Part II: Simplicity where art thou?
"What the fuck is this?? I haven't even finished paying for it yet!! I mean, this isn't fucking paid off yet! It's still got three more years! Look at this!"
"I'm looking Sora. Believe me. I'm looking…" Sora seemed to be going completely ballistic. But I couldn't blame him. That car cost a pretty penny.
"Do you think my insurance will cover this…? Oh shit. Got a dent in the damn hood too! What else got fucked up??" My boyfriend did a quick inspection of his car, which luckily didn't show anymore signs of adulteration, before whipping out his cell phone and dialing a number. He kicked at the ground angrily before saying, "Hello? Yeah, guess what. I just got fucked over!"
"Can you please watch your language…?" Sora looked at me. I felt myself blush. Since when had I become a saint? I mean, I had the talk of a sailor. Maybe it was because all his cussing was making me nervous.
"Yeah. Right. You try watching your mouth when your eighty-five thousand dollar car gets screwed up… Huh? No. I was talking to my girlfriend… No… It's not Namine'…" He turned his back on me and kept talking into his phone. Trying to push away the bubbly feeling in my gut from when he called me his girlfriend, I hunched down to get a better look at the damage. The scratch wasn't as sever as the dent in the hood. That dent looked like it was created when something really big and heavy crashed into the car. And if that was the case, then it must have been a real bitch to carry around. I'm guessing that it was being carried around since I saw no such device lying around anywhere. So the person that pulled this off must be really strong. Either that or it's more than one person… Worry spread through me like a giant wave at that sudden realization. Was it Demyx and his little friend?
I stood back up and looked at Sora. He was still trying to explain the situation when he turned back around and looked me. Something on my face made him say, "Uh… look. I'll call you back okay. Something just came up." He hung up the phone and came over to me.
"Kairi? What's wrong? Why are you so pale? It's not that bad. Honest! … Or isn't this about the car?" I shook my head.
"It's… I think I know… who did it…" Sora's face hardened.
"Me too." I wondered if we were close enough that we were on the same wavelength so I asked, "Demyx right?" Sora nodded.
"That bastard… I'll make him pay for this!" His tone worried me slightly and I winced from the severity of it. As unbelievable as it may seem, I still kinda felt sorry for my ex and so I tried to ease Sora's tenseness by saying something to take his mind off of Demyx for a moment.
"Sora… I think… it's not just him but a friend of his too."
"Then both of them are about to be dealt with!" Well. That wasn't the response I was hoping for…
"… Don't you wanna know why I think that?"
"… I guess so. If you think it's important. Either way I mean, they're getting what's coming to them. But go ahead. Explain your theory to me. That way, I can have enough proof against them. Come on. Out with it."
"… The dent is pretty big… Too big for someone alone to do…"
"… Good point. I'm gonna call us a tow truck. Hold tight." He pulled out his phone and proceeded to dial a number. He didn't have to wait long and was already talking a mile a minute into the receiver. I leaned against the car slightly bewildered. I couldn't tell Sora the real reason I thought it was an accomplice. I couldn't tell Sora about the phone call. I didn't want him to get angrier than he was now. And anyway, there was no solid proof that my theories were correct, I mean, after all, they were only theories.
The tow truck smelled liked corn chips and unwashed feet. I snuggled close to Sora to create as much distance between me and the tow truck driver who was by far in even worse condition than his truck. Sora didn't mind, either that or he didn't really notice. He was staring ahead with a blank expression on his face. I could see the fierce anger and hurt swirling around in his eyes and felt oddly responsible for it.
The driver had taken Sora and me to Sora's auto shop where he proceeded to get an estimate for the damage done to his car. The numbers were outrageous and put him in an even worse mood than I was used to seeing him in. We left in a rental that wasn't nearly as nice as Sora's ruined BMW. He drove me to Garnet's house in silence. His jaw was clenched so tightly that it looked painful. How could I tell him that the people who did this to him were only doing this to him because of me? When he finally got to Garnet's house, he pulled into the driveway and turned the engine off. Sora was frowning at nothing and I felt like I owed him some kind of condolence.
"Sora… I'm sorry about you're car. I'm really, really sorry…" He brought in a large, heavy breath and then exhaled loudly.
"By your tone I would think you felt guilty for what happened. Do you feel guilty Kairi?"
"… Yeah…" He snickered.
"Oh man. You're really cute Kairi. Why do you always blame yourself that way? It's okay. It's not your fault. I'm not mad at you okay?"
