So Surreal – So Real
Chapter Ten
"You're going to this party and that's FINAL!" Ayame's mother screamed from the other side of the 'living' room.
"Make me!" Ayame shot back, storming from the room and slamming the door shut.
"I WILL!"
Her mother's shrill voice could be heard from the second floor and a hallway down where Ayame had run to after fleeing the confrontation. Her parent's had been home for a week now and hadn't left her alone. Well, her mother hadn't left her alone. Her father just sat passively while the two fought.
Ayame had been to so many of her parent's little 'parties,' and she'd hated every single one of them. After an hour or so of being paraded around by her mother, she was left alone for four or five more hours in which time she was completely ignored. She'd been exempt from celebrity functions for most of the year since her parents hadn't been home. But now she was going to be dragged to the big whammy; the hottest party of the year; Brand New Breed's new album launch. Oh, golly, she was so excited.
Normally, she wouldn't fight her mother so hard on it. But that night, she and the girls had a very important gig that she couldn't miss. Besides, she was almost eighteen; she could make decisions for herself. Her mother was adamant though, hence turning the living room into the battlefield for World War III.
Really, she probably would've gone to the launch party anyway, but for other reasons and not as a 'trophy daughter.' She would've gone to help Kagome and her mother cater the event and spend half of the evening fending off starving supermodels, actresses and obese business tycoons and record company executives while balancing a tray of scrumptious goodies before she, Sango and Rin left for their gig. She didn't mind helping to cater the event while in attendance. She definitely minded being dragged there by her parents to spend the whole night in sheer boredom in a stuffy dress her mother picked out.
She hadn't told her friends and band mates that she might be at the album launch that night or that she might not be able to make it to the gig. Heck, she hadn't even told them her mother was threatening her to quit the band. She didn't want to worry them at all and hated bringing her parents up period. So it was all for the best if they didn't know… right?
Sighing, she slumped against her door and cradled her head in her hands. Her life was quickly becoming a nightmare right in front of her eyes, and she didn't know how much she could take before she cracked. She only hoped her parents left on another trip very soon. She'd already smoked through three packs of cigarettes when she would normally only 'indulge' in one or two after a particularly bad confrontation that occurred maybe once every time her parents were home.
Ayame crawled over to her bed and scrounged around in her backpack for her fourth pack of cigarettes. Shakily pulling one out and bringing it to her lips, she fumbled with her lighter before successfully producing a small blue flame. Inhaling, she could feel her body relaxing as the smoke filled her lungs before blowing it back out. She glanced down at the tiny white stick held between her fingers and sighed. Spreading her legs out in front of her on the floor, she extinguished the cigarette in a wooden bowl on her bedside table and flicked the burnt out cigarette in the waste basket and leaned the back of her head on the top of her bed. Her forest green eyes studied her ceiling absently. She was so hopeless…
X
"Okay, so that girl thinks she's so ugly that she needs to take drastic measures, like major plastic surgery?" Rin queried as she and Sango sat on Sango's couch watching some mid-afternoon reality show re-run.
"Yup," Sango said with a nod, completely engrossed in the intricacies of the program.
Rin just rolled her eyes. Some people were just beyond her range of understanding. How could people think this crap? God made them exactly how he wanted them to be, and here they were, on television, altering their appearances just because the media told them they were ugly and worthless. And even worse, how could people watch this crap? They were only buying into the whole thing and feeding the hideous monster by being so enthralled and mesmerized by it! Couldn't they see what was going on? Was the world today really so blind?
Glancing at her band mate beside her and the blank expression on her face and how she was virtually glued to the TV screen, Rin nodded mentally to herself. Yes, yes it was. Rolling her eyes, the short sixteen-year-old stood up from the couch and wandered into Sango's room. Her bass leaned against the wall in its hard case next to the folded up futon that she was using while staying at the Taijiya house.
