After TK ran out, Kari crawled over to the phone and picked it up. She dialed a number, and waited for an answer.
"Hello?" Yolei's voice said over the line.
"Yolei...I...I need..." Kari sobbed.
"Kari? What's wrong?" Yolei asked worriedly.
"Yolei...I need you to come over. Please." Kari pleaded as her tears ran down her face.
"Sure, Kari. I'll be there in a few minutes. Just hang tight." Yolei said.
"Ok." Kari sniffed. She hung up the phone and stood up from off the floor, then walked over to the kitchen and picked up a cloth and brought it to her mouth to soak up the blood. After she got most of the blood off, she put the cloth in the laundry hamper and walked into the living room and sat down on the couch to wait for Yolei. Her thoughts were full of questions, and they were full of nothing. She was confused. Why would TK do this? Was that really HER TK? He always protected her from anything that might harm her, and then he goes and does something like this which makes her think: did he mean it all? Did he mean to save her? Did he mean to hit her? Did he know that he terrified her beyond comprehension? She didn't know what he thought, nor did she care. He hit her, and now she didn't know if she could trust him ever again. Kari glanced to the right of her and looked out the sliding glass door that led to the balcony, and saw it was raining. She got up off the couch and went onto the balcony to hear the calming sounds of the drops of rain splashing into puddles formed by the rain before it. Kari closed her eyes and let the rain take control of all her thoughts. After a while she heard the door open, and figured it was Yolei so she went inside. But it was Tai instead. As Kari saw Tai, her fear returned and she tried to get to her room without him seeing her, but that just didn't happen.
"Hey Kari." Tai said as he saw Kari heading towards her room.
"Uh, h-hi..." Kari said hesitantly.
"Kari, you ok?" Tai asked worriedly as he walked towards her.
"I'm fine, just don't come any closer." Kari said as she backed up from him, terrified.
"Kari, what's wrong? What happened?" He asked as he stopped walking towards her.
"Nothing, just leave me alone!" Kari yelled as tears started to fall from her face.
"Oh Kari..." Tai sighed as he walked to her to try to comfort her. Kari jerked away from him and ran into her room. Tai followed her and tried to talk to her through her closed door.
"Kari, come out." Tai said through the door.
"No." Kari's voice said.
"Kari, what happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it, ok? Just leave me alone." Kari cried. Just then there was a knock at the door. Tai glanced at the front door and back at Kari's door, and sighed.
"Kari, I'm going to go answer the door, ok? I'll be right back." He said. He walked away from Kari's room and answered the door.
"Oh, hey Yolei." Tai sighed.
"Nice to see you too, Tai." Yolei said sarcastically.
"Sorry. It's not you, it's Kari. She won't talk to me." Tai said. He let Yolei in and closed the door. Yolei hung up her coat and walked to Kari's room and knocked on the door.
"Kari? It's me, Yolei. Can I come in?" Yolei asked cautiously through the door. There was silence from the other side for a while until Kari's room door opened and Yolei came inside. Kari turned and walked away from her door to sit on her bed. Yolei closed Kari's door and sat down next to Kari.
"So...What happened?" Yolei asked. Kari turned her head away from Yolei and looked at the floor.
"TK...Hit me." Kari whispered.
"He what?!" Yolei gasped.
"He...Hit me." Kari said quietly.
"What? Why?" Yolei asked.
"I don't know." Kari whispered. She stood up and walked over to the window and stared out into the rain. "He just came over, said something about Mindy, and then he hit me. It went by so fast."
"But that doesn't make any sense." Yolei said, puzzled about TK's actions.
"Tell that to TK." Kari cried.
"Oh Kari." Yolei sighed. She got up and walked to Kari and held her while Kari cried on her shoulder. "This isn't your fault. It's TK's. You just need to relax for a while. Take a deep breath." Yolei instructed. Kari sighed and took a deep breath as Yolei said to do, and exhaled slowly.
"See? Don't you feel better?" Yolei said, trying to cheer Kari up.
"A little." Kari whimpered.
"Good." Yolei said. "Um, Kari, if I may ask, why won't you talk to Tai?"
