The girl looked around the room and shuddered. Why am I here? How did I get here? Why is it so cold?
"So, you're finally awake," a cold voice said out of the dark corner.
"Who... Who are you?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking.
"I, my dear, am your only friend. I brought you here to save you. No one else loved you."
"But why? I don't understand."
"Clover, honey, you can't stay out in the world. You're too fragile. You're to stay here."
"But I don't want to be! I want to go home!" The girl, obviously named Clover, was getting hysterical. She tried to keep herself together, but was losing the battle against instinct.
"Why? So they can hurt you? No, you'll stay." The deep voice echoed off the walls of the somewhat small room. Clover was beginning to turn claustrophobic.
"Please, if you really cared for me then you would let me go!" 'Please let him go for it. I can't handle much more of this.
"Don't you trust my opinion. I do love you. That's why you are here. To keep you from getting hurt. Even your boyfriend wanted to hurt you. Him most of all. He was just a jerk. If he really loved you wouldn't he be here saving you now. Now when you need him the most." He gave her a look that said something she couldn't quit believe. She didn't want to believe.
"He's forgotten me? He didn't love me did he? I was just a toy. I was as unimportant that he could just replace me. To him I was an easy play toy and what I thought didn't really matter. Why should it? I am just a freak. I always wondered what he saw in me. I feel so stupid. I can't believe I ever loved him, but yet I still do for some odd strange reason." She started to realize that she was starting to resemble a broken record recorder. "Sorry, sometimes I just get carried away. Who exactly are you? I want to know who I am thanking for saving me."
"My name is Blaise. Since I saved you can I ask but one favor of you?" He had a strange gleam in his eyes when he asked that simple question. A look you see in a child's eyes on Christmas Day.
"Um actually it depends on what you want. I don't want to have to kill anyone or hurt my friends or family. They might not love me but I love them. No matter what they do I will because they acted at least at times like they cared. Why exactly did you bring me here?" she was trying to keep him from thinking she was suspected him of being a lot eviler than he was letting on.
"Are you sure that you are ready to find out the answer to that exact question, my dear?"
"Yes I am ready." she was starting to think that maybe he was trying to buy time. For what reason she had no idea. Maybe he had a time limit that she would be able to resist him or something like that. The only one who knew the answer to that was him. 'What is he going to do to me?'
"Ok it started long ago. Maybe ten months back…………..
"Clover its time to get up and get ready for school!"
Clover opened up her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She was so tired. She hadn't gone to bed the night before and she was really tired. "Ok mom be down in a second."
"Hurry up! We are going to be late if you don't hurry!"
"I said I would be down in a second!" 'Boy moms sure are pains in the rear ends! And that was putting it lightly.'
Clover ran down the stairs pulling her shirt over her head as she went. She started to wish that she could stop to eat something but if she did her mom would probably blow a head gasket.
"There you are sure took you long enough! When I say hurry I mean hurry!" She was giving Clover a look that said, 'We'll talk about this later.'
"Bye mom. See you after school." 'God can't she give me a break for once!'
Clover got into her new, red chrome, convertible, Cadillac. She drove down the empty highway heading south. The wheels seemed to turn in a beautiful black blur. The sun came down on her head as the day warmed quickly. It was only 7:43 and already 74 degrees. It was spring. In this part of Arizona it was kind of like a desert, but not as hot. Somewhat, but yeah it didn't matter. The music was loud and that's the way she liked it. The song playing was one of her favorites. It was called 'Punk Rock 101'.
'God another year at Redwood High. I wonder who I will see. No one, but me, seems to stay around long. Not that I can blame them. With the weather conditions and people who live here who would want to stay?'
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted as the car behind her let out a loud beep to tell her to move. She had been sitting in the middle of the road! 'That's weird I don't remember stopping.' She shook it off and started the car back up. Soon she was pulling up in front of her old school.
"Hey, Clover, how are you!" 'Oh no not her. I can't stand her!'
