Chapter 4
Serena could hear the loud roar of the three cars as they drove away from the club. She stayed hidden for a few more minutes before stepping out onto the sidewalk, making her way to a bike rack to unlock her bicycle. Quietly, she pedaled her way home, groaning and cursing at herself for being so stupid.
The night air was freezing. Serena pulled her large jacket tighter to her as she rode her bike. The crisp air made her nose runny. She swayed slightly on her bike from the weight of her backpack; which reminded her of the essay and quiz she was suppose to turn in, in the morning. It was midnight; she wouldn't be able to get anything done now.
When finally reaching her apartment, she locked up her bike on the ground floor before lifting her heavy feet up the dreaded staircase leading up to the top floor. The apartment structure was old; its paint was pealing off the outside walls. Crevices ran up the building from top to bottom, left to right; running through graffiti.
Mr. Chiba's handsome face kept appearing in her mind as she continued up the long stairs. She thought of the way his eyes had sparkled in amusement as she had opened her eyes to stare at him behind the dumpster; his cocky grin flashing at her. How could it be that he and his little gang of evil friends were there, loitering in the parking lot of a club, when she happened to be closing up the shop and leaving at the very same time?
As she finally reached the door of their two bedroom apartment, she took out her key to unlock the door. Warm air rushed out of the door into the frosty night as she opened it and stepped inside the dimly lit living room.
'How odd,' she thought as she closed the door and locked it once again. It was late, and she was sure her parents would have already gone to bed.
Serena turned around to look at the room to find her mom opening up the oven in the left corner of the house, where the, supposed, kitchen was to be. Ikuko Tsukino, hummed lightly to herself as she placed a cooking mitten on to take out a tray of freshly baked cookies she had been making just hours ago. Serena could smell the delicious chocolate chip cookies from the door as her mother placed the tray on a towel, spread over on top of the counter. The pleasant warm aromas wafted over to her, making Serena forget what she had been thinking, and drawing her towards the cookies.
Ilene watched as she saw her daughter walk over to her, dipping her sun gold head down to take in a breath of the delectable cookies. Ilene shook her head in dismay at her daughter's terrible actions, and slapped Serena on the back of her head. Serena could be such a sucker for sweets.
"OW!" Serena howled in pain, clutching her throbbing head. "MOM…!" Serena shouted accusingly at her mother.
Ilene looked terrified at Serena's outburst. Running her hand through her beautiful waves of blue hair she said to Serena uncertainly, "I didn't hit you that hard honey," trying to sooth her daughter's agony. "Now now, don't get upset with me young lady…" Ilene began as Serena opened her mouth to say something.
"Araghf…!" Serena fumed as she grabbed a cookie and turned and stormed away from the kitchen and down the hall to her bedroom clutching her aching head.
Ilene looked utterly confused as she watched her daughter retreating back disappear into her bedroom.
Serena slammed the door shut with her feet as she threw herself onto her bed. As the pain eased from the back of her head slightly, she felt another twinge of pain from her hand. She looked down to see the cookie she had been holding and the newly formed blisters that had appeared on her palm. The cookie had burned her hand.
"Shit!" Serena cursed as she jammed the cookie into her mouth and got back up to storm back into the hall into the bathroom to get a few bandages and ointments to treat her petty burns.
"Serena, are you all right?" she heard her mother call after her as she slammed the door to her bedroom once more.
She swallowed the cookie, not even savoring the rich texture of it the way she had planned to, as she flopped onto her light pink bed covers again. Serena settled herself comfortably onto the mattress before she spread the ointments onto her burning blisters. She quickly placed bandages over the blisters, hissing at the stinging that derived from the light pressure she placed on the burns as she pressed the band-aids firmly over them.
Today was definitely not her day. She got up to throw away the wrappers from the band-aids into her trash bin beside her desk that sat a few feet away from the foot of her twin sized bed. She walked over to her sliding closet and dug into her laundry basket, taking out a pair of pink pajama's with little yellow crescent moons scattered all over them. She winced every now and then as she attempted to change out of her clothes.
Serena got into bed, yawning, and ready for sleep after she had changed and brushed her teeth. She had her lamp on her night stand on; it cast long slender shadows against the wall with its faint yellow light. And Serena fell asleep immediately, wishing that when she woke up, she would find that she had only been dreaming.
