O N E
THE FIRST ENCOUNTER
He was my best friend.
No.
He wasn't just my best friend.
He is my rock, my anchor, my light. He is my everything in this damned world that was covered in the most beautiful fake diamonds.
He is the one that made me see the positive in anything. The one who kept me sane.
He is the one in the light.
And I intend to let it stay that way... even if it means that I would be completely be eaten by darkness.
Intrigued?
- - - - - - - - - - -
(12 Years ago)
The most ideal friendship to be made is when you were in your diapers. At least, that is what I concluded based to the novels that I read.
Yet in my case, I met him when I was a freshmen in high school. And no, it wasn't the first day of school or in the midst of a particular accident which could make me a damsel in distress.
No.
I was sitting on a bench at the school courtyard, enjoying a book, when out of nowhere, a deep voice managed to wreck my bubble.
"The main guy will die in the end, which leads his girl to be in thirst of revenge."
To say I was annoyed is an understatement. I literally want to flip the bench I was sitting- mind you, the bench is permanently glued in the school ground. Yet instead, I snapped up my head in his direction and sent the most vicious glare I could manage.
The guy, who looks older than me, only smiled in return and sat beside me. The nerve!
"The second book is more brutal, believe me." He continued in a very convincing manner. His eyes were shining in mischief.
I want to groan in annoyance. So I did. Not wanting to waste time further, I huffed as I gathered my things and stood up to leave.
"Hey wait!" he called. I don't know what got into me, but I stopped mid-stride. I turned around to face the spoiler of the millennium, with a scowl on my face, yet only greeted with a 'click' sound from his camera that I failed to notice.
He put his camera away from his face and stared at it before bursting into a laughing fit. By then, I was livid.
"Jerk." I said through gritted teeth, and turned my heels to really go away from the rude and annoying weirdo.
As I was about to pass the school gate, a familiar honk was released behind me. There I saw my childhood friend.
Xavier.
He wasn't my best friend. And in school we don't get together, I guess it's because of the social gap we have.
Aside from the fact that he was a junior while I'm a freshman. He was 16 and I was 14. Xavier is on the top of his game; the popular one. Rich, with good looks, although he sucks at history, he still aced the other academics. And let's not forget that he is the MVP player of our basketball team.
On the other hand, I'm the plain Jane of the school. Not a loner, nor a geek weirdo, just your average teen that just blends in the background. The only thing I excel at is running. I was the best in track at the freshmen division. Gotta give the credits to Xavier for his given errands since we were little.
I just grew up with him around since his parents knew mine.
That's what I know when I was a little foolish girl in pigtails. Later I found out that my parents were in debt to his but kept a friendly facade with each other for a civilized purposes.
No wonder that Xavier did nothing but hover around me, acting like a prince that he is.
Still, he still has a soft side which only I have the privilege to witness.
"Hop in." He said as his vehicle stopped beside me. I did what he said, and buckled as I felt the car move.
"What's with your face?" he asked, with a little attitude lacing on his voice. Looks like I wasn't the only one who got in unfortunate situation.
"Just encountered an annoying weirdo." I mumbled and looked at the window. My frown got deeper as I remembered the spoiler guy.
He wasn't strikingly handsome like Xavier, nor have the drool-worthy features like the star quarter back of our football team. Although, he was above average.
Dark brown hair, brown eyes, full lips, lean features? I'm not sure at the moment. I was so coped up in annoyance to do a complete overall check.
"Where?" Xavier asked, breaking my train of thought.
"At the courtyard."
"You were reading, again."
"I have nothing better to do."
"Practice your sport?"
"The official practices will start next month." I informed in a grave tone.
"Same." He second in an equal tone.
- - - - - - - - - -
A week after, I was surrounding myself with books at the library. No, I wasn't reading a novel. Unfortunately.
I was doing a research for my English lit project, which I was really not good at. Others will probably be buried to their laptop, and facing the wikipedia, copy-pasting the most common answer in the ground of technology.
But here am I, visiting the old school spirit within me on a free time. I was on my three-fourths of the paper when I someone occupied the chair in front of me.
"Do you always cover yourself with books?"
Red lights were flashing wildly in my mind when the voice registered in me. I look in front and expected the worst person I have the unfortunate to see again. He was smiling so energetic and friendly, as if he hasn't done anything rude to me.
"Leave me alone." I grumbled and rushed my writing so that I could get away to this guy faster.
"Oh, she talks!" he exclaimed like he won a lottery and couldn't believe it... only it was in a mocking manner.
dumbass.
"Seriously? Can't you see I'm busy?" I glared which he only grinned at.
"Too busy, actually." he said, then I noticed that he was holding and reading the instruction paper before he took one of the books beside me.
"Hey! what-" I was about to rebut, yet he only hushed me and looked to book's contents in a brief way before putting it in front of me. He took another book, did the same thing, only he put the book beside him.
He did the process in a cycle, until no books stayed to its original position. Now, three books lay in front of me while the rest is beside him.
"There." he said and leaned back as he let out a satisfied sigh. He raised his hand and gesture to the books in front of me. "Those were enough to get you an A+. And these..." he said as he tapped the set of books beside him. "Are unnecessary. Total destruction."
"How do you know about that?" I asked, skeptical.
"I'm a junior, I went through that." he said with a shrug.
"You're a what?"
He gaped in mocked offended manner. "What's with your reaction?"
I shrugged, not yet completely recovered about the info. "You just don't act like it... And you talk to Me." well, more like annoying me.
"What does talking to you do anything about it?"
"Duh? The social ladder?"
"That was so high school!"
"We are in high school!" I countered.
"We could be in high school, but not acting like it." he said with a thought.
"You lost me."
"Look at it this way..." he said and leaned closer to me, making me follow suit for the sudden interest rushing to my system.
"Social Ladder is a façade." he started. "Like a mask for people with insecurities that wants to be above on others. And the ugliest part of it is people took part in it. As if admitting that they are lower than the others. It's childish actually, it almost sounds like form of trap."
"Trap?"
"A trap." he nodded. "A trap which makes people think that they were stuck on a certain level, but they're not." he said, but then stopped. thinking. "But in sense, they are. They're stuck on themselves... which leads us on the term stuck-ups." he finished with a satisfied smirk.
Watching him so into explaining and with hand gestures at that, is so entertaining. I couldn't help but release a laugh, which he thankfully dismissed in a playful scowl.
"What's so funny?" he asked while trying to send me a glare but the way his lips were quirks upwards gave away his amusement.
"Nothing. It's just about your way of explaining things... you're saying things that were so deep and brutal but to me it sound so carefree." I said and controlled my laugh.
"Thanks?" he said and smiled. I just shook my head and took a breath. "Marcus." he said and reached his hand to me.
"Olivia." I replied as I shook his hand.
That moment, I never knew that his hand would be my rope to humanity.