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Love Conquers All part two:
Cube had recognized the fever before. Beat didn't seem sick in anyway, so she knew it was caused by infection. 'But what could've gotten infected?' she thought. 'There was his sprained wrist and twisted ank….his leg!' Cube nearly kicked herself for forgetting the injury to his leg. How could anyone have forgotten such an unpleasant sight? Cube cringe just thinking about the bottle sticking out of Beat's leg as she removed his blankets to examine the injury.
It was definitely infected. No doubts about that, but how to treat it? Cube removed the bandage from Beat's leg and placed a hot wash cloth soaked in salt water over it. Lucky for Beat he was unconscious, or it would've hurt like hell! Cube put all of her faith into what she had learned. When she had an infection in her thumb, Coin told her to soak it in salt water and sure enough, it cleared up.
"Coin," she whispered softly. Tears began to fill up her eyes and she angrily wiped them away. 'This is no time to be crying!' she scolded herself. She just couldn't get over her sadness for Coin. He helped her out so much. He and Combo were the only ones who actually gave a rat's ass about her back before she was a GG. Their friendship meant a lot to her. After all, she didn't get much care as a street orphan.
Cube shook her head. 'Now is a bad time, Cube!' She finished cleaning up Beat's wound and bandaged it. She decided to call Garam and see if he had any medicine to help. Surely someone who could get their hands on morphine substitute would have some sort of medicine to help.
"This'll take a few weeks to clear up." Garam said as he finished medicating the wound. Cube nodded and began re-bandaging the wound. "Are you gonna stay for a while?" she asked.
"Can't. Got other plans. But, if you need anymore medicine, you know who to call."
"Right. Where do you get this stuff anyway?"
"Erm, secret! Can't tell! But it's safe I assure you."
"I know. I'll see you later then?"
"Right."
Garam and Cube said their good-byes as he left to do whatever he did. After the bandage was secured, Cube checked Beat's temperature. It was still high, but had gone down a bit. She sighed. Now all she had to do was find Gum and let her know Beat was okay. Unfortunately, she couldn't leave until Tab and Combo came back. They didn't want to leave the garage unattended, especially with Beat in this condition.
Cube took it upon herself to take Gum's place. She had often watched Gum keeping her vigil over Beat. Gum was very good at hiding her feelings, and anyone else would've only seen it as a friend looking out for a friend. However, Cube was not that easily fooled. She saw straight through Gum's mask. She cared greatly for Beat. She loved him.
Replacing the wet wash cloth on Beat's forehead, Cube heard him moan slightly. He opened his eyes lazily and was still obviously out of it. "Cube, you know who I'm talking about, right?" he asked her.
"What?" she was obviously confused by his question.
"You know, her. That hot chick. That one that looked like Gum, but was much prettier."
"There was no hot chick. Gum was the only one with you."
"Are you serious? Gum said the same thing, but it can't be her. She's much prettier than Gum. In fact, Gum's, dare I say, ugly compared to her."
"Did you say that to her?!"
"Well, yeah. I mean, would you believe it if some guy you thought was hot was taking care of you and then all of a sudden, Combo showed up and said it was him?"
"You told Gum you thought she was ugly compared to the girl?"
"Yeah. And?"
'So that's it,' Cube thought. She had never seen Gum so hurt before. 'I've got to find her.' Cube knew Beat would never say anything like that intentionally. He was delirious. It was the fever that caused him to be so cruel. 'Beat probably doesn't have a clue what he's saying.' She thought. 'I've got to set everything straight, but right now, all I can do is take care of Beat. I just hope Gum understands and comes back soon.' "Hey, are you hungry?"
"A little, yeah."
"I'll go whip something up really quick."
Cube walked over to the GG's tiny ice box and pulled out some cheese, lunch meat, and mayonnaise. As she began constructing a sandwich, she became increasingly worried about Gum. It had been three hours since she disappeared into the streets and no one had seen hide nor hair of her since. Garam said he'd keep an eye out for her, but that didn't settle her nerves much. Gum was in so much pain when she ran off. Who knows what could've happened to her. No one had seen her so emotional. She might not be able to handle it on her own.
Cube returned to Beat's room with the sandwich, which he immediately gorged down. "Yeesh! Someone was hungry!" Cube said as Beat ate the sandwich in record time. "Thanks for leaving me my hand."
"You're welcome." Beat replied with his mouth full. "It think I saw a cat."
"Huh?"
"I think I just saw a cat. It jumped off the ceiling and out the window."
