forum Like An Open Book (OxO) CLOSED

Started December 22, 2020 by @Elder-God-Jacks347

tune

He slowed to a stop, sweeping his hair out of his face.
"You know what? It feels almost wrong to not give you something for your persistence. How about this. The day you can look me in my eyes and answer three questions about who I am, I'll go out with you. And I'll have those three questions be this. Where did I grow up, how many siblings do I have and if I have any what are their names, and who was my first love." He smirked expectantly.
"I wish you the best of luck, you'll definitely need it."
He winked at her before taking off again, still having some time before he needed to get ready for the day.
(Aaaand plot development!)

Tua choked mid gasp for air. He hadn't turned her down instantly??? The heck??? Kyran was already too far ahead for her to chase him down and make him explain himself. Tua bounced on her heels, a little energy rushing back through her veins, and started making her way back to the dorm rooms. She would have this solved in NO time.

Upon returning the dorm, Tua made straight for her bed and flopped down on it, screaming incomprehensibly into the pillow.
"Hey! Don't do that, you're all gross right now," Savannah complained. She was applying her mascara in the mirror. Tua rolled around and flung one arm over her forehead, grinning.
"You will NEVER believe what just happened."
"You had a midlife crisis during your run and decided that you needed a sugar daddy and a new sports car?"
"…No?? What???"
"What." Tua stared at her friend for a second before clearing her throat and rushing on.
"ANYAYS, Kyran asked me out! Kind of." At this Savannah actually set down her mascara wand and turned to face Tua. She looked a little concerned.
"…Did you hit your head on the run?? How many fingers am I holding up?" Tua rolled her eyes.
"No, he DID. Kind of. Well, he's making me answer these three questions before he'll go out with me, and technically I was the one who asked him, but. It counts." Savannah hummed and turned back to her mirror with raised eyebrows.
"THAT makes more sense. Good luck, I guess."
"No wait! I had a reason to tell you this- I need help finding out his best friend's schedule. His name is Seth? He sits next to Kyran??"
"I think I know him," Savannah said thoughtfully. "I'll have to ask around for you. In the meantime, go take a shower or something. You're all sweaty and gross."
"I love you too!" Tua called over her shoulder cheerfully as she grabbed her things and headed for the showers.
Poor Kyran. She'd have this figured out before the week was over. Tua hummed to herself in the hallway, smiling.

(No no no, long is good! Good quality plot and character development takes time and quite a few finger cramps, as I've discovered)
Kyran finished up his run and circled back to his dorm, getting ready for the day quietly. He stared at himself as he brushed his teeth after his shower, smirking to himself. He knew what she was going to do. She was going to go to the one person she thought had all the answers.
And just as the name popped into his head, it also popped up on his phone screen. He finished brushing his teeth and picked up the call.
"I can feel a disturbance in the force. What did you do?"
"Seth, you're not going to like this."
"Did you agree to go out with Tua?"
"Kind of."
"WHAT?!"
Kyran winced, pulling the phone away from his ear as he rolled his eyes.
"I told her that if she can answer three questions about me that I'll go out with her."
"And let me guess, she's going to come to me thinking that I one, know the answers, and two, will be willing to tell her if I do."
"Most likely."
"I hate you."
"Everyone does."

"Heyyy girl,"
It was lunchtime (finally), and Tua and her friends were hanging out at their usual picnic table. Tua looked up from her sketchbook as Lucy draped herself over her shoulder.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Savannah told me to tell you that Seth has Government in the evenings. Kyran doesn't though."
"How did she find that out?" Lucy shrugged and dropped herself down next to Nacho.
"Who knows." Tua hummed and pulled out her plotting notebook. Her and Savannah had made it back in Freshman year, after Savannah had found a sparkly sharpie at some random store and decided to scribble phrases like 'EVIL PLANS' or 'HIT LIST' on all of Tua's notebooks.
"Okay, good. We need a STRATEGY here, people. Kyran wouldn't have asked me those questions unless they were like. ReALLyyy hard to answer. So." Tua flipped through the notebook and found her 'Operation: Date my Soulmate ♡♡♡♡' section. It was thusfar filled with pick-uplines and romantic Shakespeare quotes.
"Why do we have to be involved," Nacho complained.
"Because. You're my friends and you love me. anyways, here's the questions he gave me."

• 1. Where did he grow up.
• How many siblings does he have
• ^^^ ALSO WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES
• Who was his first love

Nacho blinked sleepily at the list from where he was hunched over his coffee.
"That… Is not three questions." Tua frowned at her list.
"Wait, it's NOT. That little-"
"Anyways. Ahem. Are you going to harass the best friend this evening? Because I'm like 90% sure you don't have Government." Lucy interrupted. Tua threw an arm around her friend good naturedly.
"Well, Not with THAT attitude I don't!"

