"You sure you know what you're doing?" She looked up at her best friend of four years. Her faithful friend was hoisting her up over a large, ivy-covered brick wall with one shoulder.
"Of course, of course." She waved her free arm, as if it would dispel the legalities that they might break.
Correction. Were going to break.
"We could get arrested for this!" Despite all of her complaints, she dropped onto the other side of the wall.
"You only get arrested if you're caught." Her friend giggled, scaling the wall with ease, "Besides, Keiko got in and out of here without any trouble last week."
"Sango, Keiko's brother lives around here." She was still protesting as they cleverly concealed themselves in strategically placed bushes.
Sango snorted and pulled her loose black hair back into a tight ponytail. "You're such a worrywart, Kagome." She was a year and a half older than her friend, sturdily built and graceful to boot. She was practiced in this art of skulking.
"We're trespassing!" Kagome, the more meek and law-abiding of the two, was making a last feeble attempt at bailing out. She was a little shorter than Sango, had chocolate brown eyes, and raven hair that rested just past her shoulders.
"Psh." Sango pulled out an extra hair tie and roughly pulled back Kagome's hair. The only noise of protest that she made was a small squeak. "Now let's go!" Expertly, she stole away from their private clump of bushes.
Kagome sighed and followed, knowing that her friend wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. They snuck through various kinds of foliage with a quick sort of grace that their classmates envied. Soon, the garden started to thin. Sango held up an arm, signaling Kagome to halt.
"Ready?" She whispered.
"Can we go home now?"
"One…"
Kagome grumbled and dug her bare feet into the soft ground.
"Two…"
They were both poised for the takeoff.
"Three!"
Kagome and Sango leapt from their refuge and made a mad dash for their target. In almost perfect unison, their feet left the ground. For a moment, they were both weightless, blissful. Gravity took hold and they plunged into the water. It was ice cold. Kagome bit back a yelp as she hit the surface and made her way back to the edge. Sango was doing her victory lap around the pool as the lights in the house flicked on.
"Shit!" Sango gasped. Kagome hoisted herself into the cold night air. "Run for it- I'm right behind you!"
She didn't need to be told twice. The teenager jetted back into the darkness, listening to the shouts from the inside of the house and the splashes that told her Sango was getting out of the pool. She didn't look back. It didn't matter that she was fully clothed- with soaking undergarments, shorts, and a loose t-shirt- or that she was barefoot or that the boys who lived in that house were probably hot on their tails. She was flying through the garden. As soon as she hit the wall, Kagome turned around and cupped her hands over her knee. Sango was there in two beats, clearing the wall in one quick leap. She held a hand down to her partner in crime and pulled her up.
"Get back here bitches!"
Kagome didn't look back. Sango merely flipped them the birdie as she jumped off the wall. "LATER DWEEBS!" She yelled.
Safely beyond the perimeter, a faded blue pickup waited. They sprinted to the vehicle and piled in the back seat, all the while squealing, "Go Miroku go go go go! Get us out of here!"
He was laughing madly as he slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The wheels tore through the grass. Kagome turned around to watch the guys who were chasing them jump over the wall.
"Man," Miroku said, "I didn't think you'd actually do it!" He turned hard onto a dirt road, easing off the gas petal.
Sango climbed over Kagome and into the front seat, "Yeah well, pay up."
"Fuck." He leaned forward to yank his wallet out of his back pocket.
"Watch the road, pervert!" Sango screeched. Miroku was digging through his billfold, driving at 50 miles an hour on a dirt road, using his knees to guide the steering wheel. He ignored her until he whipped out a twenty and thrust it into her waistband.
"Was that an invitation?" His lecherous grin spread infectiously. Kagome knew what was going to happen next. She hurriedly buckled herself in.
WHAM.
The car jolted violently and swerved back onto the road. Sango yanked the bill out of her jeans, raising her fist again. "Want some more?" She growled.
"Well, I paid you a twenty." Miroku joked, ducking the next jab, "Besides, you might-," He cut off suddenly when she decked him again. The car jerked back and forth.
"Sango. Please. He's driving. Kill him when it won't kill us." Kagome pleaded through tight lips. Sango and Miroku were the only people she trusted, but she only trusted them so far. Her friend relented and Sango shot into their "daring" adventure.
Kagome leaned back as the words and excited, adrenaline-induced giggles washed over her. There was something too familiar about riding in a car like this. She didn't want to think about it.
The running then. That felt good. The air beneath her feet and the distance between her and whatever was behind her. To just drop everything, leave the world behind.
Leave the fear behind.
The faces were starting to appear again.
"Kagome!"
She jerked her head up. Sango was looking at her worriedly, "You okay? I've been calling you for a couple minutes."
"Yeah, fine. I just… spaced."
"Like I was saying. Spill it, Miroku. You picked that house specifically. Why?" She had turned her attention to the young man in the driver's seat. His hair was short in a suave sort of way, always well-kept.