Serena woke up at three in the morning. Her mind was still groggy, and after a few minutes it cleared. She let out a loud yawn and turned to look at her alarm clock to see what time it was. The neon green numbers flashing 3:00 A.M. made Serena groan. She tried to drift back into sleep but found it futile. She kept thinking about the conversation she had had with Mr. Chiba yesterday afternoon. And the throbbing pain on her head was not helping.
So Serena got out of bed, took out her text books and started to write her essay; it was going to be a long morning.
Darien smiled as he heard Mina's soft giggling from the other end of the receiver. He had called her at one in the morning but she had not picked up her cell; this was his second attempt when she picked up on the final ring. It had been a month since he last talked to her over the phone. When they were still young, they would use to talk late at night until the sun rose in the early predawn hours. Now it seemed as though their jovial banter that had spanned for three to six hours, only lasted for mere minutes.
Malcom's voice came into his head. 'Do you love her?' his friend asked. Yes, he did; Darien did love her. One thing that attracted him to Mina was the way she always seemed so innocent and carefree. She wasn't like the other girls of high society. She wasn't snobby or selfish; she wasn't using him like the rest of the women he had gone out with before. And that made him happy; to know that one did not need him financially but because they truly liked him. Plus, there was the added bonus that she was very sexy.
"Darien? Darien, are you listening to me?" Mina asked him, her tone was serious and it finally caught his attention.
"Uh…yeah Mina, what were you saying?" He asked her concernedly over the phone.
"Um…well, I was thinking Darien…" Mina began uncertainly. Darien's face hardened, bracing him for the words that she would say next. For the words that he knew she would say but refused to believe she was doing now; over the phone. His heart being clasped; this could not be happening. 'No,' Darien thought.
"You want us to be just friends when you come back, is that it?" Darien said coldly, before letting her finish. His jaw was clenched, as he bit out those words.
"Yeah! Oh Darien, I knew you would understand," Mina said cheerfully, her voice now sounded less stressed. She was probably able to breathe with relief now, Darien thought resentfully, while he was struggling to keep his voice cool, so she could not detect the trembling in his voice due to the ache he felt in his chest.
He now sat rigidly up in bed, his chest seemed to tighten. Mina wanted to leave him. Darien didn't want to believe it, but he had known all along. It was time to face reality.
"I didn't want to hurt you, but since you felt the same way, I'm so relieved!" Mina chirped happily, oblivious of the fact that the man on the other side of the phone had grown quiet. "I feel silly about worrying now! You are always such a good friend, I shouldn't have worried anyway, and you always understood me. Anyways, what we had; it was just puppy love, you know? It was our first brush with love, and we were still so young then," Mina babbled, jabbering happily through Darien's darkest moment.
All he could get through his head was: Mina didn't love him.
"Um…yeah, it was just puppy love, nothing serious or anything like that," Darien agreed with her, his tone cold and unfeeling.
Mina giggled again, "What do you mean it wasn't serious? I was serious in our relationship! You will always be my first love Darien, and for that, I will always love you," Mina continued to talk.
Mina sat in her penthouse apartment she had stayed in for the last three years, looking at all her stuff being boxed up by maids as she talked to Darien. She would be back in Japan by nightfall the next day, and she was planning to surprise all of her friends. She turned away from the boxes that were being piled by the foot of her large king sized bed to stare out of a magnificent glass window, draped with silky cream curtains. She had a perfect view of the Eiffel tower. Mina couldn't wait to be back home in Tokyo again.
She missed the stores there and the food. She missed the smell of the Japanese ocean. And she was so happy to finally be going back. Japan was home, and no matter how great Paris was, she would never like it as much. Besides, she didn't have all her great friends here with her. After high school, she had decided to go abroad to study in the medical field, but in the end, she found out that her heart just wasn't into it anymore. Mina had already planned to explain that to her parents immediately after her arrival; and then she would enroll in Akita and finish her last year there and get her degree.
"Don't worry Darien, the sex was good, I was just feeling that we probably need a little time apart you know," She said to him jokingly.
"Anyways, how are the rest of the guys?" Mina asked, hoping Darien would slip some information in about Malcom.
Malcom had always attracted her, even when she was dating Darien, but now that they were over, she could pursue him. She knew what she was doing was wrong, dumping Darien for his best friend, but somehow she couldn't find the will to fight the attraction anymore. As the years progressed over the last time she had seen Darien, the fire that had burned in her for him slowly died into something more subtle; like the kind of love one would have for their brother. Darien also felt the same, he had agreed to separate (or so Mina thought). It was very strange though, how she could stop desiring for Darien but the flame that had been for Malcom seemed to have grown much larger and burned much fiercer inside of her.
