What's forever?

Chp 6: Bonding time

The next week or so passed pretty eventless for me, but really was tough for Yui. She was passing out a lot because the brothers kept drinking from her. With zero consent. Sometimes they'd ask me, and sometimes I'd say yes and afterwards they'd leave me. It was strange, to say the least.

Yui kept telling me that there was a strange, beautiful woman who kept showing up in her dreams and also just appearing in front of her. She described her with long purple hair, venomous green eyes and very pale skin. But what got me the most was how Yui told me she wore a very victorian era dress.

The style of the Sakamaki's house was also victorian, so it was possible that the lady was a ghost who lived there because that's where she had lived in her past life.

Anyways, I was watching videos from middle school on Youtube. My friends and I were in a band and we were the greatest. We would do small performances for the other kids at school.

I had a pretty bad childhood. My parents absolutely ADORED my older brother and sisters, but completely ignored me 90% of the time. I mean, yeah, they bought me things and fed me and whatnot, but they didn't say "No, you can't be out past 11:00 cause you could get kidnapped," like they told my sisters or "No, I'm not gonna give you a raise in your allowance, you keep spending it in a week."

I loved my brother though, out of everyone in my family, he actually knew I was there. He cared about me. We took care of each other. He was the only reason I even survived that section of my life.

See, the thing was, my parents would just get me whatever it was that I wanted, and dismiss me so they wouldn't have to see me.

I used to sing. Oh, I would sing everyday, at school, at parties, people would even pay me to put on small concerts for Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs and B'Nei Mitzvahs and birthday parties and funerals, everything.

I was watching a small compilation my friend had made, and the first video that played was me when I was 7. At a small business party for the company my mother worked at.

I was standing on the stage in my cute little lavender dress, in front of about 50 adults, my mom sitting in the middle at a table, and I could see Marina just off stage with her mom.

I sang a Halo, by Beyoncé, and afterwards, all of the party people, minus one, clapped so hard and were smiling so much.

The one who didn't clap, of course, was my mother. Jewel Lennards. The most rock hard, unfeeling, cold person on the planet. I tried to love her, but she couldn't love me, so I gave up.

I chuckled softly, shaking my head at my old selfs naiveness. Then the next video popped up, showing the face of a dark skinned person.

I recognized them immediately, my first and only girlfriend, Mizah. They died right after my freshman year. They're part of the reason I even moved to Japan in the first place. I loved them.

I watched them grapple with the camera for a moment, looking at it suspiciously, my voice in the background saying, "Is it on?"

"Yeah, yeah, I think so," I snickered when I saw Marina slide into view and stare at the camera for a second, before turning to Mizah and saying, "Hey, dumbass, it's been recording since you pressed this button here. It tells you how long it's been recording for here." 

They leaned into view again, nodding thoughtfully. "Ah, I see. Cool. I'll be sure to remember this next time."

Then it cut to the intro for Marina's YouTube. It cut again to the five of us, Me, Lauren, Marina, Brooke, and Mizah standing prepared at the back of the music room at our middle school. I held my guitar, Lauren played bass, Marina played backup guitar, Mizah played any other instruments we needed for a song, and Brooke played drums.

I smiled, and we broke into My Band, by D12. I remember that they we tried to convince the principals at our school to let us play that song at the school dance a couple days later, but they said no because there was a racial slur in the song. They later said yes when when we promised no one in our group would say the word.

I laid my head in my arms, watching us mess around with the instruments. We do young and wild, but somehow we were able to bring ourselves together for a song.

"Is that you?" Said Laito from next to me.

I sighed, irritated. "Yes. My friend sent me a lot of our old videos."

"Ooh. Can I watch them with you?" He laid next to me on the bed without an answer.

"...Sure." I said. He snuggled into me. At least his head made a pillow for me.

He laughed a lot at the weird songs my friends and I used to play, and at the jokes I said, when a few concert videos popped up.

The last video that played was the day before I left for Japan. Laito didn't say anything the whole video. He just laid there, his head in the crook of my neck, pensively watching me sing my heart out as a last resort to make my parents see me.

The video stopped and then there was nothing on my computer.

"Do you... want to go somewhere?" Laito asked abruptly.

"Hm? Sure."

He stood up, pulling me with him and then suddenly we were standing in the cove of a beach. There was a tall bell tower and the sunset was so bright it burned my eyes. There was a restaurant right behind us. Well, it's outside seating was.

'Isn't this Collioure? I came here with Mom once, didn't I?'

We sat at one of the tables. "What's going on?" I asked Laito.

He sighed. "I keep remembering my mother. I had a feeling you were the only person who'd actually listen."

"Tell me about her."

"I loved her. So much. But when she died, I was really relieved, and I didn't know why. I didn't think about her that often, but now I keep seeing flashes of her, everywhere. She gave Ayato more than he wanted, completely ignored Kanato, and me...well, we loved each other but she was too much."

"Sounds like I have more in common with you three than I thought. What was she like?"

"She was beautiful. She had long purple hair,"

I swallowed. "Did she also have green eyes and pale skin and a black victorian style dress with a rose?"

Laito was silent for a second. "How the hell do you know that?"

"That's the woman that Yui's been seeing." I frowned. "I think," I looked him straight in the eyes. "We need to get back."

Ten seconds later, we were standing where Laito could tell where Yui was. Inside of a small temple looking building.

"Thank you for choosing that place, Laito. Collioure was the one place I actually had fun with my mom." I jogged into the building, leaving Laito standing alone out front.

I stopped when I saw Yui crouched in front of a tall man with green hair and a long overcoat.

"Yui?"

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hey, how's it going, guys? Don't you just love cliffhangers? I sure don't. Sorry this took a while, but have a good day!

BYE 🅱️ye👋🏻