"PARTY, PARTY, PARTY! WOOO, FUCK YEAH!" Minori yelled loudly in my room. Minori, Renee, and I were getting ready with our makeup and costume. It was the day of Yumi's Halloween party and I was looking forward to it. It made me excited to just have fun and relax.
"Shhh!" I told her. "Watch your language. There is a little girl who picks up on those things." Indicating Kira sitting downstairs, watching TV.
"Oops, sorry." Minori whispered. She was wearing her blue maid outfit with fake blood coming from the heart area. For her makeup, she was pale with fake so-called blood streaming as if coming from her eye. She had put on cat ears, I have no clue why.
Renee had on her black and purple Queen of Darkness dress and had dark makeup. Her hair was left down and she had a black crown on. It suited her so well. Right now, she was working on her hair. Making it fall just right because it was so long.
I was currently working on my makeup. My dark purple witch's dress was a little above my knees. I didn't feel like putting the hat on, but I did but my hair up.
"I'm just so excited," Minori explained. "I mean, it's going to be so awesome and a bit scary because it's a night but still. I heard there's going to be a lot of hot guys there." Then she winked.
Renee laughed. "Not for me. I'm happily taken by my King of Darkness."
"I guess that's a good thing. Less competition," Minori joked. "I don't know about that sexy witch over there though."
"Please," I started telling her. "I don't need a guy. Better off single. I'll just be standing there, all awkward and shit."
"Don't worry, you can stay with me and Suke," Renee said.
Minori laughed. "Oh, yeah, 'cause they'll make you feel so totally LESS awkward."
I just rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Hey, when are the guys going to be here?"
Renee checked her cellphone. "They should've been here about 10 minutes ago…"
As if on cue, we heard a car and then multiple sounds of loud honks. The car was turned off and then we heard the guys' voices.
"Idiot," we heard Suke say.
"Just letting them know we were here," Kai replied back.
The doorbell rang and I heard Kira open the door. Didn't mom tell her to not open the door to strangers?
"Akemi!" Kira yelled. "Your stupid friends are here! Except for Kai!"
I just shook my head. She loved his name because they both had the same letters except he didn't have the R.
"Ready?" Renee stood in the doorway.
"Yes!" Minori ran out and I followed after her. Renee shut my door and we walked downstairs.
As expected of, Kira was holding on to Kai's hand protectively.
Wow. Their costumes. I almost busted out laughing at that. Kai had this fake moustache on and fairy wings on the back… His whole outfit was a pirate one. Daichi was a ninja samurai of awesomeness, Kai explained.
"What the hell?" Minori was laughing. "What ARE you?" She referred to Kai.
"I am a magical Mexican fairy pirate. I will not hesitate to slap you with my wings," he told her indignantly.
"What's with the moustache?" I pointed out.
"Oh…" Then he stroked it. "I'm Mexican aren't I?"
Minori straight ripped it off. He yelled out in protest. "My moustache!" She said, "Gross." And then handed it back to him. He redid it and even looked in Renee's mirror, fixing it.
"I think we should be going now…" said Daichi. Suke nodded and Kai said goodbye to Kira. "Have fun!" My mom yelled out from her room. I sighed.
We all piled into Suke's car and he began to drive. Music was playing and it was quiet as he drove. There was the occasional talk.
"Calm down," I told Minori. She was practically bouncing in her seat. "Can't," she told me. "It's so… It's going to be so COOL!" she gushed.
"Ow," Daichi said in protest as she accidentally hit him. She ignored him on purpose making me laugh.
This awesome ass song came on and Kai started singing to it. Minori joined in with her high pitched voice. I looked outside the window at the darkness. Every time we drove out a night, I get this feeling of thrill. Like danger could happen but it didn't. We were driving farther and farther away from the town.
"Um…" I tapped on Suke's shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"Where are we going?" I asked. "The second house of Yumi's. Only it's farther away where there are plenty of forests and land," he told me.
I admit, I was actually a little uncomfortable about that. There were going to be a lot of strangers and it was far away from the town in some dark forests. Sounded like some horror movie.
I could see the trees passing by and could tell that we were getting nearer to the house. I saw the lights on up ahead and a whole bunch of varieties of colors. Suke parked in this parking lot. Wow. A house that had it's own parking lot. Well, it actually looked more like a mansion than a house with its tall gates and high roof. It was grand and looked expensive. I gulped.
I stepped out of the car and shivered. The chilly night air hit my skin and was freezing. We walked up to the gates and saw that many people were outside; either because the inside was too hot or too crowded. Probably both. Once I was inside, I gasped. It was so awesome. The music was loud and lots of people in cool costumes were dancing to it. There was some spinning globe thing with lights of red, blue, green, purple, and others shining. There were fake cobwebs everywhere, tables with blood colored punch and lots of Halloween decorated food. What caught my eye the most were the cupcakes. It just looked really delicious to me.
