Parental Discretion Advised
Chapter 38
What people say and do when you're not around, or they think you're not listening, or when your in the room but just not paying attention, and maybe even when they know you can hear but they just don't care.
"So how did your auditions go?" Anna asked as they walked out of the mall store carrying shopping bags.
"I got a call back on one of them. It's not the part I wanted, but it's better than nothing." Anzu answered.
"Hey, a part is a part, right? Any role can help build up your resume."
"I've only gotten a call back, which's no guarantee that I'll get the part. And boy could I use it, my resume is looking really skimpy."
"Maybe we could work on that tonight. I'm at expert at making mediocre things seem important, like calling a McDonalds employee a 'restaurant service technician.'"
Anzu giggled a little. "I'd like that. Anything we can do to make me more impressive. I can't believe how many auditions and rehearsals I've missed over the past year. It's not that I didn't like following Yugi and Joey around on their duels, but I feel like I gotten so far behind."
"I can imagine, just trying to keep in shape must be a burden when you're constantly on the move."
"Not to mention sleeping in cramp chairs and in the middle of the woods. I don't think I saw a bed the entire time we were on Pegasus' island. And the lack of food. That guy isn't much of a host."
"I guess you have to suffer for your art, or in this case, Yugi's art."
"But now I won't be alone, you'll get to suffer with me."
"Oh no, my idea of roughing it is a three star hotel. I'm not cut out for sleeping in the woods." Anna smiled and laughed, but she was dead serious.
"Live it up now, once you and Yugi get married you'll be following him all over the world as he duels. And you never know where he'll go next."
"I don't think so." Anna laughed. "I have a business to take care of; I can't be running off to the far side of the world just to watch Yugi duel."
"You're not going to watch him duel?" Anzu was shocked. "Yugi will be heartbroken."
"Don't look at me like that." Anna noted the expression on Anzu's face. "I know it's important to him, but my business is important to me. He'll just have to learn to make sacrifices. Lord knows I've made enough."
"Yugi duels his best when he has people there supporting him. And you're going to be the closest person in his life. He'll be crushed if you don't come."
"It's not like I'm asking him to give up Duel Monsters." Anna defended herself. "I'll go when I can, but unfortunately that won't be all the time. Besides it's only a card game."
Anzu couldn't believe that Anna had just said that. "Just a card game?" Anzu was a little peeved at the comment. "It's not just a card game. Especially to Yugi."
"I know, I know." Anna tried backtracking, but it was too late. "It's just that...I wish Yugi would start thinking about a career. I mean, how long can you play Duel Monsters? And is there any money in it? Sure, he's Duel Monster Champion, but that doesn't pay the bills. What's he going to do with the rest of his life? Is he even thinking about college?"
"I guess I hadn't thought about that. Sometimes our future looks so far off."
"It's not as far away as it looks. You'll all be graduating school in a couple of years. Heck, Yugi and I get married next year."
"That soon?"
Anna nodded, "According to the arrangement."
Anzu looked away, the thought of it brought back a rush of emotions. In a short time she was going to loose Yugi for good. "I didn't realize it was going to be so quick."
Anna realized the awkward moment she had caused Anzu and decided it was time to lighten the air. "I'm starving; do you want to get some lunch?"
Anzu snapped out of her remorse, "That sounds great."
The girls got their food and sat down at small table near some large windows. Every time they went shopping at the mall they always tried to get these seats. It was near to all the places they liked to eat and the view was great. On the second floor it overlooked the walkways and miniature gardens outside.
"So tell me what it's like." Anzu asked.
"What it's like?" Anna re-asked the question.
"Hanging around with Kaiba. He must be hard to handle."
"Actually, he's not. He plays the tough guy, but once you get to know him he lets down his guard and he turns out to be human after all."
"So what do you two do together?"
"Let's see..." Anna pretended to be in deep thought. "Recently we've been doing a lot of roller-skating."
"Roller-skating?" Anzu bust into laughter. "I can't image Kaiba in a pair of roller skates."
