Finders Keepers
The sound of my alarm clock went off I slowly sat up and rubbed my head. I sighed deeply and got off my pallet. I looked to my left and saw my little brother lying next to my pallet knocked out. I looked to the other side and saw my sister's empty pallet. She must've didn't come home last night. I shrugged my shoulders and left out my room. My stomach then started growling. I entered the kitchen and saw Kaa-Chan sitting at the table with a calculator. Souta had an hour or so before school so I decided to make him breakfast.
"What are you making?" I heard Kaa-Chan ask. I turned and looked at her.
"I'm going to make an egg sandwich for Souta." I answered. She sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"One egg." She snapped. "You kids eat too much, how are we suppose to keep food in the house with you guys always eating. Money is tight as it is." She complained. I glared at her but didn't say anything. Instead, I closed the fridge and walked out the kitchen. She got mad at us if we got anything out the fridge. She said we ate too much when her good for nothing husband ate enough for the family. He was certainly pudgy for a man in poverty. Whatever little bit of money he made he didn't bring it home for us he just gambled it away and returned home empty handed. I had to figure what we were going to eat for breakfast.
I went to my closet to look for something clean to wear for work. Everything I had was dirty since Kaa-Chan didn't want us to use too much water so washing clothes was out the question and we couldn't afford to go the laundry mat. I sighed and sat down on the floor leaning against the closet. I looked out the window.
Thanks to Tou-Chan, we were below the poverty line and because of his illegal history getting help from the government to help was out the questioned. My stomach began growling again. I placed my hand on my stomach and moaned.
"Kagome! Eri's at the door!!" I heard Kaa-Chan yell from the kitchen. I quickly got up and ran to the door.
Ohayo Kagome-Chan." She smiled. I hugged her. She was my best friend. We grew up together and we were inseparable. She never judged me because of my family's history and she helped me out whenever she could. I owed so much to her and I promised myself one day I would repay her.
We entered my room and she closed the door. I smelt something good from one of the bags she had in her hands. She sat on my pallet and pulled out something wrapped in tin foil.
"My mom told me to bring this to you and Souta but it looks like he's knocked out." She said and almost as if on cue, Souta slowly sat up.
"Something smells good." He said while rubbing an eye. Eri giggled and handed him something wrapped in tin foil as well.
"Hurry and chow down." She told us. I opened the tin foil and saw eggs, bacon, and cheese. Souta had the same thing.
"Itadakimasu." He said and begun devouring his food. I on the other hand looked at Eri before closing my eyes. Every time she did this, I couldn't help but tear. She smacked my arm.
"No crying, I'm not doing this because I pity you. I'm doing this because you're my best friend and I want what's best for you. My mom said if we had a bigger place than you, Souta and Shima could stay with us, but Onii-Chan is taking up so much space, he needs to move out already." She smirked and I smiled while shaking head.
"I have to go over your house later to thank your mom."
"Me too." Souta said as he was almost done with his sandwich. We really didn't have dinner last night because Kaa-Chan said we didn't need to eat every night since we were getting fat. I didn't know how that was possible. We hardly ate anything when we were here.
"Oh yeah Souta, Kouga-Nii-Chan sent these to you." She held up a bag full of clothes. "These are clothes he can't fit anymore so these should last you for a while." She then handed me a bag. "These are mine whenever you need clothes just come to my house and get them. I don't mind." She shrugged. I nodded my head. "Oh yeah, give me all your dirty clothes, so my mom could wash them tonight." I helped her collect our clothes and we put them in a bag. "Where's Shima?" She asked. I sighed deeply and shook my head.
"Don't think she even came home." Eri just shook her head.
"That girl." She sighed.
What could I say about Eri? Mainly because of her, I still had my sanity. My parents really didn't care about us too much since they cared about maintaining for themselves. Eri's mother helped us out as much as she could. Ever since Eri's father died, her mother had been working hard to make ends meet for her family. That was why sometimes I felt bad to burden them. Eri was always there for me.
"Arigatou Eri-Nee-Chan." Souta hugged her tightly. She smiled and patted his back.
"Don't worry about it. You're like my little brother so I gotta look out for you as well." She giggled.
I love Souta so much he was the main reason why I fought as hard as I did. He was only thirteen so there wasn't much he was able to do with making money. So I told him I would have his back forever. He was only five foot three, he had big brown eyes, and his brown hair was always all over the place. He was so adorable to me sometimes I found it hard to believe my little brother was in his teens. I was the closest to him.
"Well, let's ready, so I can take Souta to school and you to work."
I was grateful in so many ways.
I waved to Eri as I got out the car. I walked into my job, which was a small diner. It wasn't a lot but it was better than nothing.
"Ohayo Kagome-Chan." My co-worker Satoya greeted me.
"Ohayo Sato." I smiled back at him. He was always smiling and watching me, which I found a bit weird sometimes. I entered the locker room and changed into my work outfit, which was a fitted light blue and white dress that stopped a little before my knees with my favorite...an apron.
