Part Five: Theft

Her cell phone rang at lunch. It was the day after Zoicite had promised to call and she pressed the button with eager fingers, swallowing the pesky salad that stuck in her throat and ignoring her mother who sat across the small, round black table from her.

"Hello?"
Her slim white hands were trembling and her blue eyes were bright – there were two spots of color on her cheeks.
She was beautiful, the waiter noted as he refilled her water. He blushed, looking away, and went back to the kitchen.
"Zoicite?" she breathed. Her mother was looking at her, but she didn't acknowledge the older woman.
"No, it's Minako," a cheerful voice lilted. "Zoicite crashed in the van and we took him home."
"What?!" Ami cried, eyes widening. "Is he all right?" She had a sudden vision of the blue van he had given her a ride in, crumpled and smashed across the front with Zoicite bleeding and unconscious over the steering wheel.
"Huh?" Minako sounded honestly confused. "What? What are you talking about?"
"Zoicite was hurt?" Ami prompted, terror lacing her voice. She shot her mother a glance as the woman straightened in concern.
"What?"
"He crashed?"
"Oh!" There was a brief pause and then Ami could hear Minako laughing. "No, no, Ami. He 'crashed' – he fell asleep. Slang, you know?"
"Oh," Ami felt embarrassed, but now that she knew that he was okay, she was a little miffed that he hadn't called her. Zoicite escaped a yelling-at later only because she could imagine him sleeping, sweetly, curled on the back van seat like a little boy. "Actually, I need you to do me a little bitty favor, okay?"
Ami frowned a bit. "What is it?" She was a little frightened of the answer.
"Meet me at the Juuban District Hospital after work."
"Okay," Ami frowned uncertainly – that was where her mom worked. She wasn't sure what this all meant.
"And Ami?"
"Hm?" She was distracted, thinking about the odd request and wondering if Zoicite would still be home when she got done with her day and would mind her calling him. She decided against it, as she might wake up Jared from any naps he might take.
"Don't tell anyone where you're going."
"Um. Okay."
"Good girl."

Ami stood in front of the hospital, wringing her hands. Where was Minako?

"Stop looking so guilty," Minako whispered in her ear, and Ami jumped, causing the blonde to take a step back.
"AH!"
Minako massaged her forehead for a moment as Ami calmed down. "Let's just go."
The hospital was cool and high and tiled with dark blue and white. Ami pulled her purse further onto her arm and glanced over at Minako. She felt very drab in her light blue cardigan, white silk shirt, and jeans, while Minako strode through in a sleek orange spaghetti-strap dress and matching heels. With her glorious blonde fall of hair, Minako looked like a model – or a lollipop. Ami wasn't quite sure which.
"Can I help you ladies?" a young security guard asked them, giving Minako an appreciative look. Ami frowned in his direction. She'd never gotten so much as a nod from him when she came in to see her mother. Chauvinist pig, she thought, and felt better.
"No, thank you," Minako smiled and swept by with Ami, leaving the disappointed guard to help an old woman in a wheelchair who had been trying to get his attention and finally hit him with the Kleenex box that had been handy.
Ami stood in the elevator with Minako and the blonde told her that they were going to see Ami's mother.
"Why?" she asked while pushing the button. She frowned when Minako wouldn't answer her. What could her mother help with?
"Come on," Minako pulled Ami out of the elevator and stalked down the hallway to Dr. Mizuno's office, making Ami wonder if she'd been there before.
The door was locked.
"Get someone to open it," Minako said in an undertone, leaning against the wall beside the door. Ami tossed her a concerned look, but went to the nurses' station and asked for an extra key, saying she'd left something in there earlier. They obliged and the two girls went in, locking the door behind them. Minako smiled and kissed Ami on the cheek. "Thank you!" She slipped an assortment of small tools from her bright orange purse and started expertly fiddling with the file cabinets.
"Oh," Ami moaned, "I can't watch." Minako only smiled, still working at the locks. Locks to her mother's files! Ami thought she was going to be sick. She rocked from nausea to annoyance and turned to hiss, "That's illegal, you know!"
"I know," Minako said, and continued to flip through names on all the folders. Not a bit concerned.
Ami rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth, turning away again. What was she doing? What was she looking for? What . . . what if they were caught?
She felt nauseous again and wondered vaguely if her mother had anything to help. She started looking around the office for something and tried her best to ignore that Minako was going calmly through her mother's patient files.
"I'm gonna die," Ami moaned, banging her head against a conveniently placed wall.
"No you're not," Minako said in self-satisfied tones, "because I just found what I was looking for."
Ami turned and stared as Minako picked up Ami's purse and put the file into it.
"It won't fit in mine," she pointed out when Ami continued to stare at her, and turned to lock all of the cabinets back.
Ami was silent for a moment, holding her purse. It felt decidedly heavier – weighed with guilt, she decided bitterly. "You're right," she sighed. "I'm not going to die." Minako smiled at her. "I'm going to go to jail, then die." Minako gave her a sour look, but Ami went on. "I'm going to be done in by a fat woman named Bertha. She'll have too many moles and smoke – I'll die from second-hand smoke, you know what that does to you."
"Ami."
"Hm?" She looked at Minako, still not quite believing that she was going to walk out of there with important patient files in her purse.
"Shut up."
Ami sighed and picked up the office key to give to the nurses as they left. "Alright. Let's just go. Fast."
And they did.