Chapter thirteen
Kai watched from across the yard as Josie pulled the rip cord, summoned her bit beast and caught her beyblade in a non stop routine, a routine that had been going on for the past few hours. It was raining, or it had been raining and was now drizzling, but it all meant the same thing.
It was wet and cold and Josie wasn't necessarily wearing appropriate attire for such circumstances. He could see the outline of her bra through her silk, pink nightgown that was completely short save for the black three-quarter pants she wore underneath, her attire was clinging to her lithe frame. She wasn't wearing any shoes because in her haste to leave the mansion and in her haste she didn't bother to grab for her robe as she would usually do. He didn't bother to put on a t-shirt just some jeans over his boxers because he wanted to follow her, make sure she was alright and make sure she didn't do anything entirely stupid.
Kai had been standing on the bottom step of the mansion with an umbrella over his head for the past three hours. He had tried to talk some sense into her but she just bluntly ignored him and he completely hated it when she was like that. So he stood in the rain half pissed off because she wouldn't allow him to help and half worried because he knew with her weak immune system she'd get sick.
"You've got to talk some sense into her; she's going to get pneumonia," Yuriko held a large, yellow towel to her chest and shivered; she had stayed in her pyjamas but threw Josie's parka over her shirt. She too had been standing out on the doorstep watching her best friend; she wondered why Kai was just standing there tight lipped. She thought they were really good friends, the kind of friends that had been with her threw the thick and thin, she had yet to experience something like that with the blonde girl.
She wasn't daft and knew immediately what was happening, the tension between Adam, (who to her was quite handsome) and Josie, it was thick and suffocating. It was a shocked expression from her friend and a smug look from a boy she had never met but knew too much information about to not necessarily like him.
Josie had said that 'Adam is handsome and caring and charming and intelligent but these are his only good points. He's manipulative, he can pry information from you without you knowing and he can make you fall in love just with a click of his fingers. He's great and all, but…he breaks so many hearts and he broke mine and left me with a daughter, who I like to believe doesn't have a father at all.' She remembered how Josie had taken her time to choose the right words, how her voice was laced with malice and yet it was sad. Yuri took the words to heart, she had vowed that she would protect her friend when the time came when she'd finally meet Adam and she knew this would be the day but something deep within her let loose and when she saw Adam she immediately fell in love. But with the precautions that their captain had drilled into their heads about how bad he was, she knew she was just falling for his good looks and that was all. The smirk on his face was rather unappealing.
"You don't think I've tried," Kai's voice was soft and filled with regret. His brown eyes didn't move from the blonde haired girl and he knew from the position of the moon that it was approximately two in the morning. He wondered how he would be able to cope with that day's beybattles and how Josie would also, considering she was first up and how Cy would cope if he was going to be emotionally drained from talking to the ex-boyfriend.
"Maybe you should try harder," Yuri rubbed her face softly against the towel she was clutching for Josie.
"Just back off!" Kai growled whirling on her, he was breathing hard and his face was contorted in anger. He looked way older than eighteen and scarily so that Yuri had taken a step back in shock and also had let go of the towel she was holding.
She bent down to pick it up and glared at him, "you care so much about her Kai and you know her so well too, if she's stubborn counterattack it. Do something!" She yelled, her usual brown eyes turned to a dangerous black and her hand went up to poke him in the chest. Kai's umbrella fell to the floor and he growled slightly when he felt the first drops of rain hit his hair and his bare torso.
"Don't you start too Yuri!"
"No I'm going to start," the Asian girl straightened her shoulders and stood definitely in front of him, she had an advantage as she stood on a higher step. "I always thought that the great Kai Hiwatari never gave up and always fought his own battles and we all know that this is one of your greatest battles yet. Josie has always been a challenge to you because Mr Antisocial can't make up his mind on whether or not the love he holds for her is merely brotherly or whether it's something more." She stepped down and poked him once again, "if you truly cared about her you'd push and push and be just as stubborn as she's being."
"Don't you start questioning my love for her and whether or not I care." Kai wiped his fringe out of his eyes before turning around and striding briskly towards Josie, he was soaked to the bone and the grass between his toes was an unpleasant feeling. Yuri watched with a smirk and picked up the umbrella that he left behind, she re-entered the house and quickly ran up the stairs into her room to get dried up.
Enrique growled and clutched a balled up fist in his left hand, his right hand was just itching to punch something and Johnny had taken a majority of his punches just earlier. Oliver was standing beside him, a comforting hand on his shoulder and Johnny stood weakly to his other side, a few minor bruises appearing on his usually unblemished, tan skin.
