I don't own Starbucks or Kingdom Hearts, but I do own 'The Dark-Heart' which you find out about in this chapter and will hear more about in in the next chapter when our characters visit it so no stealing it! MINE!
Okay, now that I'm done being greedy about my own ideas and all that jazz, thanks to the folks who reviewed last chapter and to the persons who intend to review this chapter. Cookies for anyone who reviews and tells me what they think of this story! It's COOKIES people! Who wouldn't review for a cookie! I'd review for a cookie... but I review to stories I like anyhow so it doesn't matter.
"There is a method to my madness, do not question me," – a princessOFdarkness quote for you all, I said this to my best friend when she called me crazy the other day when she took me roller-skating (for my first time - fifteen and I've never roller-skated before) and I said I was proud I had a bruise on my elbow because I said it showed that I actually tried.
On with the show!
Chapter 2
"SORA, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Kairi yelled honking her high pitched car horn. Her head and whole upper body stuck sticking out of window as she screamed much to the extreme annoyance Sora's neighbors seeing as most of them were retired and elderly individuals. "God damn it Sora, hurry your skinny ass up and get down here! We're gonna be late for first period!"
"Excuse me you fire-headed bitch who happens to be dating my brother, but could you please shut the hell up already?" Roxas shouted impatiently through the open downstairs window at Kairi. Kairi pursed her lips and scowled at Sora's twin brother angrily. "Some of us are trying to sleep in peace thank you!"
"Aren't you going to school today then Roxas?" Kairi scolded him – Kairi treated Roxas as she did her own little sister Namine. Like he was too stupid to exist without her guidance and scolding to keep him in line so he didn't do something utterly dangerous. Although Kairi only acted like that when no one else was around so she could retain her reputation as a sweet little nice teenage girl who could never do anything wrong. Roxas shook his head grinning from ear to ear. "And why not may I ask?"
"Because I'm extremely ill at the moment if you must know!" Roxas smiled happily, giving her a fake cough as if that was the cherry on top of her ice cream cone. "Mother thinks it would be unwise for me to leave the house with a hundred and three point two fever Kairi."
"Yeah, you held it against a light bulb for half an hour or so didn't you?" Kairi smirked at Roxas, who blushed and shook his head knowing he had been caught. "I won't tell on you Roxas, but just know that I know what you're going to do today and that I don't approve in the least bit."
"Which is what?" Roxas challenged her unwisely. Kairi found out everything about everyone seeing as she was the school's biggest gossip and the female population's biggest flirt. "Come on, if you guess right I'll do anything you want me to for a whole day. I dare you to guess."
"Once you're Mother's left for work you're going to sneak out and go down to 'The Dark-Heart' to listen to that classic bad-boy urban rebel high school pyrotechnic dropout Axel play the guitar with his band mates Demyx and Larxene. And during the breaks in between songs he'll walk over to where you sit in the shadows to tell you that your eyes remind him of the sea so that you blush scarlet causing him to reach out and touch your cheek in a tender fashion before leaning into you and –"
"Okay you win, don't say any more Kairi!" Roxas yelled back, actually jumping out the window to come to rest inches from the hood of her car, his face pale in his urgency to make Kairi stop talking. "How do you know about Axel and all that other stuff?"
"I know everything Roxas, get used to it or it might be your downfall one day." Kairi smiled wickedly at him as she chewed on the eraser on her pink sparkly pencil.
"Does Sora know he's dating the all mighty and evil Satan trapped in a female form or did you bewitch him and ensnare him with your lies before sucking his brain out through a straw?" Roxas asked cheekily for someone who had just almost been exposed as the homosexual person he was to his neighbor who was mowing her law next door. "Really, you're scary Kairi. You know way too much about everyone in our high school to be human."
"Thanks Roxas, it's a well honed talent to collect all that information and hold onto it until I can use it to my advantage like just now." Kairi giggled girlishly, which only unnerved Roxas more. Something so evil couldn't be shouldn't be so feminine as well. "So is Sora coming down or not? If we don't hurry I'm gonna be late!"
"Oh, Sora already left nearly half an hour ago." Roxas said as he climbed back in the window, seeing as the door was still locked and Roxas obviously didn't have the keys in his pajama bottom's pocket.
"WHAT!" Kairi yelled again only to receive annoyed looks from the people outside examining and tending to their lawns. "Who did he go with Roxas?"
"Why should I tell you that?" Roxas asked unhappily from the window. Realizing he could use Kairi's panic to his advantage he quickly added "I might be able to tell you if you exempt me from our previous deal of course because my amnesia might clear with a little persuasion. I do happen to remember the car…"
"Fine, you don't have to carry my things. Now tell me the car!" Kairi screeched at Roxas who held his ears, wincing.
