Please Don't Cry
By PazaakGirl
Chapter 2 – A girlfriend and a strange visitor.
Mamoru and Meiko had met each other during the last few months of their junior year in High School, and after meeting up every now and then during the school holidays he had asked her to be his girlfriend. Usagi smiled at the memory of when he was getting ready for their first official date; Unazuki and Motoki had fought relentlessly about what he should wear.
"Mamoru, I think this shirt should be good," Motoki advised, pulling out a sky-blue Polo shirt from his brother's closet.
"No, no, no! It's too light! It doesn't go with his eyes!" Unazuki complained.
"Okay, sis, what's your opinion?" the blonde boy countered, and to that, Unazuki pulled out a white dress shirt from the far end of the wardrobe, where the more formal clothing was kept. Her brothers and Usagi sweatdropped. "He'll wear a tie, too!" the youngest of the four said in her defense.
"They're going to a movie, Unazuki. He's not taking her to watch a matinee! How about this one, Mamoru?" Mamoru stared at the dark green T-shirt.
"I didn't even know I owned that." Mamoru stated in surprise. "No, I can't wear that!" he swatted the apparel aside.
"Stupid!" his sister reprimanded. "Who in their right mind would wear that colour?!"
The two siblings squabbled over an assortment of clothes and Mamoru groaned, still having nothing to dress himself in. Usagi laughed and patted him on the shoulder in sympathy. "Nervous, Mamoru-kun?"
"You know it, and these two aren't making it any easier… a little help here, Usagi-chan?"
She smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."
She pushed the bickering duo aside and rummaged through his clothes. Standing there in contemplation she pulled out a dark blue polo with white outlines on the collar, a black turtleneck sweater and khakis. Turning around she gazed at them for their opinion, and they nodded in approval. Motoki wouldn't have picked out the ensemble for himself, but it seemed to work on Mamoru.
Mamoru smirked. "I should have asked you in the first place." To that his siblings found it prudent to smack him on the head simultaneously. "OUCH!"
Mamoru and Meiko sat down and the upper-classman introduced his girlfriend to Naru. Meiko greeted her in a discretely sugary tone as she shook the girl's hand. Usagi and Meiko exchanged significant looks, unnoticed by the rest of the group. They chatted for a while before Usagi and Naru stood up. "Well, we're going to go to Osaka-san's shop. You coming, Unazuki?"
The thirteen-year-old shook her head. "Can't. Meeting someone soon."
They parted ways and the two teenagers left for OSA-P to look at the jewellery on sale. "I still can't believe Mamoru-san has a girlfriend," Naru commented on the way to her house. She found it a waste that such a gorgeous guy was no longer available. "Three months… he's been going out with her for that long?"
"Yeah, but Motoki-san and Reika-san have been going out much longer." Usagi replied. "They've been a couple for over a year already."
Naru walked silently next to her friend in thought. "Something wrong?" Usagi asked.
"Usagi-chan, do you think Sato-san is good for Mamoru-san?"
"Why do you ask that, Naru-chan?"
She stopped in front of the window of the jewellery store and faced the blonde Odango. "Didn't you feel that she was a little bit… fake?"
Usagi smiled sadly. It was true; Usagi knew that Meiko wasn't as demure and reserved as she acted around Mamoru. She had witnessed her darker side once the week before, when Mamoru wasn't around, a time when two kids and accidentally splashed her clothes with water. She shivered at the memory. That was one girl you didn't want to get on the bad side of. She told Naru of the encounter. "I know she's a little spoiled at some times, and she's temperamental. But if Mamoru likes her, and wants to go out with her, then I support that. I don't have to like her."
"But you're his best friend," Naru argued, but to that Usagi held a hand to stop her.
"I may be his best friend, but it's his life. Motoki, Unazuki, his parents and I have no right to interfere with what he wants to do." She sighed. "I just want to see him happy, you know?"
Naru laughed. "You're too good a friend, sometimes, Usagi-chan."
Usagi lay on her bed, fully ready to drift into sleep. Shingo had pleaded with her to play a few rounds of Sailor V with him, and she relented. But with the test they had that day, the talk with Naru and the games, she felt exhausted. Funny, all that energy that Motoki-kun says I have seems to have disappeared. She wondered if the boys were still at the arcade. Probably with their girlfriends… lucky them. I wish I had a boyfriend.
She drifted off into sleep, her dreams a memory of that day she saw Meiko in the park by herself. There was one thing that Usagi never mentioned to Naru about it, in case she told Mamoru.
"Meiko-san!"
"Hello, Usagi-chan," Meiko replied, smiling a little too sweetly. Usagi bit back the comment she was about to say about not having to pretend around her for Mamoru's sake. Usagi sat down on the bench next to her and asked how her day was. They chatted for a while amiably, but it wasn't to last.
"So what brings you to the park, Usagi-chan?" Meiko asked the blonde teenager.
Usagi shrugged. "Nothing, really. I came here all the time when I was a kid, I guess I just find myself here whenever I wander aimlessly." She turned to the high-school student. "Are you meeting Mamoru-kun here?"
"Yes, I am," Meiko replied. Her smile faded a little at the mention of Mamoru by the girl. Usagi frowned.
"Is something wrong?" she asked the senior.
"I was wondering…" Meiko began, the sugary tone growing a little serious, "if anything was going on between you and Mamoru-san."
Usagi burst into a fit of laughter. "Why do you ask that?"
"Well, you two are very close, aren't you?"
Usagi nodded, still giggling. "Of course. He's my best friend."
She didn't realize in her naïveté what Meiko was getting at, until she had to state it bluntly. "Usagi-chan, I'm asking if you are involved with him."
That only caused Usagi to laugh a little harder. "Ow, my stomach…" she looked up at Mamoru's girlfriend. "Mamoru-kun is just my friend; a good friend, but nothing more than that."
"So there's nothing going on between you, is there?" Meiko leaned in a little closer, a suspicious glint in her eyes. "Usagi-chan, I don't know if I should believe you or not. Even as best friends, you two are close. A little too close," she added in a whisper.
Usagi found herself being stared down by a glare, and she swore Meiko would pounce on her if it wasn't for a splash of water that caused the older girl to shriek.
"MY DRESS!" She looked up and glared at two boys who had water pistols. It seemed one had an aim that wasn't quite up to scratch. "How could you ruin my dress? I bought this from Calvin Klein in New York! And my shoes! You brats!" Usagi swore she could see steam coming from her ears as the girl continued to screech in anger, a high pitched tone which rivaled her own. She exhaled in relief, however, for the fact that she was no longer interrogating her about her relationship with her boyfriend.
"Relax, lady, it's just water," one of the boys answered, which only caused her to complain more overdramatically than before. The boys looked at Usagi briefly and, from the warning look on Usagi's face, decided to high tail it out of there. Meiko stood there huffing in anger and Usagi rolled her eyes grinning at the woman's distress, the tension and questions between them forgotten as Usagi helped her clean up.
Usagi giggled in her sleep at the memory of Meiko's angered face when a weight that landed forcefully on her stomach awoke her. She shrieked, sitting upright. "SHINGO! Didn't I tell you to knock before you –"
What greeted her was not a sandy-haired boy but a black cat with what seemed to be a crescent-shaped bald spot on her forehead. Usagi found herself gazed upon by striking red eyes which looked over her in assessment.
"W-w-where did you come from, kitty?" she asked timidly, still taken aback by the feline's sudden appearance.
"I've finally found you, Sailor Moon," the cat replied.
Usagi's eyes widened, dumbstruck. That… that… that cat t-ta-ta…
"WHAAT?!" she shrieked, before promptly fainting.