I looked at myself in the mirror as I fixed my hair. I didn't think I was prettiest girl around. Actually, I was very insecure about myself. Standing next to girls like Eri and even both my sisters I wasn't anywhere on their level.
I kept my black hair long, which stopped at the middle of my back, I had thoughts of chopping it off but I was too scared for that type of change, I had dark brown eyes with ivory color skin. I was a slender girl with a little bit of curves.
I walked out the locker room and grabbed a water pitcher before walking over to a table that hadn't been served yet. Much to my surprise, my younger sister and her friends were sitting at the table laughing. She was sixteen years old and I had to wonder why she wasn't in school. She looked at me and I saw some guy who was obviously older than her with his hands all over her.
"How come you're not at school?" I asked. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes.
"What does it matter?" She shrugged. I began pouring water in the glasses on the table.
"It does matter. How long have you not been going to school?" I snapped at her. She looked at me with a bored expression.
"Did Mom or Dad say anything to you about it?"
"Iie." I replied looking confused.
"So then it doesn't matter. I want a coke and a jumbo burger with fries." She told me and handed me the menu. "You do you're job and I'll do mine." I took the menu and looked at her other friends.
"Can I take you orders?" I asked. I couldn't be friendly even if I wanted to I knew this was not the crowd Shima should be around. They all gave me their orders, names and personalities weren't important. I knew that guy who was all over her was giving her money. He was nothing but a sugadaddy and it was a damn shame that she was selling herself short like that.
Shima stood two inches under my five foot five frame, her brown hair stopped at her waistline and she had more meat on her body than I did. She was dressed in a super mini white skirt with red leggings, with a red halter-top that showed off her stomach and cleavage. She also wore a lot of make up. She was only sixteen years old and yet had the face and body of a twenty one year old woman. People often mistook her to be my older sister.
I turned and looked at her.
"Shima, all I know is you better slow your roll before you end up in a serious situation." I warned her. Regardless if I cared for her or not she was still my sister.
Shima just scoffed and shrugged as she pulled out a mirror and began putting on mascara.
"I got a lot of street smarts even if I'm a lamb surrounded by a pack of wolves I'll get away." She stated and everyone at the table began laughing. The jerk she was sitting with hugged her and kissed her cheek as he looked at me.
"And besides Big Daddy won't let anything happen to her." He told me and kissed her lips. I scoffed in disgusted and walked away.
"I didn't know you had an Imouto-Chan?" One of the dumb girls at the table said. Shima began laughing.
"That's my Onee-Chan." She said and they all laughed after saying oh shit I wouldn't have guessed.
I gave them their food after fifteen minutes. I then spotted two men walking inside. They were instantly seated and I caught Shima staring at the younger man. Everyone at her table then began whispering as they stared at the men. The two men obviously ignored everyone around them. Satoya was on his break and because no one really wanted to work here, there were limited workers. I grabbed a pitcher full of fresh water and walked over to the table.
"Konnichiwa, my name is Kagome and I will be your server for today. Can I start you off with something to drink?" I asked politely. I observed the two men who were sitting adjacent from one another.
One had long jet-black hair that was pulled back into a tight ponytail he had beautiful amber eyes that were covered by thin frame glasses. The three-piece suit he was wearing looked to be very expensive. He probably paid more for that suit than the whole menu put together. If I had to guess an age, I would say he was in his late thirties or early forties. Even so, he was very handsome for a man his age.
The other one who was sitting across from him was much younger. He also wore thin frame glasses to cover his beautiful amber eyes, his black ran down his back, but it was also kept in a tight neat ponytail. Actually, his hair seemed longer than mine did and it was a lot prettier. I felt a bit jealous that a guy could have such nice hair. His skin was a light tan color, and he also wore an expensive three-piece suit. If I had to guess an age, I would say that he was in his early twenties and I'd say twenty-four the oldest even that was pushing it.
I was going to assume they were father and son since they did resemble each other a lot. It was also obvious money wasn't an issue in their lives so I began to wonder what in the hell were they doing here in this small diner instead of dinning in the rich part of Tokyo or somewhere fancier. Either way it was none of my business.
"Yes, I'll have a cup of black coffee." The older man said.
"And I'll have a cappuccino hold the whip cream." The younger one said while eyeing me from head to toe. I couldn't help but think he was undressing me with his eyes. I literally sucked in my breath for one millisecond. He was extremely handsome and his amber eyes were so penetrating almost as if he was trying to see inside my deepest thoughts.
"Ok." I grabbed the pitcher. I placed the order on the counter and went to wait the next table. I still saw my sister staring the younger guy down. I knew the guy she was with had to have felt insulted.
This next table was filled with a bunch of low lives trying to get with me. I kept it strictly professional I could care less if they tipped me or not. I wasn't putting myself down just to keep some good for nothings happy.
Once I took their drink orders, I quickly got away from that table and grabbed the drinks the rich guys ordered. Both of them looked so serious. It almost made me afraid to even approach the table. For the past five minutes, neither of them cracked a smile.
"Have you decided what you wanted to eat?" I asked.