"But Sora. You don't-'' He caught my lips in his own and cut me off. I tried to pull away but he hugged me to him tighter. Finally I just gave in and let him kiss me. When we broke apart, he tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear affectionately and said, "It's enough that my car got jacked up. I don't need my girl to feel crappy too. Now go baby sit and put a smile on."
"Is smiling your remedy to everything?"
"Yup. Pretty much." Smiling, I exited the car. I watched Sora pull out of the driveway and waved at him as he drove away.
I rang to doorbell and waited. A few seconds later, the door opened and revealed a small girl looking at me with big curious blue eyes. I smiled as best I could given that I was still shaken about the whole Sora's-car-just-got-jacked-up fiasco and said, "Hi, I'm Kairi your babysitter." The girl didn't say anything. She just looked at me.
"Uh… it's kinda cold out here… Can I come in?"
"…"
"…"
"You're ugly." I gasped but before I could say anything, she had turned around and left the door wide open. I took the invitation and went in, closing the door behind me. I was a little angrier than I should have been but that was a rude comment. And in addition to being rude, it wasn't a very smart thing to say. For all this kid knew, I could be one of those abusive babysitters that would kick a kid's ass in less than two seconds because they had given me a funny look. Luckily for her I wasn't. Lucky brat.
"So, have you eaten anything yet?" I asked. After the words left my mouth, I smelt something funny. It smelled like gas. My stomach did a flip and I saw smoke coming from the kitchen.
"Oh Jesus…," I prayed and went in. She'd left a dish cloth on the oven and the burner was still burning. I saw the cloth was the thing that was smoking, having been scorched by the fire coming off the burner. Quickly, I turned off the flame and threw the towel in the sink. The remnants of the rice she had cooked were in the pan she used to cook it and they were burnt, sticking to the pan.
"What the hell? That's not how you cook rice! You boil it in a pot! And don't leave the burner on such a high temperature with a dish towel nearby! You wanna burn the house down or what??" I yelled. I started scraping the rice off the pan furiously and when that was finished I looked up and saw Eiko looking at me sadly.
"I thought I had turned it off…," she claimed in a small voice. I felt guilty for yelling and said, "It's okay. Sorry I yelled…" We were silent and the water from the faucet was the only sound in the room. Eiko sat down at the table and watched me expectantly.
"Ugh… So… I take it you haven't eaten yet. I'll make you something. What do you want to eat?"
"… Some Chinese."
"Okay… Do you guys have the ingredients?"
"You can cook Chinese? But you aren't Chinese!"
"Yeah? No shit. Oops I mean… I'll… I'll just order take out." I went over to the phone and dialed the number of the Chinese shop I constantly ate at. It rang a few times and then I got the familiar voice of Xiang, the person who ran the restaurant.
"Hi Xiang. It's me Kairi."
"Oh? Dea' customer!! What ca' I do fo' you?"
"I'm ordering some… What do you want Eiko?"
"Pizza."
"… That's not Chinese. That's Italian or Greek or whatever. But that definitely isn't Chinese."
"I want pizza!"
"Hewro?"
"Hold on Xiang," I put a hand over the receiver and glared at the twelve year old sitting not even two feet away from me, "They don't have pizza! You said you wanted Chinese!"
"I know! I want Chinese pizza!!"
"What the hell is that??" She gave me a look like I was stupid and simply shrugged. I was about to tell her to stop being so damn demanding but I changed my mind because I didn't want her to tell her mother and lose my chance of getting a hundred and eighty- nine dollars. I put took my hand off of the receiver and said, "Uh… Xiang?"
"Yes dea' customer?"
"Can you… make me a large Chinese pizza?"
"Eh?"
"… Er… Chinese… pizza?"
"Eh? Pissa? We make no pissa."
"I know but…"
"…Okay. I make pissa for dea' customer. It take thirty minute. You want delivery?"
"Yes." I gave him the address and hung up. Defeated, I sat at the table with Eiko and we waited for the pizza.
It ended up being forty five minutes and so I got a five dollar discount on the total price. I paid the delivery guy and took the large box from him, closing the door with my foot. I carried the grease stained box to the kitchen and Eiko started jumping up and down excitedly.
"Pizza!!"
