Demons Control Us All

A New Chapter

Lunch break came around a lot faster than Johnnie had expected, but he had already been there 5 and a half hours, and still had 1 more lecture, and then an acting session until 4.30. Johnnie was sitting alone, outside, under a giant willow tree. He wasn't eating anything still, as his social anxiety led him to be so self conscious of himself that he couldn't even eat in public. So instead, Johnnie sat there, with Bring Me The Horizon playing through his headphones, whilst he had his favourite book (Jane Austin's Pride And Prejudice) was out next to him, and he had his notes from his lectures on his lap, and he was recapping. But he couldn't pull his mind away from Pride And Prejudice, so he picked it up and started reading. Johnnie had read the book well over 78 times, and the leather-bound edition was holding up well considering.

After only a few minutes of reading, he felt a tap on his shoulder, so Johnnie pulled out his headphones and put his book down. "You're reading Pride And Prejudice?! That's like my all time favourite book! And I've never seen a guy reading it, especially one that's leather-bound! Please tell me you love this book too," an excited voice encompassed Johnnie and weaved through his ears. It was a boy, Johnnie could tell from his deep, musky voice, that in all honestly made this mysterious guy sound quite adorable.

Johnnie looked up, and saw a huge smile, much like the one Amelia greeted him with the first time they met, on the roof 2 years ago. But this time, it was accompanied by glistening grey eyes and pastel blue hair, that was not too long, and messy, but it looked amazing against his pale skin. Johnnie also realised the intricate tattoo sleeve that this mysterious boy had, and his snakebite piercings. He was wearing a black short sleeved shirt with very skinny black jeans, completed with black vans and a backpack covered in pins of bands and TV shows and films. Johnnie was taken aback at first, but then slowly got his words back. "Er, hi, yes Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book, hence why I got the leather-bound edition! Oh and I'm Johnnie," he smiled at this, and the mysterious boy replied with "Nice to meet you Johnnie, I'm Logan," and returned the smile. "Can I sit with you?" Johnnie agreed to this almost immediately, so Logan set next to him under the Willow tree, and they spent all of their break talking about life and getting to know each other, whilst listening to each others music. Logan and Johnnie were laughing and smiling like they were back in kindergarten, a real smile; one Johnnie hadn't experienced since his mother's murder.

To Johnnies relief, Logan was in his Drama group after their last lecture of the day, so they walked there together after waiting for each other. It turned out that that session was going to be auditions for their college's adaptation of 'Beautiful Thing', as they wanted to raise awareness for the LGBT+ community. So, Johnnie and Logan auditioned, expecting to get very small parts, if parts at all. The two guys completed their audition, and spent the rest of the hour acting out parts from Pride and Prejudice to keep each other entertained.

As the session neared to the end, the students were informed that callbacks would be the following week, and they could check the drama board to see who has been chosen for callbacks, and in the future, what parts the aspiring actors managed to grab. Johnnie and Logan looked at each other and just laughed, as they knew that they wouldn't get any parts at all.

After class had ended, Johnnie trudged to his bike, when he noticed Logan was trying to unlock the chain connecting his old bike to the railing. "Need a hand?" Johnnie asked and made his way over, and then proceeded to help Logan unlock the chain. He then thought back to the conversation the two of them had had a few hours prior, past the fact that Logan was named after The Wolverine, to the part where he had just got an apartment in the same building as Johnnie, but he lived alone. In that moment, Johnnie asked if Logan wanted to come to his apartment for pizza. His new friend couldn't deny him, so they both mounted their bikes and cycled home. They went through the park and watched the sunset through the trees that they passed. By the time they got to the building, it was already dark, and Josh, Juliet and Tiger had all got back from school hours before them.

Pizza had arrived when Johnnie and Logan were in the middle of a tense match of Mortal Kombat. As Tiger called out to everyone, Johnnie looked away for a split second, and Logan seized the opportunity, and won the match. FINISH HIM! a deep voice growled through the computer screen. Johnnie let out a frustrated sigh before nudging his new friend. They both got up together and went into the sitting room, joining the other three that already had started their pizza. After they had all finished, Johnnie and Logan went back to playing one more round of Mortal Kombat, but by the time they ended they realised it was almost midnight, and though that wasn't late for either of them, they had college early the next morning, and Johnnie would have to get up in 6 hours. So, the two said goodnight to each other, and agreed to do the same thing the next day, but in Logan's apartment instead, which was 2 floors below Johnnie. They smiled at each other before parting,

Johnnie had only been in college for one day, and he already made a new friend, auditioned for a play and made an agenda for his semester. Things were turning themselves around, going back to the happy state everything was in years and years ago.