A/N- yay! another day- another chapter!
Disclaimer: long, dramatic sigh Must we go through with this?
Chapter 6: Well, this is awkward…
Tala woke up with a groan. Who the hell woke him up! He was having a nice dream about Jessica Simpson and a bunch of leather whips, when he felt a sharp pain in his side. Jessica immediately disappeared and he woke up.
'Whoever kicked me is going to get it,' Tala thought, looking over next to him on the bed, only to find some girl sleeping rather soundly next to him. She was still clad in her school uniform and was breathing lightly.
'What is Kitty doing in my bed?' He thought, staring at her. Apparently while they were watching a movie in his room they fell asleep. The redhead stole a glance at his clock. It was half past 1 A.M. He calculated the time he dozed off was about 11 o'clock, so they had been sleeping for about two and a half hours.
Propping himself on his hands, he studied the napping figure. He never really had a chance to properly look at Kitty in school. There were always too many people around either of them to take the time. He never understood why Kai particularly loved toying with her, he just happened to join in most of the time. Tala brushed a couple of stray strands of hair away from her face and studied her features.
"Why does Kai like you so much?" he questioned, knowing he wouldn't get an answer.
Come to think of it, Kai had seemed unusually happy for the past few days, and wouldn't tell him why. It probably had something to do with Kitty's mood swing that afternoon.
Instead of replying, she simply mumbled something in her sleep and inched closer to Tala. He rolled his eyes and attempted to wake the girl up, to no avail. Sighing in defeat, he closed his eyes and slipped into another deep sleep.
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Alas- it was finally Saturday, the day of Johnny's party. Kitty had completely forgotten about it, until Starr paid her an angry phone call on her cell phone at seven o'clock in the morning.
"WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THAT YOU AND KAI HIWATARI WERE GOING OUT?" Starr screamed into Kitty?' receiver. She was so loud that Kitty had to hold the phone from her ear.
"Morning to you too," Kitty grumbled sleepily, rolling over in bed.
"Answer me!"
"Ugh, I don't know, when we saw you guys at the party?"
Starr scoffed as if she was insulted. "I thought we were better friends than that!"
"We were until you woke me up at seven A.M," Kitty retorted.
A loud "humph!" was her only reply before Starr hung up.
Kitty snapped her cell off and groaned, today was going to be terrible she could feel it. She shoved her head under her pillow, only to find it wasn't hers. She immediately sat up and saw a sleeping mess of red hair and sheets.
"Well, this is new," She said out loud, rousing the teen from his sleep.
"Morning," He garbled, squinting his eyes to adjust to the light. "Who was the loudmouth on the phone?"
Kitty laughed nervously. "My friend," she explained, as he nodded in reply. "Okay, now how did I end up at a sleep over at your house?"
Tala shrugged, "I woke up at one, and you were there. You wouldn't get up, so I left you there." He smiled lopsidedly, still drowsy.
"Ah, so you wanted to get back to your Jessica Simpson fantasy." She nodded knowingly.
"What the - How did you-?" he stammered, wondering how she found out.
"You talk in your sleep," She snickered, laughing at his expression.
"If you tell anyone about this, I'll-"
"What?" She taunted. "Break out the whips?"
She let out a scream as Tala lunged at her, pinning her to the bed. "You're gonna get it." He smirked.
However, before anything could happen, Mr. Valkov walked in and the giggling ceased.
"Erm. Hi dad," Tala said sheepishly, getting off the bed, and helping Kitty up as well.
"What are you still doing here?" he asked, staring at Kitty in her disheveled uniform.
"Well," she started, more conscious of her appearance.
"It's a long story," Tala finished for her.
In the end, Tala ended up taking Kitty home, where he then witnessed the loudest screaming match of his life, ending in Kitty slamming her bedroom door shut. He then headed home, where his father was waiting for him, and another screaming match ensued between him and his father.
Tala walked back out of his house to his car and laid his head on the steering wheel. He only hoped Kitty was having a worse day than he was. He pulled out of the driveway and headed for Kai's house.
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Kitty had only been in her house for a couple hours, and she was already positive that if she were going to stay inside her house she would lose her sanity. Her "date" with Kai loomed over her head, and she made an effort to forget about it for a few hours. She even tried calling Starr for makeshift therapy session, but remembering how angry she was, she thought better of it. Instead, she called Andrea over.
"You need me for what?" She asked skeptically, walking into Kitty's room, which was littered with clothes.
"Just shut up," Kitty replied, "I've tried on everything in my room. The only things left to wear are bed sheets!"
Drea laughed, "Why do you care so much about what to wear? It's just Hiwatari isn't it?" she questioned, examining a pair of jeans thrown on the bed.
