Chapter 4: Wedding Jitters
"How I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! "
"What's up?" a dark-haired teenage boy asked his tear-stricken twin sister, who arrived blowing her nose into a handkerchief. He gave her a glance and went back to reading his favorite comic book while lying lousily on the sofa in their living room.
"It's Van and that damn girl, Celena!" she answered furiously, a scowl on her pretty face.
"Well, what about them?" His brows were twitching in puzzlement though his eyes were still glued on the awesome characters of X-men.
"I saw them! They were hugging! Tightly hugging! I saw them with my two eyes!" she explained exasperatedly, her hands flying everywhere.
"It's natural. Celena is Van's latest girl. Didn't you know?" the boy looked at her like she had come from another planet.
"I know that you idiot! That's why I'm furious!" Then, as if talking to herself, she muttered, "When will Van ever realize that I'm the right girl for him? "Sadness and despair laced her voice, replacing the anger caused by the incident she had happened to witness in the track field an hour ago.
The teenage boy smirked. "Dream on, sister! Van will NEVER ever notice you! I bet you'll grow an old lady, patiently waiting and waiting still. So I suggest you'd better just forget about your obsessive nonsense with him."
But she didn't seem to hear his words of discouragement. His sister had always been hard-headed. "Maybe I should just seduce him, what do you think? " She said, rather in desperation.
"I give up! You're hopeless!"
"I'm just a girl in love!"
"In love? Crazy is the more proper word, don't you think?" He said in sarcasm.
The girl answered by throwing her bag at him. But the boy was able to avoid that. He made a face and stuck out his tongue at her. In wild annoyance, the girl picked up the crystalline vase on the end table with one hand, ready to throw the vase worth a thousand bucks at his brother when......
"Mamoru, Meruru!" Natsumi Kanzaki hissed, interrupting her children's 'little scene' before they actually hurt each other- and before another one of her priceless collections of glassware turned to pieces.
"Mom!" Mamoru and Meruru chimed in surprise.
"When will you two ever stop bickering and stop turning the whole house into a battlefield of broken pieces of furniture?"
"It's Meruru's fault, Mom!" Mamoru pointed a finger at his sister.
"Me? You're the one who said such mean things to me!" She said in defiance, tilting her head arrogantly.
"I didn't! I was just telling the truth, as far as I'm concerned!"
"Oh yes you did! You badmouthing two-headed snake!"
"Enough! You two will give me a hypertension or worse, a heart attack, if you won't stop at this very minute!" Natsumi yelled, causing the two teenagers to shut their mouths and settle for glaring daggers at each other.
When she thought everything was under control, she sat on the nearest sofa chair and heaved deep breaths. "Now, I have some news to tell both of you."
"What is it, Mom?" Mamoru asked concernedly, seeing the strained look on her mother's face.
"Your sister, Hitomi, is getting married." She answered flatly. "To Van Fanel."
"WHAT!" Meruru exclaimed, the crystalline vase, which she was still holding, slipped from her hands and made a loud crashing noise. She was staring at her mom in incredulous horror.
Three knocks and the door to Hitomi's room opened with a scandalous banging against the wall.
"How could you, Hitomi! How could you!" Meruru screamed the moment she entered the room.
Hitomi, who was in the act of changing her clothes, was stunned. "What? What did I do?"
"You stole Van from me! Why? Of all people, why the love of my life?" Meruru was almost on the verge of bursting into wild violent sobs.
"Meruru....." Understanding of her sister's bizarre actions quickly dawned on Hitomi. Her siblings had been told of her forthcoming doomed-to-failure marriage with Van. She was becoming increasingly despondent about the way things were going. First, Dilandau had broken up with her. And now she was being subjected to her sister's ire of breaking her heart.
She had known Meruru's feelings for Van ever since Meruru had reached her puberty stage and began to take interest in Van. That soon became a sickening full-fledged obsession. She literally believed that she and Van were meant for each other, and she had done all possible things to catch his attention. But Van, who was so dense of a guy in Hitomi's opinion, seemed oblivious to all her sister's hero worship of him.
She looked at Meruru's puffy red eyes. Her sister had grown to be very pretty, especially with those long lashes, accentuating her big deep ocean-blue pools. Her hair was a bit pinkish, but it didn't lessen her charm at all. At thirteen, she knew boys in Meruru's school were swarming around her little sister. And that fact also applied with her little brother, Mamoru.
Mamoru was raven-haired like Van and his eyes were of deep crimson. His appeal to girls his age was so unbelievably great that his drawers were practically filled with mushy love letters from his admirers. It was kind of alarming. She just hoped her brother wouldn't turn out to be a too-confident-self-absorbed playboy kind of guy when he got older.
Albeit they were twins, their differences were like oil and water not only in appearance but in their behavior as well. Meruru was the serious, self-assured, bookish type, while Mamoru was the happy-go-lucky, flamboyant, and carefree kind. They only agreed on one thing alone. And that was to make sure they made each other's lives miserable by their non-stop squabbling and arguing over nonsensical things. Well, maybe given their age and immaturity, it was just normal, after all they were twins. But sometimes their fights could get so annoying; she and her parents would wish they would just grow up. And fast.
