Come Back To Me
Chapter Fourteen
Confessions
"I really wanna tell you something," said Tohru, her head in her arms "but I can't."
"Tell me what's wrong, Tohru," said Uo, her arm around Tohru.
It had been twenty minutes since Uo had arrived at 71B, and Tohru had repeated her sentence over and over since Uo had arrived. They were both sat on the sofa. The Sun blazed through the curtains, as it finally began it's descent on another day.
"C'mon, Tohru," said Uo, patting Tohru's shoulder "if you don't tell me now, you'll never tell anyone. It's better to get this stuff out in the open."
"I really wanna tell you," said Tohru, pulling her head out of her hands for the first time "I really do. But I don't want you to hate me for it."
"Tohru," said Uo, pulling Tohru's head in front of hers "nothing you'll ever say will make me hate you. Ever."
"You promise?" said Tohru.
"I promise," said Uo, pulling Tohru's pinky and doing a 'pinky promise' "now what's up?"
"Well..." Tohru began, Uo seemed to move a little closer "I... Kinda... Cheated on Kyo."
"What?" said Uo, frowning "How do you kinda cheat on someone?"
Tohru remained silent for a moment, Uo almost shook her.
"Tohru, what happened?" asked Uo.
"Okay, okay!" said Tohru, her head wishing to return to her hands "I met this guy named Isaac about half a year ago, and we kinda... Clicked... He then began to make advances on me. I told him I was in a commited relationship, but he never gave up his relentless advances, and eventually, after a particularly bad argument one night... We sorta... Slept together..."
"What?!!?" shouted Uo, jumping up "Tohru! That's a very damaging thing to do!"
"You don't think I don't know that already?!" Tohru shouted back "It's bad enough we slept together last night!"
"Tohru!!!!" shouted Uo "How the hell could you do this?! After all the shit you put Kyo through for a suspicion you had he was cheating, and you've gone and exactly the same thing!"
"Uo!" shouted Tohru, tears welling up in her eyes "You think I don't know this already?! I'm ashamed of myself, I admit it!"
"You should be more than ashamed, Tohru," said Uo "have you told Kyo?"
"No," replied Tohru "he's none-the-wiser about any of this."
"I can't believe this, Tohru," said Uo "You of all people should know how damaging it is when a lover breaks your heart. Look at me and Kureno. You know how bad I was when he left me for his bimbo of a secretary. You saw first-hand what kind of state I got into!"
"B-But that's not the worst part of this..." replied Tohru, looking at the floor.
"There's more to this web of lies?!" said Uo, gasping.
"Well, y'know the phone call we got on our machine?" Tohru asked.
"Yes..." said Uo, eyeing Tohru with suspicion.
"Well, that was Isaac's sister. We set up the call so I had a reason to dump Kyo. Me and Isaac were going to leave Tokyo and go to New York, together." said Tohru, tears leaking from her eyes.
"Oh my God!" shouted Uo, "How the hell could you do that, Tohru?!?"
"You don't know what it was like for me!" shouted Tohru "I would wait at home for Kyo to finish work, he'd come home and we'd immediately argue. I fell out of love with him! And Isaac was so nice, and sincere and he truly cared about me! I liked to think that someone out there cared for me half as much as Isaac had!"
"Tohru," said Uo, her voice restrained "that was an unbelievably selfish thing you did. I can't believe you'd stoop so low as to frame your own fiancé. How could you?"
"Uo, you've gotta -"
"No," said Uo, putting her hand up and grabbing her coat "just don't even try to explain it to me. I don't wanna know."
And with that, Uo headed for the front door.
"Uo, wait!" said Tohru, running to the door "Where are you going!?"
"Away from here," said Uo, tears in her eyes, as she turned left, towards the elevators "I can't be near you any more, Tohru."
"Uo, wait!" said Tohru, falling to her knees and begging "You can't leave me!"
Tohru stayed there and sobbed uncontrollably. One of her best friends now despised her. Had Uo left her for good?
*
Meanwhile, at the Tokyo Times newspaper offices, Kyo was at work. He was sat behind his desk in his cubicle. He was happily typing away, almost daydreaming as he stared out of the glass-fronted building's windows.
