You Make My Heart S m i l e
C ha p t e r 3
When You're Gone
The Silence Will Set Me Free
My eyes opened suddenly and before I knew it I was shaking in my bed. Something…had woken me? A loud noise had, but from where? I lay in my bed for a few more moments before deciding to investigate. I slowly got out from under the covers, slipped on a pair of plain black slippers and grabbed my wooden baseball bat from the side of my bed. Hey, I'm prepared for the worst.
Making my way down the hall was torture. The old wooden floorboards squeaked with even the slightest step. Rounding my way around the corner and down the stairs, I could faintly hear rustles and whispers of some sort. Gripping the bat and holding it in a way that I was ready to swing at any second, I inhaled deeply, waiting and listening.
"Fudge crunky!"
Curious and confused, I peered around the corner that leads to our kitchen.
"Namine!" He exclaimed, surprised to see me standing there at 6:23 in the morning. Then his fluorescent blue-green eyes widened in shock as he saw what I was holding. "Whoa! What up with the bat?"
"Never mind it, Riku." I groaned. "What are you doing here?"
"Well…Seth let me in!" He said, still staring warily at my bat.
"When, exactly?"
"About an hour ago." He answered, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. I opened my mouth to ask yet another question, but he cut me off. "Well. Ok. I wanted to tell you…" He leaned forward and hugged me tightly. "Happy birthday!"
Oh yeah…that's today, huh?
"T-thank you, R-Riku." I sputtered, gasping slightly for air. He released me from his bear hug and blushed bright red when he saw what I was wearing. My light blue satin nightgown only went to just about my mid thighs, showing my long legs. The straps were thin and one hung loosely from my shoulder.
"Um…I'm gonna go get changed, ok? Be right back."
I charged up the stairs and ran into my room, tossed my bat on my bed, throwing off my nightgown and pulling a plain white dress over my head and sticking my arms through the tank top like straps. I looked at myself in my vanity mirror and jumped back slightly from what I saw staring back at me. My hair was a haystack. Reaching for the brush, I heard some pots clank together. Riku, cooking? Now that's surprising. Running the brush though my hair a few times until it was soft and silky, I made my way back to the kitchen where Riku was reading some directions off the back of a box.
"Two eggs…Nami! You have no eggs! I just used the last two for that! "He held up the empty egg carton and pointed to a clear bowl that held white power and egg whites. "It's ok! Kairi and Sora are at the store! I'll just-" He flipped out his cell phone and hammered in some numbers before hitting enter and pressing it to his ear. "Yellow!"
I raised my eyebrow.
"Yeah…uh huh…get eggs…. A dozen." There was a pause in which Kairi's voice rung out. I could hear her even though I was standing at a good distance away from Riku and the phone.
"Fine, get him some candy too, but make sure its sugar free… Alright, bye Kai." He hung up the phone and shoved it back into the left back pocket of his dark green jeans.
Walking over to Riku, I saw that the back right burner on the stove was lit with a pot on top, some white liquid simmering in it. "What are you making Ri?"
"Ice cream."
"Sea-salt?"
"Yep!"
"Why don't you just buy some?" I asked, laughing slightly.
The look he gave me was indescribable. But if I had to describe it,I would say it was somewhere between the lines of stupefied and embarrassed, with a slight hint of a face palm creeping in. Yeah, just like that. He took his blue stained hand and thumped it to his forehead, slowly wiping it down the front of his face, leaving a blue trail behind.
I tried not to laugh, really I did. But, well, you know the way things work out.
"Ri-Riku! You g-got!-" I drew an imaginary line down his face and continued laughing.
Now the boy was red and blue. He dashed off to the bathroom and threw the sink on full blast. I followed and nearly slipped on the water he had splattered all over the floor. Water droplets flew through the air, landing neatly on the top of my head, before soaking into my blonde hair. Riku violently rubbed his face on a hand towel, and then looked up at me. He was a mess of colors. Silver, blue, red and green; he smiled and set the now ruined towel back on the counter.
"You seem really happy today. A little too happy…where are we going?" I asked, my first reaction being to jump to conclusions.
"Nowhere, but you will never in a millions year guess what Kairi has planned for you today."
Why do I have a feeling this is not going to be fun for me? Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing Kairi plans for me is ever actually fun. I sighed as Riku walked out of the room and back into the little kitchen.
