Somewhere Else

Chapter 1: Malachai �Lucky� Valentine

“Listen Alex, I haven’t got time for your melodramatic antics today. I’ve got shit I have to do and you’re only going to get in the way.”

The petite girl trailed behind him, looking defiant as ever. No matter what he told her, no matter what excuse he gave her, she was relentless. Ever since they’d met, they’d been attached at the hip. Lately he was developing a life all his own. He needed his time away from her and he needed the space to think. He was a big thinker after all.

“Wherever you’re going, I can go too. You can’t hide from me Malachai!”

Taking a corner a little too hard, he ran right into the edge of the building. His shoulder took the brunt of the blow, but he rubbed all the way down the side of his arm, just in case he’d missed soothing any of the wound. Sometimes this girl drove him crazy. Other times she was his only peace in the world. Right now he just needed to think.

Clenching his fist, the nails digging into his palm, he whirled around. He hated having to yell but sometimes he thought that was the only time she ever heard him. “Now you listen here Alex! Just back the fuck up and give me some space. I’ll see you at lunch.”

School campuses weren’t usually so big. Even if they were, classes were spread all over the place so anyone could find who they were looking for by simply knowing what their fifth hour would be. With only seven minutes passing time, you couldn’t be too far by the last ring of the bell or it was to detention with you. Too many hours spent in detention and then there was real trouble. So he’d be able to hunt her down easy. Almost as easily as she’d be able to find him. Unfortunately for her, he didn’t intend on staying on campus.

“Fine! You’re such an asshole anyhow, I don’t know why I want to be around you at all.”

Malachai made his escape into the boy’s bathroom and he slammed himself shut in one of the stalls. There were two other guys in there at the time. At the rate he was going, they probably thought he was going to drop a load, because they high-tailed it out of there. He heard the door slam behind them. That was really for the best.

He had no idea what was going on. As he’d been walking, he had this strange numbness come over him. Nothing like this has ever happened before and Alex didn’t take to new things well at all. If he could prevent her from seeing, it was for the best. He couldn’t even catch cold without her freaking out, thinking he was going to die. For some reason, he just knew this was going to be worse.

His stomach gave, flopped, sunk deep and then he bent over in half. There wasn’t enough room in the stall to actually move around. Taking the only position he could, he rested his head against one of the side walls and propped a foot up on the toilet. He knew he wasn’t going to vomit and if he was leaning over the still water the urge would overcome him, despite not having had anything to eat that day. This was for the best.

All of the muscles in his body tensed up and his breath caught in his throat. Before anything else occurred, he heard a voice in his head. “There will be six.”

It was almost like hearing it over the speakers of the school PA system. He was sure everyone in the world could hear what he heard, but he knew it was only in his head. Clutching his stomach, he gasped for air. There was a sharp stabbing pain at the back of his head. Leaning back, as if to get someone off his shoulders, he craned his neck to see if there was indeed anyone in the stall with him.

His body was forced forward, his eyes squinting. The pain repeated itself, only this time it was moving, almost as though that invisible knife that had punctured his skull earlier was being dragged towards his forehead. A hand flew up to his shaved hair, trying to touch and ensure there was no trail of blood following such intense pain.

What he felt wasn’t blood, but was, instead, a lump. Not as though he’d hit his head, perhaps when he ran into that wall, but a lump that continually centered under the palm of his hand. He jerked his hand down towards his ear and the lump went along with it. A scream broke the silence of the bathroom.

Breathing heavily, the pain increasing by every passing beat of the heart, he decided that if he could move the lump, maybe he could get it out of his head entirely. He wasn’t sure why he thought that. He’d never heard of pulling lumps out of the brain before. Just a hunch really, and with nowhere else to turn, that was what he did.

Carefully he guided his hand away from his temple back down to his ear. The palm of his hand could no longer cover his head without covering his ear as well. So using just the tips of his fingers he maneuvered the bump from the skull to behind the top flap of his ear. A new burst of pain came from it but he was determined to get the tumor out.

