Story original written by – Unknown Pain & Rekindled Moroseness.
Continued by – Unknown Pain.
Disclaimer – Disclaimed.
A Bittersweet Pleasure
"Loving you is like touching a star; I know I can't reach you, yet I can't help but try."
-Unknown Pain-
-Chapter II – Realizing the Mistakes-
I brushed my fingers through my loose, brown hair as the locks fell in front of my eyes. I heaved a sigh and turned over a page of my magazine.
"Ah, it's perfect! It looks so beautiful on you, Miss," I heard the shop assistant squealing at Mom. I glanced up at her; my mother was modeling in front of the mirror while the shop assistant stood behind her.
Mom had her hair in a high bun and was wearing a beautiful, long plain-white wedding dress with light gray, glittered swirls at the edges of it. On the end there were nice pleats like the long transparent veil that was hanging in front of her smiling face. My eyes widened at the sight. She really did looked beautiful wearing that dress.
Mom twirled around a couple of times and nodded her head. "The dress is beautiful," she began and then turned towards me. "What do you think, Mikan?"
I looked back at her and shrugged. "I don't know; you're the one who's getting married, Mom." Mom turned back to the mirror and took a good look at her figure again. I heaved a sigh and turned back to my magazine. "By the way, Mom, why am I here again?" From the corner of my eyes, I saw that Mom had turned her attention back to me with her hands placed on her hips. "Because you're grounded."
"For your information, grounded means no TV, no computer, no games, no going out, and being locked up in your room. And this doesn't really look like my bedroom, does it?"
Mom nodded her head. "I know. I also know that you're not a big fan of this wedding and that doing this really annoys you. See this as a punishment for what happened yesterday in the restaurant."
I scoffed, not replying to what she said and flipped over another page of the magazine. Tch, right. Like it was my fault. She was the one who was so she stubborn she didn't bring me home. If I were her, I would've done that right away.
"You know, you really embarrassed us there," she told me with a sigh. I looked up at her. "Hey, don't look at me. I didn't make a scene. That boy with that raven hair stormed out of the restaurant, yelling and swearing. So blame him, not me." She raised her brown brow. "You mean Natsume?"
I raised my eyebrow back at her. Ah, yes. That hot lad's name was Natsume. "Yeah," I answered shortly and turned my attention back towards my magazine as I crossed my legs.
"Well, you might be right. But he didn't look like a whore, even though you were planning to look like one so you wouldn't be with us." She turned back to the mirror to take a good look at herself once more while I just rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Whatever," I grumbled.
"Really Miss, it looks beautiful on you." The shop assistant told my mother happily, pushing her to buy the (obviously expensive) dress. I sighed, starting to get bored. I gazed up at my mother. "Mom, can I go? I mean, I only needed to help you with looking for a wedding dress. Looks like you've found one already, so my work here is done. Can I?"
"No," she answered shortly, her amber eyes turning to me. I closed my magazine and creased my eyebrows. "What? Why not?"
"We're not done yet,"
"But you've already got the dress!"
"So? That doesn't mean we're done. We still need to buy some other things."
"Like…?"
"Like makeup and other things for the wedding,"
I sighed deeply. "You still got three weeks to go, you know." Mom creased her forehead slightly in annoyance. "Mikan, you're staying. Period." I scoffed in return and rolled my eyes away from her. Just then I saw someone coming to our direction: it was a girl from around my age. She had beautiful crimson eyes and short, neck-length raven hair. She was wearing a red tube-top that matched the small, red hairclip that kept a part of her hair tucked behind her ear and sky-blue jeans.
I raised my eyebrow as I saw her. Hey, isn't that—?
"Aoi!"
My mother turned to her direction and presented her a bright smile. "How are you, dear?" she asked the girl, apparently named Aoi, and was ready to hug her. Aoi smiled. "Yuka! I'm fine, thanks. How are you?" Then she pushed her away gently to face her. She looked at what my mother was wearing before her crimson eyes turned back to her face. "Well, well. Look at you," she said with a small grin. "You're really in for it, huh?"
Mom chuckled softly. "Is it so obvious then?"
Aoi nodded her head, giggling.
Mom giggled with her, a bit embarrassed with herself. She twirled around in front of Aoi. "Well, what do you think of this dress then? I'm not sure if I should buy it or not."
"Are you kidding me?" Aoi beamed with her eyes on the beautiful wedding dress as Mom twirled around. "It's beautiful! You look great in it! You really should buy it. And I think that Dad would love it as well." She winked at my mother. Mom only giggled, blushing slightly at what she said.
