Warning! EXTREME adult situations!
Chapter Eleven
It was the day of the party. Yuudai and Aiko were on their way to Aiko's house for a quick snack. It was the evening time. Yuudai's soccer practice had run late and Aiko lost track of time, so the party would be starting within the hour. Aiko was busy reviewing how they were going to go to the party without her parents figuring out.
"We're just gonna tell them we're going to the gym a few blocks from here." Aiko was telling him, adjusting her backpack.
"Don't you have to have a membership to get into that gym?" Yuudai asked, his eyebrows arched. Aiko smiled and fished out her keychain. She picked through the dangly items before coming upon a small card with a barcode on it.
"My parents insist on trying different places to get well-rounded in the fighting arts." Aiko explained. Yuudai let out a short 'ah' as they turned another corner. They passed a group of kids chattering about Fumiko's party and how big it's going to be. This set Aiko a little on edge, "Hey, Yuudai... what if Fumiko figures out I'm there?"
"Psh, what can she do about it?" Yuudai asked, furrowing his brow, "Think of how many uninvited guests are going to be at this shin-dig!" Aiko still didn't look happy and Yuudai quickly began thinking of another way to make her feel better. He laced his fingers into her's, "I'll be there with you, Aiko. Anybody has a problem, they will have to deal with me first." Aiko looked down at their interwoven fingers and she smiled back.
Aiko unlocked the front door and entered, Yuudai following after her, "Mommy! Daddy! We're home!" She rounded the corner to hear noise in the kitchen. Her mother exited with two bowls of rice. "Oh... Mom... you cooked."
"No, no!" Akane replied, exasperated. She set the bowls onto the table, "Your Uncle Drager is home early from work. He offered to make you two a snack. Your father's outside training if you wanted to join him." She then looked over at Yuudai, "You must be Yuudai Takuarashii! Hello, hello! I'm Akane Saotome."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Yuudai greeted, formally bowing to Akane.
"You can join Aiko in training with her father if you'd like." Akane offered.
"Yuudai doesn't do martial arts." Aiko quickly cut in, "Besides, after we ate, we were going to go try out the gym that's not far from here." Aiko told her mother, sitting down. Yuudai copied. Akane cocked her eyebrow up.
"Really?"
"Yeah." Aiko nodded, "Is that alright?"
"I suppose so." Akane shrugged, "You'll have to tell your father and I how good it was. We haven't been yet." Aiko agreed, "Well, I'll let you two eat so you can be on your way. It was nice meeting you, Yuudai."
"And the same to you, Mrs. Saotome." Yuudai said, swallowing his rice quickly. And with that Akane retreated to the kitchen where there were clattering dishes. "Your mother is nice."
"Yeah, when she isn't in mom-mode." Aiko told him with a melodramatic eye roll. "So you know the way to Fumiko's house from here?" Yuudai nodded.
"You actually live closer to her than I do."
"Spooky." Aiko bit her lip. Knowing that her enemy slept possibly only blocks away from where she slept was mind boggling. Just then Ranma entered the room, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Hey, hey, Aiko!" Ranma greeted. He paused when he saw Yuudai, "Hi. You must be Yuudai? Aiko's boy... friend... er..." He rubbed the nape of his neck, "Aiko's friend that is a boy. A boy friend, I guess?"
"Daddy." Aiko shot him a warning look.
"Right. Did you want to train? Or did you have other plans."
"We're going to check out the new gym after our snack." Aiko told him. Ranma nodded and darted for the kitchen. "Sorry about that." Aiko shot him a sad look. "He can be pretty weird." Yuudai waved off. Suddenly a scream errupted from the kitchen, followed by a crashing of many plates.
"DAMMIT DRAGER!" Came a high pitched squeal that Aiko knew too well. A red head went storming out of the kitchen muttering under her breath. Akane soon followed after, covered head to toe in freezing water.
"Let's get out of here." Aiko shook her head, throwing her napkin down.
...
The walk to Fumiko's wasn't long. The sun was setting when they got there. They could hear the booming music. Kids were hanging out outside and inside. The place was jammed pack. As Aiko and Yuudai walked up the path they watched the lustful teenagers hungrily kiss each other. Yuudai opened the door for Aiko. They were nearly blown away by how loud the music was. People were everywhere. Aiko didn't think it was possible to fit this many people in such a cramped house.