Opening up the case and extracting her beloved instrument, Rin sat on Sango's bed and cradled it to her chest, automatically tuning the strings out of habit. She plucked at the thick strings randomly, humming a soft melody to herself as she imagined the guitar and drum parts. After a few moments when the random plucking became a steady pattern, she began to sing words under her breath, pausing every so often to think over a tricky phrase or sequence and then repeating the altered pieces. By the time Sango managed to pull herself away from the glowing screen of the TV, Rin had a raw and untainted song on her hands.
"Hey, Rin," Sango called as she padded down the hall. "You okay?"
Rin glanced up distractedly at the doorway and nodded before bowing her head over her bass once more. Sango sat down beside her and listened for a while.
"So, whatcha doing?"
"Nothin'."
"Doesn't sound like 'nothing,'" Sango prodded, leaning over Rin's shoulder to see the chords she strumming. "Teach me, 'kay?"
She stood up and grabbed her Hiraikotsu from its stand by her bed and sat back down. Rin glanced up at her as if coming out of a trance. She stared at the older girl for a moment in confusion. Sango just smiled encouragingly at her.
"What?"
"Teach me," Sango repeated, motioning to the brightly colored bass.
Rin glanced down and flushed in embarrassment. It wasn't anything serious and she still wasn't confident in her song writing skills, even after almost three years. But Sango stayed put and kept looking at her expectantly. So with a sigh, Rin hesitantly started strumming again and sang softly, almost inaudibly. But Sango heard and grinned as the song unfolded before her. Rin was the best songwriter she knew, even if the younger girl didn't believe her. And she definitely wasn't disappointing with this one either. Rin was truly a musical genius.
X
Ayame was still sitting in the same position almost two hours later. Her eyes stared unseeingly up at the ceiling and she sat perfectly still. The room was eerily silent as the world outside of her four walls continued without her. Then her cell phone rang.
Ayame sluggishly rolled her head forward and stared blankly at the small, silver device lying on the carpeted floor where it had fallen when she'd been digging through her backpack. After a minute, the ringing stopped and she returned to staring up at the ceiling again. But a few seconds later, the ringing started all over again and she sat back up with a frustrated sigh. Couldn't they see she was busy?
Scooping up the incessantly ringing and vibrating phone, she snapped it open, not even looking at the caller ID and growled into the phone.
"What do you want?"
"Whoa, girl, settle down!" Sango's voice came over the end, startling the redhead.
"Sango?" she asked hesitantly.
"The one and only!" she said brightly. "So, what's up in your neck of the woods? Your parents treating you okay?"
Ayame ran a hand tiredly over her face. Leave it to Sango to blatantly cut to the chase. She really didn't need to deal with this right now…
"Yeah, I'm okay."
"Really? 'Cause it definitely doesn't sound that way."
She sighed inaudibly. Damn it, why did Sango always have to be so good at reading people? Especially her?
"No, I'm fine. No worries," she said with a forced smile.
"Stop trying to fool me," Sango said flatly, her bright and shiny mood slipping from her voice. "Now tell me what's wrong."
Ayame glanced at the wastebasket that held the extinguished cigarette. Nope, not happening. Not in a million years was she telling her best friend- Shit. Now she felt even worse! She couldn't tell her best friend what was going on? Not even the basics of her inner turmoil? What a great person she was…
"Nothing; it's stupid. Don't worry about it," she finally said.
"Don't pull this bullshit on me, Ayame Yuki!" Sango nearly growled into the phone.
"I'm not pulling anything!" Ayame protested indignantly. 'Yes I am,' she thought meekly.
"Oh, come on! Don't tell me that you're fully capable of handling whatever the hell it is that's wrong by yourself!"
"I am." 'I'm not.'
"Well," she said with a defeated sigh. "At least tell me, so that I don't pull my hair out worrying about you and your 'problems.' It's not good to bottle it up, you know," she teased, trying to lighten the mood.
Ayame couldn't help but smile slightly.
"It's really no big deal, San. Just stress from my parents being home," she said lightly, trying to brush off the little insistent voice in the back of her head: 'I've been smoking for nearly five years secretly from being over-stressed after Gramps died and my parents blaming me. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal.'