"Hey, Ashley, I'm fine. How have you been?" 'God please give me the strength to get through this conversation.'
"Fine well listen I got to go. It was nice talking to you. See you around." The girl named "Ashley" walked away and Clover was glad to be rid of her. Her and Ashley hadn't been friends for several years. The girl always seemed to get on her nerves whether she was trying to or not.
She silently walked towards the school. It seemed that everywhere she went people were waving to her. 'These people don't even know me. Why do they wave?'
"Hey ,Clover! Wait up!", a deep masculine voice said from behind her. 'I would know that voice anywhere.'
"Hey. How was your summer, Jason?" she was trying to look uninterested like always.
"Nothing happened. Wanna go see a movie with me later? Me and a few friends are going out and we thought I mean I thought you would like to come." He gave her a dazzling smile.
"Sure. What time are you going to pick me up?"
"Around 7 is that fine?"
"Yep. Well I got to get to my class. Later." 'Will he ever see me for anything other than some chick that he speaks to at times.'
"Later."
Clover quickly walked to her locker. She had had the same locker for the past four years. This was her last. 'Finally my last year and then I can go on to college. When I apply for Perdue I am sure that they will accept me. After all I have been a good student and never get into trouble.' aaaagggggggg 'Oh no! I'm late for my first class. This is the first day back and already I am late for a class. This is not going to be a good year I can already tell.'
"Miss.Benidez why are you late?" 'Oh great! Mr.Lamure! He's the strictest teacher in this school and I was late for his class! I thought French teachers were supposed to be nice!'
Mr.Lamure is a fat, balding old man who enjoys making stupid jokes. Though he tried to make class more enjoyable most people slept in his class. It was probably because when he did speak it was in a none emotional monotone. He always was saying some deadpan remark that most students either didn't get or didn't think was funny.
"I had to go to my locker. While I was there I lost track of time. I was trying to put all my stuff in order. You know that way I wouldn't continue to be late for classes." ' Hopefully he buys it. He usually tries to be more sympathetic towards his students on the first day. Especially if he thinks that they were trying to make themselves ready for the school year.'
"Ok but Clover I would like for you to stay after class so that I could speak to you about something that I doubt you want other people to know about." 'Jesus what did I do now? What could be so important that he couldn't wait till some other time to talk about? Sometimes he can be such a prick.'
"Yes Mr.Lamure."
Clover walked slowly down the aisle to an empty desk between two Goth seniors. Both were cute.
"Hey, Billy, how have you been?"
Billy glanced over and was stunned when he saw a gorgeous girl with long blonde hair with red streaked through it. Blues eyes with green specks in them. Her eyes seemed to just sparkle like a firework in the gloom of the night on July 4th. A shimmering peaches and cream complexion that seemed to have a darker tan to it than most people would expect to see on a girl of her category. She was wearing a black tight shirt with fishnet arms and red words on the front that said 'If you don't like me then look away'. She had on tight black leather pants that had chains that hung from each side of her hips. She had on long black leather boots that had heels that must have been four inches high. On her neck was a spiked leather chocker that had three chains hanging down in a chandelier sort of fashion. On one wrist she had a studded wrist band and on the other she had a spider wrist band that had a chain coming out of it that went down to a small spider ring. In her ears were spider earrings that came down to look like a spider falling down from the ceiling. For a moment he was too stunned to say anything all he could do was sit there and stare at her.
"Is something wrong?" clover was looking at him like she wanted to laugh at him.
"Nope. So what did you say again?" Billy paled and looked like he had swallowed a rather humongous toad.
"I asked how you have been."
"I've been fine. Your mom said you were still asleep when I came to pick you up this morning. I told her not to bother with waking you that I would get back to you later."
"You came to pick me up this morning? Sorry, mom didn't tell me that you came over." She was embarrassed, but was fighting the urge to blush. After all blushing was for weak pathetic losers.