I rolled my eyes. "Try wearing a hideous orange dress, Mom, and she'll still call you beautiful." I snickered. Aoi turned all of a sudden to me with an annoyed look. "What's your problem, bitch?"
"I should be asking you that," I snapped back, frowning.
"Be happy for your mom, will you?"
"Why don't you just mourn for me?"
"Quit being a bitch!"
"Quit acting like a Mary Sue!"
"Girls! Stop it!" Mom yelled all of a sudden, effectively stopping the little fight we were having.
We both did what Mom told us to do, though I was scoffing while the little-miss-perfect here looked up at Mom and apologized for what just happened.
Mom smiled at her, and patted her on the shoulder. "It's okay, Aoi. It doesn't matter." She leaned her face near hers. I heard her whisper something in her ear. I couldn't hear exactly what Mom whispered in Aoi's ear, but what I heard was, "Give her some time."
This made me narrow my eyes. What the heck is that supposed to mean?
After Mom stood straight again, Aoi nodded her head at her. Mom smiled and then shifted her amber eyes towards me. "Mikan, can you and Aoi wait here? I'm going to buy the dress." I sighed. "Does it look like I've got a choice?"
Mom gave me a stern look as a warning. After she changed into her normal clothes again, she walked away with the dress in her hands and the shop assistant followed her closely behind.
Aoi and I didn't saying anything to each other. I was sitting on the chair with my legs crossed and reading my magazine again while Aoi just stood there in the same spot, her arms folded in front of her chest.
"You know," she started slowly, breaking the silence. I looked up at her. "You really need to be happy for your mom."
I rolled my eyes away from her, annoyed. Why does she care? "Mind your own business, will you?"
She sighed, and placed a hand on her hip. "Seriously, stop acting so childish. Don't you see that you're only hurting her with this idiotic little act? And yesterday, that was just… horrible. Did you know that you looked like a damn whore who was looking for someone to bang her then and there? Ugh, you really embarrassed us yesterday, seriously."
I frowned in annoyance. "God, will you stop acting like my mother? She already told me you were all embarrassed, so there's no need to repeat what I already know, thank you."
"Ah, so Yuka already talked about it," Aoi said and ran her hand through her raven locks. "And what did you say? Did you apologize to her?" I shook my head twice. "Nope," I said shortly and turned my attention back to my magazine. Though, I could sense her creasing her raven eyebrows. "Why not?"
"Because, truth to be told, I kinda liked it."
Aoi rolled her crimson eyes away. "So, you enjoyed being a whore. Whoah, my soon-to-be stepsister is going to wander through the streets at night, waiting for someone to stop by her and bang her for money. Great! I always wanted a sister like that!" she said sarcastically. I glared at her. "I didn't say that."
"No, but you meant it."
I sighed in annoyance. "Okay, whatever. Don't you have a boyfriend who you need to go to or something, or to go to my mother to make sure she will buy the dress?" Aoi turned around and her eyes turned to my mother's direction. "Looks like she's just fine," she turned back to me. "And no, I don't have a boyfriend." Aoi frowned.
I rolled my eyes in return. I understood why. "Whatever. Just go somewhere so you can leave me alone. I don't need two mothers hanging around me, thank you very much." I turned back to my magazine, again, and hoped that she would go away. But I saw from the corner of my eyes that she didn't even move; she just stood there with her arms crossed over her chest and sighed a soft yet meaningful sigh.
"Okay," she started. "You know what? This is pointless."
I looked up at her and raised my brow and waited for her to continue.
"We're already bickering and judging each other when we don't even know each other," She ran her fingers through her raven locks. "So I think we need to start over." When Aoi finished she looked at me for a reaction.
I scratched the back of my head and mentally agreed with her; she has a point. We don't even know each other and yet we're already judging. It's actually stupid.
I finally nodded two short nods and sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I said. "This is a waste of time and we've hardly even met."
Aoi nodded her head and her lips turned into a smile. "That's what I'm talking about." Then she walked over to me and stopped in front of me. Her hand reached out. "My name is Aoi Hyuuga, yours?"
My eyebrow began to rise again. I shook my head at what she was trying to do. But I stood up and shook her hand for a short moment, and my lips turned into a smile as well. "My name is Mikan Sakura." I replied.
"Nice to meet you, Mikan."
"Nice to meet you too, Aoi."
