Chapter 4
I went to my house like Takumi told me to. I waited there for about half an hour, scared of what would happen to Takumi if he got caught. Just then a figure came into the door.
“Why didn’t you turn on the lights Aki?” A voice came. It was deeper than Takumi’s and yet familiar.
“Takumi? Is that you?” I asked.
“Yes, why do you not recognize my voice?” He asked with concern.
“I do, I do. It’s just…your voice seems lower than it usually is, so I got confused and…” I started.
Takumi ran over to me and gave me a bug hug. His grip was tight and firm.
“I was scared that I would lose you…” Takumi whispered in my ear. “I don’t ever want to feel that again. So please let’s just go somewhere where we won’t be bothered by anybody and no one will get hurt.”
I hugged Takumi back and started to sob. “I’m sorry Takumi, I will never get into any more trouble…I will go with you. We can go anywhere as long as I am with you Takumi…”
He patted my head and held it in his hands. “I just hope you can stay with me forever…”
We stayed like that for a while: I don’t know how long we were like that. When I just started to doze off Takumi picked me up (like a princess) I woke up suddenly to be aware of what he was doing. I tensed up, but he walked up the stairs in my house.
“Takumi, what are you doing?” I asked drowsily.
“Putting you to bed.” Takumi answered sternly.
“Why?” I yawned.
“You’re almost asleep Aki, you have to go to bed sometime today.” He laughed.
“But why? You aren’t sleeping, so I will stay awake too...”
“You definitely are not sober-like when you are tired. But you have to go to sleep. I will too as soon as you go to sleep.” Takumi answered sweetly.
“O-k, hew abot we sleep on th beeed…” I stammered.
“You can sleep in your bed silly, I can have the couch. Plus I have to get some things out of my bag. So you have to go to sleep.” Takumi repeated with the same soft but sweet tone.
I fell asleep in his arms. Now I know that we will be able to stay together forever.
Once Takumi put me in bed he went downstairs to the living room where his bag was. He opened the bag, it had: a laptop, his medicine, food, some spare clothes (for him of course), some hair dye (he had to dye his hair back to the original brownish color he had, the dye was sort of coming out. It needs to be redone so the natural hair color didn’t show), and a hidden book. He pulled out the book and the laptop. Once he was on the laptop he did a search of isolated places.
“Guess we have to move out of state.” Takumi sighed. “Guess it’s better than nothin.”
The cat jumped up next to Takumi on the couch. He turned on the TV and watched the news to see what tomorrows’ weather would be like. If it was nice he could start moving in the morning. While searching he dozed off…
The next day…
I went downstairs to see what we had to eat. I was starved. Not eating for a long time then falling asleep doesn’t sit well with my body. So going downstairs is a hassle when my stomach hurts from lack of food. At least I made it to the kitchen, I got the nearest snack food and started munching on that while I found some real breakfast material. I got some eggs and toast, somewhat a decent breakfast for one person, but what will Takumi eat?
I went to look for Takumi, but he was nowhere to be seen. So I just made the same thing for him. The TV was on in the living room so I went over to see what the weather was going to be like. But instead I found a note sticking on the TV, From Takumi, it read.
I sighed. Wonder what this might be.
I opened the note and looked inside of it:
List of places where it might be nice to go. But they are out of state so I am letting you choose one, don’t want to be yelled at by you for picking the one I wanted.
I. Hinsdale, NY
II. Huston, TX
III. Miami, FL
IV. Other… (If you want to go elsewhere)
-Takumi
“Takumi!” I called.
“What?” He answered.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“On the couch.” Takumi said.
I turned around to notice that he was indeed on the couch.
“By the way, I wrote that last night. You were really funny though…”
“That’s beside the point.”
“What point?” Takumi asked. “Never mind, ok the note is for the places we are to go to, that is if you want to go. You don’t have to: I just thought those places would be nice…”
“When did I say I wanted to leave?” I asked confused.
“Last night, do you not remember it?” Takumi asked.
“I don’t recall saying anything like that.” I said still wondering.
“OK then what about this line ‘I’m sorry Takumi, I will never get into any more trouble I will go with you. We can go anywhere as long as I am with you’. Remember saying this line?” Takumi recited.
“Now that you mention it, I sort of do remember it, along with your Aunts demented boyfriend.” I answered with relief.
“Sorry about him. He’s…well kind of in trouble sort of. I really don’t know, just listening to conversations from downstairs doesn’t help any.” Takumi apologized.
“No need to apologize. Its ok, I do have a few questions though.” I said.
“Go ahead and ask.” Takumi said.
“Ok so when did your voice get so low? I don’t recall it being that deep when I first met you. Was it?” I asked awkwardly.
“No it wasn’t, sorry for scaring you yesterday. It was sort of…well…I don’t know how to explain it.” Takumi sighed.
“Well you can tell me anything. I promise that I will stay with you, no matter what it is.” I said with a sort of smile like Takumi usually does. He seems to smile less often now than he did when I first met him.
Takumi stopped what he was doing, (working on his laptop.) then he had this sort of sad, gloomy, face. Was he confused himself? Or is he afraid to tell me something that will surely make me run away?
“Takumi? Umm…what about seeing my dad? Would I ever get to see him again?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything for the longest time. Then answered, “Probably not.”
I didn’t say anything more and sat down on the edge of the couch (Takumi was sort of laying down on it). He moved his legs to allow me to actually sit on the couch. I did and he set his laptop down and just sat there.
I wonder what he is thinking about. Maybe how he can protect me, I don’t ever want to experience the Tony Ax Massacre again. That really scared me: I wonder if Takumi is also scared of what will happen if we run away together. Will we get into trouble, probably. I just hope we don’t run into any of our parents. Then I will be really scared.
Takumi came really close to me; he didn’t look at me though. He still had that sad expression on his face. I took his hand and he flinched a little but didn’t move after that.
“Umm…Takumi, if we go to a place where we both can be happy on then we can go there. It will be fun, like a vacation. So please don’t be sad anymore. I don’t know what you are going through but please don’t look so sad when you are around me. It will make me sad too.” I whispered.
“Sorry Aki, I know you don’t know what I am going through but what I will do is not give you empty smiles. That would just go against my nature; I won’t hide my feelings with you. But I am also not sad to be with you. I just have to make a big decision here, it is really confusing. I don’t know what to do. I’m just confused and lost; they tell me that I need to protect you no matter what. But you tell me that I can live my life the way I want to live it. Why does everybody differ so much?” Takumi answered with a sour tone.
“Takumi I don’t know who they are but if they tell you how to live your life, then I think that is wrong. Everybody has different destinies and we can choose which one we want. No one can choose it for us. I don’t want to get you even more confused than you already are. So I will let you think about it and let you decide what you want to do.” I said. “Sorry to be a bother but I am going to take a shower.”
“You are not a bother. I actually enjoy you being with me, but later we have to pack and I will tell you who they are. So I will not try to get so stressed out, and we can have some fun. I will try to do as many fun things as possible. And we can even go to a real school, so we don’t have to worry about an education.” Takumi smiled.
I smiled back, “So I can go to a real school?”
“Yup just you and me and a lot of other teens. Just like a normal school life.”
I shook my head and ran upstairs. “Who knew living with Takumi would be so fun.”