Enrique was fuming, he was furious with the fact that this blonde kid who he had actually liked and found suitable to dating his sister was back, begging for forgiveness and willing to take his daughter under his wing. Enrique wouldn't allow it; he most defiantly wouldn't allow it and he damned well hoped Josie wouldn't allow it.
Cy was feeling the same, Lan was sitting beside him with her hand held tightly in his but she was fidgeting nervously. Adam sat directly in front of them and Rafaela beside him but squashed into the arm rest, furthest away from the boy. Adam wasn't uncomfortable in the slightest; he was merely sipping at some tea and staring intently at photos on the walls. Nothing had necessarily changed in the house, things were in the same places.
"So what are you really doing here Adam?" Robert entered with a tray laden with drinks and a few shots of whiskey that he knew Enrique and Johnny would probably need. Lan accepted the tea gratefully and leaned her head on Cy's shoulder tiredly, Adam smiled at her but she merely glared back. She was tired and annoyed and anxious, she wanted to sleep but she knew, they all knew that there would be no chance of that happening.
"I'm here to see my daughter of course," Enrique hissed and looked ready to kill and Rafaela noticed the flicker of fear appear in Adam's eyes, she smiled in satisfaction and took a sip of her hot chocolate. "I do have a right after all."
"What right do you have waltzing up to my house unannounced so late at night?" Lan sat up immediately and could instantly feel Cy relax beside her, they were both happy and both anxious at seeing the arrival of their captain. Rafaela glanced at Adam and smirked seeing the colour drain from his face, she stood up and went to stand beside the younger girl.
Josie was a little worse for wear, her hair was matted and wet, drops of water falling onto the expensive Persian rug her mother had brought on one of her business trips. Her clothes were drenched and barely suitable to wear in front of guests or anyone really; her bra showed through the thin material and water was trickling down her legs, arms and face. Though, in her sodden form she didn't look remotely vulnerable or weak but held command and grace. Her cheeks were red and her eyes puffy and the girls had a minute to think she had been crying.
"I think you should go get dried up because I highly doubt your mother would appreciate you soaking her Persian rug," the curly haired boy replied curtly, he had stood up when he noticed her in the room and his eyes travelled up her well toned body. "Though, you're still looking as delightful as usual." Cy saw his tongue flick out over his bottom lip and he would have jumped him right then and there were it not for Lan almost having to sit on him.
"I'm going to kill you!"
Enrique, Josie and Johnny all leapt forward angrily their hands raised up and ready to attack Josie's ex-lover. Quickly Kai grabbed his friend around the waist and threw her over his bare shoulder, carrying her out of the room as she kicked and screamed. Oliver intercepted Enrique and was slowly pushing against him, trying to stop him from attacking and Robert had merely stuck him foot out and tripped Johnny.
Kai grumbled under his breath about the bruises he was bound to receive as he took a short cut his knew up to his and Tala's room. He kicked open the door and threw the blonde onto his bed, Tala looked up tiredly and growled. "I heard you coming a mile away, she wouldn't stop screaming," he groaned and threw a pillow over his head. Josie grabbed for something solid on the bedside table, Kai's bottle of water did fine and she threw it at him hard.
"Josie!" Kai said in a booming voice. He too was wet; his jeans were dragging him down and were falling off his waist and showing just the top of his black boxers. "Think about your daughter." He growled catching her scowling face in his hands, he lifted her chin up roughly and glared, "and when I talk you look at me."
"I am thinking about my daughter."
"No you're not, you're attacking the enemy. You and you're blonde brother and the gorilla that's his friend, he'll sue and he'll take you to court to claim he has issues with the way you're raising your daughter and he'll win."
Josie mulled over his words, a lone tear slipped down her cheek and she growled in frustration. "Wow, look at me I'm crying like a baby, like a sissy," she sniffed and continued wiping the tears off her cheeks as they came at a faster rate. "Honestly, what right does he have coming here so late at night, uninvited and demanding to see Jade?" She stood up and walked into the walk in closet where she noticed half of the guys clothes hung up or on the floor.
She slipped out of her clothes but stayed in her underwear and began picking through the clothes hangers and the piles in search of a clean shirt. Kai peered curiously into the room but instantly turned back around when he noticed what she was doing or wearing, he blushed from his neck to his ears and felt incredibly hot in the large bedroom. Tala who had given up sleeping to listen to Josie and Kai's conversation raised an eyebrow curiously. He pointed to the bedroom and mouthed something which Kai understood immediately, he nodded his head and Tala smiled brightly.