My house wasn't the biggest. It had three rooms, and two bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. If you walked into my house, you would walk directly into our little living room, or to your left, you would see the staircase (34 steps to be exact.) And if you walked down the three little steps and took a left, passed the staircase railing, you would be in our kitchen. Then to the right was the dining room. To the left was the downstairs bathroom. If you went upstairs, you could either go to the left or to the right. Directly to the left was my adoptive parent's room, if you went to the right, you would have to walk down a small hallway to get to the other bathroom, Seth's bedroom, and my room.
"When are they coming?" I asked, watching him stir the milky white liquid with a big wooden spoon.
"In about an hour." He replied, all his concentration on the mixture.
"Need help?" I offered, grabbing a whisk.
"Yeah…um whisk this until it's creamy." He slid the bowl of egg whites and sugar across the counter and into my waiting hands.
I whisked away at the slightly foul smelling ingredients. Now whisking was boring, so I preoccupied myself with the thoughts and memories of yesterday.
He stayed a distance away from me all day. He was there from time to time, but he obviously saw I needed some time alone. The empty presence somewhat haunted me, just an empty space floating around, it somehow felt like he needed to be there with me, needed to comfort me and tell me everything was ok. Though he never approached me; then, on the sunniest of all days, the clouds started blowing in. Before too long, a light drizzle sprinkled down, then a near downpour. The stage show was canceled, so I didn't find out what he played. But the name of the band, now that was truly different. They called themselves 'Break'.
I went back to that French vendors stand and bought that checkered belt, its pattern reminding me of him.
"Stop it Namine!" I silently scolded myself. I was the one that told him to go away in the first place. Most of the day, I wandered around aimlessly, looking at various stands and what-not's along the way. I went on the Ferris wheel, the gondola seeming empty.
After that, I finally found Kairi, soaked and pissed as pissed could be. But why? Sora was happy go lucky and bouncing around the entire time until most of the vendors and rides were packed up. One day fair I guess. Kairi drove me home, saying little during the ride. Sora must have felt the uneasiness in the air, for he kept his mouth shut. Returning home I took a shower, thoroughly scrubbing my hair and washing away the "excitement" of today. I went to bed after that in my blue satin nightgown, my usual nightmares running through my head.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing!" Riku yelled,as a glop of sugary egg whites splashed on his arm. I guess my whisking got out of control…
"Sorry." I said as he wiped it off with a rag.
"Well, I'm putting this on just in case." I laughed as he pulled a chef's apron over his head and fit it into place on his torso.
"I'll be more careful." I muttered sarcastically.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Riku; absolutely nothing."
"Um, ok?"
We finished up the ice cream, which was the second batch he had made for the day by the looks of it, when Sora and Kairi barged into my house noisily.
"Want some gummy worms Namine? They're sour!" He exclaimed, skipping over to me and dangling a red and yellow one in front of my face.
"Shh! The rents and Seth are still sleeping; and no thanks Sora." I said, pushing it away as he threw another into his mouth.
"I'll take that." Riku said, taking the gummy worms Sora had offered me.
"Ri-ku! I wanted that one!" He whined.
"Too damn bad." Riku answered, slurping up the worm, and laughing as Sora pouted.
Kairi set the grocery bags on my light wooden dining table, our fight from yesterday forgiven, but not forgotten. The redhead hugged me tightly, though not as tight as Riku had earlier.
"Happy birthday Namine!" She said happily.
"Thanks Kairi." I said as she let go.
"What's the date today?" Sora asked from the living room.
"You should know!"
"Um… The ninth?"
"It's the sixth you idiot!" Kairi retorted irritably as Riku nearly slammed his elbow into the top of Sora's head.
"OUCH!" He exclaimed, rubbing his abundance of brown spikes gently.
"You know the month, don't you?" Riku asked.
"July?"
"JUNE YOU STUPID IDIOT! JUNE, JUNE, JUNE!" Kairi exclaimed, her eyes locked on the now cowering Sora, and she was about to lunge, when Riku came over to her and grabbed a hold of her shoulders.
"Now, is that any way to treat your boyfriend?" He asked when she struggled against his grip.
"Boyfriend?" Sora and I asked in surprised unison.
Riku spun her around and hugged Kairi tightly from behind. "Yep! boyfriend!" he announced, a huge smile spreading across his lips.