"The guys are great, they can't wait to see you again either," Darien answered her.
Mina frowned, disappointed that Darien had nothing more to say.
"So…tell me more. Who's with who, and what's been happening since I left?" She asked hopefully.
"Well, you know James…do you really want me to gossip with you?" She could hear Darien's irritated voice ask.
Mina shook her head, Darien will always be Darien. "Fine, I forgot how you hate it when girls gossip Darien," She said to him. "Women have such big mouths, they should learn to close it once in a while…yada, yada, yada, yada," Mina tried to mimic Darien's voice.
Darien forced himself to sound amused, "Oh come on, you know it's true Mina."
Mina laughed, "Hhmmm…perhaps...," She said seductively into the phone.
"Look, Mina, I got to go. It's late over here so I'll talk to you later," Darien said to her with finality.
And before Mina could say good-bye, Darien hung up on her.
Strange, she thought, very strange.
Darien looked down at his cell phone; the display picture was of Mina's smiling face right after the high school graduation. That night they had celebrated their three year anniversary in each other's arms for the night. It was funny how three years later, when he was so sure they would be doing so much better, they break up. He smiled a bitter smile as he stared down at her beautiful face.
Love, Darien decided, was a very foolish emotion.
Darien went to sleep that night with only one person on his mind, one person that haunted his dreams: Mina.
"I didn't want to hurt your feelings…" Mina said happily.
"I knew you would have understood!" She had exclaimed.
They were finally over…and Darien needed no longer to fret.
"I'm sorry I'm late Amy," Serena panted as she fell into the seat beside her blue haired friend in side of the Floating Sushi Bar.
"Oh, it's okay really. I didn't wait very long," Amy said as she grabbed a tray of sushi as it floated by on the counter.
Serena finally finished her essay and by the time she had finished studying for her quiz, it was almost six in the morning. Luckily for her, her first class was at ten, so she slept for a few more hours before waking up. Her head had felt like it had split in two as she got dressed, and her hands still hurt, but she managed anyways.
As she grabbed her backpack on her way out, it occurred to her that her hands pained her too much to grip the handle of her bike, and so she walked all the way to the university. It was humiliating as all the cars of the rich and spoiled passed her as she sweated under the hot sun, walking up the hill to Akita. And if it wasn't bad enough as it already was, she was late to her class, and Professor Shimbo refused to let her into the room; telling her she better wait outside until class was over before he would speak to her about her inexcusable behavior.
The class had laughed loudly as she exited the room; a couple of girls smirked at her. Serena was furious at what Professor Shimbo had just said. She, Serena, was late by five minutes to class, gets into trouble, but when those six immoral and unjust men roam around the campus as if they owned the place, they get worshiped by one and all! Serena had waited out in the hall for an hour, fuming, until the class was dismissed.
"Ms. Tsukino, this is unacceptable!" Professor Shimbo scolded her, his face was red with outrage, "I will not tolerate it; is that clear?" He waited for her to nod her consent before continuing to speak.
"I better not hear you are tardy in anyone else's class either…." And so Serena stood in front of Professor Shimbo's desk while he lectured her on responsibility and respect fifteen minutes. She was glad when he stopped talking to hand her today's notes.
"Thank you, Professor," Serena beamed.
"No problem Ms. Tsukino, now I want that project to be done by…Lets see...Today's Friday, yes, I want it to be done and turned in to me on Monday morning, is that clear?" Mr. Shimbo said as he wrote down the date in his agenda.
Monday: Ms. Tsukino turns in project on the human brain.
Serena's eyes widen as she read what he wrote, "You want me to do a project on the human brain as punishment for being late to class?"
"Yes, of course! Did you think I would let you slide without punishment?" Professor Shimbo said as he continued to write things down in his agenda.
Serena was furious. She was getting punished for being late? That was ridiculous!
"And pray tell, is this project going to be of partial or great importance to my grade in this class?" Serena nearly shouted at the stunned Professor as she slammed the notes on his desk.
"It will be of great importance Ms. Tsukino, very great importance," he said as he looked at her angry expression, unperturbed. "You may leave now if I've made myself clear enough for you."
Serena remembered she had grabbed the notes off his desk as she turned and marched out of his room. For those few minutes of anger, Serena was actually glad at the humiliation he suffered for spilling soda all over Mr. Chiba. She smirked, as she went hurriedly, rushing to building B, the next building beside building A.
Anyways, after classes Serena ran the entire wall to the Floating Sushi Bair.