"He's very good at it; you'd be surprised." Anna said in a serious tone as she munched on her salad. "And he loves music."
"Music?" Anzu laughter calmed down by now but a wicked smile was still on her face.
"Yeah, all kinds of music. Beatles, Nirvana, Bowie, he loves David Bowie. It's the whole Ziggy Stardust thing. I guess that's where he gets his love of trench coats and his flair for dramatic entrances."
Anzu started giggling again. "I still can't believe you've gotten that close to him."
"Everyone needs a friend. Actually we get along great. We are a lot alike."
"No way! I can't see that. You're spontaneous and freewheeling and he's so stuffy."
"You have to give him a chance. He can surprise you. He can be silly and caring, even romantic. That is when he's sure no one is looking."
"Romantic?" Anzu pried. "Then he has been trying to romance you?"
"Uh, no!" Anna's face redden with embarrassment. "He knows that there is someone else and he respects that."
"Did he totally flip out when you told him you were engaged to Yugi?"
"Well..." Anna got a little nervous now. "He doesn't exactly know it's Yugi and technically the word 'engaged' never came up."
"You didn't tell him you were engaged? You know you're asking for trouble."
"I know, I'm just afraid he's going to freak out and never speak to me again."
"If he's really your friend he won't dump you just because of who you're engaged to. Especially since you didn't have the choice on who your fiancee was."
"You're right, I need to tell him, it's just so hard. He can be so pig-headed sometimes."
"At least it will put Yugi's mind at ease. Now that he knows about him, he's so worried that you're going to run off with Kaiba. That's probably why he's been so tired lately, he's losing sleep thinking about it."
Anna knew the real reason Yugi couldn't sleep and it had nothing to do with Seto. That made her wonder if Pharaoh ever told him the truth about their late night meetings. She'd have to find out.
"Maybe for Christmas I should get him a new mattress or maybe some of that soothing background music that lulls you to sleep." Anna said with a smile. "You do celebrate Christmas, don't you?"
"Sure we do." A grimace formed across Anzu's face. "Geez, that is right around the corner isn't it?"
"The decorations and the Santa Claus in the main court weren't you're first clue?" Anna joked.
"I haven't started any of my shopping, and the guys are so hard to find things for. I mean, how many Duel Monster cards can one guy have?"
"That's not a problem. We can do some of that while we're here. I'm sure if we brainstorm, together we can figure out something."
"I can use all the help I can get."
"Speaking of the guys, what do you think they're up to?"
"I know that they're staying over at Joey's place tonight while his dad is out of town and Yugi said something about going to the library."
"Yugi going to a library? Well that sounds promising."
And that's exactly where Joey and Honda found Yugi, sitting on a bench outside waiting for them. He was so engulfed in his book that he didn't even see them coming. Joey walked up and snatched the book right out of Yugi's hands.
"And what do we have here?" Joey joked as played with the book, teasing Yugi with it.
"No, give it back!" Yugi jumped up trying to grab it as Joey held it up too high for him to reach.
Joey flipped it over and read the cover. "'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?' This better be a science fiction novel with lots of naked Venetian women in it."
"Hey, I know that book." Honda chimed in. "It's one of those self-help books about relationships."
"When have you been hanging out in the self-help section?" Joey asked bluntly.
"It's a famous book like 'Chicken Soup for the Soul'. Everyone's heard about it."
"And when did you start hanging out in the self-help section?" Joey repeated his question.
Yugi saw his opportunity and snatched the book back.
"I don't need that book, Yugi." Joey added. "You've already got a girl."
"I just want to know what she's thinking. Why she does certain things. I just don't understand her sometimes." Yugi explained with shameful downcast eyes.
"Trust me Yugi. You're not going to find the answers to your problems in a book." Joey advised him. "You need to be bold. Sweep her off her feet. Show her you're a real man. Once she gets a taste of you she'll come running back for more."
"Do you really think so?" Yugi asked tentatively.
