Vampire Days

Chapter 48.2 A-pa-ra-de A-pa-ra-de

"I forgot to tell you earlier but Sax Man said there's gonna be an awesome parade here later, if we stay a bit longer," Champion told me when he returned from buying two balut, one bottle of Gatorade and another bottle of mineral water from a nearby stall.

"Hmm, I gotta study for the finals bro," I said while looking up at him.

"The thing is, I came here on the bike and I need a couple hours to sober up so I can drive us home," he said without looking at me and checking his watch instead. He sat down and started carefully peeling his balut.

"Eww. You eat that shit?"

"I do, especially on a good night out like this. How about 'the living you'?"

I held back from rolling my eyes. The "living me" sounded like a completely different person, like a common acquaintance.

"The living me hated balut because it's so fucking gross and he's a picky eater."

"He was, wasn't he?" Champion chuckled, like he was remembering something funny. After sprinkling salt and sipping the soup, he bit a huge chuck off the egg and closed his eyes for effect. "Oh man, I could eat ten of these."

I cringed. Duck embryo is like an alien inside an egg-shaped capsule. People who get excited by the idea of eating such disgusting food have to be messed up somewhere in their heads too. Well, Champion's not exactly sane.

"How about I drive us home? I'm not drunk."

"Except you don't have a license," Champion said, licking his lips before taking a swig from the can of beer that was supposed to be mine.

"Don't remind me." I lit another cigarette, pushed my head back and listened to the world. It's like when you're trying to find a good radio station so you keep on turning the knob and listen to all that static and murmuring and sudden surge of noisy music. The most common topic would be "that huge guy wearing a tight shirt".

"He's not a basketball player, stupid," I muttered, chuckling lightly. These voices around us ranged from having an innocent crush to cracking disturbingly obscene jokes about a person who didn't ask to stand out too much. Some even wished to be reborn as a balut next time, which was even funnier. No wonder why the creator didn't give humans superhuman hearing. It would drive people crazier than they already are.

"Oh wow, this vinegar is superb," the clueless Champion murmured, noisily sipping the second egg's soup mixed with the spicy vinegar.

The "radio" automatically turned off when I opened my eyes. Just like that, the people around us all looked like they didn't care about this guy pigging out next to me.

"You sure that's all you wanted to tell me?"

"Of course not."

I waited for him to finish gurgling and washing his hands and saying how much he missed hanging out like this because he's been too busy and his classmates were also busy and nobody has time for each other anymore.

"What really happened? Are you really going to keep me out of it?"

"Yes. I need to keep my teammates safe, no matter what."

"So now I'm the enemy, is that it?"

"No. Stop twisting my words, Genesis."

"It's too late for that, Champ. You already closed the walls right in my face when you choose to confide in Gio and not in me. It fucking sucks, because you know I could help you get rid of them faster than any of those friends you have. I'd even do a better job that your general father."

"What's so hard to understand, Genesis? I don't want to get rid of them. They're essential to our team, I made sure you knew that from the start. I can't win everything on my own, so no matter how shitty, no matter how much they curse me behind my back, if I have to win then I just have to swallow it all until I get to the finish line."