In the Eagle, dormitories Dante is once again in his room, staring at the wall. It has now been two weeks since Dante stopped going to class. With more time having passed, Dante's room is even more of a mess, with more food items left scattered around the room and roaches have even started crawling around the room.
He has now removed his dirty shirt and thrown it into a piece of trash to the left of his room. With him only in his boxers and sweat sliding down his body continuously. The stench from not taking a shower in weeks radiates from Dante's body. The pains and aches in Dante's body have gotten so bad that every time he moves, it feels like a drill is going through his body. He feels his brain slowly deteriorate as the day goes on, but even then, he continues staring at the wall.
Zane opens Dante's door and looks at him with a face of urgency.
"Ok, dude, it's been two weeks, and you aren't getting any closer to going to class or getting out of this room! Look, let's go talk to someone. Maybe they can help you get through this since I apparently can't."
Dante starts to respond to Zane without looking away from the wall.
"No, I'm not leaving this room."
"OK, now you're being stubborn! You can't stay in this room forever! Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You look worse than a homeless person on the street."
Dante slowly turns his head to look at Zane, and when he does, Zane gets a glimpse of his eyes. He sees that his eyes are completely empty with no color; it almost feels like he's looking into a black hole. Zane flinches and backs up a little.
"I want nothing to do with what's going on outside, so please just fuck off," Dante says with a weakened voice.
Zane sucks his teeth and starts walking away while closing Dante's door.
"Fine, but I've never seen you in this bad of a state before, so please, I beg that you take care of yourself. I'm running late. I will see you later."
Zane leaves the dorm to get to class, while at the same time, Dante continues to stare at the wall.
A few minutes later, Dante's phone starts ringing, and the person calling him is Roxy. As Dante stares at the ringing phone with an empty expression, he remembers the words Zane said to him last week.
"If you don't want to talk to her, why don't you just block the phone number?"
When he remembers those words, the phone stops ringing, and Dante sees that Roxy has called him sixty-eight times in the past two weeks.
"Why?" he whispers to himself while a tear goes down his face.
Dante clicks the three dots next to Roxy's name on his phone. When her full caller bio pops up, he scrolls down to where the block button is. He clicks the block button, and then there's a pop-up that asks, "Are you sure you want to block this person?" with yes and no under the question.
His finger hovers over the yes button, but then his mind starts to wander. Dante starts to think back to when he first met Roxy in ninth grade on 9-16-2020, after his basketball game.
After Roxy introduced herself and asked for his number, Dante gave her a blank stare.
"Well, thanks for the introduction, but I don't have any interest in giving you my number."
Dante walks past Roxy and continues walking home.
Roxy looks back and watches Dante as he walks. She grabs her cheek and giggles a little.
"I see the type of person you're now. Don't worry, we will be talking soon," she says with a smile on her face.
When Dante arrives home, he notices the lights are all off. Dante lets out a deep and heavy sigh while walking with bad posture.
"I guess they're both sleeping again."
Dante walks to his room and drops his bag on the floor. With a tired expression, Dante looks around at his dark and empty room. He lets out a deep sigh, sits down on his bed, and starts staring at the wall like usual. Before even an hour passes, Dante hears his phone ring.
"I've never seen this number before."
Dante answers the phone and hears a familiar voice.
"Hello, it's me, Roxy! Are you doing anything right now?"
"How did you get my number?"
"Oh well, I guess it is kind of weird. I got your number even though you said no earlier, but I already had your number before I asked. I got it from your friend."
"Friend?"
"Yeah, the tall one with blonde hair."
"Oh, Zane I should have guessed."
"Yeah, so I was wond—"
Before she can speak, Dante hangs up the phone and returns to staring at the wall.
"What an annoyance."
The next day at Greenford High School, Dante took his seat at the back of the class. Roxy enters the classroom and sits next to Dante.
"You again?"
"Yeah, it's me. I bet you didn't notice I was in your first period, did you?"
"No, I had no idea."
"See, I knew it! So about what I wanted to ask you last night."
"Could you just leave me alone? I'm not interested."
"You know, for someone so talented, you have no social skills, and to make it even worse, you seem so deep in your own world. Have you ever thought about just having a regular conversation?"
"What's the point of doing something if there's nothing to gain from it? This is a world where you're on your own. I have no reason to hold a conversation with anyone if I don't need to."
"Well, that might be true, but you don't need to be on your own, which is why people have conversations like the one we are having now."
"This isn't a conversation."
"Then what is it, dumbass?" Roxy says with a smile.
"Tch!"
Dante turns his head away from Roxy to avoid eye contact.
"Come on, don't act like a baby. What about your best friend, Zane? I'm sure you two have conversations all the time."
"Me and him had a project together in sixth grade, so I gave him my number, and ever since he hasn't stopped claiming to be my best friend, but I prefer to be alone, so I don't talk to him often."
Roxy giggles after hearing Dante's statement.
"You can't fool me; it's not that you prefer to be alone, so you don't have conversations; it's that you can't hold a conversation. Who would think the guy with the best grades and the most athletic would be a loser?"