"Yeah I thought I would give you a ride to school. After all your house is on the way over here. Also I thought you would like to hear the new 'Rakoma' c.d."
"'Rakoma' came out with a new c.d.! Awesome! They are like one of the best bands ever!"
'Rakoma' is Clover's favorite band of all time. They are a heavy metal band that came out this year. The lead singer is a male. This is probably why the band is way more popular with the females. He is considered to be really hot which also might make it another reason for females to like the band.
"If you don't watch it your going to turn into a prep." He rolled his eyes as if to say 'As if that's going to happen'
"Do you really want to keep that tongue of yours? If you don't shut it I am going to cut it out!" She smiled as she said this so that the insult wouldn't sting as bad.
"Yes I do prefer to keep it. You never know when I'll need it. Would you prevent some girl from getting the pleasure of kissing me? That would just be so unfair. I can't help that you choose not to take me up on my offer. Also you're not strong enough to cut it out because you couldn't over power me to do it."
"Oh you want to bet? I could probably kick your butt and have you on the floor in proximately 3 minutes."
"Jesus, you really are turning prep. Run away run away!" billy starts laughing and rolling around on the floor. Clover grabbed him by the throat and pretended to choke him.
"You think it is funny? I'll show you funny." Clover started tickling him. She sat down on his stomach so that he couldn't roll away.
"Ok ok. I give! Uncle!"
"See I told you I could kick your rear end. I thought you said you were a big MAN." Clover starts laughing when she says the word man. The sound is like a bell ringing in a church and seemed to echo.
"Hypocrite, I said kick butt not tickle till I gave up!"
"What and there was a rule of how I had to do it? Admit it your just a bad loser."
"Whatever." Billy rolled his eyes obviously feeling embarrassed that a girl had beaten him.
aaaagggggg 'Jesus, that bell is always going off!'
"See you later, Clover." Billy turned and walked off into the crowd of loud, pushing, angry, sea of students. Each trying to get in front of the other in hopes that they would get there before everyone else and get the seat that they wanted. 'I'd better hurry or' aaaggggggg 'Shoot, late again! If I keep this up I'm going to get my first detention before the day is over.' Clover slammed her locker door and ran down the empty hallways to her classroom. 'Funny how it got empty so quick.'
"Miss.Benidez you're late. Will you please take a seat at the back of the room? I would like to see you during lunch if you wouldn't mind." The teacher was a blonde woman maybe 38. Green eyes, really thin, and a high squeaky voice that got higher as her moods changed.
"Yeah, I'll be here" 'Awe man I forgot to stay after in Mr.Lamures class!'
The teacher continued on with the boring speech that she had been giving the class. Soon most of the students were asleep, including Clover. aaagggggg 'Thank god, finally the bell rings. I don't think that I could have handled much more of this class. I don't have a class this period I think I'll go get something to eat.
"Miss.Benidez I know you don't have a class this period. Would you like to have that conversation now?"
"Nay, that's fine. I think I'm going to go eat out while I have the time. What time do you want me here?"
"About five minutes before lunch ends."
"Fine." Clover walked out of the class and down the hall. She walked out of the building and saw a really adorable Goth leaning against her car. 'I wonder what he wants. Probably nothing that was probably the car he choose to lean against because it's the cleanest.
"Hi what's up? You want to skip together?"
'Dang it even his voice is hot.' "Um skip? What are you talking about? I don't have a class this period."
"Kewl. What's your name?" he seemed to want to know. He had an eager look in his eyes. Like a child looking at ice-cream.
"Clover and you?" 'Hopefully he doesn't get that I really want to know. I mean I have never in my life been this eager to know a guys name. If I sound too obvious he would think that I am an obnoxious little whore. This is something that I am obviously not.'
"My name is Miroku. Not that it matters. Names aren't as important as people make them out to be."