He got up and grabbed a cup of coffee, and returned to his desk. He picked up a photo that inspired him every time he looked at it. It was one of Tohru, sitting on a log in a dense forest. She was red in the face, it had been such a struggle to get through the branches on the trees. Kyo giggled slightly, remembering how Tohru had hit him after he took the photo, and demanding he delete it.
His smiled slipped slightly as his work phone began to ring.
"Hello?" he said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Ah, Kyo," came a cool, raspy voice.
Kyo knew immediately who it was. His mouth twitched slightly as he spoke.
"Yuki!" he said, forcing surprise into his voice "What're you doing calling me?"
"I just wanted to call and ask how things are with you?" Yuki's voice drifted back.
"If you wanted to know, why didn't you ring Tohru?" asked Kyo.
"She's not answering the home phone or her mobile one, so I thought she'd be with you." Yuki replied.
"At work?" Kyo said, his mouth twitching once more, Yuki could be an idiot at times.
"Oh, I guess that is kinda stupid, huh?" replied Yuki, chuckling at his own silliness "but yes, how are things between you two?"
"They're," Kyo began "going okay. We've just come out of a rough patch, but we're working on it now." Kyo forced a smile onto his face.
"Ah, that's too bad," said Yuki "Machi and I are doing fine. We just put a deposit down on a flat near you, some place called Ashtree Place, or something like that."
"Who asked?" Kyo said under his breath "That sounds great!" Kyo said, forcing a smile onto his face once more.
"So, I was wondering if you and Tohru wanted to join me and Machi for dinner tonight?"
"It's kinda late for that, isn't it?" Kyo asked, looking at his watch, which read 5:00pm.
"Not really, you get off work soon, don't you?" asked Yuki "You could come with us to Matake's, it's a great restaurant, I took you there that time, remember? They have really good dishes."
"So that's it!" Kyo shouted, slamming his hand onto the table.
"Huh?" Yuki replied.
"You were to one who took me to Matake's!" said Kyo.
"So?" replied Yuki.
"Well, me and Tohru had a little spat over it," said Kyo "I couldn't remember who took me there, and we argued. Y'know, the usual. I'll have to tell her this."
"Anyway..." Yuki replied "Are you up for meeting us?"
"Sure, why not?" asked Kyo "I'll clock out now, go home and get ready. What say we meet for about 7:30?"
"Sounds like a plan," replied Yuki "see you soon!"
"Bye-bye!" Kyo said, putting the phone down, and grabbing his jacket.
He clocked out of the office and walked to the subway station, preparing for an uneventful journey back to Evergreen Court Apartments.
*
Back at 71B, Tohru had finally dragged herself up and tried restlessly trying to contact Uo. She had no doubt in her mind that Uo had told Hana as soon as she had left.
After about half an hour of trying, Tohru finally gave up.
Kyo walked in the door at 6:00pm, and kissed her forehead.
"Hey, honey," he said "we're meeting Yuki and Machi for dinner later. I hope you don't mind?"
"Huh?" said Tohru "Oh, no, don't worry about it. I'll get ready."
Tohru shuffled off the sofa and headed for the shower.
"Try not to be hours," said Kyo, holding two ties in the mirror, and shifting them over his shirt, wondering which one to pick.
"I'll try," said Tohru, shutting the bathroom door and running the shower. She cried silently as Kyo continued to talk to her.
"Hey, y'know Yuki and Machi are getting a place over at Ashtree Place?" Kyo called through the door "I bet they hate it there, we did when we checked it out, didn't we?"
Tohru put a hand to her mouth, to muffle the sobs trying to escape her lips.
"I'm just glad I'm with you, and not Machi. She seems like a real stiff, doesn't she?" said Kyo, chuckling.
"Yeah," replied Tohru, her sobs barely contained "a real basket-case."
"I never said she was mad, Tohru," Kyo chuckled.
"Yeah, but you were thinking it," Tohru replied, pulling the shower door open and stepping in.
Tohru washed for what seemed an eternity. No matter how hard she scrubbed her skin, it didn't seem to come clean. She could strong smell the stench of unfaithfulness and betrayal on herself, and was sure Kyo could smell it, too.