I looked at her as she was still smiling at me and let out a small chuckle before our hands parted from each other. To be honest, she didn't look like little-miss-perfect now. Instead she actually looked like a nice girl who just wanted to help out with the big changes there are going to be. But I don't get her. How can she actually be like this when her father's about to marry someone who isn't her mother?
"But," her voice ran through my ears, snapping me back to reality. "Did you really enjoy being seen as a whore?" I glared at her in annoyance. "Will you just drop it?"
Before Aoi could reply, my Mom came back to us with lips brightly curled up in a smile. "I'm done. You girls ready to go?"
Aoi turned around to face her. "Where's the dress?" she asked. Her crimson eyes turned to my mother's hands.
"Oh. They said they would bring the dress to us." Mom told her. Aoi nodded her head and smiled. "That's so nice!"
"I know, right? Well, I think it is time to go now." We both nodded our heads in agreement and with that, we followed my mother to the exit.
I stood in the hall way and peeked through the slightly open door. I frowned in annoyance as Mom's guests started to squeal and giggle after she finished telling how she and Nobuo met.
It was almost ten o'clock and her guests came about an hour ago. Ever since they arrived they did nothing but talk about that stupid wedding, Nobuo, herself, how the two met, then how they fell in love with each other, etc, etc. I needed to go to my room when they came because I was grounded and I would only ruin the moment.
I just came here to see if they left and strangely enough, they hadn't yet.
"And? Was it love at first sight?" a blond woman who sat next to Mom giggled. Mom slightly blushed and nodded her head right away; a smile formed on her lips as she started to remember.
The other one silently squealed. "That's so romantic!"
I rolled my eyes at this before creasing my eyebrows. Wedding this, wedding that, dress this, dress that. Can't they talk about anything else?
I ran my fingers through my hair and went back to my room. After I closed my door, I leaned against it and let out a long sigh. I really need to get out of here. This wedding talk is driving me crazy!
I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and decided to call Sumire; she can act like a total bitch and all, but she's a great person to talk to.
After I pushed in her number, I pressed my phone against my ear and waited to hear her voice.
After some long seconds of waiting, I finally heard someone on the other side of the phone, "I hope you've got some good reasons for calling me because I'm watching a damn good movie on TV."
"Hello to you too, Permy," I greeted back, my forehead slightly furrowed.
"Well? What is it?"
I was silent for a moment; I didn't want to talk about it through the phone. "Uhmm…" I finally replied to her question. "Can you pick me up?"
It was silent on the other side now. "… Can I ask why?"
"I just need to talk to someone and I don't want to do it through the phone. So can you pick me up from my house?"
Sumire sighed. "Alright, I'll be right there." And she hung up.
"Do I even want to know why you climbed out of your bedroom window to come here?" Sumire asked in a low voice as I closed the car door. Her green brows creased.
"I'm grounded," I replied, eyeing her. "Now drive before my mother notices something." Sumire sighed. She started the car and drove away.
"So," she started as soon we were a distance away from the house. "What did you want to talk to me about?" I was staring out of the window, watching the cars passing us. My eyebrows slightly frowned. "It's just driving me crazy,"
"What is?" Sumire turned her eyes to me for a moment.
"The fucking wedding! All of that talk about that stupid wedding. 'Wedding this, wedding that.' I'm fucking starting to get sick of it! I know it's special and important, but do they really need to talk about it all day long?" Sumire sighed deeply and shook her head. "Not this again…" I rolled my eyes at her. "What? Can't I voice my opinion?"
"Idiot, I don't know what's bothering you. Your mom is going to marry a rich dude who makes her happy."
I sighed. "I know all that. I want to smile and show her that it's okay and that I'm happy for her…but how the hell am I supposed to do that if I don't even feel that way?" I rubbed my temples, and groaned in frustration. "Ugh! The last three weeks of summer is going to be hell."
Sumire watched me from the corner of her eyes before she turned them back to the road. Soon her red lips curled up into a smirk. I noticed it. "What are you smirking about?" I asked slowly, not really liking the way she looked now.
"Looks like you need to have some fun tonight." She told me with a mischievous glint in her green eyes. I blinked before creasing my eyebrows. "What?" I asked. "Why?" This time my voice was slightly lower.
"To clear your mind for tonight, of course." She told me with her lips still smirking. I bounced up my eyebrow. "Right. Like…?"
"Going to a club should do the trick."
