"Mom, are you listening?" Lupin, the 18-year-old Mexican said in Spanish as his mother cooked him his breakfast. He had a baby face but a mature and deep voice. He wore a white T-Shirt, with a denim jacket and blue jeans. He pressed his hands on the chair and his knuckles gave out a pink glow.

"I don't want to listen to anything." His mom reprimanded.
"I want to study programming and work as a hacker in the defence. I'm a natural at it." He tried to convince her, like every morning. But was fighting or resistance of any use anymore?

He was already in his first year of college. A medical college.

"How many times should I tell you? Your dad and I want you to become a doctor. You are smart so use that IQ of yours in correct places. And don't bring it up again. Now eat and go."

Lupin took a look at his tostada con tomate. His mom turned back from the stove but he was gone. And he didn't even eat his breakfast like every morning. She took a deep sigh.

"I don't know why nobody is ready to listen." Lupin threw a pebble at the pigeons. They flew away into the sky and he looked at them.
"Pigeons are lucky. They are free to do anything or go anywhere they want."
"You're skipping college again?" He saw a silhouette of a girl before him, hidden among the flying pigeons.
"What do you want now, Carmen," He looked at her.

She walked towards him and smiled.
"I got you some cookies I baked yesterday. You skipped breakfast again, didn't you?" She opened a small box full of cookies. They sat at a nearby bench, watching the pigeons and eating the cookies.

"I don't want to fight with mom everyday-If only she listens!" Lupin grunted in Spanish.
"So, what will you do now?" Carmen asked in Spanish.
"Obviously, go back home and fight once again. I want to make independent decisions, I'm eighteen!"

"Independence comes with a price. I hope you won't question it when the time comes,"
"Hey, you believe in me, don't you?" He asked her.
"Of course I do. Even more than me."
"Then, just wait and watch me,"
She rested his face on her palms and smiled "I can watch you forever."

Lupin walked back home and opened the door. He saw his parents stand at the door, waiting for him. He looked at them as he slowly closed the door.

"Your father received a call from your professor," His mother said "Why haven't you attended any lectures? Where do you go?"
Lupin looked away.
"We're asking you something, Lupin Kuznetsov." His father said but Lupin stayed quiet.

"Lupin!"
"Then, what should I do? I don't want to do this! And you're not listening to what I want."
"We know, Lupin."
"But you don't understand! Then, what's the use of knowing?"
"We invested a lot of money for your college."
"Does money cost more than my happiness?"

"You don't earn yet, that's why you're saying all this. Have you ever earned few cents by yourself? We're not going to stay around and feed you your entire life!"
"I never asked for that. I want to work-- But not as a doctor!"
"You'll do what we say. We know the best for you."

"If this is the best for me, then show me what the worst is!"
"Lupin!" His mother slapped him "Is that how you talk to your father? Apologise!"

He ran towards the stairs and climbed up to his room.
"Lupin!" His mother shouted after him. She heard the door shut.
"Dear-"
"He'll give in eventually. Just let him be."

He threw his bag aside and fell on his bed, digging his face into his pillow as he cried.

"I can watch you forever."

"I don't think I'll stay for your "forever," He snorted.

A few weeks later, he was walking back home when he heard the screeches of skateboard tires. He turned back, it was Riley and Slaine.
"I heard you've been looking for us," Riley smiled.

Lupin had heard about that blonde boy on a skateboard who sold legal substances that could take away the pain. Drugs could take you to hell disguised as heaven. This was his last chance, but without second thoughts, he replied.

"Yes, I have."

Fuck it.

"Great, my boy will give you the supplies tomorrow evening. Come with five bucks, behind the skatepark in district twelve."
"Okay," That evening, Lupin went to district twelve. The sixteen-year-old Slaine sat at the pavement while waiting for him.

Lupin looked at him. Slaine saw him and got up. He was much shorter than Lupin back then.
"You shouldn't have come," Slaine said in English. Unlike Riley, Slaine was pure American and he didn't know Spanish.
"Why not?" Lupin asked in English.
"Because you'll have to come back again and again, till you die."

Lupin handed the money to Slaine, "I hope that happens fast,"
"This is the worst way to kill yourself. Makes you fade away," Slaine held the packet next to Lupin's body, on the inner side of his coat.
"It's better to fade away like fire..." He grabbed the packet, "Than explode and destroy everything around you,"

Slaine spat on the road, "Loser,"

He skated away.
'You hit where it hurts.'
"What's your name?" Lupin shouted. He couldn't hear properly from that far. All he could hear was "Benjamin."

He never saw Slaine again. It was always some other guy who came to give him the drugs. As his tolerance increased, so did his doses. Soon, he ran out of money. But he needed the substance, even if it meant stealing his mother's ring and selling that for money. He felt disgusted by himself and didn't meet Carmen after that. But she came to him and again. He avoided her as much as he could. His parents would ask about the disappearing money or his falling grades. Finally, he ran away, leaving a note behind.

"I'm sorry. I quit."

He got on the bridge, high and ready to jump when somebody pulled him back.
"What are you doing?!" It was Slaine. Lupin fell to the ground, high and sweaty.
"Benjamin... I lost...," He looked up at Slaine's blue eyes, "I curse the blue sky, I run chase pixilated clouds of reflections and I hate those pink dreams but I long for them...."

Slaine's pink hair covered his eyes, "You are high-"
"No, I haven't been this sober. I see you, I see you as you are,"
"What is that even supposed to mean?" Slaine asked.
"That I let myself ruin everything I loved," Lupin reached for Slaine, "All my blue skies,"

Slaine grabbed him and pulled him up. He pushed him against the wall and helped him get up, "Do you feel this?" Slaine asked, "Just like this, you have to keep standing. You told me you'd fade, so fade. Don't burn away like a feeling fire, fade like a rock so that what you leave behind is something worth admiring,"
Slaine's voice reverberated through Lupin's dishevelled mind, rotating across those lights, it was the high he once wanted, but not anymore.

Lupin closed his eyes as Slaine continued speaking.
'You hit where it hurts but you hurt me enough to make realise that I'm alive.'

. . .

Tear drops fell from Lupin's eyes as he now looked at the eighteen-year-old Benjamin. He was much taller, taller than him but his eyes were still as blue.
"Lupin, are you okay?" Jimmy asked. Lupin ran towards Slaine and hugged him tightly as he cried. Slaine looked at Jimmy, who himself had no idea what was going on. 

After Lupin was calm, he took his marker and began writing pages after pages. He wrote down everything that he wanted to tell Slaine. How he stayed alive on bread crumbs for the next two years. He was alone for so long, that it had been months till he hadn't spoken while taking all those substances. Later when he tried to speak, the voice just didn't come out.

"I didn't burn," He held out a note between his fingers. Slaine remembered him immediately, "That dude, Lupin, that's you?"
Lupin smiled and nodded. Slaine hugged him, "Oh man, you really made it!" He laughed.

He looked at the note in his hands and tore it into two, "We won't let you fade away,"

Lupin held the torn note in his hands, "We're here to help you, Lupin," Jeremy said.
"Yes, we are family," Slaine smiled and Lupin looked at him, "Doesn't it feel nice to be alive?" Lupin smiled back.

"It does," He whispered.

-To be continued

Lupin (18)
5500 Rebellion