Never Far
Chapter 14- AttachmentThe door flew open in front of Kari and the first thing she saw was a huge mass of blonde hair, which she assumed belonged to Tara. She wasn't able to see much else as the living hair completely engulfed her in a hug that was tighter than the one Davis had given her.
"Kari! I'm so glad you came! I've been just dying to meet you!" she shrieked.
She thankfully released Kari, settling on squeezing her future stepdaughter's hand as she led her inside the apartment.
After Kari had made sure that she could still breathe, she took another look at the woman her father was marrying. Besides the enormous hair, Kari noticed that her makeup was too dark and too thick, her lipstick too bright a shade for her complexion, her boobs way too big to be natural, and her dress just screamed "slut." Besides all of that, Kari could see that she was pretty, in a superficial sort of way, but she could understand her father's attraction.
"You must be so tired," Tara exclaimed in a somewhat lower volume. "But you should eat something first. Are you hungry?"
Kari wanted to hate her. Everything that she had heard about Tara made her want to hate her. Kari thought that it would have been so easy to do. Now that she was standing in the kitchen with her, Kari found that hating her probably wouldn't come so easily. Kari may not have been the greatest judge of character, but Tara seemed sincere. She could have been faking it, but Kari had some difficulty believing that.
She sat down at the kitchen table and a second later her father entered the kitchen. Tara began pulling pans of food out of the refrigerator and bringing them over to the table where her father pulled out a chair and sat down beside her.
"We didn't know what time you'd be coming by," her father explained, "so we ate dinner earlier, but Tara saved some for you."
"Thank you," Kari managed to say, still struggling to stay awake.
"We haven't touched anything in your room since you left," her father added. "Why don't you check it out while Tara gets everything ready?"
Sleepily, Kari left the kitchen and made the familiar path down the hallway to her old bedroom, dragging her suitcase slowly behind her. Without even thinking about the meal Tara was preparing, she pulled back the comforter of her old bed, climbed under the sheets, and a second later she was fast asleep.
Around one o'clock in the morning, however, she could not fall back asleep. She had no idea what time it was in San Francisco, but she was awake as if it was the middle of the day.
She sat for a while in her bed, staring at the familiar ceiling. Her father hadn't lied, her room was exactly the same, minus the items she had taken. Her computer sat in the corner beside the balcony door, but the picture frames that had once surrounded it were gone. The walls were still painted the same shade of light pink, but there were funny looking dark shapes on the wall where her posters used to be. Her closet was empty except for a few items that she had thought would be better off forgotten.
Feeling a little hungry, she climbed out of bed and silently left her room. All of the lights in the apartment were turned off so she moved around as quietly as she could. All of the food Tara had prepared for her earlier must have been replaced in the refrigerator because the kitchen was currently spotless.
It was so different from when her mother had lived here. Then there had always been a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and leftovers sitting out on the counter. She opened the fridge and sighed. The food in the refrigerator was organized and all entirely fresh. There was even a small box of baking soda.
She grabbed the milk and set it on the countertop. Then she opened the cupboard to grab a bowl, but she was almost completely surprised when she found cups instead. It took her several minutes before she actually located them. Her mother hadn't taken any of the dishes so she wondered why her father had rearranged everything.
She realized the answer to her question just minutes later. After finding a bowl, she poured herself some milk and cereal and had just sat down at the kitchen table when she heard a noise from the other room.
She froze for a second, hoping that she hadn't woken anybody up in her search of a bowl.
Then she heard it again. For a minute she was unsure of what was going on, but when she realized what it was and where it was coming from, she cringed in disgust. The "noise" was a high-pitched moaning and panting coming from her father's room.
When she heard it a third time, she had her shoes on and was out the door a second later. What was her father thinking? How could they be having loud sex when she was supposed to be sleeping in the next room?
Extremely ticked off, she was at the door to Matt and Tai's apartment in less than two minutes. She knocked somewhat loudly, hoping that she wasn't waking them up either.
Kari didn't have to wait very long for them to answer the door, but when it did open, her mouth fell open in shock. Matt was standing in the doorway completely naked except for a bright red cowboy hat, high heeled cowboy boots, and a matching red leather thong. He held the door open with one hand and gripped a can of whipped cream in the other.
Kari stared for a second. "I would be so rich if I had a camera right now."
Matt rolled his eyes, but let her inside.
"T.K.'s in the back bedroom. Try not to be too loud or Tai'll kill you guys." He picked something up off of the living room table and tossed it to her. She caught it in the air and realized that it was a condom. She tried to protest, but he wasn't listening.
