A/N: Not the turn of the week yet, but I wanted to get this out there since I was already in the middle of writing the finale of the beach arc and this was done the day after I uploaded Natsuki's chapter. So enjoy and I wanna thank everyone who took the time to read this again. I came to look at the view stats of this story and they were skyrocketing after I returned. I saw 2 straight days where views were over 150. This was able to push this story to over 5000 total reads. I'm so thankful for everyone who takes the time to read this story. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Anyway, enough with this sappy stuff, you wanna see Monika get her chapter on. So here ya' go!
Monika loomed over Tridon as he slept. She tip-toed and tried to inch her way into his bed. However, just before she could, Tridon rolled over and his hand landed on one of her breasts.
"Mm..." Monika covered her mouths while he face burned from the heat of embarrassment. She felt him squeeze once and finally she yelled, "Ah!" Followed by a loud smack.
Tridon sat at the kitchen table with an icepack on his cheek. He held a straight face while Monika sat across from him embarrassed.
The other 4 stood near them and sighed in unison.
"Monika," Erica started, "tell him your sorry."
"But he groped me."
"I was asleep." Tridon retorted.
"Shut it dude." Sayori interrupted before adding, "But he was asleep."
"I know..."
"Monika," Yuri interrupted, "even if he did grope you accidentally, it was your fault for trying to squirm into his bed."
"I thought I locked my door.."
"Tridon." Natsuki growled, "Yeah I thought he locks his door."
"He left a spare key on the counter. So I used it." She looked over at Tridon and mumbled, "I'm so sorry Tridon..."
"Well, she did apologize now." Sayori commented, "But I don't think a slap of that magnitude deserves a soft apology like that."
"What else can I do?" Monika questioned, "I know he needs a little more, but what else can I do?"
The girls all looked at each other and huddled together. After some very distinct whispering and a combined groan from everyone, they turned around and sighed.
"Monika," Sayori started, "we'll allow you to spend the entire day with him."
"And when we say the entire day," Yuri added, "we only mean until dinner."
"This will give you time to make it up to him." Natsuki finalized.
"Wait a second." Tridon interrupted, "This sounds like your rewarding her for..."
"Thanks girls!" Monika grabbed Tridon mid-sentence and dragged him out the house.
"Probably should've told him to cook breakfast first, right?" Erica stated causing all the girls to hold their heads low.
Monika walked along the beach with her arms wrapped around one of Tridon's arms. However, Tridon was more being dragged along the sand.
"We're going to do so many different thing Tridon!" Monika cooed, "First we're run around the beach, then we're gonna run along the pier. By the condo, along the streets, behind a dumpster, inside the condo..."
"Monika!" Tridon finally yelled.
"Huh?" Monika looked down to see Tridon buried in sand with only one arm sticking out, "Oh..."
"Monika," Tridon rose up from the sand and shook it off of him, "if you're going to make up for slapping my cheek off, then you're gonna do what I say."
"W-What you say?"
"Yeah. I mean, I was already gonna hang out with..." Tridon looked over at Monika who started to untie her bikini, "M-Monika!"
"What? You want this right?"
"Stop!" Tridon grabbed Monika's shoulders while his nose bled slightly, "I'm not even 18 yet!" Monika's face turned beet red while Tridon sighed, "Monika. Calm down and let's just chill."
"A-Alright..."
Tridon slowly grabbed Monika's hand and led her over to the shoreline. Monika avoided Tridon's gaze while they walked hand in hand. Tridon remained stoic on the outside, but he was screaming internally out of joy.
"You're holding hands with her! You. Are. Holding. Hands. With. Monika!" Tridon shouted internally, "You holding hands with your high school crush. Yeah you might like the other girls, but this opportunity is so surreal!"
"Tridon," Monika started, "you just yelled that outloud."
"Huh?"
"All that. You just shouted everything at the top of your lungs."
Tridon held a straight face and ran off for a short second before sprinting back to Monika. He grabbed her shoulders and shook his head.
"Please disregard all of that please."
"B-But..."
"Monika, I'm already a little bit embarrassed after you just about nearly got naked in front of me, but now I'm even more embarrassed."
"Mmm..."
"I'm sorry Monika." Tridon looked at Monika's hand and grabbed it again, "Let's get back to our stroll along the beach."
"Alright."
The two strolled along the shoreline hand in hand and took in the morning, sea breeze. Monika breathed heavily and sighed.
"Yeah Monika?"
"It's just great to just to take a deep breath when the breeze is so great." Monika answered, "Doesn't this just feel great?"
"It does." Tridon and Monika stopped and stared at the water, "Do you get to go to the beach much?"
"Not really. I don't really have any siblings to have fun at the beach with and not many other family friends."
"Well that sucks." Tridon sighed and chuckled, "I would've expected you to have many other friends though. You're very popular."
"Friends? You mean those preppy kids who think they're better than everyone?"
"That's a light way of putting it."
"You know me better than that Tridon." Monika pouted at Tridon and glared at him, "Hanging out with you and the others is better than being with kids that want to hang out with me."
"I'm fine with that."
"Tridon," Monika solemnly started, "when it comes to choosing one of us, do you find it harder for yourself to choose rather than one of us worrying about who you're going to choose?"
"I do actually." He answered, "If I choose one of you, I'll hurt the ones that I didn't choose. I wish I could choose everyone, but that's just a fantasy that'll just never come true."
"If you were a different person, you would make that a reality with your power, but you won't."
"It's wrong to do it that way." Tridon held Monika's hand just slightly tighter, "However, part of me wants to do that, but the good in me wants to do it right."
