Chapter 9- Excitement
It was late June in San Francisco, and Kari was secretly miserable. Back in the winter, she and T.K. had exchanged letters at least twice a week. But as time wore on, however, Kari began to receive fewer and fewer letters from him. Now, she only received a letter from him every two or three weeks.
True, she hadn't been writing as many letters either. At first there had been excuses on both of their parts. Without Kari around, T.K. and Davis were now the best of friends. Besides, T.K. was always spending most of his time on the basketball court, and he had told Kari in a letter that he was spending every weekend at his dad's apartment. He said that staying there had become an form of entertainment after Tai moved in.
In April Hannah and Lynn had both received their driver's licenses, and driving with Lynn was an adventure itself. Mostly, though, Kari kept herself busy. She had thought that if she kept busy, she wouldn't think about T.K., and if T.K. was forgetting about her, than she would make herself forget about him to.
At least, that's what she tried to convince herself. Inside, Kari was miserable, and her Californian friends were not oblivious to the fact.
Lynn managed to drag Hannah away from Tom long enough to plan a girl's night. By this, meaning that the two twins spontaneously arrived on Kari's doorstep with their sleeping bags and invaded her house.
They were sprawled out in her small attic room among bags of potato chips, tubs of ice-cream, and a plate of chocolate fudge brownies, currently involved in a game of Truth or Dare. By now, though, Kari and Hannah knew better than to accept one of Lynn's dares, and none of their dares even phased Lynn, so the game would be better known as simply Truth.
"Hannah, truth or dare?" Lynn asked, giving Hannah an option, even though Hannah's answer was the obvious one.
"Truth."
"How far have you and Tom gone?" Lynn asked mischievously. She winked at Kari, and Kari felt herself blush for some unknown reason.
"You can't ask that," Hannah said, "it's against the rules or something."
"You have to!" Lynn protested. "Right, Kari?"
Kari nodded her confirmation, helping herself to another spoonful of her favorite Rocky Road ice-cream.
"I'm not telling you that," Hannah continued to argue with her sister, "that's way too personal."
"Personal?" Lynn rebuked, "I'm your twin sister. You're supposed to tell me all of that stuff."
"Well, I'm not going to."
"Fine then," Lynn surprisingly conceded. "I didn't really want to know anyway." She made a disgusted face, but Hannah saw it.
"Like you can talk," Hannah smirked, "you've gone farther than I have."
Kari was surprised with this bit of information, and she gave Lynn an inquisitive look. "With who?" Kari demanded of her so-called best friend.
"It was last summer, before you moved here," Hannah answered for her. "Drew was having this big party, and…"
Lynn smacked her sister with a pillow, cutting the rest of her sentence off.
"Drew?" Kari asked. "Did you do it with Drew?"
"Hey," Hannah said. "It's my turn to ask a question. Kari, truth or dare?"
Kari knew that Hannah's dares wouldn't be too bad, but she was enjoying herself just talking with the two girls, so she said, "Truth."
Hannah's mischievous grin matched Lynn's as she asked, "Speaking of Drew, whatever happened to your boyfriend in Japan, the one that you told Drew you were in love with? Did something happen? Before he was all you used to talk about. T.K. this, and T.K. that, and we've noticed you haven't mentioned him lately…"
Lynn and Hannah exchanged serious glances their joking tones completely vanished. Kari glanced at the junk food and sleeping bags, seeing them in a different light.
"Ohh…" Kari said, "so this is a pity party?"
"No, of course not," Hannah reassured her. "We were just worried about you…"
"Did you two break up?" Lynn asked.
"I don't know," Kari said, suddenly feeling like crying. "I think we may be drifting apart, but I wouldn't know, since I haven't seem him in a year."
"Well, it's understandable," Hannah said, "long distance relationships are tough, especially when the distance part is an ocean."
"Yeah," Lynn agreed, "a couple summers ago I met this kid Jake at soccer camp who lived in Oakland. We tried the whole long distance thing, until I thought I'd surprise him at one of his tournaments. I got there in time to see him score the winning goal, but then I saw him celebrate by making out with his other girlfriend."
Hannah threw the pillow back at Lynn. "But I'm sure T.K. wouldn't cheat on you," she managed to say while viciously beating her sister with the pillow.
"The T.K. I used to know never would," Kari said, even though she wasn't sure they were listening anymore. "But I don't know if I even know him anymore…"
Lynn pulled a C.D. out of her bag and inserted it in Kari's stereo. Kari didn't even have to see the case, instantly recognizing Matt's voice through the speakers.
Lynn gazed at the C.D. cover for a second, and then said, "I know it's Kari's turn, but I have a good question. Hannah, truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Who do you think is hotter Yamato or Takeru?"
Kari's heart stopped.
"Yama-what and who?" Hanna replied.
"You know, The Teenage Wolves…" Lynn rolled her eyes and threw the C.D. case at her blonde sister.
"Wait a minute," Kari said quietly, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Hmm, this is a hard decision," Hannah said, staring at the cover, ignoring Kari's unusual statement. "I don't know. Yamato's got the whole 'bad boy' thing going on, but Takeru's really hot."
