♦♦♦
♦♦♦
Obviously, she was there, waiting just a block ahead of his home, where he would definitely have to go through if he didn't want to take an absurdly long detour for school.
So he, looking at the red-haired girl a year younger than him, now running at full speed towards his direction right after her light-azure eyes shone in recognition meeting his own, could only take a coin out of his pocket.
And rapidly flip it in the air.
Soon, it landed on his outstretched left hand, which then brought the coin on top of his right arm.
All of this was done with speed that would put a professional illusionist to shame, making a few people close to Adam actually rub their eyes in disbelief.
None of that was registered in his mind...
As this time, it was tails.
“Addyyy!”
Hearing, together with a lot more passersby than necessary, the bright voice of his "childhood friend", who didn't show any sign of stopping her race, he braced himself...
Or not...
Dodging her rather dangerously high-speed hug by the last second, the blank look on his face not breaking for an instant, he immediately went for her collar from behind, stopping her from making a face to face contact with the ground.
“Would it kill you to stop doing this everyday?”
Where usually, he would remain quiet for the whole interaction, today, for some reason, he couldn't help but open his mouth, asking a pretty concerning question if the unfortunate ones who had to watch the whole show had their say in the matter.
And hearing the unusual question, the red-haired girl, commonly known as Luna Freyth, still held from behind by the collar of her white jacket, slowly turned her head towards Adam.
Only to smile in a way that could be described as both sheepish and shameless, offering a mere single-word response that anyone could tell would definitely come to bite her back one day.
“Nope!”
♦♦♦
“So, anyway, do you have any girl that you like?”
That.
That was the first thing she said after causing that scene.
And hearing the same question that, as always, was asked right after she had made a fool of herself on the morning, he replied mechanically, having long since expecting those words to come out from her mouth, somehow managing to sound even blanker than usual.
“No.”
“Then do yo-”
“I'm quite confident in my heterosexuality.”
“Are y-”
“I'm definitely a man.”
And before she even thought about opening her mouth again, he continued.
“Both physically and mentally.”
Adam felt very close to breaking the world record for the fastest word exchange between two people, but it wasn't really that gratifying since this was all possible because this girl was "both physically and mentally" unable to change the first lines of dialogue that came out of her mouth every morning.
At the very least, this part of her made it, in some aspects, more bearable.
“You know? Today you feel way less gloomy than yesterday! Do you want to go out somewhere like the old times?”
Then she says things like that, with both her arms wrapped tightly on him while he had to do all the work to barely stabilize their balance while walking.
And he...
Tossed a coin in the air after suddenly stopping on his tracks.
It was heads this time.
The walk resumed.
With Luna - whose question still remained unanswered - unable to notice how walking in that uncomfortable position suddenly became much easier, as her mind was already elsewhere at the moment...
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“You still haven't explained this new coin-thing of yours even two years after our reunion you know... Are you-”
He glanced at her, not stopping the walk a second time, his expression still as blank as it could be.
Looking at those dull black eyes, staring at her without wavering for a single instant, her next words got stuck in her throat.
And grimacing at the sign of him going for the coin on his pocket again, she soon chose to change argument.
“R-Rather than that... H-Have you heard the latest thing? There is this guy that everyone thought would be last at the ******** elections, but surprisingly enough, he's now second in votes and raising fast. Hmmm, what was his name... can't remember.”
And here, Adam proclaimed in his mind, was the part where, after exhausting her usual lines, she would blurt out whatever she found out - probably on the internet through weird means involving comedic pictures - about new worldwide events she found out just the day before, and man if every time she had material to go on at least until they reach school...
“Well, rather than that election guy, or girl? Not sure even about that... Do you know about that thing people are both attacking and defending like crazy... like, that huge scandal, you know... but what was it...?”
The only complaint the usual person might have is that she basically remembers fewer things than someone who typically watches two minutes of news on TV per week.
Soon, she was so much into her own daily stories to forget entirely about her previous questions.
So much into telling them that one would wonder if she actually cared about the listeners at all...
Alas, her getting distracted like this made it easier for him, so he was fine with it, really.
He just had to endure it, just for a bit more...
For today, at least...
