Tobio Kageyama walked through the park, not expecting to meet anyone new that one September afternoon. He had just finished eating lunch, and he was going to sit under his usual tree to write until his break ended.
Once he reached the tree, he pulled his journal and pen out of his leather satchel, sat down, and rested his back against the trunk. He began to write about his day so far.
9-22-16
Today was boring; nothing exciting happened at work so far. I made a couple coffee's and fried some doughnuts, same as usual. Tomorrow is payday though, so I guess I should feel a little excited to not be scared of being thrown out of my apartment. I should probably get some groceries, so I guess I'll go to the grocery store in a couple hours.
I need to start saving up for a bike. I hate walking everywhere because it's so slow. I know I live in a small town, but still. It's tiring.
Anyways, I have nothing left to say, so I guess I'm going to read.
Kageyama read over what he had written a couple times. After a minute or two, he closed his worn-out journal and put both the journal and pen back into his bag. He then pulled out a reading book and flipped to the page where he had left off.
As he read, he began to forget the world like he always did. He took no notice of his surroundings, including a man with messy orange hair that skated past him on a skateboard.
Kageyama drowned deeper into the words of the book. It was one of his favorite stories. He continued to read. Until-
"Are you reading Romeo and Juliet?"
Kageyama jumped. He looked up; standing in front of him was a short man with orange hair holding a skateboard. He was grinning.
Kageyama blushed. "Y-yeah," he whispered.
"That's cool. I've only seen the movie myself. Y'know the one with that DiCaprio guy?" the man stopped, waiting for Kageyama to answer. When Kageyama slowly nodded, he continued. "Yeah, I've seen that one. I'm not a big reader, I read too slow. Anyways, I just wanted to point out that that's really cool that I'm not the only one that I know that likes Romeo and Juliet. My friend, Kenma, says its girly or whatever, but I don't care. Kenma's pretty cool, you should meet him sometime. Speaking of friends, do you wanna be friends? I think you're pretty cool, I mean, we both like Shakespeare, so that's a plus."
Kageyama was at a loss of words. The man had talked so fast that he had barely understood anything that came out of his mouth. "Uh-" Kageyama didn't many friends anymore, he had lost touch with all of his friends from school after he graduated. He was acquaintances with a few of his co-workers, so what did he have to lose?
"Uh, y-yeah. Sure. Let's be friends."
The man's face lit up even more, if that was even possible. "Well then, new friend," he asked, "what is your name?"
"Tobio. Tobio Kageyama."
"Hello, Kageyama. My name is Shoyo Hinata and I am twenty-three years old. Do you mind if we exchange phone numbers?"
Kageyama hesitated. "I-I don't have a cell phone. I mean- I have a house phone, so I can call, but I can't text. I'm a little tight on money right now..." he whispered the last part.
"That's fine. Lets go for a walk."
"O-okay..." Kageyama put his book back into his satchel and stood up. As he was putting his bag over his shoulder, he noticed Hinata staring at him, eyes wide. "What?"
"You're- you're just so tall."
"No, you're just short," Kageyama stated.
Hinata was quiet for a moment. "We're only two minutes into a friendship and you're already insulting my height."
Kageyama sighed, disappointing himself. He was trying to be nicer to people now, ever since he had graduated. "I'm sorry..."
Hinata laughed. "No, no, it's okay. People joke about my height a lot. I used to hate it, but now I don't mind it," he reassured. "Lets walk now."
They started to walk on the sidewalk talking about themselves. Their conversation mostly consisted of Hinata cracking jokes, Hinata asking questions about Kageyama, and Kageyama answering those questions.
"So how old are you?" Hinata asked.
"Twenty-two," Kageyama instantly replied. He was starting to like Hinata a little bit.
"Ha-ha, I'm older than you!" Hinata teased.
"I'm turning twenty-three this December. December 22, to be exact."
"That's cool. My birthday is June 21."
"Nice."
"Do you want to go get coffee? I don't normally go to coffee shops, but I guess since we're friends now, we should get some together," Hinata asked as he pointed to a coffee shop up ahead of them.
When Kageyama looked up, he instantly remembered that his break was about to end. "Oh, I work there," Kageyama explained. "My shift actually starts again in-" he checked his watch, "-ten minutes, so we should probably go-"
"Race you there!" yelled Hinata. He threw his skateboard onto the pavement and started pumping to make him go faster.
"Wait- what? Hey, wait up!" Kageyama yelled as he started to jog slightly behind Hinata.
They reached the coffee shop a moment later, and Hinata won the race. Hinata opened the door and walked inside ("You have to leave your skateboard outside, Hinata," Kageyama explained.), Kageyama following shortly behind. Kageyama quickly went behind the counter and started getting ready for his shift to start. Hinata sat down at a table not far away from the counter. Once Hinata saw that Kageyama was now working, he walked up to order something.
"Hello, Kageyama. Short time no see," Hinata joked.
Kageyama chuckled lightly. "Yeah... What do you want to order?" he asked.
"Well, what is there? Nothing poisonous, right?"
Kageyama laughed again. It was crazy how fast he was starting to like Hinata.
So this is what having a real friend is like... Kageyama thought.
"No, nothing poisonous. How about you just get a doughnut or something?" He suggested.
Hinata smiled. "You have doughnuts?!"