I widened my eyes at her. "Eh? Why the fuck do you want to do that? We're only sixteen! You could never get us there without IDs!" Sumire narrowed her eyes at me for being so loud. "Will you just stop shouting? I'm sitting next to you, for God's sake. I'm not deaf."
After she was done scolding me she ran her fingers through her green locks before placing them back on the steering wheel. "Anyhow, I'll make sure we get in the club." She said as her lips formed into a thin smirk again.
"How?"
"You'll see."
I rolled my eyes away from her, my arms crossed over my chest. "Right. Whatever, I'm not going anyway." Sumire raised her eyebrow at me. "I mean," I continued. "If my mother finds out that I'm not in my room, she'll kill me. Especially if she hears that I sneaked out of the house to go to a club with you. And besides, I don't have the right clothes for going clubbing right now."
"But I do," Sumire said easily. "So don't worry." She smiled at me before turning her attention back towards the road.
I frowned at what she said. "Those whore clothes? No thank you." I scoffed, turning my gaze back towards the window. "I'd rather go back home and listen to squealing ladies babble about wedding shit."
"And how're you going to do that? You're sitting in my car and I'm the one who's driving." She scoffed back.
"Then I'll just jump out of the car," I returned stubbornly, giving her a slight smirk. But she knew that I didn't mean it so she just grunted a small 'humph'. "If you do that, I'm just going to drive further and pretend like nothing happened."
When I noticed that that didn't work, I gave her my best pout. "Come on, Permy," I whined. Sumire rolled her eyes and shook her head. "That won't work, Mikan. Just give it up; we're almost at my house anyway. Just be a good girl and do what I say so I can pick out your clothes and do your makeup, alright?"
"Tch," I scoffed. After scowling darkly at her, I turned my gaze back towards the window. I saw her proud look in the reflection and it made me more annoyed than I already was. "Whatever."
Oh God, help me.
We stood side by side in front of the club with a giddy Sumire and an annoyed me. I glared at her because I just felt like it, especially after what she had done to me. I asked, "Seriously Permy, pray tell, how do you plan to get us into the club?" She winked. "Just wait and see. You know I'm too irresistible."
"Oh really? Work your magic, then." I told her with a smirk, knowing that there was no way she could get us into the club without any fake IDs.
She walked towards the scary-looking bouncer and smiled flirtatiously at him, batting her eyelashes. I sighed and shook my head at her in disbelief. Cue the gag.
The bouncer raised gave her a cold look. "What do you want?" Sumire twirled one of her locks around her finger and placed her other hand on her hip. "Well, my friend and I wanted to ask if you could let us in." She asked "innocently" and turned her gaze to me, giving me a quick grin to show me that her plan was going to work. I raised my eyebrow. I doubt it.
The bouncer turned his gaze to me for a moment before turning back towards Sumire. "No."
I sighed and Sumire gave him a disappointed look. She started to pout. "Why not?" The bouncer folded his arms. "You're too young." Sumire frowned at him. "Excuse me? We're eighteen!" He creased his eyebrows, obviously not believing her. "Really? Show me your IDs, then."
I hit my forehead. One word: busted.
Sumire's frown started to get deeper, not accepting the way it was going now. She bit the inside of her cheek and tried to come up with something fast.
I just stood there and watched with crossed arms. I didn't want to help her right now; it was her own fault and this was her punishment. Now I know what people mean about karma. It's a bitch.
Suddenly some people walked up to the entrance, ready to dance. They waited and the bouncer gave them a look to show their IDs and so they did. After he gave a good look at it them, he gave them a nod and told them they could go in. Not a second later they disappeared in the club.
Sumire scoffed. "And why can they go in while we can't?"
"They've got IDs," he answered her question easily. The green-haired girl only narrowed her gaze at him. Then two boys walked up in our direction. One had messy raven hair and beautiful crimson eyes while the other had blond hair and ocean-blue eyes that made him look really handsome.
I stared at the one with the raven hair as the two passed me, walking to the scary-looking bouncer.
Wait a minute. Isn't that… Natsume? What the fuck is he doing here?
As Natsume and the other guy stood in front of the entrance and waited for the bouncer to let them in, Sumire eyed the two. Her orbs turned to the raven-haired male. A slight blush crawled over her cheeks and she tried to hide it by turning her head away.
The two lads didn't even show him their IDs; the bouncer just nodded his head so they could go in. When they just started to walk away, Sumire shifted her gaze at the two boys, shocked that they could just go in without showing their IDs.