All the nights of staring at the wall flash in Dante's head, and he grits his teeth in anger.
"You don't know a thing about me; leave me the fuck alone."
The school bell rings, and Dante storms out of the class. Roxy gets out of her seat with a smile.
"It looks like I hit a nerve; we're almost there!"
Roxy followed Dante for the entirety of the day. Every class they had together, she would sit next to him. During lunch, she would sit next to him. During the passing period, she would follow him until he got to class. Even after school, during Greenford's basketball game, she would sit and watch his game.
After school, Greenford High School had a game against Tulup High School, where they got beat by forty points. Dante, who only scored fifteen points, did what he usually did and started walking to the locker room.
Before he could get too far, Jalen and the coach stood in front of him.
"What the hell are you standing there for?"
"Come on, coach, you see where I'm coming from, right? We lost because of Dante! He completely throws the team chemistry off with his bullshit!" Jalen screams.
"I understand, Jalen; there is no need to say anymore."
The coach turns his attention to Dante.
"Dante, you're an amazing player, but I will have to bench you for the rest of the year. Your attitude is affecting the team's performance. Maybe if you can prove to me that you can get that royalty attitude of yours under control, then I'll put you back in, but for now, your season is over."
When Dante heard those words, he balled up his fist in rage, but then he remembered some words from Roxy.
"You can't fool me; it's not that you prefer to be alone, so you don't have conversations; it's that you can't hold a conversation."
Dante's facial expressions turn empty, and he walks off to the locker room.
"Yeah, good riddance!" Jalen screams as he walks away.
Later that day, Dante arrived home, and like usual, his grandparents were sleeping. Dante went straight to his room, sat down in the same spot, and started staring at the wall like usual, but this time he started talking to himself.
"Why is everyone so convinced I'm the problem?"
Dante grabs the knife from the drawer and puts it up to his throat. With tears slowly sliding from his eyes, his hand starts trembling.
"Why? Why do I still remain here in this pathetic life?"
The knife moves closer to his neck, but then his phone rings. With tears still coming from his eyes, he picks up the phone and answers.
"Hey! I don't know if you saved my number yet, but this is Roxy, and I heard from Zane about what happened today."
"What do you want?" he says with nothing but sadness in his voice.
"Alright, first you have to respect your teammates and listen to them. You've got to hang out with them outside of practice so they'll trust you. Also, listen to your coach so he will believe in your skills."
"What are you telling me?"
"Come on, now I thought you were supposed to be smart. I'm telling you what to do so you can get off the beach as fast as possible. Also, we have to talk more so we can work on those communication skills."
As Roxy speaks, Dante's mind starts racing, and then he drops the knife on the floor.
"Hey, are you there? What was that sound?" Roxy ask.
Dante cracks a small, delicate smile and says, "No, I'm here. Just keep talking."
Dante only got benched for ten games and eventually got back on the court. He went on to break many high school basketball records and do amazing academically, which formed his future at Sunshine University.
Dante's mind drifts back to the present, where he has his finger hovering over the yes button to block Roxy's number. Dante grits his teeth and smacks his phone away from him without pressing the button.
Dante starts to sweat aggressively while breathing heavily. His body starts to go pale, and his face looks devastated. Dante jumps out of his bed and opens the door. He stumbles through the dorm. He gets to the kitchen counter and grabs a big kitchen knife. As he grips the knife, he feels his stomach squeeze. He then vomits on the counter and falls to the floor.
With the knife in his hand, he drags himself to the bathroom and gets up. He uses the sink to hold himself up. With the knife still in his hands and his head spinning, Dante looks in the mirror.
What he sees in the mirror is a complete mess of a man. His dirty body, vomit dripping from his mouth, his face looking as pale as ever, and his eyes look like he's already dead.
Dante puts the knife to his neck, and when he does, blood drips from the small cut the knife is leaving. As all the lonely nights in his past rush through his mind, his entire body trembles. With so much going through his mind, he can't even get a single word to come out of his mouth.
"..."
Dante starts to hear many words from Roxy going through his head.
"Hello, it's me, Roxy!"
"You can't fool me!"
"I already had your number before I asked you."
"Well, that might be true, but you don't need to be on your own, which is why people have conversations like the one we are having now."
"Come on, don't act like a baby!"
As the words go through his mind, Dante pushes the knife deeper into his neck.
"Come on, now I thought you were supposed to be smart. I'm telling you what to do so you can get off the beach as fast as possible."
Dante closes his eyes and grits his teeth.
"Fuck him! He's not here right now! I'm only worried about you all and how much longer the four of you can make me feel this way! I'm not worried about his bitch-made ass! Let's go all night!"
After remembering his most recent memory from Roxy, Dante's heart starts beating so fast it feels like it's about to beat out of his chest."
Dante screams "Fuck!" so loudly that everyone in the dormitory and some people outside hear him. Dante then throws the knife at the mirror so hard that the mirror shatters. Dante falls to the bathroom floor while sobbing out of control.
With a weak voice, Dante whispers something while hugging himself.
"Roxy"
Chapter 5 end