Sally Face: Memories

Chapter 3: Misbelief

Sal's POV
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Travis Phelps... That's a name most people would assume I would want to forget. But for some reason, I just can't. It's like there's just.. something about him that keeps me up at night, thinking, wondering, pondering about where he is, how he's doing, and what he's up to... I have this tremendously unquenchable urge to talk to him. Almost as if it's life or death if I don't, and I can never calm myself down enough to stop thinking about it. Maybe all the things he told me in highschool made me  feel a little more attached to him than I should be for someone who bullied me throughout my teenage years. But I don't care about how mean he was to me, all I care about is meeting him again after all these years.. there's so much I wanna talk to him about.. like, what kind of job he has now, how his mom and dad are doing now that he's moved out, what kind of place he has, god, I bet he has some kind of mansion for one right now.. last time I remember he was the richest kid in school! He always had the best clothes, the best hair, the best shoes, the best books, the best car, the best home, and most of all out those things, he had the best smile too when he did smile. Not out of cockiness or snobbism. But a true, genuine smile. I only got to see that a rare two times during my short span of memories with him. He never really did have anything to smile about. I wouldn't blame him. Yeah, there's a pretty thick layer of snarky, narcissistic ego you have to get through, but underneath all that, there's a boy who had had nothing but pain throughout his entire life. Raised in a strictly religious household by a very powerful man and a mute woman.. he didn't get hugs when he fell down and scrapped his knees as a child, he didn't get goodnight kisses at bed time, he never got ice cream after getting good grades after school, he didn't get any of that stuff. He only felt like he was an insufferable disappointment to his parents, especially his father who he tried so hard to please.. he even told me that the real reason he would hit me or something like that, was not because he hated me, but because it would catch his father's attention and that would make him just so happy when his father even gave him a morsel of acknowledgement.

"S-Sal.. dude... Wha--..."

A soft yawn was heard behind me as my train of thought was interrupted. Smiling softly, I rolled over to face him.

"What are you still doing up, man? Night terrors again?"

Shaking my head as I gazed into his hazel eyes, I sighed softly and carried on the conversation.

"Do you ever wonder what happened to classmates that we never really talked to? Like.. how their doing and what's going on in their lives and such?"

"Nope."

Frowning a bit as he said that, I soon felt a lonely wave wash over me, signaling that I'm probably the only one who does think about that.. perhaps I'm the only one thinking about Travis..

"Is that it? Your just thinking about our classmates, Sal?"

"Uh.. just one in particular.."

He rolled his eyes before I could even say his name and sat up, stretching his arms above his head as he let out another yawn.

"If you wanna talk to him so badly then why don't you go to his house and visit him?"

"Because if he still lives with his parents, his father won't let me in, and if he moved out, I don't know where he went. For all I know Lar, he could be in a completely different state right now. You know how rich he was."

He didn't seem interested. He never did when I spoke about Travis.

"Why do you hate him so much, Lar?"