A/N: This chapter's lame. (Trust me, if I write something I think is lame, I'll tell you it's lame. Hey, can't argue with facts. We all write something stupid once in a while!) Hopefully the next chapter will be better.
My Best Friend's Girlfriend
Chapter 5: Secrets and Lies
Sora Takenouchi
"I'll get it!"
Sora grabbed the phone on it's third ring and quickly picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hey, Sora. It's Matt."
"Hi, Matt. What's up?" She stretched out on her bed with the phone in one hand and a smile on her face.
"Not much. I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the movies sometime this week."
"Sure. So how did things go at the restaurant? Did you guys have a good time?"
"I guess," Matt replied, but something in his voice made her sit up and frown.
"Matt? Is everything alright?" she asked hesitantly. "You seem distracted."
"What? Of course I'm alright." He laughed, but it sounded strained.
"Did something happen today?" she pressed.
"No, of course not," he said a little too sharply.
Sora sighed. When her boyfriend acted like this, it was almost impossible to get anything out of him. As soon as Matt felt you were treading on dangerous waters, he immediately froze up and refused to tell you a single word. The only way to get him to open up was to be patient and let him speak when he was ready to. There was something about being vulnerable that made Matt almost afraid to show what he was feeling inside. It was only when he got to do it on his own terms and in his own time that he let his emotions be known. He did not like having someone else in control when it came to revealing his soul.
She cared a lot about Matt, but sometimes she could not help feeling frustrated with him. Well, he has come along way since the day we first went to the Digital World, so I guess I can't complain. He's not nearly as cold as he used to be.
Back then it had been literally impossible to get anything out of him. Now it was just highly unlikely.
In the last several months that she had been dating Matt, she had learned a lot about him. Deep down he was not the least bit uncaring or unfeeling as he seemed. He was actually a very sensitive, loving person who just wanted to be loved in return. That was why Matt was so afraid to show his emotions. He was afraid of getting hurt and being rejected by the people that he cared about.
Matt had never been a fan of letting people get close to him unless he felt sure that he could trust them.
I guess we Digidestined are a lucky bunch. She smiled and let out a sigh. Well, I'll just have to go about this the hard way then.
"So, was Izzy glued to his computer the whole time?" she asked.
"Naturally. I swear we're going to have to put it under lock and key!"
Sora could almost see Matt rolling his gorgeous blue eyes.
"I bet Mimi had plenty to say about him!" she laughed.
"Mimi has plenty to say about everyone," Matt snorted. "That reminds me. What's this about having Mimi look after me, anyway?"
"Oh that." She let out a giggle and rolled over onto her stomach. "I know how much you don't like Jun bugging you, so I asked Mimi to look out for you if Jun tried anything. You notice that Jun won't come anywhere near you when I'm around? I'm hoping Mimi's presence will discourage her from coming near you when I'm not there because she knows that Mimi is my best friend. I'm also hoping it'll stop all those fan girls, too," she added with a frown.
"Good luck," Matt snorted. "The only thing it has accomplished so far is to have me waiting on Mimi hand and foot!"
"Huh?" she asked in confusion.
"Don't even ask," Matt sighed. " Jun showed up at the restaurant. I don't know how she knew that I was hiding under the table. Unless..."
Matt suddenly fell silent, and Sora froze. This was the moment that she had been working towards.
"Jun was at the restaurant? How did she know that you guys were there in the first place?"
"I have no idea. Maybe she saw us heading in that direction and guessed that that was where we were going. It's a popular hangout for students from our school."
"She didn't try anything, did she?" Sora asked, frowning at the ceiling.
"Yes," Matt complained. "Lucky for me that Mimi managed to get rid of her. The whole restaurant was staring! She tried to kiss me and everything!"
"Remind me to thank Mimi later. How did she manage to get rid of Jun?"
"Oh. She faked some story about having twisted her ankle on the way to the restaurant and needing some help getting home."
"That actually worked?" Sora asked in surprise.