"Well- it is a coffee shop; most coffee shops have doughnuts-"
"What doughnuts do you have?" Hinata interrupted.
Kageyama pointed down, indicating him to look through the glass below them.
Hinata looked down. His eyes widened. "I didn't even notice these! They all look so good! Did you make any?" he asked.
"A-a couple..."
"I want one that you made! I don't care what flavor, anything is fine!"
"Okay." Kageyama bent down and slid the glass door open. He pulled out a big apple fritter. He smiled when he heard Hinata squeal.
"I love apple fritters! How much is it?"
"Well-" Kageyama hesitated.
I should pay for it. He's been so nice to me, and he barely knows me. I'll pay for it.
"I'll buy it for you," Kageyama offered as he was putting the doughnut into a paper bag.
"No. I'm buying it," Hinata rejected.
"Don't be stubborn. Let me pay for you... please," he added.
Hinata blushed. Looking down, he mumbled something under his breath.
Kageyama raised his eyebrow. "What?"
Hinata looked up. "N-nothing! Could I also get a small black coffee in a to-go cup please?"
Kageyama paused. Hinata was acting a little weird. "Yeah..."
"Okay, thank you!" Hinata quickly turned around and waddled back to the table he was sitting at earlier. Kageyama looked at Hinata's back for a moment, still confused about what had just happened. He reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet. As he was taking out some cash, he felt someone looking at him. He brought his eyes away from the money and looked up.
Hinata froze. Kageyama smiled at him and went back to paying for Hinata.
A moment later, he opened the cash register and placed the money inside. He then walked over to the coffee machine and poured some hot coffee into a cup. Putting a lid on the coffee, he walked over to the bag with the doughnut. He picked up a pen from the counter and wrote on the paper cup.
459-751-6534 That's my number. I get off of work at 3. Call me :) -Tobio
Kageyama clicked the back of the pen and put it down on the counter. Picking up the bag, he yelled "Hinata-san! Your small black coffee and apple fritter!" He saw Hinata look up.
Hinata jumped up from his chair and ran over to Kageyama. "Thank you, Kageyama!" he said, taking the cup and the bag out of Kageyama's hands. "Well, I'm going to go home now. What's your number?" he asked.
Kageyama nodded his head towards Hinata's coffee cup. Hinata looked at the cup in his hands and read the message. A moment later, he smiled. "I'll call you after you're done with work. See ya later!" Hinata waved goodbye.
"Bye, Hinata-san," Kageyama waved back. He then continued to work. The bell on the door rung twice, meaning that Hinata had left the shop. Kageyama smiled to himself, thinking about how good his day was.
Moments later, there was a long car honk and a-
SMASH.
Kageyama instantly looked up. Through the window, there was a car stopped in the middle of the road. And-
The blood drained from Kageyama's face.
Hinata.
Hinata lay motionless on the ground in the middle of the street, hot coffee spilt all over him, and skateboard broken in half. He was laying right in front of the car.
Kageyama dropped the coffee pot that he was holding. He didn't care that it shattered into a million pieces on the floor. All he cared about was getting to Hinata. He sprinted out of the shop, pushing everyone out of his way.
"SHOYO!" he screamed as he made his way over to Hinata.
He knelt down, grabbing one of Hinata's hands with both of his.
"Shoyo- no-" he gasped. He realized that there were tears streaming down his face. He lightly squeezed Hinata's hands.
"Shoyo... please- give me a sign that you're still here- anything..." Kageyama sobbed.
A couple of seconds past, and nothing.
"P-please..."
Kageyama still held Hinata's limp hand in both of his lightly. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to stop anymore tears from coming out.
As his eyes were shut, he felt Hinata's hand slowly squeeze Kageyama's hand lightly. Kageyama's eye's instantly shot open. "Shoyo?"
"T-Tobio..." Hinata whispered.
"I'm here, Shoyo. I'm right here. You're going to be okay," Kageyama whispered through shaky breaths, reassuring not just Hinata but also himself.
Kageyama looked up. There was a crowd around them. Even some of Kageyama's co-workers were watching Kageyama and Hinata. No one was doing anything other than staring.
Kageyama turned his head to look at the car behind them. There was a woman standing outside the driver side door. Kageyama took a deep breath.
"D-did you do this?"
The woman nodded her head.
"Well then why aren't you calling the fucking ambulance?!"
"I-I'm sorry, I-I'm just s-still in sh-shock f-from a-all th-this," she sobbed. "I-I'll call them r-right n-now." She pulled out her cell phone out of her back pocked and dialed 911.
Minutes later, a faint siren was heard. Throughout the whole time that they were waiting for the ambulance, Kageyama was whispering to Hinata, asking him to keep squeezing his hand.
When the ambulance arrived at the scene, they put Hinata onto a stretcher trolley and took him inside the back of the vehicle.
"Can I ride in the ambulance to the hospital, please?" he asked one of the nurses.
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you inside the ambulance. You can meet us at the hospital, though," explained the nurse. "He's going to be okay. What's his name?"
"Shoyo. Shoyo Hinata."
"Okay, thank you," she said. She turned around and walked towards the ambulance and got inside.
The ambulance soon drove off back the way it came. Kageyama was left standing in the middle of the road, wondering how the hell he would get to the Hospital.
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Words: 2k
Chapter 1/?