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#Post#: 251--------------------------------------------------
Zu's Unending War Story
DIR By: NimhZu
Date: April 1, 2013, 5:56 pm
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CHAPTER ONE -
"One of these days, I'm going to get out of this town." said
Addison, with a soft laugh. He was laying on the side of the
hill, arms folded behind his head and eyes looking over the
white clouds above him.
Beside him, Jude rolled his eyes. He was laying in much the
same way, though his knees were raised off the ground and not
stretched out. "You say that all the time, bro. I don't think
you really mean it any more."
Addison shook his head, still smiling that bright smile of
his. "I mean it, no doubt there. Westport's too small for me to
stay here. And I don't think that I could deal with having to
hide my whole life."
"You're going to have to hide no matter where you're at,
Addy." said Jude, with a snort. It was fact as far as he, and
most others, were concerned. "That's why people call us
'freaks', duh. They're gonna be scared of us no matter where
we're at."
"Not everywhere," insisted Addison. It wasn't an argueing
statement, because there was no reason for the two boys to be
fighting. The two of them, they could talk like this, just with
each other. No one else in the small town, the state, the
country, the world, understood their thoughts.
"You think so?" Jude shifted, head tilting so that he could
get a better look at one cloud in particular, which stretched
out and fluffed up, as though it were trying to eat all of the
other clouds.
"Mhmm. I heard that there's this town out in California,
where almost everyone is a metahuman." said Addison. "I think
that I'm going to go there when I'm out of school this year."
That caught Jude's attention, and he sat up, casting a shadow
across the other boy's face. "What do you mean, this year?"
It was something that Addison had often talked about,
leaving Westport. But the young metahuman had never had a
concrete date planned out, never had a real destination. Having
one, it made the idea seem so much more real to Jude. So much
more...possible.
And that was a terrifing though, because then who would Jude
be with? Who would sit out here, in the fading light of evening,
just to be there?
No one. No one but Addison was willing to do that. To be
there for Jude when he needed someone, needed that steady hand
that he had been denied as a child.
"I mean this year. I told you that I've been planning on
leaving, Jude. I just wanted to finish school." said Addison,
blinking at the change in light. He couldn't see the sky past
Jude's face, who was leaning over him and looked so betrayed,
like the thought had never crossed his mind.
"You never told me that! You just said one of these days. I
never thought it would actually be one of 'these days'!" said
Jude, and that calm look had vanished from his face. He looked
almost panicked, really.
Giving a heavy sigh, Addison sat up as well, forcing Jude to
lean backwards so that they didn't knock heads. "If I don't
leave now, then I'm never going to be able to get out of here.
and I already said that I /need/ to go. I mean, this town's
going to kill me if I stay!"
"Kill you? You're safe, all cozy up at that boarding school
of yours! If anyone's gonna die here, it'd be me." The comment
was driven him by the large bruise on the side of Jude's face, a
nasty blue and purple and black. The skin had swollen tight
across his jawline, bottom lip split and still crusted with
dried blood. "I don't get why you need to take off."
"Because I don't like it here!" Addison threw his hands up in
the air, exasperated by the conversation. "I want to go
somewhere and do something!"
"You coul do something here, dude!" said Jude.
"But not what I want to do," countered Addison, and then he
gave a heavy sigh and shook his head. Shaggy blonde hair fell in
his face and he pushed himself up, hands moving to brush the
leaves off of his pants. "Listen, Jude, it's getting late
anyway. I have to go."
Jude didn't say anything. Just scowled and dropped back down
onto the side of the hill with a huff, thoroughly pissed at the
world.
That was three months ago. Three long, hot months. And now it
was May and everyone should have been up there on the stage, in
their black robes and hats, clutching their rolled up papers
marking their graduation from one Hell into the next, and
listening to the crowd clap.
Most of them where. Jude, on the other hand, was out in the
football field. He was crouched beneath the bleachers, picking
at the hem of his dark robe with one hand until the piece of
string was long, long, and getting longer.
There was a pale, half-healed bruise around one eye. The skin
was dark and fading to a putrid yellow, but still sore. It
wasn't the reason that Jude wasn't up on the stage, of course.
Rather, there were plenty of other causes for that.
Like the fact that, three hours after the ceremony ended,
Addison Trae would be leaving Westport. And so would Tracy Green
and Jodie Hollash. All people that Jude was friends with,
considered family, would do anything to keep in their small
little town but couldn't even begin to change their minds.
Like the fact that, after this day ended, Jude had no real
purpose to his life. There was nothing that he had planned to
do, no place to go, and his room-mates were officially out of
the state.
Which left Jude not just alone, but also really, really
pissed. Not that he could do anything about it.
"You actually came to see me off?" asked Addison, and he
sounded surprised. Like he hadn't expected to see Jude standing
there, hands shoved into the pockets of his worn out jeans and
acne smattered face twisted into a frown.
"Course I did, dude. I don't want you to leave, but I'm not
just going to pretend you weren't here." said Jude, giving a
half-hearted shrug.
"Oh. Well, uh, I'm glad you stopped by." Addison shifted from
foot to foot, suddenly uncomfortable at the prospect of having
Jude there. Of having to watch the other boy's face disappear
out the window of the taxi, of voiceing his goodbyes, of
breaking a friendship that had been there for almost five years
now.
And it was his fault. All his fault. Because he wanted
something better for himself and was taking it, when Jude was
unable too.
Addison, after all, looked like a regular human. Unkempt
blonde hair and blue eyes. Perpetually tanned skin that was the
only physical side effect of his mutation.
Then there was Jude, with his blue tinged skin and black
hair. Gills that peeked out from the edges of his collar on
either side of his neck, and that two rows of overly sharp
teeth. There was no way to look at the young man and not see a
metahuman there.
There was no way out of Westport for Jude, and now Addison
felt nothing but guilt for leaving. Couldn't stand it. So he did
what he always did and he took the easy way out.
"Yeah, listen Jude. I just, uh, I have to go." muttered
Addison, gaze anywhere but on Jude. "And you should too. I mean,
home. Yeah. You should just go home."
"What are you going on about, dude?" asked Jude, wrinkling
his nose up.
"Jude, just go home." said Addison, and that was the right
thing to do, wasn't it? Jude would understand later, that he
just didn't want to have to really say goodbye.
"Excuse me?" demanded Jude.
Addison didn't say anything, just turned away from his
long-time friend. Opened the door to the taxi and got inside of
it - and never once looked back, even as the engine roared to
life and the car began to move.
And Jude was left alone, alone, alone and confused and very,
very pissed.
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