The bell rang and all of the boys left the locker room as River finished carrying a bag of supplies into the storage closet. Another week finished, he had 15 more to go before the end of his junior year and eventually his senior year. Then he could graduate. Then he would be finished and never have to come back to this sanctuary for liars and never see all of the liars ever again.
It never happened, they had said. There was a gas leak and the entire ordeal was just a delusion. Tahk had moved away. They lied. River knew they lied. He remembered all of it, the fear and pain in Tahk's eyes, the warm green blood on his hands, the shower of glass that bounced off his back when the lights exploded. It was all imprinted in his memory and it wasn't going to go away.
"River, you almost done?" Coach asked as River entered the locker room. Sighing, River walked over to the office and leaned against the door frame, "Yeah, I'm done. 'M going to go home now."
"I have to run some papers to the Athletic office. Lock up when you're finished."
Ricketts left, but River didn't really notice as he walked over to his locker, one of the larger ones, and started changing into his normal clothes. He jumped back when something fell out. He stared at it as it lay on the floor.
It was a bouquet of flowers, white carnations, with just the very edges of the petals dyed a bright cerulean blue. They were wrapped in white tissue paper tied with a shiny blue ribbon, keeping the bouquet together. Several petals had fallen off, decorating the dirty carpet of the locker room. River cautiously picked it up.
There was a small card attached to the ribbon. Carefully, River opened it and looked at it.
I know how beautiful you are. I can see it. Can you?
River nearly dropped the bouquet. Why would someone send him something like that? It was creepy, very creepy. He quickly finished changing and grabbed all of his stuff, locking his gym clothes in his locker as he left, carrying the bouquet with him. He locked the door behind him and hurried to his locker.
The halls were empty now. His shoes made loud heavy thuds as they hit the large tiles of the school's floor, but as he walked the sound grew louder as though someone else was walking in perfect sync with him. He stopped, standing stock still, barely breathing and they stopped at the exact same moment. He started walking again at a more vigorous pace and they did the same, still with their feet hitting at the exact same time. River stopped once more, extremely annoyed and somewhat scared. He whipped around, ready to yell at whoever was doing this, but no one was there. Again he walked and again the person followed him. He sped up, he slowed down, and still he was followed.
He halted a shouted, "Cut it out. It's not funny; it's annoying, so leave me alone!"
Waiting for a few moments, he stood still and took a deep breath before he continued walking. He got to his locker without incident and opened it, placing the flowers on the floor gently before cramming some of his books into his locker and taking out others when a hand suddenly covered his eyes and he was pulled backward to press against a male chest.
"Shhh.." The person breathed into his ear when he tried to protest, "Be silent and listen. They are coming to get you."
"Who?" River asked anxiously. The warmth of the person behind him was radiating through his entire body, making him warmer than he had ever been before in his life.
"It does not matter who," the man replied, "They are coming, but you can not let them get you. You see, you know the truth. You saw through their lies and they do not like that. They will try to make you forget. Do not forget. Train yourself so that you are strong both mentally and physically. Then I will come. You must wait for me."
River frowned, ignoring the warmth that was intoxicating him, "What are you talking about?"
Another hand was placed on his thigh and it slid upward, mere fractions of an inch away from his groin, "You must wait for me. I will give you everything you have ever wanted." The hand then cupped his groin and River gasped as the person continued to speak, "And I will take everything that I have ever wanted."
And with that, River was left alone and cold. He whipped around, trying to see who had been touching him, but there was no one. He was completely alone, 'As usual,' thought River. He quickly finished getting his books and zipped up his backpack then slammed his locker shut and grabbed the bouquet off of the floor almost as an after-thought before running out to his car. His hands quivered as he pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. He threw all of his things into the passenger seat and climbed in, once again slamming the door shut. He jammed the keys in the ignition, started the engine, turned the radio up loud then buried his face in his hand.
He'd felt so lost, confused, violated, and nothing was making any sense. What did all of this mean? He breathed heavily and swallowed. His head hurt. None of this could be real. There was no way it was real. That was it. He was just delusional. That gas leak had messed up his head and none of this really happened because it was all fake. This wasn't really happening. He inhaled deeply through his mouth and exhaled, the moving air leaving a tingling feeling on his lips, lips that had never been touched by those of another.
He moved his hands away from his face and placed them on the steering wheel, breathing rhythmically to calm himself down. He could handle this. Worse things had happened to him. Well, not really. Bad things never really happened to him. Good things didn't happen to him either. He was average, right there in the middle, nothing really special like all of his brothers were.
He pulled out of his parking space and left the parking lot, all the while mentally comparing himself to his brothers.
