Stopgap
by. Poisoned Scarlet
7a
The cellphones vibrations echoed loudly in his room.
He rolled over on his bed, bleary-eyed and yawning, and reached for it lazily.
Unbidden, a smile came to his face when he read the message. He typed back a response and let his phone fall on his chest. When it vibrated again a few minutes later, he read her reply, stifled a yawn, and finally sat up. "Man, why the hell did he have to come? Had such a great idea if I won..." He cracked his back, his neck, and sighed in satisfaction.
He meant Black Star. He had arrived at the gym the same morning he saw Maka a few days ago, after being texted by Tsubaki, and had somehow wormed his way into their competition. Needless to say, they both lost to him, although Soul amused himself by watching Maka and Black Star go at it verbally, resulting in Maka nearly kicking his friends face into the wall when he insulted her cup size again.
They're good enough to play with. Soul thought, with a shameless smirk. Of course that idiot wouldn't understand. He slipped on a t-shirt, readying himself for a day to do Black Star's bidding. Luckily, Tsubaki had been there to regulate his friends usually merciless requests, and all Black Star had asked for was a game of basketball by the courts.
It's a good thing Black Star came, though. Soul mused, sitting on the edge of his bed to pull on his shoes. Or something would have gone down between me and that blond dumbass.
He couldn't understand how someone like Maka could have dated that moron. Sure, he was a looker, with his crystal blue eyes and built body, but surely Maka wasn't that type of girl? His eyes flickered to his mirror, where he could see his reflection stare back at him.
Disheveled silver hair, cool crimson eyes, and an absolutely insufferable mask composed of either amusement or boredom.
He was a stark opposite of that idiot, Hiro.
Why... did she stay with him even after he cheated on her? Soul wondered. He cleared his throat, rubbing his chest against something bitter and sour that rose up from within. Thinking about it always produced this strange reaction.
His eyes strayed to his CD and record collection, everything meticulously labeled and sorted for his own personal use. After a few seconds of contemplation, Soul browsed through a few titles and pulled out one CD. A few more bands caught his eye but he decided upon this one, slipping it into his hoodie before he could talk himself out of it.
That girl needed a good lesson in music, Soul decided.
Who better to teach her than someone who had grown up with it?
7b
She hated this.
Maka stood awkwardly to the side, fidgeting with the sleeves of her sweater, watching as Black Star spun a basketball on his forefinger and Tsubaki tied her hair into a high ponytail. Soul had taken off his hoodie by the benches, stretching out his arms and cracking his neck, no doubt preparing for a vigorous game of basketball with his best friend.
I...I can't play basketball. Maka swallowed, thickly. This was why she'd dreaded today, made all sorts of excuses to avoid it, yet Tsubaki had seen through every single one of them and urged her to come. Tsubaki knew she couldn't play; knew she'd skipped pep rally's at school, avoided the PE field after classes like the plague, and generally spent her free time holed up in her room with a textbook. Yet she'd still made her come with the promise that they would teach her; go easy on her.
After they had their good laugh, that is.
"C'mon, Maka, what's the hold up?" Black Star hollered, Tsubaki smiling encouragingly at her.
Hell no. I'm not playing! "Ah, if you don't mind, I don't want to play..."
"EH? What do you mean you don't wanna' play?" Black Star screamed, catching Soul's attention. "The whole reason we came here was to play two on two! No way, you can't back out now! I forbid it! I won the bet, remember?"
"Look, I don't feel like playing, alright? It's not like you can force me to play." Maka said, stubbornly. "You weren't even supposed to be in our competition! It doesn't count!"
"BUT—!"
"Black Star, if Maka doesn't feel like playing, then she doesn't feel like playing. Please don't force people to do something against their will; it's not kind." Tsubaki softly told him, smiling sweetly when he turned to shoot her a look of betrayal. But the look vanished at the sight of her smile and instead he directed his anger back at Maka.
"How come you don't wanna' play? You can't play or something!" Black Star grumbled but when Maka jumped, face growing steadily darker, it all clicked. A wide grin marred his face as he stated: "You can't play basketball!"
"I-I can so! I just don't want to play right now!" Maka sputtered, but Black Star had already doubled-over laughing. "Hey, shut up, it's not funny! I SAID TO SHUT UP!" Maka threw her hardcover novel at him, deriving some satisfaction from watching him face-plant.
"Black Star!" Tsubaki squeaked, while he twitched on the floor.
"What's this? You can't play basketball? Man, where did you crawl out of? Who doesn't know how to play basketball?" Soul smirked, walking into the court dressed in basketball shorts and a loose gray t-shirt.
