The yesterdays that were mine

Broken bones, Vitamin C

It took a long while for Nana to leave the house the next morning, having to rush out the door a cool half an hour late, which meant she had to wait another thirty for the next train, and another twenty to walk to school. All in all she was kicking herself, because she had Mr. Amano first period, and now she had to miss her favourite class.

She partially expected to run into Masashi, and found herself scanning every crowd and surrounding just in case he had come back to find her. But he never showed up. It was just about the end of second period before Nana arrived at school, so she signed herself in and began walking to her English class just to apologise to her teacher.

She stood outside, waiting for the students to come filing out. Almost consecutively, as the bell rang another door opened with students coming through the door. She made the mistake of looking over in that direction. Baji and Kazutora came sauntering out and immediately caught sight of Nana. Kazutora, who she noticed always seemed unhappy, cocked his head, gesturing to her to come over to them. She did, knowing her teacher would still be in there throughout break.

"I told you she went to our school" Baji said, and he - they both - actually, looked like they had stolen their get-ups from someone else. Everything was ill fitting, unbuttoned in places to accommodate to their bodies.

"Yeah, I believed you. Hey Nana" Kazutora said, looping his arm over his smiling friend. "Let's go eat im fucking starving!" Baji said, and Nana felt Kazutora's arm fall over her shoulder, pressing into all those still fresh bruises.

"I thought you guys didn't come to school" Nana said, noticing all the looks she was getting as they walked through the hallways. Perhaps Tokyo Manji was more known around the school than she thought.

"We don't, but we did today. After lunch we should dip though, go catch up with Mikey and Draken" Baji said. Nana looked up.

"Aren't you going to see them later at your meeting?" She asked.

"Your meeting? It's our meeting. You are coming...right?" Nana felt the inexplicable tighten of Kazutora's grip on her shoulder. She felt the urge to rip herself away.

"I can't get down there, there isn't a train station near there"

"Train this, train that. Catch a ride with either of us. You're part of Toman now, Nana...just, lower a little," Kazutora smiled, as if what he just said was at all nice. "Plus, if our errand girl doesnt show, Mikey'll fucking kill you, then us because we let you go" He laughed. There was something about every boy that felt unhinged to Nana. Like all of them were just a tiny bit insane. But Kazutora, he...he was different. There was something about him, specifically, that made Nana's skin crawl.

They all sat down in the third year common room, each boy slouching on the large couches as if they were single seaters. Before Nana could take a seat, Baji called out;

"Nana, go get us a drink" He said, tossing a bill on the table. And so it begins. Nana thought. She had to remember that she was just an errand girl. They kept her because she, evidently, made them lose five other members. This was her price, her bed. Now she'd have to lie in it.

She stood at the vending machine, fishing through her coin pouch because what Baji gave her wouldn't even pay for one drink, let alone two. She thought back to last night, what they were drinking. Kazutora, who did not say much at all beforehand, made it apparent to order orange flavoured soda because 'vitamin C was important'. And Baji, whom most laughed at, got strawberry milk for himself.

Nana took the drinks back and sat them down in front of them, taking the lasting sliver of the couch beside Kazutora. They didn't say anything about it, not a thanks or even a hum of approval from her drink choice. She began eating the food she had brought for herself as the boys talked amongst themselves, Kazutora often calling out to random people passing by for looking at him for too long.