RIVALS ; t.karasu

06

'Amber was going to pick me up, what are you doing here?' Name grumbles as she stares down at Tabito, who was beckoning her to enter his car.

Name and Amber had decided to visit the local cinema to watch the latest Deadpool film after classes but sadly, Name could not find her anywhere. She was hoping to get inside of Amber's car and watch the film with her, not be stuck outside her college with Tabito of all people.

'Have ya not checked the group chat at all? She left with Otoya hours ago,' replied the man simply.

Upon hearing this, her eyebrows knit and she turned her attention towards her phone, hastily back reading her chats.

And, when her eyes landed upon the texts of Amber and her brother in which they both said that they were leaving to go somewhere else, she could not help but feel her heart burn with hatred.

'Those bastards—'

'I know, I know... I was suppose to practice football with Otoya today but I guess they both screwed us up.'

When she realised that she wasn't the only victim of Amber and Eita's disappearances, she felt herself lighten up slightly. 'Yeah, they both suck.'

'But I'm still here, does that mean I don't suck?' he smirked.

She rolled her eyes, 'don't push it...'

'Apologies m'lady,' although she would never admit it, she felt her cheeks burn at the nickname. 'Are ya getting in?'

Oh of course! They both now had the afternoon to themselves!

Hesitantly, she made her way towards the passenger seat of Tabito's red car.

'So ya were gonna watch Deadpool with my cousin?' he asked as he turned his engine on.

'Yeah we were but she... y'know...'

'If I'm being honest, they actually saved two whole hours of ya life. I watched that film, it sucked,' he replied truthfully, 'if ya wanna watch a real movie then The Godfather is the movie to try.'

She raised a singular eyebrow, 'the one about the mafia?'

'Mhm, I have the DVD, we'll watch it at my place, it'll be my treat.'

'Your room is... something,' said Name as she entered into her dear rival's room.

Although she had spent many nights in the Karasu household, she had never spent any in Tabito's room. So seeing his room after 14 years of friendship was an eye opener. For starters, his room was decorated with various medals and trophies he had won over the year; this wasn't limited to his athletic abilities but also included his academic achievements from extracurriculars to simply scoring high on tests. To top things off, he even had his GCSE results framed—he had seven 9s and two 8s, she wasn't even shocked since she remembered the day she saw their results all too well.

Tearing her eyes away from the walls, she looked at other aspects of his room, it was fairly normal—cleaner and more well kept than her brother's at least. However, there were certain things that stood out like a white guitar placed on his wall and a picture of Bon Jovi on his desk. She was aware of his love for music, specifically old rock but she never thought he was the kind to actually indulge that deeply in it.

'Do you play?' she asked, stepping dangerously close to the guitar with her fingers inches away from the strings.

Immediately, Karasu ran towards her with an arm around her shoulder, dragging her away from the instrument, 'wouldn't want ya to ruin it.'

'I'm not clumsy!' she retorted.

'I know, I know but that guitar is sensitive, the strings keep breaking every time I try to do the F chord,' he explained.