He grinned secretively. Sango made a face because that was his 'you'll just have to find out by yourself' grin. He opened his month to answer but she interrupted him. "Wait. Let me guess. 'An old friend.' Am I right?"
He raised his eyebrows and purred, "Sango my pet, you know me so well. Would you do me the honor of-,"
WHAM
Kagome was glad she kept her seatbelt on.
"I stopped slapping you because you didn't seem to get it through your thick skull that I hate your pervasions. I punched you three times in the last few minutes. What do I have to do? Rip out your balls for you to get the picture?"
Her righteous anger went completely unnoticed by the perpetrator. He simply replied, "But you don't hate me." He sounded touched.
Kagome frowned. They were picking up speed because Miroku wasn't paying attention. "Guys…" Her nervous voice fell on deaf ears.
"I hate lechers. You are a lecher."
"Hey guys…"
"But you don't hate me."
"Uh guys?" Kagome braced herself for impact.
"I do."
"Guys."
"But you said you hated my pervasions!"
Once again, Kagome braced herself. "Guys!"
"Because they're disgusting!"
"But you like me!"
"Guys!" Kagome yelled. Two pairs of eyes snapped to her, "I hate to interrupt this whole potential romance, but you've just run two-," She cringed and amended, "three… stop signs. And the speed limit is thirty-five." The needle was inching up to seventy.
Miroku eased his foot onto the break, "Oh." He grinned sheepishly, "Sorry Kagome." His attention returned to a beet-red Sango, "Where were we my dear?"
She grumbled something that sounded a lot like 'shut up.' He chuckled and patted her knee in a completely non-lecherous way. Which was surprising for him. Kagome smiled. They would make a good couple… if they ever got around to confessing to one another instead of bickering.
Miroku, uncomfortable with any sort of silence, blurted, "So whose turn was it?"
"Sango's."
"Yup." She muttered, "Mine. Okay. Miroku!"
"Yes ma'am!" He sat at attention in his seat, clutching the steering wheel right at the top.
"Well?"
After a quick deliberation, he chose. "Truth. I'm driving."
She pouted, "No fun…" Grumbling, she looked back at Kagome.
"Ask him a tough one." She suggested.
"Okay." It took her a few minutes to think of a really good question. Suddenly she snapped her fingers, "Tell us whose house that was and how you now them." Kagome frowned at her friend for letting him off so easy. Sango shrugged, "I want to know."
It was now Miroku's turn to pout. "That's no fair…"
"All's fair in truth or dare." The girls chimed.
He sneered at them both before taking a turn onto a main road. "That was Inuyasha Nagasaki. Remember him? He used to play with us when we were really little."
"Wait- Sandbox Inuyasha?" Sango asked. Kagome slumped back into her seat again. She didn't know him and didn't care. Her adrenaline rush was wearing off.
"The same. He was adopted or something a few years ago, before the accident." There was a novel between the lines. Kagome frowned and decided she would ask Sango later.
"So why didn't we say hello?" She remembered that Inuyasha was a good kid and suddenly felt bad for trespassing. And possibly givng him the birdie.
Miroku put a hand out to stop yet another blow, "I needed a way to get his attention! I saw him the other day and he treated me like shit!"
She looked skeptical, "You said who you were?"
"Duh."
Kagome smacked him upside the head. "I thought I told you I'm pop your head off if you said that again."
"Thanks Kagome." Sango muttered. "Miroku, it's almost 2. I'm beat. What about you?"
"I'm wet. The seat back here is wet. I want some dry clothes."
Miroku gave a start, because his seats were leather, and couldn't get them home fast enough.
Sango and Kagome lived in a small apartment that they rented from Miroku's aunt. Sango was seeking a roommate and Kagome was virtually homeless. They met and Miroku and Sango became very protective over their stray Kagome. Something about her drew them to her; something about them made Kagome feel a little more at home.
"Kagome." Sango had traded her wet clothes for a pair of plaid shorts and an old tank top. "Are you alright? You looked a little worried in the car." She draped herself over her bed, exhausted from the night's antics.
The girl in question was reading Twilight for the umpteenth time. "I'm always worried when Miroku drives." She was sitting on the bed adjacent to her.
"That's not what I meant." Sango propped herself up on two elbows. "It's alright. You can tell me."
Kagome gave her the best smile that she could manage. "I'm fine, Sango. Really." She couldn't tell Sango. She couldn't tell anybody. Sango didn't know any better because Kagome had never really smiled in front of her or Miroku.
She looked convinced. Sort of. "Night Kagome." Sango threw the covers over herself and turned away, facing the wall like she always did. "I wish you would trust me." Her whisper carried across the quiet room to her sensitive ears.
Just as her eyes fluttered closed, Sango heard an even quieter reply.
"I'm sorry. I can't."
Oooo. Look who it is, writing fanfiction again. I honestly have no idea where I'm going with this. Keep me posted... as in review... that would be nice. I might even do artwork for this one XD
The title was derived from opening iTunes and setting it on a random song. "Only Holding On" from Eyes Set To Kill. Go figure. More soon.