Candor And Curiosity (A Slenderman Romance)

Chapter 20

Hey guys. Here's the last chapter of Part I. Hope you enjoy <3

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The journey home was a depressing one.

As I drove, I tried as best I could to drown out all thoughts of Author and my childhood, fearful that another one of those strange episodes would take over.

I had been fine for the first 5 minutes, and I tried focusing on the constant sound of the windshield wipers instead of the nagging, aching feeling I felt inside.

It had been thirteen years since I last had last seen Author prior to this day, and a lot of things had happened during the time we spent together in grade school. He had been there for four whole years, and in the space of three years we had created many memories that I definitely couldn't forget.

To everyone else in the world, Author had seemed to be a very complicated child with complicated emotions. He had been labeled as spoiled, unfriendly, and incapable of proper interactions with his peers.

I supposed I couldn't blame the teachers and students for having thought that, because he had always put up such a front that almost made him impossible to like.

Almost.

Of all the teachers in the entire school throughout the course of those four years, only Mrs. Fleischer and Mrs. Bermingham had really bothered to put up with his bad attitude and temper. All the other teachers had deemed him a mischievous nuisance whose "hatred" for Americans made it impossible for him to get along with anyone.

It had taken me two whole years to understand that was not true.

Two whole years to partially solve the puzzle that was Author Hasselbach.

It even surprised me that I could remember many of the events that slowly led me to understand that Author had not been bad child- he just had many difficulties properly expressing his feelings.

No one except me had tried to understand him at all.

That his tough facade and hurtful words had been a front.

That he his superiority-complex had all just been a sad attempt to recover something he had lost.

That deep inside he had a good heart.

But, his story (or the little that I know of it) is for another time.

As a child, Author had seemed to take fancy to hurting others feelings. At first, it seemed to me that he absolutely did not care who he had hurt.

He had been angry ninety percent of the time, and when he had finally become fluent in English, he just wouldn't ever shut that mouth of his.

These were parts of the differences between the stranger I had seen today and the little boy I had known many years ago.

The Author that I had known would've lost his temper and would've made a spectacle out of not only me, but each and every person who had gathered around us. He would've thrown a tantrum over my being such an "idiot" (this was his favorite word when we were younger) and when he was done with his temper tantrum, he would've hauled me out of there by the arm, threatening to fight anyone who so much as continued to look at us.

Though I was still somewhat wary of the stranger I had seen today, I was glad that that aggressive quality of his had changed. The Author I had seen today seemed more controlled, more composed and certainly not as mouthy.

But those cold, lifeless eyes were still a major cause of concern for me.

"He's still just as big a douche." I cursed to myself as I pulled into the parking lot. "And the way he looked at me as if I was some sort of disgusting filth pisses me off more than anything else."