"Yes." The older man spoke. "I'll have the grilled chicken sandwich and hold the pickles." I nodded my head. "Would you like French Fries with that sir?"
"No, thank you." I nodded my head and wrote that down. "And you sir?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Sir? How old are you?" He asked me, once again his eyes traveled up and down my body. I felt my cheeks warm up a bit.
"E-Eighteen." I replied. I saw the corner of his lips turn up just a tiny bit but it was there.
"You don't have to call me sir." He told me. I nodded my head slowly feeling mesmerized by him. "I'll have the chicken fingers."
"Would you like French Fries?" He just nodded his head never breaking his stare. I quickly wrote that down and took the menus from them. I gave the orders to the chef and walked over to the table full of jerks.
"Say baby does fries come with that shakes?" The leader of the pack of jerks asked while staring me from head to toe. However, the difference was I felt appalled from his looks. I glared at him.
"Not in this lifetime or any other lifetime for that matter." I retorted. His friends oohed and began laughing. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him.
"Come sit with us, wanna hang out after work? I'll make it worth your while baby." He whispered, his hot breath practically burned the hairs in my nose.
"Get your hands off me!!" I yelled out. I knew everyone including my sister were looking at us but of course chivalry was dead so who would help a girl being attacked?
He leaned to kiss me, acting strictly on impulse I grabbed a glass of water from the table and threw it on him. He quickly stood up instantly knocking me to the ground. He looked in shocked for a moment before glaring at me.
"Stupid bitch!!" He yelled out and threw his fist towards me. I closed my eyes waiting for the hit since I couldn't get out the way fast enough. However the hit never came, I slowly opened my eyes and saw the young rich guy holding his wrist.
"It pisses me off watching jerks like you. Leave her alone." He said calmly. The jerk who tried hitting me growled at him and snatched his wrist from him.
"Who the fuck are you asshole?! You wanna get your fucking ass kicked?" He yelled. The rich guy helped me up and shrugged.
"If you're brave enough go ahead and try it but you should know I'm the type of guy you don't want for an enemy." He said so coldly that I felt a shiver down my back. He let go of my hand and went back to his table. By now, all the girls were swooning at him. I looked back at the other guys and they simply walked out the diner looking embarrassed.
Satoya walked through the door and ran to me.
"Are you ok? What the hell just happened? I just got back from break." I sighed and placed my head to my head.
"Forget it" I was exasperated and embarrassed by this point. I grabbed the food and ignored the looks of the other customers. I walked over to the table and bowed my head in embarrassment. "Arigatou-Gozaimasu, I'm sorry for troubling you."
"Forget about it, I understand you're not afraid to stand up for yourself but you should think twice as a woman before swinging at a guy not every guy is just gonna walk away calmly." The young rich one replied. Shima and her friends got up to leave but they passed by the table first. Shima looked at him. He looked at her but then looked back at me. She and her friends left out the diner to go who knows where.
Souta ran into the diner. He gave Shima a confused look but then ran towards me. He grabbed my arm.
"Kagome, I got a job." He said happily. I raised my eyebrow.
"Is school out?" I had to ask.
"Oh, I had a mid-term so I'm done for today." He replied. I nodded my head
"Ok, so you got a job doing what?"
"My friend's Dad owns a barber shop and he said he'll let me work there being a shampoo boy and sweeping. I'm getting six an hour but it's better than nothing right?" He smiled happily. I had to smile as well. At least he wasn't making dirty money. "Now, I can help you out with Tou-Chan's debt problem." My eyes widened. I forgot we were standing in front of the table. I looked at the guys and saw them looking at us. I grabbed Souta's hand and pulled him away from the table.
"'That's great Souta, I'm happy for you." I smiled at him. He hugged me.
"With my first paycheck, I wanna do something nice for Eri's family."
"That sounds like a plan, we can do that." I replied. He nodded.
"Alright, I'm gonna go over to the barber shop now so I'll see you later."
"Alright bye." I waved and he ran off. I turned and saw the rich guys looking at me. Feeling very awkward, I decided to go on my break.
During my break, I decided to head towards the bank to check my account. I wanted to this debt thing to be over maybe then we could live like a real family. But with me making minimum wage and my parents finding it hard to keep a stable job, there was no way that was going to happen any time soon. I sighed deeply and spotted a black briefcase up against the building wall. I raised my eyebrow and looked around. There was no one in sight. Who left this? Maybe there was personal information inside of it. I knelt down and opened it only to see a shit load of cash. I gasped but then calmed myself. I didn't want to make a scene. I slowly closed the briefcase and placed it back against the wall. That wasn't for me to touch. I began walking away but then I stopped. What if someone else found it and just wasted it on something stupid. My family was in need more than anyone else and with that amount of money we could pay off at least one third of Tou-Chan's debt problems and hopefully be a step closer to a happier life. I ran back over to the briefcase. It wasn't like I was stealing, no one was here, and there was no name, address, or phone number. I picked the briefcase up and walked back to my job. After all as they say Finders Keepers.