The Distinguished Mr. Rose Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Do You Hear the Angel's Trumpet?

Read chapter 20 of The Distinguished Mr. Rose by QuiteTheSlacker on NovelPedia.

Chapter 20: Do You Hear the Angel's Trumpet? ——— Jack When I was little, I used to daydream a lot. I’d go to school with my head up in the clouds, imagining myself on some grand adventure with all my favorite cartoon heroes, and I’d stay that way even when I got back home. Who didn’t at the time, you know? Flying through the sky with Superman, fighting the galactic empire, all kinds of fiction and worlds that just seemed so fantastical compared to real life… I was obsessed with it. It didn’t help that I discovered anime during middle school. At the time I felt so cool because it was a niche that wasn’t really talked about that much. California was still all about comic books and sci-fi, so when I got a taste of these super unique shows that were different from the mainstream, it was like discovering gold. I found them. I wasn’t like the other kids. Anime was what made me unique. If I talked about it and became an expert in it, surely that would make me popular… right? No. It didn’t. I learned that lesson too late. In hindsight, I should’ve expected as much. I never really fit in with my peers growing up. It’s not like I was struggling or anything; I grew up in a typical middle-class family living in a typical middle-class neighborhood. I never went hungry, I didn’t need to study hard to get good grades, and my parents were, well, decent. It’s not that they abused me or anything - rather, they just… weren’t there in my life all that much. But that wasn’t all that uncommon. Dad would be off working his nine-to-five, spend his free time at the bars, and then come home at ten. That’s just how it was for most people, I think. I was kinda lucky that he wasn’t an angry drunk - just tired drunk. I’d go weeks without seeing his face sometimes, and meanwhile my mom would be busy socializing with the other neighborhood ladies. I got the feeling she didn’t really like me for some reason. Mom never went out of her way to take me anywhere or spend time with me, but when it came to being a mother she didn’t slack off at least. I was fed on time, brought clothes when they got old, and had all my needs taken care of as if she was going through a checklist one by one. I was a prop to show the world her harmonious little nuclear family. But like I said, that was normal. Everyone had families like that. The only one that wasn’t normal was me . I was a failure who couldn’t make a single friend: not in elementary school, not in middle school, and definitely not in high school. The thing was… I tried . I really did. But when I talked to people, something in me would deflate. Like, my social battery would drain almost in an instant. I could never hold a conversation for long, and even if I did manage to, there’d be moments where I ran out of things to say and then there’d be this really awkward silence. It stressed me out. I’d mutter and babble something stupid to try and keep it going, but in the end I’d break under pressure and run away. That’s what I did for most of my life: run away. I ran from my problems, I ran when things got difficult, and I ran to my safe space of cartoons and anime and webnovels. Webnovels were the worst of them all. They scratched an itch for what I wanted most: to be special. I thought, you know, these characters were just like me. They were unfairly isolated; people hated them simply because they were better. That had to be the reason why I was alone, right? I was better, superior, and the whole world hated people like me because it was afraid of what I was capable of. Others needed to beat me down because they knew I would eventually surpass them. That was my mentality, and it’s also why I became so addicted to webnovels. The protagonists of these stories didn’t let their enemies or society break them. No, they fought back and slaughtered anyone who got in their way. They could change; they weren’t limited by the things around them. When I inserted myself into these characters, it was like I was the one with all the pow