The Cyclist {Karin Uzumaki Love Story}

Chapter Fifteen: Mother Dearest

Karin POV-

I hadn't been to school for three days. I got emails from my professors saying what we did. I caught up, thanks to Sakura's and Ino's notes. I didn't bother going still. I was too worried about what I did to Rei.

Sasuke visited him regularly, and Suigetsu kept me updated on his status. I couldn't bring myself to visit him myself yet. I planned on going tomorrow though, when I wasn't such an emotional mess.

I cried myself to sleep most of the days I was alone. I was sick from stress and anxiety.

It seemed weird, but I hadn't acted like this for a long while.

"I guess I really did love him." I muttered into my pillow.

My phone buzzed and it was a text from an unknown number. I clicked on it and read it:

Unknown
I'm sorry for bothering you so early, but it's Reizu's mother. I'd like to have lunch with you today, if that's alright.

I had a panic attack in my head. What do I say? Should I say sorry?

I didn't reply, I checked the time instead and then got into the shower, seeing it was already 10:38.

I had my hair in a French braid and ate a bagel while getting dressed. I threw on some black leggings, a red cutoff sweater, and pulled on a bandana and topped it off with some fall appropriate jewelry.

I texted back Rei's mother and told her that I would love to eat out with her, and where to meet up.

///Skip\\\

I got out of my car and headed into the Korean BBQ restaurant. I fiddled with my phone in my hands and took a seat at a table near a window. I swallowed hard, nervous as to what Rei's mother wanted to talk to me about.

A couple of minutes later I got a phone call from his mother, "Hello?"

"Hello, Karin? Where are you sitting?"

I stood up and walked towards the door and greeted her with a handshake. She wasn't alone, Rei's brother Akashiro. I lead them over to the table I grabbed and they say opposite of me.

"I'm not here to yell at you, Karin." His mother spoke up. I sighed deeply and held back a couple of tears. I wanted her to yell at me. "We're just here to talk."

I nodded and Akashiro looked at a menu, his dark forest eyes scanning the paper, "What are we going to talk about?" I asked.

"What else would we talk to her about?" Akashiro voiced, his eyes glancing at me and then back down.

I sucked in a deep breath and Rei's mother shook her head, "It's true -- we're here to talk about....you and Rei." I nodded, and she continued to talk. "He's stable in the hospital, but they want to run a couple of more tests to make sure he's alright. His blood work wasn't okay when they first fought him in...they say there were three different drugs in his system, plus all of the alcohol he consumed."

I nodded and bit the inside of my bottom lip. Three different drugs, and all of the alcohol that he had. Plus what he was smoking, and all because of me.

"When we went to go visit him," Akashiro said, "he started saying that you were using him, and that he didn't have another way to cope." His eyes looked up at me, and they cut into my soul like Death's scythe.

"I-I can explain it all. From the beginning." I swallowed the lump in my throat again and they both stared at me, wanting to hear my explanation. "When we first met, him and I, he gave me a ride to school and offered to fix my truck. That night he did so, but my boyfriend at the time didn't want me hanging around Rei." Akishiro raised an eyebrow but said nothing, "Anyways, later on in the week, my friends Sakura and Sasuke came over and they invited Rei with them, ya know, for fun."

"And we all got drunk, it was really chill and everything. Sometime in the middle of the night though, Sakura and Sasuke left my apartment and it was Rei and I left sleep together on the couch. That morning my boyfriend came over to make sure I was fine and he thought I cheated on him -- with Rei. Then we had a bad argument and we broke up, over a big misunderstanding."

"Wait wait wait," Akashiro straightened up and cracked his back against his seat, "You got with Rei at first to make this ex jealous, but you ended up actually liking Rei?"

I nodded and he huffed out a breath of air that shook his dark brown bangs, "Yeah. That's what happened."

A waiter came over and took our order quickly before leaving with out menus, "I see." Rei's mother nodded and pushed a stray hair behind her ear. "So you using him was a big misunderstanding?"

I nodded vigorously, "It really was. I've never liked someone as much as I liked Rei. And I've been missing class a lot lately, because I've felt so bad about what I did to him."

Rei's mother nodded and closed her hands around mine, "It's fine, Karin. I knew in my heart that you wouldn't hurt my little Reizu in such a way."

A tear slipped down my cheek and I wiped them away and nodded, "Thank you, Mrs. ---"

"Call me Tsaria."

I nodded, "Tsaria, thank you. Especially for understanding."

She nodded, "Of course."

I looked at Akashiro and there was a slight grin on his face, "You can cry now." He said with a shrug.

I sniffles and tears started to pour down my face in relief. My shoulders shook from my sobbing and I heard Tsaria yell at Akashiro briefly before she handed me a couple of tissues from her purse and lead me to the bathroom to clean up my makeup. When we got back to our table Akashiro was already grilling our food that we ordered.

I sat down and he looked at me again, "You should go visit him, you know --- before he gets released."

I nodded, "I want to, but..."

"We were going after this anyhow." Tsaria said eating a bit of her rice, "You should tag along."

I nodded, "Okay. I'll come along."