"Serena, your hand! What did you do?" Amy asked as she looked over with great concern at Serena. She grabbed Serena's right wrist and examined her blisters, pealing away the band-aids.
Serena looked on, shocked, at Amy's actions. Amy lightly blew on the burn.
"It's nothing really," Serena assured her as she tried to pull her wrist away from Amy's death grip. "I was being stupid and burned my hand grabbing a cookie," Serena explained blushing.
"A cookie burned your hand?" Amy questioned as she looked up at Serena, still clutching her wrist.
"Yeah, um, well…" Serena stuttered, trying to explain how ignorant she was, "well you see…um…My mom had just baked cookies…and…I grabbed one and it kinda burned my hand," Amy gave Serena a blank look. "Yes, yes…I know I was stupid for not thinking." Serena said in a defeated voice.
Amy smiled, and as if she couldn't contain her laughter any longer, she burst into bursts of laughter; like the sounds of small bells jingling. Serena frowned at her new friend. It wasn't funny; it had really hurt her hand last night…or rather this morning (since it was after midnight). Amy finally was able to control her laughter after a few minutes. And when she did, she begged Serena for the whole story.
And so their lunch continued as Serena told her the events of the night before leading up to the project she was assigned to do in psychology.
"Do I make myself clear? Do I make myself clear Ms. Tsukino? Ms. Tsukino, did I make myself clear?" Serena imitated Professor Shimbo's voice, as Amy covered her mouth with her hand to keep her food inside while laughing at the spectacle Serena made. Overall, Amy had never laughed so hard in her life. She was going to enjoy Serena's presence.
Amy watched Serena as she continued to make lewd remarks and jokes about everything and anything. Serena had a very nice smile, beautiful eyes, and a beautiful personality that made such a nice trio that it made Amy envious. Confidence; Serena had a lot of confidence in what she does and she also had a lot of pride too. Amy would give anything to be like her. She would love to have her golden colored hair that fell into endless waves of silk as she let it out of a bun, she would love to have her pretty face and most of all, she would love to have Serena's courage and confidence.
She admired Serena very much. And by the time they had finished their lunch, they had became very close friends. And what a great friend she had acquired too, Amy thought as Serena insisted on paying for the meal, despite the fact that it was Amy who was rich and she who was poor.
Serena looked at the clock hung up in the center of the back wall in the Cup of Tea, it was half past five. Her shift would be over in another half hour. She had clocked in at two that afternoon, after having lunch with Amy; and had been working for nearly 4 hours. It was another slow day for the pub; not even during the rush were there many customers.
Today, Josh and his sister Toru Honda were helping her to take and fill in the orders. They were very nice, and Serena liked them very much. The other workers were behind the counter most of the time, taking orders at the cash registers. There were three cash registers; Cup of Tea usually gets a lot of business, it's really famous for their tea and rice cakes. Serena looked around the large pub from her position behind the counter, her arms resting on the countertop, as her chin rested in the palm of my hand (she was extremely bored).
The pub had brown-ish colored walls, and was adorned with pictures of bamboo trees and pandas drinking tea, painted onto them. The chairs on which the customers sat upon were made to look like authentic oriental bamboo-made chairs. The style of the pub was to give the feeling of contentment and culture, through the oriental paintings of samurai's and ladies dressed in the cultural Japanese kimono, and with pretty artifacts and trinkets such as a lady of the court of Kyoto's (back in the time of the shogunate) fan. Cup of Tea was given very good ratings on its cleanliness and creativity. It was also a very well known pub for tourists to come to as well.
Serena came out of her thoughts as she heard the jingling of bells as the door of the pub opened. She straightened and stood behind her cash register, while she kept her gaze down as she attempted to arrange her uniform to look tidier. Cursing, Serena went down on the floor to pick up her earring that must have fallen out of her ear some time ago. She stayed on her knees as she tried, miserably, to quickly put it back on.
"Sir, I can take your order over here, sir," Serena heard Toru say to the customer.
"Sir?" Toru said again, to the handsome dark haired man standing in front of Serena's cash register. Toru watched with curiosity as he smiled amusedly as Serena got up from the ground, not even taking notice of him standing right in front of her.
Finally, after successfully placing her earrings back on, Serena stood up. She looked down at the ice box, seeing that it was almost completely empty, she took it out and made an effort to go into the back room to get more ice to fill it in, but Toru grabbed her hand and turned her around to look at the a dark haired man standing in front of her register.