"I know what you mean, but they are still a little bit important. If you didn't have names how would people tell who you were talking to? When you said 'hey you' everyone in the room would turn around and think that you were talking to them. Which you have to admit would be quit a bit confusing." 'Man this guy is confusing me. I mean I have never thought about if names were important or not. I wonder if he has these kinds of thoughts all the time. I mean he is like totally smart. You can tell by the way he talks. How could anyone who wasn't smart talk like that? I think that it is really kewl that a guy could have these kinds of conversations and not get lost or confused. Or try to make it sound like they know what they are talking about when they don't have a clue. It makes them sound completely dumb and foolish.'
"Well I guess you do have a point. That would kinda be embarrassing. It would be like 'Hey you. Not you the other you and they would be like which one?' the name isn't the important thing though. It is only a small part of who you happen to be. I mean compared with everything about you." He had a thoughtful look on his face. It made him almost look like he would fill in the roll of Albert Einstein in a movie and or play perfectly. He seemed to be intelligent but not overly so which clover thought made him extremely hot.
"Well that's true but that is a part that you will carry with you always will have. You can't just say 'well I don't like my name today. I'm going to change it' that would just be stupid. What would be the point of having a name if you could change it all the time? People wouldn't know your name anyway so they couldn't call you by it."
"You want to go for a ride?"
"Huh, oh yeah sure but I got to be back before lunch is over. My history teacher was really mad because I showed up a couple of minutes late for her class." Clover obviously looked distressed. Her hair was flying back from her face. Her face was a little bit tinted pink on her cheek bone area. She looked like she had been running for a long time.
"Don't worry I'll have you back on time. I thought I'd take you to 'Shinjitsu No Uta'. It's a Japanese restaurant that I like to go to on the weekends. It is almost as cheap as any small fast food joint around here at least around here. And the good thin is you can eat as much as you like." Miroku stalked off heading for a black, metallic, crotch rocket. He fished in his pockets and pulled out what she assumed were his keys. "Yeah I just got her back from the shop. A beauty isn't she?" he had a dead look in his eyes and his voice was flat. If you didn't know better you would have thought that he didn't like the bike. He looked like the bike didn't interest him in the least.
'I wonder why he's not happy about getting his bike back. If I had a bike like that then I would totally flip if it had to go to the shop. I would be really excited to have it back. I would not be acting like I didn't like it.' "Yeah she looks awesome! How long have you had her?" She started walking around the bike. If you hadn't heard the conversation you would have thought that she was inspecting something she had never seen like a new found insect or something. 'Man. This looks like one of those first year models. I know that I don't know much about bikes, but it can't be over a year old!'
"I've had it for about 6 months. I bought it right out of the shop. This is the one of a kind, custom built Honda Crotch Rocket 2005." He looked around then sighed. "I wish my parents hadn't moved here. My old home was a lot cooler, also it was bigger."
"Where did you move from?"
"Indianapolis. It was a big city in Indiana. I feel out of place here. There's a few Goths, but not many. The ones you do have as much stiff. Their collars are out of date and their skirts are last years style. I am too far ahead of them. Wait, aren't you Goth?" he now looked completely confused. Why was she looking embarrassed? Why did she look red? Why was she upset?
"Well, you see my parents are divorced and I go to live with my dad during the summer. He always buys me a wardrobe before I leave. He usually spends around 3,000 on me to get me through the year." Clover was looking at the ground blushing. 'why did I tell him? I've never told anybody that! I swore I would never tell anyone! But there is something about him that makes me want to tell him about everything. It's too soon though. Maybe when I have known him longer I'' be able to tell him these tings without feeling stupid.'
"That's kewl. My parents are divorced too. I moved down here with my dad and step-mom. My mom sends me money through the years. Also whenever I go to her house she takes me shopping. I think she thinks I'm gay or something." He took a big breath for he had said all this in quit a bit of a rush. "This is far from the truth. I've never been gay a day in my life." His face got a light shade of pink and his ears turned red.
"You said that a little too fast. I think that you are trying to refuse it way too much. Maybe you are and just don't want people to know it. Not that I can blame you." She was teasing him but she wasn't going to let him know that.
