Prompt: Angsty Tao Scenario

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Back In Time

The workout room is nearly silent, save for the constant wham of a punching bag being hit in a pattern of three. It’s late, and Tao knows he should probably be in bed right now but his mind won’t seem to stop running around in circles, and in this moment he needs a distraction. Whenever something was really bothering him or he just needed to get away from everything for a little bit, he found that practicing martial arts was very helpful. 

His knuckles are wrapped with tape and he is clad in only a pair of dark sweat pants. His torso is gleaming with sweat, he has been practicing for quite some time now. As he hits the punching bag, he lets out short puffs of air, his body is finally growing tired. Perhaps tired enough that when his head hits his pillow he will fall asleep right away. But the thought of going back to the dorm, back into the room where his best ing friend is sleeping right now gives him a terrible sense of nausea. He can’t go back there, not right now. Maybe not ever, he ponders. But that’s bull and he knows it. He has to go back, he has to pretend that nothing is wrong, that everything i just ing peachy. But it’s not. Nothing is okay, it’s all ed up and he hates it.

He wishes that he could turn back the clock and go back to a time when everything was perfect again, no issues, no jealousy or anger. Only laughs and happiness. But it’s impossible and he knows it. In a music video his time control powers would work perfectly and he could go back, but in reality that would never happen, and he knows it. 

After a particularly hard hit to the old, worn out punching bag, Tao begins to wonder when exactly it was that things began to change between his two best friends. Maybe it was the moment he had introduced the girl he had secretly crushed on since high school to his new band mate Kris. Maybe it was that night they had stayed in the dorm and watched horror movies, when she began to lean on Kris instead of him like she used to. Or maybe it was when Kris had approached him, unable to contain his feelings for her any longer and asked him how he should go about asking her out on a date. 

It was impossible to pinpoint the exact moment things had changed, and the more he thought about it, the more pissed off he got. Things weren’t supposed to end up this way, he was supposed to be the one she fell for, not Kris. It should be her and Tao going out on movie dates and taking romantic strolls in the park. Deep down, he regrets ever introducing he two. Maybe things would have turned out differently if he hadn’t.

As his thoughts progress, he begins punching harder, faster. 

Tao wonders when he started to hate the man who was once his best friend. Maybe it was when he was brushed off like he was nothing but a pesky nuisance. Perhaps it was when he started to feel like he was nothing but a third wheel. Maybe it was when he realized that he no longer fit in with them anymore. Whenever it happened doesn’t really matter. All that does matter anymore is hitting this damn inanimate object that was supposed to be helping him clear his mind.

After letting out an animalistic scream, Tao drops to the ground on his knees.His breathing is labored, he feels as though he is suffocating. Finally it becomes too much and tears begin to stream steadily down his face. Things weren’t supposed to be this way, everything was supposed to be perfect, he was supposed to be happy. But he isn’t. Everything is wrong. And as sobs wrack his body in the middle of the night, he knows that there is nothing more that he can do. And this only makes him cry harder.