Here I Am
Chapter 8

Closed lids fluttered open, revealing to the afternoon sun two beautiful
cerulean eyes. Serena sat up and looked around her. She thought she had
heard a door close, but looking at her friends, all of them seem to be deep
inside their dreams. She blinked once before assuming that she must've just
been dreaming. It was then that her thoughts came back to the events from
the night before. She was still in disbelief that things seemed to have been
fixed. The long years of silence appeared to have been so far away now, and
it was as if it had never happened. She got up and stretched, still a little
drained. She gazed at the clock on the wall and discovered that it was nearly
one in the afternoon. Quietly, she headed toward the bathroom, snatching a
pair of underwear from her bag on the way there.
The first thing she noticed as she strolled in the bathroom was her reflection.
She seemed younger now; the lines of fatigue had somehow diminished
below her eyes. Even though she didn't get enough sleep, they were hardly
evident. Once more she grinned, turning on the shower. She stripped herself
of her clothes and got under the streaming water.
'I wonder if this will last,' she asked herself. 'I don't want to hope, but I can't
help it. It's just too good to be true that my parents, and my friends have
forgiven me. How could things be so easy?'
In reality it did seem too good to be true. Life couldn't possibly be that easy,
especially finding solutions to problems.
'Perhaps life is easy, and we're the ones who create difficulty. Maybe for
once, I should just let it play out, see what happens. I should just enjoy this
while it last. Hmm, that's all I really have control of doing, instead of dreading
the fact that it may not be forever. Nothing is everlasting, after all.' She
supposed.
Wrapping a towel around her, she stepped out of the bathtub, and hoped her
friends were up; she didn't want to feel bad later for waking them. She smiled
at the sight of them in the kitchen, drinking some tea.
"Good morning, Serena!" They greeted as she went by and pass the kitchen.
"Good morning!" She said in return, grabbing her bag and sticking her head in
to ask Lita if she could use her room to change.
"Yes, of course you can. Want some tea?" Lita inquired, a smile on her face.
"Sure. I'll be right back," she informed them, as she headed towards Lita's
room.
"Hey, Raye," Lita said turning to Raye beside her. "Glad you came up with
this idea, and glad you told us that Serena was back."
"Well, silence isn't my thing. If I know that something can be fixed, I'll do
everything I can to fix it." They chuckled and thought about that for an instant.
True, Raye never gave up that easily, and true she did fix it...but on the other
hand they couldn't help but feel as if the problem was going to fix itself if they
had given it a little more time. Each one swept the thought aside, the problem
was fixed and that's all they really cared about. Lita stood up, and took a
small china cup out of one of the cabinets.
"So what should we do today?" Amy asked, hair in a small ponytail, hands on
her lap and a smile pasted on her face.
"I think we should just hang around the house," Mina suggested, leaning back
against her chair and putting her feet up the table. Raye brushed them aside,
giving Mina an amused look. Mina laughed and placed her feet back on the
floor.
"Haha, sorry Raye," she apologized.
"Hey...did anybody call Darien to cancel lunch?" Lita inquired out of nowhere,
her thought still on the hot tea as she poured it in the cup.
"No...I presumed you talked to him about that yesterday," Raye said looking
at Lita. Lita shook her head, still into making Serena tea, not really realizing
what she was saying.
"Oops...um...maybe he assumed we weren't going to come..." Amy
suggested, but trailed off...she knew that Darien would still have thought
there was a lunch because they were all together, he didn't know about Serena.
"Wait...what if he visited us earlier, and we just didn't hear him?" stated Mina.
"Well, then that's good, we can explain later that we overslept..." Lita said
finally paying attention to the conversation.
"Wait, he wouldn't have just barged in here like the last time we did
that...would he?" Raye mentioned, interrupting Lita's sentence. She was
sitting up right now, like the rest of them, Lita finishing Serena's tea. She
placed it in front of the empty seat and sat back down.
"How could he, the door was locked," Mina told them, breathing more freely
as the conversation seem to stray off the bad road. All of them hated the
thought of Darien finding about Serena like that. They had planned something
else earlier, and if he had, then their plans would be ruined.
"Oh, good...are you sure?" Lita asked, looking at the door. They all turned to
the door adjacent from the room. It was then that Serena made her entrance,
fully dressed now.
"Uh, Serena, can you check if the door's locked?" Raye asked her politely,
hoping it was. All four of them went rigid as Serena approached the door.
"Nope, I guess we forgot to lock it last night," Serena smiled, and then
frowned as she glimpsed each one of her friend's faces. All had turned pale,
and uncertainty dwelled in their eyes.
"What? What's wrong?" She asked, taking a seat in the only vacant spot
around the table. They shared a worried look, but it was Raye that said,
"Nothing, we were just talking about how there are so many criminals in the
city...you know," Raye said, hoping Serena got the idea.
"Oh yeah? Hmm...I thought the criminal rate was under control. You know
how safe Tokyo is..." Serena said, wondering what in the world her friends were
saying.
"Oh...okay, I'll be honest. I had a bad dream last night," Lita said, hoping her
excuse made more sense.
"Oh, okay..." Serena said hesitantly, not sure if Lita was being serious. She
decided to just let it go. "Well, I hope it wasn't that bad a dream," When she
saw Lita shake her head, she continued on to change the subject. "So, what
are we going to do today?" She asked, an excited aura about her. The others
exchanged looks and only smiled. What were they going to do?
"You know, why don't you guys plan it out, I've just got to make a phone call,"
Raye suggested as she got up.
"Maybe we should all get dressed first, huh? Then we'll go out to eat, and
we'll decide from there," Mina remarked, pointing out that they were still in
their PJs.
"Oh, yeah!"

