Guess he'll never learn

After the crowd of students had dispersed, I helped John get back to his feet, a feat I knew he could no longer do alone with his mental state at that moment. Having spotted a vacant spot on the stairs, we settled ourselves down.

It was no shock to find that John was going to need some consoling, so, I Facetimed Kiri to lend me a hand, before reporting on what had happened.

“Goddamn, if the girl was crazy like that why did she need John protecting her in the first place?”, she remarked.

Finding I had missed the causes part in my report, I added.

“Abigail’s not crazy, she wasn’t like that on her own you know. She just needed a stimulant, support from someone, kind of.”

“And let me guess, it was you?”

Dang, she’s sharp.

“Maybe.”

“Wait, you’re the reason why she said all that?”, erupting out of his trance, John interpolated himself to the conversation.

“No, it’s because of you, and the bullies, and also herself as well. I’m just a catalyst.”

“C’mon man, I was actually doing something meaningful for once. For once in my life did I not run away, and you just had to ruin it.”

Finding his choice of words odd, I tried to be more sensitive.

“I know what you did was good and commendable. But you listened to Abigail, right? She’s not okay with progressing with you in this situation, that means you still have a chance.”

“What do you suppose I do next then.”, with a grumpy tone John made a quick comeback.

“Well, lucky for you, I talked a lot with her. It seems like she’s studying to go to a decent school, don’t know which to be specific though.”

His face turned into a grimace when the word ‘study’ emerged from my mouth, and then he spoke with a tone that matched.

“You’re suggesting that I should do so too? I mean c’mon I like her but we’re not even in a relationship yet or anything. It’s too much of a bother.”

And here I thought you learned something.

An annoying tick went through me hearing this brat’s answer, though I could offer no speech to stray him from his slothfulness, it was his decision. Nevertheless, the persuader didn’t need to be me.

“Hey Stan, can you point your screen so that John can see me?”

Following Kiri’s order without question, I did as she said. Still diverting his view from us, John refused to take any persuasion to his choice. Not minding that fact, Kiri spoke.

“Look at me, John.”

Reluctantly, the boy took a glance before retreating, and then another. Until, his irises stood still, and Kiri was content with continuing.

“You’re running away again. I thought you were done with that. If you’re going to do it again then what’s the point of all the training to protect Abigail?”

“And look at the results, nothing. Plus, studying is just impossible for me, it doesn’t count.”, disappointed, John uttered words that gave me even more ticks.

“Yes, it does. You used to think there was no chance of fighting back against those bullies, right? This is just a harder obstacle for you to overcome, and you’re running away again. Didn’t you learn anything from this whole incident?”

“It’s not the same, you just don’t get it, Kiri. I only went through all this trouble to prove to myself that I’m not a useless coward. And I’m fine with it as long as I don’t have to belittle myself in the future.”

With John having expressed a sound argument, Kiri struggled to make a riposte. This was supposed to be the time I jumped in, but even I was at a loss for words.

“No, I do get you John.”, unexpectedly, Kiri still managed to continue.

“What?”

“Sure, you’re not running away from your troubles this time, but you’re still running away.”

Bewildered by her, John couldn’t even muster up a question. Though, Kiri still carried on.

“You said that you’re fine with your life as long as you’re not a coward, that you at least did the minimum, right? Doesn’t that mean that you’re actually running away from something meaningful then?

“Huh?”

“I mean, all you do is play games on your mobile, watch TV, or do some other unproductive stuff. That’s the reason why you felt bored, that’s the reason why you needed more excitement, and that’s why you offered me a place to stay in the first place. So, you do seek something meaningful, but when the effort is too much you just give up, and you’re feigning ignorance of that fact with excuses. You are still running away.”

This time, it was John that came to a halt, and with a convoluted face, he diverted his gaze from us. Abruptly, the boy stood up, while still not looking at us.

“What is this, a therapy session or a career consolation? I’ve had enough, I still haven’t even gotten lunch yet.”

And like that, he hastened his feet toward the canteen, leaving me and Kiri alone. Figuring that silence would be awkward, I skimmed through my brain to bring up something.

“That was, hmm, how do you say it? Pretty observant of you, Kiri.”

A sigh could be heard from the other side, not long before words were transferred again.

“I don’t know if it helped him though.”

“Well, at least you tried, right?”

“I guess. Whatever, I’m going to go to my part-time now, you’ll still be at school, right?”

“M-hm.”

With a beep, I was finally isolated from everyone. And with that, finally got the time to digest information. Staying still in my position on the stairs, I pondered over what I and Kiri had succeeded in doing. And consequently, solidify and unveil the whole motive of what we did around the past five days.

Is it over?

Apart from the ending with Abigail being the one who put a stop to this whole incident, me and Kiri had planned out the whole thing to obstruct Abigail and John from being bullied. And well, the motives were mostly for ourselves. We had promised to make a better end-of-middle school year experience for someone else, in an attempt to move on from our not-so-pleasant bullying situation back in our years. So basically, we tried to fix our trauma by doing it to another similar case.

But then, considering the situation now, we have achieved our goal, haven’t we? So, shouldn’t we be bawling our eyes out with happiness and fulfillment?

No, not right now. I had not ascertained that the pig face and his goons has stopped their harassment of Abigail, though considering what the little girl herself was now capable of I doubted that. But to be sure, I shouldn’t celebrate yet.

Having marked my next resolve, the whole afternoon following that I spent my time doing reconnaissance on the bullies. At recess. the whole group was full again, however, instead of doing some mischievous acts they just seemed to be trying to cheer up their dejected leader.

In situations like this, it almost made them likable for some reason, but I guess people have their sides and stories. Well, that’s up to question if it’s for better or for worse, of course, knowing that they’ll probably justify their bad-doings with their own opinions and motives. But then again, I’m not trying to delve into some philosophical bullshit and would just prefer to consider them comically tragic characters.