"Positive. And to prove it I have something special to show you guys tonight." Joey was glowing with pride.
As the guys walked away from the library Honda wasn't as sure about Joey's comments. "You do realize that you're taking relationship advice from the only one of us that hasn't been on a date in five years."
"Hey! I heard that!" Joey scoffed.
Anna and Anzu stood outside a shop commenting about the latest fashions.
"I don't think these designers have any clue what a real woman looks like." Anna commented about the outfit the mannequin wore. "I mean, who is that skinny? Someone with my huge hips would look terrible in that."
"Who are you kidding, you have great hips."
"You only think that because I'm able to hide them well. And you've never seen me in winter. I plump out like a sausage."
"You're being too hard on yourself."
"Oh please, I spend three days a week at the gym and I'm still fifteen pounds heavier than I need to be. And as soon as it gets cold outside I have a tendency to gain even more weight. When I was twelve I looked like a butterball turkey. It's taken me years to get into shape. I was bound and determined I wasn't going to be fat when I got married."
"Well it worked."
"You're too kind." Anna smiled then looked over Anzu's shoulder. "You know those guys are still there."
"What guys?" Anzu looked around.
"The ones that were sitting a couple of tables away from us. I think they followed us down from the food court."
"What do they want?"
"What do you think they want?" Anna looked over again. "Oh yeah, they are defiantly scoping us out."
"You mean they're scoping you out."
"You're the one wearing the low cut top." Anna said with a smile. "Here they come."
The two teenage boys approached them and tried making polite conversation. Anzu let Anna handle most of the talking; she didn't know exactly what to say. But she did note that the taller one was taking every opportunity to check her out. She was hoping that she wasn't blushing too much. After fifteen minutes the girls walked away with two phone numbers and an invitation to a new dance club.
"I can't believe you told them that we'd meet them at that club tonight." Anzu felt like fainting.
"That doesn't mean we have to go. If we don't show they'll know we weren't interested. At least then they can check out some other girls that will be there."
"I don't know about this. I almost got crucified when Mai took us to that strip club."
"You're parents found out about that?"
"My mom found a matchbox with the club name on it in my pants pocket. I thought I was going to be grounded for life."
"So what happened?"
"I told her that Mai was using them to light up a cigarette and she asked me to hold them and I forgot to give them back."
"But Mai doesn't smoke."
"My mother didn't know that. And considering they don't let underage girls into clubs, my mother was inclined to believe me. Otherwise she would have never let me stay over at your place tonight."
"All the more reason to go tonight."
"What if I get caught this time?"
"But this club isn't like that. It's made for high school students. There's no alcohol and the music suits what kids today are listening to. It even closes at a decent hour."
"I don't know..."
"Ah, come on. You can wear that cute outfit you got today. It will drive those guys wild."
"You are a bad influence on me, do you know that?" Anzu said with a smile.
"Bad influences are the best kind." Anna gave her an evil grin in return.
Later that evening Yugi and Honda sat in the living room chatting and munching on popcorn while Joey was off in another room. Joey had said something about a movie and had gone to retrieve it. They didn't know exactly where he went, only that they heard sounds like someone was moving things or perhaps digging through something. Joey emerged a few minutes later with a large shoebox.
"Here we go!" Joey announced as he sat the box down on the coffee table. "This is my dad's secret stash. And they're all from America so they don't have those stupid mosaics blocking out all the good stuff." Joey opened the box and threw a tape to Honda.
Honda caught it and looked it over. "All right, now this is what I'm talking about."
Joey tossed another tape to Yugi. Yugi's eyes about popped out of his head when he saw the subject matter. "Is this a...?"
"You bet it is!" Joey said proudly. "Hey maybe it can give you a few pointers. Some things you can try with Anna." Joey winked at him.
Yugi just wanted to die, he was so embarrassed. He wanted to be anywhere but there.
Elsewhere the girls were making their way through the crowd at the dance club.
"How will we find them?" Anzu practically screamed over the music.
