I don't remember blacking out again, but I know I did when I woke up on the bean bag chair in Shinso's room. The boy with indigo hair looked down at me with a concerned expression as I opened my eyes groggily, gradually rubbing the tiredness from them. When my gaze shifted to the alarm clock next to Shinso's bed, it was only 12:13 in the morning, meaning that I still had five hours until I had to wake up for school.
"You passed out." Shinso said, taking a step back from the soft seat as I sat up slowly and continuously rubbed my eyes.
"I did...huh." My voice was somewhat hoarse when I spoke, and my throat was dryer than a desert.
As I gradually adjusted to the surroundings, I began to remember Shinso's room, using it as a focal point to ground myself. I felt my body against the soft bean bag chair, my feet on the carpeted floor, the cool air blowing through the open window, and the quiet hum of the fan in the corner.
"You kinda scared me there." Shinso scratched the back of his neck as he spoke, looking down at the ground.
"Did your parents not hear?"
Shinso shook his head. "No, they didn't. They're...very sound sleepers, unlike me."
"Heh, so if there was a house fire and they locked their doors they'd most likely burn to death." I made a somewhat morbid joke in a futile attempt to lighten the mood. Shinso didn't seem to take this lightly, as he sighed and shook his head.
"Wanna snack?" He asked, attempting to change the subject as he gestured towards his bedroom door, which was slightly cracked.
"Sure...I didn't eat dinner, my dad ate it all." I chuckled loathingly as I stood up, slowly making my way to the door and stepping into the hallway, feeling the cool wooden floor beneath my feet.
"Your dad ate your dinner? I'd punch him if I were you." Shinso looked back at me, a small scowl forming on his face as he approached the fridge, quietly opening it. When I caught sight of the contents inside my mouth began to water like a river. Shinso's fridge was so much more filled than mine. Where we had ramen they had fruit, vegetables, yogurt, and everything I'd see in the convenience store.
"It's like...your fridge is the store I go to." I swallowed my spit, also wiping away the tiny amount that accumulated down my chin. The indigo-haired boy chuckled dryly as he handed me a carton of yogurt.
"Vanilla's my personal go-to." Shinso licked the insides of his lips as he peeled back the shiny covering on the yogurt carton. Inside was the creamy white substance.
"I also like to chop up some fruit to put inside it—but if you dare like blueberries that knife in the drawer will go right into your head."
I almost dropped my food recalling what occurred earlier tonight. My heart began to race as I took a step back, leaning against the counter as I clutched the edge of the marble surface with all my power. Shinso stopped eating, swallowing his yogurt before speaking. "You alright?"
My breath began to quicken as I felt my body cool as if I'd been thrown into arctic waters. My hands began to involuntarily tremble, and the corners of my vision became fuzzy. I began to really wish I took that prescription I got from the school nurse everywhere I went.
"Oh god...not again." Shinso's voice suddenly grew a solemn and serious edge as he rushed over to one of the kitchen cabinets, before pulling out a messy, clear box labeled "pills" in neat handwriting. He began to rummage among the semi-translucent orange containers before removing one of them and approaching me. His hands scrambled as he removed the lid and pulled out a purple pill that resembled a tablet.
"I'll get some water, then you can eat this." He placed the pill on the counter as he opened the cabinet above me, taking out a glass cup and filling it with the water from the faucet. He quickly handed it to me along with the pill.
"Eat." His voice grew deadpan as he stuffed the pill into my hands. I shakily put the pill inside my mouth, and I drank a sip of the cold water he had given me. I felt my throat instinctively contract when I tasted the pill on my tongue. It was grape flavored, I hate grape flavored things. Shinso stepped back as I plugged my nose and swallowed the pill with enough strain equivalent to lifting a fifty pound weight.
After I consumed the small tablet, Shinso's expression softened. He approached me and took a breath. "We should go to the doctors soon. You've fainted once and you almost did so again."
"Yeah...yeah." I picked up the yogurt and lifted a spoonful into my mouth, tasting the vanilla on my tongue. It was an alleviating contrast to the grape flavor that previously assaulted my tongue. As I ate, Shinso's expression remained on my left hand, noticing how much it trembled since it was my non-dominant hand.
I was spilling yogurt everywhere.
The indigo-haired boy let out a low groan as he grabbed a napkin from the counter and cleaned up my sweatshirt and sleeves. "I can't blame you though, your arm is broken..."
His gaze lowered onto me. "You sure I shouldn't spoonfeed you?"
I immediately felt a rush of emotion as I turned away from Shinso, a large amount of blush coating my partially pale face. Even if it was just a joke, the thought of Shinso doing such a thing to me was enough to make my heart do backflips.
"You...ok there?" Shinso's eyes narrowed as he finished his yogurt, tossing the carton in the trash.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, attempting to masquerade the shakiness in my voice with a regular tone. Shinso then looked back towards the hallway and sighed. "It's pretty late, we should get back to bed. After all, we both gotta wake up for school."
...
That morning I had to use an extra toothbrush Shinso's father had given me. It didn't taste bad on my tongue, but I could tell there was something off about it. After I had my breakfast I was loaded into Shinso's parents' car. Shinso usually took his bike to U.A, but he figured he'd keep me company considering the walk from his house to my middle school was five times longer now considering my current location.
