Chapter Sixteen
The next morning, I woke groggily. Chills raked at me. I squeezed my eyes shut against the morning light as it killed my head.
"Great." I said as I shoved the blankets off. On any day to get sick, this just had to be the one. My head spun as soon as I stood. One look at the clock told me I was late. By this time in the morning, even Aihara would have been awake.
As quickly as my aching body could allow me, I dressed and grabbed my bag. Downstairs, I meandered into the dining room to find that, indeed, everyone was already present.
When my mother spotted me, her worry faded into relief, "Good morning!" She said and hurried a lunch box over to me, "Here's your lunch." It was all so fast, it made me think she was trying to not give me a chance to speak, to say that I wasn't taking the test, or to voice my opinion on the matter. But I wasn't interested in a struggle with my father today.
I took it from her with a nod. My scratchy throat begged me to cough, but to do that would mean the overreaction of Aihara and my parents. I held it in until I couldn't any longer, letting out a God-awful cough.
My mother stared at me, briefly paralyzed, "Are you feeling okay?" She asked me. I blinked a dizzy spell away.
"I think I've got a cold." I said.
"On this important of a day? This won't do! I'm going to go get some egg sake." My mother shot from her place.
"No-" I tried.
"Leeks work better for a sore throat." Aihara's father said. Aihara also left the table in a hurry. All this fuss over a simple cold. It wasn't worth it.
"Forget it," I called at them, "I'm leaving now." Patience wore on me.
"But if you're sick, you need to at least eat breakfast." My father said. Maybe that was true, but if I didn't get going now, I might've decided to not go at all.
"I don't have an appetite."
Aihara scampered back into the room with a pill bottle at hand, "This stuff works great. You should take some." She said, worry sewn into her brow. If only to make everyone calm down, I opened the bottle and dry-swallowed a pill.
"Good." She said. Something dawned on me. If I hadn't been sick, I'd have thought of it beforehand, but…
"Does this medicine make you drowsy?" I turned the bottle around to read, but Aihara snatched it from me in fear.
"Oh no," She said, "Do not drive after taking this medication." I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. When I opened them, my mother was panic-struck. Aihara's mouth hung agape and she looked as guilty as she was.
"Well, you can't go like this! You have to throw it up-" My mother said.
"No, that's enough. I'm leaving." I pushed past her and made for the door. Even when sick, anything was better than her doting. And now with Aihara to double it up. I would take a pass.
The cold air did nothing for my chills, though it did keep me awake on the walk to the train station. I was not very pleased to say that I did doze off for a mere second while clinging to a pole on the train. I was lucky to have caught myself before dropping out entirely. The whole trip was a daze and I gradually became drowsier.
I signed in at the college gates and showed my identification. At the doors, I was directed to a classroom number.
On the way, Watanabe found me, "Good morning." He said.
"Good morning." I was a little slow to say.
"You okay? You seem a little off." He said.
"Just tired." I said. Watanabe's eyes drifted on over to the charm I'd forgotten was strung onto my bag.
"Is that handmade?" He said, "Kotoko Aihara, right?" I paused.
"It doesn't matter. I'll probably just throw it away." With the way I said it, I sounded callous even to myself.
"I'd feel sorry for her if you do. She did take the time to make it, and she's kind of my type."
His type? I thought. My shoulders tensed as we came to an elevator. Watanabe and I piled into it along with five others.
At the first stop, one person got off. At the next, two went. Watanabe and I went to climb off at the last stop. I picked my bag up from the elevator floor and was yanked back as I tried to leave. I pulled at it again and no luck. I looked for the source to find that the charm was stuck in the doors. They tried to close on me.
"What's wrong, Irie?" Watanabe said.
"The charm is stuck in the door."
She's given me a cursed charm, I thought.
"Just rip it off."
"It won't…"
The damn thing was so thoroughly jammed, there was no hope for me to remove it or make it to the test on time without some divine intervention. With my head throbbing, I punched the emergency call button in the elevator.
"You just go to the test. I don't think this will move." I said to Watanabe.
"But what about you?"
"I'll work this out as soon as I can."
"Good luck." Watanabe said and left me to tug and apologize to people wanting to take this elevator.
A repair man turned up after a few minutes with a tool bucket.
"What's the problem here?" He said, "Oh, I see." He dug out a pry bar and wedged it into the little crease where the charm was stuck. He tugged.
"Little bugger really is stuck. This could take a few minutes." He said.
For a solid ten minutes, he tried prying the doors open, digging the charm out, and pulling. It was a miracle when it did come free and I was running late.