She furrowed her forehead at the bouncer. "Wait!" she shrieked, having now not only the bouncer's attention. Oh God, what's she planning to do now? Her finger pointed at Natsume and his blond-haired friend. "We're with them!"
I slightly widened my eyes. We're what?
The blonde male blinked in confusion at what she said and Natsume lazily raised his raven brow at her. The bouncer started to get annoyed. "You're lying." He grunted in a low voice.
I glared daggers at the back of the curly-haired female, annoyed at what she was trying to do. If she continued this shit, we were going to get in big trouble. I sighed in frustration and walked towards them.
"Excuse me?" Sumire crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the man. "I'm totally—" She stopped as I placed a hand on her shoulder and turned to face me.
"I'm sorry," I apologized at the bouncer. "My friend here is sorta delusional—" But before I could continue, Sumire interrupted me, "Delusional?" She looked at me, offended. I just glowered at her that she needed to shut up, and that I'll handle this. I continued, "We're here with them; they're our friends and this girl here kind of forgot that I invited them."
The bouncer turned to Natsume and his friend and gave them a questioning look. "Is that true?" The blonde one blinked in confusion and eyed his friend, waiting for what he had to say to this. I turned my eyes to him too and hoped that he would just nod his head without asking questions. Natsume glanced over at his friend before turning his gaze to my direction.
And as soon as our eyes met… something felt strange. Something began to boil up inside of me that I never felt before… I blinked and snapped back out of my thoughts. I looked away from his gaze and furrowed my forehead at myself, confused at what just happened. Okay, what was that now?
"Yup," I heard suddenly. I looked back and only found him smirking at me with his crimson eyes shining with slight amusement. "It's true."
The blonde male stared at him, confused that he just agreed with this lie. "Really?" Sumire and I had the same reaction; we were surprised, of course. We didn't expect him to play along. We only thought he'd get us in the club. I actually expected that he would say no and go in the club himself. Although I was quite glad that he kind of helped us, but his smirk was giving me the feeling that I needed to watch out. It showed amusement yet mischievousness. It was like he was planning to do something, and I didn't like it.
I gave him a suspicious frown before the bouncer sighed and said, "Fine. Move along then."
Sumire sighed in relief. "Finally!" After she flipped her hair over her shoulder, we followed the two males into the club.
The club was crowded; the dance floor was filled with people and the bar was almost empty. There were only a couple of people sitting there who wanted to rest from dancing a bit. Natsume and his friend were already gone. We decided to order some drinks first before we would actually start the night.
After we settled down, Sumire ordered some coke for both of us right away. I didn't say anything. I just waited for it. When the glass was finally placed in front of me, I took some sips of it before placing it back.
I tucked some of my locks behind my ear before turning to Sumire and saw that she had already turned her attention to the dance floor. Her green eyes were fixed on someone, though I couldn't exactly see who.
Sumire licked her lips slowly. "He's so freaking hot. It's the same guy we saw yesterday." I raised my eyebrow but my eyes were still searching for who Sumire was looking at. It was hard with the big crowd moving so fast. "Who?"
"You know; that hot guy we saw in the café yesterday." She told me, her eyes still locked on that certain boy she was talking about. I widened my eyes when I remembered. Oh God, she was talking about Natsume. I grinned and glanced at her from the corner of my eyes. "Oh, you mean the hot guy you were eye-fucking?"
She scoffed, her forehead creased. "Hey, you were eye-fucking him too." I rolled my eyes away from her. "Whatever."
She jumped off her seat. "Anyway," she said, her face turned to me. "I'm going to have some fun." She winked mischievously and I knew what she meant. I chuckled, nodding my head as an answer. "Wanna come too?" I shook my head. "Nah," I replied. "I'll stay here and watch over our seats. You can go." It's too crowded there. If you take one step on the dance floor, I bet that it's just like taking one step in hell.
"Alright," and she was gone, disappearing in the huge crowd on the dance floor. When the DJ began to move over to some faster music, the crowd began to move faster and some even stopped dancing and went to the bar. They were probably tired and thirsty.
I was eyeing the dance floor and tried to find Sumire but I couldn't find her. I frowned, grabbed my glass with cold coke and finished it, ordering a new one right away.
While waiting I turned around and tried to find Sumire again. This time I had some luck; I finally found her dancing in front of Natsume who didn't look so happy. He moved away from her but Sumire just followed him with a bright smile. I saw that her mouth was moving, but of course I didn't hear her because of the loud music. Natsume was frowning deeply in annoyance and he still moved away from her every time she came closer to him.