"Yeah… pizza. Right…" I sat it down and the girl tore the box open greedily. I looked at the soggy mess with disdain. The doe was sloppy and a lot of meat, cheese, onions, peppers, and other stuff that I couldn't nor wanted to make out were packed on top. I let her try it first because she was younger and if something was wrong with it that made her sick she could get over it faster then me. Ah, so is the gift of being young. She took a big slice, the melting cheese stretching as she pulled, and bit into it. She chewed noisily. Once swallowed the first bite, she smiled not seeming to mind how messy it was and kept on mauling it. I hesitantly tried some and was surprised when it didn't taste as crappy as it looked.
"Good!!" Eiko exclaimed.
"Good," I agreed. After we finished half the box, Eiko went to play with some of her toys. I watched her in amusement. She actually had a soap opera-like story going on. I thought that was pretty cool because I never got into playing with dolls and by the time I was her age, I was done playing with toys altogether. Plus, I never had enough imagination to come up with a story for my toys.
Kids have it so easy what with all their simplicity and innocence. As I watched Garnet's little sister play, I wondered when I started thinking dolls were a waste of time, or when I realized I had time to waste. Kids don't have to rush into anything, no one pushes them, and no one hassles them. The only thing they have to worry about is having fun and eating. It's slightly irritating that the world cradles you comfortingly in a warm embrace for a while until it gets tired of you. Then you're left to fend for yourself in the cold reality that is life. When does childhood end and adulthood begin? I wonder sometimes when the exact point was that my life turned from blissful ignorance to shit. As one would expect, it's not so easy pinpointing that moment. In literature, a coming of age story depicts the moment as the moment when the child becomes aware of his or her mortality. I know I'm mortal and am reminded each day when the bullshit I go through starts to pile high.
And then I see that old people are like kids too. After all life throws at you, in the end you'd rather return to that tranquil state you started in rather than continue. Why is that? What's the point? If life is so redundant and nothing's new, what's the point? When will this end and something new start? What do you have to look for to find it?
I sighed irately and slumped in my seat. To think, I started pondering all this from watching a kid play with dolls. Perhaps it's time for therapy now.
"Hey, can I call you big sis," Eiko asked suddenly. I looked at her to see if she was serious. She was smiling brightly.
"Er… yeah. I guess."
"Good. So now I have two big sisters! Hey, did you know that Garnet really likes you?"
"You don't say…"
"No. She really does! But I don't think she likes you nearly as much as she likes Zidane. I don't know him too well, but if big sis likes him then he must a great person!" I wondered how she had managed to come to that conclusion.
"I guess… Why do you say that?"
"Well… cuz big sis is great and so are you so he must be too!" Wow. How basic.
"Okay. Thanks for saying so."
"Sorry for calling you ugly earlier. I was angry that you were going to be watching me instead of big sis."
"It's alright. No harm done."
"Okay. That's good…" Eiko kept talking and talking and talking and talking and talking. My head was reeling from all the stuff she was talking about. All of it was so simple and pointless that it was nearly incomprehensible. All her childish chatter quickly irritated me.
"Uh. Listen. Maybe you should go to sleep now."
"Huh!? But I'm having fun talking with you!"
"Yeah, yeah. It is fun. But I'm tired so you must be tired too so we need to go to sleep now."
"… Okay. But lemme ask you this one thing!"
"What?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Sure. Now go to sleep." Eiko pouted a little but trudged off to bed without another word. I relished the silence that had descended since her exit and then I saw the clock. Three hours had passed by so fast. Even though I was technically done, I decided not to leave until someone else came home. I started watching T.V. in Garnet's room to past the time. The idea sleep suddenly seemed more appealing than the crappy sitcom playing on the television so I ended up dozing off. I was awakened three more hours later by a loud crashing sound. When I got up to check it out, I saw Eiko struggling against ropes that were wrapped tightly around her small body.
"Eiko! What the-" Before I could finish, I felt something hard crash into the back of my head. I literally saw stars and crumpled to the floor.
"…had this coming for some time. Don't worry, it'll be over soon." I hadn't heard the first part of the sentence because of the ringing in my ears. I couldn't recognize the voice either. The room started spinning and I felt someone pull my arms behind my back and start wrapping itchy rope around my wrists. My body wouldn't respond and my eyes closed on their own. Then all I saw was darkness.
A/N: If you ever had to babysit a kid, you know where I'm coming from. Anyway, don't kill me but I just now uh, got reinspired for this story. At I first I was gonna delete it but I changed my mind. So anyway, review please? And if you're pissed that I haven't updated in forever, let me know. I totally deserve it! T.T