Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Chapter 37

When it All Falls Apart

I was upstairs, looking at where my bruises used to be when Raina came in.

"Thanks for that." I said.

"Gin was about to fly off the handle, couldn't have that."

"I wish he wouldn't hate Jin so much. He's not a bad guy. Dad doesn't even know him enough to make that judgment."

"I don't think his feelings are going to change anytime soon, so for now you just have to deal."

"Yeah. I got to get ready for the game."

Raina left and shut the door behind her.

I told my parents that Jin was going to try to come to game, so Dad insisted on coming. He came to them every once in a while, but not all of them. Kin played football and I cheered, so mom came to all the games. It wasn't exactly dad's thing, but he wasn't about to let Jin be in the same area as me without him being there. Jin never said he would definitely come, but I was expecting him too.

It was in the middle of the 2nd quarter and Jin still wasn't there. I didn't have my cell on me, so I wouldn't know if he had texted me or not.

"It's ok, Paize. He did say he didn't know if he could come or not, right?" Brie asked.

"Yeah, but I still thought he would be here." I looked back to game.

I had only being watching a few minutes, when Brie poked me. "Look." She pointed.

I looked up in the bleachers and a smile crossed my face. Jin was walking down the steps. He was wearing a plain white shirt with a white hoodie half way zipped up over it. He had the sleeves pushed up about a ¼ of the way and the hood up. I assume the hood was to help hide his face. He did risk being mobbed by coming to see me here. He was very popular with teenage girls now. Actually, more like women in general. But teen girls are crazy, so they would be the ones to worry about. He would like have a mob on him in seconds if someone recognized him and screamed out his name. He walked to the very bottom on the bleachers and sat on the bottom row. He sat as close to where I was as he could.

When it was finally half time, I was able to take a break and hang out with him.

"Hey you." I said, sitting next to him.

Instead of responding, he just kissed me. I was a little surprised. We were in public. What if someone already recognized him and took a picture? He didn't seem too worried about it, so I didn't complain. He licked his lips after the kiss. My dad was probably having a heart attack. "You look like you feel better."

"I do. Do you?" Raina made my hangover go away when she healed my bruises.

"Yeah. I went home and slept. That's why I was late. I slept longer than I intended."

"Awww." I caressed his face.

He smiled. "You thirsty? I am."

"Sort of."

"I'll get us something."

"OK!" I stood up. "Follow me."

We started walking up the steps and as we were, he grabbed my hand and held it. I smiled to myself. I loved when he did things like that in public. He wasn't supposed to be caught with a girlfriend. Those were the rules, but he frequently broke them with me, for me. I think he wanted people to know he was taken, so he did what he could without doing so much as to get himself fired or suspended. We hadn't been pictured together, but only a few times anyways. He had been asked a million times in interviews if he had a girlfriend and he'd been questioned about who I was. He had to tell them we were only friends, but I knew he wanted to say who I really was. Of course, he would just get criticized if he confirmed it, which he already gets it and it hasn't been confirmed. Many people just assume we are. He bought us some drinks from the concession stand and we went out to the parking lot, because there was no one out there. He was able to put his hood down.

I leaned up against his car with my hands behind my back.

"Ain't that just cute." He teased, pointing to knight painted on my cheek. Knights were our mascot.

I pushed him playfully. "You know you think I look good in this uniform."

"Girls like you are the reason men have cheerleader fantasies." He pulled me close to him.

"Do you have one?"

"I do now." He smirked. "I know what you should be for Halloween."

"A cheerleader?"

"Nah, you're that all the time. A school girl."

"I'm that all the time too." I joked.

"But you don't wear a uniform."

"So that's your fantasy?"

"Might be."

I laughed. "So if I do that, what are you going to dress up as?"

"Myself."

"That's cheating."

"No it's not. I'm famous, so I can be myself." He laughed.

"I can be myself then too, because I'm you girlfriend and I'm semi famous."

He laughed and then kissed me. While we were kissing, he slid his hand up my skirt and began squeezing my butt. That was all fine and dandy until we heard someone clear their throat. I realized who it was instantly, because I knew their reiatsu. It was dad. Jin didn't push me off him though. He just stopped kissing me. I was the one who created distance between us.

"Dad…"

"Let me talk ta him for a minute." He cut me off. I just looked at him and didn't move. If I left him there was no telling what he would do to him. "I won't hurt him, promise. Just need ta talk ta him."

"You better keep your promise." I left reluctantly.

I waited inside the fence surrounding the stadium, listening for any screams of pain. Surprisingly I didn't have to wait long before they both came walking through the fence. Jin stopped where I was and dad kept walking. Jin seemed a little scared, but not completely.

