It's My Life
Chapter Three
Kristy lay in her bed, cuddling into the warmth of the person next to her. Just like he had promised, he had made her forget for a little while. Now, almost two hours later, was she forced to remember again.
Two hours of blessed relief had been given to her by the man next to her, time that few others could give her. Tonight's lover was gentle and took his time with her, treating her like a goddess. Kristy smiled at that. If he could see inside her memories, he would know better. But he couldn't and for that she was greatful.
Kristy snuggled into him somemore and he put his arms around her protectively but he couldn't protect her from her own memories. NO one could, at least not for long enough...
Kristy sat with her coat wrapped protectively around her. She stared endlessly at the rushing waters underneath her. It must be so wasy for the water, all it has to do is run one way forever and ever and it'll be fine.
Kristy stared at the water somemore and wondered what it would be like to join the water. What would it be like to not have to worry about mothers, brothers and a missing father. How would it feel to not care about your crush and whether or not he was with someone else. What would the world seem to be for her?
Kristy huddled up on her new-found rock and watched the storm clouds float by, not seeming to have a moment to rest. Maybe they were all waiting for her to leave before they'd stop to rain. Or prehaps they were jus tlooking for the right place; the perfect flower for them to water was all that they needed.
Kristy sighed. It had been hours since she had ran from Daniel, she wondered if he was out looking for her or if he was out with his girlfriend somewhere.
"Hope it's me." Kristy whispered softly in the starless night sky. "I hope he's looking for me."
"You hope whose looking for you?" A male voice asked from behind Kristy, which made her jump about three feet and quickly scramble to her feet.
Kristy's eyes scanned quickly over the rock and fell on a boy, no a man, about six feet from her. "Who are you?"
The boy laughed. "My name is Hiro, I live over here." Hiro pointed to the direction he had obviously came from. "I usually come here to think." Hiro motioned to the rock and then took a seat on it. "So why are you here?"
"You don't want to hear about my problems Hiro." Kristy said softly. "Trust me, no one does."
Hiro chuckled and patted the rock next to him. "Tell me your name, sit here and start. Let me be the judge of that."
"Kristy Saxby-Jones." Kristy held out her hand. "Are you sure you want to hear abou tmy problems? It ought to take a while." Hiro shook her hand but seemed shocked at her name. Finally he snapped out of it.
"Go for it. I have all the time in the world." Hiro chuckled. "No one's waiting for me anymore either."
"What does that mean?" Kristy asked innocently, hoping to get him to talk about himself instead of listening about her.
"How 'bout you tell me your story and I'll tell you mine." Hiro bargained and then stood up. "Come on, you can tell me on our way to my house. You look cold and if my house is anything, it's warm."
Kristy stood and found herself nodding before she realized what she was doing. Hiro smiled and turned around, beginning to walk away. Kristy followed right behind him. They walked through countless bushes and Kristy wondered how Hiro actually knew where she was going. He turned to look over his shoulder a couple of times and smiled reassuringly at him. Kristy couldn't help but smile back each time.
About half way through their trip, Kristy found herself telling Hiro a shortened version about what had happened to her over her life. He offered sympathy and for once, Kristy didn't mind taking it. She realized that he was one of those people that actually meant it.
"Here we are." Hiro said finally and Kristy looked up and gasped. They were standing in front of a huge log cabin that was surronded by the most gorgeous garden. It looked like, from the outside, a dream house.
"Wow." Was all that Kristy could say.
"You like it?" Hiro asked softly. "I built it myself with my father about three years ago."
"You built this?" Kristy asked. "It's remarkable. Completely and totally breath taking and you live here alone?"
Hiro nodded. "I'm only eighteen, not old enough to have a wife yet, I guess." Hiro shrugged. "Want to see the inside now?" Hiro didn't want for an answer and lead the way inside, Kristy once again at his heel.
"Oh my-" Kristy's jaw fell open when she saw the inside. There were leather couches in the living room, which was down a few steps to her left and an open fire, set on brick, burned and cackled. To her right was a kitchen that was painted and tiled in a rich blue colour. Right in front of her was a room she guessed Hiro used as a study or something because papers and books were thrown in every which way.
"The bathroom's through that door." Hiro said, motioning to a door through the living room. "And the bedrooms are through there." Hiro pointed to a door that went off the study. "There's another bathroom back there too."
"It's beautiful!" Kristy exclaimed. "This is an absolutely beautiful home. God I wish I could live here instead of where I do."
Hiro chuckled. "Well it does get lonely, especially with no neighbors for miles. You don't get many visitors out here, trust me. You're the first one in years."
Kristy sighed. "I wish I had that sort of solitude sometimes."
"Why?" Hiro turned to the kitchen. "Go sit in the living room, get comfortable, while I get us something to drink." Hiro waved her off. "Won't be alcholic either, I promise you."
