:: Attempt 16 | Lie to Me (Denial) ::

"All your secrets crawl inside:
You keep them safe, you let them hide;
You feel them drinking in your pain to kill the memories.

"So close your eyes and let it hurt;
The voice inside begins to stir:
Are you reminded of all you used to be?

"Can you just turn away and let me go?"
- "Lie to Me (Denial)" by RED

x + x

"First period's Math, huh.." I mutter irritably under my breath, carefully keeping my steps in time with the other Class 3-E students.

They look around at the main building students clustered by the windows of their respective rooms, whispered insults hissing and taking flight into the early morning air. As I watch, unease takes hold of their limbs, evident even through the folds of their respective uniforms. I observe quietly, even as a flash of strawberry blond hair catches my attention out of the corner of my eye.

I turn my head slightly to my right, meeting his gaze. He stands at the forefront of the doorway to his classroom, arms crossed across his torso, the rest of the Imbecilic Four at his back. A wry smile worms its way to my lips as I turn back to the others.

My day just has to get worse, doesn't it?

"Struggling with Math again, 'Venatrix'?"

I scowl deeply, flicking a newly sharpened pencil in the direction of his voice. He chuckles, bending over the thick workbook I have been poring over since 'Treis' caught me sketching off on the rooftop.

'Miles' swipes a hand over his brow, the tan skin coming away with sweat. "Polynomials, huh? Looks like you've got yourself a pretty tough punishment."

"If you have the guts to dillydally while you're supposed to be running drills," I grit my teeth, jabbing the end of my ballpoint pen at him as he grins wickedly,"why don't you go back to the mat and show 'Novem' what you've got?"

He laughs sheepishly, ruffling my hair. I swat his hand away, my brows furrowing as I look back down at my work.

"Ya' look like you need help."

A frown tugs at my lips in return. "Thanks for noticing, genius. Now shut the hell up—I'm trying to work on this shit."

He takes a seat next to me, leaning in close enough that if I breathe in deeply, I can smell a faint hint of mint, interspersed with a tinge of sweat. I wrinkle my nose in disgust.

"Let me see." His hands barely cover mine as he reaches for the book, his arm curving around my shoulder. He whistles, low and shrill as he takes a look. Strands of his brown hair are plastered to his forehead, barely shadowing his green eyes.

"Ya' really must've done something to piss off Treis," he quips as he takes my pen, crossing out my most recent answer.

"This one's wrong too.." He crosses out another one, replacing it with his own answer. As though noticing my gaze, he looks up with a mischievous grin.

"Hey, Aoi, ya' still listenin'?"

I frown, digging my elbow into his side. "You're too damn close, 'Miles'."

He grins even wider, pulling me closer to him. My left arm brushes against the cloth of his shirt, slightly wet from all his perspiration that it clings to his torso. Heat creeps up my skin in response, my hands automatically coming up to shove him away.

Doesn't he know anything about 'personal space'?!

"Damn it, 'M—"

"I'd comment on personal space, but this doesn't exactly bother me. And, just to remind ya', Aoi, we're not off on a mission." He smiles, playfully wagging a finger to and fro. "You already know my name, don't ya'? My real name, that is."

I scowl, still struggling to get myself free. "Of what relevance is that now? Get off of me."

"Not letting you go until you say my name, Aoi."

Infuriating bastard, I seethe, biting my lower lip.

He's still grinning, coming close to driving me insane with his annoyingly bright smile. With this close of a proximity, I can see several freckles dotting his nose and cheeks, ones I haven't known he even had until now.

"I'm waiting, Aoi."

I take a deep breath, averting my gaze from his.

"For once, keep silent. You're infuriating." I say.

"And you're impossible." He retorts almost immediately, still keeping that teasing grin he has. "But that just goes to show that you like me."

"I do not, and I never will. Stop assuming."

"I'm not. Just sayin' the truth."

"Shut the hell up, Basil!" I finally snap, turning around to face him.

He's laughing, amusement clear in his eyes.

"You finally said it." He said through bursts of laughter.

"You finally said my name."

When I blink, an annoyingly familiar face comes into irritating clarity in front of me, the same shade of crimson hair framing mercury gold eyes. I automatically scowl, tightening my grip upon my pen.

"Go back to whatever den of iniquity you came from, Akabane." I say irascibly, barely glancing up at the boy before turning back to the sketch I had been doodling on a spare sheet of paper.

He ignores my obvious dismissal, a sly grin taking hold of his lips. "Say, Hana-chan, who's this 'boyfriend' who's supposed to be the reason why you were dropped to Class E?"

I stiffen as a blond girl with blue eyes—the one who had questioned my sudden arrival at the class the day before—saunters over, interest clear in her face. Damn, she overheard this bastard's question.

"Eh? She has a boyfriend?" She asks, resting the palms of her hands against the edge of my desk. "Who is it?"

"The more pressing matter is," I cut in before the red-haired imbecile can spout anything more, "who are you?"

The girl grins, "Nakamura Rio. Now, don't think you can change the topic easily, Aoi-chan."

Aoi-chan? Seriously? I force a tight smile, folding the paper in half before any of these two may take notice of the sketch.

"His name is none of your concern." I reply, then, adding on as an afterthought in case I sounded too stiff and in denial, "I'd prefer it if no one would spread rumors about us, thanks."

Akabane and his new partner in interrogation—Nakamura, I think belatedly—glance at each other once, before cracking almost identical wicked smiles.

