As Planned

"Amelia! Amelia Monroe!"

I spun around just in time to see Morimoto storming up to me. He looked rather pissed off. I wonder what happened. Unfortunately, I think his anger is directed at me.

"What`s wrong?" I inquired.

"What`s wrong?" He echoed. "My girlfriend has been gone since Friday. That`s what`s wrong! Iv`e only gotten text messages from you for three days. You fucking disappeared after the races. And with Han!"

I winced at his outburst. "I don`t understand. After the races I let you know what was going on and that I was safe. You left and I had to go with Han."

He opened his mouth to say something else but the late bell cut him off. He growled and latched onto my wrist, "We`re finishing this on the roof."

I whimpered and tried to wrench my wrist from his grasp. His grip was far too tight. And judging from pain alone, I`ll end up with a nasty bruise. "I`m not going anywhere with you."

"Hey!"

I momentarily stopped my struggling at the sudden shout. I was surprised to see Earl and Twinkie running up to us.

"Stay out of this," Morimoto hissed at them. "This is none of your business."

"But it is," Twinkie retorted. "Amelia is family. I take care of family. Now you better let her go or I`m gonna tell Han. And he`s is gonna tell your boy Takashi. Now, who do you think Takashi is gonna call?"

Morimoto winced and slowly let go of my wrist. I stood in place for a second out of shock before hightailing it over to Earl and Twinkie. I have no idea who Takashi knows that would scare Morimoto so much but it worries me. It worries me a lot.

As soon as he was out of ear shot I turned to Earl, "Who would Takashi tell?"

"His uncle," He replied nonchalantly.

"And who is his uncle?"

"Yakuza," Twinkie muttered with disgust.

I winced and shook my head. "No way."

"Sorry, love. But your boyfriend has permanent ties as soon as Takashi`s uncle wants him to start running the family business," Earl half heartedly consoled.

I frowned, "But the yakuza..."

"Are bad people?" Twinkie offered.

"Yeah," I whispered. Alex told me all about them before I left. And most of what she told me was nothing but horror stories. "Wait! What about Neela?"

"She knows," Earl grumbled.

"What do you mean she knows?" I asked in disbelief. How could she know and still be with Takashi?

"After her mother died, Neela was raised by Takashi`s grandmother," Twinkie explained.

"Does she feel that she owes him or something?"

"It`s possible."

"What are you going to do about Morimoto?" Earl asked.

I sighed and shook my head, "I don`t know."

"Come on, baby girl. Let`s get you to class," Twinkie said softly as he swung his arm over my shoulder. "You have plenty of time to think about it there."

I nodded and leaned against him. I can`t go home with this information. Not until I can figure it out anyway. I`ll end up blurting it out to my mom or aunt if I don`t get my mind straight. "Hey, do you guys think Han would mind if I went to the garage after school?"

"Hell no," Twinkie laughed.

"He probably wouldn`t care if you went now," Earl added with a snicker.

I nodded, "I`ll go after school. I need a place to go to clear my head and figure things out."

"You`re a bad liar, aren`t you?" Earl asked with a grin.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"You`ll blurt everything out if you don`t figure out what to do," Twinkie explained.

I nodded, "So that makes me a bad liar?"

"It might," Earl replied with a grin.

After school I went with Twinkie and Earl to Han`s and Reiko joined us shortly after we arrived. When I went to explain to Han that I needed somewhere peaceful to clear my mind, his only response was, "Let me know when you wanna drift". Leave it to him to have such a simple answer to something so complicated.

"You really don`t now what to do?" Reiko asked after about an hour of silence.

"No," I groaned. "Morimoto is not only my friend but he`s my boyfriend as well. And I don`t want to upset Neela or Takashi for that matter."

"But he`s not yakuza yet," Twinkie interrupted.

"So what are you suggesting?" I asked.

Twinkie shrugged, "Date him until he is one?"

I snorted, "Yeah, like that`s gonna work."

"It might," Reiko argued. "When he becomes one just tell him you don`t want to be connected to that world and you don`t want to get hurt because of his connections."

I frowned and leaned back against the couch. She kind of had a point. "But what if he doesn`t want me to break up with him and tries to hurt me?"

"Do you really think he would do that?" Reiko asked.

I held up my ice pack covered wrist, "He proved that today."

"Okay, point taken."

"Yeah."

"Amelia!"

I jumped at the sound of Han`s voice and the slight alarm in his tone. I stood up from the couch to look over the railing. I was extremely surprised when I saw Takashi leaning against a car. When did he get here? Oh crap. I wonder if he heard what we were talking about.

"Nice to see you again, Amelia. Can you come down here so we can talk?" Takashi asked.

"S-Sure," I stuttered and slowly made my way out of the loft and down to the garage floor. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Takashi smiled, "I just wanted to see the damage myself. Morimoto was feeling guilty but he knew you wouldn`t want to see him so I offered to look at your wrist."

"He feels guilty?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded, "Very guilty. He had tears in his eyes when he was talking about it. Morimoto was worried about you Friday night and got himself worked up over it. When he grabbed your wrist this morning he applied more pressure than he meant to. He let his emotions get to him."

I nodded slowly as I tried to absorb the information. Part of me wanted to believe him and part of me didn`t. While what Takashi was saying made sense I still felt the need to be cautious. I had a huge bruise on my wrist that caused nothing but shooting pain when I moved it. I have the right to be cautious, don`t I?

"May I see?" Takashi asked, pointing to my wrist.

"Oh um, sure," I mumbled and held out my wrist to him. He took it rather gently and looked it over before squeezing hard enough to make me whimper. It was then that Han stepped in and grabbed Takashi`s wrist and he immediately let mine go.

"I wouldn`t do that. She`s in enough pain as it is," Han advised.

Takashi chuckled, the sound hallow and forced. "Of course she is." He looked at me and gave a little smile that looked more threatening than soothing. "Give Morimoto a chance, alright? He was just very worried. He didn`t mean to hurt you."

I nodded and watched him get into his car, still smiling the whole time. When he sped off I turned to Han. "Can we go drifting now?"

"I thought you`d never ask," Han replied. He looked just as shaken up as I felt.