Tonight was actually supposed to be fun, you know what I mean? I should have been out at my usual club, dancing past midnight while drowning myself in the glory that is sweet sake and attempting to endlessly flirt with each and every girl I met at that club.

But then Luki has to go and be no fun at all! He says I have to be outside the club at a certain time so he pick me up, which makes me mad because it's my car that he's driving and all! Why is he taking my car over though, you ask?

I usually drive myself wherever I want to. If I want to go, I just do it. And if I want to leave, I don't have anyone telling me when I should put down a drink and get out of there as fast as lightning.

Except I'm the only one with a car out of all my roommates, and Luki says Mikuo needs to go somewhere tonight and wants to be dropped off, and so he goes and drops me off at the club and tells me I have to be at some place by some time, and I'm not even listening to him anymore by then because I just want to get inside already.

So he goes driving off in my car, and Mikuo is in the passenger seat now and he waves at me and everything just seems like it's fine, except that I'm now pissed at Luki for driving because that car is my baby and I don't want him getting into some dumb accident and screwing it up.

But you know, whatever.

I'll just dance it off, maybe get drunk and then stumble out here and he'll take me home and rant at me, but I won't remember any of the words because I'm too drunk to listen, and then we'll wake up tomorrow and it'll all be normal.

I thought that's how things always had been.

Come to think of it, there were a lot of things I thought were true before now.

I wish that they had been true so much...

I knew Luki had gone and given me a time to be there and everything, but I guess I just forgot about all of that since I don't remember looking at a clock the entire time that I was there.

So what if he would be there in twenty minutes? Or fifteen? Or ten? Or maybe he was outside right now and was yelling at me to get out of the club because he didn't want to force himself through the crowd to find me. All the better conditions for me to stay and piss him off a little more. That's always fun, after all.

Surprisingly, I hadn't done any drinking yet tonight, and I don't know if it was because I didn't have a lot of money right now, or because my conscious was telling me that I couldn't drink for some reason.

I was actually about to go and hit on this cute chick over at the counter, maybe buy her a couple of shots and start up a game of beer pong. Again, it's what I like doing, so don't judge me, man.

But I didn't get the chance to even walk five steps toward her, because someone grabbed my wrist from behind and I was forced to turn at a weird angle and walk towards the door. It was the person I had least expected to come in here and get me, too.

Why was Luki so uptight and never up for having any real fun?

"Hey, let go! Ow, that hurts! C'mon man, I'm partying here! What's the big idea!" I started flailing around to see if he might let go of my arm, but he just held it tighter and dragged me faster out of the club and into the parking lot.

It was dark outside, so I wondered how long I had been inside. Again, I don't look at clocks. Not my thing.

Was he mad at me for being out really late? Was that it?

That wasn't the case, but I didn't know that at the time, and now I wish it had been. I'd rather Luki yell at me then have what happened next happen.

"This isn't the time for partying, Meito. We have a problem, and you must help me."

He spoke in this really low and calm voice. Luki's usually a quiet person anyway, but he never speaks in that sort of tone unless something big has happened. I remember the time we had to drive to the next town over to bail our friend Gumo out of something he didn't even do, and Luki went from speaking all low and weird to speaking normally right after that whole thing was done.

Creepy.

"What're you talking about? Help you with what?" I'd stopped struggling and just sort of let him drag me further out into the parking lot. I could see the trunk of my beloved red beauty in the back of the lot, which was strange because whenever Luki gets me for any reason, he parks right up in the front if he can, and he could tonight.

But he didn't...

"Just come with me," He said, "You have to see for yourself..."

"What's there to see? ...Did you get in an accident in my car! Oh God, I'll kill you, Luki!"

"I did not get into an accident! God, you are so quick to conclusions..."

He let go of my arm and shoved me towards the car, so I started running towards it so he wouldn't start dragging me again.

I almost didn't see Mikuo laying on his side in the backseat. He was curled up onto his side with this big, gross wad of used tissues clutched in his hand, and his eyes were all puffy and red and raw. It may sound not so bad, but if you actually see it, it looks really horrible, especially on him since he has this blue-green kind of hair color.

Yanking open the back door, I couldn't help but lean into the car and just look him over, trying to figure out what had gone on. He didn't look at me really, but he was crying really hard and he didn't look like he would talk to us.

After maybe a minute, I stood back up and looked at Luki with this glare on my face. "What the Hell happened?"