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Darien woke up to find himself sprawled in his bed. At first he wasn't certain
how he had gotten there, but it wasn't even an instant after the thought
crossed his mind that he remembered. He closed his eyes and took a deep
breath, sitting up in the process.
'What am I suppose to do now? I can't act as if I don't know that she's here!"
Different scenes flashed in his mind of what would play out if they happened
to come face to face. One of them had him going back to Lita's apartment,
and taping on the door. Serena would open it, see him and smile. He would
smile too. They would stand there for what seems like eternity, until Serena
finally takes a step toward him and wrap her arms around his waist. He would
cling to her forever.
"But that's not going to happen!" He shouted, throwing his fist in the air as if to
strike the image to pieces. The telephone rang beside him. It seemed
hopeless for him to answer it; it would only be Kim or someone else he didn't
want to talk to at that moment. He allowed it to ring, and turned his attention
to his watch. It was close to 2 PM, he had been sleeping for a couple of
hours. He didn't even remember if he had a dream. Still, the phone kept
ringing beside him. He stared at it with annoyance in his eyes.
"Gee, why can't they ever get the idea that I'm not home!" He grabbed the
receiver and placed it against his ear. He waited before he said "hello."
"Darien? It's Raye," Yes, it was Raye, her voice grave. He didn't know what to
say. Should he ask her how Serena was...or just pretend he never even saw
her? He decided on the latter, he would figure it out later.
"Hey, Raye, where were you guys?" He said, his voice hesitant and distant.
"Sorry we couldn't meet you for lunch, we kind of overslept," Raye said on the
other line. He noticed the uneasiness in her voice. He wasn't easily fooled,
even if he hadn't seen Serena, he would be suspicious of them hiding
something. Raye wasn't easily fooled either, she knew when someone was
lying or when they were being honest.
"I see," was the only thing he could say to her remark. A few seconds of
silence followed before either one of them spoke again.
"So, you did barge into Lita's apartment didn't you?" Raye inquired.
"What are you talking about?" He asked her, pretending he had no idea what
she was saying.
"You know what I'm talking about," she said, pausing before she continued.
"You saw her didn't you, Darien?" He didn't know what hurt most then, that
his friends had been hiding Serena from him...or the fact that there was a
possibility she didn't want him to know. He chose to be honest, what use
would lying be? Raye would know anyway.
"Yes, I saw her." Then it was as if Raye read his mind; he wasn't amazed that
she could.
"Don't' be angry we didn't tell you...I only just found out and so did the
others." He nodded to himself, and looked out the window. Somehow he
believed her, Raye wasn't one to hide the truth. She was always upfront.
"Hmm...how is she?" He asked her, his voice breaking. He cleared his throat,
'Ahem.'
"Why don't you just ask her yourself? You know she's here..."
"No. She doesn't want me to know, and I'm going to respect that," He
interrupted her. On the other line Raye frowned.
"You're afraid, that's what you are. You'll have to face her sooner or later,"
"I am afraid...because I don't know her anymore, and she doesn't know me.
We've become strangers. It's life, time changes people."
"Doesn't mean you don't love her anymore...I know you do," Raye whispered
quietly to herself, but he heard her.
"It doesn't matter, does it? She doesn't love me anymore." Raye wondered
why he would say something like that. Over the years he had changed, he
seemed more distant. She understood why, he loved Serena with all his life,
all his heart and soul. When she left, he lost that hope of living.
"Listen, Darien, you can think what you want, but you won't know the truth
until you ask, will you? If you don't take the risk, then what will you learn?
Nothing. You'll just keep wondering about it until you go insane. Do you want
that? Maybe she's as scared as you are, did you ever stop and think about
that? I'm your friend, and I'm her friend...I'm not going to let fear break both of
your hearts. Life is short you know, and when you find that somebody that
can love you as much as you love them, don't let them slip away from your
life. Think about it." There she hung up, leaving Darien stunned and thinking.
Slowly he placed the receiver back down. He knew she was right, he would
always wonder, and would live to regret it if he never tried. He opened a
drawer an arms length away from him. Inside he found a picture, one he
would always cherish. It seemed just like yesterday he was holding Serena,
and she was looking up at him with those beautiful eyes. He traced the outline
of her face, and stared deeply into those eyes. He closed his own and tried to
imagine what it was like staring into her blue pool. It was bliss. Her eyes
always made him feel whole, warm...happy. He turned away and threw the
picture back inside the drawer, shutting it with a thud. He couldn't do it...he
couldn't possibly take another risk, only to have his heart broken into smaller
pieces. Even though he knew, he knew he would regret his decision for the
rest of his life.

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sorry, nothing special happening here. Still too much homework to really
think about the story, sorry everyone.