Maka glared, about to punch him for being a jerk, when Tsubaki spoke up.
"Maka-chan doesn't know how to play many sports because she never bothered to learn any! Maka-chan focused mostly on combat-arts, l-like mixed martial arts and tai-jutsu! S-she just had other things to focus on, please don't bully her!" She bravely said, trying to assuage her own guilt for dragging her friend along against her will, and Soul cocked a brow. She looked like she was on a roll there and Soul wondered if he should burst her bubble...
"HAHA! Who cares? I'm a pro in all sorts of martial arts and I can still play basketball!" Black Star obnoxiously said.
"Oh, yeah? I'd like to see you try to beat me!" Maka snapped, and Black Star's grin turned sinister at her bold statement.
"You? Beat me? Someone as small as you beat someone as big as me?" He approached her, all confidence and swagger, but Maka was not intimidated. She'd dealt with arrogant assholes like him more times than she'd like. "When and where, tiny-tits?"
"It doesn't matter to me, midget, the result will be the same." She told him, confidently. "You'll lose."
The ball was thrown roughly to Soul, who caught it coolly. But his crooked smile faltered at the gradually intensifying tension between his friends. Tsubaki also looked uneasy.
This couldn't be good.
"Alright then – right here, right now. First one to call mercy loses. But if you cry, it ain't my problem, got it?" He warned, cracking his knuckles.
She clenched her hand. "Loud and clear."
"Whoa, hey." Soul clapped a hand on his friends shoulder, bringing him back some. Black Star tried to jerk his shoulder away but Soul held on tight. "Chill out, man, we came here for a game, not a fight."
"Does it matter? Someone's walking out of here victorious anyhow! And it's gonna' be me."
"I didn't come here to watch a fight, I came here for a game." Soul hardened his voice when he saw his friend was beyond subtle reach. "If you two want to fight, do it some other time, not now." He looked sternly at Maka. "What's it gonna' be?"
Maka's cold eyes never left Black Star's equally cold ones. It was until she sneered, looking away in disgust, that he tore his eyes away from her and spun on his heel, plainly ignoring her.
"Tch, whatever! Hitting a defenseless girl would give me nightmares, anyway!" He snottily stated, and before Maka could snarl out a reply, Soul stood in front of her.
"Hey, calm down." He frowned, placing a hand on her shoulder; gentler than he had with Black Star. "What's up with you? You're never this temperamental." He'd hung around her enough to know that she was uptight and serious but she usually had a tight band around her emotions. It wasn't like her to lose it over Black Star's expected immaturity.
"Defenseless...!" Maka spat, with fury burning her eyes a shocking lime color. "I am not defenseless. The day he wants a fight, I'll give it to him, and he'll be sorry he ever tried to mess with me." There was a threat in her tone, an unbridled hate that simmered deep within her eyes, that told him this went beyond Black Star's flippant teasing.
Something happened to her, but before he could ask, Black Star shouted:
"Hey! Are we gonna' play or not? We're burnin' daylight!"
"I'll pass, thanks." Maka shrugged Soul's hand away and picked up her book from the floor, heading over to the benches without so much as a look in their direction. Black Star didn't seem to care: he merely rolled his eyes at her theatrics and bounced the ball a few times before tossing it into the basket.
"Hey, what's up with her?" Soul asked Tsubaki, when he approached her. She startled at being addressed so suddenly. "She doesn't get pissed off this easily. I'd know – I've pissed her off a lot of times." Yet she always forgave him, after a good thwack on the head to cool her ire.
"I'm not sure... no, that would be a lie, I'm sorry." Tsubaki murmured, biting her lip. "But it's not my place to tell you why she is acting like this today of all days. When she's ready, she'll tell you. Or perhaps you will stumble upon it one of these days, if you are as close to her as you make it out to be." She forced a smile, almost sincere yet it held a plastic quality. "But if you do... please do not mention it unnecessarily."
"Mention what?" Soul asked, frustrated. "What happened to her that's so bad you can't tell me?"
Tsubaki's smile did not waver in the least. Soul found that rather unnerving. "You'll see. Thank you for your concern, though, I know Black Star is your friend..."
"Black Star doesn't know when to stop." Soul shrugged, casting a covert look at Maka, who had immersed herself in her novel already. "And when he gets riled up like that, it's dangerous." His hand rubbed his chest absently, feeling the scarred flesh beneath. "I had to step in before he did something he'd regret again."
"Again...?" Tsubaki whispered, distracted only when Black Star tossed her the ball and stated they'd play individually since they were unevenly paired.
But Soul's accidental slip-up made her uneasy.
Again?