BAREFACED

Chapter 14

"What?" You sit up a bit, cocking your head to the side.

"Why did he say that to you?" Aimi asks. Her eyes widen and then she gasps. "Wait... did he hurt you...? Did he touch you?"  She walks closer to you. "Did he force himself on to you...?" She says in a nervous tone.

"..." You look forward while adjusting yourself by sitting up straight. You look back at Aimi. "You're not staying at Ren's anymore?" Aimi looks away and sighs. She lets go of her backpack, causing it to fall to the ground. Then she walks over to the couch and she sits down next to you.

"Ren made me leave... he wouldn't tell me anything. He was upset and wouldn't say why... he then took his anger out on me and so I left." She softly sighs. Now that you have a closer look at her face you notice her eyes are red and she has tear streaks on her cheeks. 

"Have you been crying?" You ask, leaning closer towards her face, reaching out to touch her cheek. Aimi quickly looks away and uses her hoodie sleeves to wipe her face. 

"Damn... I was hoping you wouldn't ask that... I didn't know it was that noticeable." Aimi quietly says.

"What happened...? Why were you crying?" You ask. Aimi looks down at the ground and slowly shakes her head. 

"...He yelled at me... I asked him why he was upset, and then he mentioned you. I thought me and him were doing well... like- never mind." She sighs and leans back. You stare at her for a bit before getting up and walking into the kitchen to see what you had in your fridge, opening it to see it empty. You're hungry and notice there's not much to eat other than dorayaki and a few pastries that are downstairs in the bakery's fridge. You're not really in the mood to eat anything sweet. You close the fridge, and you slowly walk into your bedroom, plopping down on the bed and sighing loudly. 

"Yuki... why did you sigh so loudly like that?" Aimi asks staring at you from the couch. 

"There's no food and I'm hungry..." You sigh.

"Oh... now thinking about it... I haven't eaten either..." Aimi replies. She sits up and slowly walks into your room, leaning against the door frame. "Want to grab something from the convenience store?" Aimi asks.

"I don't have any money..." You groan, shoving your face into the pillow. 

"I don't have any more money on me too..." Aimi adds. "Wait... don't you store your money under your bed?" Aimi asks, tilting her head to the side. Under your bed? Wait, why does Aimi know this? You slowly sit up and sluggishly drop to the ground. "Can you buy me something from the store too...? I mean you don't have to, but I am so hungry... I will pay you back... I promise." Aimi sooths. You grab your blanket that's hanging off the bed to throw it back onto the bed so that you can look under the bed, but you pause when you see a white pill on the ground. 

"What's this?" You whisper reaching out towards it. Aimi notices it too. You pick up the pill examining it. You couldn't figure out what kind of pill it is, but you start to feel uneasy. You slowly lift the blanket up, revealing an open bottle and pills scattered on the ground. Your eyes widen and you feel a sudden stabbing pain in your chest.

"ARGHHH..." You clench onto your chest, falling flat onto the ground and curling up. Aimi drops down to you.

"Yuki? YUKI? HEY!!! HEY!!!!" Aimi starts to shake you. Your body hurts... everything hurts. The memories, the pain... all of it hurts. You want to throw up. You get up quickly and ran into the bathroom, dropping down, hovering over the toilet. 

After throwing up, you sit quietly in front of the toilet. Aimi slowly walks into the bathroom holding a water bottle. "I hope your grandmother doesn't mind me taking a water bottle from the fridge downstairs." She cracks it open and hands it to you. You open it the rest of the way and you take a few sips of the water. "What were those pills...?" Aimi questions... you don't respond. "Yuki?" Aimi says looking at you. You sit still in front of the toilet not moving or making any noise. "... Can I take some yen and go to the convenience store...? I will get you something to soothe your stomach, okay?" You slowly nod. You hear her walk away and out the door. You sit quietly thinking about all the memories that flooded your mind earlier.