"Don't worry, they'll find us."
Almost as she spoke the two teens emerged from the crowd and asked them to dance. The dance floor was the one place that Anzu could shine. Being a dancer by trade she was up to date on all the recent dance moves and she could come up with things that no one had ever seen. She was hoping that her male companion was impressed but he seemed to be more interested in her chest and legs. Anzu didn't think he had made eye contact with her all night. And when they danced close he put his hands in a few places she wasn't too comfortable with. She made sure to curb that really quickly. It was quite obvious what this guy was interested in.
After a couple of hours Anna bowed out from dancing. She was looking a bit peevish and wanted to sit down. She knew she was pushing herself. She had only just gotten over the whole tainted insulin fiasco and she should have been taking it easy. Seto would have had her head if he knew she was doing this. He was so protective of her. She almost felt like she had her own personal bodyguard. Anna encouraged Anzu to stay on the dance floor as she was escorted to the bar be her young suitor. Anzu continued dancing, not because she liked the company, but because she liked dancing. And there was that really cute guy she was dancing near. They had made eye contact a few times and they both seemed interested. And unlike her current companion, this guy knew where her face was. She kept on dancing and eventually the guy that had invited them there gave up and wandered off. She was now alone on the dance floor and happy to be so. She kept glancing over at the bar, spying on Anna as she drank a soda and talked to the other guy. This evening wasn't turning out to be half-bad, even if she did have to dance with a pervert. Just when she thought that the cute guy near her might get closer a rather heavy set young man stumbled a few steps backwards and stomped right down on Anzu's foot. Anzu hopped around in pain as the young man tried to apologize. After a couple of minutes, the pain lessened and she hobbled over to the bar. When the crowds parted and she got a clear view she noticed that Anna was gone. She looked all around and didn't see her anywhere. She walked up to the bar and inquired if the bartender had seen where she went. The guy behind the bar gestured to a more secluded section of the club. It was darker and had lots of almost hidden corners. As Anzu walked into the area she immediately realized that this was the place where all the kids came to make-out. 'Surely Anna wouldn't have come in here.' Anzu thought to herself. But then she saw her. Or to be more precise she saw the guy she was with locking lips with Anna. He had her pinned against a wall and his hands were all over her. Anzu didn't know what to do. Should she leave? Should she scream and yell? Anna was after all cheating on Yugi. And Anzu wasn't going to stand for that. She took a step closer but was cut off by a familiar voice.
"Oh, there you are."
Anzu turned and was surprised to see Anna. She couldn't say anything; she was just in shock.
"What are you doing back here?" Anna asked as she looked around at all the interesting activity.
Anzu pointed, "But isn't that the guy?"
"Oh yeah," Anna didn't seem to be phased by the site. "As soon as I told him I was engaged he dropped me like a lead balloon. He even had the nerve to hit on the girl sitting on the barstool next to me. And from the looks of it, she took the bait."
"I thought that was..." Anzu was still in shock, but relieved also.
"You thought that was me?" Anna laughed. "I wouldn't do that to Yugi."
Anzu let out a sigh.
"Hey what happened to your guy?" Anna asked.
"He only wanted one thing and I wasn't going to give it to him."
"Too bad." Anna noticed Anzu hobble. "Hey, what's wrong with your foot?"
"Some big oaf stepped on it."
"Do you want to sit down?"
"I'd prefer to leave if that's okay?"
"Sure, I think we've done enough damage tonight."
The girls gathered themselves and headed to Anna's apartment.
Meanwhile back at Joey's place, the guys were enjoying a marathon of videotapes.
"Do you think those are real?" Honda asked.
"It's from America; of course they're not. No American woman has real boobs, it's so common for them to get implants that nowadays they issue them from birth." Joey explained.
"Is it me, or are those just too big?"
Joey looked at Honda dumbfounded. "They can never be too big."
"Sure they can. I would prefer ones that were manageable. Those kind are just flopping everywhere." Honda observed.
"But the flopping is the best part." Joey retorted.
