Heart part 1

Chapter 20 - The Place I Call Home part 2: Waking the Bear

For a moment, a long patch of silence ran throughout the room. For a split second, Heart saw him stare at them with a glare.

Standing in front of the door was a young man who was taller and less brawny than Rick. He wore the same plain rugged armor the town guards had. Even in the low light of the room, his armor sparkled. It was completely spotless and not a single scratch could be found on it, almost as if it had been never used. His shirt, pants, boots, and the rest of what he wore were as clean as his face. Permanently affixed to his face was a smug grin.

Standing up from her seat, Susanne started to make her way over to him. " Tr-Troy, what do you think you're doing just barging in like this?"

Troy threw up his hands in defense. " Well, I didn't hear anyone respond, so I thought something might be wrong."

" Anyways, who's the girl?" He asked, leaning to the side and looking past her.

" That's just my daughter Persephone. She just came back from a long trip." Susanne answered. " If you don't mind, we're kind of in the middle of something, so could you come back tomorrow?"

Ignoring her, Troy continued past her.

" Oh...so you're their daughter? Now that I think about it, Rick was always yapping on about you during our shifts. Welp..."

Plopping his hand atop their head, he began to ruffle Heart's hair.

"...it's nice to finally meet you!"

Almost as swiftly as he began, Heart smacked his hand away. " Don't touch me." They growled, staring up at him with a glare.

" Hmm...well, you're certainly a feisty one. You remind me of him." He uttered under his breath. When he had said the word "him", he said it with a certain sourness and resentment that stuck out like a buzzing fly.

Pacing back over to Susanne, Troy threw his arm over her shoulder. As he started to bicker into her ear, talking about things that mattered so little, that writing it down for you to read would be a waste of energy, Bulletin leaned over the table and began to whisper to them.

" His name is Troy Choice. He's a friend of dad's from work." He whispered over to them.

Heart already knew who he was. What's got them confused is why he is here, and after hearing Bulletin's explanation of who he is, their confusion has only grown.

Back in the day, before Rick and Susanne had met, he and Troy used to be friends at one point until a certain girl came along and began to join them in on their shenanigans around Haybale. For a time, things were peaceful, but as you've probably come to expect by this point, it didn't last long. Eventually, one of the boys would find themselves falling in love with this girl, and this boy was Troy. Throughout their days together, he would do what he could to try to get her attention but it would ultimately fail. This would cause a rift in the friendship between the three, and due to his sorrow of being rejected, Troy would inevitably distance himself from the rest.

But not even a few weeks later, he would learn that Rick had apparently won this girl's heart and the two had begun dating. Once he found out, a blinding rage overtook him. Troy's mind raced with thoughts such as, " Why did she accept him and not me?!", " I gave her so many gifts and was so nice to her, and yet she goes for an idiot like him?!", " How could they both betray me like this?!"

Day after day, he would spend his time wallowing in his anger and newfound hate. Whenever the three had crossed paths, he would put in the effort to be hostile to them, especially to Rick. Eventually, when he had finally had enough, Rick confronted him and the two got into a fight so bloody, so fueled by rage that you'd think it was to the death. In the end, the fight inevitably ended without a victor, but Rick still managed to send Troy a message: " Don't ever show your face around me ever again."