Sora looked shocked and I sat there nodding my head approvingly. I mean come on; it was bound to happen sometime! Yeah Sora likes Kairi, but he simply waited too long. I'll admit I always saw more of a spark between her and Sora. But Riku…I guess they are good together; definitely.
Sora glared angrily at Riku, a look not befitting his normally cheerful appearance, but Riku either didn't notice, or was ignoring him.
"Let me go!" Kairi called out with laughter in her voice as she fought for him to release her.
"Ok, ok." He conceded, laughing as he let her go. She toppled onto the floor and glared up at him playfully.
"Oh will somebody, anybody help me up?" Kairi said in her 'Woe-is-me voice'.
Riku grabbed her hand and pulled her up into a kiss. I looked away and I heard Sora crumple the gummy worms bag as he watched his best friend make-out with the love of his life. He threw the bag and the remnants of what was left of the sour gummy worm treat at Riku, causing Riku and Kairi to break away from their kiss. He glared at Riku one last time, before storming upstairs, a little black cloud of unhappiness trailing him as he went.
"What was that all about?" Riku asked, wiping Kairi's lipstick off his lips.
"I dunno, but let's get baking!" Kairi exclaimed, clapping her hands and rubbing them together before getting the ingredients out of the grocery bags. Flour, eggs, chocolate chips. Oh please tell me we aren't-
"Baking cookies!" Kairi cheered happily.
"Cookies?" I asked, utterly horrified.
"Yes Ma'am! Now, put this on!" She tossed a hairnet over to me.
"Uh-uh. No way in heck are you getting me to wear this." I told her, throwing it at Riku. "He needs it more."
"You know what? You're probably right on that one." Kairi said, laughing.
"What about Sora?" Riku asked, struggling to get the hairnet on, his fingers tangled in the wire.
"I'll go check on him." I said, jogging up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
As I approached my room, I heard crashes from downstairs. Gosh, if they wake up my adoptive parents, hell will be upon this house. Since my adoptive father was a spinal surgeon, he was often called in at night for emergencies. My adoptive mother was a school teacher during the school year and a waitress at a local dinner called 'Free Time?' during the summer. They both worked nights at this time of year, so they slept during the day. Our school had summer vacation right now, beginning on June 1st. The fair was held every year to welcome summer to Destiny Islands, and to also celebrate the green sea turtles' migration pass through here.
"Sora?" I called, walking down the hall.
I knocked softly on my door, and after not hearing a response, entered. He was sitting on my bed, the white comforter crumbled beneath him. My sketchbook sat open in his lap, the page it was on had the drawing of him I drew last summer. I could never get his spikes quite right though.
"Hey. No moping on my bed, go sit in the corner and do that." I joked, trying to lighten up the mood.
He flipped the page to a sketch of him and Kairi. Kairi was also hard to draw; the paper wasn't able to contain her bubbly personality.
I walked over to him and sat down, my head resting on his shoulder. He twitched slightly from my touch, since I rarely (if ever) displayed affection.
"Let's stay up here. I don't want to bake cookies with the lovebirds." I told him.
He flinched at the word 'lovebirds'.
"Come on." I grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed, a defiant look on his face.
"Huh?"
All of a sudden, a pain grew in my head. Memories rushed back, things I had forgotten.
"Ah!-" My scream was cut short and I fell to the ground, my head buried in my hands.
"Namine?" Sora knelt beside me, worry clouding up his eyes.
"Make…Make it go away!" My voice broke into another scream as I sunk lower to the floor.
The police took me to a foster home after that. I was scheduled to see a therapist every other day at 5 p.m. to help with the trauma. I didn't like him. Quite frankly he scared me. His shaggy hair was gray, like his attitude. The mustache above his upper lip was bushy and unfriendly (the months I had visits with him I often stared at it). The skin on his face was flaky and sun-damaged, wrinkles hiding most of the major sun spots; easily fifty years old, possibly older. His eyes peered at me from behind thin wired framed glasses; unblinking, creepy eyes. They were brown, and not the chocolate brown that says, "Hello. I'm here to help you." but the muddy brown that said, "Shut up and stop wasting my time." He made me sit on a white couch with black diamond outlines, which were later filled in with blood.
I had to sit in my caretaker's car for an hour every time I went to see him; an hour that I always regretted. To pass the time I stared out the window and listened to my mp3 player, and sometimes even played with my caretaker's long, curly brown hair. She would then laugh and tell to quit it, her blue eyes looking at me from the rearview mirror. I normally listened to the same song over and over: Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne.