I guess he was afraid that I thought it was his fault that Mikuo was upset, because he put his hands up in defense and backed away from me a little bit. "Just hang on a second! I'm not entirely clued in on what happened either!"

"Then tell me what you do know!" I screamed at him, I guess I was really getting pissed off by that point.

"Alright, alright! I dropped him off over at Akaito's and started to go home, but he called me fifteen minutes later to come pick him back up and when I got him, he just started crying really hard! I didn't know what to do, so I thought you might know!"

Before you start asking questions, here's the juice on that whole thing. Akaito is a buddy of Mikuo's. Well, not exactly a buddy, he's actually Mikuo's boyfriend.

Yep, Mikuo was into guys. It's not a big deal, really. I mean, it was at first when he told us, but we've gotten used to it by now. It's actually kind of nice for me, because then I know he won't go stealing any cute chicks that I run into, but I can't help but worry for him.

After all, if he told the people I hang out with that he was into guys, they'd probably beat him up or something. See? That's why he's my best friend even though we don't go everywhere in the world together.

But yeah, anyway...Akaito is a pretty okay guy, I suppose. But he gets all seductive around Mikuo, like he wants to jump him and go in some random room every second that they're together. I tried to tell him about that, but he wouldn't listen to me and just said that Akaito is just a little unsure of how to show his love.

More like unsure of how to keep himself in his pants.

I couldn't really do anything about that though since it wasn't my business to go meddling in their love and all of that junk.

At least, it wasn't my business until tonight.

Mikuo was still crying in the backseat, making these weird sounds like he was choking and gagging all the time, and he still kept using that disgusting tissue wad on his eyes and nose.

"Meito, I don't know what to do...Please, you're his best friend. Talk to him..." Luki wrung his hands together like he always did when he was nervous.

Since I hadn't ever dealt with this kind of thing, I was just as stumped as he was on the whole situation.

I sat myself down on the side of the seat and put a hand on Mikuo's shoulder, shaking him a little bit to remind him that we were still here. "Mikuo? Buddy? C'mon, don't do this...Tell us what happened, 'kay?"

He opened his eyes and he looked at me. I wanted to gag almost because of how he looked right now, but I didn't show it because that'd just make him more upset. He's way too sensitive, and that didn't make this better.

"I-I'm...S-Sorry, Meito..." He said with this quiver in his voice.

When he sat up, I moved away to give him more room. He wiped his eyes with his arm this time and looked at us again. "I-I went to Akaito's f-for our date...And..."

"...And what?" Luki chimed in.

"...A-Akaito was there with this girl w-with red hair..."

I remembered that girl, actually. Her name was Muri Anone, and she was one of Akaito's 'tight' friends, as he called her. I didn't like where this was going though.

"H-He came to the door a-and looked surprised to see me...He tried to c-call me and cancel our date...And I asked him w-why and then she came out..."

"Did he tell you why he wanted to cancel the date?"

I was this close to back-slugging Luki in the face, but I didn't.

"He...He never...Never loved me...It was all just a j-joke..."

"A joke?" Was all I managed to get out. Who the Hell plays a cruel joke like that? Who in their right mind?

"How on earth did he pull off that as a joke?" Luki was clenching his fist by now, looking almost as angry as I was, but he has a really weird angry face, so he just looked sort of funny instead.

"I-It was for the l-laughes from his friends...A-And the sex...And...And..."

His eyes filled up with tears again and he started crying even harder then before, falling back onto the seat and holding his head. I swore to God, if I ever saw Akaito again, I would beat the living shit out of him for doing this. He wouldn't live another day.

Well, he would, actually.

Because Luki said something about going home, and I argued about going to Akaito's, and I really don't even remember now because I was so angry that everything felt numb around me.

I wanted to drive us home, but Luki said I was too pent up with anger to do that. What the Hell does he even know? Either way though, he spoke in that low voice again that I had better sit in the back with Mikuo, lest I not see dinner for a few days.

You don't want to piss off the cook of your house, you really, really don't.

So I got in the back and Luki started up the engine and off we were back home. Mikuo didn't stop crying that entire trip, and I felt uncomfortable with all of this, but I managed to put a hand on his shoulder and just sort of tell him that it would be alright.

Even though I knew it wouldn't be alright.

It wouldn't be at all.

And damn it, I was right.