"I'm glad that good in you is preventing you from being a piece of scum and forcing all of us to be with you." Monika hugged Tridon's right arm and said, "It's what makes you a great person."
"That actually means a lot coming from someone like you." Tridon scratched the back of his head and said, "I remember the stupid event we had to go to this past summer. I know I came off as an ass during that event, but I was tired and stressed out."
"Stressed? You weren't frustrated?"
"Well, my frustration came from my stress."
"What were you stressed about." Tridon was about to say something, but Monika stopped him, "Before you start, can we set up a nice place to sit and lounge?"
"Sure." Tridon snapped his fingers and the two were now sitting in lounge chairs underneath an umbrella. In between them sat a cooler in which Tridon opened and took out two drinks, "I know you don't soda all too much, so this is bottled juice."
"Does that exist?"
"I'm sure it does." He handed her the bottle and she gladly took the bottle. He took out a bottle opener and asked, "May I?"
"You most certainly may." Tridon popped the bottle cap off of both of their drinks and the two dinked bottles, "Now why were you stressed?"
"It was my choice of college." Tridon began, "Ever since Sayori and I got to high school, we already knew we wanted to stay together, so we decided to go to our local community college so that we can always be together."
"What's been bugging you about that?"
"I want to go to Lingston."
"I think I see the problem here..."
"Sayori is too academically inept to even get into Lingston." Tridon interrupted, "If I want to start playing football again, even if it is at a d-2 college, I want to be able to attend and I can get in with ease through my academics, but Sayori, not so much."
"So you're stressed about thinking for your future at the expense of your future with Sayori, right?"
"Yeah."
"Have you even talked to Sayori about that?"
"No." Tridon quickly answered, "It's what stressed me out." Tridon took a sip of his drink and covered his face with one of his arms, "I'm scared of how she'll react. I don't want to lose my best friend..."
"Well," Monika started, "you two have been best friends for just about your whole lives. I know for a fact that just talking to her will make it easier than just hiding it from her."
"I'm just scared of how she'll react."
"It's okay to be scared Tridon." Monika turned on her side and leaned on her arm, "Nothing like this is easy. Especially when it surrounds the relationship between yourself and your best friend."
Tridon removed his arm from his face and shook his head while he took another drink. He sighed and turned to look at Monika.
He chuckled and said, "I swear. You girls make it hard to choose who I'm going to choose."
"H-Huh?"
"That's also something that's recently been stressing me out." Tridon sat up and stared at the ocean, "Who's it gonna be. That's the question that's gonna be on my mind the week of the dance. I might die from all this stress before the dance."
"I guess we did put a lot on your shoulders, but you kinda did this to yourself." Monika turned around and pouted, "If only you were still in love with only me."
"Don't be like that Monika." Tridon pleaded, "I still love you."
"I know, but I have to compete with the others." Monika sighed and sat up with Tridon, "Even so, I respect whoever you choose."
Tridon stared at Monika before falling back onto the chair, "Gah!" Tridon rubbed his head and shouted, "You might respect it, but you won't be happy! Gah!"
"Wow." Monika mumbled, "This will be hard for you."
Later that evening, Tridon and Monika joined the group back at the shoreline near the condo and were met with pouty faces and crossed arms.
"It was their idea." Tridon commented, "I don't know why they're mad."
"Because I spent the day with you and they barely got to see you." Monika wrapped around Tridon's arm again and smirked at the girls
"Monika..." Sayori growled. She ran forward and ripped the two apart, "You day with him is up!" She shoved Tridon over to the grill he set up the day before and said, "He needs to cook!"
"Haha..." Monika laughed nervously while Tridon begrudgingly started cooking dinner.
Moments after eating, the group made their way back to the condo and before Sayori moved to her room, Tridon stopped her.
"Hey bud." Sayori started, "What's up?"
"Uh..." Tridon stumbled on his words and looked over to see Monika peaking from the kitchen, "Sayori, I wanna talk about where we're going to attend college."
"Yeah. The community college. Remember?"
"I know, but Sayori..." Tridon took a deep breath and said, "I wanna attend Lingston. I want to attend it for academics and athletics."
"Yeah?"
"I know you want to stick together even through college, but I know Lingston is a hard school to get into if you aren't academically or athletically gifted." Tridon sat with Sayori on the balcony and shook his head, "I had this in thought since summer and I wanted to tell you then, but I was worried about how you would react."
"Why were worried about that?" Sayori sat next to Tridon and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Dude, I know that you have higher aspirations than me. Even now, I don't know what I want to do with my life. As for you, you've been training to get back into football for the past year. You know what you want to do. I don't."
"But I wanted to be there with you when you do figure it out."
"Hey." Sayori grasped Tridon's hand and said, "We're still best friends. Nothing is gonna separate us. Even if we're hundreds upon thousands of miles apart."
"Are you sure?"
"If you go to Lingston, I'll just flood your phone with texts and phone calls."
"And I'll be sure to respond and answer to all of them." The smiled at one another for a second before standing up and clearing there throats, "But uh, thanks for understanding Sayori. I was stressing out about this and just scared of how you would react."
"I'm your best friend." Sayori reassured Tridon and patted his back, "We'll still be together, 'till the end."
"Yeah..." Sayori walked off to her room leaving Tridon behind.
Tridon looked over to Monika who smiled at him, "You did the right thing Tridon." She walked over to him and added, "I knew it wasn't gonna be all too bad."
Tridon wanted to say something, but instead, he pulled her in for a hug.
"T-Tridon!"
"Thank you so much Monika." Tridon muttered while he hugged, "Thanks for giving me to courage to tell her."
Monika, although initially shocked, hugged him back and said, "No problem." She caressed his back and said, "No problem at all Tridon..."
