Chapter 42

"Dude, you were like flying, and, and it all happened in a second!"

As we were slowly walking with Jet towards the arcade center, both of us couldn't relax.

"How the hell have you got so much courage?"

"I've told you already, my body moved on its own." my hands were still shaking from everything that happened right now. "By the way, do you think everything will be alright with the two of them?"

"Why? Do you think someone would snitch on us?"

"No, I'm talking if they would be alright? I think they were knocked out hard. What if I hurt them more than I should've?" Slowly, the realization of what I've done came to me. My back started slowly getting wet from the cold sweat.

"They deserved this." Jet snorted.

"What if I traumatized them?" I stopped and looked at Jet. "I think we should get back and check if they are alright."

"No, no, no, big guy, are you joking? They were after me! If you didn't knock them out, the one that got traumatized would be me!" He stood before me as he blocked the road.

"I should've talked them out of this."

"Erlig, they wouldn't listen to you. I bet they tried to harass you because of Reid's instruction or something like this." He clasped my shoulders and tried to shake me. "They've got what they deserved. Don't think about this so hard."

"What if it is known…" I couldn't face Jet, so I looked down.

"Don't worry, big guy, there are countless fights in our school. Have you heard of them all?"

"There are?"

"Yeah, if you want to know, I can share a bit of info about this. You shouldn't worry."

"But my parents can't afford this."

"Erlig, relax, we got this." he pressed his fist against my chest. "Calm down. Nothing would happen. As a matter of fact, both of us should be cheering."

"Why?" I tilted my head.

"Because you fucking knocked them out like a badass. You appeared there like a vigilante and resolved everything in a second. You became so strong." He lifted up his left fist, and his eyes were sparkling.

"Too bad I saved you instead of a girl."

"Hey!" he lowered his fist and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Relax, it was a joke, hah…ha…hahaha." I decided to listen to Jet's pleas and moved this incident to the back of my mind. "Alright, I will try to cheer up."

"That's better." Jet finally exhaled and nodded. "Let's go play some games. It's on me." I felt like the tension both of us were feeling went down significantly.

After twenty or so minutes of walking, we made our way towards the gaming center. Nowadays, they were a rarity and more of a place to soak yourself with nostalgia. There weren't many customers here, so we rented a console and went towards our seats.

"At least I still can whoop your ass here." Jet said from behind the screen.

"Ugh, it's frustrating how I can't win with any character." As our playing session went on, I was being humiliated in a fighting game. Though it was great to play a game with someone you knew, this wasn't the reason I made my way here.

"You know, Jet, I wanted to ask you something." I could hear the sounds of him mashing the buttons.

"Yeah, what do you want to know?" I lost the last residue of concentration, and he started one-sidedly beating my character.

"What is your dream?" I saw big words you lost on the screen.

"Dream? I don't know, nor do I care, something like making a lot of money, I think?"

"That's it?"

"Enjoy my life, and do what I want, like visiting different countries, wearing expensive clothes, buying whatever I want? I don't know, stuff like that. What about it?"

"It's nothing. I was just curious about you. What about your childhood? The dreams you had from before?"

"I don't really remember much from my childhood. I think most of it was small things, like getting a new pc or a new phone."

Right, from what I've learned, he was geeky.

"What will you do in the future?"

"I will probably try to make a company and sell software, or maybe join  some company." Jet's face popped up from the side of the screen. "Why are you asking all of this? Do your parents nag you a lot about these things?"

"Yeah… You can say it's something like this."

"Whatever, you are a serious dude, so everything would be all right with you. I'm sure. Let's focus on the game. It's not as fun beating the standing opponent."

I wasn't as sure as Jet that everything would be alright.

We spent a few hours playing all kinds of games before it started getting darker.

"So, what about tomorrow? Will you come to school, or will you have training again?" Jet asked while checking his phone.

"I still don't know." I shrugged.

"We should hang out more often. It was fun, wasn't it?"

"I don't know about that," I winced exaggeratedly, "I would like it more if I were in the company of girls."

"Pfff, like I would believe you. Not with Rose still around here." As we were waiting at the bus stop, my bus finally came. "Okay, so it's a promise to hang out more and call me more frequently as well." Jet shouted at me.

I waved to Jet once and went towards the bus.

Honestly, this day was much crazier than yesterday. Why the fuck did I started a fight? To test my strength, or was it to protect Jet?

Or maybe it was what I wanted to do all along? As I've got this thought, my mind started working in a strange direction. I couldn't stop myself.

What if I was like this deep inside of me? I wanted to beat people up. Those two guys looked weak, and I took them by surprise. It wasn't even a fight. It was akin to a guy sneaking with some kind of a pipe or bat to knock out his foes.

Nah, this is just me thinking of some absurd things. It was just my reflexes acting up. After all, they were already implanted inside of me by team Brave and Bold.

The song's lyrics were reverberating in my head.

And if I told you how this story ends

Would you change the steps you take?