Falkirk was the oldest at 26 and lived in Chicago. He was an artist and extremely talented. He'd been winning awards and such since sixth grade and had gotten full-scholarship offers to some of the most elite art schools in the country during his sophomore year. He sold his current work for thousands all over the world and was the most requested artists of the decade. It made River sick.
Then there was Harley, short for Harlingen. He was 25 and owned a chain of well-known computer stores that were quickly spreading all over. He was married to a nurse at a children's hospital and they were expecting their second kid in four months. She was perfect. His mother loved her and her parents were like his parents' best friends. She was an amazing cook and she wrote poetry, some of which had been published. Harley was the perfect son just for finding a woman like her.
Jaipur was the third son, 24, and was a freaking genius. He had skipped 4 grades in school and had gotten a full-ride scholarship to the University of Southern California where he studied mechanical engineering and robotics. He now worked at a nano-technology research facility in Michigan and made over $500,000 a year.
At 23, Loire was a soccer star. He'd been recruited by any college with enough intelligence to know a good thing when they saw it. Scholarships had been thrown at him. He'd been admitted to every college he'd ever even thought about. Everyone loved him, all of the guys wanted him as a friend, all of the girls wanted to have sex with him, and all of the teachers wanted to teach him. That was just the way life worked for Loire. Everything was tossed right into his lap.
Naph was a bit more normal. He was 21 and his full name was Naphtali. He was a Botany Major at Yale and had been the most unanimously voted class president in the history of his high school. The other person had gotten 17 votes. Naph had gotten 546. He was smart and good looking and classy and talented. He had been drum major of the marching band, student counsel president, school dance committee president, and he had started and was president of the Science Club for all 4 years. He did everything. When they listed his activities next his picture in his senior yearbook, the font was made smaller to fit all of it. Maybe he wasn't that much different from Loire. He just wasn't talked about on ESPN all of the time.
Last was Parthenon, 20, and a medical student at Harvard University on a full-ride scholarship, just like all of his other brothers. He had been valedictorian, just like all of his brothers before him. He, too had skipped several grades like Jaipur, but he was probably smarter than him. Parth was fluent in English, French, Irish Gaelic, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Spanish. As soon as he finished school he planned on joining the Peace Corps for a few years before starting or joining a practice. He wanted to start a clinic somewhere in Africa to help all of the AIDS patients. Parth loved everyone. He was one of those people that genuinely cared for people and wanted to care for them without getting anything in return.
Then there was River. He wasn't smart. He worked his ass off and still couldn't get a 4.0. He never went out. He didn't really have that many friends. No one really liked him. He didn't participate in activities at school. He didn't really like them much. Nothing that the school offered really interested him. He thought it was all pretty lame and pointless.
And as he drove he wondered if his life would've been better if it had never happened or if he could just be someone else entirely. All the while, he listened to his favorite (only) CD, the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. That was his passion, his escape. He loved the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He had a cat named Janet and he had begged his parents to let him play the saxophone so he could play Meatloaf's solo, but they said that it was a pointless instrument and had given him a violin. He couldn't play a violin if his life depended on it.
He remembered a babysitter watching it when he was supposedly sleeping and he'd fallen in love. The music, the characters, the outfits, the dancing, he thought it was the best thing he'd ever seen.
He arrived home and parked out front. He shut off his car and grabbed all of his things before getting out and locking the car. The walk up to his front door felt long and tiring. His backpack was hurting his shoulder and the flowers in his hand... Well, there were flowers in his hand. That alone made him very uncomfortable.
He hurried to unlock the door and get inside. He threw his backpack on the floor of the entry way and ran up stairs to his room. Janet was lying on his bed and looked up at him curiously when he slammed the door shut and threw himself on the bed.
He wondered how this person had known his favorite flower. He remembered when Jaipur had gone to his senior prom and his date had shown up. He had given her corsage made of carnations just like these with little pieces of Queen Anne's lace mixed in and tied with a blue ribbon. It had matched her dress perfectly. Jai had gotten a single one that tucked into his breast pocket. He had pressed it between some books afterwards and taped it into his senior memories book. River had stolen and still had it, kept it hidden in a box in his desk.
They were beautiful. He pressed his nose against them and inhaled deeply. He sighed. They smelled wonderful.
The card fell onto the floor and River picked it up. It was strange, getting a card that said something like this. No one ever called him beautiful. No one ever really commented on his appearance at all. He was painfully plain.
'Someone thinks I'm beautiful,' he mused to himself and stroked Janet's soft before whispering to her in an excited, childish voice, "Someone thinks I'm beautiful."