"Akemi, I'm gonna go meet some new people," Minori told me. I just nodded and walked through the crowd of freaks, towards the cupcakes. Once I made it to the table, I picked one up and started eating it. It was as good as it looked. I never realized I was so hungry…
I stood there, eating and drinking while watching everyone else. Minori was dancing and so was Kai. In fact, I think he was pretending to pretend to show off. He ended up messing up and I almost choked on my drink from laughter.
"Having fun?"
I turned to the person who asked that on my right. My smile faded right away when I saw Hikaru standing there. He had on old looking, ripped clothes. There was this chain collar around his neck which then traveled all the way attached to his right wrist. He grinned at me.
"And what are you supposed to be?" I questioned.
Hikaru looked up and down at me. I felt a bit uncomfortable about that. Self conscious.
"Your slave," he grinned. I raised my eyebrows at the 'your' part.
"Yes, your," he hit me playfully on my shoulder. I couldn't help but grin.
"Witches don't need slaves," I told him. "Well, you got one now," is all he said. I shook my head in disbelief. I started walking away from him.
"Wait," he called out. "What?" I turned and looked at him. "You can't just leave your slave here!"
Face palm.
I began walking away and he just chose to follow me. As I walked through the groups of people, I spotted Daichi sitting down with a drink. We glanced at each other and then looked away quickly. It was getting hot in the mansion.
I was barely aware of Hikaru blabbing about something behind me. All I focused on was getting some cool, fresh air. I found the back door and a whole bunch of people in the way. I couldn't get through. Irritated, I turned back around and tried finding the stairs leading to the second floor.
"Are you even paying attention?"
I ignored him and pushed past these huge jocks. They smelled bad and so I held my breath all the way through.
I finally found the staircase with a few groups of people on it. It was less crowded though and so I stepped carefully around each of them with Hikaru following after me. It was quieter upstairs and no one was there besides us two. You know, I hadn't even seen Yumi since this began. Huh.
I saw this sliding door at the very end and rushed towards it, sliding it open and stepping outside. It was a stone balcony overlooking the garden of flowers in the backyard. The garden was simply beautiful and glowed in the night. The fountain had white petals floating in it. There were people out there, below, but only a few.
The air felt good against my skin and I realized Hikaru was done talking. I turned to look at him, puzzled.
Hikaru was looking up at the sky. I don't know why, but I always end up at night with him with the sky and the stars in sight. Then he turned towards me and smiled that... Pretty smile. My face got all hot and red for some strange reason and I quickly looked out towards the forest. It was so awkward..
"What?" he asked, curious.
"Nothing..." I muttered. "No..." Hikaru protested. "Tell me."
"There's nothing to tell," I snapped back at him. He went quiet. Damn my rude mouth. I stood there, trying to calm down a bit because I told myself that I didn't like people like him. And I don't. But I still felt guilty when I said that. It was as bad as a "shut up".
I peeked sideways at him and he was looking down. "Err..." I began. Hikaru looked at me normally, as if I hadn't said anything mean to him.
"Sorry..." I muttered, then looked away. Urgh, I'm not used to apologizing to popular people.
"It's allright," he reassured me. "I'm kinda used to people being mean to me anyways."
That caught me off guard. "What?"
"Oh, nothing." And then he made a dramatic sigh and looked away. Eh? I looked at him and he was staring off out at the distance. "Noo," I told him. "What do you mean?"
Hikaru looked at me then, intently. "If I tell you, would you tell me why you uhh.. Turned red and looked away earlier?"
"Fine."
"Allright then," Hikaru began with a smile. "The reason why I'm used to people being so mean to me; like you are, -laughs- is because I'm popular. I don't know why they're so mean to me when I didn't even do anything to them. They're just mean to me because I look so dang hot." Then he laughed.
I felt even more guilty though. I had judged him also. But you know, I still don't like him. It'd be too complicated to be friends with all of those popular girls around thinking I'm some kind of 'competition'. Rumors will spread and I'll be picked on a lot. Maybe that's why I still don't like him. Hmm..
"Your turn!" He told me cheerfully. I stared at him.
"What?" He then asked self consciously.
"So you are conceited," I told him, thinking of how he said he looked so dang hot. Hikaru laughed. "Well, I know for sure I'm not ugly. And don't try changing the subject! Tell me what you looked away for earlier."