And if I could relive all of my days

I'd live them all the same

'Cause I'm scared, of all that I don't know

'Cause I want it all but all of it ain't gold

And I'm scared, but I know it's not for long

'Cause I'm learning what I should've long before

I couldn't even remember how the day ended after all of this. Probably the same as always, I was doing something back in my room. Said hello to father and mother and ate dinner with them. Checked the message from Jessie, which stated that the training would resume tomorrow, and went to bed.

It was a late night, yet I couldn't sleep. Looking at the ceiling of my room in complete darkness, I've had three words that were stuck in my head.

What to do…

That was when I suddenly heard the sound of a new message. Shaking off this stupor, I lazily took my phone to look at who was messaging me so late into the night.

"What are you doing?" It was a message from Mara.

The hell?

"I'm trying to fall asleep. What the hell are you doing messaging me so late into the night?"

"Oww, don't get mad at me now. I just wanted to hear your voice... Can we talk?"

"Look, all the normal people are sleeping at night, so you better go to bed as well. I'm tired and not in the mood for talking. Good night."

I've put the phone back onto the computer table and tried to fall asleep.

But someone was against it.

I've heard the sound of a new notification. And another one, and one more.

"Fucking hell has she gone mad?"

As I grumbled, I took my phone and opened the message list.

"Then I'm probably surrounded by abnormal people. Look at how many madmen there are?" a photo of a nightclub was attached with the message. The club looked like it was bursting with people.

"Hey, stop ignoring me. I know you can't sleep this night. How about joining us?" The next message came along with a photo as well. Mara in a tight white vest that turned transparent from the sweat attracted most of my attention. A few seconds later, I managed to understand that there was much more in this photo. She sent me a selfie with two girls. One was styling a black bob cut. The other one was with long hair that was shaved on one side. Though the lighting was poor, I still could understand that they were beauties, just like Mara.

"If you won't answer me, I will take my offer back." and an angry emoji in the end. It was the last message Mara had sent to me.

I felt like my head started hurting. She was probably drunk. Was it the reason why she thought that I would fly right away for her if she sent me a sexy selfie? Our relationship isn't like that.

"Stop wasting your time and go get some sleep." After sending her an answer, I went back to bed. However, I've had this feeling that she would send me at least one more message.

I don't know how much time has passed. But I've indeed got one more message.

"Sheesh, she never learns. I should turn off the sound."

I took the phone and turned off the sound of the notification. However, curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to check the thing she sent to me.

This time it was a video.

"Damn, I need my earphones." After grumbling a little bit, I finally plugged the earphones in. "Alright, let's look at it."

"Hic, is it filming? Hic." The camera shook twice and then pointed to two girls, one of them being Mara.

"Hey Erlig, or whatever is your name, you lost your chance. Now, this girl belongs to us." The girl who sat near Mara slurred. She was the one who had a black bob in the photo. "You won't be able to have her back." she shook her fingers towards the camera.

All while Mara laughed at the performance of this girl.

"Wait a minute, hic." The camera started shaking as the one who held it moved towards the seat where Mara and the second girl were.

As the video was going on, I heard loud club music as well as people chattering. The video flashed with all kinds of lighting effects from the club.

"Hup." Finally, the operator sat down and pointed the camera towards herself. It turned out that the girl who had half of her hair shaved was the one filming this.

Sitting on the left side, Mara was now between two girls.

"Hey, we will at least give you a little service." was what the operator said.

"You can jack off or something." the second girl added.

"Ahaha, stop it already." All while Mara was laughing.

"We always wanted to film our... Hic... playtime and send it to someone. Finally, we can do it, hic."

"Yeah, let's get into the action."

As the duo said it, they suddenly started going after Mara. While the one with the black hair was playing with Mara's chest, the girl with the camera extended her hand so that everything would be in the frame and started licking and sucking Mara's neck.

"Huh? Wait, ahn, we didn't mmm, have a deal like this." Mara tried to fend off but to no avail.

"Don't even try to get away Mara, we will make this guy have tears of blood that he can't be in our place." the girl with black hair lowered one of her hands towards Mara's lower part.

"Mmph hmmph." While the one sucking and licking tried to say something as well, but only mumbles came out.

When Mara bit her lower lip while her legs started squirming restlessly, I stopped the video.

"Stop fucking texting to me so late at night, stop fucking texting to me while you are drunk, stop fucking playing mind games with me, and good luck not getting taken advantage of."

As I angrily replied, I turned off any means of notification and left only my alarm clock working.

Who the hell does she think she is? And what if I was sleeping? Is she going to do whatever the hell she wants, without any regard to the feelings of others?

Waking up to the siren, I barely managed to turn it off. In the end, I've got at most a few hours of sleep. Spending most of my time contemplating over useless things, though after Mara texted me, I got lost in my own train of thoughts and fell asleep rather quickly.

After checking my phone, there were no new messages from anyone.

Barely waking up with the help of tea and a cold water shower, I said my goodbye to Annie and went towards the gym.