(Ah! Sorry, I've been busy all afternoon but I'd say they're in their second or third year. Probably third)
Kyran was in the library once again, this time getting chewed out by his best friend as they ate lunch together.
"How could you just throw me under the bus like that?!"
"Seth, I did nothing of the sort. I gave her some questions and walked away."
"But she knows of me meaning she's going to come bug me meaning you just dragged me into your relationship mess!"
"It's not a relationship, it's a test. I don't even think you know all the answers to the questions I asked."
"Damn right I probably don't. If it has anything to do with family, I've got nothing. You keep that shit under lock and key like a bank vault."
"There are some things that people just don't need to know."
"Did you give her a time period too?"
"No, I'm not that cruel. Just so long as she can answer them correctly, I'll accept it. Until then, it'll be like normal."

Tua's plan was set.
She adjusted her wig (She had borrowed a short blonde bob from Lucy) and straightened her sunglasses one more time, nodding approvingly at herself in the mirror.
There. She looked appropriately like some kind of law-major. She had even found a legally blonde-esque dress in Savannah's closet. Walking out of the bathroom, Tua made her way down to the Government Lecture hall, joining a steady stream of tired-looking students.
The best friend (Seth? His name was Seth.) Was already in the classroom, although, as predicted, the professor wasn't in yet.
(Savannah may or may not have visited her office with some questions on an assignment. Professors with open door policies were truly national treasures.)
Tua walked to the empty seat next to Seth and dropped herself in it, opening her laptop and trying to appear as bored and tired as possible. She had even brought a black coffee, she was that prepared. She set it a safe distance away from herself after taking a fake sip.

(Pfft, I love her that's exactly what I would do XD)
Seth eyed the mysterious stranger next to him for a second before turning away, trying to compose himself so he didn't burst out laughing. So this was her plan. Oh this was comedy gold. When he turned back to his computer, he tried not to seem too out of place.
"Tua, if you're going to break into someone's class, try and do a bit more research beforehand. The person that sits in that chair has black hair. And is also a guy." He commented off-handedly, not looking at her as an amused smile crept onto his face despite his best efforts.

Tua swore under her breath, taking off her sunglasses.
"Oh. Um. Sorry, I'm new to this class- just transferred, actually! And just for the day, probably. So I don't know the seating arrangement yet." A man with black hair stopped in front of her with a slightly irritated expression and waited. Tua leveled him with a deadpan look of her own until he moved along. "So, hi!" She said, turning back to Seth with what she hoped was a charming smile. "I'm Tua, I don't think we've met. I'm low-key stalking your best friend, I guess you've heard of me?"

Seth shook his head. New to this class, did she think he was stupid?
"Oh honey, I've done more than just heard of you. Kyran can't shut up about you and not in a good way." He sighed. "He told me about the challenge he set up for you. You should be honored, he's never done this for any admirer before. Well, not like he had any to begin with. But if you're coming to me for answers, I can't help you. Not only would he kill me for giving you the answers, I probably don't even know them."

"Awwww he talks about me!" Tua grinned, absently fiddling with her blonde wig. "That's cute. And see, he very secretly doesn't want to murder me, but he won't admit it because that would be bad for the whole 'I'm tall, dark, handsome and mysterious and I may or may not have killed a man," vibe he's got going on," She said, pitching her voice as deep as it could go to imitate Kyran. "I really hope he hasn't killed a man," she added as an afterthought.

Sety snorted, rolling his eyes with a smile. "I seriously doubt he has but with what I know about him, eh. I certainly wouldn't put it past him." He shrugged.
"So, out of curiosity, what questions did he ask you? He said there were three but didn't explain past that."

"He DID say there were three, and then that conniving son of a rampallion asked FOUR," Tua exclaimed heatedly. "He's lucky I like him, or I wouldn't put up with this kind of deception. Anyways, you'll have to ask him the exact ones. I kinda don't want you to know because I feel like you would probably not answer them if I asked." Tua scratched her head and studied Seth. "Hang on, he said he met you in middle school, right? That's a long time to know someone, how come you think you wouldn't know the answers?"

(It's fine, don't worry about it!)
Seth shrugged. "Kyran isn't one to talk about himself. He keeps a lot of things under wraps and most of it involves family. He didn't grow up in the town we met in, though he never told me where he had come from. He keeps that kind of stuff locked up like a bank vault. I've known this guy almost a whole decade and I don't think I've ever seen his house once, much less the people that live in it. And I know this is probably one of the questions but even I'm not totally sure of the answer so I can tell you this, Kyran has two older siblings. A brother and sister. Though I'm about 90% sure he has younger ones too, I've got nothing on how many."

