Element

Prologue

Ever since Aero was little he knew he was different. Other kids just weren't like him. He breathed the same air as everybody else, but breathed it deeper. The air was sweeter, fresher in the clouds of his eyes. When the wind blowed, he blew with it. All eighteen years of his life, this was a normality. Until one day, everything seemed to change.

It wasn't like a change in the environment, where someone picks up a chunk of plastic and saves the life of a dolphin. It was much more than that. Something incomprehensible to the human mind. Like a disturbance on Earth due to a massive tsunami. Only this was more of a thousand tsunamis happening across the globe in unison, leaving only the crumbs of lost hope and dreams.

However, in order for this change to occur, we needed an obstacle to get in the way. Isn't funny? How one simple disruption in our life can bring out the hidden spirit inside our souls? After all, to make a big impact, you need a little...push.

The sun was swallowed up by the clouds, September rolling to an end. The leaves were just starting to be stripped of their colors. The heat of the summer had cooled to a crisp, October sky on the rise. Aero always felt the shift. A shift between the breezes, the different breath of air as the seasons changed. He wondered briefly if everyone felt it. Did they know the difference in the air? The bask of Summer, the crisp of Fall, the brittle of Winter, the fresh of Spring?

Aero was deprived of his thoughts as soon as he spotted it. A head of grapes at midnight. Bobbing up and down, it vanished around brick. Cyrus. And right on his tail was two migraines. Jason Pollick and Zeke Adams. One was a jock and the other a skater. Aero groaned internally, preparing himself to save his oddball Korean friend, who always seemed to get himself caught in a bundle. Cyrus Jeong Kim had moved here from South Korea about 15 some odd years ago and no one could pronounce his first name so they nicknamed him Cyrus. It kinda just stuck from then on. As soon as he moved here, he was really affectionate towards everyone cause that's just how Korean's behavior was. But, people kept making fun of him for it and soon he actually decided maybe he is actually attracted to everyone. So, he came out as bisexual and things got a hell of a lot worse. Cyrus got bullied every day and every day Aero was going out of his way to make sure that didn't happen.

The two weren't exactly what you'd might consider popular. They were more classified as outcasts, rejects, nobodies. They were all each other had and all each other needed. Two peas in a pod. A package deal. Buy one get one free.

That's why whenever one of them was caught in a never-ending whirlpool, it was up to the other to throw the lifesaver. Never once did they not have each other's backs.

Aero spotted Cyrus' black and purple hair from a mile away as he chased him around Kingsley street where Jason and Zeke cornered Cyrus in an alley. The alleyway was shadowed in darkness, despite it being daytime, but Aero could still make out the illuminated face of his idiotic friend. Despite Cyrus' ability to make himself stand out and get bullied, he also had the ability to stand up for himself and sass anything, whether it breathes or not. Once when the two were kids, Cyrus sassed a plant for "looking at him the wrong way".

There's no question that Cyrus is a little...different. But, believe it or not he was a genius. He'd had a 4.0 since he started school and can theorize and analyze anything. He's even out smarted a college professor at the age of nine. If that's not creepy, Aero didn't know what was. So when people say most Asians are smart, they're not wrong. It's not racist either. It's a compliment and a fact.

Cyrus may drink tea like he breathes, wear unhealthy amounts of name brand guyliner, and have slightly purple hair, but he's Aero's best friend and all he's got. Which is why he constantly stands up for him.

"What'd you just say to us, fag?" Jason hissed, clutching Cyrus by the collar of his shirt, pinning him to the old brick wall. Zeke was taking a drag of a cigarette and blew it in Cyrus' face, laughing sinisterly. The stench invaded Aero's lungs, causing the balance in the atmosphere to die around him. That was always one of the changes he'd noticed. How one simple thing could corrupt something so important, so precious.

Cyrus rolled his eyes, yelling, "I said...meongcheonghan gwaeng-i, son chiwo! Do you have ears?" (A/N that means 'hands off, stupid hoes').

"Alright, smartass," An evil smirk was forming on Jason's face. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Aero drew in closer to the scene playing out in front of him like a movie. If this didn't happen so frequently he'd be ten times more worried than he was now, but fortunately, Aero dealt with things like this for a while now.

"Or we can do it my way," Aero speaks up finally, stepping into sight. Zeke and Jason snap their heads up to the sound of his voice. Once their gazes locked with his, their eyes settled into a harsh glare.

Zeke chuckles lowly, "Oh, look! Prince Charming has come to save the damsel in distress. Unfortunately for you, you won't get a happy ending."

"The only damsel in distress will be you when Aero kicks your ass! Oh, wait, you don't have one..." Cyrus smirks, watching in amusement as Zeke actually gets offended by his sassy comment. Leave it to Cyrus to offend a man's gluteus maximus.

Cyrus' comment wasn't funny to Zeke, though. He lunged at him and Aero took the opportunity to quickly sprint full force ahead, prepared to punch the jerk. However, Aero was bewildered when Zeke went slamming against the brick wall himself. He crumpled to the ground, trying to gasp for air in his state of shock. He wasn't the only one shocked, though. Jason, Cyrus, and Aero all stood frozen with their mouths agape. No one made a sound.

How the hell did that happen? Aero thought, I never touched him... So many unanswered questions whirled in his brain. Not even the Law of Physics could explain this. There was no wind, no one in front of Zeke except Aero, but he was a good five feet away from him when he flew backwards against the wall. It just didn't add up. What force could move an entire person in the blink of an eye without even touching them? The answer: one undefined by humans.

"Woah..." Cyrus was watching it all go down, looking absolutely appalled. His eyes wide, jaw dropped. Aero didn't think he was even breathing. "Dude, that was some serious punch. How did you do that? Have you been working out?"

"But, I didn't even touch him...or if I did I couldn't feel it," Aero muttered to himself, trying to make sense of it all. Although, he couldn't. This was an unexplainable change. It wasn't his fault, though. He just couldn't see behind the scenes of reality.

"What do you mean you didn't touch him? Aero, you literally just made the guy fly backwards into a brick wall," Cyrus was frantic, hands flinging in the air and voice raised an octave higher. "C'mon, did you think some imaginary hulk did it for you?" I don't know what it was but it wasn't me, Aero thought, or was it?

Welcome to my first official novel! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! The picture is Aero btw Xx Em