Author's Note: Next chappie! Please read!

Disclaim: Inu is not mine

My Darkest Hour

Chapter 2

Kagome slid into her silver BMW 530i and stuck the key in the ignition. After the sleek vehicle lightly rumbled to life, she pulled her leg that was still outside of the car in. After doing so she shut the door and buckled her seatbelt.

"Nine fifteen… I've got about an hour," she said to herself as she glanced at the digital clock on her dashboard. Kagome sucked in air through a small space between her lips, creating a swooshing noise; she then exhaled through her nose and sat up straight. "Okay then… I guess I'll just finish my breakfast now and then go…"

Tearing open the little package containing her FiberOne bar, Kagome started to eat her breakfast. Throughout the time she continued to munch on her chocolate and oats, she also took sips of her orange juice. After about 10 minutes she was finished with her breakfast, and was on her way to work.

In forty minutes Kagome was at the mall, twenty feet away from Milestone. She walked through the entrance and immediately she was greeted by her good friend Sango.

"Kagome!" the long haired brunette called from the check out desk. "How've you been?"

Kagome smiled as she tossed her trash in the bin by the door and made her way over to her companion. "Hey Sango, I'm doing pretty well. Actually…" Kagome quieted as she took her place behind her own register next to her friend.

"You're not okay," Sango finished for her sadly. "Kagome, I know you love him and everything, but you need to leave if he's still beating and cheating. It's no good for you girl. You know you deserve better, too—with your college education, beauty, and good heart you can have any man you want. And you definitely do not deserve that one."

Kagome laughed, loving Sango's tone as she laid it all down for her. "Haha! You tell it, girl!"

The two women shared a laugh before they quieted down for things to get serious.

"But really Kagome, you need to leave him," Sango said as she looked her friend seriously in the eye.

The other gorgeous brown eyed brunette sighed. "I… I know Sango… But I do love him. I know I have to leave, that's a done deal!" she cried when her friend gave her a disappointed look. "I know I shouldn't stay with him anymore. I don't want to stay with him. I do love him, but it's just not worth it anymore." Kagome sighed again, agony rolling off of her in waves as her friend nodded.

"Yeah... Where are you going to go when you leave? You can't go to your mom…" Sango mused.

Once again, Kagome let out a heart-wrenching sigh. Things got so complicated so fast; Kouga's antics starting to affect her more, being damaged every day she spent with him, not knowing where she would go if she left him, and not yet knowing if she landed that job… It was all a little too much.

"I don't really know where I'm going to go, Sango. But that reminds me: I have a plan. Later during our lunch break I'll tell you all about it, but right now we've got work to do." Kagome finally replied as customers came through the door and others from where they had been shopping for shoes.

"Welcome to Milestone where we dress your feet for life's most far-reaching moments! I'm Sango, how may I help you all?" Sango delivered the usual speech to customers as Kagome rung people up.

Beep. Rustle. Beep. Rustle. Beep. Rustle.

Kagome scanned and bagged three pairs of shoes, her mind elsewhere as she did so. When she finished she asked, "Your choice of payment please, ma'am?"

"Um, I'm no expert but… don't those shoes have security tags on them still?" the woman asked.

Kagome's eyebrows shot up as she realized her blunder. "Oh, you're right! Sorry ma'am!" she cried, taking the shoe boxes from the bags to remove the pins. After removing the security tags, re-boxing and re-bagging the shoes, Kagome asked for payment again.

The woman dug around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a credit card. "There's no problem. And by the way: don't call me 'ma'am', it makes me feel old." She said as she winked at Kagome.

Kagome smiled and nodded, taking the card and finishing the woman's check out. She handed the card back with a receipt. "Thank you for shopping at Milestone. Have a nice day."

"Thank you," the middle-aged woman said as she left.

After few more hours of ringing people up and assisting customers so they could find what they're looking for, Kagome and Sango were headed to the food court for lunch.

"It's twelve o'clock and I'm totally free, totally free, totally free! It's twelve o'clock and I'm totally free, free for lunch with Kagome!" Sango sang as she and Kagome headed to a table in an empty section of the court.

Kagome laughed as she tried to balance their food from Sarku Japan better. "You're so strange, Sango." She said with a smile.

"Oh I know," the young woman declared as she took a sip from one of the drinks in her hands, her chin tilted toward the sky as she did so.

Kagome laughed again. "I guess that mark that drink as yours. Don't switch them up on me okay?"

"Pssh! Whatever; we're practically sisters anyway so what does it matter?"