Working his fingers along the natural ridges of the cartilage, he stuck one finger in his ear and then he could feel the lump. No longer solid and round like an enormous marble, the thing seemed to shift shapes so that he could pull the mass from his ear. Smoothing and pulling like taffy, the pain was excruciating. So lost in the misery and the blinding white heat of his ear, he couldn’t hear himself calling out for God, for mercy, and for Heaven or Hell to take him away.

Sweat on his brow, pulse racing, he gasped for air as it finally pulled free. A very solid object, truly rectangular in shape was presented to him. It looked almost an old Indian arrowhead in color and texture. As if birthed from his brain entirely, it was coated in thick fluids of blood. Nothing else, as he head feared, just blood.

It was enough to make him pass out.

When he woke, he was on the floor of the boy’s bathroom. Because the rules of the school were so strict, no one could leave class without a pass. Last year, most teachers just used the school planner as a pass to the bathrooms. The last teacher that allowed that in this school year was severely reprimanded. Cracking down on visitors on campus, every student had to have a badge stating their name and their grade. There was a bar code beneath the picture, which when scanned pulled up the student’s entire class schedule, so a security guard would know immediately if the kid was actually going to class or trying to ditch.

Because the badges were new, large, and obnoxious, no one actually carried them on them. There were a few students, of course, who would adhere to any policy even if it contradicted itself who had theirs, but no one who actually put thought into what they were doing would wear theirs. Thusly, no students stumbled into the second floor bathroom for the entire hour that he spent on that floor, marinating in his own blood.

Air conditioning did not come cheap and he was positive that some classes went without because the district was too cheap to pay for it. Teachers just stated it was kept at a modest temperature to conserve energy. Those were the teachers who had pit stains all year round, the ones all the students made fun of. He didn’t know who they were kidding.

As he pushed himself from a lying position to one hunched over the mess he made, he was rather glad no one had come in to see him like he was. That would have been interesting to explain. In his hand he still clutched the object that he’d pulled from his ear. He deposited it into his pocket and then fetched wet paper towels to clean up his mess. He was pretty sure a bodily fluid ought to be cleaned up with bleach, but he doubted his blood was the worst this bathroom had seen, so didn’t concern himself too much.

Standing at the mirror, he gauged the damage done by the molecule changing piece of crap he’d pulled out of his brain. His ear looked like it might have exploded. Using a new paper towel, he wiped away the dried blood the best he could, but he couldn’t get deep into the canal without causing more damage, without feeling more pain. Even though it was mild, it reminded him of the dynamite that came out of there not long ago. He’d leave it for now and hope no one noticed.

The bell rang. Class was over. Because it was one of three classes that the attendance was recorded in, they’d be calling home. His mom worked long hours though, so he wasn’t too afraid. So long as he got home before she did, he could erase the message and she’d be none the wiser. Not until he actually missed a day, in which they would tell her he had a few unexcused absences. Then he’d really be in trouble. So long as he didn’t miss any school though, he ought to be fine.

Rather than going to class and trying to explain himself, he simply headed to the cafeteria. Digging deep into one pocket, he produced a few coins. Counting them out, he realized it was just enough for lunch. Mom didn’t make enough money that he had to pay full price for the lunch in the cafeteria. The stands outside were franchises though, SBarro’s for example, and it didn’t apply there. Getting into the line, being the only kid outside of the handicapped class, he got a few strange looks. “Ms. Ramison let us out early today.” As if he knew they wouldn’t quite believe him, he added, “Most of the kids leave campus for lunch. I don’t have a car.”

Usually Alex bought lunch. Her dad would give her just about anything she asked for so long as she didn’t ask him to pay any attention to her. If he didn’t have to parent her, he didn’t care what she was asking for. They abided by those rules rather well indeed.

Grabbing his lunch, he headed up to his usual spot, figuring Alex would just meet him there. If he’d had enough money, he would have grabbed her favorite bag of chips, just to show he wasn’t angry with her any longer. When she came marching up to him, she was far from happy.

“And you already got lunch? Were you going to eat without me too?”