"Here." The man said and handed me my bag at last, the charm still fully attached.
"Thank you." I said, taking off for the test site. Running despite my total lack of energy, I reached back and attempted to untie the charm, but not even the knot would come undone. This thing really was a curse.
I met up with Watanabe on a staircase leading to the classroom, "Hey." I said, gasping to catch my breath.
"That took a really long time," He said, "Well, let's hurry." Exerting even more inexistent energy, we rushed up the stairway.
"So, what happened to the charm?" He said and spotted it, "Oh. Maybe it's bringing you bad luck."
"I tried to take it off, but it wouldn't budge." I said. This time when I went to have a go at it, the charm fell right off. I bent to pick it up as I came around the corner of the stairway.
I was sent sailing down the stairs as a student rushed down the flight. I landed smack on my back at the bottom of the stairs, hitting my leg on a rail.
"Irie!" Watanabe said. He came down to help and others charged the scene.
"Call the infirmary." Someone said. My sight blurred.
"What a fearsome charm…" Watanabe said, and it was the last thing I heard as I passed out.
…
I woke in the infirmary with my ankle wrapped and my cheek throbbing. Immediately, I searched for a clock. The test had started twenty minutes ago. I hurried to sit up, my back aching with discomfort.
A nurse came to my aid, "Slow down, okay." She said.
"I have to leave and get to the test." I said and carefully slid my legs over the side of the bed.
"I know, but don't go so fast. You've sprained your ankle." She handed me a pair of crutches and helped me to stand.
"Good luck on your test." She said. I limped on down to the classroom on mostly one leg. Once there Watanabe spotted me and mouthed "good luck" at me as I made for the professor overseeing the test.
"Sorry I'm late. I was in the infirmary." I said. He nodded.
"Yes, I know. Your friend informed me," He handed me the pages-long test, "You may take your seat. You have thirty minutes to complete what you can."
"Thanks."
I carefully weaved through the desks to come to the one in front of Watanabe. I sat and propped my crutches up on the wall, and then dug through my bag for my pencil case. And that was when I found that all of my pencils were broken. After all of that struggle just to get here, too.
Watanabe had me covered, luckily, and loaned me a pencil.
The next thirty minutes was pure hell. Several times, I almost drifted off into sleep. The questions began to blur together after a while and I ended up guessing at a number of them. That Aihara… her luck was an ill omen to me.
The test finally finished and I rubbed my temples. I'd finished all of the questions, but I couldn't even begin to guess how I might've done. It was scary.
I reached over for my lunch, that maybe food might give me energy.
"I feel bad for asking," Watanabe said, "But how do you think you did?"
"I don't know. I guessed most of them."
"Well, you probably did fine, since it's you we're talking about."
What I unwrapped in the lunch box was the last thing I would've wanted to see. It was decorated rice balls with the word "Pass!" written on each. Aihara had made it. I closed the lunch, not willing to try my luck with it since I was already sick.
"Aihara…" I said.
"What? Did she also make the lunch?" Watanabe asked. He reached over and handed me a ball of onigiri, "Here. Eat this."
"Thanks. I appreciate it." I said as I took it from him.
"I know it's none of my business, but you should probably throw that charm out." He said.
"It's not on my bag anymore. I don't know what happened to it, but I don't have it." I said. The thing must've been picked up by someone else or forgotten on the stairway.
"Good. Now you won't have anymore bad luck." Watanabe said.
I thought about the charm. Aihara would probably notice later that I didn't have it. I wondered if she would be upset. But it was great to have it gone. No more worries.
As everyone readied to leave and I went to put on my coat, something fell out of my pocket. Watanabe gasped.
"There's really no escaping it, is there?" He said. I picked up the charm from the classroom floor. As dirty, torn, and beaten up as it was, it had survived everything and found it's way back to me. I clutched it in my hand in agitation and threw it into my bag.
"You're not going to throw it out?"
"No point. It'll just find a way back anyway."
"I have a feeling you and that girl will be together for a really long time." He said as he eyed the charm. I gritted my teeth.
"Don't say that." I said.
We left the college grounds.
…
"What happened?!" My mother said the second I was through the front door. Aihara's eyes went as huge as saucers.
"I fell." I said.
"The charm didn't work…?" Aihara said. The mention of that curse irritated me.
"Oh, it really worked well." I said, as this was what she wanted… for me and her to go to the same university.
"What do you mean?" She said. I simmered down.
"Never mind. I'm going to bed." I limped up the stairs without the crutches, not caring for the hassle of it.
I was out like a light as soon as my head met the pillow.