"Oh," Sango sounded more than just a little disappointed from her dismissal of the topic. "Um, okay…"
"So, why'd you call?" 'Help me!'
"Uh, it was nothing really. Just making sure we're all set for tonight. Sorry you couldn't come and hang out with us tonight at the launch thingy. Rin super excited about it."
Rin's voice came over the phone in the background. "Heck yes, I am!"
Ayame chuckled softly, finally settling down from having a fairly normal conversation with her best friend and hearing Rin's voice. The younger, perky girl had always been a bright light in her life ever since they'd met. It still amazed her how the younger girl could still find the strength to keep going and find happiness in her life.
"I am too. But I'll definitely be at the gig later. I just had to take care of some scheduling problems. You know how my mom is when she's home…"
"Ooh, Ayame has a schedule for once!" Sango teased with a laugh. "Great. I'll see you later. Have fun doing… whatever it is you're doing! Love you, babe!"
"Love you too, San. I'll see you later."
"Bye!"
"Bye."
And with that, Sango hung up. Ayame sighed and ended the call herself and tossed the phone on the floor again. Lifting a shaky hand up to her face, she stared at it for a while before shifting her eyes and staring through her fingers at the wall in front of her. She stayed like that for a few minutes, face and mind blank, before blowing her held breath slowing out through her mouth. Pulling the same hand through her long red hair, she stood up and walked over to her full-length mirror, studying her reflection intently.
"What's wrong with me?" she muttered. "I'm falling apart. What happened?"
Her reflection just stared back at her with sad, green eyes, offering up no answers or excuses. Sighing, she leaned her forehead against the cool surface and closed her eyes. It was pointless to just run around in circles with herself and not getting anywhere. Maybe she should tell Sango and Rin. She knew she needed help. But… her pride just wasn't letting her do that… yet.
X
Rin and Sango left the launch party at nine-thirty for their gig, laughing and joking as they drove over to the café, taking turns changing in the back of Mr. Taijiya's van that they had borrowed for all of their gigs. They had had a fairly good time playing servant for the world's rich and famous. At first they'd been a little awe-struck at the sheer magnitude of it all and at the fact that these people considered this as 'normal.' Then they got over it and imagined how it would be for them in a few years once they hit it big. 'Just like this,' was how Rin had so eloquently put it.
Now they were busy sound checking and putting on the finishing touches of their outfits. After all, it's nearly impossible to put on makeup in a jostling van and while you're almost rolling around with laughter. The show was supposed to start in fifteen minutes, and still Ayame hadn't showed up. They were actually starting to get worried; Ayame was always the early one.
A man in his mid-thirties holding a clipboard came up to them while they stood at the back door anxiously. Where was their drummer? If she didn't show up soon, they'd probably have to cancel… or come up with a random acoustic set… that they didn't have.
"Girls, any sign of your drummer?" he asked with a fair amount of concern in his voice.
"No…" Rin said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Not yet…"
"This isn't like her, though," Sango muttered, frowning at the dark parking lot. "I don't know why she's not here; she said she'd be here…"
"Well, you've got ten minutes before we have to cancel your set," he said apologetically.
"What about an acoustic set?" Rin asked suddenly, turning to him desperately. "Just Sango and me?"
The manager shrugged. "Sure, I guess. As long as it's good and you're able to put it together quickly. I don't have a problem with it personally."
The two nodded and turned back to the open door and empty lot. They exchanged a look once the manager had left before sighing.
"We're in deep shit, aren't we?" Sango said flatly.
Rin just nodded, large brown eyes scanning the lot desperately for any sign of the redhead or her blue Mustang. 'Come on, Aya. Don't let us down now…'
X
Ayame maneuvered around traffic with ease as she chatted with the young man beside her. She hadn't really planned on bringing him or anyone else with her when she ditched the launch, but this just seemed right for some reason. And because she hadn't felt like anything in her life lately was right – besides the band, of course – she wasn't about to let this pass her by.
"So, you don't exactly seem like the kind of guy who attends these kinds of events. Why were you there?" she asked in a break in their conversation. It'd been killing her ever since she'd started talking to him.
Kouga sighed and leaned his head back on the headrest. "I had to go," he stated simply, crystal blue eyes closed.
"So did I, but that's not anything new for me," she said flatly.
"Well, don't you think it's rude if the guest of honor doesn't show up to his own party?" he shot back. "Since you're the expert on these sort of things, after all."
Ayame turned to him wide-eyed and slack-jawed at his flippant statement. Did he just say…
"Green light," he said, bringing her out of her daze like a jolt of electricity.
Automatically, she turned back to the road and stepped off the brake and onto the gas pedal. But her mind was still reeling. This guy she'd just met, the mysterious Kouga, was, in fact, part of Brand New Breed, the ridiculously famous band that had taken the world by storm. And he was sitting next to her, in her car, ditching his own party in favor of her company and wherever it was that she was going… This was unbelievable. And she said so in a voice barely above a whisper.
Kouga just chuckled. "Don't tell me you didn't notice who I was like everyone else who was there."
"No," Ayame murmured, shaking her head. "I seriously didn't recognize you."
"Oh, please," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "A blind old crone could've recognized me in that place."
He grinned at her and her breath caught in her throat. This couldn't be real. How the hell did this happen?
"So, where are we going exactly? You never mentioned our destination," he said as if he was just a normal person and not a universal celebrity.
Ayame glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Mentally shaking her head to clear it, she focused back on the road in front of her. 'Get a hold of yourself, Ayame,' she thought sternly. 'You're acting like a lovesick fan girl or something. Sure he's living out your dream, but who cares? Not you. Now stop it! Rin and Sango are counting on you to be there tonight and not off in Lala Land!' With a resolute nod, she tightened her grip on the steering wheel and her eyes sharpened as she stared down the stretch of road in front of her.
"Uh, Ayame?" a hand waved in front of her face, causing her to jump back in surprise. "Did you hear me?"
"What?"
"I asked where are we going," he said, glancing at her worriedly.
"Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something. Hey, what time is it?"
Kouga glanced down at his watch. "Um, it's almost ten-fifteen, why?"
"Shit!" Ayame yelled, startling the celebrity. "I'm so late! They're going to kill me!"
And as if on cue, her cell phone vibrated in the cup holder. Snatching it up, she snapped it open, not even bothering to check the caller ID. Kouga just glanced at her skeptically.
"I know, I know, and I'm sorry!" she shrieked in her hysteria. "I'm on my way right now!"
That seemed to placate the person on the other line and Ayame listened anxiously as they other person spoke frantically in her ear. She nodded and hummed in agreement every few second before finally speaking.
"Yeah, I'm four blocks away, so I'll see you in a little bit. Tell them not to worry; I'll be ready to go on right away. Well, no; I haven't changed, but I don't have time do I?" she frowned at the response before sighing in relief. "Okay, that's awesome. I owe you, San. Yeah, I love you too. See you. Bye!"
Snapping her phone shut, she ignored Kouga's inquisitive glances and sped up a little. Taking a sharp turn, she finally looked over and grinned slightly.
"Sorry about all this. It was really bad planning on my part, but I didn't expect my socialite mother to parade me around for so long. I should have left sooner. Hey," she glanced at the back seat. "Could you grab that bag from the back for me? I need to change out of this stupid dress."
Kouga nodded and reached back, pulling a Trader Joe's bag into his lap. He glanced down at the contents and looked up at the redhead with raised eyebrows. Ayame just flashed him a look that clearly said 'What?' Kouga just shook his head with a smirk and continued digging through the bag.
