An Open Heart in a Closed City

by Jubei Yagyu

Invited guests

“… And as you can see, the author shows his pain and depression through his use of the colour blue” a tall, young man at the front of the room said. He had brown eyes, short dark brown hair, and was extremely slender. The girls in the class swooned, while the guys groaned. At the back of the room, I exhaled and rested my head on the table.

“Or he could be saying that the curtains were fucking blue…” I sighed quietly. I brought my arms up onto the table and closed my eyes.

“Do you find my class that boring?” a voice said. I opened my eyes and sat up.

“N-no sir… I just didn’t get much sleep last night…” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“Oh right… Your sister comes home today… Well, I can give you the notes after class, Tom” the teacher said. I smiled sleepily.

“Thanks sir” I said. My head dropped slowly and he rested his head on his arms.

“Oh my god! Mr Kora and Tom together! The two cutest guys in the school!” I heard a girl a few seats away whisper. I groaned quietly and nodded off.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20 minutes later the bell rang and I shot up, alarmed. Everyone in the room turned to look at me. I smiled sheepishly and sat down quickly, avoiding the stares. After everyone had left, I packed my stuff and walked to the front of the room.

“Are you sure you’re ok to be here Tom? Your Opthalmophobia does seem to be getting much better, but it’s better to be safe than sorry” Mr Kora said, handing me a stack of paper with the lessons notes.

“At least I’m not crying…” I sighed. I took the notes and put them in my bag. I ran my hand through my snow white hair which stopped halfway down the back of my neck. I had always enjoyed playing with my hair because of my sister.

“You’ve got IPT now, don’t you? Better hurry along. Just make sure you’re fine” Mr Kora smiled and stood up. I nodded and put my earphones in. I hit play on my iPod and Pendulum started to play. I left the room, followed by Mr Kora, and waved as we went our separate ways. There was the odd student still in the corridor, and the girls always stared. I looked down at myself every time I saw them looking.

“I’m not that good looking…” I thought.

Please… White hair, pale skin, 6’2 and slender… who wouldn’t want you?
You shut up

After a short amount of walking, I entered the computer lab. Nobody looked up because I entered silently. I sat down in the corner of the room, where no-one was sitting because there were no computers on the table, and pulled out my laptop. I stopped my iPod and plugged my earphones into the laptop and booted it up. I was greeted by my Yuno Gasai login screen. I swiped my finger over the touch pad and the fingerprint reader logged me in. I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose.

“Good morning, Tom” an animated girl popped up on the screen. She was dressed as a maid with pink hair.

“Good morning Lauren” I typed. Usually I had my headset, but I always left it at home so this was the only way to talk with her.

“Do you want the usual things today?” she asked. I hit the ‘Y’ key, and she opened Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Skype and RuneScape. I opened Facebook on Firefox and signed in.

“Nothing” I sighed contently. I heard the Skype notification ring, and I answered the call.

“Hey man! You up for some Nex?” the voice on the other side said. Tom laughed quietly.

“Yeah sure, let me sign in” I typed back. I brought up the RuneScape window, but stopped before I entered any details. Mr Das, the computer teacher was standing at the front of the room with two new students. I took out my left earphone.

“Sorry mate, I can’t right now. Something just came up. Maybe tomorrow. Jen’s coming home today” I typed into Skype.

“Alright mate. I’ll catch you later. Say hi to her for me” the guy said, and the Skype call ended.

“Ok students… we’ve got new students joining us. Make them feel welcome and all that crap… Introduce yourselves, please” Mr Das said. I chuckled. Mr Das was one of my favourite teachers, because he simply didn’t give a shit.

“Yeah, I’m Rainbow Dash” one said. She looked a bit shorter than me and fit. What caught my attention was the shoulder length rainbow hair.

Not much up top… Ah what the hell, we’d still nail her…

I can’t say I don’t agr- you’re lucky I need you to live…

“Nothing else?” Mr Das said, looking up from his computer screen.

“Nah, I don’t really wanna talk to eggheads” Rainbow Dash said, shrugging. I chuckled in my head and turned my attention to the other one.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you all” She said. Tom’s eyebrows rose.

DAMN! Her rack is better than any girl in the damn school! And her legs are… Whoa…

While I agree, if you make another comment like that I’ll use THOSE sites…

… I’ll behave…

Rainbow Dash was wearing a Cyan shirt and dark blue jeans, while Twilight was wearing a dark purple shirt and skirt. I hit the spacebar on the computer and it started to play ‘Swing! Tavi, Swing!’. I typed in my details on RuneScape, signed into world 39 and went back to my divination. I started browsing the internet on Firefox.

“Alright then… If that’s all you’ve got to say… well, the only spots left are up the back” Mr Das said. The guys in the class were practically drooling when they walked past them. They sat down on either side of me. I looked up for a few seconds before going back to what I was doing. I felt a poke on my right arm. I pulled out my earphones and looked over. Rainbow Dash was looking at me, looking extremely bored.

“Yo, you’re not one of these eggheads are you?” she asked, glaring at me.

“I’m Tom… P-please don’t stare at me…” I said quietly and turned back to the computer. Rainbow Dash poked me again.

“I can stare at who I want” she said, smirking. I sighed.

“Please don’t… I hate it” I said in a slightly lower tone. She looks at me.

“Why?” I hear from my left. I turn and see Twilight looking intently at me.

“I-I have O-Opthalmophobia…” I was starting to shake.

“What’s that?” Twilight and Rainbow Dash were both staring at me. All reasoning left me. I stood up quickly, knocked my chair over, and sprinted out of the room. The entire class looked towards the door. Mr Das stood up and calmly walked out after me.

“What was that about?” Rainbow Dash asked. She looked at the computer, which now had a Wikipedia page open. Lauren had heard the conversation and she brought up the definition.

“Oh… So it makes him uncomfortable… We should respect that” Twilight said, and Rainbow Dash sighed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I ran down the hall to the bathroom with the speed of ten Kenyans. I stood in front of the mirror with the tap running in the sink in front of me, staring at my mismatched eyes. It was a mutation I’d had from birth, causing one of my eyes to be a brilliant blue, and the other a bright purple. I washed my face, turned off the faucet and left the bathroom. Mr Das was standing outside.

“All better?” he asked. I shrugged, and we both walked back to the room. He walked in, and I followed. I quickly sat down, and both the girls were sitting there awkwardly.

“Uhm… I want to apologise… I didn’t know that it made you feel uncomfortable…” Twilight said in a sweet voice. I sat down packed up my laptop.

“Y-yeah… Sorry about that…” Rainbow Dash said, smiling nervously.

“I-it’s ok, really… I’m just not used to… people…” I said softly. I sat for the rest of the lesson with the two girls next to me. They were chatting with each other, and I was content to just sit there and do nothing.

“I’m sorry, but could I ask what’s up with your eyes?” Twilight asked, snapping me out of my trance.

“Uh, sure. It’s a mutation” I said plainly. She nodded and went back to talking with Rainbow Dash.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The bell went for the end of class, and the end of my day. I was so glad that it was my short day today, and I went to my locker. As I unlocked it and put whatever books I had in, I heard two familiar voices.

“We don’t have anywhere to stay… And how are we supposed to eat… I saw people using a different currency here…” Rainbow Dash said. I closed my locker and clicked the lock shut.

“I know, Dash… Just give me a minute to think” Twilight said. I thought for a minute

DO IT!

I walked over to them.

“Uhm… I couldn’t help but overhear what you just said…” I said quietly. They both turned and looked at me.

“Uh… I should have enough space at home… so I could hold you guys up for a while… if you want, that is” I offered, smiling sheepishly. I looked up and both of the girls had their mouths hanging open. All of a sudden I was pulled into a bone-crushing hug sandwich.

“Thank you! Oh thank you!” Twilight cried.

“Dude! You are awesome!!! Thanks!” Rainbow Dash cheered.

Boobs… squeezing… life…

Best way to die EVER!

I… can’t disagree…

They released me from the hug of death and I sucked in lungful’s of air.

“A-alright… Do you have any more classes today?” I asked, catching my breath. They pulled out their timetables and made confused faces. I looked at them, and their schedule was exactly the same as mine, right down to the subjects and times.

“That means no… What do you say we get some lunch?” I said. Both of their heads shot up.

“I’ll take that as a yes…”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Wow, this place is amazing!” Twilight said. She and Rainbow Dash were looking around the shopping centre.

“It’s just a Westfield’s…” I said. As the girls ran around looking through the stores, I was thinking.

How could I not have noticed this before… These girls are from My Little Pony…

I thought their names were dead giveaways…

Then why didn’t you say anything?

Because fuck you, that’s why.

It doesn’t matter anymore… we just need to make sure no bronies recognise them, otherwise it could end up disastrous.

