Not That Social
Chapter Six
AN: Uhm, I don't know what to say about this chapter…R&R please.
Special Disclaimer: I don't own "Need More Time" by the Epoxies. The lyrics are the property of Roxy Epoxy and her band. Don't sue.
I'm starting to lack in reviews (cries). I only got two for this chapter. :(
Reviewer Responses:
Kura-chan15: It's okay, and you're probably right. Oh well. I think this one REALLY is longer, but then again, I might be wrong…Thanks for the review!
Laurell-chan: This isn't this scene that I wrote earlier, but I'm actually very happy about how this turned out. I'm still looking forward to your next chapter!
Her life seemed to finally be filling itself out. It cost her, but in the end it was worth it. Kagome smiled at that thought. She had friends. For the first time since she moved she had friends to talk to, people to hang out with after school. At first she thought that it would be impossible to start over—to begin a new life after what had happened. But looking back on it now, she was happy that she made the decision that she had.
A year ago, she would have laughed at the person she had become. It was comical, now that she thought about it. Around Sango and Miroku she was the exact opposite of the girl she left behind in her old town. That thought brought a smile to her lips. Using her mother's words, she had finally come out of her shell.
"Kagome? Hellooo, earth to Kagome?" Sango's voice snapped her from her thoughts. "It's about time, I was starting to worry." She joked when she saw that her friend had finally returned to the land of the living.
"Sorry, guys," she blushed, digging through her packed lunch for something chocolate.
"Like I was saying, before Kagome found it too boring to listen to," Miroku pretended to sound upset. "There's this concert downtown next weekend. The Dresden Dolls? Ever heard of them, Kagome?"
"Are you serious? They're like my favorite band!" Kagome piped up. At the mention of the Dresden Dolls her mind unexpectedly flashed back to Inuyasha and the CD she saw in his backpack. She found herself thinking about him more often than not lately. 'Maybe he'd want to come, too?' she thought hopefully.
"Rock on," Miroku continued. "The tickets are only fifteen dollars. So, do you wanna' come?"
"Definitely," Kagome smiled. She had always wanted to see them in concert, and it would be a great chance to get to know her new friends better. But then her mind strayed back to Inuyasha; she couldn't seem to keep her mind off of him. "Is anyone else coming?"
"No," Sango answered, slightly puzzled. "Why? Was there someone you had in mind?"
'Don't say it, Kagome,' her inner-voice chose that moment to speak up. 'Do you remember what happened last time? They'll just shoot you down.' Deciding to ignore that inner-voice (she had been doing that a lot lately), she was determined to ask anyway.
"I was thinking maybe we could ask that boy Inuyasha to come," she smiled. At their confused looks she figured she had to continue. "Well, I saw a Dresden Dolls CD in his backpack once, and I just figured—"
"Listen, Kagome," Miroku took the wheel. "We'd love to, honestly, but I just don't think he'd want to hang out with us. He's not the most social of people."
"Yeah," Sango agreed. "I doubt he'd agree to go to a concert with us, I mean…yeah."
'Good argument,' Kagome thought bitterly. Understanding that the answer was a big fat 'no,' Kagome placed a fake smile on her lips and nodded in concurrence. She figured it was better to stay on their good side.
"So anyway, Mr. Myoga gave me an F on my math test," Miroku groaned, and Kagome was happy for the change of subject. Lunch that day continued on like normal, the subject never returning to Inuyasha.
"Hey mom, I'm home!" Kagome announced as she entered the house and making a beeline for the stairs.
"How was school, dear?" Mrs. Higurashi called out from the kitchen where she was busily preparing dinner.
"Great mom!" Kagome sprinted up the stairs and almost had to skid to a halt when she reached her bedroom door. Flinging open the door, she slammed her backpack down and immediately began to riffle through it.
"I have so much homework!" she growled out to no one in particular. Pulling out her math book, she opened it on her desk and began to get to work. Five minutes and three problems later, she decided that she needed some music. Pulling her chair from the desk, she stood up and walked over to the CD rack across the room.
That was one of the few things she could actually feel proud about in her room. She had a massive collection of CDs, more than any other kid she had ever met, in fact. The last time she tried to count them she only got to 473 before giving up. Running her fingers down the line of plastic CD cases, she closed her eyes and picked one at random. She knew that it didn't matter which one she picked, because there wasn't a CD in there that she didn't love. Opening her eyes she noticed that she had her Epoxies EP in her hands.
Taking out the CD, she placed it in her player and pressed play. The song "Need More Time" began blasting full volume and, with a smile, Kagome returned to her desk. Her math homework seemed to come a lot easier as Roxy Epoxy's voice floated to her ears.
All the kids in the basement with a stereo
Nobody on the street and everybody knows
That they're running out of time
They're waiting on the line
And their laughing out of clothes
Her mind should have been focusing on her homework, she knew this, but it kept straying. For a brief moment she wondered if she had A.D.D., but that thought quickly vanished. There was only one person that her mind kept turning to, and that was Inuyasha. She couldn't stop thinking about him.