The other girl looked insulted, "I do not care about him! I just want to…" However, she couldn't think of anything.
"Ah? I see. So you just want to look good for some guy that you hate because...you want to?" Her friend offered. "Do you want to go out with him or not?"
Kitty glared at her. "No!" She said through clenched teeth, throwing a pillow at Andrea's face, causing a laughing fit between the two girls. "But, really. He is hot." She sighed dramatically.
"Whatever, Kitty. You have strange taste in men. But even though Kai is a total asshole, I don't think he's a bad place to start dating."
"Thanks." She smiled, as if it were a compliment. "I cannot believe I jut said that about Kai Hiwatari."
"Neither can I. Even if he's a pretty good candidate to be your one and only," she teased, getting another pillow flung at her from the other end of the room. "You know, I tried calling you last night, but your mom said you weren't home," Drea said, looking in some of the drawers. "What was that about?"
"I was at Tala's," Kitty replied, trying to sound casual.
"Valkov's place? What were you doing there at 10 P.M.?"
"Don't ask," She warned, going back to looking for a proper outfit.
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It was almost eight o'clock, the time Kai said he'd pick her up, and Kitty was getting nervous. She had called Starr several times to propose a truce, but all she heard was her voicemail. After the third try, and another voicemail, Kitty hung up and heaved a sigh. Just then her mother passed by. They were still not talking because of their fight that morning.
"Where are you going to?" She asked, tying her long black hair in a ponytail.
"Out," Her daughter replied curtly.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Not really," She responded, choosing not to tell her mother about the party.
Ms. Ryouku stared at her daughter suspiciously. "Wherever you're going, curfew's eleven."
Kitty rolled her eyes, knowing she wouldn't be home by that time. After a few minutes of silence, the doorbell rang. She breathed in sharply, thanking Kai's brilliant timing.
Opening the door, she put on a bright smile. "Hey," She greeted.
Kai nodded. "Don't I have to do the whole 'meet the parents' shtick?" He asked, looking beyond Kitty into her hallway.
"Not tonight, let's go," She said vaguely, grabbing his hand and leading him out the door.
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Kitty looked over her shoulder at Kai, who was trailing her closely. "Just how many people are at this party?"
"A few."
"You mean a few people knew and they told about a hundred more people?" She countered, and judging by the amount of cars parked near the large mansion-like house, she was right.
"Just trust me," Kai assured her.
"Last time I trusted you, I ended up on this date," she retorted.
He showed off his trademark smirk, and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Just do it."
As soon as the pair entered the large living room, the many voices stopped almost immediately, except for the few people whispering in hushed voices. Kitty suddenly felt awkward among dozens of pairs of eyes ogling her.
"C'mon," Kai whispered in her ear, leading her far into the house. Past countless people they knew from school and some people she'd never met in her life, and into the kitchen. "Hey Johnny," he said, clapping his free hand on the redhead's back.
"Hey Kai." Johnny looked over at Kitty. "Hey Ryouku, who invited you?"
"I followed the alcohol smell." She replied sarcastically. "I came with him." She pointed a finger at Kai.
"What? You couldn't find an actual girl to go out with?" Johnny asked. "Or did you lose a bet?"
"Not exactly." Kai winced.
Kitty looked at him quizzically, wondering what he meant.
Thankfully for Kai, before she could say a word, Tala walked in. He had a pink haired girl in tow. Kitty recognized her as Mariah, another member of Trina's little clique.
"Hey-" Tala started, but stopped short when he realized that the girl Kai had his arm around, was the same girl he woke up with that very morning. Once he put two and two together, he finished his sentence. "Kai."
"Hey," he said, smirking again. He knew by the look on his best friend's face he was taken aback.
Point one goes to Kai. Current Score: 1 to 0.
As the night went on, Kitty soon got tired of listening to the three boys talk about random sports teams and which supermodels were doing photo shoots for which magazines. She slipped away, determined to find her friends.
After passing throngs of people who were drinking, dancing, or just mingling with others, she finally found them. Ray, Starr and Andrea were all talking to a tall blonde boy.
"Hey! Kitty!" Starr called, waving her hands in the air.
"Hey guys." She smiled, thankful she wasn't mad anymore.
"Kitty, you know Enrique." Andrea grinned, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Ow!" He said, rubbing his side. "Hi Kitty."
She snickered at him. "So, Blondie," She teased, "where's your current girlfriend?"
"You're looking at her!" He smiled, draping an arm around Andrea's shoulders, much to her annoyance.
The others nearly broke out in laughter when she punched his shoulder. "Drop dead," She stated, and walked off, leaving Enrique standing all on his lonesome.
