Gaijin No More

Aiden's POV

I made my way through the hallways towards Cody's locker. I wanted to ask him if he wanted to have a ride home. Well, the asking part was just a small duty, I was going to give him the ride anyway.

When his locker finally came into view, I didn't see Cody at first. Not until I was only a few steps away. He was crouched down, looking at something on the ground.

“There you are!” I exclaimed and stood next to him. “I just wanted to ask if -” I stopped in mid question since Cody was still looking the item on the floor. I took a closer look and realized what the item was supposed to be. “Cody? Is that what I think it is?” I asked and crouched down next to him.

“Yeah,” he answered, his voice weak. He slowly reached down and lifted the thing that used to be camera into his hands.

The camera looked like shit. It had been completely smashed, obviously on purpose. It was impossible to get a camera into that condition by just dropping it.

“Holy shit. What happened?” I asked, my voice low.

“I don't know Aiden. I found it like this,” Cody answered in small voice, examining the ruins of his camera.

I didn't know what to say. I knew how important the camera was to Cody, hell, he wanted to be a photographer once he was old enough.

But who would've done this? Cody had told me that before I started talking to him, no one had ever paid attention to him. Basically I was the only one who acknowledged his existence in our school.

And I sure as hell wasn't the one who destroyed his camera.

Cody grabbed his bag from the floor and put the camera into it, although it was beyond repair. Sighing he stood up and swung the strap over his head.

“You wanted to ask me something?” he changed the subject, but his voice and eyes betrayed him. He was upset, which was completely understandable and his voice sounded numb.

As I looked at him and the sad look in his eyes I decided I'd never again wanted to see him like this.

I wrapped my arms around Cody and pulled him to my chest, attempting to cheer him up a little bit. I buried my face into his hair and embraced him tightly. In response he wrapped his arms around me and leaned his head against my chest.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered quietly and stroked his back. He shook his head lightly.

“Don't be. There was nothing you could've done.” I knew what he said was true but that didn't stop me from feeling bad.

We stayed like that for a moment, the hallways already quite empty.

“I'll give you a ride home.” It wasn't a question nor even a suggestion. It was more like a statement and Cody agreed by giving me a small nod. I kept my arm around his shoulder and led him out.

The ride was quiet, neither of us really wanting to talk. Cody just looked out of the window, watching as we passed other cars and buildings.

I couldn't understand why anybody would do this to him. Whoever it was had to be a complete asshole. And God help that bastard if I ever found out who it was.

I pulled over on Cody's driveway and turned off the engine. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Cody unbuckled his seat belt.

“Thanks for the ride,” he whispered and got out of the car.

“No problem. I'll see you tomorrow,” I replied, receiving a nod as an answer.

I followed Cody with my eyes as he took his keys from his pocket and opened the front door, slipping inside.

This was when uncontrollable fury filled my mind.

I was going to find out who broke Cody's camera and make that bastard pay.

Cody's POV

The fact that my camera was smashed didn't really sink in before I got back home. When I first saw the remaining pieces in front of my locker, I was shocked.

Now I felt... numb. That camera had been my most treasured possession and now it was destroyed.

A wave of sorrow washed over me but it was quickly replaced by anger. Why would anyone do this? What had I done to deserve it?

But like always the anger soon disappeared and all I felt was empty.

I had no idea how long I had been sitting at the kitchen table, my chin resting on its surface, staring at the pieces of my camera. Two minutes or two hours, I didn't really care at that moment.

I didn't move from my spot when my dad came home.

“Hi boy!” he greeted me cheerily before he noticed what I was doing. Or the lack of it. “What on Earth is that pile of trash on the table?” he asked, his voice curious. I flinched when he called my camera a 'pile of trash'.

“That would be my camera,” I answered grimly, playing with one piece of the said pile of trash. My dad's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when my words sunk in.

“That thing is your camera? How did it end up like that?” he sat opposite of me and examined the ex-camera.

“Somebody apparently smashed it.”

“What? Why would anybody do that? Did you see who it was?”

“I don't know what happened. I found it by my locker like that,” I said and pointed the heap of ruins in front of me. “I guess this ends my incipient career as a photographer.”

“Oh Cody don't say that. We'll get you another camera, even better than this one,” dad tried to soothe me.

“There are better ways to spend our money dad. I'll just have to think something else to do with my life.” I got up and threw the remaining pieces of my camera into the waste bin.

“There's only a few months for your birthday. You can have a new camera as a birthday present.”

“Thanks dad,” I said, feeling slightly better now that he had tried to cheer me up.

It was probably stupid to be this depressed about a camera but I couldn't help it.

Hopefully things go better tomorrow.