His piercing golden eyes penetrated her mind, causing her to gasp and drop her pencil. They were so shockingly gold. She had never seen anything like them. They couldn't have been contacts; they were too real—too vibrant.
They're all locked in and watching our old videos
Smoking cigarettes and fingers going up their nose
An they're wasting all their time
Thinking everything is fine
Not caring what Jim knows
And then there was the hair. It was silver. Not gray like an old man's—but actual silver, like a coin. It almost seemed to shimmer in the sun. There was no way that could be dye. And it was longer than any other guy's in school. In fact, it was longer than most of the girl's hair, too. No doubt he got teased about that, right?
But it seemed as if he didn't care about what others thought of him. 'And why should he?' Kagome thought.
I don't bother to ask why
When you're sitting home and crying
No time to…
"This is ridiculous," Kagome sighed, figuring that her thoughts might vanish if she spoke them aloud. No such luck. He was still there, invading her mind and filling her soul with something she had never felt before. "Why am I feeling this way?"
She had a boyfriend in her old town—the only boyfriend she had ever had, actually, and that turned out horribly. But she never felt this way about him; he never plagued her thoughts throughout the day. 'Is that wrong?' she found herself asking. Maybe she never cared for him; maybe he was just some quick fix to her problems. Maybe—maybe she actually had feelings for Inuyasha?
"No! That's stupid!" She argued. "He was just being nice, and I'm reading too much into this! Yeah, that's it: I'm reading too far into this."
I don't care why
I need more time
I don't care why
The song came to an end and Kagome found herself thrown back into consciousness. She was sitting at her desk, her papers strewn about before her and her pencil on the floor—she didn't even remember dropping it. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she reached down to pick up her pencil before straightening her papers.
'That's strange,' she thought, looking at her paper and noticing that she still had forty-seven problems to go. 'I could have sworn I had more done than that. Oh well.'
He had to see her again. Originally he planned on waiting until lunch tomorrow to sit up in his tree and hope she wandered by, but he couldn't wait that long. It felt like there was something in his chest pulling him to her, like a giant magnet. The longer they were apart, the stronger the pull seemed to become.
That's why he was on his motorcycle; speeding through town at speeds much higher than the legal limit. If memory served him correctly, he was just a few blocks from her house. A part of him wanted to go bang on her door, but another part, the logical part, said to keep on driving. So he did.
He drove around that block what seemed like a hundred times, until the sun began to set and the streetlights came on. He was one of the only people on the road and he reveled in the feeling of having the space to himself. But time was of the essence, and the feeling in his chest was getting stronger. The need to see Kagome was burning a hole inside him, he had to see her—now.
Pulling his bike over a few houses from hers, he shut off the engine and prepared to get off. And then he stopped.
'What am I doing?' he thought with a short laugh. 'She's just a girl, I've never acted this way before.' He stared up at her house, darkened downstairs with only one light still on. He prayed that the one light was her bedroom—that she was sitting up and thinking about him just like he was her. But he knew the odds of that being true were slim-to-none.
"That's it," he spoke aloud, trying to calm his racing nerves. "It's now or never, Inuyasha. You want to know how she feels? Well, go ask her."
Taking one last deep breath, he pulled off his helmet and walked toward her house. He could have sworn that he felt his hands shaking and it took everything in his power not to turn back.
She lived in a beautiful two-story house, with a white-picket fence and everything. It reminded Inuyasha of something you would see in Good Housekeeping. He snuck around the hedges that lined their property, trying not to make too much noise. He stopped once he was under the room with the light on, planning what to do next.
'What if that's not even her window?' he thought. 'It might be her parents. How would I explain that one?'
Looking around the yard for some way to verify his conclusions, he spotted a large tree whose branches just happened to pass right below the window in question. Climbing the thick trunk, Inuyasha made his way to a sturdy branch where he could peak through the window.
He was right—it was her bedroom. He saw her sitting at her desk, hunched over some schoolbook and scribbling away furiously. From her stereo he picked out the faint sound of music playing. The band was the Flaming Lips, and he couldn't help but smile. They were one of his favorite bands.
He found himself staring at her back, trying to picture the determined look on her face. He wanted to be in that room with her, he wanted to be by her side. The glass that separated them was too thick, he felt like he could never break through it to get to her. He felt like he was locked outside.
And that's when it happened. She turned around, wiping her brow with her forearm, and stared at him. A look of surprise briefly shot across her features before she covered it up.
'I'm done for it now,' he thought. 'She's gonna' call the cops or something.'
Six hours later, Kagome still sat at her desk doing homework. She stopped for a break and some dinner earlier, but other than that, it had been non-stop work. The Flaming Lips were blasting from her stereo, playing the song "Do You Realize" and setting a strange mood to her studies.
She still had half of a paper to write before she could retire for the night. Groaning, she slammed her pencil down for the fifth time that night and turned around, hell-bent on taking a rest.