"Because he wants to hit me." Kari whispered.
"Why would you think that?" Yolei laughed.
"I could just tell." Kari whispered. "It's what they do. They hit us. They lie to us, and make us think they love us, then they hit us."
"Who's they?" Yolei asked.
"Men." Kari replied.
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"Look man, you know I don't do the heavy stuff." Davis said after his friend Jake offered him a hit of Acid.
"Aw, c'mon, man. Weed don't get you high, it just gets you alive a little. You gotta try it." Jake said. He took another puff of his joint, then held out towards Davis a small, square paper. "Just try it. One won't kill ya."
"I don't think so, man. I'm not much of an LSD kinda guy." Davis joked. He took a last smoke out of his joint and tossed it on the floor of Jake's basement.
"Alright, your loss." Jake shrugged. He tossed the acid into his mouth and let it dissolve. Davis chuckled.
"What?" Jake asked.
"Nothin' man. You know, that stuff is gonna kill you. I heard it's worse than Crystal Meth, and you remember when that dealer got shot because one of his customers died from one hit of Crystal Meth. It's a dangerous drug, man. You shouldn't be messin' with it."
"Yeah, yeah. What about you and your bipping stage? Cocaine ain't a safe thing either."
"They're totally different drugs, Jake." Davis said. He got up off of Jake's couch and went over to the fridge and pulled out two cans of Bud Light. He picked his head up out of the fridge and chuckled.
"Dude, why you got light in here?" He asked Jake.
"Hey man, it ain't my fault. My girl won't get me anything else." Jake said.
"That sucks." Davis said. He walked over to the couch and sat back down. He tossed Jake a can of Bud light, and opened up his own. Jake stared at Davis for a minute and groaned.
"C'mon man, it ain't no fun to go on a trip without a buddy. Please, just try one tab." Jake pleaded. Davis sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I'll try it. But after this I'm not going on another trip wit' you, ok?"
"I'll agree to that." Jake said with a grin. He reached under his chair and pulled out a bag. He opened the bag and pulled out a hit of acid, and handed it to Davis. Davis stared at it for a moment, shrugged, and popped it in his mouth. Jake grinned deviously.
"This is going to be the time of your life."
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TK ran out of Kari's apartment and got into his car and drove away. He didn't really drive to anywhere in particular, but he didn't really care. He just needed to get out of there. He drove around for a while, contemplating his thoughts, when he found himself driving down a street well known for it's drug dealers and prostitutes. TK stopped thinking about everything he knew, about everything that was bothering him, about Kari. He stopped thinking period. He pulled up to one of the corners, and was greeted by one of the hookers on the street. She leaned in, did a little talking with TK, and got into the passenger side of the car. TK closed his eyes as the girl got into the car, exhaled slowly, opened his eyes, and drove off to a cheap hotel down the street. He got out of the car, got a room, and went upstairs with the girl right behind him. TK put his card into the door, and opened it slowly. The girl told TK that she was going to go change in the bathroom, so TK was left alone for a while in the room. He sighed and ran his hands across his face. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, he knew it was going to hurt him later, he knew it was dangerous, but he didn't care. He had to let go of everything for a while. Or at least that's what he thought at first. The girl came out the bathroom with nothing on but a skimpy little lingerie outfit. She smiled.
"Have you ever done this before?" She asked.
"Uh, no, I haven't." TK answered.
"Well, you'll enjoy it." She said. She walked over to TK who was sitting on the edge of the bed and pushed TK onto his back. She slowly went down and kissed him, and TK returned the kiss. As the girl slowly unbuttoned TK's shirt, TK pushed her off of him and to the side of the bed.
"Look, I'm sorry, but I can't do this." TK said. He got off of the bed and picked up his stuff, left the girl a $50, and left the hotel. He got into his car and drove home. When he entered the apartment, he found his older brother asleep on the couch with the TV on. TK shut the TV off and went into his room and fell onto his bed and started to sob. He eventually cried himself to sleep.
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"What are we going to do about Kari." Tai said quietly to the gang. It was the next night, and everybody but TK and Yolei were in Tai's living room. Nobody told TK about the meeting because he was the one that caused it, and Yolei was in Kari's room, trying to get her to come out.