"What! You think I'm gay? How could you? Why I ought to tickle you! In fact I think I will!" he couldn't keep a straight face at this point. They were both laughing and didn't seem to want to stop. But as we all know we can't have everything that we want.
"Ok don't tickle me. Your not gay and if you are then you had better have good timing when you tell me." After she finished that sentence he began to tickle her. "Ok I get the point you're not gay! I'm lucky I guess. Neither of my parents have had a steady relationship since they split. Sure there has been the occasional date but nothing serious. My parents still love each other but they just argue too much and they didn't think that it would be good for me if they were always arguing around me. So they split up and they seem to get along fine now." Clover shrugged her shoulders as if to say that it just didn't bug her anymore. "I know that they thought that it would better for me or something. I guess that I will just over look it until they get the fact that I still need them to be together. Eventually they will get the hint and realize that the family has been separated way to long and we all need each other. Or at least that is what I keep hoping. I know that I probably shouldn't wish such things but I do."
"Well I thought the same thing when my parents decided to call it quits, but as you can see they are still broke up and I have a new mom. Your parents might be different that mine. Who knows not all parents are alike. We all have different ones which is probably a good thing cause I don't know if we could handle all being related. Do you have a boyfriend?" the look on his face showed that this had been the part of the conversation that he had been waiting for all the time that they had been speaking. There was hope in his eyes that seemed to blow the expression on his face to small, little bits.
"Well no. I don't." 'Why is he asking that? We just met he doesn't know anything about me!'
"Do you want one?" His eyes were pleading with hers.
"How about I tell you when we get back? I'll have made up my mind by then."
"Sounds fair to me. Get on." Clover threw one leg over the side of the bike. When she was on she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. "Hold on tight." He laughed as he revved up the engine. Clover hugged him tighter to make sure that she wouldn't be falling off anytime soon.
"Why what are you going to do? Throw me off?" Miroku just laughed as he took off.
"You'll see." The wind seemed to whip his words back into her face. Her hair was flying in every direction and every time it hit her face it felt like a billion needles sticking her right in the face.
"Can't we slow down?" The driver seemed not to hear her which was probably due to the fact that every time that she spoke the wind just ripped the words away just as soon as they were spoken. He seemed to be going faster and faster like he was a speed demon trying to catch the angel in front of him and tear off its wings for there couldn't be anything that could out run them when they were on this heap of cold metal. Yet for some strange reason she felt safe whipping down the dust streets with him taking her somewhere she didn't even have a clue of where it was and she didn't even think she cared. When she was with him nothing could get her. Soon they were whipping past fields and forests. It seemed to all go by in a mixed colorful blur. The biggest thing that caught her attention was all the blue. Around this state there wasn't a lot of flowers but around here there seemed to be thousands upon thousands. 'Where are we heading? We usually don't have flowers this time of year.' Everything seemed to be perfect. The trees, the flowers everything was just right. She laid her head down on his shoulder and soon her breathing had evened out and her eyes were closed.
"What does that have to do with why you took me? You still haven't explained why I am here. I thought you were going to explain to me your reason not tell me some story that I already know because it was my life. Something I don't have anymore because you took me away from it which now makes my life yours. So are you going to tell me or are you just going to keep acting like you know everything and all you are doing is putting me off. I don't know why, but I do know that is what you are doing."
"Patience. You have to know everything right down to how the flowers smelled as you drove down the street that is responsible for changing the rest of your life. Soon you will understand and if you do not then I will tell you. Not before with me you will learn that you will not always get the answer right away. Because unless I want you to understand then you will not. Do you now understand?" his eyes seemed to be begging her to understand that she just had to wait a little longer and she would know it all, but she had to trust him first. They seemed to beg her not to be mad at him for her to understand that all this was necessary. His body looked really tense as he leaned against the wall. The room seemed to be getting colder which was strange because just moments before it had been getting warmer. It seemed that the room temperature changed with his moods. If he was happy then it was warm if he was displeased it seemed to get colder.