As she pushed her feet along the carpet and tuned her chair toward her bed, something outside caught her eye. It was a flash of silver. Peering more closely, she realized that it was Inuyasha. Her heart began to race, just moments ago she was thinking about him—wondering what he was doing. And now he was here, sitting outside her window and staring at her with those beautiful golden eyes.
'What is he doing here?' she asked herself. A part of her was frightened, but she quickly got over that and stood up.
Kagome made her way to the window and opened it, mindful of the missing screws in the top-right corner. A gust of wind rushed in to meet her as she slid open the glass pane, rumpling her hair and shaking her pajamas. She stared out at him, not sure what to say. The silence grew as he just stared back, a look of confusion on his face. He seemed to be just as surprised as she was.
"I-Inuyasha?" she tentatively called out, trying to calm her shaking voice. "What are you doing out there?"
He seemed to snap out of some sort of trance before responding, "Oh, well, you see…" He paused for a moment, trying to think of the right words before crossing his arms and continuing. "Feh. I wasn't spying on you, if that's what you think."
Kagome couldn't help but smile at his answer. He was spying on her, but she didn't feel like she needed to be frightened by his actions.
"It's kinda' windy out there." She remarked after a moment, once more drawing his attention to her. "So do you want to come in?" Again he thought for a moment before sighing and climbing through the window.
'Kagome, what the hell do you think you're doing!' her conscious began to panic. 'You barely know him, and you're inviting him in!' But by now Kagome was pretty good at ignoring her inner-voice.
They stood there for a moment, just staring at each other, neither knowing quite what to say. Kagome felt a blush warming her cheeks as she tore her gaze from Inuyasha, preferring to stare down at her feet until she thought of an interesting conversation.
"So, uhm—" they both spoke up at the same time. Their eyes instantaneously locked, both laughing slightly at what just happened.
"You first," Kagome smiled meekly, knowing that she really had nothing to say. She noticed Inuyasha hesitate, rubbing the back of his head and looking at his feet. She had never seen him like this before.
"Well, this is going to sound totally lame, but I really wanted to see you." He didn't look at her when he said this, afraid of what she might say. What he didn't know was that Kagome's heart had just skipped a beat.
"R-really?" Kagome sensed the blush on her cheeks grow a deeper shade of red. She felt like a little girl again, unsure of herself and not knowing what to say next. "Well, I actually really wanted t-to see you, too."
He looked up then, their eyes meeting once more. But this time, neither of them backed down. Inuyasha wanted nothing more than to kiss her just then. Leaning in, he closed his eyes. Kagome, feeling her gut do a somersault, leaned in also, preparing for the kiss that she knew would change her life forever. Their lips were centimeters apart, she could feel his warm breath caressing her cheek—and that's when it happened.
"Kagome, dear, are you still working on your homework?" they both yanked away from each other, Inuyasha stumbling and landing flat on his ass, as Kagome's mother knocked on the door.
"Yeah, but I'm almost done, mom," Kagome called through the door, trying to catch her breath and sound like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Okay dear, see you in the morning." Nothing could be heard for the next few seconds except for harsh breathing and the retreating of Mrs. Higurashi's footsteps. Inuyasha still sat on the floor, trying to arrange his thoughts and get a hold on himself, while Kagome stood staring at the door, shocked by what just happened.
'We're moving too fast,' she thought after a minute. 'We need to slow this down.'
"I better go," Inuyasha said quietly, standing up and walking toward the window. "I'm sorry about that." Before Kagome could object he was gone. Some seconds later she heard his motorcycle rumble off down the street.
She stood there for moment, her index finger tracing her lips where they would have just kissed, before collapsing to the floor with a single tear streaming down her face. But along with that tear, a slight laugh escaped her lungs.
"He actually likes me," she whispered with a smile. "He actually likes me.
A/N: My British-ness came into battle with this fic in this chapter. I'm basing in the United States, even though I haven't really specified that yet. I just figured, you know, you'd be able to tell. Maybe not. Whatever, that's not the point. The point is the price of the concert tickets. I paid 25p for Dresden Dolls tickets last year…but I'm not good with the exchange rate. But 15 American Dollars sounds about right for an up-and-coming band, right? Good. Music is a big part of my life, even bigger than anime, actually. So, music will play a fairly big roll in several of these chapters. I know the band I've mentioned the most is the Dresden Dolls, but that's just because I'm going through a cabaret phase right now. They'll show up at least two more times, but other bands will as well.
All right, off subject question: Am I the ONLY ONE who has a hard time typing Miroku? I always end up putting Miroky, lol. Maybe it's just me…
That thing about the CDs is totally me. But I think I have more like…. 350, somewhere around there:-P
About the Epoxies, they kick ass, download them! Download "Beat My Guest" while you're at it, you won't be disappointed. The song I used really has nothing to do with the story, but I wanted to use it. So there.
I don't think that one was too short, but then again, I wrote it. So lemme know if you think I'm getting better at the lengths.
I'm thinking about adding some dark back-story to why Kagome moved…I know it's over done, but I think I might be able to throw a new twist on it. Lemme know what you think!
