03. Light

There were many times I wanted to break up with him, but I was too scared to. The way he grabbed onto my wrist tightly and yanked me in his direction, his jealousy of others, how he made sure I would never leave his side when we were together. So that day I took a risk… the day I broke up with Vanitas, I nearly collapsed from trembling so much.

You're probably thinking, "Well, Fuu, if you didn't like him, why did you go out with him?" The thing is, he wasn't always this way. The first month we had been together, he showered me with love and affection, giving me sweet gifts like teddy bears. Oh how he knew I loved teddy bears. As time went, he became more controlling, and he threatened so many things to me, whether it'd be inflicting pain unto me, or himself. That was the last thing I wanted.

Now that I'm not together with Vanitas anymore, I felt hopeless. Who do I go to now? My friends left me long ago, my parents don't talk to me anymore. They gave up. I would never tell them what was wrong. The only person I had was myself.

I sat in class, doodling teddy bears on my notebook, when a piece of paper was handed to me by my neighbor. A note? Who would pass me a note? Still, I opened it up, reading it's contents.

'Smile! God loves you!' and it was signed Ventus.

…Ventus? Who the heck was that? None of my classmates really talk to me, so this person must be new. I lifted my head and glanced around the room. Which one of them looked like a Ventus? Hard telling, I thought. "Or not…" I mumbled, noticing the bright boy smiling at me kindly.

After the bell rang and everyone left the room, it was just me and this person I suspected to be Ventus. He seemed to be waiting for me. "What?" I asked.

"I just wanted to say hi," he said, walking over to me.

"New student?"

"Actually, no. I've been here since last year. I'm Ventus, as the note said. But you can call me Ven!" he introduced himself, extending out his hand for me to shake.

"Fuu," I said, hesitant on whether I should shake it or not. He didn't seem dangerous, of course, so why was I hesitating? I finally shook his hand. It felt good to have his hand in mine. It wasn't trying to be forceful, nor was it yanking me close to him, it was just holding onto mine. "Note's purpose?"

"Well, I see you everyday in this class, and every time I glance at you, you look troubled by something. So I decided to pass you the note," he explained.

"I see…"

"You use short phrases to speak with," he pointed out.

"No kidding," I rolled my eyes, but then regretted it.

"I like that about you" he grabbed his books and began to walk to the door, stopping to wait for me. Why was he waiting for me in the first place? No one ever waits for me. It felt… nice.

Because the next period was our lunch hour, the two of us walked over to the cafeteria, continuing to exchange words to each other. I found out that he was originally from some place called the Land of Departure, and moved to Twilight Town last year because his parents transferred jobs, and that his twin brother Roxas, who goes to a different school, due to his parents thinking it would be better or something. And then came the dreaded question, "What about you? Can you tell me about yourself?"

I nearly choked on my food. "Excuse me?"

"Well, can you tell me more about yourself? But if you don't want to… that's fine," he said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

I sighed and then told him in the best way I could about the last year of my life. It felt nice opening up to someone, and the fact that he didn't try to delve deeper into the situation made things a lot better.

The lunchroom was completely empty by the time we finished talking. Actually, sixth period was already half-way done by the time we finished. Did we care? Hardly.

We walked outside the school, using up the rest of the period; there was no need to walk into the middle of class. Underneath the tree we sat, away from the blinding light, and just sat there. Finally, Ventus broke the silence. "You know, I've never skipped class before."

That hadn't surprised me. "I see."

"I figure you cut class before?" he asked me, as I watched the wind gently blow his hair.

"Not often," I replied, lazily taking in the fresh air and relaxing.

"Oh, and about the note thing, I hope you didn't mind the fact I passed you it."

I shook my head. Actually, you don't know this yet, but I think you saved me with that note. Thank you, Ven, I said in my head, letting a small smile show through.