"Well, he showed me his sword or whatever that thing was. It looked more like a dagger." He said.

"Oh my gosh! Are you ok? What did he do?"

"I'm fine. He held it too my throat and told me if I touch you like that again he's gonna do more than that."

That may not have scared Jin all that much, but it terrified me. I didn't want Dad to hurt him. I couldn't always rely on Raina to clear it up. I had to be more responsible and careful from now on.

A couple of weeks passed. Raina turned 17 in that time, but opted out of a party. She wasn't exactly a partier. We just had a family dinner instead. Kazuya wanted to be there for it, but he just couldn't get his schedule cleared for it. Raina told him not to worry and that she understood that he was busy. He did get her a gift, something she wanted. It wasn't even an expensive thing. It was a book, but something she asked for and she was happy he got it for her instead of something extravagant that she would never use.

It was the weekend and I was waiting on Jin to get to the house. There was a cheerleading tournament coming up and I wanted us to have a fresh routine. Jin offered to help me with the dancing parts. He wasn't a choreographer, but he knew plenty of moves and he had helped me before. While I was waiting, dad asked if I wanted to train a little as I hadn't in a while. I wasn't going to it, but I remembered how mom told me that she thought dad missed spending time with me so I decided to.

"Let's see how much rust ya got since ya basically stopped training ta spend all yer time with yer stupid boyfriend." Dad said as we walked out into the back yard.

I laughed. "None. I'm still as good as I ever was. And I don't spend all my time with him."

"Yer either at school or here with him over or waiting on him to come over. He's here every day, Pai-chan."

"It was you who made the rule that we had to be here. If you're tired of seeing him, then lift that rule."

"If I did that, then I'd never get ta see ya."

"Whatever, let's go."

He smirked. "Yer gonna lose."

"Not this time."

I'd never been able to beat my dad in a sparring match. He was very good. His skills hadn't rusted since his days as a captain. They were actually better than those days. Since marrying mom, he got a boost from the Nexus. Mom told me his reiatsu kicked up a notch after being united through the Nexus, so he was stronger than he used to be.

He took a stance. "Ikorose, Shinso."

His blade extended towards me, but I used my agility and jumped up to avoid it. I planted my feet on the blade for only a second and backflipped off it. I struck towards him, but he retracted his sword and got up to block in time. I jumped back and sheathed my sword.

"Sure ya should be discardin yer weapon?" Dad asked.

"Yep. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that you don't know about yet."

And I did. I was supposed to have gone to the academy for the summer, but for the first month I went to Japan to see Yoruichi. I wanted to work with her for a month, so I mom talked to her and she agreed to it. Renji took me there. She fought like I liked to fight, hand to hand. She worked with me on my Hakuda and my flash step. I learned a lot from her. I had wanted her to teach me Shunko and had to practically beg her to do it. She kept telling me it was too dangerous, but she was impressed that I wanted to learn and agreed to teach it to me. It was far from perfect. Just as with everything else, it takes time to perfect. I could still use it though.

I held my arm out like Yoruichi had taught me and kido started radiating around my body. I was wearing a halter already, so my clothes weren't ruined.

"Ah, so dis is yer like trick? Ya still gota get a hit on me though." He smiled.

"Oh believe me, I will." I smirked.

I was about take off when mom called me. "Paizley, Jin's here!"

I deactivated Shunko. Dad just sighed and sheathed his sword.

"You got lucky, dad. Just wait till next time."

He smiled. "Looking forward ta it."

I ran in the house to meet Jin. We quickly went to the dance studio. It was cool that Grandpa and Nana had built that room for mom. It came in handy. He helped me work on a routine and we got a lot done. We took a break and he wasn't long before we were kissing.

Jin tried to make me lay back, but I pushed him off. "No."

"It's ok." He tried again, but I did the same as before.

"No, just no."

"C'mon Pai, we haven't done anything since New York. What is it? Are you afraid I'm going to hurt you again? I swear I'm not. It was only because I was drunk and it will never happen again."

"That's not it."

"Then what is it? Are things changing between us?"

"No."

"What's the problem then?"

I looked away and back at him. "I'm scared, ok?"

"Of what? Me?"

"For you. My dad almost found out last time. He was leaving to kill you, Jin. Kill you! He would have done it too, without a second thought! Raina made everything right, but we can't always depend on her."

"How did she..."

I cut him off. "It's not important." I looked out the window. "I just can't do that right now." I looked back at him. "Give me some time."

He began to sympathize with me. "It's gonna be ok, baby. I'ma be fine."