They wove in and out of everyone, who barely shot them glances. This made Aiko feel confident. Nobody was paying attention to her and thinking she was a misfit. There were too many faces here to single one out. Yuudai held out a plastic cup to her with punch in it. He was drinking his own. When Aiko drank it though, it sent her head spinning.
"Does the punch taste weird to you?" Aiko shouted over the music, if that was possible. Yuudai looked over at her and signed that it did a little. "Maybe we shouldn't..." But Yuudai was swallowed up into the crowd, still drinking his drink. "Great." Was all Aiko could think to say at normal level. But with such loud music, she wasn't sure she said it. She only felt her vocal cords vibrate. Some people bumped into the back of Aiko and made her stumble into the crowd. She was easily lost in the sea of people. Aiko kept her cup close to her, taking sips every now and then and feeling her brain spin out of control. "Somebody must of done something to the punch." Aiko told her. And yet... she began to find it very tasteful. She spotted Yuudai hanging with some of the people from his soccer team. She made her way over. Yuudai took his cup from his lips and waved at her. His eyes were slightly red rimmed and leaning against the wall seemed to help him from becoming woozy.
"Hey Aiko!" He said with a big grin, "You know the fellas from the soccer team." He gestured at the four them standing before them. He named them off, but Aiko lost it in the music and found herself wanting to finish her punch off. She nodded as if she heard him.
"I'm gonna go get more punch!" Aiko shouted and pushed through the crowd and back to the bowl. She nearly filled her cup up and began drinking more. She staggered back but caught herself on the wall. Her vision blurred for the slightest second, but she blinked hard and fast. When she focused, she spotted Fumiko, Rin, and Hitomi glaring at her from across the room. "Oh no." Aiko muttered, feeling her legs go numb. Aiko ducked into the ground. Her vision continued blurring. She staggered out of the main hallway and down a corridor, bumping into things along the way. She grabbed for the wall, feeling bile rise in her throat. She knocked a picture off the wall, hearing it shatter, but she didn't stop. She had to find a bathroom. It felt like she was moving in slow motion. She opened a door but only revealed a couple making out. She closed the door and tried another. Just a closet. Third times a charm, she opened it to an empty bathroom. She shut the door and clicked it lock, thanking the unknowns that Fumiko had a modern bathroom. Aiko set her cup onto the counter and dropped before the toilet, heaving her guts out. Her vision blurred as she felt back against the wall, her head throbbing.
And yet, something impulsed her to grab her punch and continue chugging. Something in the back of her mind was telling her to just drink, drink, drink. Something about the punch was additctive, but Aiko liked it. It made her feel like she was on a rush, but the after feeling after the rush went away was horrible. So to ensure that the rush never went away, she knew the key was to keep drinking. After she flushed the toilet, she staggered back into the hallway, taking another gulp of her punch.
She saw the picture she knocked down from earlier, so with shakey hands, Aiko picked it up. It was a picture of Fumiko's family she assumed. Her grandparents, parents, and sitting singulary in the center, the one and only grandchild, Fumiko. Aiko set the picture onto the hallway table and continued towards the party. However, someone called her name. She turned her head to see a boy she had seen at school. He was leaning against the threshold to another room, arms crossed over his chest.
"Um. Hi." Aiko said, her voice slightly slurred. "Do I... Do I know you?"
"I'm Katashi. I'm on the baseball team. Eighth grade. Varsity."
"Still doesn't ring a bell." Aiko shook her head. "Have we spoke before?"
"No, no." Katashi shook his head. "We haven't. I've always just wanted to tell you what a wonderful gymnast you are." He smiled a pearly smile, "I used to be Fumiko's boyfriend, but you know her... she's a bitch."
"Yeah." Aiko agreed with a smile. "She really is."
"Hey, this is Fumiko's room. Wanna trash it?" Katashi said with a devilish smile, gesturing over his shoulder. He took Aiko's cup and set it on the hallway table. "It'll make you feel so much better."
"That sounds like so much fun," Aiko agreed. Katashi held the door open for her. Aiko entered the bedroom. Fumiko's room was pink and frilly, with a westernized bed, similar to the one Aiko owned. She ventured further in, but suddenly the door slammed. Aiko whirled around to Katashi flicking the lock shut. "Do you think someone is gonna figure out we're trashing her room?" Aiko asked, cocking an eyebrow up. Katashi simply shook his head before he flicked the lights off. "Katashi?" Aiko asked, not knowing her way around the dark. She suddenly felt something heavy slam against her.
