Book 5: Chapter 7 (1/2)

Prom occurred on a Friday. After sleeping until past noon, I woke up Saturday evening. The previous night still felt like a dream. I couldn’t believe I had slept with Akiko. On top of that, I was still dating Kira. Then there was the strange stuff that happened with my mom the night before. I couldn’t dwell on it, because the sound of thumping and the moans next door which had woken me were too distracting to think of anything. I kicked the wall.

“Will you guys quit it!”

This was the wall to my parent’s room. It sounded like dad had returned home to give mother extra attention. That was actually the reason I ended up waking up. It irritated me listening to it. A flash of mother half-naked on the bed from the night before entered my mind, and I shook it off.

Trying to cut out the noise, I looked through my phone. I had received a few voice messages. One was from Akiko, asking if I was okay. Another was from Kira, asking basically the same. I considered trying to meet up with either of them, but the whole thought of it felt awkward after everything that happened. Usually, the person I would talk to about this kind of thing was Derek, but that was naturally impossible now.

That was when I remembered a random person I had run into the night before. Fishing in my pocket, I pulled out the number of the punk girl named Mary. Was it really okay to contact her? I was dating one girl, having an affair with another, and now I wanted to hang out with a third girl. However, Mary seemed like the type who’d listen and understand. She was a psychic or something, so she’d probably be really good to talk to, as long as she didn’t start charging me by the hour. I decided to go ahead and call her. The phone rang only once before it was picked up.

“Hello?” A relaxed, pretty voice came over the phone.

“Hey… this is Hakaru… um… not even sure if I told you that last night. I’m the guy you met in the convenience store? I was wondering if you wanted to hang out.”

“Ah? Hakaru? That’s quick!”

“Huh?”

“Oh… it’s just, I knew you’d call, but I didn’t think you’d do it so quickly.”

“Is that bad?’

“Not at all! Rather, let’s meet at that old coffee house. You know the one?”

“Yeah, I know it.”

I got dressed quickly and then headed out of my room. Taking one complicated look at mom and dad’s room, I shook my head and continued on. I was surprised to see Maria in the kitchen. Her music was playing in her room, and I had also never seen her cook before.

“Hey, sis.”

She looked up at me and then back down.

“Woah… what’s with the cold shoulder?”

Actually, I remembered that we never really got along. She thought I was a perverted freak, and I thought she was a slutty hoe. However, I felt for reasons I couldn’t even recall that our relationship had been doing better recently. Yet, now she was glaring at me like she used to do.

“You’re leaving.” She spoke just as I thought that she wasn’t going to say anything.

“Uh… yeah, going to hang out with a friend.”

She hadn’t worded it like a question, but I decided to answer that way anyway. She only gave a slow nod while she blankly stared in the fridge, clearly having no clue what she was looking for.

“D-did you want me to make you something to eat before I go?” I asked.

After another moment looking into the fridge, she nodded with a blush on her cheeks. She closed the door and walked around the kitchen counter, sitting at the table. I went into the kitchen and pulled out some rice and put it in the rice cooker, then started sautéing some vegetables from a bag in the freezer. It didn’t take very long to finish, so it’d probably be fine if I was a little late. Maria didn’t say anything though, making the cooking a slow and arduous process. When I finished, I put the plate in front of her.

With the task done, I was going to turn and leave, but just as I pulled my hand away, she reached out and grabbed it. I glanced back with a look of surprise on my face, staring down at where she was holding my hand. She wasn’t looking at me, but down at her plate, her expression unreadable.

“What is it?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“Dreams…”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been having… dreams lately.”

“That’s fine?”

She glanced away, blushing. “Not these dreams.”

“Ah… I’m sorry…” I really didn’t know what to say to her.

My sister was definitely acting odd. She usually dated an endless stream of guys, but lately, she had just been staying in her room all the time. She had grown very introverted lately, and I had no clue why.

“Do… do you ever feel like things aren’t the way they are supposed to be?” She asked.

I thought about it for a moment, remembering my own experiences last night where I seemed to go out of control. I could probably just blame that on the punch bowl though. There was probably something wrong with it.

“Maria… if you want something to change, you have to make it change.” I said.

“R-really…” This caused Maria to shake slightly.

I nodded thoughtfully. “If you feel things should be a different way, then you should make things that way.”

“B-but what if… that involves someone else?”

“Like a crush?”

“S-something like that.”

“Don’t take no for an answer.”

“Isn’t that… a little rapey?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know about all that. But if you want someone, you should take them. I’m not saying you should hurt someone or commit a crime. However, the person you love is the person you love. If you want them, then you should pursue them regardless of things like whether they are in a relationship. If you know you can make them happy, then you should do so.”

“And what if they are already with someone else?”