{Striking} a friendship - (Jack)

{Striking} a friendship

Tyren Orca - District Two - Eighteen

The past few hours have been back and forth, emotional yet almost tearing. Sometimes, if you pull on fabrics long enough it breaks. Yet the friendship between Matthew and I doesn't feel like that. It is a strange, unbreakable one due to the fact that we depend on each other so much. Dependency is something that is unmeasured in the lives of anybody else, it seems. People just do it. I wonder briefly whether I have been the only one to care how much I rely on others. With my hands on the wheel and my eyes set on the road, I can't help but bring wonder into my mind yet again, thinking about why I would want to go back to this place; the Peacekeeper Academy. There's a few reasons, now. Alex is one of them. No matter how much I say I don't feel the same brotherhood with him, I have to admit that it is there. With the trees passing by quickly as I drive through a portion of what appears to be a forest, maybe even a lake if I was to look more carefully. It's the usual route, I look at my watch. We're not late for admittance. That's good, at least. Alex will be there early, I just know that. I start thinking of things I can ask him, say to him, to make it at least appear as though he's a nice guy and that Matthew can get to know him better. How are you doing, bro? No, that's not like me. He'd know it straight away. What's up? Nope. How you doin'? I can't think of anything. Maybe I'll let Matthew do the talking.

We pull up in the car park, which is pretty empty, but it exists for the purpose that some people do have cars. Leaving the car, I lock it after Matthew gets out. I brush a hand through my short hair and find my bearings, looking around at the place I haven't been back to since the training centre incident. Nobody can fail to be daunted by the dreariness of this place, I think, mentally.

We walk through the doors, take a right - or something, and eventually we reach the dorm rooms. Apparently, ours has been switched. When we walked in, somebody gave us a card that showed us our new dorm number, with a refreshed list of who was in it. Same old, same old. I slip a hand around the handle of the door, which is warmer than I expected. Opening the door with ease, the carpet mustn't drag like the last one did, I see the face of Alex.


Matthew is behind me, but Alex has company. It's her, it's Adina, I remind myself. She sees me and subtly resumes her previous business of being behind Alex, arms around his waist as they both look at a photograph that he has in his hand. He turns his head to me with a smile, at least I think it's a smile. I hope it is, a proper one and not just a fake. He puts the photograph down, unintentionally allowing me to see it. You can't mistaken who it is; little Tyler. "Hey, Tyren." He speaks. Adina gives a little smile before she leaves the room, sliding past me whilst I'm walking through the doorway. "Hey, you alright?" I ask casually, placing down my bag on the bed. "Yeah, good. This room's better, don't you think?" He asks, but it just looks the same to me. "It's identical." I speak, but he has a comment ready I think. "It's closer to everyone else's dorms." He implies, but it's really because Adina's dorm is just down the corridor. "Is Vy still dorming with us?" I ask him, out of curiosity mostly. "Yeah, seems so." His reply gives me a little reassurance as we won't be having a stranger, like I would have feared. "Matthew." He acknowledges with a greeting tone, saying just his name in place of a hello, or a hi. I give Matthew a little look, hopefully coming across as 'play nice'.