Kristy grinned and went to the living room. Spying pictures on the ledge of the fire place, Kristy went to look at them. A few pictures of Hiro and who she presumed to be his dad stared at her and she smiled as she glimpses of the construction of this cabin. There was also pictures of a beautiful blonde girl and Kristy wondered who she was.
"Is hot chocolate good?" Hiro called fromm the kitchen. "Or would you rather have tea?"
"Hot chocolate's good, thanks." Kristy called back. Before she knew it, Hiro was next to her, offering her a mug of it. "Whose the girl?" Kristy motioned to the pictures.
"My ex-girlfriend." Hiro answered. "We were going to get married when we got out of high school."
"What happened?" Kristy whispered.
"She and my dad went in the truck one night." Hiro replied. "He was taking her home and I had had to stay here so that I could wait for this important call." Hiro's eyes brimmed. "About an hour later I got a call alright, a call that told me they had been in an accident and were now dead."
"Oh my." Kristy gasped. "I'm sorry." Kristy moved to look at him and noticed that he was crying silently. Kristy didn't know what it was with her but she threw her arms around him and hugged him to her. "I'm so sorry for you."
Time passed, Kristy wasn't sure how long, and finally Hiro stopped crying. "I'm sorry about that. I just-I just haven't cried for a long time." He looked around, trying to find something else to talk about. "Uh, do you want to phone home?"
Home. The word clicked in Kristy's brain. "Shit! My mother's going to be worried shit about me." Kristy ran to the phone and picked it up. Quickly she dailed her mother's phone number.
"Hello?" Her mother's panicked voice came over the phone. "Kristy? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me." Kristy swallowed hard and waited. She wasn't let down.
"Where on earth are you?" Her mother demanded to know. "I've been worried to hell and back about you and then Daniel said that-"
"I'm at a friend's house and I'll be home tomorrow." Kristy said in a rush and then blew a kiss into the phone. "Love you mom and I'll see you later. Bye."
"KRISTY!" Kristy's mother yelled but then Kristy hung up and turned to look at Hiro. "Come on, lets watch a movie or something."
Hiro smiled. "Alright."
"Besides." Kristy flashed him a warm smile. "I still don't know wha tyou do for a living or how you met your girlfriend."
"Kris." Hiro said gently. "Her name was Kris. And I met her at my thinking spot."
"Just like you met me." Kristy covered her mouth with disbelief. "No wonder you were so shocked at my name." Kristy shook her head. "That's bizarre."
Hiro nodded. "It is, isn't it?" Hiro chuckled. "And I"m a writer, I've sold three novels and I've made a pretty good profit on them." Hiro smiled again. "Close to half a million dollars."
"Wow." Kristy sat down on a couch and looked up at him. "What's your pen name."
"Yuki Kris." Hiro knelt down next to her, fiddling through the movies. "What movie?"
"Anyone would be cool." Kristy replied. "That's a cool pen name. I'll have to look you up."
"Hm." Hiro replied, sat down and put a blanket over them both. "That you will."
Kristy wondered what that meant and then didn't have time to think about it because the movie started.
"Hiro?" Kristy asked as she opened the door to Hiro's house which was opened like always. "I'm here!"
In one month Kristy and Hiro had became good friends and Kristy had come over often to escape having to go home to her mother and the million responsibilities at home. Hiro was accomodating, probably more because he had been alone for a long time without any company than because he liked having his house taken over by Kristy.
But then, over the last week, Kristy had become too busy to come over. She had detention twice, then had to go home to cook dinner due to the fact that her mother had finally gotten a job. Her brothers were bigger brats than normal and Kristy couldn't afford to take her attention away from them for the three minutes it would take to phone Hiro and tell him why she couldn't come over. The other days were soccer practice, something she couldn't miss because it she did she would either get kicked off the team or would be benched in the big game coming up.
"Hiro? I know I haven't been here for a while but that's no reason to ignore me!" No answer.
That wasn't like Hiro and Kristy knew that he only went shopping on Sundays and today was Friday. Which meant that he was here somewhere.
Kristy checked Hiro's bedroom, thinking that maybe he went and had decided to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon after staying up all night (something he did often) in order to not lose the 'flow of inspiration'. No luck. Then she went to take a look in the office, but he wasn't there either.
"Hiro! This isn't fun." Kristy called out and then walked to the back of the house and opened the door to the spare bedroom and picked up a book lying on the bed. It was called "Death's Gift".
"I might end up having to read this to occupy myself if YOU DON'T COME OUT SOON!" It didn't work and Kristy sighed.
Kristy walked out of the bedroom and noticed that the bathroom light was on. Kristy's eyebrows creased together and she opened the door. "Hiro?" No answer and Kristy rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm coming in, so don't scream." Still nothing. "Stupid guy, leaving his light on."
Kristy stepped inside and turned off the light. Then she turned around and gasped at the sight, suddenly breathing heavily. Kristy tried to get out but she fell against the counter and whimpered, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her.
