- Buried In Silence -

Two

"It's like you're a drug, it's like you're a demon I can't face down. It's like I'm stuck, it's like I'm running from you all the time."

Addicted, Kelly Clarkson

"What's the matter with you?" The blonde beside her asked, jabbing her lightly in the side. Mai cast him a glare; something the younger male overlooked, now fixated on something else.

"Nothing," she muttered in response, playing with a loose strand of hair and focusing on anything else but what had been bothering her. As much as she didn't want to admit it, whoever had been messaging her had her curious about quite a few things...

"Oh, okay," Jou replied, obviously disinterested in the conversation he had only moments ago started with her. Mai rolled her eyes at his flightiness and checked her phone, noting that although it had been off for a while before she had once again powered it on, there was nothing there.

Fucking whack jobs these days.

Truthfully, Mai didn't know if she believed the person actually knew her or not. These days, it wasn't too hard to come across a person on the internet or in passing and decide to stalk them through technology. The idea made her snort in disgust.

No one could truly intimidate her, unless of course they were doing such things as threatening her life, her well-being, or the people she cared about. Otherwise, anyone could take their potential threats and issues and go bother someone else.

Anyone else.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Anzu inquired, showing sincere concern and wrinkling her nose while looking over at Jou; the blonde was now busy absentmindedly digging in his ear.

Such a gentleman.

"Positive, thank you," Mai replied, albeit none too convincingly. The aim wasn't to convince people she was alright, but to get them to quickly understand she didn't want to talk about whatever was on her mind. Mai gave up trying to be excessively secretive; anyone was welcome to know she had secrets as long as they weren't pushy and nosy as to what those secrets were.

Anzu nodded and turned her attention back to the blonde and black-haired male at her side. Yuugi's hair never ceased to amaze Mai; the amount of gel the kid used probably cost a fortune. Luckily for him, the young duelist had the money to afford all the hair gel he could ever need.

Between him and Honda, she wasn't sure who was worse. Both of them took far too much time on their appearance, as did Otogi. That one...

Mai groaned to herself at the sheer thought of the raven-haired male. Otogi Ryuuji was...a piece of work, for lack of better words. Then again, were there really better words to describe Ryuuji?

Although he had recently redeemed himself in the eyes of their "group", so to speak, Otogi was still a douchebag and had some qualities that nothing could possibly redeem. Between the endless sexual innuendos, the excessive flirting, the manipulation and self-centered intentions...

Kaiba had more redeeming qualities, and that man had made a name for himself as resident asshole of Domino City.

Mai laughed, knowing the boy next to her would readily agree with that statement. Then again, Jou was none too fond of Otogi either, seeing as the player had taken interest in Shizuka.

A motorcycle roared as it pulled up outside of the house they were all lingering in, and within moments Honda was walking up to the door. The door swung open, seeing as Yuugi had no problem with his friends literally making themselves at home, and Honda twirled in rather flamboyantly.

Damn. That kid was spending way too much time with Otogi.

"Hey, what's up?" The brunette addressed the room in a casual manner, sauntering over in dark blue jeans and a worn brown jacket. The sight made his sexuality less questionable to Mai.

It was hard not to question someone who spent copious amounts of time hanging around the city's famed sexpot, whose sexuality was undeniably questionable. There was no doubt in her mind that Otogi favored women, but there was nothing saying he was not interested in men, too.

That being said, Honda would be at the top of the list to be his next victim, if he hadn't bitten into his taut ass already.

"Whazzup?" Jou drawled back, a sloppy grin hanging on his face as he high fived his longtime pal.

"Not much, just got back from a date..." Honda trailed off, but the statement was enough to garner a disgusted expression from Jou, who readily knew his best friend had been out with his little sister.

"I thought I told ya," Jou began in a warning tone, "to stop seeing my sister."

"Who says I was out with Shizuka?"

Any conversation with Jou about Shizuka was a loaded one; Honda being out with Shizuka was a problem. Honda being out with any other girl but Shizuka was also a problem.

"Oy, Jou," Mai muttered, placing a hand on the blonde's arm before he could pick any further argument. "You can't have it both ways."

Jou mumbled something incoherent and went to sulking, slouched back against the couch and brandishing a natural barrier, arms crossed across his chest.

Mai sighed. The sight was almost...pathetic.

Honda rubbed the back of his neck, looking exhausted already from the sixty or so seconds he had been speaking to his girlfriend's older brother. While it was no mystery that Honda and Shizuka were dating, it still went unsaid in front of Jou as if there was any good in denying what was obviously true.

About to run her mouth again to keep Jou from saying anything out of his ass, Mai stopped with her lips already parted as her phone vibrated menacingly at her side. Picking it up, she glared at the unfamiliar number and opened the message.