"Um, I think you should probably get some more sleep. It'll be a few more days before you're well."
"That cat was nuts I tell you!" Beat said as he laid down.
"Yeah, yeah."
Sure enough, a few days later, Beat was back on his feet. Other than a scar on his right leg and a couple of random headaches now and then, he was as good as new. The infection had cleared up nicely and the fever was gone. It was his first day out of his room since that incident and, needless to say, he was going a bit stir crazy. He hadn't seen Gum in a while and he didn't exactly remember when she disappeared or even if he visited her at all while he was down. He was in for a very unpleasant surprise.
"Where's Gum?" he asked nonchalantly. He was a bit surprised to find that she out of the usual four other occupants was missing, but when he walked out of his room that morning and only found three of the other borders, he didn't think anything of it. However, he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach when there was an eerie silence after his seemingly harmless question. The others knew that Gum had run away, but Cube was the only one who knew why.
"Beat, can I talk to you outside." Cube said, breaking the silence. Beat could feel his insides twitch nervously as he simply nodded and followed her. Once outside, Cube took a long breath through her nose and turned to face Beat. "Do you remember anything while you were injured? Mainly anything that happened while you were on the morphine substitute.?" Beat gave her a strange look and raised an eye brow. "Morphine substitute? I was on morphine?"
"Well, yeah, for the first week only though. Do you remember anything from that time?"
"Well, I vaguely remember someone taking care of me."
"That was Gum."
"Really? Didn't look like Gum."
"I know. Do you remember anything from the day after we took you off the morphine sub?"
"Not really, no."
"So, you don't know what you said to her?"
"What….did I say?" Beat asked nervously.
Cube sighed and began telling Beat about the awful things he said to her while he was delusional. With each cruel word, Beat's heart dropped. He couldn't believe that he actually said such things to a friend, especially after she had taken care of him. "Well, where is she now!?" Beat asked, nearly shouting. His fists were visibly shaking even as he dropped his arms to his sides. "She just…ran away. We don't know where she went and we've tried looking for her, but we haven't found any clue as to where she could be."
Beat bit his bottom lip so hard, he tasted blood. He stared at the ground and his whole body was shaking. Cube said a few other things, but Beat's mind didn't register them. All he could think about was what he had said. 'I can't believe I said those things, after all she did for me.' He couldn't escape the thought. It kept repeating itself over and over again in his mind like a broken record. Finally, he just couldn't take it anymore.
"I have to find her!" He said suddenly, lifting his gaze from the ground. He dashed off in an abrupt burst of speed. "Beat wait!" Cube yelled, holding out her arm, but it was too late. Beat was already well out of hearing range and was skating down the streets like the world was on fire. Pedestrians made a mad dash to get out of the frantic teen's way and he was nearly hit by cars at least twenty times, but none of that registered with him. All he could think about was finding Gum and somehow making it up to her.
After a long day of searching, night had fallen and Beat was still searching. It was getting close to curfew, but he didn't care. No one really inforced the curfew law that much anymore and the cops would probably be after him anyway for reckless skating. In fact, they had already chased him three times that day. However, even rudies can't out run the cops forever. Beat was getting pretty tired and had slowed down quite a bit, but he still kept searching. He even called out Gum's name a few times, only to get weird looks. Any passer by would've thought the poor boy had lost his mind, but it wasn't the youth's mental health that was an issue. It was the condition of his tattered heart.
Finally, fatigue and hunger had taken their toll on the young skater. Beat wanted to keep looking, but his stomach growled in disagreement and he was about to fall asleep anyway. He carefully made his way back to the garage so as not to bump into anything in his tired state. It seemed like an eternity before he made it back home. He quietly entered the garage so as not to wake his friends and slumped over to his bed. He kicked off his skates, put his green glasses and headphones of a nearby nightstand and collapsed head first into bed. He fell asleep instantly.
His entire body ached the next morning. For a while, all Beat wanted to do was lie in bed, then he remembered Gum. In a flash, he leaped from his bed, changed his unmentionables, grabbed is cranium accessories (that'd be his green glasses and headphones for those of you who don't know what cranium accessories are), laced up his skates and was out the door before anyone could stop him. Just like the day before, he skated around like a mad man searching for Gum. And just like the day before he came home after midnight and was tired, hungry, and still had no clue as to what had happened to the missing GG.