"You don't get it, but I guess I can't expect you to. This isn't a normal family. Normal rules don't apply. I know you think my dad is giving you hollow threats like any other dad, but he's not. He is dead serious."

"I get it. We won't do anything then." He looked at his watch. "I have to go. I have a friend flying in from Japan. She wants me to record a song with her." He got up. "I'll be at the studio if you need me."

"Will you be back later?"

"I don't know. We might be working late. I'll text you let you know."

He gave me a quick kiss and was gone. I kind of felt bad. I shouldn't have been so hard on him. Just because I was scared was no sign I had to take it out on him. I was a little down the rest of the day. He texted me and was still working. He told me he probably wouldn't be by later, that he hadn't even had supper yet.

I decided to be nice and go get him something to eat. The people at the studio knew who I was. He had told them who I was and that I was always allowed to see him while he was there. I had been there a few times. I would stop by after school, even though I wasn't supposed to see him outside of the house I did. I walked inside and was directed to where he was. Nothing prepared me for what I saw. He was kissing another girl. I was so stunned that I dropped the food and the drink in the floor. He immediately noticed me and pushed her off, almost into the floor.

"Pai, I'm so sorry." He stood up. "It meant nothing."

I couldn't move, cry, nothing. I was so shocked. I never expected this. He was supposed to love me. He started to walk toward me, but I turned around and started running for the front door. He chased me and grabbed my arm just as we got outside. I spun around a punched him in the jaw forcing him to let me go.

He rubbed his jaw. "Ok, I deserved that."

"No. You deserve every bone in your body to be broken!" I snapped.

"Let me explain."

"I don't want to hear it, because it doesn't matter. We're done."

"Pai, please." He reached out for me, but I backed away.

"DON'T! Touch me." I ripped off the bracelet he had given to me and threw it at him. "It's over!" I started walking to my car, but he followed.

"You can feel what I feel, right? Can't you feel how sorry I am, how much I love you?"

"It doesn't matter how you feel. What you did, I can't forgive. Do me wrong once, shame on you. Do me wrong twice, shame on me. I won't be this stupid again." I unlocked my car door and got in.

"So you're just going to throw our love away?" He had the most pathetic look on his face.

"You're the one who did that." I slammed the door and sped away.

I stopped at a red light and it all hit me at once. The tears started to flow and I couldn't stop them. I didn't want to go home, so I stopped at the park near my house. It was dark, so no one was there. I sat down by a tree and just cried. I didn't know what else I could do. I couldn't believe this happened. All the things he told me, they were just lies. And I gave myself to him. I gave him everything I could. I gave him something I could never get back. I wanted it back too. I had my knees pulled him and was lying my head on them when I felt someone touch my shoulder. I looked up and it was Reio.

"I'm sorry." He said. "If you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here."

Without even thinking, I embraced him and balled into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back, trying to sooth me. It didn't work but the gesture was nice.

After crying for what seemed like hours, I decided I should go home. I had left my phone in the car so I didn't know who had texted me or called. I figured my parents were worried about me though and had tried to get in touch with me. Reio helped me get up and I tried to kiss him, but he stopped me.

"You're only doing that because you want to get back at Jin. You want justice, but you can't get it. Justice is not served in relationships, only love is." He wiped the tears from my face. "Remember, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."

He was right. I wanted justice. I wanted to get him back. It wasn't fair what he did to me.

"Go home." He said, caressing my face.

He walked me to my car and I went home. I dried all my tears up in the garage. I didn't want to talk to my parents about this right now. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it.

"Yer late." Dad said as I walked in.

"You missed dinner too." Mom said.

"Sorry. I didn't feel good, so I pulled over and waited till I felt a little better to drive the rest of the way home." I started up the stairs.

"Ya hungry?" Dad asked.

"No."

As soon as I shut my bedroom door, I was reminded of Jin. I picked up the picture of me and him that I had framed on my nightstand and threw it against the wall, shattering the glass. I picked up the picture and began to cry again. I ripped it a few times and threw it in the trash. I used Raina's powers to get rid of the glass and the broken frame. Dad knocked on my door and I wiped the tears from my face quickly.

"Yeah." I said.

He came in. "Are you ok?"

"Yep. I'm fine." I smiled.

"I don't believe ya."

"I don't want to talk about right now."

"Will ya tell me later? Ya have ta tell me so I came make it better."
"I just want to go to bed."

"A'right. I love ya, ya know that right?"

"I know."

He shut the door behind him and got ready for bed. I lay down in my bed and cried myself to sleep. Everything had fallen apart. My whole life seemed like a mess and I didn't know what to do.