Chapter 14

Caleb spent the remainder of his evening losing himself in the gentle melody of their antique Steinway. The somber compositions with which he reveled in allowing him to sink deep into his own twisted psyche, fully exploring the monster locked away within his being. In many ways, he felt like his playing often projected the story of his life. The white keys representing the light, and the black his darkness. He needed both to play the music.

Those thoughts were what would always inevitably swim through his mind as he indulged in his other favorite hobby. Thousands of voices screaming out their last dying breaths, a world on fire as its new God burned everything to the ground, leaving only the most perfect specimens of the race behind.

So much chaff...so little wheat.

Those same thoughts buzzed around in his head the next day as he walked to school. There were the usual smattering of faces there, all ready to offer him a hearty good morning and a friendly wave. Many of his fellow students wanted to talk, listen to him speak in fluent Russian or ask him some trivial question about growing up in the United States. Several girls would inevitably try and fail to hold his interest in a conversation regarding possible plans for future school events. And he even received another love confession which he, of course, shot down as politely as he possibly could.

However, one interesting thing that happened that particular day was when he passed by a female student quietly mumbling to herself in what he thought might have been English, barely paying him so much as a passing glance as he walked by. He smiled and offered her a curt nod, regardless.

Well, that was strange.

Upon arriving in his homeroom class, Caleb was greeted by the sight of his usual buddies. A small group of upperclassmen guys who'd taken enough of a liking to him to at least pretend they were interested in something beyond his seemingly magnetic ability to attract flocks of women to his person.

"Caleb!" The leader of the group, a Japanese boy with a bowl cut and good cheekbone structure, called out to him as he entered the classroom. "I was just thinking today might finally be the day you were late, my friend."

He smiled and chuckled at them before responding in Japanese. "You obviously don't know me as well as you seem to think you do, Ryuji."

They all laughed at that.

"So, I have something of a bet going with the guys," he admitted. "They are all convinced you keep avoiding first- and second-year students chicks because you're already with the Student Council President. Me? I'm convinced you've got a harem of babes you're not telling anyone about so they don't find out about each other. Would you please tell these idiots I'm right?"

Caleb had to take a breath before responding. Ryuji was one of the jocks of the school, being the captain of the men's track team. He'd somehow managed to convince everyone at Fuyuki High that the two of them were best friends.

This was tragic, seeing as Ryuji was easily the single biggest tool at this academy.

"Well, you know me, gentlemen," he responded confidently. "A proper man doesn't kiss and tell."

"See? I fucking told you, nerds," Ryuji insisted.

"What are you talking about? That doesn't tell us anything," another member of his peer group responded.

As they continued to argue over the semantics of Caleb's halfhearted response, all he could really think about at that moment was, for as long-winded as these four were, how their lungs might have tasted as a puree. Perhaps blended with a bit of sheep's pluck, some minced onion, spices, cooking stock...

"Oh shit! Student council prez, nine o'clock! Everyone act natural."

They all immediately started talking about something else as a group of girls led by none other than the student council president herself, Sana Nijio, stepped into the classroom. Upon entering the classroom alongside the rest of her peer group, she smiled at Caleb and waved two dainty little fingers at him, that same flirty look in her eyes as always.

He felt Ryuji clap him on the shoulder, and the ringing in his skull started up again.

"Dude, you are absolutely seeing each other. Don't lie."

Caleb smirked back at him, suppressing the urge to snap his neck at that moment.

"I don't ever lie. I just choose not to tell you everything."