For three whole weeks Beat was out looking for Gum. He barley ate and was depriving himself of sleep. Needless to say, his friends were becoming a bit concerned about his physical and mental health. No matter what they did, they couldn't stop him from going on his daily searches. They were thinking of tying him to his bed or using some other physical means of force to get him to stop, but they had seen how troubled his heart was. Guilt was eating him alive from the inside like a bacteria which grew worse everyday he came home with no trace of Gum. The others, save Cube, still didn't understand why finding Gum was so important to him, but they didn't bother getting in his way.
It was a sunny afternoon in Shibuya-Cho and like everyday, Beat was on his search. He had been skating for six hours straight and his body demanded rest. He plopped down on a bus station bench and turned his wrist watch to 'Jet Set Radio' to keep up with what was going on and to see if Prof. K had any clues which would lead him to Gum's where abouts. "Same old, same old." Beat sighed as he listened to Prof. K's report. No matter how fresh or interesting the news was, he just couldn't get into it anymore. All he could think about was Gum. "I guess it's true what they say. Absents make the heart grow fonder or something like that." Beat mumbled to himself. Recently, he had been finding himself becoming more and more fond of Gum. He often thought about how he had taken care of him and all the times they had been out tagging together; just the two of them. About how they loved to tag the back of Onishima's jacket and play other such tricks on the cops. Mainly, he thought about then he had first formed the GGs. He and Gum were the very first members before they met Tab a few days later. Together, they had built the GGs from nothing. And now, they were quite possibly the hugest and most well known gang in Tokyo-To.
"What's wrong with me?" Beat asked himself as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "I feel so strange. Am I falling for her?" Beat had never really been in love before. He wasn't sure what it was supposed to feel like or if it was even supposed to happen. Sure he had noticed other girls before as he grew, but he didn't feel anything like this. Flashes of the two of them together invaded Beat's mind. He blinked a few times, then squeezed his right hand into a fist. He looked down at his hand and clenched his teeth. "It's true. I love her."
It was the announcement that the Love Shockers were back in town that brought Beat back to reality. He decided to try and find them first before continuing his search for Gum. After all, Gum probably wouldn't like the Love Shockers tagging all over Shibuya-Cho , GG or not she'd most likely do something about it. At least, that was Beat's logic. For some strange reason, he felt that if he found the Love Shockers, he'd find Gum too. She never liked the Love Shockers anyway.
Beat continued to follow the Love Shockers graffiti and covered it up with the GG symbols. He ran out of paint rather quickly and decided to leave the tagging to the others. He just wanted to find the Love Shockers as soon as possible. He could tell he was getting closer as each tag had fresher paint to it. Finally, he spotted them. Beat shook his head and chuckled. "You'd think they'd learn by now." He said as he quietly approached them.
As he came into closer range, the Love Shockers broke off and went their separate ways to do some more tagging. Only one remained and she began tagging immediately. Apparently, they had not noticed Beat's presents yet. He slowly crept over to the rival gang member and hoped of either driving her off or getting some information out of her. However, as he got closer, he realized there was something different about this Love Shocker.
'Oh my God! It can't be!' Beat thought in utter disbelief. "Gum!" The Love Shocker turned around to face the rival gang member. Beat found himself at a complete loss for words when he came face to face with Gum, only she was wearing a Love Shocker's outfit. "I…erm…uh….what are you doing?!" Beat stuttered. Gum crossed her arms and gave him the nastiest look she could muster. "What do you think I'm doing!?" she yelled at him.
"Why are you doing this? Where have you been all this time?"
"I've been with the Love Shockers dumb ass!"
"But you hate the Love Shockers!"
"I hated them, but they were the only ones who understood my pain. The pain that you caused!"
"I realize that I hurt you, but it was purely unintentional. Please, I want you back."
"The only reason you want me back is because of my skills, isn't it? You don't give a rat's ass about me!"
"That's not true! I was…."
"I don't want to hear it, Beat! I'm a Love Shocker now! Deal with it!"
"Gum wait!"
As Gum turned to leave, Beat grabbed her arm and tried to get her to listen. Gum pushed him away, then slapped him across the face. Hard. "Gum, I…." Beat started, but was cut off when Gum back handed him just as hard as she hit him the first time. Beat moved his hand to his face where he had been slapped the first time. It stung, but he was too out of it to really notice the pain. Satisfied with her work, Gum skated off, leaving a group of spectators in awe. The two had made quite a scene there, and if it weren't for Beat's green sunglasses, the spectators might have seen the tears forming in his eyes.
To be continued……….
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