"Alright, keep your shirt on Kairi – really!" Roxas shouted at her in his glee at being able to turn the situation around to his advantage and put Kairi in her place. "You know the car for sure Kairi. It was a rather familiar black Grand Prix with white flames on the sides and a big white 'X' painted on the roof. That's all I feel like telling you, is that good enough for you Gossip Queen?"
And with that Roxas shut the window and pulled the curtains roughly closed. It had been more than enough for Kairi to figure it out of course; she had ridden in that very car many times before with Sora and Riku. Riku was going to pay for high jacking her boyfriend like this!
"Thanks for the coffee Riku; I can't believe I forgot my wallet on my dresser." Sora sighed as he blew on the top of his coffee so that the steam hit him in the face. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."
"Oh it's nothing Sora, really stop worrying." Riku smiled as he sipped his own hot drink as they walked to their first class together – Advanced English. It was strange because even though Riku was a whole year older than Sora he was still in the same grade because of an issue he had had as a young child. Riku was a genius and all his teachers had known it, but Riku lacked people skills and refused to talk to anyone who besides the teacher in question so his parents had decided to hold him back a year so he could make some friends. Riku hadn't really opened up until the day that Sora had come up to a very lonely Riku, who was sitting all alone on the swings with his feet dragging the ground slightly, and offered to play ball with him. Ever since that day Sora and Riku had been friends, and that day had really opened Riku up enough so that everyone saw how cool and amazing he really was inside. Even though Riku had become popular he never forgot or left Sora behind for 'better' friends. This was a good thing for Sora as he soon found out as they grew older and the course work became harder.
As intelligent as Sora was, he rarely liked to show it. Riku was the one person who could convince him to try to do anything and was constantly helping the lazy Sora with the homework he didn't understand because he hadn't been paying attention or had fallen asleep in class due to lack of sleep.
"Hey Riku, why did they call you into the office yesterday during lunch, everyone went to lunch without us because they didn't want to wait so I waited for you. But you never showed up." Sora said casually as they took their seats in the musty Advanced English classroom where Professor Yuffie was already waiting for them with her copy of The Taming of the Shrew out and at the ready as she handed out the nametags that would dictate who would read which part for the period.
"Oh, they were trying to convince me to move up a grade again. You know how it is; they try every few weeks nowadays." Riku said disdainfully. First they hold me back for lack of people skills and now they want me to move up a grade because I'm intelligent and popular, Riku sighed as he pulled out his copy of the play by William Shakespeare they were currently reading. Sora pulled his rolled up copy out of his back pants copy and tried hastily to unroll and flatten it as the Professor looked the other way to write the setting and what had happened in the last scene on the board. "You really should take better care of your things you know?"
"Oh yeah, unlike you I don't care enough to treat them like they were treasured pieces of historical significance." Sora sighed as he slipped sideways into his seat.
"Um, hey S-Sora, h-hey Riku." Tidus attempted a weak smile as he took his seat in front of Sora. Tidus was cursed with a bad stutter and self confidence shortage but Sora and Riku still considered him their friend. "Um S-Sora, you might w-want to l-look at the d-door."
"Why would I do that?" Sora sighed closing his eyes as he laid his head down on his desk none too gently. "What's so interesting about the hallway?"
"Well, your girlfriend's standing out their glaring at you for one thing." Riku stifled a laugh as Sora's head snapped up to see Kairi was indeed standing out in the hall outside the door. And she was indeed glaring at him and Riku like her life depended on killing them with a glance – and she was close to succeeding with the look Sora had on his face. "Get out there before she comes in here! Unless of course you WANT the whole class to hear her screaming at you like her life depended on it because you and I both know she's gonna scream at you for riding to school with me and stopping to get Starbucks. Get out there Sora, use your brain, GO!"
"Um, Professor Aerith do you mind if I use the restroom quickly?" Sora asked the preoccupied teacher, who nodded in approval as Sora left the room. Kairi shut the door as Sora walked out of it, grabbed him by the wrist and led him away towards the empty unused classroom that a student had once lit on fire during a lab experiment so due to the amount of damage it was 'supposed' to go unused. Though lots of the students used it, but not as a classroom of course. It had become the place to go when you needed to be alone in cry or for couples to come and yell each other hoarse over stupid things.
Kairi was fuming silently, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed and her lips pursed together tightly. Sora stood awkwardly in the middle of the room for a few moments shuffling his feet before finally working up the courage to speak to the angry thing in front of him.
"Hey Kairi, um what's up?" Sora asked lamely, his voice speckled with a strange timid note that Sora had never noticed there before. "What did you need to talk to me about so urgently that I had to skip out on Advanced English and The Taming of the Shrew?"
"Why weren't you at your house when I came to pick you up this morning?" Kairi asked crossly as she fought to retain her self control. "I showed up and sat in your driveway for nearly twenty minutes before Roxas stuck his head out the window and informed me you had already left and that your ride had come to pick you up nearly half an hour before hand. You road with Riku again didn't you?"
