Three weeks later, Bera sat on the floor of the girls bathroom, crying into her sweater. How could he do this to
me, she thought. The feelings of hurt, anger, betrayal, helplessness and hopelessness, the feeling that nothing
was, nor would ever be, right again. The thing that held her tight at night, the thing that made her feel that she
was still needed in the world, the thing that she felt was her destiny, was now lying in ruins. I concede, she
thought. Sakura wins. With that, she gave up on Kiyo. Sakura had come in from nowhere and stole her
property away. She picked herself up off the floor and wiped her face. As she looked at herself in the mirror,
she said aloud, "Kiyo and Sakura can both go to hell. I don't need him and I certainly don't need her to pity
me."
Bera walked out of the bathroom and walked toward the cafeteria for lunch. On the way, she saw something
that made her stomach turn. Sakura and Kiyo walking to the cafeteria arm in arm, conversing happily and
animatedly. She stood rooted to the spot and waited for them to enter the room before she walked again. When
she entered, Bera looked for the usual table where Bevy, Ryu, Ato, Itachi, and (to Bera's horror) Kiyo. She sat
down to the usual greetings of her friends and sat on the other side of Ato (Ryu was sitting on her left). "Bera",
Bevy said. "I'm glad you're here. Tonight we're going to that new nightclub Kiyo told us about before you got
here." Before she knew what she was doing, the words escaped from Bera's mouth with a tone that said she
meant every syllable. "Well if darling Kiyo said that this club is SOOOO great, then we have to go there, right?
Well, I couldn't give a shit about Kiyo or his little club. Here's a news flash, that little club can burn to the
ground with Kiyo in it leaving nothing but smoldering ash that I could turn into a new ashtray and sell for free
because Kiyo's shitty body wouldn't make good enough ash to make anything of quality!"
As she got ready to go out that night, Bera fumed over how she had lost control at lunch. What up set her more
was the fact that Kiyo had not heard a word of it because he was making funny faces at Sakura. This thought
caused her to snap her hairbrush in half and melt where her hand had just been. Not long after, she heard a horn
honk. She fixed her red tee-shirt and put her black, low-rider jeans in place on her hips and headed out the
door toward the green SUV waiting outside her house. She got in and sat next to Ryu in the back seat. Bevy
was in the passenger seat, Kiyo was driving, Ato and Ryu were to her left, and Itachi was sitting in the third
row. Again she spoke without realizing she was. "So where's Sakura?" Kiyo just turned around and smiled.
"She's out with Naruto and Sasuke." Bera simply gave a look as close to "that's lovely" as she could. "well,"
she added. "I guess you can't dance with anyone else tonight." Kiyo simply laughed a little. "We have an open
relationship. Jealousy isn't a big thing for her, just as it's never been for me." Bera screamed so loudly in her
head, she thought that had it been out loud, she would have made their ears start to bleed. Still, she kept that
same, "that's lovely" smile on, although it faltered a little. How dare he not pickup on all the unsettling comments
bear threw at him. She would have to take it further tonight… a whole lot further…..
Bera waited thirty minutes before putting her plan into action. Kiyo was on the dance floor with some slut in a
glitter tube top and a short skirt that looked like it, too, was once a tube top. She looked around and saw her
first accomplice, a tall guy with a black tee shirt and pants standing at the bar. She walked up to him, batted her
eyes and asked his name. After finding out that his name was Jun and he liked sports and drinking, they were on
the dance floor and within Kiyo's sight. After a while, Kiyo Finally looked over and Bera turned around and
kissed her puppet. She didn't hear Kiyo laugh as another guy walked up behind her and tapped her on the
shoulder. "Excuse me Kiyo", she said without turning around. "I'm a little too busy to hear your jealous
whining-" As she turned she realized that it wasn't Kiyo, but some guy she knew nothing about. "Excuse me,"
he said with a tone she know all too well from school, "what the hell are you doing contaminating my man with
your mouth? Bitch!" with that he slapped her, grabbed his boyfriend by the arm, and led him away with Bera
standing still full of embarrassment.
Her second time around, she made sure to ask the beefy guy at the bar if he had a girlfriend (or Boyfriend).
When she felt that the questioning coast was clear, she danced and waited for Kiyo to look over. When he did,
she repeated her ritual. Kiyo was still dancing with that girl! Again and again she did this over and over again,
and twice, Kiyo and this girl sat for a drink break. When it was time to go, Bera detached herself from the
twenty-sixth man of the night and heard Kiyo say to Tube Top, "It was nice meeting you. You're a great
dancer. I'll see ya around." Gloomy, Bera joined the rest of her friends in the walk toward the door. She hadn't
realized the enormity of what she was doing until she heard something that made her stomach feel like it would
come out of her ass. "God what a slut!" She turned suddenly. She saw groups of girls whispering to each other.
Bera could hear them talking.
"She made out with half the boys in the club"
"Why doesn't she just go back to the Moulin Rouge where she came from"
"She's probably going home with that group for an orgy"
"Wow! What a slut! I was wrong about her earlier. I thought she was a dyke!"
When Bera got home she was still fuming about what happened at the club. As far as she was concerned, Kiyo
had requested that club so it was his fault. After thinking about how wronged she was by him, it was time to
confront him. She looked at her clock and saw it was two o'clock in the morning. In a blaze of fire, she was
gone. In another, she was standing in Kiyo's bedroom. He hadn't gotten home yet and she would wait. Bera
soon found out that she wouldn't have to wait long. Kiyo walked into his room to find Bera sitting on his bed.