After some minutes of playing cat and mouse, Sumire finally gave up. With a disappointed frown, she moved over to another random guy and started to dance with him.
I giggled, finding what just happened funny. Poor girl.
It was weird, but my eyes were still wandering to find Natsume and I couldn't find him. I sighed a short sigh and shrugged. When my drink arrived I turned around and reached out to grab it, but a hand snatched it away from me quickly, leaving me blinking in confusion. "What the—?" I frowned in annoyance and turned my gaze to the rude person, ready to scold him.
But I stopped as I found Natsume sitting on Sumire's chair with his elbow on the counter, his head leaning on his hand while he held my glass with the other. He looked at me with a lazy expression.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "That's my glass you're holding," I pointed out only to receive a raised eyebrow as his version of an answer. "Give it back." He didn't give it back though. I watched him take some sips of it.
I twitched my eyebrow at him, getting more annoyed. "You're going to pay for that drink," I said while trying to stay calm. He was obviously here to annoy me and he was successfully accomplishing his stupid plan. He noticed that too of course, because a smirk formed on his thin lips.
"You're an idiot," he told me bluntly, obviously not caring that I shot him a glare. "And please tell, what gave you that?" I asked him calmly, though my voice was starting to get lower. I rested both of my arms on the bar and looked at him from the corner of my eyes.
"With the bouncer and all," he told me and took some sips of my coke before placing it back on the bar. "I can't believe you were really trying to get into a club by flirting. How stupid can you be?" I looked at him, shocked. He saw all that? I slightly blushed in embarrassment before frowning at him and stuck my nose up in the air. "Tch. It wasn't my idea. My friend Permy dragged me here with that idea in her head. You need to call her stupid, not me you jerk."
He slightly bounced up his raven brow. "Who?"
"That green-haired girl who was following you; her name's Sumire, but I like to call her Permy."
"I feel bad for you for being friends with her," he told me with a low voice, finishing (now) his coke. I ignored it, deciding that it wasn't a big deal at all. I couldn't help to let out a small giggle at his comment. He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes. "Nah, she might be a slob sometimes, a big fan-girl and all… but she's a really nice person when it comes to being friends." I blinked, shifting my eyes towards the dance floor. "Speaking of her, where is she?"
We both turned our gazes to the crowded dance floor. After some long time of searching for Sumire, Natsume suddenly said, "Poor Ruka." I raised my eyebrow and looked at him. "'Poor Ruka'?" I repeated. "What're you talking about? Who's Ruka?"
"He's that guy who was with me before. He's a friend of mine and I feel bad for him right now," he told me, his crimson eyes still turned to the same direction while his expression still showed nothing but dull and laziness.
"Why?"
"Because your friend's dancing with him." He pointed a finger to where they were so I could see them too. I followed the direction he pointed in and found Sumire dancing with that blonde guy Ruka who unlike Natsume, didn't have any problems dancing with her.
"Looks like he doesn't have any problems dancing with her."
"What an idiot," he commented back, and turned his face to the bartender, ordering a beer for himself. I raised my eyebrow in disbelief as the bartender just nodded his head and did what he was told. "Aren't you a little young to drink alcohol?" I asked the raven-haired lad as he ran his fingers through his locks.
"How old do think I am, then?" Natsume asked me, watching the bartender fill his glass with his cold drink. I raised my other eyebrow, and looked at him from head to toe. I slightly frowned and struggled with guessing. He looks like an eighteen-year-old… "Eighteen," I finally said, though not sure if I was right or not.
"Seventeen," he corrected me easily. When the bartender came back Natsume took it. I frowned at him suspiciously. "You're lying about your age just because you look older than you really are." He gave me a smirk. "Nope. My father runs this club so they know me here."
"Ah, so that's the reason why you two didn't show your IDs back then."
He nodded his head and took a sip of his beer. I shook my head and brushed my fingers through my hair. "And then why did you help get us in?" I asked all of a sudden. I still found it weird that he suddenly helped us. He put his glass down, his thin lips still formed into an amused smirk. "Because you looked like pathetic idiots who were about to cry."
I scoffed, glaring darkly at him. I wanted to shout at him but I kept my mouth shut. I turned my eyes away from him and grunted a 'humph' before saying, "You may be my soon-to-be step-brother, but you don't know a fuck about me,"
He shrugged. "But I know that you like to dress like a whore." After receiving an angry scowl from me, he threw a wide cocky smirk back, his eyes glistening with nothing but amusement and mischievousness.