There, hanging from the shower rod like a limp fish out of water, was Hiro. A rope tied around his neck and a completely gone, unreacheable look on his face. Kristy realized that his eyes were open. That they were looking directly at her. With that Kristy couldn't stay here any longer and she got up and ran for it, tears streaming down her cheeks like a flood.
Kristy scrambled to the phone and dailed 9-11.
"Hello, how may I help you?"
"Hi, I need an ambulance."
"Alright, just a second."
"Hello?" A new voice answered Kristy now.
"Hi. I need an ambulance for 1715 Christon Road. My friend-" Kristy choked on the words, fighting back more tears. "I came to visit and I found my friend had hu...ha....hung himself."
"We will have an ambulance there in twenty minutes."
"Thank you." Kristy nodded and hurriedly wiped the tears out of her eyes. "Goodbye."
Kristy sat down on the couch to wait. She didn't know what happened in the next twenty minutes but suddenly paramedics were in the house, asking where Hiro was. Kristy pointed to the bathroom, unable to bring herself to look at it herself but ended up having to lead them to it anyways. However, Kristy refused to go in there, she refused to see that again. Never again.
The paramedics understood and one of them even squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "You're okay. It's not your fault."
Kristy nodded but couldn't help thinking that it was, judging by the fact taht she hadn't visited for a week without even calling to tell Hiro what was going on. Maybe if she had just been there she could have prevented it. Maybe if she had been here, he wouldn't have even wanted to do it. Maybe-
"Don't blame yourself." The other paramedic said as if he was reading her mind. "There's no way you could have stopped it. It would have happened eventually. You might have stopped it this time but there would be another time later, and if he didn't do it then, there would have been another time after that."
Kristy nodded, unable to do much else as she watched the two paramedics wheel the zipped up bag away. As Hiro was removed from the world forever.
Kristy floated through the next couple dyas without being away of anything. Her soccer team won the finals with her scoring a goal and assisting all of the others, including the winning goal.
She got perfect on her math test and her mom got promoted. But she didn't really register any of it.
All she knew was that Hiro was dead.
Somehow she ended up goign to the distribution of Hiro's will. Her mom was there and a bunch of other people were all sitting around.
Where had they been when Hiro was alone, Kristy found herself asking. Probably they all just knew he was rich and are here in case he forgot to leave something to someone.
The lawyer cleared his throat. "Hiro has decided his fortune is to be split up to three different people. His property and everything on it, unless otherwise marked, he left some labels on some stuff he wanted given to other people, belongs to Mrs. Jinkins, his long life friend and manger. You are also to get a quartermillion dollars."
Mrs. Jinkins, an woman in her early thirties nodded and then looked down. She didn't seem to be really happy with what she got but Kristy was unable to determine if it was because it wasn't enough for her or if it was because Hiro had to die for her to get it.
"The reast of his money goes to Mr. Nelson, his grandfather." The laywer continued. "Mr. Nelson also is entitled to any future book profits from any of his books and all of the copyright handling, etc. go to him as well."
Hiro's grandfather nodded and then looked away, out the window. Kristy remembered that Hiro had said that his grandfather lived in the lower United States. He was along way from home. Probably came for this and the funeral. At least Kristy hoped he came for the funeral.
"Except-" The lawyer interrupted. "For the book "Death's Gift". This money, which has already made it to half a million dollars and is still climbing rapidly I'm told, goes to Kristy Saxby-Jones."
Everyone turned to Kristy and gasped while Kristy's mouth fell open. "To me? All of that money to me?"
"Yes." The lawyer nodded. "Now if we could all go to Hiro's house so that we may sort out all of the labelled stuff-"
The lawyer's voice was drowned out by the pounding of her heart in her ears and the thoughts running through her. The next thing Kristy was aware of was she was standing in the lobby, looking at the dedication page in the front of "Death's Gift". It read;
To Kristy,
Thanks for being my friend. Consider this a way to say thank you.
Kristy stared at the ceiling. This house was probably the only thing she had ever used that money for. And this was just a summer house. A place she went when she was tired of dealing with things that she had gotten herself into.
Kristy felt arms circle around her and hold her tight, as if to protect her from the world.
If only he could protect her, Kristy thought, if only he could.
{A/N: heya everyone..it's an update!! dances around happily ...yeapyeapyeap...anyways, what do you think?? Good? Bad? yeah, I realize this is probably the most angsty story I will ever write...I swear I need to give poor Kristy a break.
Yes about the guy that is in bed with her coughs ....ummmmm you'll find out who it is, eventually. Probably in the epilogue rather than any time in the story because well...1) I can't figure out who I want it to be quite yet and 2) I can't make it some guy and then have BlutErst tell me that I can't use him ...so once I talk to her (which I'll get around doing soon,) I'll be able to give you a name, I guess....}