"Takeru, as in Takeru Takaishi?" Kari managed to say.
"Uhh…" Lynn snatched the case back from Hannah and flipped through the cover. "Yeah, Takeru Takaishi. He's Yamato's little brother, so that's why they're both so hot."
"How did you know, Kari?" Hannah asked. "Oh my God, have you met him?"
Kari was lost for words. T.K. was in Matt's band? How come he hadn't mentioned that to her? Was she so unimportant that he wouldn't even tell her such an important detail?
Lynn and Hannah were both staring at her expectantly when Kari's phone began to ring. Rather than explain that T.K. and Takeru were the same person, and that she was supposedly dating a rock star, she decided to answer the phone instead.
"Hello?" she said into the receiver, while Lynn turned down the stereo, and Hannah helped herself to another brownie.
"Kari?" a voice replied, and although she hadn't heard it in a year, she recognized it immediately at the single word.
"T.K.?" she stammered, jaw dropping. Lynn's eyes widened, and Hannah ceased chewing.
"Yeah, umm…" he fumbled.
"T.K. it's great to hear from you, but my grandmother's going to kill me if she found out I was making long distance calls."
"Well, that's the thing, Kari," there was a dramatic pause. "This isn't a long distance call."
Kari was frozen in shock, which was only added on to the surprise of recently discovering his involvement in Matt's band.
"I know this is a lot to ask," T.K. said, "but I was wondering if you could come pick me up."
"Where are you?" Kari surprisingly managed to say.
"The airport, my plane just landed. Do you think you can come get me?"
"Yeah, sure, just wait for us outside after you get your luggage."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Bye."
"See you soon."
Kari was still in shock as she hung up the phone.
"He's here?" Lynn asked, and Kari could only nod in response.
"Get your keys," she said, smiling despite all of her mixed emotions towards him. "Looks like you guys are finally going to meet the infamous T.K."
The twins pestered Kari for information the whole way to the airport, yet the few questions that Kari did answer, she replied with single word responses. They pulled in front of the terminal, and Kari was shaking, though she couldn't figure out why.
Lynn easily pulled the car behind a yellow taxi, and Hannah, who was in the front seat, began searching the thin crowd for T.K., despite the fact that she had never met him.
Kari, however, didn't have to look. She knew where he was standing before she could clearly see his face, sensing him instinctively. After Lynn parked the car, Kari shifted in her seat to look at T.K., savoring the few moments she could study him before he realized she was there.
He was wearing a big, light blue hoodie sweatshirt over blue jeans, with a baseball cap and dark sunglasses disguising him from any Teenage Wolves fans, yet Kari had no doubt that it was him.
Sooner than she expected, he turned, sensing her presence as she had felt him. Hannah and Lynn were still scanning the people leaving the building as Kari opened the door and climbed out of the car.
He was only a few steps away from Lynn's car, yet he closed the distance between them in a miniscule of a second. Kari was still trembling as she threw her arms around him, and he held her in a tight embrace.
Still in shock, Kari pulled T.K. into the backseat of Lynn's car beside her. Once inside, he removed his sunglasses and cap, ruffling his disheveled mass of golden hair. They had driven a few miles, and T.K.'s eyes never left Kari, he didn't even notice that there were other people in the car until Kari said, "These are my friends, Lynn and Hannah."
Hannah turned around and smiled at him. "I'm Hannah, this is Lynn, but it's okay if you can't tell us apart, it took Kari a few months."
T.K. smiled at her, "I'm Takeru, but you can call me T.K."
Lynn swerved violently at this, causing the car in the lane beside her to slam on his horn as she almost crashed into him. "Holy shit," she said disbelievingly. "You're Takeru Takaishi!"
"Yeah," T.K. said as he let go of the door handle he was clinging to. "So you're a fan of the Wolves."
Hannah smiled, "I knew it," she said before she turned around to tell Lynn she was going the wrong way.
The two sisters began another fight, giving Kari and T.K. a private moment in the backseat. "Why didn't you tell me you joined Matt's band?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise. That's why I haven't been writing a lot lately. I've been spending a lot of time with the band, and then we were on tour all summer. I didn't want you to suspect anything if my letters started coming from America."
"Oh," Kari said, regretting ever doubting him. Was it really not even an hour ago she considered that he might be cheating on her?
"Matt convinced me to sing with him because he said they were planning a tour in America and there was going to be a show in San Francisco," T.K. continued. "But then, I found out a couple of weeks ago that Matt cancelled the San Francisco show because he wanted to spend more time in New York and Los Angeles."
"So, why are you here? And where's Matt?"
"I don't know where he is. We got into a fight in New York and he got on a plane to Los Angeles, and I got on a plane to San Francisco."
Kari didn't know what to say, her wonder rendering her speechless for the second time in her life, the first time being the night she had learned of her parent's divorce.
"Kari, say something," T.K. said gently, his hand brushing her cheek.
And, "I love you," was what came out.