A Tamer's Story: I'll Never Leave You
Chapter 3: Please, Stay With Me
It was a Friday night few weeks before Juri's sixteenth birthday and she was at home alone. Her parents had gone out to dinner and her brother, Masahiko, was spending the night at his friend's house.
"I'm so bored!" Juri sighed as she flipped through the TV channels.
A bright light flashed, then the TV, along with the lights suddenly turned off. A deep roar of thunder sounded, and she looked out of the window.
"Oh, great. A storm." She said she whispered to herself.
Even though she was almost sixteen, she was still afraid of bad thunderstorms like this, especially when she was alone.
The light in the hallway flickered back on. She made a move to turn the TV back on to drown out the sounds of the storm, but it, as well as the rest of the lights in the room, refused to turn back on.
"The storm must have blown the fuse for this room." She said nervously.
She ran down to the kitchen and dialed the Matsuda number as another roll of thunder sounded.
"Matsuda residence." Stated a relatively deep, male voice on the other end of the phone line.
"Takato, I'm scared to be alone with this storm going on outside, would you come over and stay with me?" She asked recognizing the voice as Takato's.
"I guess I could Juri."
"Thanks Takato. I'm so glad you're always there for me." Juri said and hung up.
Takato smiled. Juri always seemed so much happier at the end of their conversations than at the start of them.
Takato grabbed his jacket from the chair he'd thrown it on when he'd come home from school four hours earlier. He popped his head into the shop where his mom was cashiering.
"Hey mom," He said giving his mom a small peck on the cheek. "I'm going to Juri's for a while. The storm, ya know."
"I kinda figured you might be going over there. Be careful on your way over there, and don't forget your umbrella."
"You mean I can't take the car?!"
"You've only just turned sixteen. It's not that I don't trust you, I don't trust those other wackos out there. Now get going." Mei stated.
"Alright. You can't keep me from the car forever though." Takato joked.
"That boy of yours is growing up to be a fine young man." An elderly woman said as she placed an order on the counter to be rung up.
"I know." Mei said as she watched Takato pass the storefront. "I'm just afraid that he's growing up too quickly."
She rung up the items on the counter and bagged them.
"Every parent fears that." The old woman smiled as she gathered up the bag of pastries and bread she'd just paid for. "Even when your children are having children of their own, time just passes so quickly. Speaking of which my son and his wife are expecting their second child soon. That one will be my sixth grandchild."
"I'm so happy for you." Mei said.
"Thank you. I'll see you next week." The old woman smiled as she left.
Mei waved after the woman as she exited the shop.
Before Takato even got close enough to the door to knock, Juri had it open for him to come in. Takato went inside and put his umbrella in the corner.
"So where are your parents and brother?" Takato asked after taking his shoes off.
"Huh? How did you know they weren't here?"
"Their shoes are gone." He said.
"Oh. Right. Could you help me change the fuse for the living room? The power knocked it out."
"I think the switch just needs to be turned back on, but I'll take a look." He said.
Takato found the fuse box and found his suspicions to be correct. He flipped the switch.
"Do the lights come on now?" He called.
"Yeah." She called back.
After shutting the fuse box he went back into the living room.
"Yep. It was just the switch." He said with a smile.
"I'm glad. Are you thirsty?"
"Sure."
"Okay. Just go ahead and have a seat.
"So where are they?" He called into the kitchen as he sat down.
"My dad and step-mom are having an anniversary dinner out tonight. Masahiko is at his friend Amano's house." She answered as she checked the fridge.
There was only enough soda for half a glass each, so she poured the glasses and was about to take it in, when she noticed a bottle of whisky on the counter. She shrugged and put some whisky one of the sodas and stirred it. She'd seen her father do it before, what could it hurt? She took a sip and didn't find it to be bad at all, so she put some in the other one as well. Now the glasses were full.
"Here." She said handing him the glass she hadn't sipped out of.
"Thanks." Takato smiled and took a drink. "You have the Weather Channel, right?"
"I think so."
"Okay, that should tell us how long this thing's supposed to last. It's not that I don't like being with you, I just don't want you to be scared."
"Thanks." She smiled and drank some of her soda, then laid her head on his shoulder.
It wasn't much later that they finished off their drinks.
