Empty Promises (Travis x Sal)

Puppy Dog Eyes

Sal
I'm hanging out in Larry's room in the basement talking about only god knows what when my phone dings. "Who's texting?" He asks grabbing my phone and opening it up. His jaw drops and he starts laughing like crazy. "No fucking way dude!" I roll my eyes at him. "Whaat? Who is it?" He laughs shoving the phone in my face. To my shock I see a text from Travis. Hello Sal, I am coming to Addison Apartments now. Is that okay? "Shit he's actually coming."

Larry starts cracking up but I just sat there in shock. I wasn't really expecting him to come over let alone so soon. "Dude? You gonna go to your room and get ready for him or what?" Larry says through his laughter. "I guess so-" I get up with a small laugh processing that Travis Phelps is coming to my apartment.

"Want me to come and hide in your closet? In case he tries anything?" I laugh at that. I cant tell if he's trying to make a joke or if he's serious either way it's funny. "Nah I'll be fine Lar, besides you've been in the closet for years" he laughs punching me on the shoulder "very funny asshole" he says sarcastically even though he DID laugh.

I head up to my room. Dads not home when I go in so I go straight to the fridge grabbing a cheese stick taking off my prosthetic and peeling off a peace putting it in my mouth. I sit at the table and grab my phone texting Travis back yeah sure text me when u get here I set my phone down for like a second before I get another text I am here. from Travis of course.

With a sigh I strap my prosthetic back on and throw away the remains of my cheese stick. I walk towards the door opening it to see Travis just standing on the other side. His nose is all fucked up and he's bleeding. What the hell?

"What happened to you?" I say quickly letting him in. "None of your business fag."

Of course he's being stubborn. I don't want to push but at the same time I want to know what happened to him. "Can we work on the project?" And he changed the subject.. Okay I guess I'll play along with him for now.

"Uh yeah- what's it on anyways? I didn't actually pay attention in class." He gave me the dirtiest look I've ever seen. "Are you kidding? How the fuck are you so smart that you don't even listen and you still get good grades?" Shit I never really think about the fact that other people really do have to try a lot to get stuff. I take my brain for granted a lot. I don't really know how to respond to Travis. I guess I must look a little shocked because he talks again before I can "Whatever. It's on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994."

I nod slowly as if I know what the hell that even is. "Right- so uh what do we have to do?" I usually wouldn't but I honestly feel kinda bad for not knowing what to do at all. "Tch.. We have to do research on all of the involved parties and talk about how they could have prevented the situation and then talk about who's the most guilty."

I wanna ask another question but I feel like he might kill me if I do. "You don't know what the parties are do you?" I give a little laugh before nodding "Great." He says sarcastically "Well I don't remember them all of the top of my head but there's the US, France, Belgium, Uganda, the Interahamwe, the FAR which are the armed forces, the MRND which is basically Rwandas government, then there's the Red Cross, and uh oh the RPF who are basically the supposed rebels that 'crashed the presidents plane' but I think it was actually the MRND.."

I stand looking a bit shocked at him for a minute. If that isn't all of them then we have a shit ton of work to do. I didn't know jack shit about this genocide. I give a slight nod "uh so who do you think did it?" He rolls his eyes at me. "All of them are involved. If we're talking technically the Interahamwe is the group that did all of the killing, however France supplied their weapons, Belgium colonized Rwanda and basically started the whole thing. The MRND gave the Interahamwe permission so in a sense it's their fault too." "You sure know a lot about this.." Travis rolls his eyes once again. "That's just the basics dumbass. It's what we learned today in class."