Ayame's shoulders had tensed ever since she realized how late she was and she only seemed to relax slightly when the café parking lot came into view and she had swung the car into an empty space. She bolted out as soon as she had sufficiently parked and raced for the open doors and her two best friends waiting anxiously beside it. She ran into their arms and smiled brightly. Kouga had exited the Mustang at a more leisurely pace than the seventeen-year-old. He stood at the side passenger door, holding the paper bag and watching the exchange with a slight grin. She looked really happy. Just then, Ayame turned and motioned for him to follow them as the entered the back door and he jogged after them into the fray of the café's backstage world.
X
"So, Aya, who's the dude?" Rin asked as soon as they entered the bathroom and Ayame stripped off the slinky dress.
The redhead had just pulled her top over her head and was in the middle of struggling into it completely. The sight of Ayame stuffing herself into a shirt and looking at her funnily through the top had Rin falling against the sink in laughter. Ayame pulled the shirt over her head and shoved her arms through their respective sleeves before crossing her arms over her chest and quirking an eyebrow at the short brunette. Of course, Rin kept laughing, sputtering and pointing at her person. Fairly annoyed by this time, she looked down at herself and quickly snatched up her pants, glaring at her younger friend all the while. Rin just continued to laugh, much to Ayame's chagrin.
"Hey, guys, you almost finished?" Sango called as she strolled into the bathroom to join her band mates. One glance in their direction and she rolled her eyes and leaned back against the door. "I'll take that as a no."
Rin managed to calm down to only the occasional snort and giggle. The two older girls just stared at her for a moment before glancing at each other and shrugging simultaneously. She was always like this, they should be used to it by now.
"So, who was that guy anyway?" Sango asked after a pause. "He looked familiar…"
Ayame chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck, turning towards the mirror to distract them. Of course he looked familiar. He was a music superstar. God, how was she going to explain this?
"Eheh, nobody. Just some guy I met today. He's pretty cool and wanted to come along," she said offhandedly, trying to act nonchalant.
The two girls gave her identical looks. Ayame gulped, praying that they wouldn't notice how nervous she was. Why couldn't they just drop it?
"You just met him today?" Sango asked skeptically, crossing her arms and shifting her feet so that her hip stuck out in the 'power/don't mess with me' pose.
"Yeah, how well do you know this guy? I mean, for all you know, he could be, like, a rapist or something," Rin added, her mouth drawing into a thin line while she frowned concernedly.
Ayame shook her head. Of course they had to get overprotective. She felt like sighing in exasperation and laughing hysterically at the same time. Only Rin and Sango, only Rin and Sango…
"Don't worry, guys; he's cool. He's actually a perfect gentleman."
Their looks, if possible, darkened. Ayame just sighed and scooped up her dress and shoes before dumping them in the empty bag. Pulling the pins from her long red hair, she shook her hair free and fluffed it a bit. She could beat on a set of drums like this, not in that satiny dress her mother had all but stuffed her in.
"Come on, guys. We have a gig to play," she said with a placating grin as she backed out of the bathroom. "And I promise I'll explain about my friend later. Let's just have fun, okay?"
The two looked skeptical but followed after her. Rin turned to Sango though as they were walking down the hall to the 'green room.'
"He doesn't even have a name!" she stage whispered, glancing at Ayame's back.
Sango nodded in agreement, looking up at her best friend and studying her back as if she could figure out what was going on in the soft threads of her shirt. Ayame could hear every word Rin had said, but she just shook her head with a wry grin. She'd tell them later. They were going to laugh and joke about it and not dwell on the fact that Ayame had, in fact, been at the launch and that she was keeping something this big a secret. But somewhere in the back of her head, she couldn't help but feel that something bigger than just Sango, Rin, and herself playing a regular gig was happening that would set things in motion that they might not be ready for. But that was just a silly feeling that didn't matter… right?
E
That's long enough, right? Well, my first week of school was good. Kinda boring and I find myself wondering whether it's really been four days and not four months, or something… But I'm excited for choir! Yay for choir! And my AP Euro class is pretty cool. I'm already planning out the next three chapters (since I do these things in threes, doi), but I have no idea when they'll come out. Until next time! Have a great week, or whatever! – Hope Swings