"Tai, this isn't something you should take lightly. Kari was punched in the face by her best friend. That's not something that's easily coped with." Sora explained.
"I know that, Sora. I'm not saying we should throw it aside, I'm saying we need to show Kari that she can trust us." Tai said. He glanced at Matt, then looked away. "Well, most of us."
"That's not fair, Tai." Matt said sternly.
"No, Matt, what's not fair is that your brother had to take his anger out on my sister's face!" Tai yelled as he jumped out of his seat.
"This probably isn't all his fault, Tai! Did you ever think Kari might have ACTUALLY had something to do with it?" Matt snapped as he got out of his seat as well to meet Tai.
"Are you trying to tell me that it's my sister's fault that her best friend punched her?!" Tai roared.
"Maybe I am!" Matt yelled.
"Guys, stop it! You think all this yelling is going to help our situation here? No, so stop yelling before it gets worse!" Davis said. Tai and Matt sighed, said their apologies, and sat back down. Just then Yolei came out of the room and walked into the living room.
"Well? What'd she say?" Izzy asked.
"She said she'll only see Davis. At least, out of the guys." Yolei said. Everybody turned and faced Davis, looking for an answer as to why Kari would only see him. He just shrugged and got up from the couch and walked into Kari's room.
"Kari?" Davis asked as he walked into the room. It was practically pitch black, so he couldn't really see where Kari was.
"I'm on my bed, Davis." Kari said. "Moved your hand to the left a little bit. There's a switch there that's for the light." She said. Davis moved his hand to the left, as Kari instructed, and found the switch. He turned it on, and had to close his eyes for a minute before they adjusted to the light. When he did finally open his eyes, he found Kari sitting on the bed, as she said.
"Hey Kari." Davis said. "How you feeling?" He asked kindly.
"I'm feeling ok." She said blankly. Davis sat down next to her and fixed his eyes on her.
"Kari, why won't you see Tai?" He asked cautiously.
"Because he wants to hurt me." Kari said.
"No, he doesn't. Nobody wants to hurt you, Kari. TK made a mistake, but that was his mistake only. You shouldn't punish Tai and the others because TK was a jerk." Davis said. He really didn't think TK was a jerk, but punching Kari made him think a little differently about his friendship with the blonde-haired boy.
"I know. I...I'm trying, I really am, but I..I can't stop thinking about it." Kari stuttered. She turned her head and faced Davis, and finally let her tears fall. Davis held his arms out for her, and she took the welcome graciously. She cried into his chest for a while, while he stroked her hair saying everything was alright. Kari stopped crying after a while, but didn't leave Davis's comforting arms. Davis cleared his throat, and asked Kari something.
"Uh, Kari, please don't take this the wrong way, but out of everybody that you were afraid of, why did you choose me as the person you could trust?" Kari picked her head up and looked into Davis's eyes.
"I've known you for five years, Davis, and out of all of those years, you haven't once hurt me in any way. You've always understood me and where I was coming from, and you never questioned me. You just gave your opinion. I've never really known anyone that I could trust better, excluding TK. You've given me all of you, and in turn I gave you my trust." She finished. Davis blushed a little, and let a small smile come across his face.
"Thanks, Kari. Trust isn't something that you can give away easily, and I'm very grateful that you decided to let me have it." He said truthfully. He wrapped his arms around Kari and brought her into a gentle hug, and she did the same. She pulled away for a second and looked at Davis.
"You really do mean a lot to me, Davis. I'm very lucky to have you here." She said.
"Right back at ya." Davis said in a relaxed manner. Kari chuckled a little and hugged Davis again. This time, Davis pulled away.
"Kari, do you think you could see everybody now? They're really worried about you." Davis said. Kari sighed and looked at him for direction.
"Do you really think I can?"
"Yes, I do. You're very strong, Kari. I know you can do this." Davis said. Kari smiled at Davis's kind words, and nodded. Davis got up from Kari's bed and helped pull Kari up off her bed, took her hand in his, opened her door, and led her into the living room, to regain the feeling of living.
"Hello?" Yolei's voice said over the line.
"Yolei...I...I need..." Kari sobbed.
"Kari? What's wrong?" Yolei asked worriedly.
"Yolei...I need you to come over. Please." Kari pleaded as her tears ran down her face.
"Sure, Kari. I'll be there in a few minutes. Just hang tight." Yolei said.
"Ok." Kari sniffed. She hung up the phone and stood up from off the floor, then walked over to the kitchen and picked up a cloth and brought it to her mouth to soak up the blood. After she got most of the blood off, she put the cloth in the laundry hamper and walked into the living room and sat down on the couch to wait for Yolei. Her thoughts were full of questions, and they were full of nothing. She was confused. Why would TK do this? Was that really HER TK? He always protected her from anything that might harm her, and then he goes and does something like this which makes her think: did he mean it all? Did he mean to save her? Did he mean to hit her? Did he know that he terrified her beyond comprehension? She didn't know what he thought, nor did she care. He hit her, and now she didn't know if she could trust him ever again. Kari glanced to the right of her and looked out the sliding glass door that led to the balcony, and saw it was raining. She got up off the couch and went onto the balcony to hear the calming sounds of the drops of rain splashing into puddles formed by the rain before it. Kari closed her eyes and let the rain take control of all her thoughts. After a while she heard the door open, and figured it was Yolei so she went inside. But it was Tai instead. As Kari saw Tai, her fear returned and she tried to get to her room without him seeing her, but that just didn't happen.
"Hey Kari." Tai said as he saw Kari heading towards her room.
"Uh, h-hi..." Kari said hesitantly.
"Kari, you ok?" Tai asked worriedly as he walked towards her.
"I'm fine, just don't come any closer." Kari said as she backed up from him, terrified.
"Kari, what's wrong? What happened?" He asked as he stopped walking towards her.
"Nothing, just leave me alone!" Kari yelled as tears started to fall from her face.
"Oh Kari..." Tai sighed as he walked to her to try to comfort her. Kari jerked away from him and ran into her room. Tai followed her and tried to talk to her through her closed door.
"Kari, come out." Tai said through the door.
"No." Kari's voice said.
"Kari, what happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it, ok? Just leave me alone." Kari cried. Just then there was a knock at the door. Tai glanced at the front door and back at Kari's door, and sighed.
"Kari, I'm going to go answer the door, ok? I'll be right back." He said. He walked away from Kari's room and answered the door.
"Oh, hey Yolei." Tai sighed.
"Nice to see you too, Tai." Yolei said sarcastically.
"Sorry. It's not you, it's Kari. She won't talk to me." Tai said. He let Yolei in and closed the door. Yolei hung up her coat and walked to Kari's room and knocked on the door.
"Kari? It's me, Yolei. Can I come in?" Yolei asked cautiously through the door. There was silence from the other side for a while until Kari's room door opened and Yolei came inside. Kari turned and walked away from her door to sit on her bed. Yolei closed Kari's door and sat down next to Kari.
"So...What happened?" Yolei asked. Kari turned her head away from Yolei and looked at the floor.
"TK...Hit me." Kari whispered.
"He what?!" Yolei gasped.
"He...Hit me." Kari said quietly.
"What? Why?" Yolei asked.
"I don't know." Kari whispered. She stood up and walked over to the window and stared out into the rain. "He just came over, said something about Mindy, and then he hit me. It went by so fast."
"But that doesn't make any sense." Yolei said, puzzled about TK's actions.
"Tell that to TK." Kari cried.
"Oh Kari." Yolei sighed. She got up and walked to Kari and held her while Kari cried on her shoulder. "This isn't your fault. It's TK's. You just need to relax for a while. Take a deep breath." Yolei instructed. Kari sighed and took a deep breath as Yolei said to do, and exhaled slowly.
"See? Don't you feel better?" Yolei said, trying to cheer Kari up.
"A little." Kari whimpered.
"Good." Yolei said. "Um, Kari, if I may ask, why won't you talk to Tai?"
"Because he wants to hit me." Kari whispered.
"Why would you think that?" Yolei laughed.
"I could just tell." Kari whispered. "It's what they do. They hit us. They lie to us, and make us think they love us, then they hit us."
"Who's they?" Yolei asked.
"Men." Kari replied.
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"Look man, you know I don't do the heavy stuff." Davis said after his friend Jake offered him a hit of Acid.
"Aw, c'mon, man. Weed don't get you high, it just gets you alive a little. You gotta try it." Jake said. He took another puff of his joint, then held out towards Davis a small, square paper. "Just try it. One won't kill ya."
"I don't think so, man. I'm not much of an LSD kinda guy." Davis joked. He took a last smoke out of his joint and tossed it on the floor of Jake's basement.
"Alright, your loss." Jake shrugged. He tossed the acid into his mouth and let it dissolve. Davis chuckled.
"What?" Jake asked.
"Nothin' man. You know, that stuff is gonna kill you. I heard it's worse than Crystal Meth, and you remember when that dealer got shot because one of his customers died from one hit of Crystal Meth. It's a dangerous drug, man. You shouldn't be messin' with it."
"Yeah, yeah. What about you and your bipping stage? Cocaine ain't a safe thing either."
"They're totally different drugs, Jake." Davis said. He got up off of Jake's couch and went over to the fridge and pulled out two cans of Bud Light. He picked his head up out of the fridge and chuckled.
"Dude, why you got light in here?" He asked Jake.
"Hey man, it ain't my fault. My girl won't get me anything else." Jake said.
"That sucks." Davis said. He walked over to the couch and sat back down. He tossed Jake a can of Bud light, and opened up his own. Jake stared at Davis for a minute and groaned.
"C'mon man, it ain't no fun to go on a trip without a buddy. Please, just try one tab." Jake pleaded. Davis sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I'll try it. But after this I'm not going on another trip wit' you, ok?"
"I'll agree to that." Jake said with a grin. He reached under his chair and pulled out a bag. He opened the bag and pulled out a hit of acid, and handed it to Davis. Davis stared at it for a moment, shrugged, and popped it in his mouth. Jake grinned deviously.
"This is going to be the time of your life."
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TK ran out of Kari's apartment and got into his car and drove away. He didn't really drive to anywhere in particular, but he didn't really care. He just needed to get out of there. He drove around for a while, contemplating his thoughts, when he found himself driving down a street well known for it's drug dealers and prostitutes. TK stopped thinking about everything he knew, about everything that was bothering him, about Kari. He stopped thinking period. He pulled up to one of the corners, and was greeted by one of the hookers on the street. She leaned in, did a little talking with TK, and got into the passenger side of the car. TK closed his eyes as the girl got into the car, exhaled slowly, opened his eyes, and drove off to a cheap hotel down the street. He got out of the car, got a room, and went upstairs with the girl right behind him. TK put his card into the door, and opened it slowly. The girl told TK that she was going to go change in the bathroom, so TK was left alone for a while in the room. He sighed and ran his hands across his face. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, he knew it was going to hurt him later, he knew it was dangerous, but he didn't care. He had to let go of everything for a while. Or at least that's what he thought at first. The girl came out the bathroom with nothing on but a skimpy little lingerie outfit. She smiled.
"Have you ever done this before?" She asked.
"Uh, no, I haven't." TK answered.
"Well, you'll enjoy it." She said. She walked over to TK who was sitting on the edge of the bed and pushed TK onto his back. She slowly went down and kissed him, and TK returned the kiss. As the girl slowly unbuttoned TK's shirt, TK pushed her off of him and to the side of the bed.
"Look, I'm sorry, but I can't do this." TK said. He got off of the bed and picked up his stuff, left the girl a $50, and left the hotel. He got into his car and drove home. When he entered the apartment, he found his older brother asleep on the couch with the TV on. TK shut the TV off and went into his room and fell onto his bed and started to sob. He eventually cried himself to sleep.
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"What are we going to do about Kari." Tai said quietly to the gang. It was the next night, and everybody but TK and Yolei were in Tai's living room. Nobody told TK about the meeting because he was the one that caused it, and Yolei was in Kari's room, trying to get her to come out.
"Tai, this isn't something you should take lightly. Kari was punched in the face by her best friend. That's not something that's easily coped with." Sora explained.
"I know that, Sora. I'm not saying we should throw it aside, I'm saying we need to show Kari that she can trust us." Tai said. He glanced at Matt, then looked away. "Well, most of us."
"That's not fair, Tai." Matt said sternly.
"No, Matt, what's not fair is that your brother had to take his anger out on my sister's face!" Tai yelled as he jumped out of his seat.
"This probably isn't all his fault, Tai! Did you ever think Kari might have ACTUALLY had something to do with it?" Matt snapped as he got out of his seat as well to meet Tai.
"Are you trying to tell me that it's my sister's fault that her best friend punched her?!" Tai roared.
"Maybe I am!" Matt yelled.
"Guys, stop it! You think all this yelling is going to help our situation here? No, so stop yelling before it gets worse!" Davis said. Tai and Matt sighed, said their apologies, and sat back down. Just then Yolei came out of the room and walked into the living room.
"Well? What'd she say?" Izzy asked.
"She said she'll only see Davis. At least, out of the guys." Yolei said. Everybody turned and faced Davis, looking for an answer as to why Kari would only see him. He just shrugged and got up from the couch and walked into Kari's room.
"Kari?" Davis asked as he walked into the room. It was practically pitch black, so he couldn't really see where Kari was.
"I'm on my bed, Davis." Kari said. "Moved your hand to the left a little bit. There's a switch there that's for the light." She said. Davis moved his hand to the left, as Kari instructed, and found the switch. He turned it on, and had to close his eyes for a minute before they adjusted to the light. When he did finally open his eyes, he found Kari sitting on the bed, as she said.
"Hey Kari." Davis said. "How you feeling?" He asked kindly.
"I'm feeling ok." She said blankly. Davis sat down next to her and fixed his eyes on her.
"Kari, why won't you see Tai?" He asked cautiously.
"Because he wants to hurt me." Kari said.
"No, he doesn't. Nobody wants to hurt you, Kari. TK made a mistake, but that was his mistake only. You shouldn't punish Tai and the others because TK was a jerk." Davis said. He really didn't think TK was a jerk, but punching Kari made him think a little differently about his friendship with the blonde-haired boy.
"I know. I...I'm trying, I really am, but I..I can't stop thinking about it." Kari stuttered. She turned her head and faced Davis, and finally let her tears fall. Davis held his arms out for her, and she took the welcome graciously. She cried into his chest for a while, while he stroked her hair saying everything was alright. Kari stopped crying after a while, but didn't leave Davis's comforting arms. Davis cleared his throat, and asked Kari something.
"Uh, Kari, please don't take this the wrong way, but out of everybody that you were afraid of, why did you choose me as the person you could trust?" Kari picked her head up and looked into Davis's eyes.
"I've known you for five years, Davis, and out of all of those years, you haven't once hurt me in any way. You've always understood me and where I was coming from, and you never questioned me. You just gave your opinion. I've never really known anyone that I could trust better, excluding TK. You've given me all of you, and in turn I gave you my trust." She finished. Davis blushed a little, and let a small smile come across his face.
"Thanks, Kari. Trust isn't something that you can give away easily, and I'm very grateful that you decided to let me have it." He said truthfully. He wrapped his arms around Kari and brought her into a gentle hug, and she did the same. She pulled away for a second and looked at Davis.
"You really do mean a lot to me, Davis. I'm very lucky to have you here." She said.
"Right back at ya." Davis said in a relaxed manner. Kari chuckled a little and hugged Davis again. This time, Davis pulled away.
"Kari, do you think you could see everybody now? They're really worried about you." Davis said. Kari sighed and looked at him for direction.
"Do you really think I can?"
"Yes, I do. You're very strong, Kari. I know you can do this." Davis said. Kari smiled at Davis's kind words, and nodded. Davis got up from Kari's bed and helped pull Kari up off her bed, took her hand in his, opened her door, and led her into the living room, to regain the feeling of living.