Never Far
Chapter 13- SpeculationA short while after her father had left, there was a soft knock on the door, which startled all three women who were sitting in the living room actually watching the same television show together without arguing. Kari opened the door much more slowly this time, cautious about whom she would let inside. She had nothing to fear, however, as it was only her best friends Lynn and Hannah standing in the doorway.
"We decided to reschedule our girls' night for tonight," Hannah explained as they stepped inside, baring the usual bags of junk food, pillows, and sleeping bags.
After they had arranged everything in Kari's room, Lynn commented on the irregularity of Kari's mother and grandmother actually agreeing on a television show.
"I guess we're all just a little shaken up right now," Kari admitted quietly.
"Was it because The Wolves and everyone left this morning?" Hannah asked sincerely.
"Well, yeah, I guess that's part of it. But mostly it's because of my father." She then went on to explain everything that had happened after his arrival and the things he had said to her and her mother.
"Kari that's terrible," Lynn said, not really able to relate as their parents were happily married.
"So are you going to go to the wedding?"
"I really don't know. I should, but I'm so mad at him. I want to go home and see everyone and everything, but I don't know if I can take it."
"Well, that's understandable. At least you have a few weeks to decide."
"Yeah, I guess. But can you guys do me a favor and just not talk about my family anymore."
"That sounds like a good idea," Hannah and Lynn nodded in agreement.
"So Lynn," Kari changed the topic, "did you get to say goodbye to Matt this morning or did you talk to him at the party last night?"
Lynn made a disgusted face, "I tried talking to him last night, but he was completely wasted, not to mention the fact that it was impossible to keep his attention with Tai hanging on him the whole time."
"It was kind of cute," Hannah added. "Whenever Lynn tried to talk to Matt, Tai started acting like he was jealous or something."
"I'm sorry, Lynn. I should have warned you," Kari apologized. "Those two act like an old married couple sometimes."
Lynn shrugged. "Your warning's a little too late. I've already given up on Matt. I think that he would rather be with Tai, but I honestly didn't mean that as an insult."
"I know what you meant," Kari concurred, "those two would be an adorable couple." The twins laughed at the idea, but agreed with Kari.
The rest of the night unfolded with the same, with gossip and giggling, which was extremely comforting to Kari after her eventful morning.
Though Kari tried not to think about it, in just a few short weeks the summer flew by. One afternoon during her last week of summer vacation, she was sitting on the porch of her grandmother's house, taking a break after dragging her mail up the front stairs.
Ever since Kari's performance in the Teenage Wolves concert, she had been receiving an unbelievable amount of fan mail. Most of it, however, was tremendously unpleasant. It seems that almost every teenage girl felt it was their duty to send Kari letters about how she wasn't good enough to be with T.K.
The first few that had been sent to her had really hurt. She couldn't understand how girls could be so cruel, but after they started arriving in huge mail bags, she started dumping them straight into the trash can. But then that started becoming a difficult process as well. Most of the mail to her mother and grandmother was mixed in with all of the fan mail, so everyday she had to sit at the top of the stairs and sort it all into three piles.
The first was the crazy fan mail that was headed straight for the garbage, the second was for all of the American colleges that had somehow gotten her name and address and had been sending her brochures and post cards. The third was for the mail for her mother and Grandma Kate.
When she was finished, she gathered Pile Number One and immediately threw it into the garbage can. Afterwards, she headed back up the stairs and noticed a thin envelope that had somehow escaped her careful filing system.
Picking it up, she saw that it was addressed to her and had a Tokyo postage stamp. Inside there was a short note and another envelope.
The note was from her father, informing her that the wedding was planned for this Saturday, and Tara absolutely needed her to be there. Inside the envelope was one plane ticket. She checked the date and the flight wasn't scheduled for a few days, so she would be in Japan to help her future stepmother with most of the preparations.
Though it had been several weeks, Kari was still unsure of whether or not she should attend. In all honesty, the only reason Kari wanted to go was to see her friends. She believed that the negative aspects of the wedding outweighed the prospect of spending time with her friends.
When she told her mother and grandmother about her dilemma, she expected them to agree with her when she said that she didn't think she wanted to go. So, she was absolutely shocked when they both told her that she should.
"It doesn't matter what terrible things he's done," Grandma Kate told her, "he's still your father, and you have to at least respect him for that."
Kari's mother was mostly silent through her grandmother's lectures, but when Kari asked her what she thought, she told her that, "You can't avoid the fact that he's getting married. You're acting like a little girl who's afraid of changing and refuses to even meet her new stepmother. You have a real problem here, Kari, but staying in California won't solve anything."