"Take Anzu. She's got a nice rack. They're round and firm and a good size for your hands."
"Yeah, but Anna's are big enough you can play with them. Can't you just see yourself getting lost in a set like that?"
"Stop!" Yugi was horrified. "What are you doing?"
"Huh?" Joey answered.
"You can't talk about them like that! They are our friends!" Yugi protested from the chair he had sunk into.
"And your point?" Joey looked at him like he was crazy.
Honda made a gesture to Joey indicating that he would field the question. "Yes they are our friends, but they are also girls. And we wouldn't be guys if we didn't notice."
"Ah come on!" Joey butted in. "Like you've never checked out Anna before."
"That's different," Yugi defended himself. "We're engaged, I'm allowed."
"That's not all you're allowed to do." Honda hinted.
"If you want, I'll let you borrow one of these tapes. You and Anna could watch it together. They say women like them more than men do."
Yugi was turning five shades of red. "Well, um...first we would...um, have to..."
"You two haven't done it yet?" Joey was flabbergasted.
"She's been here for months." Honda added.
"It's not something you just jump into." Yugi tried to explain his lack of action. "She was complete stranger. I wanted to get to know her first."
"Well you know her now. There's nothing stopping you." Honda insisted.
"Trust me, you'll want to test the merchandise before you buy it." Joey advised.
"When did you become the king of stupid cliches?" Honda threw a weird look at Joey.
"Hey, I just say it like I see it."
"Then you'd better stop while you're ahead because you're beginning to sound like a bad coffee table book."
"Oh and would that be a book found in the self-help section of the library? You seem to be frequenting that spot lately."
"At least I know how to read."
Yugi was glad that the two of them started arguing, it took the attention off of him and his relationship with Anna. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep with Anna, he was...well let's face it, scared. She was only two years older than he was, but the way she looked and acted he felt like she was far his superior. He was afraid she would think of him as some little kid. And he wasn't experienced, what if he did something wrong. Would she laugh at him? He just wasn't ready yet.
As he sat and watched Honda and Joey fight he couldn't help but wonder what the girls were doing.
What the girls were doing was driving past Joey's place.
"Hey isn't that were Joey lives?" Anna asked as she drove down the street.
"It sure is. And the lights are on. The guys must still be awake."
"Last time they crashed our party, why don't we return the favor?"
Honda and Joey's argument and escalated to insulting each other's mothers when the doorbell rang. Joey called an intermission as he investigated who could be at his door at such a late hour. He peeked through the peephole and immediately flung himself around.
Throwing himself against the door as if the locks weren't enough to keep the door shut he said in a frantic whisper, "It's the girls! Quick hide the tapes!"
What ensued was a mad dash as the boys gathered the tapes, threw them back in the box and stuffing them under the couch.
"We know you're in there, we can hear you moving around." Came a voice from beyond the door.
They did a quick check to make sure all the incriminating evidence was gone before Joey opened the door.
"Ladies." He greeted them with a smile.
"Oh, now I know something's going on." Anna teased as she saw Joey's cheesy smile.
"You two look great. What's the occasion?" Joey said as they came in the door. He made sure that Yugi and Honda could see him checking them out as they walked in front of him. Yugi tried to ignore Joey's hand gestures, but it wasn't easy.
"We went out dancing tonight." Anna explained.
"What happened to your leg?" Yugi observed Anzu's limp.
"Oh, it's nothing. Somebody stepped on my foot."
"Here." Yugi got up from the chair. "Take my seat."
"Thank you, Yugi. You're such a gentleman." Anzu said as she took his place and propped her leg up on the footstool.
"I'm going to steal this gentleman for just a minute. That is if you two don't mind." Anna didn't wait for permission; she took Yugi by the hand and led him to a back room.
Honda and Joey exchanged quick looks. They didn't have to say anything to know what the other was thinking. Then their attention was drawn to Anzu.
"Popcorn?" Honda asked while presenting the bowl to Anzu.