"Fucking bastard," I growled at the lad with a low voice, getting enough of him.
Three days has already passed and my Mom hasn't noticed that I went to the club with Sumire. After I climbed through the window to come in my room again, I removed my clothes and my makeup and changed into my pajamas. I literally ran to my bed and jumped into it before Mom came to check up on me. It was two AM and Mom's guests just left.
Aoi, my mother and I came out of Mom's car in front of a mansion-like house after we were done buying dresses for us bride maids. I widened my eyes in surprise. "Is this were you guys live?" I asked, turning my eyes to the crimson-eyed Aoi.
Aoi nodded. She smiled and scratched the back of her head, a little bit embarrassed about it all. "Uh, my father is rich. So, yeah…" I blinked and turned my gaze back to the mansion. "Whoah…"
My Mom, who was already heading towards the door, turned around and said, "Are you two coming?" We both nodded our heads and Aoi ran after my mother while I just took my time. I scanned everything around me, shocked and surprised how huge this place was. I never expected this…
When we stood in front of the huge entrance to their house, Aoi wanted to open it but stopped when we all heard voices; it sounded like it was coming from Nobuo who was scolding someone, "Natsume, don't smoke inside the house!"
"And you've care about that since…?"
"Yuka's coming soon and I don't want her to come into a house that smells like dirty cigarettes and smoke."
"Oh, of course, I should've expected this kind of answer."
"Natsume, I'm warning you. Go outside if you want to smoke, now."
"Tch. Fine, whatever. You're lucky that it's summer." The door opened and an annoyed Natsume passed us with his hands dug in his pockets.
Aoi sighed and turned around to throw a dark glare at his back. "You should be a shamed of yourself," she began with a low voice. Her brother stopped, turning around with his raven brow cocked up. "Don't you see that you're only hurting Dad?" she spat angrily. Natsume frowned at her; he was almost glaring before he turned around, shrugging. "Stop acting like a little-miss-perfect," he returned and walked away.
Aoi had her crimson eyes narrowed. "Fucking bastard…" I could hear her cursing under her breath before she turned her attention to Mom. Her expression changed. "I'm so sorry," she apologized, deeply ashamed of what just happened.
Mom smiled at her and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Don't apologize, Aoi. It's okay, really." I could see in Aoi's eyes that she didn't believe her, but she nodded her head anyway and smiled.
Then Nobuo appeared in the door opening with his lips formed into an excited smile as he saw my mother. "Yuka, darling!" My mother's eyes lit up as she saw her soon-to-be-husband. "Nobuo!" I twitched my eyebrow when Nobuo came to her with open arms; he looked like a little kid who was happy to see his parents again.
They kissed and I frowned in disgust while Aoi smiled at them; she probably found it romantic. Romantic? Ew.
I looked away from them, wanting to get away before I needed to throw up. My eyes fell on the crimson-eyed Natsume who was leaning against a tree not that far from here, with one hand in his pocket while he held his cigarette with the other. His eyes were turned to the sky.
I didn't know why but I wanted to go to him and so I did. As I came to him, his eyes shifted to me and his eyebrow rose lazily. "What do you want?" he asked in a low voice. I shrugged, not exactly knowing what to answer because I didn't even know why I wanted to. "Just wanted to get away from them," I decided to say instead. I pointed at our parents who just parted away from each other. Well, it wasn't actually a lie.
He shrugged. "Fair enough," he said before putting his cigarette in his mouth.
I eyed the burning cigarette and watched how he blew out the smoke. He probably noticed me because he said with an annoyed expression, "No," I blinked. "No what?"
"No, you can't have one. Buy your own."
I frowned at him and placed my hands on my hips. "Right. Like I want that. I stopped three months ago and I want to keep it that way, thank you very much." He smirked and flipped his messy hair backwards. "Hn, right." He put his cigarette in his mouth, and before I knew it he blew the smoke right in my face.
I closed my eyes so I wouldn't get it in my eyes but I still inhaled it. I bit my lip and opened my eyes, glaring at him as I saw that his thin lips were forming an even wider smirk. "Tempting, isn't it?" He threw the cigarette on the ground, mashing it with his foot to extinguish it. "Jerk," I only growled at him.