Aiko crashed to ground. Katashi's hand was over her mouth and she felt his hot breath against her skin, "Don't move. Don't scream. Got it?" Aiko was shaking harshly as she felt Katashi's free hand rest on the snap of her jeans.
...
"Have you seen Aiko?" Yuudai shouted over the sound of the music to a nearby friend. They simply shook their head. Yuudai was worried now. He hadn't seen her in the past hour and his curfew was ticking closer. He was sure Aiko would want to leave when he was ready to. His head was throbbing and whatever was in the punch had made it's way out of his system and into Fumiko's front yard.
He brushed past Fumiko, Rin, and Hitomi who were having a good time, each sitting in the lap of a boy they were interested in. Yuudai ducked beneath a couple whose lips were locked and nearly glued together. This was a small house. There were only so many places Aiko could be. And it's not like she knew very many people here.
This gave Yuudai some hope though. Maybe she had found friends.
...
Aiko slowly curled into a ball, buttoning her jeans back up. Tears were freely falling down her cheeks and she felt the need to throw up again. She wanted to sink into the ground. She felt like dying. She heard the door open and felt a sliver of light on her. The door remained cracked and she listened to the party continue, while she lay on the floor, crying, in so much pain.
Aiko began feeling the bile making it's way up her throat. She didn't think she could move. She didn't want to move. Aiko closed her eyes, feeling the tears sting under her eye lids. She brough her shakey hands out and grasped the carpet, clutching it for dear life. She pressed her face into it, trying to shake away the nausea.
I'm going to die here. Was all that was running through her mind.
...
Yuudai checked the bathroom and began back down the hallway. He was about to exit it when he heard a whimper. He turned to see a door cracked open into a dark room. He pushed the door open wider and flicked the light on. That's when his eyes layed on Aiko, who was curled up on the ground, crying.
"Aiko?" Yuudai collasped at her side and gently pressed his hand to her shoulder. She screamed and shoved him away, backing up into wall. Her eyes were puffy and red. Who knew how long she had been lying on the floor. "What's wrong? What happened?" Aiko sniffled and hugged her knees, pressing her face into them. "Aiko?" He gently crawled closer and set his hand on her wrist.
She screamed bloody murder again, "LET GO!" She gave him a firm push and was across the room in seconds, hiding in the corner. "Get away from me!" Aiko sobbed, "Don't hurt me! I... I don't want trouble!"
"What are you talking about?" Yuudai asked, his brow furrowed together. "You know I'd never hurt you, Aiko! Tell me what happened." Aiko shook her head, feeling a panic wipe through her. She pressed her hand to her collar bone and choked for a moment, "Aiko?" She brought her shakey hands down and pressed them to her pockets.
"Inhaler...!" She rasped.
"You're having an asthma attack?"Aiko nodded as she felt her throat constrict. "Where's your inhaler?" Aiko took in a sharp breath and shook her head, tears falling faster. "I'm calling emergency!" Yuudai declared, grabbing the landline phone off of Fumiko's night stand. "Hang in there, Aiko!" However, she passed out before he finished dialing.
...
The phone rang, making Akane and Ranma look up from the improvised dinner they were eating. Drager however thought it was just work buzzing in. He entered the kitchen and picked the phone up nonchalantly, "Hello?"
"Hi, is there a Mr. or Mrs. Saotome there?"
"Yeah, one sec." Drager replied. He then pressed the phone to his shoulder, "Akane or Ranma can take this!" Ranma was first there, but Akane lingered nearby.
"This is Ranma Saotome," Ranma said into the phone.
"Mr. Saotome? Hi. I'm Dr. Wasaki down here at Tokyo's General Hospital. Your daughter had a serious asthma attack and is being held here. There also seem to be other injuries that we will be looking into when she finally awakes."
"Whoa, whoa, what?" Ranma cocked an eyebrow up, "Was she in a fight or something? Did she hurt herself working out? She was only at the gym! Where are these other injuries from?"
"The gym?" Dr. Wasaki sounded confused from the other line, "In my records, the EMS picked her up from a residential home. The wounds look inflicted by means of force. If you could just come downtown to the hospital, I'm sure we'll have more information then."
"I'm on my way." Ranma hung the phone up and took Akane's hand, "Get your coat. I'll explain on the way. All I can say is our baby girl needs us."