"No thank you." Anzu replied with a smile. She could tell by how tense the situation was that they were hiding something. "So...what have you guys been doing tonight?"
"Well, um..." Joey's mind had drawn a blank. "You tell her Honda."
"Tell her...what we've been doing?" Honda flashed her a smile. "We um, made popcorn;" He gestured to the bowl again. "And a...we've been watching movies."
"Really? What kind of movies?" Anzu asked innocently.
Honda was at a loss for words. "Ahhh, action adventures, lots of car chases, explosions, that sort of thing." Honda didn't think Anzu was buying it. "Well, there were some romantic scenes, but it was mostly action."
"Yeah, there was a lot action going on." Joey tried backing him up.
"In fact, we were just in the middle of watching one when you came to the door." Honda was getting more confident with his lie.
"Then don't let me disturb you." Anzu picked up the remote and pushed the buttons.
In an instant both boys realized the same thing. There was still a tape in the VCR.
"No!" Honda screamed reaching for the remote. Joey threw his body in front of the television, but it was too late. Anzu had already seen what was on the tape.
A few minutes earlier Anna had led Yugi to a back bedroom and they sat on the bed.
"What's going on?" Yugi asked.
"I wanted to tell you something."
"Okay."
"Tonight we went dancing at this new club."
Yugi just nodded, it was nothing he hadn't already heard.
"And I met a guy there, I admit he was cute. He came on to me; in fact he propositioned me."
Yugi was getting a little concerned now. "But you told him 'no'?"
"I wouldn't be here if I had said 'yes'." Anna grinned at him.
"I'm glad, but why was it so important you had to tell me?"
"Well, remember when we were at the beach?"
Yugi nodded.
"You told me you didn't like me flirting with other guys."
"Uh huh."
"I thought you should know that I resisted the urge to flirt just because you asked me to."
"That's good." Yugi was getting a little nervous about how close Anna was getting to him on the bed.
"I also said that when I got the urge to flirt that I wouldn't do it with strange guys and instead I'd do it with you." Anna leaned over and kissed the side of Yugi's neck. "I've got a bad itch; do you think you can scratch it for me?"
Yugi nodded and his breathing got heavier as Anna wrapped her arms around his torso. She gently lured him to lie down on the bed. While continuing to kiss his neck she slid one hand up his shirt and started feeling his stomach and chest. He felt a rush as she lightly ran her nails across his chest. All of this continued to add to the already existing discomfort in his pants.
"Anna!" The sound of Anzu calling as she hobbled down the hall made the pair shoot up off the bed. Anzu burst into the room. "We have to go. Now!"
"What's the matter?" Anna asked as she stood up.
Anzu grabbed her arm and tried dragging her out of the room. "I'll tell you in the car, we really have to go."
Anna threw a confused and apologetic look to Yugi as she helped Anzu. Yugi followed them to the door and once they were gone he turned back toward Joey and Honda. They had pathetic looks on their faces.
"What happened?" Yugi asked.
They both looked at each other trying to figure out who would break the news to him. Finally Joey stepped up. "There was still a tape in the VCR." Joey pointed to the device.
Yugi didn't have to hear anymore, he understood. Anzu had caught them.
"They were watching what?" Anna couldn't help but smile.
"Oh my god! I couldn't believe it! But it was right there on the television!"
Anna couldn't help but laugh.
"It's not funny!" Anzu scolded her.
"It's hilarious!"
"You weren't in my shoes. You were in a back room with cute polite Yugi and I was stuck in the living room with two perverts watching dirty movies."
"They're not perverts; they're our friends. And they were only doing what guys do."
"I could just die!"
"We should go back." Anna said with an evil grin.
"Are you crazy?"
"It will be great!"
"No!"
"Oh yeah!"
"No! Please, you can't!"
Anna gave in, but it was a hard fight. She so wanted to catch the boys in the act. She didn't expect them to be so naughty. But it did explain Yugi's behavior and body language. Everyone knew come Monday there was going to be hell to pay.