"And Kari," Grandma Kate added, "I hope that you're responsible enough to know when you have to grow up. And also that if you don't get upstairs and pack, we'll do it for you."
Not knowing any sensible way to reply, Kari headed upstairs to start packing.
Instead of getting started right away, she sat down on her bed and thought about everything her mother and grandmother had said. She guessed that they had a point. Was she really afraid to accept the changes?
Besides, she had a dress, shoes, a date (hopefully), and friends and family. Now that she rethought the situation, she couldn't see any reason why she had doubted herself before. Heck, this might even be fun.
A few days later, she was fully packed, dressed in her favorite jeans and zip up hoodie and standing in front of airport security, kissing her mother and grandmother goodbye.
After that, Kari endured an extremely long and extremely boring flight before stepping off the plane into the warm Japanese air. Despite everything she had been worried about earlier, she felt a sense of relief with the feeling of being home.
She had e-mailed her father, T.K., and Tai to tell them that she would be coming back into town for the wedding. After she went through security once more and picked up her suitcase, she headed down one more escalator to the exit.
Expecting only Tai or maybe her father to be waiting for her, she was incredibly surprised when she turned the corner to see not only Tai and Matt, but also T.K., Yolei, Davis, Ken, Cody, Sora, Izzy, and even Joe standing next to the doors. Kari ran towards them, which was quite difficult as she had to drag her suitcase along behind her.
Davis was the first to reach her, and he hugged her tightly, lifting her into the air. He was about to kiss her when Yolei punched his arm. "It's my turn to hug Kari, Davis!" she scolded him and then turned on Kari. There was much screaming, hugging, and crying on Yolei's part as she was reunited with her best fried, but she soon moved away so that Kari could greet the others.
It was one of the happiest moments of Kari's life. Never before had most of the people that she loved done so much just to show her that they loved and missed her.
After many odd looks, and a security guard who was about to literally kick them out, they decided that it was time to go. T.K. linked arms with her and, as a giant mob, the digi-destineds headed to the parking lot where they piled into Mr. Ishida's van.
For some strange and incredibly stupid reason, Matt let Tai drive, so they reached Matt and Tai's apartment in less than ten minutes, even with rush hour traffic. Once they arrived there, Kari was even more surprised to find the big celebration that they had planned for her. There was a "Welcome Home" banner hanging from the ceiling, a beautiful cake, and food and drinks set up for a party.
Kari stayed with them for a little while, enjoying the time with her friends, but it wasn't too long before the jetlag began to affect her exhaustion set in. Although Davis had all but begged Kari to let him walk home with her, of course, it was T.K. who escorted her.
After they exited the apartment building, they walked silently for a while, enjoying each other's company. Before too long, T.K. broke the silence.
"Good to be home?"
She nodded in agreement, smiling up at him.
"So do you have plans for tomorrow?" he asked her, almost shyly.
"I don't know. I haven't even talked to my dad since that day in California." They had reached the front doors of Kari's old apartment, where her father still resided. "I'll call you tomorrow if I'm free."
"Okay," he whispered, his body moving closer and closer to hers, until their lips met. As tired as Kari was, she responded to his needy kisses with equal vehemence. Kari had her back pressed against the wall of the apartment building as he moved even closer towards her.
Kari was half asleep, but was still enjoying his company. He kissed her neck, sucking on her skin and licking all of her sensitive spots. He only stopped when she closed her eyes and subconsciously moaned seductively.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" he asked her, his voice low and his lips still caressing her neck.
She smiled, and gently pushed him away. "T.K., not tonight. I'm so tired, I'm fighting to keep my eyes open."
"Alright," he sighed, obviously disappointed. "But I'm still going to go up with you."
"Good," she said, taking his hand in hers and pushing open the front door. They took the stairs up the four flights and T.K. walked with her all the way to the front door of the apartment. He kissed her one last time and then turned back towards the stairs. He had decided that he would be better off not interfering with her reunion with her father.
Kari watched him leave, though she was still fighting off sleep. Then she turned to the doorway that she had walked through a billion times before. The door that she had leaned against when Tai was at soccer practice and she had lost her key. The very same door that walked through carrying all of her clothes in big cardboard boxes…
Kari realized that she had to be really exhausted if she was standing in the hallway contemplating a door. She raised her hand to knock, but hesitated, though she didn't understand why. This was her home, the place she had been longing to return to for over a year, and now she couldn't understand why she was nervous to enter.
Yawning, she realized that her thoughts were beyond the point of making sense. So she knocked loudly and confidently, and was blinking back sleep, when the door opened in front of her.