"Yeah I did, so what Kairi?" Sora asked but immediately knew from the look on Kairi's face he shouldn't have said what he had for some unknown reason. "Look, it was just a ride. I didn't know if you were coming to get me, and I really needed Starbucks this morning because of how late I stayed up doing my homework so I had Riku take me today."
"What," Kairi started calmly, but she couldn't keep her voice down any more. Suddenly she was yelling at the top of the room so that her shouts reverberated around the room and made the hanging light bulbs vibrate on their hanging strings. "What the hell were you thinking! First you didn't call me –"
"What do you mean I never called you?" Sora asked cutting Kairi off sharply mid rant. "You never told me to call you yesterday so I didn't. I thought you would still be at the mall with Selphie."
"Oh, so you'd listen to me either!" Kairi yelled angrily, a single tear trickling down her thin and anxious looking face. "I told you to call me yesterday when I dropped you off Sora! God, am I that unimportant to you that you don't even listen to me anymore?"
"I'm so sorry Kairi; I must not have heard you before I shut the door." Sora sighed in his fierce need to make Kairi stop yelling and calm down. The period would be ending soon which meant people would go spilling out into the halls were they could hear Kairi if she started yelling again. "But to be fair, I was dripping wet and freezing to death. All I really wanted to do right then was get inside where it was warm and into some dry clothes again before I caught malaria or scarlet fever or something."
"Stop joking around Sora!" Kairi snapped back at him, her finger pointing dangerously close to his face.
"I'm not joking around, I'm serious Kairi." Sora pleaded with her as he pulled her hand back slowly from his face. Only then did he let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding in, when her hand was back at her side where Sora liked it best.
"I tried calling you, three times in fact." Kairi grumbled sadly as Sora looked at her. "Why didn't you ever answer? Oh that's right, I remember now! You were on the phone talking to Riku all night long! Or at least until you turned your phone off that is."
"What makes you think I was on the phone with Riku last night?" Sora asked hesitantly. Kairi always seemed to know everything about everything to do with him, from the cereal he ate for breakfast down to how long he was on the phone talking to his grandmother in California.
"When I couldn't get through to your phone I called Riku's to see if you were over at his house or if he knew where you were. Imagine my surprise when Riku didn't answer either and I got the busy signal." Kairi grinned widely, giving Sora a fake smile that didn't reach her eyes. "So you blew me off to talk guy talk with Riku huh? I understand Sora even if I don't like it. Really I do."
"That's not what happened okay!" It was Sora's turn to yell now. Sora rarely yelled, but he was getting sick of Kairi's accusations and yelling and pestering to the point that he'd do almost anything to shut her up – including be out of character and yell at her as loudly as he could. "Riku called to make sure I wasn't mad at him because he threw me in the ocean and then when I was done reassuring him I wasn't angry we hung up, I turned my phone of and fell right to sleep. I thought you were getting sick of driving me to school when it's so far out of your way to do so, so I asked Riku to take me and he suggested we go early and stop off for coffee and I agreed. Calm down Kairi, Jesus!"
"Why did Riku end up paying for your coffee then?" Kairi asked as a counterattack, which Sora was too slow to avoid. "It's the sort of thing you do for me, that's a thing couples do for each other. Friends don't just blow fifteen bucks on Starbucks for another friend Sora!"
"Maybe you don't Kairi, but that's just how Riku and I are with each other okay?" Sora growled heatedly as he straightened the collar of his polo shirt out of his anxiety that someone might overhear them if he didn't wrap this up soon.
"Sora, I want you to be completely honest with me even if this could tare us apart." Kairi said in a soft and deadly voice before saying the one thing Sora hadn't expected Kairi to ever ask him. "Is something going on between you and Riku that I don't know about?"
"WHAT!" Sora screamed before falling backwards against one of the beat up desks littered around the room for support as he knees had recently given out on him. "How could you ask me something like that when I'm dating you? Do you think I'm really that heartless Kairi, that I'd say yes and date you if I was in love with Riku or anyone else for that matter? What the hell is the matter with you; did someone kidnap all your common sense or something?"
"No Sora, its all here which is why I'm asking!" Kairi shouted. She was yelling again but this time louder than before if it was possible. Thank God there was only one classroom on this floor, which happened to be the obnoxiously loud orchestra so there was only a slight chance that anyone had heard Kairi's recent outburst. "Is something going on between the two of you I don't know about?"
"No Kairi, God!" Sora huffed as he slammed his head into the desk - harder than he meant to, causing him to curse under his breath in pain as he rubbed his bruised forehead. "Riku and I are just friends, always have been and always will be okay? Will you let me go back to class now?"
