She (TakashiMorinozukaxOC)

Chapter 16: Hurt

"Takashi, please!" whined Honey. 

The car ride was tense, and Jenni wished she could say that it was silent as well. However, Honey was inherently upset about something. What? Jenni couldn't make out over the constant crying from her short, blonde companion. He just kept crying and pleading and crying some more to Takashi, speaking too fast for her infantile Japanese skills to follow. 

She had resided herself to a corner of the limousine cabin with her earbuds in, trying to ignore the sobbing teen near her side. When the car got to Honey's house, Takashi got out with him. Or rather, he carried Mitsukuni kicking and screaming out of the car. Jenni gave him a sympathetic look on his way out, and the car kept going onward to the Morinozuka estate. 

Jenni got out and waived the driver off before going into the house. Once inside, she went to her room and put her bag down. She changed into some athletic wear and headed to the dojo for some free practice. She knew at least one room would be empty, so she'd have space to practice her forms and maybe clear her mind a bit. 

The dojo, quite to her liking, was silent. There were no classes running that night, so Jenni was left to herself to practice her forms. She planted her feet into the smooth floor and sighed. With a hair tie that was usually around her wrist, she pulled up her messy, sandy blonde locks into a ponytail. Unbeknownst to herself, it wasn't very tight, or neat for that matter. She began stretching slowly, trying to loosen her tense muscles. Kneeling to the floor, she stretched her legs in a straddle. 

Sighing, she stretched her hands above her head, resounding a satisfying crack from her back. At the other end of the dojo, a door slid open silently.

Since her small beach trip that weekend, since June 14th, she hadn't been feeling like herself. She tried not to notice, but it always took a while to feel alright again after June 14th. She lacked motivation to eat, or practice, or even paint. 

Then there was Takashi. 

What the hell was that? Why had he been at her room that night? 

She couldn't think straight; he made her head spin. When he had showed up at her door, like a knight in shining athletic pajamas, she didn't want him to leave. He just held her tightly until her tears ran out, and then some. 

She had woken up in the bed-- covered in a blanket. 

She felt like she had whiplash. Like her axis had been tilted and she couldn't tell which was was up or down. It wasn't like being tossed by a wave-- that senseless and powerful clarity that she wished she could live in. Now, she was unsure. She didn't know how to talk to him. 

Before, there was the roof, and glances and smiles and a few moments when she felt absolutely at ease.

His eyes locked to hers. He didn't answer, his tongue feeling like a stone in his mouth.

"You look kind of sick. Do you need a glass of water or something. I can stop the maid that's taking the dress to my roo--"

"--Do you have an escort for the party?"

She leaned back on her left heel, "I don't know that word."

"Escort," he said in English.

"Oh, like a date?"

His face felt hot, "Sure." 

A figure appeared in the dividing doorway from her half of the dojo to the other side. Jenni would have jumped, but when she saw the figure it was easy to guess who it was. 

Takashi, although he looked distracted and tense, had eyes that did not fail to bear into her own. Silvery moon-like eyes that she had to force herself to look away from, pulling her knees into a sitting position on the floor.