*Yeah, so the other night, it hit me: I want to write something. But I wasn't really sure what. Though, I remembered how I used to start writing novels in middle school (never finished, I might add), so I rummaged through some old sketch books and found a small notepad. 'Nopperabo' I think is what it was called (it was in katakana), a story about a ghost with no face. I was a major weeaboo back then. Anywayyy~ I read through the pages (I only wrote two chapters) and decided to revise the original version, adding more detail and making it a little less... dramatic? Confusing? The words and sentence structure was sh+t, so I just added and changed a bit, even a few names. I know the story may seem strange and unrealistic, but I tried fixing it the best I could without changing the story completely (there was seriously no background detail whatsoever- I wasn't the best writer). Soooo I hope you guys like it. Tell me if you would read a book like this. You don't have to spare my feelings. If it's a sucky plot, don't be afraid to say so. I just revised this for fun.*
While thinking of a plan to go to Hiroshima without my parents freaking out, I find Saki walking with our regular group of friends. Since that incident yesterday, we've been keeping strong attention to that forceful guy, making sure he never so much as looks at Saki. She tries to act like nothing happened, but we can tell otherwise. We're her friends after all. We've seen no trace of him, till one day-
We were all on our way home, laughing and joking as usual. About ten minutes go by, and we end up in front of Rina's house. You can see her mother standing outside the front door, holding a phone. "Rina, you have a phone call!" She gestured, waving at Saki and I as she handed the phone to her daughter. "Nice to see you two again."
"Nice to see you too," I say, Brandon and Joseph putting in their two cents.
"Hey, Mrs. Matsuki!" Rina's mother sighs as she greets back. Those two always seem so troublesome to her.
After a while of chatting with Mrs. Matsuki, we notice the sun's final appearance and start to head home once again. Shortly after, we end up in front of Brandon's house. "See you tomorrow, Brandon!" I yelled from the distance of his front gate. He stopped me, pressing his lips to mine before letting me go.
"Bye, honey," He casually whispers before opening the gate and entering his house. Turning back to the sidewalk, my eyes show signs of sarcasm. I don't know why he still insists on calling me 'honey'. Joseph looks over at me. He can tell I'm annoyed. Saki doesn't even dare say anything. Looking away for a slight second, he looks back with a smirk on his face.
"You guys should go out. I swear, you two are the perfect match," He lets out, not hiding the sarcasm one bit. He folds his arms and continues speaking. Too bad I'm not listening. his words are full of irritation. I can tell he's bothered, but in a way, I am too. It seems Joseph and I have been friends for years, though he just moved here. We act like brother and sister- and we tell everyone that's our relationship, keeping everyone from the truth that we aren't even ready to uncover.
We end up fighting the whole way to his house, which evidently is right next to mine. Here and then, Saki would chuckle at the stupid stuff we'd say. "Goodnight, Saki! I'll see you tomorrow." I waved, opening the gate to my yard. Turning to Joseph, I shouted, "Come to my house later! I wanna talk!"
Joseph chuckled nervously, "Okay, okay," answering as he opened the door to his house, walking inside.
Before I was able to walk in, Saki stopped me, "Sh-Shinori," I took my hand off the door handle and turned to face her. Her voice was a bit shaky. She even looked a bit pale. "C-Can you walk to my house with me?" She stuttered again. Something was definitely wrong.
I immediately opened the door and answered, "Sure, let me just ask my mom." A minute later, my door opened, a solemn look on my face. "I'm sorry, my mom said I can't." Not much of a surprise there. It is getting real dark. Saki's face sunk. "But maybe Joseph can!" I quickly exclaimed. I grabbed a medium size rock and threw it at the window on the side of the house. Joseph's head poked out.
"What?" He sounded pretty agitated for some reason.
"Could you walk Saki home?" I asked, ignoring his attitude.
"No, sorry, I'm helping my dad with something," He said, before shutting the window behind him. Well, there's that.
I turned back to Saki, sighing before speaking, "Sorry, Saki. If you're scared, you could stay here for tonight," I paused. "You can call your m-"
"That's okay, I can walk home by myself," She interrupted, "You know how my mom is."
I didn't exactly know what to tell her. I knew she didn't want to walk alone, but there's nothing I could do. "Please be safe." Saki nodded, walking away slowly. I made sure she was out of view before opening the door and entering my house.
Saki's house was a bit farther to get to compared to everyone else's. She was unsteady and shaky, and it somehow felt like someone was watching her. Her gait sped up, getting faster with each passing silence. Sprinting, she didn't exactly know if she was going towards her house anymore. She was frightened and paranoid, till eventually, she bumped into something. She noticed a shadow of a silhouette as she faced the ground, so she immediately apologized. She never looked up, taking the silence as danger. As she started to run again, the silhouette grabbed her arm to stop her. "Wait! Please," The low voice sounded familiar. Saki looked up to see the forceful guy from the other day. She felt stiff, as if she was frozen where she stood. "I know we got off on the wrong foot, so let's start over," Still holding her arm, the guy bowed, "Takumi."