"Fine, get back to class." Kairi said grudgingly as she reached for the door handle. But as she opened it she turned back to face Sora with a strange look on her face, perhaps jealousy? "I don't care what may or may not have happened between you and Riku in the past but I want whatever it is or was to stop. I don't want you ever seeing Riku again."
"What do you mean Kairi? Are you forbidding me to see my own best friend?" Sora asked her angrily.
"Yes, I am. I'm conpletetly serious too so don't think I'm joking or that I'll take back what I said Sora. You'll just have to find a new best friend to replace Riku, because there's no way in hell you're hanging around the real thing anymore." Kairi said sharply, and then she was gone, through the door before Sora could utter a single word in defense of his friendship with Riku. Sora sat in that vandalized desk ever after the bell signaling the end of first period homeroom had rung, just sitting there staring at the blank and slightly charred wall across from him lost in his thoughts and emotions. He didn't even notice when someone opened the door, came inside, and then shut the door quickly behind them to stare blanky in confusion at the face the owner of the eyes cared about so much more than anyone else in the world. Sora never noticed the clear aqua eyes that took in his pained expression as he stared off into space.
Sora was too busy crying to notice Riku had entered the room from the door beside him and was even now scanning the over him and his tortured face in worry.
"Sora, is everything alright?" Riku asked quietly as he walked over to where Sora was sitting. Riku reached out and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder gently. "I saw Kairi in the hallway storming off as the bell rang. Look, if something's the matter between you two, you know you can tell me what it is no matter what right? I'm here for you Sora, surely you have to know that by now. You're my best friend in the whole wide world. I don't know what I'd do without you by my side."
Before Sora could so much as give a sigh as an answer to the friend he knew he would miss more than life itself, he felt strong protective arms circling his waist and forcing him to stand and look up into those two dazzling aqua green orbs that were Riku's eyes that Sora had stared into so many a time when the pair would go down to the beach and watch the sunset together before Kairi had stepped into the picture to ruin it all. And suddenly Sora wasn't numb, he was alive and in pain and in need of Riku's help and of Riku's loving and caring voice to tell him everything was going to be okay. For Riku to make him feel loved again like Kairi never had been able to do. Sora let his fears and emotions go as he reached for Riku, burying his head in Riku's shoulder as he began to cry without holding back anything this time.
Riku had been worried when Sora hadn't returned to class, that was for sure, but he had never expected to find Sora like this – a shattered, broken, empty shell of what he had once been before Kairi had poisoned him with her charm and good looks and feminine grace and poise. Riku had never thought he would ever feel as miserable as he was now feeling looking down on Sora's beloved and tearstained face.
"Riku, I need you so much! Please don't leave me. Don't let her ake you away from me like this!" Sora whined into Riku's flesh as his sobs subsided into a dull whimper in unconnected and uninelligible sobs. Nothing Sora was saying made the slightlest sense to Riku, seeing as he had not been present for the earlier conversation between Kairi and Sora. Riku still didn't know of Kairi's demand that he never see Sora again. "She wants to take you away from me, please don't let her!"
"Sora, what are you talking about?" Riku asked. He was confused – first off, who was trying to take him away from Sora and second, Sora had just said he needed Riku making Riku feel warm and happy inside even if the face of Sora's infinite pain and suffering. "Who's trying to pull us apart?"
"Kairi, she's jealous of you because I spend so much time with you!" Sora sniffed as he dried his tears on the back of his hand. "She told me I was never to see you again and that I should find a new best friend because she wasn't going to give in on this."
"Why that rotten bitch, who does she think she is demanding that you never see me again when we're best friends?" Riku flared up defiantly. "Sora, let's just walk back tp Advanced English and get your things so we can go to our next class okay? We'll work this out, I'll wrk this out I swaer to you I'll find a way that makes everyone happy except maybe Kairi of course. We'll find away around Kairi and her stupid rules. Don't worry Sora. I'll always be your best friend no matter what she says."
"And you'll always be mine." Sora smiled as Riku put an arms around his shoulders and headed for the door that led out into the packed, crowded, noisy hallway that awaited them just beyond the door.
Well there's Chapter 2! I hope you liked it. The intense side of the story is finally taking root! Yay! Next chapter is when the fun REALLY starts! If you can call this fun of course… I'm not sure if it's 'fun' that I'm writing here. Oh well.
In case you didn't guess already, Kairi gets a little bitchy in this story. Hee he, I don't know what to tell you except that I wanted to write a story with Kairi as the meany who ruined everyone's lives. I really don't care for Kairi that much, I mean she's okay but I don't see the point of her being with Sora. She's always getting herself kidnapped and making Sora come save her like she's helpless - and I hate how some girls think they need a boy around at all times to save them because woman have come too far to depend upon the men. That's just how I feel about it. Nothing personal to Kairi or the male populartion.
Anyone who reviews for this chapter gets a cookie! Special presents for special reviews! Until next time!