“Hey Tom! Come check this out!” Rainbow Dash yelled. I wandered over and saw that she had found the Sports shop. She was already inside, looking at all different things. I sighed and walked in.

20 minutes later, we bother walked out of the shop. I was carrying a basketball, a soccer ball and a dumbbell set. I sighed, and Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Thanks Tom. I’ll pay you back sometime” she said. I smile slightly.

“Hey, where’s Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Tom!” we both heard the loud voice. We looked up to see Twilight standing at the entrance of a bookstore, holding a large stack of books.
10 minutes later, the three of us emerged from the bookstore, and I was now carrying 10 new books in my bag.

“I’m so sorry… I’ll pay for them when I can” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly. I sighed.

“How about lunch now?” I asked, standing up straight. Both girls nodded vigorously. We walked to the food court. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked around in awe.

They’re so adorable!

Agreed.

“I’m gonna get a sub, what do you girls wanna get?” I asked. They both looked at me.

“What’s a sub?” Twilight asked. I shrugged.

“A long sandwich” I said. Both their eyes lit up.

“That!” Rainbow Dash said loudly. Twilight just nodded. We walked over to Subway.

“You want the usual, Tom?” the girl behind the counter said. She was slender, tall, and had long blonde hair.

“Couple of extra’s, too” I smiled.

“Two more chicken fillet’s then?” the girl asked. He heard Twilight gasp slightly.

“Two veggies thanks, Bianca” I chuckled softly. Rainbow Dash leaned down to me.

“Y-you guys eat animals?” she whispered. I nodded.

“We need meat for protein. Don’t worry, though. We make sure the animals don’t… suffer…” I had to think about the words I used. Rainbow Dash visibly relaxed and she leant back. They got to the register and I pulled out my wallet.

“The usual discount applies” Bianca smiled.

“A coke and three Iced Tea’s” I said and leaned on the counter. Bianca turned around and pulled the drinks out of the fridge. She put the subs and the drinks in front of me, and then put her hand on my head. She ran her hand through my hair a few times and laughed.

“$3 off for letting me do that” she giggled, as she rung up the order. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked baffled. I placed the money on the counter.

“See ya next time” Bianca smiled. I smiled back.

“Next Tuesday, as always” I said. I turned to the girls.

“Let’s be on our way” I smiled weakly.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We had been walking for three minutes before Twilights curiosity got the better of her.

“Ok… why did you get a discount for her rubbing your mane?” she asked, grabbing the back of my shirt. I almost fell backwards, causing Twilight and Rainbow to gasp slightly.

“S-sorry!” Twilight said. I chuckled.

“I-It’s ok… A lot of people have a fascination with my hair because of its unusual colour. I don’t necessarily hate having my hair played with, so when she asked if she could touch it I was fine with it. She gave me a discount on my food, and this has continued to this day” I explained.

“Wow…” Twilight said. She put her hand on my head and ran it down to the end of my hair.

“It’s so soft…” she said. Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“Pfft… No way…” she said. She ran her hand through my hair as well.

“… It’s softer than Rarity’s…” she said in disbelief. Twilight nodded, and then realized something.

“Hey… you don’t seem as uncomfortable around us as before” she said. I shrugged.

“I must be getting used to having you girls around” I said. They noticed I still avoided eye contact. Both of them smiled.

“Are all the houses this big?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking around in awe. I noticed Twilight was staring at some of the houses.

“I dunno…” I said. I’d never really thought about it much before, mostly because I didn't really care. We approached a house with a large iron gate and a hedge fence.

“Wow… whoever lives here must be really important” Twilight marveled. The house behind the gate was white and three stories tall. In front of it was a large driveway and a well-kept garden. I pulled a card out of my pocket with my free hand and held it up to a metal panel with two buttons and a screen. A beep sounded, and the gate started to open. Both girls stared at me, and I looked back and smiled.

“We’re home” I said sheepishly.

Author's Note:

This is my first upload anywhere :)

Comments

[Camlio]

Hmm, this story has some potential and it's definitely doing well at setting up the story, though I feel it's perhaps a bit rushed at the current moment. So I'll be setting this on my favorites and Read More lists and I'll be waiting to see how this develops.

Also the second voice in the main character's head made me curious, Though the word Esper makes me think of the summons from Final Fantasy VI and the main character of that game Terra, having the ability to bond with and subsequently summon them.

[Kire667]

Nailed it. ;) Very well written and I got memories of my old and forgotten friends from high school while reading this.

[chrismonteith]

may need flashbacks to fill in the gaps, but a really good story nonetheless.