"There you are," we suddenly heard. I turned around and found a frowning Aoi standing behind me with her arms crossed over her chest. "Great, you again. What do you want now?" Natsume grunted as he folded his arms in front of his chest, his eyebrows creased. "If you're going to complain about Dad again, then you can fuck off."
Aoi narrowed her gaze at him. "Will you stop acting like a heartless bastard and just look at him?" Then she turned at me. "And you, look at your mother." I sighed and we glanced at them, only to see two smiling grown ups who looked incredibly happy to be in each other's arms.
They both looked happy indeed. So?
"Just look at them," Aoi continued as she turned her attention back to us and us back to her. "They look so happy when they're together. Do you really want to take that away from them? True, I'm struggling with the fact that my father suddenly loves an other woman who isn't my mother, but I'm glad that I can see my father happy again; that he's smiling again. You know how he was when Mom left us, Natsume. Do you really want that again?" Natsume only rolled his eyes as his answer.
"And I think that it was the same with your mother, am I right?" Aoi turned to me and waited for my answer. I nodded my head slowly, starting to think about what she said.
She sighed and brushed her fingers through her short, raven locks. "Do you really think that they would blow off the wedding and break their relationship with each other just because you guys don't agree with their love? If you really think that, then you're wrong. They won't do it, but the way you're reacting still hurts them. You could at least smile at them, hug them, and congratulate them or something like that. It doesn't matter how much you're against it, you could do that instead of this shit."
After she finished, she looked at us and waited for a reaction to what she said. After our silence, Aoi sighed once again. She tucked some locks behind her ears. "Well," she said, breaking the somewhat awkward silence. "That's all what I wanted to say. I hope you guys think about it." And with that, she turned her back to us and walked to Mom and Nobuo who were now talking to each other; probably about what Mom bought today for the wedding.
As she walked away Natsume sighed in frustration. "She's annoying," I nodded my head slowly. "You can say that again." I agreed with a sigh. Though, she had a point.
Maybe it was wrong for me to react so…dramatically when she told me that she was getting married. True, she admitted she was wrong by keeping it a secret from me, but it was also wrong for me to react that way. I also just could smile at her, hug her, say how happy I was for her because she finally found someone again and just scream at her from the inside.
I know that I was hurting her by my stupid reactions, but she was also hurting me by loving someone who isn't my father. … I guess that's the reasons why I was so angry at her, and the reason for my behavior.
I watched the two walking after Aoi who just disappeared in the door opening. They were holding each other's hands along the way, smiles still etched onto their lips. Watching them made me realize that they really loved each other, and that they really made each other happy. I guess that I just need to accept the fact that my Mom has finally found someone after those long years and that she's so sure about her love for him, just like it was with my Dad, that she's ready to get married.
Aoi was right; I'd thought that if I just would go on with this kind of behavior, my Mom would feel guilty about all of this and blow off the wedding and her relationship with Nobuo. It was sad, stupid, and childish; I know. I think I was just so angry at her that I didn't think straight. Not really an excuse, true. But at the look of it, I guess that I was just wasting my time.
U.P – *stares at the amount of reviews * 55 reviews.. I LOVE YOU GUYS SO DAMN MUCH! X3 55 reviews just when this story only has one chapter! And also the amount of alerts and favorites I received.. OMG, thank you guys so much! I never expected this, really! Thank you! *o*
Anyway, I'm really sorry that you had to wait so long before I'd return from hiatus and update my stories. I was really busy with making new oneshots, drabbles, stories and of course new chapters.. But, now I'm back and to celebrate that I'm back in action I've decided to update this story first, because a lot of you readers were asking me when I'd update it and come back from hiatus, etc. I hope you all did enjoy this chapter. :)
Also, if you paid attention at the beginning of this page then you may have already noticed that Rekindled Moroseness had decided to stop writing this story. It's a pity but, whatever. I'll still continue this story because one: I've got a lot of ideas for this, and two: I just like this story too damn much. xD
There may be some things that'd change, though. And that's the rating of this story. The rating is M which means that there will contain LEMONS in the up-coming chapters, and as you may know: I don't write LEMONS. So I was thinking of changing the rating into T… but I'm still struggling with it, so I want to have your opinion about it. I made a poll on my profile about this, so, if you got time, please vote. :3
Oh and if you wanna know stuff about my stories like sneak peeks, updates or other things then check my blog. You can find the link on my profile. ^^
Sorry for the ramble, I just wanted to tell you this. xD' Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please review and please don't flame.
Much love,
Sam.
