Contempt

It took a while and there was a lot of dysfunction, but everyone eventually ate. I’m not entirely sure how all the guys got things done – Shinya was a picky eater, Die was demanding pancakes and Toshiya kept yelling about there being no Tylenol (I don’t blame him, he looked pretty bad).

In the midst of finishing his bagel, Kaoru looked over at Charlotte and me. “Oh!” He exclaimed, his mouth still partially full of his breakfast, “I almost forgot - we still need to bring you girls home. It’s already 3 P.M.”

Everyone at the table looked around at each other, almost as if they had forgotten too.

“Oh, geez,” I sighed, “I guess I keep forgetting about barging in on you guys. Some fresh clothes and a shower would probably be nice…” I trailed off.

“Actually,” Die started, “I don’t have much to do until later today. Would you care if I came to your place with you? I could stay there until I needed to go.” I wasn’t too pleased with his idea at first, but Charlotte sure seemed happy about it. I could tell she wanted to get to know Die better; he was just too out of it last night. Because I wanted to please Charlotte, and because she is really one of my only friends, I decided to let him come with us. But when I agreed to that, Kaoru thought it’d be nice to stop by as well – make us a quick meal as a thank you for bringing home Toshiya. Shinya and Toshiya just wanted to have some of Kaoru’s cooking, and I guess Kyo silently tagged along, because somehow he ended up with us in the car.

We gave Kaoru the directions to our apartment building, and we were there within twenty five minutes. It would have been a shorter drive, but Charlotte was always bad with her directions and kept telling Kaoru to turn right when he needed to make a left. We had to go through a lot of back-roads and make a handful of U-turns, but we eventually made it to the parking lot and found a space to park in.

“Which door is yours?” Die asked as he looked up the tall building

“It’s the fifth door on the eighth floor.”

Die exhaled sharply as we all started towards the stairs. I heard him mumble something about an elevator, but Charlotte eventually fell behind to walk with him. I was just thankful that we weren’t going to be hearing him complain the entire time. He’s lucky that he doesn’t need to carry groceries up these steps.

“Alright,” Charlotte started, “It’s the door right here.” She fidgeted around through her white pants pocket until she pulled out our small gold key.

When the door was opened, we were greeted with the nice open space of the living room, and May sitting on our couch. Toshiya and Die looked at each other oddly, then back to me.

“I didn’t know somebody else lived with you” Toshiya said

“…. We don’t live with anyone else.” I quietly said. I turned around and went over to where our unexpected (and unwanted) visitor was sitting. I was hoping that she would make an easy and fast departure this time.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, hoping the expression on my face would give her enough signals. I wasn’t in the mood to get into a fight with her in front of everybody else. And if I got angry, that means Charlotte would jump in and make it a hundred times worse.

“Yes?” May asked, not moving from our couch. She made it sounds as if we were the unwanted guests

“Why are you in our apartment? I don’t ever recall Charlotte or me giving you a key.”

“Oh,” She said looking a little shocked, as if she had forgotten this wasn’t her apartment in the first place, “I was just stopping by to drop something off that you had forgotten. I already put it in your room.”

“Forgotten? Charlotte and I haven’t gone out in a month.”

“It was in the restaurant. You left your wallet on one of the tables.”

I took my hands and tapped around on my pockets. I guess she was right, I had totally forgotten about my wallet and everything in it. I must have left it there while Charlotte and I were figuring out what to do with Toshiya.

By this point, everyone was standing around May and me, uncomfortably staring at both of us.

Charlotte rocked back on her feet, anxiously. “I still don’t understand how you got in-”

“So,” Die started, trying to change the conversation, “Why don’t you girls show us around your apartment a little bit? I’m interested to see where you live. But I do need to leave at 6 PM to go meet with a studio manager.”

“That sounds like a good idea!” Charlotte said as she spun around. I’m sure she was just excited to get to see Die. Either way, any idea that didn’t involve May was a great one.

As if we were a tour group, everyone followed Charlotte and me down the back hallway where it forked off into two separate rooms. I pointed to the one on the left with dark purple walls, “That one’s my room, and the one with the green walls is Charlotte’s.” Of course, to my displeasure, everyone crowded into my room first. The guys awkwardly stood there as my friend started to dig though my drawers until she pulled out a big black book. She seemed to get the rest of the group’s attention, as they all crowded around her.

“What is this?” Shinya quietly asked

“Yeah, Charlotte, what are you looking through?” I asked as I neared the group

“Your sketchbook.” She blatantly replied.

“What?” I gasped, “Why?”

“Because, there’s one picture in here that I think they might enjoy seeing.”

“There isn’t even anything interesting in there to see. I mainly do portraits or watercolors.” I said as I sat down next to the group. I bit my lip nervously, wondering what drawing Charlotte could possibly be talking about. There were so many things in the sketchbook from so long ago; I can’t even name ten drawings out of it.

“Here it is! Finally.” She exclaimed.

I closed my eyes and huffed, very irritated at the picture she had to show. It was a portrait that I had drawn of Kyo a few months back. I remember Charlotte made me draw it for her when we were going to go see them.

“Wow, that’s good.” Die said, looking at the picture. It was a pencil drawing of Kyo from the Hageshisa to… music video. I added a small touch of watercolor to his hair, making it the lightest and almost unnoticeable shade of blonde.

Kyo just stood there with the smuggest look on his face that you could imagine.

“How long did it take you to do that? The shading looks wonderful.” Kaoru asked

“Oh, thanks” I sheepishly replied. “It took a day or two I think… I don’t really remember.”

“See? Aren’t you glad I showed them?” Charlotte gave me a small smile

“Well, you’re the one who asked me to draw it anyway.”

Eventually, everyone left my room and we all resorted to hanging out in the living room. Die, Kyo and Charlotte were watching TV, Toshiya and Shinya were asleep on the couch and Kaoru was in the kitchen making us that dinner he had promised us. I was stuck in the middle running between May (who had still refused to leave), helping Kaoru with his cooking, and keeping the rest of the group at ease.

“Audrey, you need to sit down and relax a little bit! I haven’t seen you sit down this entire time.” Charlotte looked over at me with worried eyes.

“Yeah, don’t worry, we’re fine. I don’t want to be a bother to you. Plus, I’ll be leaving right after dinner. I don’t want to cause much more trouble.” Die quietly added in

I sighed and flopped myself down onto the couch next to Kyo. Who, in fact, still never got that smug look off of his face. My whole body sank into the back of the couch and it felt great to relax for a second. I guess Charlotte might be right; maybe I should just lay back for a little bit and not care.

My head slowly rocked over towards Kyo’s shoulder as the smell of Kaoru’s delicious cooking filled the house and May’s blabbering was drowned out by my own thoughts.