Sukeban (Discontinued)

Chapter 54: Put a Smile on Your Face

A few small sniffling sounds left Tomomi as she pulled the maroon colored skirt over her hips. Tomomi swore she wasn’t going to let the tears fall from her eyes no matter how much the tears wanted to color but as her head bowed down a little bit and the chocolate locks fell into her face, Tomomi couldn’t control the few salty tears that began to drip down her cheeks. A mixture of worry and guilt seeped through her as she thought back to her earlier conversation with the police. Tomomi didn’t want to feel these negative emotions; she didn’t want to cry. She wanted to smile for her parents but she found herself unable to do so. The only thing Tomomi found herself able to do was cry softly as the worry and guilt ate away at her.

What was going to happen to Mami now? That single question had passed through her mind more times than she could count since the officers had left her house earlier. Deep down in her heart, Tomomi knew she had made the right decision to be honest with the police and tell them what she knew about Mami’s mother but even so… It scared Tomomi. Mami was already 16 and she was a teenager who had a combative attitude. She didn’t accept help from other people very easily and Tomomi doubted that Mami would be willing to accept help from the police of all sources. What if the police gave up on Mami if she rejected their help too often? Tomomi didn’t see much of another option though…

She shook her head hard, quickly wiping away the few tears that continuously fell from her eyes. She let out a small stream of breath before grabbing her similarly colored shirt and pulled it over her head. Just as the fabric settled against her torso, Tomomi could hear a knock on her bedroom door. Normally, Tomomi would always move quickly to answer the door but this time she found herself standing still and unable to move.

Was it because she was feeling too worried to move her feet… Or was it because Tomomi didn’t want to face her parents just yet? After the police had left the house, her father had tried to approach her and talk to her but Tomomi was quick to excuse herself so she could get ready for the dinner. She had run off to her room without saying much to her parents. She didn’t know what to say to them. She didn’t know what sort of questions they had but she certainly knew that she probably would be unable to answer them.

“Sweetheart, can I please come in?”

Tomomi was normally the type of person to promptly answer whenever someone came knocking on her bedroom door but right now, that didn’t seem very possible for Tomomi to do. The brunette found herself unable to move from the spot where her feet felt firmly planted to the ground. The only action the brunette could muster in herself was to bow her head downward, gazing down at the crimson outfit she now adorned on her body. She could hear another set of knocks from the other side of the door but no words followed them as they had before.

What did Tomomi do? She didn’t have an answer to that question and it felt like she was never going to have an answer to that question. Could Tomomi even face her mother? Tomomi didn’t know. After what her parents had overheard the police saying, what was her mother going to think of Mami now? Her mother was the overprotective type and she certainly couldn’t be thinking very fondly of Mami right now after knowing that Mami was one reason she had gotten into a fight… But deep down, Tomomi also knew her mother was as sensitive as she was. Her mother would never dare say anything bad about Mami at a time like this, even if she harbored those feelings for the brunette.

After seconds of silence, Tomomi could just barely hear her bedroom door squeak open. The noise and knowledge of her mother’s entrance still didn’t allow for movements in the brunette’s body. She gulped, only finding enough in her to finally raise her head and turn slightly, looking over at her mother. She saw the aging woman had entered the room just slightly, only enough so that she could close the door behind her.