Well, that was true—the sisters thing anyway. Sango and Kagome were extremely close. They had met back and college before Kagome truly became quite the ditz over Kouga, and Sango had to take care of her. When they became good friends, she'd always help Kagome with her wounds after coming back from Kouga's dorm and then deliver a sound lecture. She was the one who used to sometimes lock Kagome in her room to keep her from going to see Kouga. She was the one Kagome partied with when she needed to get her mind off of things. She was the one that shared with her about certain love interests. Sango was the one who stood by Kagome through it all after her mother let her go.

Even still she wouldn't like to share saliva by sharing a drink in this one instance.

The two found a seat and sat down to eat and talk. Sango opened her container to liberate the delicious aroma of chicken and shrimp teriyaki with fried rice and dumplings. "So tell me about your plan."

Kagome gasped, clapping her hands together as excitement shone through her gorgeously chocolate orbs. "Okay so I interviewed for a job!"

"Oh the one for the children? You'd been so excited about that one. How did it go?" Sango responded with just as much enthusiasm.

The job Kagome applied for was with the main branch of the corporation that provided day cares and treatments for emotionally, mentally, and physically abused children. Kagome always knew she would grow up to work for children one day, but didn't know how. She hadn't known it wouldn't be as a teacher until her junior year of high school. She decided she'd go to business school so that she could possibly join a great company one day. Now that the 23 year old had perfected her skills, she thought it time to put them to work. So she interviewed at Enable Children's Daycare and Rehabilitation. She joined a corporate business like she'd hoped she could, and the cause just so wonderfully happened to be for kids like she'd always wanted. It really was the perfect job for her. She didn't know what she'd do if she didn't get the position as the co-owner's secretary.

Kagome had no idea that she would get the job… and so much more.

"Yes!" she cried. "I applied for the position of the co-owner's secretary."

"Oh… secretary…" Sango wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Sexy…" she hissed. "Is he hot?"

Kagome busted out laughing at her friend's behavior. "Wow Sango! I don't even know. I wasn't interviewed by the co-owner, but the secretary that I'm going to—hopefully—be replacing."

"Wow, I bet that was the most awkward interview in history," Sango muttered.

"No… She's only being replaced because she quit. She's pregnant with her first baby and she wanted more time to learn about parenthood and be with her husband," Kagome explained.

"Oh okay, good. You already have enough problems; you don't need a crazy jealous bitch on your tail, too."

Kagome scoffed. "Yeah I really don't…"

"So when do you get a call back?"

"Um…" Kagome paused for a while as she tried to remember. "Oh, actually it should be tonight! Yay, I get to know tonight. Oh, I just got nervous…"

Sango laughed. "Ok good. Alright you may get your dream job, but how does that play in with your plan to leave Kouga?"

"Once I get that job I'll have a better one. I'd rather have a good job before leaving him. From this job I almost have enough money to buy my own place… But I'm about $2,000 short at the moment."

"Wow, that's a lot to go."

"Yeah so you see my dilemma… If I get this job I'll be paid more, more often. I'll get the money sooner than I will here, then I can leave. It's going to take me forever to get the money here though. Just because they call me to tell me I get the job, that doesn't mean they want me to start right away. I'm not sure how much more of Kouga I can take. This is a huge corporation we're talking about. Lots of people get interviewed so who's to say I'll get it; and if I do my spot may not even be ready. When I was interviewed the woman said that she had to work in a secondary building because her office was destroyed during the break-in three weeks ago. They're still renovating so… I'll have to stay with Kouga until I get that job. And until I get the job, I'll have to stay with this gig. I obviously can't go stay with my mother…" Kagome elaborated.

"Well…" Sango began.

"Well what?" Kagome asked.

"Well… maybe you could stay with me. I have an extra bedroom in my apartment, as you know an—"

"Yeah I know that and that that room is filled with crap! There's no way I could live in there!" Kagome shouted.

"Can you just calm down and let me finish! Damn!" Sango said, rolling her eyes. "What I was going to say was that I could get that room cleaned out before you can get enough money. Why don't you stay with me once I get it all together?"

"Oh…" Kagome began.

"Yeah 'oh!'" Sango jeered.

Kagome sighed; it was her turn to roll her eyes. "Sorry… Thanks, I'd love to do that. But don't you think it's a little pointless since a few weeks after moving in with you, I'll most likely have enough money to get my own place?"

"Maybe, if you get the job. If you don't get it you'll still be stuck getting $100 only every two weeks and then it'll take forever for you to be able to leave Kouga; 40 weeks to be exact. It won't take me 40 weeks to get that room cleaned up. Maybe about 3…"

"But if I get the job I'll have it in five weeks…" Kagome mused.

"Ugh… SO much math… No more!" Sango groaned.

Kagome and Sango both shared a laugh before returning to the point at hand.

"But okay… I'll move in with you in about three weeks."

"Sounds good, roomy." Sango said.

The two women turned back to their now semi-cold lunches and then went back to work.

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