Beta credit goes to ameranthus13

It's Free if it Takes Over Thirty Minutes

Chapter 12

Sousuke was pissed. Rin was calling Makoto. No, Sousuke wasn't pissed, he was jealous. Jealous that Rin, after hitting another wall, chose Sousuke to be the last one contacted. Even then, what if Rin never contacted him? What if Rin had planned to never talk to Sousuke again? Well, there goes that plan. Sousuke was just furious.

"What happened?" Makoto said as he walked into his own bedroom to see Sousuke standing up with Makoto's phone in his hand. "I heard some yelling or something."

"I-I answered your phone for you," Sousuke's voice was shaking with a mixture of anger and jealousy.

"Who was it?" Makoto asked calmly, hoping that Sousuke would elaborate.

Sousuke grunted and mumbled something, but didn't answer. He took a few steps forward, handed Makoto his phone back, and brushed by him.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Makoto spun around and followed Sousuke down the hall.

"It was nothing!" Sousuke barked back at Makoto and headed towards the front door, passing doors to his left and right. Once he had grabbed his coat, Makoto had caught up to him. "We'll have to finish another time, I'm in a real piss-ass mood now."

"Yamazaki, who called?" Calm and collected words were stunningly different to Sousuke's loud and furious tone.

Sousuke was breathing hard, "I've gotta go Tachibana. I'll call you later and we can finish it up."

"Oh, okay-" the door shut, cutting Makoto off mid-thought.

It was really late at night now, Makoto and Sousuke had spent almost the whole day together. Kisumi was still not home, Sousuke just stormed out, and Makoto was clueless to who might have called him and angered his lit partner. He quickly searched through the phone that was in his hand for the recent calls.

"It was Haru?" he whispered in observation. The dial tone was lonely and Makoto was left with two options. He could call Haru back, or he could call Sousuke and demand to know why he got so angry. He finally decided knowing that Sousuke would immediately reject the call once he knew who it was. Once he began calling, the dial tone was starting to give him a headache, and suddenly he was worried that it might have been his fault, something he did.

"Haru?" Makoto said into the phone.

"Hey," it was a cool reply that could only belong to Haru.

"Did you call me? Sorry, I was in the bathroom."

There was no answer. Makoto breathed into the phone, waiting for a reply, and called hello when there was none. What called back though, was not Haru.

"Makoto? It's Rin."

"Rin?!" Makoto gasped.

"I tried calling, but Sousuke picked up, and I fucked up. You have to help me out here."

"That's what happened?! Thank Kami," Makoto sighed.

Rin got angry with this, "Thank Kami? Well, fuck you, Makoto." Becoming irritated quickly

"No," Makoto protested, "I-I didn't mean it like that, sorry. I just thought it was something I had done."

"Can I talk to him? Will he talk to me?"

"He left. Abruptly, might I add. We were right in the middle of our lit project."

"Shit!" Rin cursed. Rin Matsuoka's apartment was dark, barely enough lights were in the room to keep it well-lit. Rin felt like shit, Nitori felt guilty because it was his dare that got them in this mess, and even Haru felt bad for Rin. Even Haru and Sousuke were on better terms with each other. The two had made up after Sousuke's last race, where Sousuke admitted he was just jealous because Rin picked them over him. He had said that was the only reason he fought with Haru near the vending machines or when they were in middle school.

"Rin?" Makoto called, "It's nice to hear your voice again," he said, changing the subject.

Rin sniffed, "Yours too. H-How are you?" Rin barely got the words out, torn apart by what happened with Sousuke.

"I'm good!" Rin could hear Makoto smile through the phone.

"And Sousuke?"

Makoto giggled, "I guess not that good now."

Rin knew that Makoto and Sousuke were attending the same school, and the only reason he knew was because his sister, Gou, had texted him telling him so. She thought it was pretty funny.

"Are you guys close friends?"

"You know, maybe you would know the answer if you had called Yamazaki sometime. He was really upset about it today when I mentioned your name."

Hearing Makoto say Yamazaki was a dead giveaway that they hadn't become close friends. Rin didn't know what to say anymore, he had no excuses.

Makoto spoke again, pacing around his own apartment, "Why didn't you call?"

"Because. I couldn't bring myself to do it."

"You didn't want to?" Makoto sat down on a chair in his kitchen.

"I wanted to so badly some nights. But I couldn't."

"Rin, why?"

At this point, Haru and Nitori were on the edge of their seats (well, they hadn't physically moved at all) completely absorbed in hearing a single side of the conversation. Haru could imagine what Makoto was saying, only because he knew Makoto so well; Nitori, on the other hand, was completely lost.

"I was in a bad place. I didn't want to drag the people I cared about the most into it," Rin finally confessed.

"If you had told us, we could have helped you get out. Why did you have to take on such a burden?"

"Because, it's my burden," Rin fiddled with the gold ring on his finger.

"Rin, we all suffered because you wanted to solve all your problems. Did it work? How could it have? You switched schools, probably lost contact with all the friends you made at your last school," Makoto was slightly getting angry, but his voice was still soothing and calm.

"I fucked up, okay? Nothing worked out. I'm fine now, and your lives are better without me."

"That's not true. We miss you; I miss you. Yamazaki misses you. I like to have you know that I never see Yamazaki hanging out with people the way you two did. He seems lonely."

"Fuck," was all Rin could say.

There was a knock on Makoto's door. Makoto's head shot up in confusion.

"There's someone at the door. I'm going to have to let you go. It might be Sousuke. I'll talk to him, and I'll call you back. Do you still have the same number?" Makoto stood up and took careful steps out of the kitchen and into the hall.

Rin nodded and realized Makoto couldn't see the nod before replying a, "Yeah. Bye."

Hanging up, Rin looked at his guest with swollen eyes and a huge headache. He laid his head on Haru's lap, too lazy to ask Haru to move from his spot on the couch.

"I'm sorry, Senpai, it was my fault . . ." Nitori began. Before they realized it, Rin was asleep, Nitori was babbling with how sorry he was, and Haru was thinking about something completely different like work and his swim schedule for the rest of the week.

It was really late at night, too late for any packages or pamphlets that might be floating around the streets. As Makoto touched the door handle, there was no doubt in his mind that it was Sousuke, probably to retrieve something he had forgotten. That's why Makoto was so shocked to see pink hair and purple eyes in the doorframe revealed by the now open door.

"Kisumi?!"