♦♦♦
Reaching the entrance of the school, Adam soon figured out the reason for his unusual behavior today.
The reason for doing something so meaningless, like waiting for his father to get ready before going to school, for example.
Or something so useless, like giving an advice to his childhood friend, if the first act alone wasn't enough.
And he wasn't the only one who noticed the reason...
“Uh? Where is Aaron?”
Though, the other person seemed completely unaware of how this abrupt anomaly was affecting him...
Glancing at the girl whose height didn't differ the slightest from his own - despite her being a year younger - he answered.
“He told me yesterday that he would be absent from school for a few days.”
Registering his words, she soon displayed a worried look while tightening her hold on him.
“I-Is it anything serious?”
Adam wanted to slap himself.
“No, no it's not-”
Now, if she could loosen up her hold on him, that would help with it...
“Are you sure? Did he say anything about the reason?”
Yet, she was doing the exact opposite more and more...
He couldn't even take the coin out of his pocket...
So he forced himself to meet her demands, his voice finally giving out a trace of urgency while his blank expression was starting to break little by little.
“Yes, I am sure, at least from the way he talked about the absence to me, it didn't sound serious.”
He could feel her arms wrapping around his body.
Her hands gripping the back of his blue jacket.
Her chest pressing on his right side.
And he'd swear he could feel her breath on his neck.
The coin! The coin! THE COIN!
“Ah sorry!”
And in an instant, he was freed from that suffocating feeling.
Not that he would feel gratitude even for an instant towards his savior...
“A-Are you okay? I've never seen such a pale look on your face...”
Despite taking most of his willpower to not fall to the ground, he took it again.
The coin.
And as fast as he could, making the flips from earlier look like childplay in comparison, he launched it into the air again.
And before she could even let out a sound, he completed the whole act.
It was tails.
He rejoiced.
“I have to go to the bathroom before classes start. We'll see each other after school, and don't worry about Aaron. He'll be fine.”
He didn't give her the chance to protest against his actions.
When she regained her bearing after his sudden flip of coin, he was already almost out of view.
“What was that?”
She couldn't help but wonder, and the few possibilities that might explain what had just occurred made her heart flutter like never before.
What she knew for sure was that nothing would ever wipe away the stupid grin that had now invaded her face.
Not even her two friends hiding behind a tree while pointing with their fingers towards her with amused faces...
Not even that, maybe...
♦♦♦
Hidden from the eyes of other students, he was there, locked alone in a small stall in one of the male bathrooms of the school, only ten minutes before the start of his first class...
Puking out his whole breakfast in the toilet.
With none of his typical blankness adorning his face...
Instead, on his face was...
Fury.
Disgust.
And mostly...
Fear.
With his right hand gripping his neck as if it might fall from his body at any given second and his left one pressing on the bathroom wall so strongly that no one would be surprised if a print remained.
The puke still coming out of his mouth didn't let him scream, something he was sincerely grateful about.
Because that would destroy his amateurish work of 4 years to appear fine about it.
To appear well over it.
To be over with it.
And as the last bit of breakfast came out of his mouth, all the overwhelming emotions on his face vanished in but an instant.
Blankness had welcomed him again.
And he hoped for the next parting to be as far away as possible...
Raising himself up while flushing the toilet - sending his beloved breakfast to the sewers of ******* - he glanced at the convenient clock close to the ceiling of the bathroom, still inside the enclosed space where he had just let himself out.
“Thankfully, even if I wash my hands and mouth, I can still reach class on time today.”
He also thanked in his mind the one who thought clocks inside school bathrooms were a good idea.
Looking at the time on his phone without washing his hands would have been anything but nice...
Soon, he was out of the stall where his mask had been temporally removed, and as he opened the tap of water with his right hand - currently covered in a small amount of toilet paper he had taken before unlocking the door of his stall - his mind began to wander.
And his wandering mind immediately realized.
The times between the partings with his "blankness" were getting shorter and shorter...
Not even counting today, where the abnormal amount of physical contact he had with Luna had marked one of the shortest times in the last four years...
The usual time between the partings was reaching the weekly level.
When before, it hadn't even been monthly issue...
But it can't be helped...
He can't be helped.
So, with all traces of the last parting erased, he vowed again.
To bear with it.