"Alright continue. I shouldn't have interrupted you. I was just curious." Clover's face was bright red and she was looking straight at the floor.
"Ok as I was saying…………..
"Hey wake up! I can't carry you into the restaurant and feed you. Well I could, but I don't want to." He was looking over his shoulder at the girl that was sleeping there. He seemed to think that it was funny that a female could fall asleep on a bike and still hold on. His eyes were gleaming and his cheeks had a fresh young look of happiness to them.
"I wasn't sleeping. I'm just resting my eyes because they hurt which is probably due to the sun and colors that I was forced to look at before I closed my eyes." Clover still had her eyes closed. "Can't I just sleep for five more minutes?" her voice was soft and seemed to be coming from far away kind of like as if she was still dreaming.
"I thought you said you weren't sleeping. How about you get up now so we can go in and eat an get back to the school because the ride took over the time that I thought it would." He was trying to wake her up gently and it seemed not to be waking her up. So he decided that he had better try a different way of doing it.
"Huh? School I don't want to go back to school. I just want to stay snuggled up to you forever. I never want to leave your arms. I don't think that I have ever been this warm. I also feel a lot safer than I have in years." She sighed and hugged him tighter to her. "Do I have to let go of you?"
"Well yeah you have to get out of them for a little while but if you promise to be my girl then you can get back in them as soon as we are done eating. If you don't want to go back to school we don't have to. I wasn't planning in going back anyway." While he had been talking he had turned around so that he could hold her.
"Ok I'm your girl. I'm glad that we can skip because I just want to go back to your place and snuggle up with you." She still hadn't even opened her eyes. She was now snuggling up to his chest and smiling peacefully like a small child having a good dream after having nightmares for the last five years. At that moment he realized just how fragile she really was.
"Alright we will go back to my place but wouldn't you like to eat first?" He looked down and sighed. "I guess I will have to take that as a no."
He turned around and decided to try to get off the bike without causing her to fall or get hurt. After all why should he remain hungry even if she wanted to? He started to throw his leg over the bike's side when she leaned over and kissed him. "Thanks for taking such good care of me. Most people would have just made me get up. I'm going to get up though because I need to eat. I didn't remember to grab something on my way out this morning." Her stomach decided at that moment to make a comment. 'Great I just had to do that!' her face turned bright red and she looked down at the ground.
"It's ok you don't need to get embarrassed. I've done things like that. We all have." He looked like if she hadn't been ready to start crying, which she wouldn't, he would have started laughing.
"Ok but can we go eat now?"
They walked in and sat down at the bar. Clover picked up a menu and started to look at it.
"No just get the buffet. It a lot cheaper that way." He started to blush when he realized that he had made a rhyme out of being serious. The room was thick and turgid with the smell of oriental incense. You couldn't tell what it was but it was so thick that you could actually choke to death on the thick fumes. On the walls there were pictures of far off china. There were statues of Buddha in about three corners and people were rubbing his belly every time they passed him. Clover and Miroku were the only ones in the place that wasn't of oriental blood but that didn't seem to bug them. As they were you could imagine how often they fit in. no one really understood either of them and that was why the fit together so perfectly. The people in the room kept glancing at the two teens as if the were holding up the joint with guns in their hands and ski masks on.
"Come on you said you were hungry. And this place smells so good that I just think that I might manage to eat everything in here. I don't know why but all of a sudden I am famished." Clover stood up and walked over to the table were she continued to fill up a plate and took it to her table were she sat down and waited on Miroku.
"Sorry it took so long but they had a lot to choose from and what can I say I had to try everything." He said this because he was carrying four plates which she thought probably did have everything on them. 'Who knew that he could eat so much?'
"Man I am so full I don't think that I will be able to eat for a month!" Clover was dramatically holding her stomach and walking bended over.