I woke up in the middle of the night when I felt something cold touch my skin.
I rolled over on my side and got out of bed.
My little brother was curled up in a ball sobbing slightly.
"Kenji…Kenji, it's alright." I tell him, trying to comfort him. "C'mon let's get you into some dry clothes." I take him out of bed while he's still sobbing.
"I'm sorry." He tells me.
I massage my temples before assuring him that I am not angry at him for wetting the bed.
Ever since our parents died 4 years ago, I have been taking care of my little brother who is 9 years younger than me.
I've gotten used to being woken up in the middle of the night by his bed-wetting, but the doctor has said that if he doesn't outgrow that he will have a lot of self-esteem issues later, so there are nights when I lose my temper, hence his sobbing and apologizing.
"So what happened" I ask him.
"I was dreaming that I couldn't find you and I screamed and I didn't see you."
I pat his head, "Hey look, I'm here ok?"
He nods slightly before drifting off to sleep again. I on the other hand, cannot fall back asleep so readily.
My mind wanders trying to fall asleep again and I replay that day's events.
'Kaoru!' I called for my next-door neighbor.
Since we live next to each other, I have become a sort of unofficial babysitter for her.
'Hold you horses, I'm going!' she calls back to me. She had been talking with friends by the school gates.
'I need to pick up Kenji.' I tell her.
'Why? Didn't Mrs. Ramirez go for him today?' she asks me.
Mrs. Ramirez is the lady that looks after Kenji while I get home from school.
'She had things to do, so she took Kenji with her and I told her I'd pick him up after school.'
Kaoru was cranky because I made her wait one hour for me to get out of school and then I was pushing her to hurry up, but she got even crankier when she saw Tomoe at the front of school.
'Uh…hello Tomoe.' I greeted the older girl, wondering what she was doing there.
'Hello.' She responded in that same low voice of hers.
'Can we leave now?' A brunette kid standing next to her whined.
She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a can. 'I'm sorry about your drink at lunch, I hope I got the right drink.' She says handing me said can.
I was awestruck and speechless. I could not believe that she had waited at the front gates just so she could hand me a can of soda.
'Thanks, but it was no big deal. I was the one that spilled it all over you.'
'It was my fault. I knew that you had not noticed me there, but I did not do anything to alert you of my presence.'
At that same precise moment Kaoru made a gagging sound and the boy standing next to Tomoe pulled on her bag to get her attention.
'I have to get going, but I'll see you tomorrow.' She said.
Err,err,err…..
It took me a while to realize that my alarm was going off.
Was it seven already?
I was having such a good dream that I didn't want it to end, but it was time to face reality.
I woke up Kenji and helped him get dressed.
Sometimes he was a little brat, today was one of those mornings when nothing was going as planned.
"What's the hold up?" my cousin screamed out at me.
"Nothing, Kenji's just being a brat."
Seijuro walked into the room and looked at Kenji warily, "Really?"
"Just leave, we'll be ok." I tell him.
"Oh I'm not worried about that, but well…" he drifts off…"Oh whatever." And he walked out of the room again.
Since our parents died we moved in with our cousin, Hiko Seijuro. He was a difficult guy to work with sometimes, but for the most part we stayed out of each other's hair.
Finally I managed to get Kenji to cooperate with me and got going.
"Kenji, I promise today I'll play with you." I told him on our way to school.
"Can I come too?" Kaoru pipped in.
"Why do you even ask? You know Kenji likes you, probably even more than me." I tell her.
"Yay!" she cheers.
"Ok Kenji, say bye to Kaoru."
His eyes start to water up, but Kaoru knows how to handle my little brother.
"Ah, ah, Kenji, no crying, or I won't play with you."
The brat actually pays attention to her and smiles feebly while running and waving at her.
"Gee, Kaoru, maybe he should sleep over at your house."
Her eyes light up, "Can I go sleep over tonight?"
I didn't pay much attention to it and absent-mindedly agreed to it.
To me, Kaoru was just my cute-next door neighbor who I thought of as a little sister, for the most part I ignored the fact that she had a crush on me.
"Thanks!"
"Yeah whatever." I say.
Kaoru's friend was already waiting for her when we arrived at the middle school, so she quickly said good bye and ran off.
"Oh my god Misao!" Kaoru exclaimed as she approached her friend.
"Why are you so happy?"
"I'm sleeping over at Kenshin's!"
"Uh...is your dad going to be ok with that?" Misao asked.
"He won't be home tonight…" Kaoru told her friend. "Besides, I'm just going to help him baby-sit Kenji." She finished off a little disappointed.
"Aren't we a little young to be talking about these things?" their seventh grade friend Megumi said, coming into the conversation.
"What are you talking about Megumi? You are all gaga over that jerk, Kanryu." Kaoru told her defensively.
"As if, why would I like someone like him? You said it, he's a jerk." As Megumi was saying that, said guy passed by and slapped her in the butt.
"Hey!" Megumi spunned angry, "You don't touch this without my permission!"
He just laughed it off as he always did and kept walking.
"He's a jock, what did you expect?" Kaoru told her sarcastically.
"Yeah whatever I am not "gaga" over him." Megumi assured the younger girls even though everybody knew, Megumi included that she had a big crush on the older boy.