She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel with the beat of the music, her face a mask of practiced aloofness. She whispered the words and her eyelids drooped slightly as her favorite part came on…she really did love guitar solos. She disinterestedly glanced at her watch and raised her eyebrows in an expression of slight puzzlement. Hmm…it appeared she was going to be late to what she had so amorously dubbed "The Last Supper". Her mum would be upset and her sister livid with indignation. Yippee.

The long line of cars advanced ever so slightly and she briefly wondered why she hadn't taken her bike that morning instead of the car. And then she remembered that this was supposed to be a privilege since her family owned only one car. Yeah, right! Sweat dripped into her eyes and she wiped angrily at it with the back of her hand. She bit her lip and calculated how long it would take to get home if she just ran over all these cars. She would still be late for dinner anyways. There was no changing that fact. She was contemplating really just running over the cars just for the heck of it. It would be better to arrive late and not have the police after her as opposed to still being late and with the definite need to take anger management…yet again. There was also the small possibility that she would get charged with multiple murders and go to prison. But that was beside the point.

She sighed and snuggled deeper into the ratty seat of the hand-me-down Acura that her family was a proud owner of. This was going to be a long evening.

Kagome parked the car in front of the shrine steps and bit the inside of her cheek. She was sure she had forgotten something…she just didn't know what. She opened the door and carefully stepped out, grabbing her violin case on the way, still pondering her predicament. She licked her lips and mentally cursed her bad memory; Souta said she had premature Alzheimer. She always hit him when he said that but know she was beginning to think that, as much as annoying twerp her little brother was, perhaps he was right.

"Higurashi!"

Crap! No, not Houjou! Not now! She turned her head in the opposite direction of his voice, hoping he would get her drift and just leave her be. Kagome wasn't really that lucky.

"So…Higurashi, how's it going?"

She looked at him with what she hoped was a genuine look of surprise.

"Oh, Houjou-kun, I didn't hear you coming!"

A blatant lie, of course. And, as expected, he blissfully ignored it, smiling at her and silently asking for an answer with his best puppy-dog eyes.

"I've been…well, I'm doing okay, I guess."

"Haven't seen you around in a while you know."

"Oh yes, well…I've been…er…busy with the…um…preparations."

He looked inquisitively at her, expecting more than that as an explanation. She ducked her head and frowned. She so did not want to do this. She gulped audibly.

"Well, you see Houjou-kun, I'm moving to Tokyo…to study at Nikkei University, I want to try and get leading violin in their orchestra. I'm going…tomorrow."

She held her breath and waited anxiously for his reaction. A sigh. No yelling, no cursing, no guilt trips. Just a saddened sigh. And that hurt her worse than anything else could have.

"Hmm…Is that so Higurashi? Well, I'm happy for you. You can make it for sure."

The frightening thing was that he really did look happy for her. Except his eyes. His eyes were lacking that twinkle she had come to expect every time she looked at him. She let out a shaky breath. This was the first boy she'd kissed, the first boy she'd ever gone out with, her childhood companion. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes but she refused to let him see her cry. Not this time. He'd seen her cry too many times in their lifetime.

"Houjou-kun…I'm so sorry. I don't know why I didn't tell you before. I guess I was kind of scared…of what you'd think of me, afterwards."

She glanced briefly at him, and then wished she hadn't. There was something in his eyes now. Except it wasn't anything she could handle from him, or from any other man for that matter. Disappointment. She strived after never disappointing a man because…that was just the way she was. She saw flashes of blue eyes so much like her own looking at her with that same emotion. He smiled softly.

"I thought you knew me better than this, Higurashi. I always knew…that I could never keep you here, should you choose to leave. You're a free spirit…I came to terms with that a long, long, time ago."

She bit her lip in a desperate attempt to keep the tears at bay. He touched her shoulder lightly and caressed her neck tenderly. He looked away for a while, appearing to think something over. Suddenly, he pulled her forward and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. He let go of her jerkily, almost mechanically and turned around.

"Good luck, Kagome."

And he was gone. From her side and, she thought most forebodingly, from her life. Oh but she was such a drama queen sometimes. She sniffed loudly and felt moisture rolling down her cheeks slowly, silently. She furiously wiped at her eyes until the skin around them was abused and raw. She wanted to make sure to remove all traces of her momentary weakness.

She squared her shoulders and smiled a little in anticipation. She stretched and jumped a little, warming up. Then with a rush of excitement, she took off at breakneck speed up the steep shrine steps.

She let out a jovial laugh. This were some of the only times she was truly happy. When she played the violin and when she ran. Especially at night. She loved running at night.

She was the only person she knew of who could run up these steps at breakneck speed and well…not break their neck. Houjou had tried it once and…oh no, she would not go down that road. She would not think about Houjou because that would inevitably lead to reminiscing and that would lead to crying and then to a deep pathetic depression. Nope, no Houjou for her.

As she reached the last step she heard her sister's voice.

"Higurashi Kagome, do you know what time it is young lady?"

She sounded suspiciously like their mother and had called her young lady which was a vast overstatement since they were only one year apart. That was Kikyou for you though. Always so mature and proper.

She was standing at the door, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed angrily and a motherly scowl on her face. One of her eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

"Kagome…please tell me you did not forget the wine."

Oh, so that's what she had forgotten. The wine…hmm, how typical of her.

"Hehe…um…I think I might have…"

Kikyou's eyes seem to blaze with the fire of her anger. Higurashi Kagome was a slightly bi-polar, extremely clumsy and passionate violin player and secret track star. Higurashi Kagome was also, as of this moment in time, very much dead.