Chapter 11: Farewell

December 2007 arrived, bringing with it the long-awaited end of the school year.

"FINALLY, THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE EEEEEEHHHH 🥳🥳🥳🥳", I shouted, euphoric, as I walked through the school hallways with Demitri and Eli.

"It's finally over," Demitri sighed in relief. "I couldn't take any more studying. And luckily I didn't have to take retakes."

"Yeah, me too," Eli agreed. "It's great that I didn't have to go to rehab. Everything was already hard enough for me to handle, let alone rehab..."

"Yes, studying is boring, but necessary, as I always say," I said, with a smile. "But it's great that it's over now. I'll have more time to train and focus more until classes start again. And also, you know, I'll have to enter an unfamiliar school as a newbie again..."

"There you go again talking about training," Demitri complained. "Don't you get tired of it, man? I mean, come on, you were short..."

"Yeah, yeah, man. Look at you, you're huge, man. How tall are you now?" Eli asked curiously.

"Hahaha, man, I'm about 176 now. I guess that's normal for a growing kid like me," I replied, shrugging. "I've also been training since I got here and eating really well, totally different from the sedentary lifestyle I had before all this..."

"I'm going to start training too," Demitri announced determinedly. "I don't want to fall behind you even in height."

"I'll do that too," Eli agreed. "Listening to you talk all the time about being the best version of yourself is boring, but inspiring."

"😀😁 That's what I wanted to hear, my friends," I said, with a proud smile. "I may be leaving, but it's only for a year. I hope that when I come back, I can see all of you evolved. The problems will always be there, but it's up to you to fight against them or to weaken like chickens and live on the margins of other people. 👊"

"I'm going. I have a lot of things to take care of. See you when I get back from my trip. 🤝", I said goodbye.

"Bye, brother. 🤝", Demitri said goodbye.

"Bye, friend. 🤝", Eli also said goodbye.

"🙋‍♂️," I waved at them, before turning around and walking away.

About 3 hours later...

I was on my bike, on my way to Tory's work.

"Plin plin...", I rang the doorbell of the diner.

"What are you doing here?" Tory asked angrily. "I told you never to show your face in front of me again..."

"Tory, I can't leave without saying goodbye to you..." I said, sincerely. "I know the pain I've caused you, but it was never my intention to do this..."

"THEN WHY DID YOU KISS ME THAT DAY IN THE ALLEY? WOULDN'T IT BE EASIER TO JUST SAY GOODBYE TO ME? WHY DID YOU DO THAT? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU DID?", she screamed, drawing the attention of everyone around.

"Tory, please calm down..." I begged.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THAT... JUST GET OUT OF HERE AND NEVER SHOW UP IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN, CLARK...", she screamed, tears in her eyes.

"Tory, is everything okay here? What's with all the shouting?" the manager asked, coming closer.

"It's just this idiot here who's bothering me..." she replied, pointing at me.

"Okay, then I'll be going. Goodbye, Tory...", I said goodbye, sadly.

Tory looked at me with a sad look and tears started streaming down her face.

"Are you okay, Tory?" the manager asked, concerned.

"Yeah... Sniff... manager... I just need to... go to the bathroom..." she replied, before running to the bathroom, crying.

"Thoughts: I shouldn't have treated him so badly... But it hurts so much... Why does it hurt so much?" Tory thought, as she cried in the bathroom.

A few minutes later...

"I can't do anything about it," I thought as I walked away from the diner. "As for her anger toward me... I just hope that anger doesn't turn into hatred... Now I need to pack my things."

A few hours later...

"Well, finally everything is sorted. Now I just need to catch my plane. To tell you the truth, I'm only taking a suitcase full of clothes, I don't have much...", I thought, as I closed my suitcase.

"Even though I've only been here for 2 months, I've already created beautiful memories..."

"I need to know if there's any way a human like me can use magic, or any other kind of mystical power," I thought as I headed to the airport. "I mean, I don't want to become any kind of vampire, but I would be willing to become a werewolf. I was a huge fan of Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman, and man, even in my past life, I'd never seen a werewolf as awesome as that one. Without a doubt, if there's any way a human can become a werewolf, I'd want to be like that one..."

"I wonder if..."