The Tree in the Forest

Chapter Twenty-Four

                                    ~~~

  Karkat's been off of chemo for about two months now. School's started back, too, and he's upsettingly excited about it. His hair hasn't grown back quite yet, but there is a little bit on his head. It looks like a buzz cut, though, and that apparently makes Karkat uncomfortable. Whatever, he was still Karkat, with or without the wig.

  People looked surprised when Karkat went a week at school without skipping half a day for chemo. He had only been able to keep himself from truancy with doctor's notes.

It makes you happy to see him smiling and laughing with his friends again. He missed out on seeing his friends for a while, so this is good for him, you suppose.

You wanted to kiss him a few times during the day, but you can't. Not only does your school not allow same-sex couples, PDA is also a problem for them. Not even straight couples are allowed to do much. Got to keep it in your pants.

You and Karkat's schedules weren't very alike. All you had together besides lunch was Science. You hoped no one would make his day go to shit. Science was your last period, too, so it made you worry about him all day. Yeah, you know that you should give him a little space, but that can't stop you from thinking about him.

You did have first period, English, with John, though. He sat his happy ass right down next to you.

"So, this year ought to be fun. We're almost seniors," John said while you waited for class to start.

"Yeah, but we're almost adults. That seems kind of scary," You said back. John nodded in agreement.

"A lot of people can't wait to get out of the house, but I don't want to leave Dad there by himself, you know," He said, rolling his pencil on the desk.

"Yeah, I get you. There will be people there for my Bro, but I just feel guilty leaving them like that," You spoke.

Class started and interrupted your barely deep conversation with John. The teacher was a snippy woman who seemed like she would take her problems out on her students. In short, she was a huge bitch.

  You left that class and trudged to your next class. Karkat may be happy about the school year starting, but you are not.

  None of your friends were in your Math class. That made the class unbearable. You didn't have a distraction despite how badly you wanted one.

  You went through the day until lunch, barely pulling your body with you. Karkat caught you in the hallway and walked with you to the cafeteria.

  "So, how's your day been?," Karkat asked, trying to walk a little closer to make up for the inability to hold hands.

  "Meh, it's been alright. What about yours?" You replied.

  "It's been good, actually. Aside from the looks and shit, of course," He laughed a little. You nodded as you walked into the cafeteria.

  You two sat by the few of your friends that had lunch with you. Those friends were Jade, Rose, Kanaya, John, and Sollux. Pretty good menagerie in your opinion.

  Karkat sat next to you, naturally, and made your feet touch, which was good enough for now. It wasn't a surprise that all of your close friends knew about you two, either. I mean, it's been a year and a half now, how would they not know?

Someone touched the back of Karkat's wig. Karkat's hands flew to the back of his head at record speed, just barely missing the perpetrator's hand. Karkat's face contorted into an angry glare as he whipped his head around to see who it was.

It was some random person that neither of you knew. You're pretty sure that if he knew the guy, he wouldn't have given him such an angry lecture about staying out of people's personal space.

"Why the hell would you touch my head?" Karkat hissed.

"I wanted to see if it was real," The guy said back. Did he seriously think that was a good excuse?

"Well maybe you need a lesson in personal space. I don't know you, you don't touch me. So don't ever fucking touch me again. Keep your hormonal hands off of me," Karkat practically snarled. The guy rolled his eyes, but walked off nonetheless.

What a bitch move. Not Karkat, but that other guy. You don't randomly touch someone's hair. Especially if you don't know them. That's just creepy.

You gave Karkat a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Calm down, okay?" You whispered. Karkat nodded, but his face remained pissy. You rolled your eyes and went back to eating and listening to Karkat mumble about her the guy was a douchebag with no common sense or respect for other people's property. Okay, you had to agree with him on that.

  None of your friends talked about it for the rest of lunch, and you silently thanked them for that. Instead, they talked about things that all of you used to laugh at when you were younger. You even laughed at dumb decisions you had made.

Sollux had broken up with Aradia, but seemed like he was trying to get her back. Rose and Kanaya were still undoubtedly 'in lesbians' with each other. John was still a big doofus who liked to prank people, but now had a spider-loving girlfriend to keep him busy. Everything was right in the world.

It made you happy, thinking about how Angels were finally deciding to look down on yours and your friends' lives. They deserved it and yours was merely luck. Luck that you can definitely live with.

Everything was going to be fine.

~~~

Okay, to preface, I'm sorry that this chapter is so short! It even upsets me a bit.

However, everyone's happy. You know what that means. (Sadness)SMILES

But anywhore, I am currently writing out the comic (that may end up in the art section rather than the epilogue because it's time consuming and my 3rd quarter finals are coming up.)

I'm ruining myself. My grades are slipping. BETTER CRY ABOUT FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

Okay, I'll stop.

~Ghostie