"Well, Jun demanded to know why one of us guys couldn't help Mimi out so Joe, Izzy, and I made up a whole bunch of excuses about why we weren't able to. Jun got so mad. She started ranting about how one of us should carry Mimi home, and then she called us a bunch of slow witted neanderthals who don't have a clue how to treat a lady with respect. She had the nerve to call me a sorry excuse for a gentleman. Can you believe that? I thought she had this crazy idea that I was her knight in shining armor or something. After that, Jun helped Mimi out of the restaurant in a huff. You should have seen Mimi's face. I thought she was going to explode from trying not to laugh. Somehow I don't think we've heard the end of this. Mimi will be cracking jokes about us guys being insensitive for the rest of the school year!"
"Well, at least it got Jun off your back!" Sora laughed.
"Do you think this might change Jun's mind about me?" Matt asked hopefully. "She did call me a whole bunch of names."
"I doubt it," she sighed. "By tomorrow, Jun will probably have forgotten all about the incident with Mimi and be back to her old tricks again."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Matt said, sounding miserable.
A sudden thought hit Sora, and she bit her lip. "Matt?" she asked hesitantly into the phone. "You didn't mention Tai. I thought he went to the restaurant with you guys."
"He did," Matt replied, his voice growing suddenly hard.
"So how come he wasn't with you guys when Jun showed up?"
"He left early," Matt mumbled.
Sora blinked in surprise. "Wait. I thought you said that Tai was going to your house this afternoon, remember? You told me in chemistry class."
"Change of plans," Matt said very quietly.
That was when it hit her. Matt was not upset because of Jun. He was upset because of Tai.
So that's what's wrong with him. Has Matt finally realized that Tai's been acting crazy? What happened between them?
"I guess there's always tomorrow," she said carefully.
"He has a soccer game tomorrow," Matt muttered.
Sora felt a sinking sensation in her heart and slowly squeezed her eyes shut. No, Matt. He doesn't. She knew very well that Tai did not have a soccer game tomorrow. In fact, Tai's soccer game did not take place until next Friday over in Shibuya. The whole team, including the coach, was taking a bus there.
She smiled sadly and was grateful that Matt could not see her. Even though she was really into tennis now, she was still on the girl's soccer team at school, too. Her team had the same coach as the boy's team, and that was how she knew that Tai did not have a game tomorrow. The coach had told them yesterday because her team had originally had practice scheduled for that same Friday. Because of Tai's game, her practice had been cancelled.
"Sora? Are you still there?" Matt asked, sounding a little nervous. It was almost as if he could sense what she was thinking.
Tai must be planning to skip school tomorrow. That's so unlike him. Why would he lie about something like this to Matt? Tai had to have known that I would find out about it. And what about the rest of the boy's team? When Matt sees that they're all still at school tomorrow, he's going to start to wonder...
"Matt," she said slowly. "Do you think that Tai's...um...feeling alright?"
"I have to go," Matt suddenly said.
"But-"
"My dad just came home, and I'm guessing that he probably wants to spend some quality time with me. I don't know what's up with him. Ever since the whole Digital World thing, he seems to have come to this crazy decision that he wants to be the world's greatest father or something. Why do you think he agreed to take Izzy, Tai, and myself camping that one time when we were covering for the younger kids. He's not exactly the camping type, if you know what I mean."
"I guess he's making up for lost time!" Sora laughed.
Matt, though, had fallen silent again at the mention of Tai's name.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," she said softly. "And, Matt? I really do trust you."
"I know," he murmured. "Talk to you later."
"Bye, Matt," she replied, blowing him a kiss before hanging up.
I suspected earlier that there might be something wrong between Matt and Tai, but I never thought it would be this bad! Tai has never lied like that to Matt before so why has he suddenly started treating Matt with such disrespect? It doesn't make any sense. I've always admired their amazing friendship. It just seems so wrong to see them fighting after everything that they've been through together.
She could not even imagine how Matt was going to feel when he found out what Tai had done, and he was definitely going to find out eventually. There was no way Tai could keep this a secret from him.
Her heart filled with dread at the thought of what might happen at school within the next few days, and it made her stomach clench. There was bound to be a confrontation, and it was not going to be pretty. Whatever it was that had Tai so upset was obviously horrible enough to make the former Digidestined leader forget to cover his tracks. That was a bad sign. Tai never left anything to chance if it meant getting himself out of trouble.
What could have happened to make Tai do something so stupid? She had to find out. I'll ask Mimi. After all, she was there, too. She might know.
"Oh, Tai," she said sadly, her heart filling with sorrow. "What have you done?"