• Soundtrack: Final Fantasy X-To Zanarkand

    tab Tom gives me one last blank look, and then starts to walk off. Not in the direction of the obnoxious girl.
    tab ”What are you doing?!” I shout, maybe about ten paces behind him, my face probably skewed considerably in ways I’d rather not think of.
    tab ”Leaving,” he replies glumly without turning around. Yeah, well, apparently, Captain Obvious.
    tab ”Leaving?!” He stops in his tracks, turns his head in the smallest increments, and retorts sarcastically,
    tab ”Yes, that’s what I said.”
    tab ”Why?!” I exclaim. “I mean…That girl! She was obviously hiding something! Did you see that look on her face?”
    tab ”We don’t need to unravel every secret of the universe.”
    tab ”So why’d we even come here, then? What was the point if we were just going to leave like this? What--” Tom makes a dramatic one-eighty, and shouts,
    tab ”Look! I did not bring you along the ride so that you could chastise me and complain!”
    tab ”Then why did you?” I ask eagerly, hoping for an answer. Maybe, now that I’ve pressed him this far, maybe he’ll spill the beans.
    tab But, of course, he just stares at the ground, and says absolutely nothing. Great.
    tab ”It’s a secret, isn’t it?” I say, disheartened. “It’s always a secret.”
    tab ”My secrets are my own.”
    tab ”Not when they involve me.”
    tab ”Oh, you seem pretty confident about that statement. How about your secrets? Hm? Would you mind sharing with the class?” I do not expect this response, and it takes me off guard. It takes me a second to reply, stumbling through it when I eventually do,
    tab ”No…no…My secrets have nothing to do with you. That’s…that’s the difference.”
    tab ”Are you sure? Or is that just what you think?”
    tab ”Huh?”
    tab ”Your secret. A large sum of money says it has something to do with me.”
    tab ”The way you talk about it, it sounds like you already know my secret,” I point out.
    tab ”Nope. It’s just a highly educated and probably the correct answer. And the day you decide to share your secret is the day I share mine. Besides…” He gives me a little smile, and states,
    tab ”Do you really want to want to know my little secret?” Hate it when adults do that. You know, when they make no sense at all. Stupid Tom humor.
    tab ”W-haaaaaat?”
    tab ” Does the saying ‘the truth hurts’ ring a bell? People always say they’re ready for it, but it always ends up hitting them like a train.” He lets me sink that into my brain for a second, and then goes on,
    tab ”Anyway, let's go." Nice move there. Quick change of subject makes all the troubles in the world go away.
    tab "Go? Go where?"
    tab "I don't know," Tom admits honestly. "Someplace quiet. Someplace where I can...think." I follow (slowly, seeing my leg is still broken. Dang, does that get annoying) Tom silently down the hall. But my mind is far from quiet. Thoughts are swirling around like a level five tornado. Tom obviously is keeping a secret. He admits that much himself. But what? And how does my secret relate with him?
    tab Why is my life like this; a pile of secrets, one after the other? Why can't it be as normal as everyone else's? I never asked for a life for of drama. I never wanted my life to be a soap opera.
    tab But that's what I get. And maybe that's my fault...For joining this time jumping crap in the first place.