"Huh~? Or is that because he never existed in the first place, Hana-chan?" He drawls, to be followed by a quip from his blond associate, "Didn't you come from Class A, Aoi-chan? So he must be someone from that class."

Nakamura grins even wider, commenting after a brief pause, "Don't tell me... Your boyfriend's the Student Council president, Asano Gakushu?"

I freeze, the fake smile disappearing from my façade as soon as the name falls from her mouth. Both of them appear to be surprised at my sudden change in demeanor.

"No way.. You're kidding, right?"

I shake my head, opening my mouth to speak. Just then, the door slides open, and in walks Pseudo-Sensei, placing a stack of test papers upon the table.

"Alright, Class E. I'm watching you all, so don't even think about cheating your way out of this test." With those words, his gaze lands upon the two troublemakers standing in front of my desk. "Understood?"

I barely restrain myself from rolling my eyes.

As the test papers reach my desk, I take them into my hands, feeling the feather-light weight of it in my fingers before passing the rest to the person seated behind me. Scanning the items one by one, I select several I can answer immediately and without much effort, before moving on to the harder problems. (These aren't called that without much reason; just looking at the jumbled mess of numbers and words sends my brain into a catastrophic frenzy.)

Instinctively, I take a deep breath, allowing myself to visualize the paragraph into an understandable entity.

And just my luck, it materializes as a fragment of a memory.

It looms before me, its fingers tugging relentlessly at the hem of my shirt; a gust sweeping upon the exposed skin of my waist. I bite my tongue, futilely restraining myself from crying out as the humanoid figure—what one may classify as biologically a human being, but mentally a depraved animal—reaches for the last button still hanging uselessly onto the cloth, connecting the ripped pieces together.

"No one's gonna save you now, girly," it growls, the gruff tone of its voice seeming like poison to my ears as I vainly struggle within the cage it forms with the use of its arms. "Be still, why don'tcha?"

I muffle a disgusted noise as the last of the threads snap underneath its insistent fingertips, leaving me with my bloodied undergarments and a torn shirt. An uncomfortably wet sensation trickles down my back from the possibly reopened wound on my collarbone, the sting bringing my reality to a harsh focus.

"Too bad you're already damaged," it hisses with an undertone of glee in its voice, contrasting with the spoken words which falls from its chapped lips. It shifts its weight, the thick ply of its pants brushing against my bare legs. "The boss would've wanted a rare beauty like you." A harsh, grating sound escapes from its half-open mouth. Laughter, I realize almost belatedly.

It is laughing at my misfortune.

I grit my teeth, mustering my remaining strength in order to bring my knee straight up into the space where the sun doesn't shine. It backpedals as a result, falling onto its arse as I struggle to sit up, covering myself with what remains of my clothing.

"Bastard," I snarl, feeling the toll it takes upon me as I attempt to breathe deeply, the motion causing a sudden flash of pain throughout my right collarbone. As I futilely try to staunch the bleeding, it stands up, backhanding me across my face, sending me collapsing to the ground once more.

I hack up the blood, coughing and trembling as I scrabble for purchase upon the cracked cement. Before I can curl into myself to prevent more damage, it draws its leg back and slams the toe of its muddied boot into my abdomen.

The force of the blow propels me backward, the back of my head colliding with a stack of crates which were set somewhere behind me.

"You little shit! Dapat sayo iniiwan na lang sa lansangan kung saan ka dapat! [What's right for you is leaving you on the street where you belong!]"

I look down at the snapped pencil lead, clicking my mechanical pencil twice more in order to continue writing. As I do so, an annoying tapping sound distracts me from my work, and I look up to see Pseudo-Sensei, whose features are twisted into a disgustingly smug smirk. I shake my head, a memory flashing through my mind once again.

"No one will come ta' save ya', ya' lil' bitch," it snarls, fingernails digging into my already bruised skin. I bite the inside of my cheek, copper flooding my tongue as a smirk makes its way to its lips.

"Nobody wants a broken toy now, do they?"

"Just because you're Class E doesn't mean I'll allow you to cheat!" Pseudo-Sensei barks, continuing his annoying taps upon his desk.

Tap. Tap. Tap, tap. Tap.

I remain staring at my sheet of paper, ignoring the rustling of the others' examination papers. A small, almost unnoticeable caricature stands out at me from the top right corner of the paper: tiny hands weaving a flower crown. I scan the rest of my paper in a futile hope of dissolving the image from my mind's eye. What had even caused me to draw such an insignificant little thing?

"Mother, how do you do that?"

She smiles down at me, deftly weaving a small, ivory flower into the wreath she's slowly starting to build within her fingertips. "Do you want to learn, my little skylark?"

I nod, bouncing on my tiptoes as I ultimately launch myself onto the grass at her feet, moving closer to my mother as she laughs. Her long, light brown hair dances in the slight breeze as she places the flower crown atop my head, her arms circling around me as she pulls me into her lap.

"See, my little Aoi, you have to treat them delicately, binding them together with their friends." She places a flower within my hands. I reach up, placing a hand upon my mother's shoulder for balance, before I tuck it behind her ear: a yellow blossom amidst a field of brown.

A flash of hope in a barren land.

-To be continued.

[Word Count: 2,142. Originally written May 29th, 2016. Edited April 4th, 2017. Dedicated to Loki-Roki .]