“Maybe. Depended on how long you were going to take.”

Sometimes he really liked to fit the role of an asshole, especially if she was going to be calling him one for no good reason at all. He had no intention of eating before she’d gotten her food. The mock enchilada was hardly his favorite. The black olives on the top of the mushy cheese was not very appetizing, to say the least.

“Better get in line before it takes all lunch hour to get a slice of pizza.”

Alex shot him a glare and then did just as he suggested. Since she was gone getting her own food, he figured it was acceptable to start eating now. It wasn’t as though he had a huge dinner to look forward to when he got home, so he needed to eat what he could at school. When she sat down, she looked less than pleased that he was almost done, washing down the funk with some soda. He was surprised they served soda at all.

Trying to finish it off so that he could throw everything away together, he squinted, aware that she was staring at him. Not that he could forget what happened in the bathroom, he’d forgotten he was unable to clean his ear out entirely. Alex, being the sort that she was, was staring. He wondered if she’d say anything.

Nothing was said. Instead, she stuck her finger in his ear.

A flash of light appeared before his eyes and he all but threw his cup forward, ice chunks spewing from between his lips. “Jesus fucking Christ Alex. Don’t stick your finger where it don’t belong.”

Withdrawing it and studying the very tip, she narrowed her eyes. “Why not? You do.” Wiping it off on her napkin, she used her other hand to eat her pizza with. A little blood never hurt anyone. “You stick a pencil in your ear or something?”

“Yeah. I randomly stick pencils in my ear to see what kind of damage I can do.”

Alex made a sport out of pushing his buttons. If she could surprise him with something irritating, she got double points. That’s how he figured the scoring in this game went anyhow, because she did it enough. Still, she was his best friend.

She was full of good surprises actually. They’d met when he first moved in to the ghetto neighborhood his mom dragged him to. She lived one building over from him, ground floor. He lived on the second floor. If there was a fire, he’d be trapped and would surely burn alive. He really didn’t care any longer, but used to try to make his mom feel guilty about that when they first moved in. He wasn’t sure she ever cared.

At night, he could see right into her room, so long as she had her light on. The second night he knew her he’d heard a strange sound outside. All the sounds were strange to him, but this one was worth examining. When he got to the window, he spied her standing in hers, bare-chested, waving. Obviously he was supposed to see her. He wondered if she made that noise too, or if she’d been standing there like that for a while, just hoping he’d wander over.

That wasn’t as strange as the night he was holding her after she’d spent a good hour crying. He couldn’t remember what set her off, because she could be very emotional at times. Alex confessed to him that night that she wished she’d been born a guy. Malachai figured she just wanted to be stronger. When they attended their next school dance though, she showed in a suit and tie. Alex loved to complicate his life.

By their second year together, she was dressing like a boy all the time. He didn’t have much of a say in it. Thankfully it was only a matter of baggy jeans and jerseys and just all around typical guy gear and nothing like the suit and tie. That was a little harder to shake off than casual wear. Truthfully he could have broken up with her and that would have solved the problem, but he didn’t have the heart. In only their second year together, he felt as though they’d already conquered half the world.

All of the incoming sophomores simply assumed that Alex was a guy, nothing different from them. Her chest was flat enough that she never had to wear anything underneath her shirts and her voice was rather androgynous. The only thing that would ever give her away was her relationship. That wasn’t enough to stop her either. The first time she kissed him in front of all those kids, every one of them went slack jaw. They certainly didn’t regard it as strange, nor did the upperclassmen.

Alex thought it’d be hilarious to make the rest of them feel uncomfortable for a minute as well, so she lifted up her shirt and flashed them all. Her small, milk white breasts accented with soft pink nipples were exposed for just a moment. Just long enough for everyone to question what they really saw, to have to think it over in their mind if those were indeed breasts or if Alex was still a guy. In the end they accepted she was a very cool chick indeed.

That was one of many moments with her when he wished he could die. She was full of good surprises for him. Life with her would never be dull.