"I hate you, Hitomi! You're my sister but you have the nerve to do this to me?" Meruru's upset voice pulled Hitomi's thoughts back to the present.
"Will you stop it? For the record, I don't even want to get married to Van in the first place. Our parents are just forcing us into it!" Hitomi exploded, her patience with her had already reached its limit, "So don't barge in here again, telling me how hurt and angered you are because of my breaking your fragile heart, little sister!"
"I'll never talk to you again ever! And I hope you suffer!" Meruru shouted before turning her back and marching out of the room.
"Well, I'm suffering right now!" Hitomi shouted back.
Two months later.....
"Yukari! I- I can't do this! I can't marry Van!" Hitomi said agonizingly, slumping down on the bed. She was in the confines of Yukari's bedroom, watching the latest DVD release of The Matrix Reloaded. But she didn't care one bit about the movie at all... unlike her friend, who was all eyes on the t.v set.
"Look at him, isn't he gorgeous? I would give anything just so I could replace Trinity in that scene. Gosh!!!" Yukari squealed girlishly, pointing at the TV where Neo and Trinity were passionately kissing each other.
Hitomi flinched in mortification. Sometimes she loathed her friend's die-hard admiration over that Hollywood actor, Keannu Reeves. And die-hard meant a hard-core, true-blue fan that every single space on her bedroom's wall was pinned with the actor's posters. Not to mention the wide collection of his movies in both videos and DVDs filling a huge shelf she had in her room. She even promised herself that she would see the handsome actor in person someday by hook or by crook. Which Hitomi found to be an unadulterated foolishness, if not a crazy quirk, or some sort of terrible fetishism.
"Are you listening to me, Yukari?" she asked in annoyance. When she saw Yukari was still transfixed over Keanu, she stood up and turned off the forsaken television. "There. Maybe you'll give me some of your attention now."
"Hitomi!!!" Yukari protested, stretching out the word in chagrin.
"Yukari!!!" Hitomi mimicked her friend with the same tone.
"What's the problem?" she asked, deeply puzzled.
"Van! Van is my problem!"
"Goodness, Hitomi, your wedding is next week. You're not thinking of jilting Van right in front of the altar, are you?" The red-haired sixteen year old girl, who was Hitomi's best friend among the girls department, said disapprovingly.
"Oh, I don't know." Hitomi answered feebly.
Yukari stood up and put her hands on Hitomi's shoulders. "Just relax. Breathe! You're just having some wedding jittery thing if you ask me. You'll get over it, trust me," she said reassuringly.
"I can't relax, Yukari. You know, I think this is a mistake. I don't love him, and I don't want to marry him," she reasoned.
"Well, Van seemed like he thought otherwise. Van is your best friend. Imagine, you're marrying a person you've known for like, entirely your whole life. Isn't that something?"
"Yukari....." Hitomi was still doubtful.
"Don't do anything foolish, Hitomi. Don't you dare run away from your wedding. Everything is all set. " Yukari warned, her index finger moving right and left.
"Honestly, I've been thinking about it. It's just that I'm not ready for marriage. I'm too young for it."
"Hitomi!" Yukari yelled in shock. "Think about your family and Van's too. I know you're a responsible girl, Hitomi."
"No.....no.....It was just a thought, Yukari. I don't have the courage to do it. Really." Hitomi stated, but her eyes weren't meeting her friend's.
"Promise?" Yukari asked.
"Promise."
"Okay. Now let's continue watching Keanu's latest movie." The red-head grinned with delight and satisfaction.
"Yukari! You've seen that movie for like a hundred times already! Please!" But Hitomi could do nothing more but sigh when her friend was once again totally and helplessly absorbed in Keannu's exuding sex appeal and magnetism.
Hitomi drew a steadying breath. 'It's now or never.' She readied herself and then finally jumped out of her window. Luckily, she landed right on her two feet with no broken ribs, bones, or any injury of the sort. She breathed a sigh of relief. 'Perfect.'
The night was unnervingly cold. The moon was emitting a dull kind of glow and she could hardly see anything on her path. But she wasn't going to back out now. She had already planned this out. All she had left to do was go outside and meet Dilly. 'He must be waiting for me at this time,' Hitomi told herself, looking at her luminous watch, exactly 12:00 o' clock, it revealed.
But just as she was about to walk to the gates of their house.....
"Just where do you think you're going, Hitomi?" a brooding voice called from behind her. Hitomi stiffened and froze in her tracks. She was dead sure who it was.
A/n: Some of you guys might be wondering, but yes, Meruru is Merle in this story. I kind of adopted her Japanese name in the series. And I made her Hitomi's sister unlike Van's that was usually the case in some fics. I just wanted to divert a little from those. I hope you don't find it a bit odd. Well, so this is the fourth chapter. Thanks for reading! And don't forget to review! Ja ne!
Disclaimer: Don't own Escaflowne
Coming Chapter: Here Comes the Bride