raised my head from dangling at the bottom of the bed and rested my manga comic on my lap. "Where did that come from all of a sudden"?

He shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I was just thinking about how you're always tailing behind me like some lost puppy. Why don't you make some friends around here"?

"I have Nara".

"Nara's a guinea pig, Aki. I mean human friends".

"You know what happens whenever I make a human friend, Haru. They end up just using me to get stuff from the caregivers. And the rest just think I'm boring". I replied, and dangled at the edge of the bed again, preparing to immerse myself back into my comic.

"That's because you don't talk, Akito. You need to be more sociable, you know".

"People aren't to be trusted," I muttered, "Besides, I have you".

Haru sighed. "You know I wont always be around, right...like, we'll have to go our separate ways one day..."

"That's one day, not now. So tell me again when I need to know alright? Now can I get back to my comic"?

"You know, you have to start from somewhere. People aren't so bad when you get to know them. You might even find a special someone besides me who you can confide in and share hobbies and all that".

I ignored him.

Haru glared at me for a few moments, before leaping up and putting his art stuff down. Then he went over and suddenly grabbed me by the waist and lifted me off the bed upside down, making me screech.

"Don't you dare ignore me, shrimp!" He yelled, still holding me upside down, "SOCIALISE".

"LET GO OF ME, OAF," I whined, "You can't just grab..."

"You can't just stay alone forever. I won't let you!" He raised my legs over his shoulders, and then started tickling my stomach making me scream and laugh at the same time.

"STOP...haha...I'm serious..ahh....HARU!" I whined, still laughing.

"You don't sound serious to me. You're laughing". Haru teased.

"OK FINE I'LL MAKE FRIENDS".

I managed to grab his hand, and ended up tugging his arm to try and get up, but that just made us both collapse on the ground with a thud, and tangled up.

The cleaner burst into the room, worried until she saw us, laughing on the ground.

It took me a moment to realise I was laughing in real life. A drop of water splattered from my cheek to my hand, as I held the knob on the front door. I wiped the tear with the back of my other hand, before opening the door and going inside.

Haru. I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

                                        "Thank you for believing in me when I didn't".

What did you guys think of Aki's POV? Let me know in the comments!