“How should I know what you do in class? Maybe you get so bored you jam pencils in your ear to see if you can make yourself bleed so you can go to the nurse. I hear the one we have this year will actually send you home if you’re sick.”

“What am I going to do? Go home and wait for my mom to get there and explain to her why I’m home so early? Tell her I what, jammed a pencil in my ear? I don’t think so. Besides, it’s not bleeding any more.”

Malachai didn’t foster a good relationship with his mom. Things had gone from bad to worse to unbearable in the time that they lived in California. She moved him away from home, away from his dad, and away from a very comfortable lifestyle to have to scrape and scratch for enough money to survive. He couldn’t wait until his eighteenth birthday. In just a few months, he’d be a legal adult.

He’d expected his mom would be excited about this as well, but she threw a fit about the idea of him moving out on his birthday. His master plan had been to get a good paying job, rent an apartment, and then have Alex move in with him. They’d probably be married eventually. Now it looked like none of that was going to happen.

“I think my eardrum ruptured.”

“Just like that? Or because you were poking a pencil in your ear?”

“Just like that.” He got up and threw his trash away in the can nearby. It’d been placed there especially for his little group to use, since they had a terrible habit of just throwing their wrappers in the grass otherwise.

A ruptured eardrum was the only plausible excuse he could come up with for why his ear had been gushing blood in the first place. It was one that he figured people would have to believe as well. Though a serious matter, it was something he could reasonably put off taking care of until the end of the school day and he doubted anyone would hold it against him. Still, if he felt it needed attention immediately, no one was going to argue with him. That was just what he needed right now.

“I don’t remember you talking about an ear ache.”

“I don’t always talk about everything you know. Especially if I know it’s not going to get me anywhere or do me any good.”

Alex could hardly argue with that. He’d have to be on his very last breath before his mom would take him to see a doctor and even then she’d figure it was too late anyhow and she might as well just make her good-bye nice and sweet. However, the way she was staring at him, he had to wonder if she could see straight through his lies. He was sometimes transparent.

“I’m exhausted. I think I’ll just go home and get some rest.” He said this cautiously, watching her out of the corner of his eye. What came next was what would get him in trouble for sure. “I think we should cancel tonight and just reschedule for when I’m feeling better.”

If she could actually see through his lies, then he doubted she’d let him get away with it. If any part of her believed he might still be in pain, that his ear might explode in a wet crimson gush again, she’d only hate him for the rest of his life, but she’d let him get out of it. Turning his eyes downward, he stared at the ground and awaited her response.

For the longest time he felt obligated to spend every night with her, either in person or on the phone, depending on if his mom was home or not. If she wouldn’t be home until late, he often spent the night over at her place. He’d been caught a few times. To him, the consequences didn’t matter, so long as Alex was kept happy. Now, due to recent events, he was seeking time away from her. Love was no longer blind.

She was not happy with him at all. She stared at him as thought it was all one big joke and at any moment he’d tell her ‘Just kidding!’. It’d be mean of him but forgivable. When nothing else came from him, she grew angry. She didn’t know why she stayed with him.

Jumping up, she slapped him as hard as she could against his bloody ear. That’d teach him to go back on his word. That’d teach him to leave her alone to face that wretched house of hers. What he didn’t know was that Gabe had been talking to her quite a bit lately. Maybe she’d go see him tonight. Maybe she’d fuck him. That’d teach Malachai. Maybe he wouldn’t be such an asshole then.

Nobody was surprised by her actions any longer. At some point during the course of last year, final semester, she’d started hitting him. It was funny at first to see someone a foot shorter than Malachai just wailing on him. When he didn’t bother standing up for himself though, it grew a little awkward. The more it happened, the more everyone just assumed it was something those two did, to show their love or whatever.

After all, a girl her size couldn’t really hurt a guy that much bigger than her, could she? What they didn’t know was that she only hit in public. Behind closed doors she scratched and bit and punched and kicked as well. Once, when she was really mad, she went after him with a knife. It was a narrow escape. Sometimes he didn’t want to visit her at all any more.