Youth Unsupervised

Chapter 16-Razor's Edge

After that whole mess with Kataoka, and given my track record, it was my hope that word would spread that I was some insufferable asshole who thought relationships were a joke. If someone else asked me out, I was worried I was finally going to have to say no, and that scared the crap out of me.

Relationships just weren't in the cards for me, not at that point anyway, and that was fine, because they would've just gotten in the way of my only goal at that point, help the only girl I would say yes to and mean it. And also the only one who I knew would never ask.

I had finally made some progress on that front. I'd thought up a plan, or at least a few suggestions, but I was biding my time. Saki wasn't one to agree to anything easily, especially something that pushed her out of her comfort zone. This wasn't something that could be bought with strawberries either. I was going to need her to agree to try it based simply on her trust in me, which from what I could tell was fairly shaky.

It's not that my plan was hard. In fact, it was stupidly simple. I realized I'd been over thinking things. She'd been doing all the reckless things that she was used to doing, which was anything but the stability I thought she needed so badly.

Until now, our relationship had been balanced on a razor's edge. Would I pull her up or would she drag me down? It really hadn't mattered to me before. As long as we were together, that was enough for me, but I'd finally realized that wasn't good enough. If I was going to save her, the only direction was up.

I found the moment I'd been waiting for on a day in early autumn. I was on my way to school. As I approached the front gate, my jaw nearly dropped. Leaning on the wall to the left of the gate, was Saki. I blinked a few times while I walked, thinking I must be imagining things, but she didn't disappear.

"Did hell freeze over?" I asked, walking over to her.

She rolled her eyes and lifted herself off the wall. "No. You just died in your sleep last night."

"My afterlife is a perpetual school day?" I asked. "That seems pretty harsh."

She grinned. "Nope. Your afterlife is a day with me."

I smiled. "I'm in luck then. Sounds like heaven to me."

She chuckled. "Yeah. Yeah. Come on smartass." She punched me in the shoulder as she walked past. "We're going to have some fun."

"You're serious?" I turned to look at her, but didn't follow.

"No, I got up early to get a head start on academics," she scoffed. "Have we met? Yes, I'm serious. And since you got your panties in a wad last time I skipped, I figured I'd invite you along this time."

"Alright." I nodded and took one final look at the school building. "I have some things to ask you, but you have to agree to hear me out."

"What things?" she asked.

I smirked. "That would ruin the surprise."

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess I deserve that one. Alright, it's a deal. Now, come on."

I followed her across the street, away from the constant flow of other students. I assumed it wasn't going to take us long to turn heads. I was sure someone was going to notice we weren't going in the right direction. That was all right though. I'd gladly get chewed out if Saki accepted my ideas. I was guessing it didn't make a single difference to Saki. After all, she could've just come to my house to get me instead of waiting right outside of school.

"Seems a little dumb to ask now, but you weren't going to invite Hiromasa?" I asked as we walked.

She shook her head. "I can get that wet blanket to do a lot of things, but I doubt I could get him to skip school once he was already there. Plus, he'd make a scene."