Chapter 13: Crying Girl

Walking down the hall, Seto looked around the corner and saw Tea standing outside his homeroom with her friends.

"Shit." Seto groaned. "I can't got in there. Not with her standing right outside. She'll eat me alive!"

He stood there for a minute, waiting and praying she would leave. No such luck. After a few minutes, it was clear Tea was not moving anytime soon. So, gathering his courage, which was, at the moment, limited, Seto said a final prayer, turned the corner and walked towards his homeroom with his eyes focused directly in front of him. Mumbling a careless 'excuse me' to Joey as he brushed past the group, Seto entered the classroom, desperately trying to ignore the seething glare Tea was sending him. Fortunately, for him, the first warning bell rang and Tea was forced to dash off to her own homeroom to avoid being late.

Hurrying down the hall, Tea turned to look over her shoulder when Joey shouted for her to wait up.

"'Ey." Joey smiled. "Wha' 'appened wid ya an' Kaiba? Ya seemed pissed at 'im."

"Nothing happened." Tea lied quickly.

"O, so da death glares 're normal? 'Ome on, I'm ya friend, ain't I?"

"Yea, you are. It's just not important, is all."

"An'?"

"He just isn't who I thought he was."

"'Ell, if you ever wanta 'ell 'omeone da truth, you've got me ta talk wid." Joey smiled before racing off to homeroom.

"That's what he said too." Tea sighed before continuing her walk to homeroom.

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It was the end of the week and Tea was walking home alone, but she didn't really mind. She needed some space to pull herself together anyway. The past five days had been absolutely horrible. She and Seto had avoided each other like the plague the entire time and Seto had even gone as far as to have his seat changed in European History. Actually, she couldn't blame him for that one, because if he hadn't done it she probably would have.

Letting out a sigh, Tea turned the corner and walked into the lobby of her apartment complex. She took the elevator to the tenth floor and spent a couple seconds, fishing around for her house key, which kept falling to the bottom of her purse. She finally managed to find it and, upon opening the door, found a note from her parents waiting for her. Crumpling the note up, Tea tossed the sheet of paper over her shoulder; she already knew what it was going to say. She turned on the television and lay down on the couch to think.

"I'm not sure why I'm so angry." Tea told the ceiling. "If he had been Joey or maybe Yugi, even though Yugi doesn't seem the type to go to dance clubs, I wouldn't be so mad. In fact, I'd probably laugh it off. But when Seto Kaiba pulls this stunt, I'm angry! Lord I'm nuts!"

Letting out a deep sigh, Tea tried to understand why she wanted to hurt Seto, but she couldn't. So she did the next best thing; she called Mai.

"Hello?" Mai asked, picking the phone up on the third ring.

"Hey, Mai. This is Tea. Have you got a minute?"

"Well, Joey said he'd pick me up in ten minutes, but he called from the shop, so I've got plenty of time. What's up?"

"I'm not sure. See, I'm sort of angry at this one guy but I'm not sure why." Tea explained and waited for Mai to reply.

"Perhaps," Mai began after thinking for a moment. "You'd better tell me exactly what happened."

"Oh, Mai!" Tea exclaimed, before breaking down into tears. "It was horrible!"

"It's okay, Tea." Mai reassured her friend. "Look, I only live a block away, so I'm going to hang up and go over to see you. We can talk then. Just hang on!"

"Okay." Tea nodded, still crying. Tea heard a click on the other end of the line and, ten minutes later, Mai was walking through Tea's front door. Wrapping her arm around Tea's shoulders, Mai handed the crying girl a handkerchief and told her to relax.

"So, what happened?"

"Do…...... do you r-re-remember this Saturday?" Tea hiccuped, while blotting her eyes.

"Yea." Mai nodded, before helping Tea up and leading her into the kitchen. Plugging in the kettle, Mai hunted through the cupboards for two mugs and some hot chocolate mix. "Is this something that happened at the club?"

Tea nodded and opened the cupboard where the mugs and drink mixes were.

"Is this about Ryu?" Mai asked as she measured out the chocolate mix and dumped a bit of extra into Tea's. Tea nodded again.

"Did he hit you?" Mai asked, turning around to face her friend. Tea shook her head.

"He doesn't exist." Tea managed before she started to sniffle again. Mai poured the water into the mugs, stirred the drinks and gave Tea her mug.

"Of course he exists, girl. We both saw him."

"No. He doesn't!" Tea insisted. "He lied to me."

"I'm not following, Tea."

"I found out I know him. Ryu is Seto Kaiba." Tea explained. "And I'm so mad at him! All those months, I thought they were two different people, and he knew I though that! He knew and he never bothered to tell me! He lied to me! But I'm not sure why I hate him so much for that."

"Maybe because he didn't just lie to you. You feel betrayed, right? You're hurt…...... because you really did care for him." Mai explained and Tea nodded.

"And I still care for him!" Tea admitted. "Oh, Mai. I'm scared I love him."

"And now you're confused as to who you fell in love with?"

"And I'm scared he'll lie to me again. I'm not sure I can trust him! He said he'd never lie to me, but everything Ryu told was a lie! My entire relationship with Ryu was built on just that! A lie! But Ryu said he loved me and…...... what if that was also a lie? Did he really like me, or was I just a game for him?"

"How did Seto act this week?" Mai asked suddenly.

"He wouldn't talk to me, and he's been skipping a lot of classes and he isn't doing his homework anymore, either." Tea shrugged. She may have been angry with Seto, but that just meant that she had started to watch him very closely.

"That's good." Mai nodded. "If you were just a game for him, then he'd be acting normally, even rudely, to you. Tea, I'm sure he's just as upset about this as you are. You should talk with him."

"But Mai, he never even said he was sorry*." Tea moaned. "It just…...... hurts."

"I know. I know. Why don't you come to the club tonight? If he's there, you can talk. If he's not, well, it's better to party than to mope around all day."

"Okay." Tea nodded after a moment of thought. "I'll come."

*AN: Remember, Tea doesn't speak Japanese!

AN: Chapter title by Westlife