Serena dropped the ice box, sending whatever pieces of ice left inside of it scattering all over the tiled floor, as she stared at Mr. Chiba. He was grinning at her again. She hated his grin. It made him look cute and devilishly handsome. And all she wanted to do was reach out and slap him across the face for grinning like that at her.
From behind Toru nudged her forward. Serena's head whipped around to glare at her. Then she turned her gaze onto Mr. Chiba.
"Hello, welcome to the Cup of Tea!" Serena said with forced enthusiasm as she stared at him. "Can I offer today's special? If you buy a large cup of our famous Jasmine Tea, you will also get a small side order of our rice cake," Serena paused to take in a breath before talking again.
"No, that's okay," Darien said, before she could even utter her next words. "I'll get a Mocha Coco Chocolate Lover's Shake, thank you," he ordered and continued to grin at her as she punched in the code of the shake into the machine and waited for the receipt to print.
"So, you like hanging out behind dumpsters late at night spying on people, eh?" Darien said sarcastically, trying to sound as casual as though he just made a remark about the weather.
Serena's eyes lowered into slits as she glared at him, mentally cutting him open and letting him bleed to death. Darien blanched, at her gaze.
"For your information, I was not spying, I was hiding," Serena informed him hotly, sticking her chin into the air, as she pulled the receipt from the cash register and handed it to him. "That'd be four dollars and thirty-four cents, sir," She said through clenched teeth as she stuck out her hand to receive the money.
"Keep the change," Darien told her as he handed her a ten dollar bill, he was still grinning like an idiot.
Serena opened the cash register and placed his money inside.
"Why are you smiling like that? You look stupid, so you should stop," Serena told him coldly, feeling victory as Darien scowled. Then his face became expressionless. And for some reason, Serena felt terribly disturbed when Mr. Chiba hid his feelings like that. She could handle him being angry or if he was amused, but when his face hardened, and his eyes turned cold and cynical the way it was now, she felt as though she was something filthy. It wasn't as though she cared what he though about her, did she?
"And who pray tell, Ms. Tsukino, were you hiding from; the boogie man?" Darien asked her with mild curiosity, his face still hard as it concentrated on her.
"No, unfortunately not…" Serena said, shaking her head at Darien, who looked extremely interested in what she had to say now. "I'm afraid I was hiding from things much scarier than that Mr. Chiba. They were six, evil, vile, arrogant, vicious, spoiled, and very, very self-centered men. The worst creatures you could ever come across," Serena told him with a curt nod of her head.
At her comment, Darien's face broke into a broad grin again; it wasn't his usual cocky, arrogant, boyish, or playful grins. Instead it was a genuine smile that Serena could tell was very rare for him to show. And Serena felt happy that she had accomplished what only few people had done before.
"Here you go Mr. Chiba," Serena said to him, as she too, smiled warmly at him; handing him his shake.
Darien grabbed it and slowly turned to leave, but turned around again to face her. "I'm pretty sure they aren't that bad," he said to her, his eyes sparkling, challenging her to defy him.
Serena laughed at the lopsided grin he gave her. "Well…I'm pretty sure too that they are just as bad as I've described them…But I wouldn't know…" Serena said teasingly as she turned her back on him to go into the back room, as she let her hair out from her bun, and let it fall freely down her back. Serena, took off her green apron and hung it on a hook in the back room before she grabbed her backpack and left the shop through the back door into the alley way; smiling cunningly to herself.
She watched her step as she jumped over puddles of liquid that did not seem like water or mud. And as she stepped out into the fading light of the sun, two hands grabbed her around the shoulder. Serena jumped in alarm, struggling against her captors' hands, trying to still her movements.
"AAhh…!" Darien's hand let go of her shoulder as he cupped her mouth to stop her shrieking and attracting unwanted attention. He winked at her playfully as she stopped her struggling and screams to stare at him dumbfounded.
When he let go of her he climbed onto a shiny red motorcycle parked alongside the sidewalk. "There's only one way to find out." He said as he handed her a helmet, securing his over his head.
"Huh…? Wait, what?" Serena asked, still gawking at him.
"Come on," Darien said cocking his head back to invite her on.
"I don't think so…" Serena said uncertainly. 'Why the hell did he want her to get on his bike?'
"You said you weren't so sure either if you were wrong about my friends and me, so I've decided to show you. It's the only way to find out," Darien's eyes twinkled mischievously. He watched as her mouth opened in shock.
Slowly, Darien reached out his hand for her to grab.