Scared to moved, she opened her mouth, the only thing escaping being her name.
"Let's talk for a while, shall we?"
Still holding on to her arm, he asked her all sorts of questions, never getting answered. The only thing circling around in her mind was an escape plan. Some time passed, and they both ended up in front of a house, though it wasn't hers. She reluctantly entered the house behind him.
It was quiet and a bit soothing, in a way. You couldn't even hear bugs or creatures from outside. All of this was too suspicious, but Saki didn't dare move. Takumi gestured her to make herself comfortable, as he went into the kitchen. He walked back in the living room, holding two cups. He handed her one and sat down beside her. "Is no one home?" She asks.
Takumi takes a sip from his cup and sets it on the coffee table in front of them. He starts getting closer. "My mother's out of town," Noticing his incapability for boundaries, she drinks a bit of liquid from the cup, gagging at the flavor.
"This tastes weird," She told him in disgust, setting the cup down on the table. He chuckles a little, chugging his drink and slamming the cup down. He quickly pins Saki against the couch before she even realizes what's going on. Urging to break free, her body starts feeling hazy and numb. "Wh.. is this..?"
"Now you can't interfere," His voice sounds viscous and evil with every passing second. As she still struggles to get loose from his grasp, her vision starts leaving. The last thing she could recall was his voice, saying, "You are weak."
As I waited for Joseph at my house, I worried about Saki. I couldn't stop pacing. I just wanted Joseph to get here, so I could talk to him. It was until I started making rice that he showed up.
I heard the doorbell ring from the kitchen. About time! I put down the bowl I grabbed from the cupboard and rushed to answer the door. As it opened, I shyly pushed some hair behind my ear. In front of me was a good-looking guy, wearing stylish American attire. Though, to my dismay, another fellow sporting an American style stood next to him.
"Hey, Shinori," Joseph nervously waved, trying to pull off a smile.
"Hello, honey," Brandon leaned in, whispering in my ear, moving some hair behind it.
"You brought Brandon," I shakily get out, trying to fake a smile as well. Joseph's half grin looks a lot better than mine, though.
Joseph moved his right hand behind his head, his other in his jean pocket. "Yeah, sorry. He just came to my house," His voice didn't sound that happy that he was there. But who would blame him?
Brandon decided to break the awkward banter, "He told me he was coming over here, so I decided to come too, since we saw your mom leave a minute ago. Didn't want you to be alone with him," Though he was smiling, I don't think he meant that cheerfully. He leaned forward to hold me, whispering in my ear, "It'll be better this way."
Joseph looked away, turning red in the process. Brandon retracted his embrace and faced Joseph, still trying to keep his innocent and "happy" facade. "Yeah, but you guys are pretty much brother and sister, right? Maybe this'll be the day you confess your love to her," Brandon clasps his fist with grief and envy. He didn't listen to Joseph's signals to quit. A bit scared and a little curious, I remained quiet.
After a while of back and forth condescending arguing, Joseph finally had enough, "If I wanted to kiss her, I would've done it already!" A few seconds go by, then Brandon scoffs.
"So you never wanted to kiss her?"
"N-No," Joseph hesitated, trying to hide his blushing. Brandon examined his expression.
"Never?" He studied once more. "Then kiss her now. Act like it doesn't mean a thing."
Joseph and I jolt with surprise, "Huh?"
"Go on and kiss," It sounded as if he forced that sentence out. Looking at Joseph, it seemed we thought the same thing: this won't get resolved until we do this. Our faces looked like ripe tomatoes. We didn't want to do this here and now. Plus, we'll never get a chance to talk at this rate. We plucked up our courage and went for it. He gently placed his hand on the side of my face, leaning me in, and passionately touched my lips to his. It was wet and... hot. My face was burning. It felt like the kiss had lasted a life time. It was nice. I couldn't see, but I'm sure it took Brandon a lot of self control in order not to kill Joseph.
As we detached from each other, his face was a deeper color of red than I've ever seen. When Joseph finally gathered his composure, he looked towards Brandon, "There, There's your kiss." He was about to leave the house when Brandon interrupted, leaning his back against the front door.
"Now, was that so hard?" Brandon sounded so smug yet furious. You could tell Joseph wanted to kill him. I'm sure if he said anything, he would've.
"Move," Brandon dropped his nice facade and stared Joseph blank in the face, not moving a muscle. It looked like Joseph was going to burst, but he was doing well at staying somewhat calm. After for what it seemed like a long time, Brandon stepped out of the way of the door.
As Joseph opened the door to leave, Brandon whispered, "I'll call you later." And without another word said, it was just me and Brandon and nothing but silence.
"Brandon," I spoke up, not daring to look up, in fear of punching him.
I felt arms around me and a relieved sigh, "Yes, Shinori?"
"Get out," He immediately released his embrace.
"What?"
"Leave," I looked up. "NOW!" I pushed him out, slamming the door behind me and cried.