She always questioned me on that, "You have over one-thousand songs, yet you continue to listen to that one. How come Nam?"
I had a reason of course, but that story will take forever. Getting me out of the car was another hassle. My caretaker had to nearly drag me out so we could get to the appointment on time.
That appointment though, on September twenty-seven(nine months after my parents' murder) was the second worse day of my life. He was the only one left in the establishment that day; his greeting friendlier than usual. That friendliness turned into something horrible with a sly smile. A monster. I remember clothes ripping, and fierce eyes that make me freeze. Blood and bruises arose along with my screams. I was scared to death, unable to move. Everything hurt. My body ached as my blood spilt on the white couch, his laughter ringing throughout the room the entire time. I pleaded to my caretaker. Pleaded and pleaded, but she sat there unmoving.
"Neiomi!" I screamed. He walked over and kicked her corpse, proving to me she was gone. Saltwater picked at the corner of my eyes, burning.
It was like living that day nine months ago. Neiomi and I were as close as sisters. She was always there for comfort and support. She treated me with respect, unlike the other caretakers. She wasn't always on my back about homework, hygiene (Which I always took care of) and chores. Losing her was like losing a best friend.
Why?, A voice screamed inside of me. Why must my life contain so much blood?
His eyes were staring intensely in mine, eyes I never once trusted. Walking back over to me, his grin widened. He had wanted this all along.
I kicked his stomach, the air releasing from his lungs and out through his mouth.
"Brat! Stay still!" He yelled at me as I crawled toward the door, my clothes in shreds. He grabbed my ankles and dragged me back, my agonizing scream echoing throughout the red and white room.
"Namine?" Sora's voice came out terrified. I was sitting in his lap, my head against his chest. His breathing matched mine, quick, shallow, scared.
"Sora?" I asked drowsily. My headache was gone as quick as it came. But those memories…where did they come from? They were…mine?
"Oh thank god!" He hugged me closer, his body heat warming up my cold torso and spreading through my legs.
Kairi rushed in the room, startled to see Sora hugging me. "What happened? I heard a thud and then screaming! I was worried!"
"I…I don't know. She just…fell and…" His voice trailed off and he shuddered slightly. I could feel them both staring at me, their gazes burning into my face. But my eyes were focused on the sight I saw. Eyes full of hatred and evil. Ripped clothes, blood stained couches.
That's when I whispered, oh so softly, "I was raped?"
Boom! Look at that! Chapter three done! Success! Sorry! I feel terrible that I forgot about my story! Fanfic is my second priority, YouTube being first. I've been working on videos non-stop, giving me little time to write. And then my office word trail ran out…I didn't even know it was a trail! The glories of getting a new computer huh? But um…Review! I'll give you a cookie! And just to let you know, I'm about eighty percent sure the next chapter will be from his POV. Roxy time! XD Anyway! Has anyone used the OpenOffice thingy? I'm debating. I hear good and bad things about it so I would loved for your guys' opinons!
Super special thanks to my beta a.k.a. the bestest friend in the world: violetstar198! She made the rough draft cry in comparison to the final! XD She also helped me work out the plot! Ending has been decided! Now I just need to write it…. O.O;
AND THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR (Probably not) The song of the chapter! When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne! I chose it because Roxy wasn't in this chapter…And I listened to it when I typed it out.
Responding to chapter 2 reviews!
Violetstar198: sorry! Hehe. I know huh! Ok…-hands you cookie- And what do you mean by that? XD I hope that alarm clock breaks! HAHAHA! Jk!
Wrath lover: Fluff and stuff :3 Sora has his moments XP Thanks!
meandor711: Sorry! =X -dies- …Break! Idk… I came up with that in a moments notice. Thankies!
ComicalxMysterious: Thanks yous! :D -tears up- Its sad to me too! TToTT Why yes! He is a stalker! XD No that stuff will be explained too, don't worry ;)
imakittenmeowmeowmeow: Thanks! :) Yeah… funny story. I heard the song off of my friend's Ipod and I was all "I like this song!" so I looked at the artist thingy and it said Glee. Then when you reviewed I was all o.o? So I checked and found out that the Glee t.v. show actors made their own version and tada! Major mistake! ^^III Now enough of my rambling.
DeathByHarmony: Buddeh! Roxas! (Insert heart here) ^^ Thankies!