"Shinso's dad shuffled through the radio stations with one hand as he kept his other on the steering wheel. I heard all the stations as they shuffled by. Some played pop music while others played news broadcasts. He eventually settled on silence as he turned off the radio and peered into the rear-view mirror.
"I'm sorry about your pops, Zak...and your arm" The usually disheveled and gruff man had combed his hair a little and dawned more appropriate attire than the partially bloodstained doctors wear from yesterday.
Did he just call me Zak? I began to have mixed feelings about the nickname, but the almost fatherly concern he had for my injuries seemed to drown those feelings.
"Thanks..." I shuffled my left arm and rested on my cheek as I looked out the window. This morning I took another pill for my dizziness. Shinso's fathers gaze remained on me for a few more moments before returning to the road—but he continued to speak.
"I packed the marker in case anyone wants to sign your cast."
"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes, my gaze focused on the blur of houses and other passing cars. The quiet humming of the car and the whooshing sound of other passing cars were the only sounds that could be heard aside from Shinso's dad sipping his scolding coffee.
Looking into my somewhat visible reflection in the glossy car window, I recalled what I had seen last night. My reflection in the bathroom mirror was almost inhuman, and I think I was hallucinating considering I had seen a shadowy figure standing in the doorway.
I wasn't one to hallucinate, but considering how I could fabricate an entire realm in my mind which I could go to, the possibility I am seeing things isn't anything short of considerable.
As we pulled up to my school Shinso gave me a small smile as I opened the door. "Cate cafe after school?"
I nodded in agreement to this plan as I left the car, closing the door behind me as Shinso and his father drove away.
As I gradually went through the school day I didn't get many questions regarding my case aside from concerned teachers, including my gym teacher, who had the class do push-ups today for our primary exercise.
I also received assistance with writing and eating from either willing, or unwilling students—they grumbled when told they had to accommodate my needs. I also got my cast signed by a few curious students, including Rayo, who stuck one of his hot-pink feathers into my hair as a joke. I didn't realize it was there until one of my teachers pointed it out.
"Hey fuckwad." A scarily familiar voice sounded behind me as I turned around, my eyes laying on the boy with the electrical quirk. This time, his friends weren't with them.
"So, discipline isn't enough for you to stop, huh." I rolled my eyes as I turned my body around completely to face him.
"Y'think some teachers and a little suspension are gonna do anything?" His palms began to crackle with the red-hot electricity, focusing it at me.
"Maybe I'll zap your little broken arm off, and I'll break the other off too. Then maybe you'll get a little zitty if I shove them both up your ass." He chuckled darkly as he clenched his palms, the electric energy glowing a little brighter.
"And to think you can't do shit to defend yourself, how pitiful. Maybe I'll only beat you until you're blue and not black just to save you some trouble." His lips curled up into an almost inhuman grin as he ran at me.
My eyes widened as I felt the same searing pain on my forehead, that same burning I had experienced when my father had beaten my mother. I tried to stifle a groan as I put my left hand on my forehead, the burning sensation stubbornly refusing to cease. At that moment, the boy froze in place as if he had become a statue.
His teeth gritted and the veins on his forehead bulged as he collapsed to his knees, clutching his throat as he coughed and gagged. His face swiftly reddened as drool and spit ran down his chin. His eyes remained terrified as he looked at me, illusory black cracks beginning to manifest up his neck like the veins under his skin.
"What the hell?..." I was too shocked to speak, watching mortified as the boy's face turned a pale blue and his eyes rolled back. His body gave feeble twitches as he collapsed to the hallway floor. I froze, too panicked and shocked to do anything. What the hell had happened? What happened to him?!
My eyes darted around as I felt my entire body heating up as if I had been standing in a wildfire. The burning on my forehead continued to wither away at my tolerance of it, but the urge to get help and see if he wasn't in critical condition was overwhelming.
I gotta get help. Those were the only words that echoed through my mind as my body began to move on its own. I swiftly located the nurses office and barged in, the same nurse who had previously treated me sat at the desk.
"Hello again...oh dear, your arm." Her gaze was laser-focused on her arm, but my reddened face seemed to be the pinnacle of her concern for the most part.
"Help me...someone collapsed." My voice was strained as if I had just run a marathon. I unbuttoned the top button of my uniform in an effort to increase the air flow, but it didn't seem to help.
"Show me, now." Her voice became uncharacteristically deadpan, something that couldn't help but startle me, but also gave me a small rush of comfort.
I quickly ran down the hallway and returned to the bullies form, which continued to show a blue color with the black cracks running down his neck. The nurse's eyes widened as she knelt down in front of the boy—her hands working with proficient yet refined urgency as she pressed her thumb against the boy's lower arm.
"I don't feel a pulse!" She looked back at me, her expression serious yet collected. "Top cabinet above my desk, you'll find a Defibrillator. Go quickly!"
I nodded sharply as I darted to the nurses office and ran over to the top cabinet, opening it and extracting the case containing the Defibrillator. When I returned to the nurse, she instantly took it from my grip and set it up in a matter of thirty seconds.
"Stand back." She commanded.
At that moment she used the device, but the boy's body didn't react, only arching upwards from the reaction. She tried again and again to use the item, each time the boy only gave twitches. When she felt the boy's pulse again, her expression shifted, and her eyes began to fill with tears.
"He's...dead."
What the fuck?