"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded. Kiyo looked at her as though he was studying her like a
science fair project or a very interesting bug. "I think the real question is, what are YOU doing HERE?" Bera
looked indignant and offended. "I have reasons," she retorted.
Kiyo made a motion like he was writing in thin air. Blue, smoke like, light moved from his fingers and
surrounded Bera. Whiffs of the smoke entered Bera's nose and mouth. Seconds later, the smoke exited and a
second Bera stood next to the original. Kiyo made a simple look of satisfaction and the second Bera
disappeared. "What the hell did you just do to me!" she screamed at him. He, again, chuckled. "I did a
revealing spell. It showed your true identity. Simple protection," he added.
"Since when have you known spells and magic that witches use?"
"That, Bera dear, is none of your business."
Bera looked indignant for a second and made her first insult. "I guess wonderful, great, smart, easy, Sakura
taught you." Kiyo ignored the "easy" part of what she just said and responded, "trust me, Sakura couldn't teach
me anything if she had a textbook. I have been teaching her a few things though." Bera spoke, again, without
thinking. "Well I guess you've had a thing for dumb girls." As the words left her mouth, Bera looked as though
she swallowed a whole rodent. She looked into Kiyo's hazel green eyes and they both knew what he was
thinking. Just like I had a thing for you. Kiyo simply said, "Understandably." Had he made it so that I
would hear that? She thought. "Well it sounds as though you're jealous…" Bera swelled up and said, I am
not!" Again, Kiyo smiled as though to say, "yeah right". When she thought about it, Bera realized he had been
doing it all night. "Well, I think that you're the one who's jealous of me!" Kiyo looked at her and said, "why do
you say that?"
"You've been giving me that look all night." She rattled off the times like a list. "Every time I kissed a guy, when
I make a comment, when I talk about Sakura-(well, when I do that, you look happy that I don't like her), and
when I talk to you, you look as though I should be kissing you instead!" Kiyo didn't chuckle this time. This time,
he roared with laughter. "YOU", he said wiping tears from his eyes. "ME? Jealous of YOU! Oh Bera you
delude yourself! Those were looks of pity, disgust, and hurt that you can't be happy for me!"
"Happy for you? HAPPY FOR YOU? You're with that slut bitch Sakura and you want me to be happy for
you?" Bera had no idea that what she had just said would lead to the worst fight she ever had. "well," said Kiyo
calmly. "at the party tonight, it wasn't exactly Sakura who was looking like a slut." Bera looked insulted, like
she hadn't been the one who kissed all those boys and then called someone else a slut. "She may not be a slut
but she's a thief! She stole the most important thing in my life from me and now I-I feel there's no way for me to
get it back!"
"What has she stolen? What property of yours has she stolen that's so important!
"She stole you!" It was a while before either of them spoke. Bera looked at Kiyo. Kiyo's face was no longer
amused. He looked as if he'd just been branded and the pain wasn't excruciating enough to forget the cruelty of
the branding itself. "You were supposed to be mine!" Bera screamed at him. She didn't know if she was
making the situation better or worse. All she knew was that she was talking about what had been killing her
inside for weeks. "We were supposed to be together! Everyone said it, even after you broke up with me! You
were mine! I was yours! I was always yours, even after you lied to me! I loved you! I still love you! I always
will love you and you know what? I don't want to stop loving you!" Bera looked like she was deprived of air
and now was gulping in lots of air. Kiyo was looking at her like she was a complete stranger. "How dare
you…"he said quietly. "HOW DARE YOU!" he said bringing his vice to full volume and anger. "I AM NOT
SOME PIECE OF PROPLERTY TO BE SAVED FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE JUST BECAUSE WE
HAD A HISTORY TOGETHER. NEWS FLASH BERA! THAT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO! YOU ARE
ALMOST TWENTY YEARS OLD AND YOU CANT FORGET A TEENAGE CRUSH? NO WONDER
I ENDED IT! YOUR OBVIOUSLY CRAZY!" Bera looked like she was about to cry. "Everything I've done
today, I did it for you! Is it crazy to listen to your heart? To do anything to win the heart of the man you love?"
Kiyo looked disgusted. "Bera," he said angrily. "Kissing twenty-six guys, one after another, insulting the woman
I'm seeing, claiming me as property, and especially the was your treating me doesn't even whisper love, let
alone say it!"
"Why can't you just love me!" Bera screamed at him.
"Because your not my type!" Kiyo seemed to be loosing his ability to hold his grip. "Your incompetent, you
claim things and then when it turns out that you'r
e the exact opposite, you claim I don't know you. And you
know what Bera? You've been doing it for five years! You know what? The most important reason I can't love
you is not because I don't know who you are, but because YOU don't know who you are!" He still doesn't
love me, Bera thought. Why doesn't he love me? "Because," Kiyo said suddenly. "I thought it was clear. You
don't know who you are!" he said slowly. Bera looked unbelievingly at the man in front of her… the man she
loved and now feared. He read her mind. There was no mistaking it. He had read her mind. But how? First the
spell, then she heard his response to her question, now he was listening to her thoughts. "Of all the things I've
learned over the past few years, things that I've
told none of you, this was the most important." Antè walked
into the room and sat on Kiyo's bed. Bera looked at the dog and decided to leave. Without a good bye, she
walked outside into the street. Even if she had wanted to use her powers, she couldn't because they weren't
working in spite of her need to get away. Silently she walked off into the darkness…
note: i hpe u have liked this chapter. it was very emotional to write