Chapter Seven

"Thanks Kari!" Tai said as he and Amelia moved their luggage toward the front door. "What would we do without you?"

"Now there's some food in the freezer for you if you want, in fact you can help yourself to anything, except for the tomatoes cos I'm saving them to make sauce out of. Be sure to turn everything off at the wall when you go out, I don't want the place to burn down. Oh, the hot water takes about two minutes to come through when you turn on the tap, so don't get impatient, and the pressure is quite hard, so be carefull. And-"

"Alright Amelia! I know how to live in a house!" laughed Kari, propelling her sister-in-law out of the door. "Have a good time!" She waved to them until they had driven out of sight, then turned and flopped down on the sofa.

"What shall I do first?" she mused to herself. "Party? Friends around? Trash the place? Meh." She ended up pulling out Tai's PlayStation 2 and amusing herself for hours.

Matt pulled on a shirt, doing up the front buttons. He was off to a job interview, for the first time in a long time. For some reason he felt more of a need to be responsible, and this interview was the first step in that direction. Pulling on his tie, he tried to brush his teeth at the same time to little success. Finally he ran a comb through his hair and did up his laces.

"Right. All ready." He took a deep breath and stepped out of the front door- just as the phone rang. Cursing under his breath, he quickly dashed back in.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Hi Matt."

"TK."

"I need to talk to you Matt."

"Well, not now, I'm heading out to- to the shop," he said, making it up. He didn't want anyone to know about this yet.

"Well, I'll come round this evening, shall I?"

"Um, yeah, that sounds good. Listen, I gotta dash, so I'll se ya, 'k?"

"Yeah. Ciao."

"Bye." Matt dashed out of the door, only just managing to hang up first. On his end, TK placed the reciever back in the cradle.

"Sure, Yamato. Shop. Right. You're going to Kari and I'm going to get there first."

Matt stepped out of the music store feeling on Cloud Nine. He'd got the job! His smile went from ear to ear, and he felt so good! There was only one thing that could top this off. He walked to his car, smiling at all the people he passed, who all thought he was weird and smiled back to humour him. He jumped in his car and pulled out, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the radio. "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah," he sang loudly, and he didn't care who heard. Finally he pulled into a carpark near Tai's apartment and jumped out, tossing the keys into his pocket. His car was a bomb, but he didn't care. He liked it because he'd bought it with his own money. Whistling, he headed up to Tai's apartment door, and knocked on it. He waited, and waited... Finally it opened. Kari looked out warily, looking a little roughed up.

"Matt?" she said. She hadn't been expecting him. Matt grinned.

"Guess what?" he exclaimed, grinning fit to burst. Without waiting for a reply, he burst out, "I got a job! At the Music Store on the main street. You know the one. Whaddya think? They said they liked my expertise in the area. Cool huh?" He paused, waiting for a reply. Kari forced a smile.

"That's great. Matt, really. Listen, I've gotta go do something, so I'll see you later, right?" she said in a voice of too-politeness. Matt's smile dimmed.

"What's the matter, Kari?"

"Nothing, I just-" Matt pushed the door open, his smile vanishing all together as he saw who Kari was trying to hide.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. TK smirked.

"I could ask you the same thing," he drawled in reply. Kari gulped and looked from one to the other.

"Please, don't fight because of me," she tried to say, but it came out as more of a squeak. Matt stepped past her into the room.

"Aren't you looking smart today," sneered TK. Matt wore a look of calm composure.

"Yes, I just had a job interview," he replied with the came clipped formality. "You'll be pleased to know I got the job." TK's face abruptly lost any friendly calmness it may have had to start with.

"Listen Matt, you can't just waltz in here and take whoever's girl you like? It's not on! I loved Kari first! I was with her first! She agreed to move in with me, not you, Matt! It's not fair! Why do you get to love her? You are always taking my stuff! Just cos I've got her, you want her! It's not fair!" he yelled, going a little red in the face. Matt smirked.

"Not fair? Hell, TK, life isn't fair! Do you think it was fair when my parents took away the only brother I had, the only one I loved, and then I could hardly see him ever again? Was it fair that Whalemon had to die to save us? Was it fair that- that the entire weight of saving the Digiworld was on OUR shoulders? A bunch of kids? Was it fair on Sora that I had to break up with her because I was in love with someone else? No!" He stopped, realised what he'd said, and went equally as red as TK. "Okay, I didn't mean to say that last one. Well. I kinda threw myself in the deep end that time." TK looked at Matt, incredulous.

"You've loved her since you were fifteen?" he said, then shook himself. "That's not the point. The point is, I was here first."

"You may have been. I acknowledge that. But I think the decideding factor is not me, and not you." He turned at look at Kari. "Well? I hate to have to do this, but, it's your choice." Both males looked expectantly at Kari, TK more pleading, and Matt more accepting of whatever he'd hear. Kari gaped as she looked from one to the other.

"Choose? How can I choose?" she wimpered.

"You must," said TK decisively. "It's the only way."

"But I don't want to!" She looked from one to the other. "I love you both!" Do you? asked her inner conscience. You know the answer to that.

Well, maybe, I love one in a different way to the other. But how to make the choice?