Tala slipped out of his bed, only clad in some silky, green boxers and tip toed towards Kai. He tried leaning around Kai's body but was roughly pushed away and had landed with a loud thump on the floor. "He doesn't have a right at all," Kai replied as he dragged his best friend towards the door and throwing him out. "What are you doing in there?" He asked trying to sound curious.
"Do you reckon I should let him see Jade and then he'll leave – but I don't want him seeing her at all!" She changed from one argument to the other, "He wasn't even here for her first birthday or her Christening or, or anything! He broke my heart and my trust and I was left with a kid at such a young age. I'm not going to lose my daughter Kai; I wouldn't be able to stand it. I can't lose to him!" She pulled the t-shirt over her head and walked out of the wardrobe, when she spotted Kai she threw him a set of clothes.
Kai noticed the determination in her eyes and the usual stubbornness and he remembered why he was her friend. She wasn't like most girls, she was mature and sophisticated and smart. She didn't simper like the fan girls and she didn't throw herself at him, she was different. He grabbed the clothes off the floor where they had landed at his feet and entered the wardrobe which seemed far neater than before.
"Hey, where's Tala?"
"He said he couldn't stand our conversation and left to Ian's room." He called back as he pulled the dry pants on but stayed topless.
"We're not going to be doing our best are we?" Her voice was soft and solemn, "for tomorrow I mean, our first matches in Italy and we're not going to be doing well."
"We can't let our social lives interfere."
"Jade isn't my social life Kai," her anger sparked again and her hands clenched in her lap as she settled for seating on the edge of Kai's bed.
"We're too young for this. We're acting years ahead of our time-"
"If you wanted to act like a normal, teenage boy then what the hell were you doing befriending me?"
"You always ask the same questions and I'll always give you an honest answer."
"Yes, yes we know how great I am but honestly; I'm more trouble than it's worth." Kai sighed when he noticed a tear drop fall onto the plush carpet and then another and another. He kneeled in front of her and held her hands in his. He wasn't an emotional sort of guy and he didn't know enough about girls to cope when they were all emotional and weeping. He hoped that holding her hands and waiting it out would be enough because although he had been in the same circumstance in the past, he wasn't used to it and it was like a whole new experience once again.
"Damn girls and their emotions," he muttered and Josie, for the first time that night laughed. Her laughing made his heart swell and he was pleased to see the usual rosiness in her cheeks and her eyes squinting in delight, he truly thought she was feeling just a little bit happier.
Her laughter died down within a few minutes and she smiled slightly, "how come it's always you that's pulls some sense into me, I mean, it is always you! Cy and Rafaela, yea they're there sometimes but you always say the best things at the worst times." She lay back against the bed and Kai moved to her other side, sitting on the edge and watching her getting comfortable.
"Starting
from here, let's make a promise
You and me, let's just be
honest
We're gonna run, nothing can stop us
Even the night that
falls all around us"
His eyes felt heavy and he watched her lazily as she sung. He remembered the times she played the violin and how he'd sit beside the window and almost nod off to sleep. He loved the look in her eyes, the love as she played and the way her thin fingers moved over the chords. He realised without thinking, his eyes growing wide with the realisation…that perhaps…just perhaps he was in love with one of his best friends.
Finally…I had trouble trying to think of an ending to this chapter…not necessarily the way I had planned it to end but oh well. It seems my whole story has changed drastically, damnit. But I like it even better now, writing mushy stuff is what I believe I'm good at.
I'm terribly sorry for the very, very late update but it was only due to the trouble I had with this chapter and then going out and stuff and finding new books to read. I'm currently on holidays, yay, but this is my last week off damnit and then another four weeks until holidays again because of exams. Then…I'll be a year twelve student…how scary and I'm certainly not looking forward to that.
Also just so let you in on something after New Years I will be in Thailand but that might mean an influx of updates if I end up bringing my laptop with me to write stories. Also…here's an excerpt of one of my other stories that some might be interested in reading – it's called Secrets and is from the diary of a young girl.
"She fell pregnant with his child…a half breed of royalty and poor blood. My child will be shunned because of a simple mistake that made me feel on top of the world, actually, a world that is now crumbling around my feet."
Anyway, please review, it means a lot to me and if you want that story send me a review or email and I'll send it to you.
Love, Dark – Cherry.