"And for the record, I didn't give you that. You know, just incase it ever gets back to Tai." And before she could say anything else, he disappeared through the kitchen door.
She was about to follow him into the kitchen when she realized that Matt hadn't closed the door all of the way. It was open just enough for her to see Tai lying on the kitchen floor, in a costume similar to Matt's, except without the thong.
"Oh my God," she cried, shielding her eyes and turning away. "Is everyone in Odaiba having sex tonight?"
"Not everyone," said T.K. from the hallway behind her. He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"Not yet, anyways," she said, quickly putting the condom in her pocket, thinking that leaving it around might only give their brothers ideas later. She turned around to kiss him when they heard a noise from the kitchen that stopped them in their tracks. He grabbed her hand and led her into the other room.
She sat down on his bed and covered her face with her hands, "It's going to take me years to get that picture out of my head."
He laughed at her. "I wouldn't say years. It'll probably be a few decades at least."
She laughed too, and hit his arm playfully as he sat down beside her.
"So, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? I mean, except to see me of course," he asked her.
"For your information, I didn't even know that you would be here. I came to get away from my dad's apartment. Let's just say that Tara's a screamer."
He nodded in understanding. "Oh, Kari, that's terrible."
"Yeah, well, now I know what it's like to be homeless."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I've never been able to consider my grandmother's house my home. Home was always here in Japan and I couldn't wait to go back to my dad's apartment, because it would be like going home. But then tonight I guess I just realized that it's not my home anymore. It's Tara's home. I think she lives there with him."
"So now do you want us to pick you out a cardboard box?" T.K. joked.
"T.K. that's not funny!" and she hit his arm again.
"Kari, you're not homeless. If you look at it the other way, you have a lot of homes. Your grandmother's house is a home, your father loves you and if you get to know Tara, you could consider that another home, just not the home. And you're always welcome here, even though I don't know why anybody would want to live with our brothers."
"Yeah, I was going to ask you sooner, what are you doing here? You're not living here are you?"
"Oh geez no. I'm pretty tolerate, but I don't think I could take being here all the time. I'm just staying here for a few days while my mom's out of town. She worries if I stay home alone."
She laid down in his bed and he slid down beside her before pulling a blanket over the two of them.
"Are you still tired," he asked her. "Or did Tara keep you up?"
"No, I'm fine now, but I don't think getting sleep would be any easier here."
"Tai and Matt are usually pretty quiet, usually being the key word."
"So, how long have they been together?"
"I don't know. I think since we got back from San Francisco. But I don't want to talk about them."
He leaned in and kissed her instead, and Kari completely agreed with his change of topic. They had just deepened their kiss however, when they heard Matt and Tai move from the kitchen to the bedroom.
When Matt screamed something that made Kari blush and T.K. shake his head in frustration, they decided that it was time to leave.
Even though it was almost two o'clock in the morning, they walked hand-in-hand down the deserted sidewalks to T.K.'s apartment building. His apartment was dark as they entered, but they didn't bother to turn on any of the lights.
They sat down on T.K.'s couch before Kari asked him where exactly his mom was.
"She's in Hong Kong working on a story or something like that."
"I bet she's having sex tonight too."
"Kari! No! Bad mental pictures!" he screamed.
Kari wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss. T.K. soon forgot all of his disturbing thoughts about his family as he responded to Kari's passion. He pushed her down into the cushions and she opened her mouth wider so he could slide his tongue inside.
She moved her hands from the back of his neck to entangle them in his hair. T.K. slipped his hands under her shirt, sliding the palms of his hands along her back. Then he moved his hands lower so that they brushed across her back pocket.
"Kari, what's in your pocket?" he asked, breaking their contact as he sat up.
She laughed at his question, but let him slip his hand in her pocket to pull it out. "Your brother gave it to me, but I'm not supposed to say that it's from him incase it gets back to Tai."
T.K. was still a little shocked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Those two are worse than bunnies."
Kari was still lying back on the couch and was about to pull him back down to her when he asked in all seriousness, "Do you want to use it?"
Kari sat up on the couch beside him while she thought about his question. It was a good question. They were all alone in his dark apartment on a hot summer night. It wasn't exactly how she had dreamed it would happen, but when she looked up at him, she knew it was right. He was sitting on the couch in the moonlight, patiently waiting for her answer.
She leaned closer to him and kissed him slowly and seductively. Then she leaned over to his ear and whispered, "Okay."