"I wasn't trying to change the conversation," I muttered. "Okay. I just noticed that almost everytime I'm with you, we're always outside, at night, with the sky in sight."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Then I walked to the stone bench by the door and sat down. It felt good to finally be able to rest from standing. Hikaru walked over to sit right next to me. He was closer than I thought and I could feel the warmth emanating from him. It made me somewhat tired and sleepy. Maybe because it wasn't too hot or too cold and was comfortable. Oh, shit. I rid myself of the thought and was disgusted with myself.
I suddenly felt a pair of eyes on my face and turned to see Hikaru looking at me curiously. "Err.." I was wondering why he was looking at me. "What?"
Hikaru laughed. "Nothing, nothing."
"Then quit looking at me."
"What? Why?" He laughed. "Think you're not pretty?"
"That and I feel awkward."
Hikaru laughed. "Well, you're actually pretty, you know." I shrugged. I didn't believe him but I didn't want to hurt his feelings but rejecting his compliment.
"You know," he began. "I'm actually tired of being popular."
"Then why don't you go ugly like the rest of us?" I said. He laughed. "Wish I could... and you guys aren't ugly. At least you guys have real natural beauty instead of fake shit."
"Haha, yeah.." I just said/laughed. "But we get treated less than you guys."
"Well, at least you all are close.. In the world of popularity, everyone is an enemy," he told me. "Everyone's just looking for a way to make others look bad. And their jealousness! I swear. They take it too far most of the time."
"Oh, that sucks." Is all I said. It was quiet except we could still hear the bass sounds from the music inside.
"What's it like to have close friends?" Hikaru asked me seriously. I looked at him. There was some kind of sadness in his eyes that he was trying hard to hide. But it slipped through the cracks a bit and I felt sorry for him. It must suck being popular it seems. But they still got everything better than us...
"Well, it's nice to know that you can trust someone and tell them things," I told him. Hikaru nodded and just leaned back, relaxed. "What's it like being popular?"
Hikaru laughed. "It's hard."
"Just hang with us then," I said. Then I kind of regretted saying that. I was inviting him to our group when I didn't even like him. He might be confused.
He just shook his head with this sad kind of look. "Why not?" I asked him without meaning to. "Can't," he whispered. We were now leaning towards each other, a bit close.
"You don't know what will happen," said Hikaru. "You guys would become targets because of me. They would use you against me, to make me do things I'm supposed to do and I don't want anyone to get hurt again..."
"What do you mean?" I whispered. We would become targets? Who did he hurt before? What would happen?
He smiled slightly. "Sorry. It's just that... You're not as popular and they can use you. I'm popular and I have to do a lot of things I don't want to do. But you guys.. You guys have a lot of time and everything.. For example, if I didn't want to go to a party, they'd threaten to hurt you because you're that vulnerable. My family's very popular with others."
I nodded, understanding. So if he hung out with us, then they'd use us to get him to do something he didn't want to do. And he cared. Well, those people are just plain dumb.
We were both suddenly really aware of how close we were to each other. I couldn't break my gaze away from him though. Then he was leaning towards me and I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe, I was stuck. My mind was screaming at me to push him away. To yell at him. To accuse him. I just couldn't though. My heart was beating really fast. I didn't even like him, damn it!
"Hey Akemi! Time to judge the..." Kai's voice trailed off and Hikaru and I backed off of each other quickly, turning red. "What.. is..?" Kai's eyes were wide and he looked confused. Then understanding showed and he said, "Oh, sorry for ruining your guys' moment. Time to judge costumes though and I'm just going to turn around, pretend I didn't see anything, keep my mouth shut, and wait down there..." Then he backed away quickly.
Unexpectedly, Hikaru laughed. I jumped, startled. He was laughing. I smiled.
"Let's go," he said. Then he stood up and held his hand out to me. I stared. "But I don't even like you," I reminded him. He raised his eyebrows skeptically. Then he opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly shut it. We walked downstairs.
Daichi found this stranger dude to judge us and he looked at all of our costumes.
"You two are hot," he told Minori and I. "But the creativity of the other two makes them the winner."
Minori growled and hit the guy as he walked away laughing. "Whaaat? That's not fair!" she whined. "Hell yeah!" Kai exclaimed. "I knew we'd win!"
"Looks like you two have to pretend to like Hikaru," Daichi grinned. "No holding back."
"At least, one of them will be pretending," Kai muttered. "What?" Minori asked him, confused. I kicked Kai from behind, without anyone seeing, and then he said, "Nothing."
We walked to the car and found Suke and Renee hugging. We snuck up on them and scared the shit out of Renee. She yelled at us but we laughed it off. Suke drove us all each to our own homes and dropped us off. I dragged myself up the stairs and fell asleep.