She often felt sorry for him, which she really didn't like doing. It made it harder to be mean to him, and beat him up shortly after that.
Imagine having a father who was drunk all the time, and having to work part time to pay off your school fees. That's something that kids shouldn't have to do, shouldn't have to deal with.
Jounouchi did, though.
Which is part of the reason that he came off really touch and mean like. Anzu knew that he wasn't though – not deep down. Not to her.
She had never met his father; not that she really had a desire to do so. Whenever she was over, his father wasn't – apparently he was sometimes gone for a week at a time or more.
Anzu looked over to him, studying him a bit. His blonde hair fell deep into his eyes, which worked for his advantage. It made it harder for her to tell what he was thinking; which meant he didn't get nagged about it. He was tall, a fair amount taller than he was, and really good looking. There wasn't anyway to deny it – she would be lying if she said he was anything less of very attractive.
"Anzu? Earth to Anzu…" Jounouchi said, waving a hand in her face. She grabbed it and scowled at him.
"I'm right here, Jounouchi."
"Well, you were kinda' spaced out there for a minute. You were looking at me, too." He said winking suggestively at her. They ate their lunch on a stretch of grass with Yuugi and Honda, the latter of which were talking animatedly together.
She rolled her eyes and looked the other way; for she felt her face becoming warm.
She needed to stop this – she knew that Yuugi had feelings for her – she couldn't be like this; liking Jounouchi. She didn't even know why she liked him so much suddenly…maybe it was because he flirted with her…somewhere along the way, she had gotten the wrong idea…
Hell, he flirted with everyone.
"I'll pick you up at ten." He said, looking over at her briefly.
"For what?" Anzu said, this was the first she had heard of his plans for that night.
"I dunno'…we'll just drive around. I like driving with you."
"Oh yeah?"
Jounouchi shrugged. "Yeah. You don't talk when we drive."
"I don't have much to talk about." She said back, flipping her hair against the wind.
"That's okay. I don't either."
There were two sides to Jounouchi, one side of which he was the traditional 'gangster' and the other of which he was a pretty decent guy. For instance, he swore like no one she had ever met before. It was cute, though, how he tried to swear less when she was in the conversation. And he smoked, but never around her. She had often seen him smoking around Honda and Yuugi, but whenever she walked over; he put it out.
He had a reputation with girls – but he never kept a date. Anzu believed that he just didn't care, a one-night stand was enough for him.
~*~
It was dark, and the streets were pretty vacant.
He picked her up at ten, exactly just like he had promised. She was surprised though; because it was just her and Jounouchi. She didn't ask where the others were.
And so, they just drove around in his black civic, quite content with each other's company. She unrolled the window a bit, it wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm, either. She loved this kind of weather – she could wear a sweatshirt and be perfectly comfortable.
Jounouchi looked over to her, seeing how the wind blew her hair back. Every time they drove together, she would just look out the window. He smiled, and pulled into an ice cream place.
"Two ice creams, to go, please."
"Thanks, Jounouchi!" She said, her eyes shining. If there was one thing that he knew she loved it was ice cream.
"No problem, babe."
He always called her pet names like that: Babe, Hon, Sweets…maybe it was part of his gangsta' side – the one that made him be all charming and irresistible.
She had told him not to call her names like that years ago, and he never stopped, so she had just gotten used to it. It made her wonder, though, what he called all the girls he met with.
They stopped at a red light, and again he looked over at her, as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. She turned her head to look straight back at him.
"What?" She giggled, licking some more of her ice cream.
He laughed. "You have ice cream on your nose."
Before he knew what he was doing, he leaned over and licked the tip of her nose. "Mmm…vanilla."
Her face rapidly became flushed, which made him smirk. She quietly went back to eating her ice cream.
~*~
She needed to get some female friends. She couldn't tell anyone about her newly discovered crush on Jounouchi – she couldn't tell Honda, because he would probably tell Jou, she couldn't tell Yuugi, because it would probably crush him, and she couldn't tell Seto because that was completely out of the question.
Anzu was out of ideas. She didn't know if his flirting actually meant something, or it was just that; meaningless flirting.
It was almost one o'clock in the morning, and she lay twisted in her bed sheets, from tossing and turning all night so far. She tried to visualize Yuugi's profile in her mind, but immediately Jounouchi took over.
The phone rang, and she mumbled a quick, "Shit!" before jumping out of bed and towards her cordless phone on her desk.
"Hello?" She whispered, closing her window. It was cold out, and she definitely felt the draft, just being in her pajama pants and t-shirt.
"Hey, babe."
She sighed. "Hi, Jounouchi."
"What're you doing?"
"I was trying to sleep."
"Oh, sorry."
"Jounouchi, what did you call for?"
She could picture him shrugging, and pushing his blonde hair back. "I couldn't sleep. Apparently you couldn't either."
She flushed, feeling rather stupid. "Yeah."
She climbed back onto her bed, and under the covers. "So, was there something you wanted to talk about?"
On the other side of the phone conversation, Jounouchi was sprawled out across his bed, only in his boxers, letting himself be cooled down with the draft coming through his open window. He was trying to sleep, but all he could think about was her; and it was driving him crazy.
"I dunno'…I was bored."
Anzu turned her head to look at her alarm clock on her bedside table. "At l o'clock in the morning?"
"I just wanted to hear your voice."
~*~