She turned the heat up on the water. There was no water hot enough to make her come clean, and she just sat on the shower floor, crying and the water pounded over her skin.
"Tohru," came Kyo's voice after a while "are you done yet? It's almost 6:45. We'll have to leave soon."
"Yeah," Tohru called back weakly "I just found a really stubborn stain. And needed to get it out."
"Has it gone yet?" Kyo called.
"Not yet," replied Tohru.
"Is it anywhere that'd be on show?" asked Kyo.
"Oh, yes," replied Tohru, the tears streaming off her face, aided by the spray of the water.
"Damn, you could've hidden it," said Kyo.
"I've been trying to think of a way t do just that," replied Tohru.
"Oh, well," replied Kyo "just come out and I'll see how bad it is."
Tohru shut the water off and began to slowly get ready. She could barely stand to look in the mirror at herself, so kept her eyes down, looking up only when she needed to.
She eventually stepped out of the bathroom in a knee-length red dress. The material rippled off her skin, although she felt it cling to her, to hide her shame. She also had a red overcoat on top of it, which covered her shoulders.
Kyo walked into the room and whistled seductively. He walked over to her and kissed her passionately.
"You look, amazing," he said, smiling down at her "if we weren't going out, I'd do you right now."
Tohru giggled, as Kyo led her out of the room, and 71B. They walked towards the elevators and pushed the call button.
The elevator doors opened with a creak, and both of them walked into the metal box.
"So," said Kyo, pushing the ground floor button and putting his arm around Tohru "when Yuki called me earlier, he said he'd tried to ring the home phone and your mobile phone, and you never answered either."
"Oh," said Tohru, she could blatantly remember both of the phones going off, but ignoring them "I nipped out to the market to get some milk." she lied "I never took my mobile phone with me."
"Ah," replied Kyo, as the elevator grinded to a halt, and they stepped into the lobby.
Kyo called a cab over to them, in which they got in.
"So where are we going?" asked Tohru.
"Matake's," replied Kyo.
Tohru's heart skipped a beat. Actually, it was more like it stopped all together. She hoped beyond hope Isaac would not be there at all.
"Oh," she said innocently, repressing the urge to scream at the top of her lungs.
"Talking of Matake's," replied Kyo "remember when we were arguing over when I'd been before?"
"Uh-huh," said Tohru, her whole body clenched.
"Well, it was Yuki who took me there," replied Kyo, laughing "no wonder I didn't bother to think it was him, I'd hated the experience."
Tohru giggled nervously. Every cell in her body was screaming in detestation.
"What's up?" said Kyo, noticing Tohru's ever-increasing tenseness.
"Oh, nothing," replied Tohru, smiling at him.
"Okay then," said Kyo "it's not that you don't wanna see Yuki and Machi, is it?"
"Oh, no no!" said Tohru, slightly easing her tension "I haven't seen or spoken to him in a long time, it's gonna be good to see him again... Machi, too."
"You're right," replied Kyo, as the taxi pulled up outside Matake's. Yuki and Machi were waiting by the front door.
Tohru opened the door as Kyo paid the fare and got out as well. Yuki and Machi smiled as Kyo and Tohru walked up to them.
Yuki and Tohru kissed on the cheek, as did Tohru and Machi. Yuki and Kyo shook hands. After the general greetings, Yuki spoke.
"So, are you good and hungry?" he said, rubbing his hands together.
"Absolutely," said Kyo.
Tohru mumbled something about being slightly peckish.
"So, let's go in!" said Yuki.
And with that, the four of them walked into the restaurant. Tohru scanned the room nervously. No sign of him. She sighed with relief and eased up a lot.
She stood next to Kyo, and looked ahead at the waiter walking up to them. Tohru's world collapsed around her, as she saw Isaac walking up to them, four menus in hand.
She tensed up a lot and began to almost shake. This was going to be a long evening.
(A/N: Hey, there, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the break between chapters, and enjoyed this one!
I'm happy now that this story is in full swing! It fills me with happiness to know this is my most popular story, haha. Don't forget to come back soon for chapter 15 – aptly named "Dinner" - y'know it's rare when I know the name of a chapter before I write it, but then again this is just common sense, haha. Anyway, see you again soon!)