~~

Makai

~~

Well, needless to say it was a busy day. Ocean had been attacked, twice. He had surgery, he had released his assailant of all responsibility, even though I think he still deserved to pay for what he did. And then, after that, we had the lovely time of trying to explain to Ocean's parents the reasoning behind him letting Justin go. They weren't very happy either.

I stayed with Ocean until visiting hours were over and the scary ass fucking nurse chased me away from him with a scowl and clipboard. He wasn't alone though, since they were letting his mom stay with him through the night. Apparently, even though we were engaged they wouldn't let me stay with him. They didn't think that the engagement was real or whatever. Stupid nurses.

I was also told that I needed to go to school the next day. WHY!? Didn't they understand what I was going through? I mean, my mate was laying in a hospital bed and nearly died. Why did they all expect me to just get on with my life like nothing had happened at all. This was driving me nuts.

So, completely against my better judgement and desire, I got up Tuesday morning and got ready for swim practice. This was going to cement things for the rest of the school. They were going to know who was involved in the entire fiasco that had happened.

When I pulled up to the school, I saw someone that I really didn't want to see. Justin was just getting out of his car and heading to the front door of the school.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I shouted at him and raced up to the steps of the school.

"I am only here to get my things." He hung his head in shame. "I am here before school starts so that I don't interfere with anyone's day." I could tell that he didn't want to be anywhere near me at all. "Look, Makai, I don't know why I did that to Ocean. I know that we haven't been friends since we were younger, and I honestly don't know why. There was a time when we were decent to each other. A long time ago, back in freshman year, we were somewhat like buddies. But then things changed. I don't remember what it was. I don't even remember why it all happened. I just know that one day I started to loathe the sight of him, and it didn't make sense to me. It's been that way for years. And it was like an instantaneous thing too. I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I swear, I truly didn't want to hurt him."

"For years now?" I was confused. I thought Ocean had started to sing because of me, that was what he had thought too. But, is it truly possible, did he bespell him that long ago? Then, what was it that caused things to get so much worse?

"Yeah, it was weird, it was like, whenever Ocean was involved, I would go into some sort of trance-like state. When he was around, or whenever he was mentioned, or whenever I would even think about him. It was the strangest thing, and it just kept getting worse and worse. Then, when he and Britney broke up it was like something inside of me snapped and it just got worse. Every new thing that I learned about Ocean seemed to make a rage build inside of me. It was like an uncontrollable fog of anger and jealousy, but I didn't want to feel it."

"You're not making much sense." I grabbed my head and shook it a few times, trying to get all of his words to fall into place.

"I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Have you ever heard a song on the radio or just heard someone talking and it grates on your nerves and makes you angry?" He looked at me with eyes that were so much more innocent than I ever expected them to look. "Well, that is sort of what I was feeling. Only it was like, constant. Whenever a thought of Ocean went through my head, it was like anger surged through me in uncontrollable waves, and it was slowly driving me insane. Oh God, I can't believe what I've done over the years. And yesterday, how could I have done that?" At that moment, Justin fell to his knees and covered his face while he started to sob.

"Justin?" I was not expecting this today at all.

"Ocean should still press charges against me. He should send me to prison for the rest of my life. I'm a horrible person. He needs to tell them to arrest me. They need to haul me away and throw away the key."

"Hahhhh."

I sighed long and loud when I heard what Justin had to say. I was glad that Ocean wasn't here to see this. If he saw how broken up Justin was he would blame himself even more.

"Hahh." I sighed again, unable to stop myself. "Listen Justin, I want you to come talk to Ocean later. Some time when he is out of the hospital. I want to figure all of this out."

"Are you going to convince him to press charges against me? He needs to. I know that I was relieved yesterday because I wasn't going to jail, but the more that I think about it, the more that I hate myself for what I've done. Tell him that he needs to punish me. Tell him that I need to pay for what I have done."

"I will tell him, but what he decides will be his own choice. I want you to understand that this meeting is to talk about the future and what needs to be done. There is no guarantee."

"OK, I understand. I will meet with you whenever you want me to. Here." At that, Justin grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from the bag on his shoulder. He used them to write down his number and pushed it into my hands. "I will be waiting for you to call me. I will help you to convince Ocean that I need to pay for my sins."

After that, Justin didn't have much more to say. He just ran into the school and disappeared.

"This isn't what I expected." I sighed again before heading to the locker room.

Well, I guess nobody wanted to practice after yesterday. No one was in the locker room, and no one was in the pool. Come to think of it, I should have known when I didn't see Ben and Ryan getting ready this morning.

Well, I was here early for nothing. Having nothing else to do, I started to look for the coach. I wanted to give him an update on Ocean. He would be worried about him as well.

I couldn't find the coach in his office or in his classroom. I was about to check the teacher's lounge until I saw him out of the corner of my eye in the office. There was the coach, the principal, and that teacher from yesterday, Mr. Garret. I hurried into the office so that they wouldn't disappear from my line of sight.

"Makai?" Coach called out to me almost immediately. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't get the memo about practice being cancelled." I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment. "So, I was here too early."

"Oh, well, thank God you didn't run into, uhm-"

"I saw Justin outside. That is kind of why I want to talk to you all."

Following that, I went into the office to talk to the three of them. I told them an abridged and edited version of what happened between Ocean and Justin. I told them that the situation was being resolved and that I knew Justin couldn't come back to school for what he did, but I asked that he be accepted into the online school that they offered for the remainder of the year.

"Why do you want to help him? After what he did, why would you try so hard for him?" The coach didn't seem to understand why I was saying all of this.

"I have my reasons, and I know this is what Ocean would want. By the way, we can ban Justin from graduation. He shouldn't be allowed to join everyone else, but I do think that he needs to graduate. What he does with his future after that will be his own choice."

I followed up my request by telling them that Justin had a medical issue that caused all of this. An issue that I was personally going to see to it that Dr. Malachi helped us to fix. By the time that I am done with all of this, Justin won't remember that he doesn't have a medical issue that led to all of this. Also, I can personally see to it that Justin would never cause this kind of problem ever again.

There, that was settled. I did my good deed for today. Nobody could ever say that I wasn't a truly kind and compassionate man. I even helped those that I didn't think truly deserved it.

"I hope you know what you're doing Ocean, because I am staking all of this on the stuff that you told me yesterday." After another long and drawn out sigh, I went to class and started this very long day.. I was already ready for it to be over. Was it two thirty yet?