Have you settled down yet?

Mai's eye began twitching, and she gingerly put a hand to it in a fleeting attempt to stop the obnoxious mannerism.

Who the hell says you can talk to me like that? She replied, practically throwing her phone into her purse after hitting send, and looking up to be greeted by more than one pair of eyes watching her.

"Sorry," she answered to no one. "Shitty day."

Whoever had been looking at her questioningly turned away, accepting the half-ass explanation she had offered them. All of these people were familiar enough with her to know that even if her explanations of things were shady, they were not to be questioned.

Kujaku Mai hated being questioned; she answered to no one.

From within the depths of her rather large bag, Mai could hear the infernal vibration that happened to be emanating from her phone. Never in her life had she been so tempted to completely detach herself from all technology, and in less than twenty-four hours, at that.

"You makin' new friends or what?" Jou inquired of the blonde, receiving a menacing glare in response. Taking the hint, Jou turned away and went back to conversing with Hiroto.

Tsk, Mai, don't be like that. I'm just trying to have a decent conversation with you, and you're being short with me.

Mai hit the keyboard fairly hard as she typed her reply, putting far too much passion into the virtual words.

Of course I'm being short with you, idiot. You won't give me a clue as to who you are and you're talking like you know me so damn well.

Mai struggled to resist adding shove it up your ass, douche bag. It sounded opportune, but not knowing who was at the other end, she decided to play as nice as she could manage. For all she knew, this would somehow turn out to be some lovingly dumb joke that she could laugh at later, or some wonderful occurrence she was not anticipating.

Unfortunately, neither of those sounded like a plausible outcome. Whoever the hell was on the other end of this conversation deserved to be spoken to in the manner that her thoughts were addressing them, not with the toned down words Mai was choosing to use.

But I do know you Mai. I'm surprised that fact doesn't make it more obvious.

Mai glowered at the dim little screen, deciding whether or not to reply. There was a distinct feeling pulling at her gut, telling her if she chose not to reply that they would continue to provoke her.

It doesn't, moron. You're thinking too much into this and expecting me to play potluck here. I know a lot of people, and you could be one of quite a handful.

The translation from what she had typed to what she had been thinking was none too pretty. If Mai had not been holding back anything, the reply would have been more along the lines of, are you fucking kidding me? I don't bind myself to one person and hold onto them dearly for the rest of my life. Hell, I've probably forgotten your name by now. Take your little fan boy fantasies and go play with yourself in your parents' basement, seeing as that's the only place I can imagine you're at.

Mai's lip curled in distaste, a headache pressing behind her temples and her temper threatening to let loose. It was inexplicable, really, why she chose to be more...reserved towards this mysterious figure.

What a joke.

My, my. Miss popularity, aren't we? You make my heart ache.

Mai inwardly groaned; the comment made her wonder which one of her ex's was toying with her, and whether it was just to humor them or if they were planning on attempting to win her back. Hopefully in the time since she had been apart from any of them, none had taken a fascination to the concept of stalking. The sheer idea made her stomach churn, and at this rate she was hoping it was someone she had the capability to deal with.

I make your heart ache? You make my head ache.

It was a terrible pun, she had to admit, but it was also completely truthful. Fishing in her purse she attempted to find something to ease the throbbing in her temples, but found that whatever medication she had been carrying was probably lying somewhere around her apartment.

How convenient.

It irked her that this person chose the rate at which they replied; some of their replies were almost instant, others times it would be about an hour before she heard back. The situation was becoming rather tedious, and Mai really wished she hadn't answered in the first place.

Curiosity really was a killer.

As she could have figured, the replies had stopped, and Mai flung her phone back to the bottom of her purse. Minutes passed, and she waited for that irritating vibration to go off, and yet it never came.

Amazing. This person had the gall to be taunting her, and then hold it over her head.

They better have intentions of never revealing their identity to her; if this person was dumb enough to tell her who they were, she would go find them and beat them down, one way or another.

"I'm starving," Jou whined in his ever-childish manner. "Let's go get some grub."

Mai sighed and pulled her mess of a purse of the ground and slung it onto her shoulder. At the moment she wasn't overly hungry, but going out would be a distraction enough to pull her mind away from the endless stream of text messages she had been getting.

I'm going to kill that son of a bitch, I swear to God. He'd better hope he can hide his name, or at least hide out somewhere I'll never find him.

Ever.

Well, I'm certainly having fun being up at the wee hours of the morning to complete this extremely delayed chapter :x

Hopefully those of you who have chose to read and/or follow this story enjoy it. I particularly like writing the crude comebacks...it's fun, and personally, they're some things I know I'd say... xD

(: