First off, an authors' note, of course:
This chapter, following the pattern set by the others is named after a song. This one is by Puddle Of Mudd. I realize everyone in the world is sick of this song. I am too. So I searched for a long, long time to find something else to title it. No luck. So I was forced to incorporate incredibly annoying song into this chapter and for that, I apologize profusely.
To balance this terrible news, I have some good news. Currently, there is a sequel to Two Days in the works. It was supposed to be called 'Two Weeks' or something. But I didn't wanna make it that long. And ''Nine Days' or "A Week And A Half' just sounded stupid. So for the moment, its working title (read: "Subject To Change") is One Crazy Summer, which, incidentally, I am having right now.
Said story, and I am only doing this because I am awfully sorry about the annoying song, since it will likely combust your eyeballs to even read it again, will follow the characters of Two Days on the summer following TK, Kari, and Davis's Senior year. Minor spoiler: TK gets plane tickets, Davis, Ken gets over Cami, Davis gets poison ivy, and Matt gets more than just a little mixed-up.
That's enough for now. Depending on how hard I get working, it should be out soon.
The song mentioned does not belong to me; I edited it because I like my fics to be PG-13. And also horribly out of character.
I don't own Digimon.
I Melt With You
Well, Kari thought, looking around at the busy mall, at least I made the right choice… She sat alone on a bench, taking a break from her solo shopping spree to watch all the happy passerby. How convenient that everyone else seemed to have someone. Could she really be the only one here that was alone? And it's all my fault.
But being alone certainly wasn't her first choice. Yolei and Tai were going out to dinner, TK had a basketball game, which she would have gone to, if not for the fact that Sora would be there cheering him on more loudly than Kari ever would, and Ken was at some computer convention with Izzy. And to top it all off, the entire cheerleading squad had been avoiding her like a disease since Suki caught her talking to herself yesterday afternoon. As she sat there on the bench, pondering her state in life, she couldn't help but wonder if she made the wrong choice with Matt.
She sighed dramatically, rising to her feet and picking up her bags to head to the food court for some dinner. She told her mother she'd be home at nine; which gave her two more hours of tortuous solitude in the mall. Her brown eyes scanned the food stalls as she tried to decide what to eat.
"Kari?" a voice behind her said, causing her to jump about three feet.
She spun around, surprised to find Matt standing behind her, one hand jammed in his pocket, the other holding a large bag from the secondhand music store on the third level of the gigantic mall. "Matt. Hi."
He took a couple steps closer, "You here alone?"
"Yes," she snapped, "And I'd like to keep it that way."
"Whoa," he chuckled, waving his arms back and forth, "Cool it, Kari. What did I do to make you hate me so much?"
Kari looked away nervously, "I… I don't hate you."
His lips curled into a wicked grin, "Then let's go out to pizza."
"Um," her eyes darted around the food court before settling on his face, "Alright."
"…So then Tai says 'I don't know, I thought you told her not to!' " Matt finished his story with an exaggerated impression of Kari's brother.
She doubled over in hysterics, "God, he's such a dork sometimes."
Matt chuckled, agreeing as he reached for a third slice of the cheese pizza they were splitting, "You said it. And what's up with him and your little purple-haired friend?"
"Yolei?" Kari sputtered, still laughing, "No idea. That's even weirder than…" she stopped abruptly, reaching for her soda.
He placed a hand on her wrist, stopping her, "Weirder than who?"
Embarrassed, she smiled sheepishly, "You and me."
Realizing where his hand was, Matt blushed and pulled it back, "Yeah…" he looked over the half-empty pizza tray, "So, are you done?"
"Yeah," she nodded, wondering when the conversation had turned so uncomfortable; they had been getting along so well before. "Wait a second," she murmured, watching him reach for his wallet, "You don't have to pay. I'll get it."
He took out a couple dollars, "Nah, I'll pay. You don't even have a job yet."
"Yes I do," she protested.
"Babysitting doesn't count," he chided her.
She furrowed her eyebrows, throwing her purse down exaggeratedly, "You're such a chauvinistic pig. What am I even doing here?"
"You were lonely and I'm sexy, so you begged me to take you out, show you a good time, and help you get whatever's jammed up your ass that's making you such a bitch out." He said smugly, not even bothering to hide his annoyance.
"Are you joking?" she stood up heatedly, color beginning to rise in her cheeks, "I'm the bitch? You didn't call for nine days and then stalk me down and try to pretend everything's okay? What is your problem?"
He rolled his eyes, "No, what is your problem, Kari? I freaking kiss you a year ago and you wait around like a sick puppy, thinking we're going to get married or something!"
With a shrill shriek serving as her battle cry, she all but threw her glass of Pepsi at his leering face, covering him in the sticky brown liquid. As everyone in the pizza parlor turned to watch, Kari bent down and kissed him on the cheek, then leaned in by his ear, "Fuck you," she whispered simply before picking up her bags, turning around, and leaving him alone at the table.
/Met a girl, thought she was grand/
/Fell in love, found out first hand/
/Went well for a week or two/
/Then it all came unglued/
'So, did you take out my sister last night?' Matt read aloud, as he and Tai sat through another of their history teacher, Mr. Mujina's famous lectures. 'Yes,' he responded, 'Crazy, psycho bitch.'
On his left, Tai laughed as he read it, 'That bad, huh? What happened?'
'Let's just say it involves a collision between her Pepsi and my face..'
Tai laughed harder, 'She's weird like that. Except for Davis and TK, she never brings any boys home. Maybe she's gay…'
Naturally, Matt laughed as he read this, but a little part inside him was kind of disappointed he had missed his chance with Kari. It was actually refreshing to be around a girl who didn't fall all over him for no reason. And she was actually funny, unlike most of the girls he dated. Nope, funny did not come often. 'Maybe. I mean, who else could resist me?'
Scoffing loudly, Tai narrowed his eyes, 'You're not that great, Ishida.'
'Stop kidding yourself and bow to the master… anyways,' he added, scratching his head tensely, 'So… you're not pissed that I didn't turn out to be Kari's knight in shining armor, are you?' He passed the note to Tai, mentally crossing his fingers.
Tai's reply was scrawled quickly, as if it hadn't taken him any thought at all to write it: 'I don't think there is one.'
/In a trap, trip I can't grip/
/Never thought I'd be the one who'd slip/
/Then I started to realize/
/I was living one big lie/
/She hates me/
/She does/
/She hates me/
/La la la la/
/I tried too hard/
/And she tore my feelings like I had none/
/And ripped them away/
Down the hall, Kari and Yolei were having a similar discussion. Their bossy, flamboyant algebra teacher, Mrs. Nakaguri, was out sick for the day and her replacement, a timid little wisp of a man, barely out of college, had long ago given up trying to control the rioting teenagers, and was curled into a fetal position under one of the desks in the back. Kari had deemed this a fine time to recount her terrific story of victory over Matt.
"You threw soda in his face!?" Yolei cried in disbelief. Kari nodded proudly. "B-but I thought you liked him!" she stammered.
Throwing a glance at the unfortunate substitute being verbally assaulted by an unruly group of Seniors, Kari shrugged. "Not really."
"But it would be so cute! Think about it," Yolei rested a hand on her shoulder, "Ten years from now - maybe even five, we have a double wedding! You and I wearing matching long white dresses, Matt and Tai both decked out in similar Armani tuxedos, little pink flowers everywhere, and a great big -"
"Yolei," Kari interrupted sternly, "I am not gonna marry Matt Ishida."
Flashing her friend a teasing smirk, Yolei raised her voice, "Yes you are. Kari's gonna marry Matt Ishida!"
Kari sunk low in her seat, reddening to the tips of her ears, "Am not."
"Kari and Matt!" Yolei cried, attracting the attention of most of the classroom by now.
"Kari and Matt?" a puzzled Junior looked up from tormenting the substitute. He arched an eyebrow in Kari's direction, "He bangin' you?"
The scarlet of her cheeks darkened, "Excuse me? Matt Ishida is not-"
"Look at her!" an obnoxious girl Kari recognized as a friend of her brother shouted, "She's blushing! It's true! They're screwing!"
Miserable, Kari slipped lower into her seat, "I'm not… we're not…"
Taking their focus off the extremely grateful substitute, the jeering group shifted over to Kari and Yolei. "Are they engaged?" a tiny blonde girl asked. Yolei nodded affirmatively. "Damn it! So there's no chance of Matt asking me to the Spring Fling?" Hiding a chuckle, Yolei shook her head.
"Is she pregnant or something?" Tai's obnoxious friend asked, eager to report the dirt on his little sister to him.
"Umm," Yolei hesitated, looking down at the crumpled form of Kari under the desk, assuming a pose strikingly similar to the one their replacement algebra teacher was in not five minutes earlier. She knew Kari would kick her ass later for what she said about them being engaged, but this might be going a little too far. Her eyes darted around the faces of the interested Seniors, all hoping for a little piece of gossip to take to their friends. "Well…"
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing
Phew, Yolei thought, Saved by the bell. She watched as her disappointed classmates collect their things and leave the room. Rather frightened, she knelt down next to Kari, "Kari? Class is over…"
"What… did… you… say?" came a low voice from somewhere inside the ball of cashmere and denim Yolei had never heard Kari use before.
Deciding it would be better to postpone her butt-kicking until after school, Yolei jumped up in a flash, grabbed her books, and left Kari, alone and curled into an angry ball in the algebra classroom.
/She was queen for about an hour/
/After that, shit got sour/
/She took all I ever had/
/No sign of guilt/
/No feeling of bad, no/
Still fuming, Kari stormed down the hallway to her last class, biology. In the two hours following the incident in algebra, Kari had received more comments ('You and Matt? You're sooo lucky!!', 'Hey baby, wanna give me a try?', 'When's the wedding, you dirty slut?' and the like) from people she hadn't even seen before, yet alone known, in her entire life.
"Hey there," came a voice from behind her.
Fed up, she whirled around angrily, "Listen, I'm getting sick of… Matt?"
He quickened his pace, falling into step with her, "You're getting sick of me? Are you sure, dear?"
"Yes," she fumbled for a second before regaining her coldness, "Get away from me. I really don't feel like squabbling with you right now."
Laughing, he wrapped his arm tenderly around her shoulder, "Why ever would that be? I hear you're going to be my wife, come May." With this, he gave her flat stomach an affectionate pat, "And the baby's due in July."
With a war cry worthy of Braveheart, she twisted free of his grip, the force of which threw them both to the hall floor "Never, ever touch me again!" Her brown eyes darted around the hallway, as a crowd of fascinated high schoolers was swarming around them, cruel whispers buzzing around like venomous bumblebees;
"OhmiGod, I think he was beating her!"
"Did they break up?"
"Did she lose the baby?"
"Does this mean they're not getting married?"
As she was feeling the anger rising in her face, one of the whispers sounded in her ear, "Just play along. I'll get us out of this." It was Matt. Unable to think of anything else to do, she nodded.
Matt started laughing as he stood up, "Good job, honey! That'll do just fine."
Uneasily, she stood up also, brushing herself off, "Thanks, dear, I thought so, too."
He turned, addressing the confused crowd, "What's the big show here? I was just teaching my… my… fiancée self-defense. We can't have little Matt Jr. getting hurt now, can we?" He rubbed her stomach again. "Did you see how she took me down? Wonderful, wonderful…" He trailed off, taking Kari's arm again, "Come on now, we've gotta get you to biology…"
"Nice try, Matt, but that didn't help." Kari frowned as they turned the corner, "Everyone still thinks we're engaged and I'm pregnant."
"But you're not."
She looked at him, baffled, "But they think I am."
"So?" he shrugged, "That doesn't mean you are. Yet." She slapped his arm lightly and he laughed, "Here's your class now."
Quickly glancing at the clock on the wall, Kari saw class would start in about thirty seconds. Matt would almost certainly be tardy. Then something came to her. "Wait… how did you know I had biology this period?"
He laughed, giving her a swift pinch on the cheek, "I know a lot more than you think. I also know that I'll see you tonight at that karaoke joint on Third Street at six thirty tonight."
Ten seconds to the bell. She smiled, "Cocky, aren't you?" With a nod, he turned and jogged off down the hall. She was still smiling as she took her seat in biology.
/In a trap, trip I can't grip/
/Never thought I'd be the one who'd slip/
/Then I started to realize/
/I was living one big lie/
/She hates me/
/She does/
/She hates me/
/La la la la/
/I tried too hard/
/And she tore my feelings like I had none/
/And ripped them away/
This chapter is a little long. But I kind of like it. Despite the dreadful song. It didn't even fit that well. Oh well, at least they're sort of getting together now.
And I've made the first cameo appearance of someone I know. It's sort of a caricature of my geometry teacher last year. He shouldn't be hard to spot; he's the one hiding under the desks from the big, evil students. I'm gonna miss that class. If only a little.
So, I'm beginning to like this story a little. It always happens after a while. Leave me reviews. =)