"I think she likes me," He said, grinning awkwardly.
The other three burst out in laughter. Pretty soon Enrique joined in. After the hilarity subsided, the four talked. Starr then looked around and announced that Andrea probably wasn't coming back, so Enrique went out looking for her. A while after that, Starr went, looking for her cousin, and Ray soon followed, looking for Starr.
Wandering around, Kitty wound up in a balcony overlooking the McGregor's front lawn. It smelled like a mixture of beer and cigarettes. She hopped on the edge of the railing, and began re-tying her shoelaces. She has just finished the second shoe, when the door swung open. It was Kai.
"I've been looking for you all night," He murmured. Kitty noticed he was holding a half-empty bottle of beer in his hand.
"Sorry, I was here." She jumped off the railing and walked towards him. "Are you going to drive tonight?"
"Sure, why not?" He asked, taking a gulp out of the bottle.
She rolled her eyes and turned around, facing her back to him.
Kai cocked his head to the side and stared at her. Kitty seemed like a completely different person than when they were in school. He rarely saw her outside of school, and was used to seeing her in her usual uniform. From her hair hanging loosely around her shoulders, right down to her black on black converse, she was miles away from her high school blouse and skirt. To be honest, he didn't mind her looking like this. Ever since he picked her up at her doorstep, he wondered what really caused the major transformation. Now she seemed more alluring to him.
'Maybe not just me,' He thought as he remembered Tala's shocked expression. Seeing his best friend's face was almost worth bringing Ryouku over with him.
"Kai?" She questioned, breaking the silence. "Why did you ask me to come with you?"
He shrugged, downing the last contents of the bottle. "I don't know," he lied.
"I was always under the impression that you hated me." She turned to look at him.
"I do," He said without thinking, mentally slapping himself afterwards.
"Gee, glad to know you care," She said sarcastically, walking past him and towards the house.
"Ryouku," He groaned in aggravation, pulling her back, "come on, I didn't mean it."
"Yeah right." She snorted, putting her hands on her hips. "Like you expect me to believe that-"
She was hushed when he pressed his lips on hers. After a few moments they came up for air. "Yeah, I do expect you to believe it."
"You play dirty, Hiwatari," She scolded gently, resting her hands on his shoulder.
"Of course I do!" He smirked, kissing her again. "How do you think I got you into this?"
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It seemed like hours of walking around in circles before Enrique stumbled upon Andrea again. She was talking to Johnny in the kitchen. They were sitting by the keg, handing out filled cups to any random passersby.
"Drea?" He whined, preparing to apologize to her. However, she wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, she was listening to Johnny, as he introduced her to a tall red headed man that Enrique had already met. It was Matthew, Johnny's older brother. He was currently attending college in New York City, but he it looked as if he had spare time to pay his little brother a visit.
"Hey," Matt said, flashing a grin at Andrea.
"Hi," she managed to squeak out.
That is how a very long conversation started between the two, as Enrique watched and listened on. Finally, after what felt like forever to the young Italian, Matt looked beyond the girl he was talking to and saw him.
"Enrique! Long time no see!"
It was then that his best friend had finally noticed his presence. "Hey Enrique, when did you pop up?" She asked.
"Just now," he lied, forcing a small smile.
Luckily for him, only a few moments of awkward silence later, Kitty decided to waltz in. She spotted him and walked straight over. "Have any of you seen Kai?" she asked. Johnny, Andrea and Enrique all shook their heads.
"I saw him," Matt chimed in. "He went upstairs with some chick."
Kitty thanked him quickly and headed up the flight of stairs. She opened each of the many doors, which only lead to empty bedrooms and closets. As she was trying one knob, it stuck in its place, locked. She fished a paper clip out of her pocket and used it to open the lock. It gave a loud click, and the door eased open. Kitty reminded herself that, when she saw him, she should tell Johnny how crappy his locks were.
She quietly opened the door and stuck her head in. The first thing she noticed was the familiar mess of tousled blue hair, followed by a mass of pink hair. Kai and Mariah were so close that Kitty couldn't tell which hands belonged to whom. Evidently, they were both drunk out of their minds, and happened to be in the same room at the same time. And, as everyone knows, alcohol usually leads to sex. Kitty slowly shut the door and walked downstairs.
She sat on the last step and closed her eyes. Great. Trina was right after all. Kai was the scum of the earth just as she suspected. Now Kitty had the business of finding a sober ride home, and perhaps a new candidate for a boyfriend.
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A/N: That was my revised, revised version of chapter 6! That's why it took so long, but the nearly 9-page chapter should be consolation, right? So, review me and tell me what you all think. :)