Tua nodded, eyebrows pinched.
Damn. Kyran really was incredibly secretive… Savannah had only known her for a few years, and could already pretty much predict exactly what mood Tua was in and how her day had gone based on what socks she was wearing. Tua, in turn, could rattle off the favorite color of everyone in Savannah's family and the exact list of names (both boy and girl) her pregnant older sister was considering. Tua couldn't imagine knowing someone for as long as Seth knew Kyran and barely knowing anything about them, or about their background at least. That was… kind of concerning?
It was worth repeating: She really, really hoped he hadn't killed a man.
"Wow. Secretive guy," Tua remarked to Seth lightly. "I appreciate it though, really… Would you mind if I just asked you a few questions straight-up?"

"You know what? Fire away. What's the worst that could happen." He sighed and turned to look at her. "Just so long as you promise not to tell Ky that I helped you with this or else it's my head on the chopping block. The guy already doesn't have like any friends but I know from experience that he won't hesitate to cut off the ones he does and honestly, it's kind of sad how much he isolates himself but what can you do."

"On my honor as a gentleman," Tua promised, raising her right hand. She silently turned the phrase 'from experience' over in her head… There was definitely a story there. Best not to ask about it (for now).
"What middle school did you two meet in?"

"P.S. 22. I know, real creative but that's what you get when you live in a big city. And before you ask which one, it was New York City. I was mostly raised in Maryland so neither of us really have the accent despite growing up there."

"That's probably for the best," Tua acknowledged, making absolutely no effort to conceal the fact she was writing notes on everything he said. She had a thing for New York accents, if Kyran had one she probably would have spontaneously combust a long time ago. "Did either of you play any sports or anything? I did soccer," she added when she was done jotting down information with her neon green gel pen.

"He did archery in his spare time. Quite the impressive marksman, I'll tell you that. So if you want to daydream of archer Kyran, I'm not going to stop you, I would too." He laughed with a shake of his head before continuing. "I was actually normal and did basketball but dropped it in high school after I broke my leg in my last middle school game."

"Basketball? Nice, I did that for two years in Highschool! Sorry to hear about your leg though, that's a shame." Tua took a moment to leaf through her notebook. "Give me a sec… Did you ever meet any member of his family? Like, who dropped him off at school and whatnot before he could drive?" Tua recited from her list of questions. (So far, she had asked two out of three. Past that, she had written 'Just wing it' with a smiley face.)

He shook his head. "No idea. Blacked out windows. I never saw a driver. No one ever did. I've seen his mom before though. Once. Let's just say, she's not a nice lady. I have a high suspicion that Kyran's the way he is because he was emotionally abused. Although that could just be me overestimating the comments she made."

"Damn." Tua went quiet for a minute. Blacked out windows? His best friend only ever saw his mom once, and was convinced in that time she was abusive? A sudden wave of concern hit her- Had she been too aggressive?? She was no expert, but if he had been emotionally abused at some point wasn't it like. NOT good to loudly pine after him in public.
He'd only seemed irritated though… hmm, food for thought.
"What kind of comments?"

"Nothing major, I'm assuming because I was there but they seemed be veiled threats and backhanded compliments. That was when she actually paid attention to him. Most of the time she was too busy focusing on his other siblings."

"Threats? And hang on, didn't you say you hadn't met any of his other family? What do you mean she focused more on his other siblings??" Tua said, frowning. A second later her eyes widened and she grinned at Seth a little apologetically. "Sorry, man. I'm really not trying to sound like I'm interrogating you or anything, that's just. Kinda concerning, ya know?"

"Well, she always said she was busy helping out one of his siblings or that someone was calling for her. Kyran seemed to be ignored in his own home, treated like some kind of outcast. They may have seem him as the family regret."

"Wow." Tua said out loud, sitting back in her seat.
…In all honesty, she had kind of been able to tell that there had at some point been something sketchy going on with Kyran's life, but she had hoped she was just being paranoid. "That's… pretty messed up. I'm glad you were friends with him back then." She was quiet for a minute and then laughed a little nervously. "Yeah, so I'm just going to stop the whole police interrogation thing, that don't feel right in this situation… I don't know." Tua slumped backwards, waving her hands wildly. "I mean, I feel like he wouldn't have given me the questions if he didn't think I would try and find out, but it feels pretty disrespectful to try and dig this stuff up on another person, y'know? I don't know, what do you think?"