"Hey, Juri. Got any more?" Takato asked, his voice slurring a bit.
"I think so. But we're out of pop." Juri answered, her voice also slurring.
"So?"
"Okay." She said taking the glasses back in the kitchen with her.
A few moments later she came back with both glasses. They finished off that glass and leaned against the sofa laughing.
"Hey Juri." Takato said after he'd stopped laughing, his words slurring very badly.
"Hmm?" Juri asked smiling as she turned her head to look at him.
"I love you." He said then kissed her, and she kissed back.
They were all over each other and soon their clothes found their way to the floor, and things went a bit far.
Takato eventually looked at the clock.
"What does that say?" He asked pointing at the clock.
"I think it says midnight." She said kissing his neck.
"Aww, crap. I gotta get home. I was supposed to be home half an hour ago." He said struggling into his clothes. "I'll talk to you later."
He somehow made his way home with no incidents, with the exception of puking twice before he got there. He was lucky that his parents weren't awake to see him stumbling in.
Neither of them had gotten in trouble for drinking the whisky. Shortly after he'd left, her parents came home, but Juri had already made her way up to her room.
It was three weeks later, and Takato had persuaded his parents to let him use the car to take Juri out for her birthday. He'd taken her to a movie then out for a picnic dinner under the stars.
"Did you have fun?" Takato asked Juri as they were sitting in the park looking at the stars.
She didn't answer.
"Juri? Is something wrong?" He asked.
Juri didn't look at him, she hadn't all evening.
"What's bothering you?" He asked placing his hand on her shoulder.
She started crying. He pulled her close to him.
"Tell me what's bothering you." He said stroking her hair.
She sniffled and dried her eyes.
"Do you remember when I called you to come over a few weeks ago?"
"Somewhat. I helped you with the fuse box. Why?"
"Do you remember what else happened?"
Takato thought for a minute.
"Yeah. We had a few drinks, then...then...D-did we really...!" He asked when he remembered what had happened after that.
Juri looked down and nodded.
"I'm pregnant."
"Wh-wh-what! P-p-pregnant? A-a-are you sure?" Takato stuttered in a panic.
"Of course I'm sure!" She cried. "I was late, so took one of those home pregnancy test things the day before yesterday."
"Why didn't you tell me before?" He yelled.
"I didn't know how to tell you! It took all the courage I had to tell you now!" She said as she jumped up.
Takato stood up and held her, which caused her to start crying again.
"It's okay." He said as he started crying with her.
"Takato, I was so scared you thought you'd be mad at me."
"Mad at you? How could I be? I didn't mean to yell before. I love you. I'll stay with you throughout this thing." He said kissing her. "After all, she's going to need her father around."
"She? I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, so how do you supposedly know?" Juri said as she stopped crying again.
"I want our baby to be a girl, don't you?"
"Takato. You are so sweet." She smiled and laid her head on his chest, she stiffened suddenly. "What about our parents?! They're going to be furious! And school!"
"We should tell them together. It's both of our faults that this happened."
"I don't deserve you. I've heard of other girls getting pregnant and the guys ran away. You're too nice, Takato, but that's why I love you." She smiled.
"Do you want me to take you home?"
"I don't want to tell them yet!"
"We'll tell them tomorrow, okay? We'll get your parents and mine together and we'll tell them all at once."
"Okay...I'm ready to go home now."
The two of them got into the car and drove to Juri's house.
"Thank you, Takato. I'll call you early in the morning so that we can arrange it." She said and got out of the car.
The next morning they made arrangements for Juri's dad and step-mom to come to the Matsuda residence. Takato and Juri walked into the room holding hands. They looked at each other one last time before starting.
"You're probably wondering why we asked you all to come together like this. Well," Takato started. "We have something to tell you."
The four adults, seated in the living room, thought it was about some sort of engagement announcement, due to the fact that they could tell the two of them loved each other. They never expected what they were about to hear.
"We're going to have a baby." Juri finished.
"What?!" The four adults said at once.
To Be Continued...
In the next chapter:
Takato and Juri just told their parents about the baby Juri is going to have. What will happen now? How will everyone handle it? What about the other Tamers? Find the answers to these questions and more in the next chapter of A Tamer's Story: I'll Never Leave You.