Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK ONE: Saturday (Yuzuru)

"Yuzu-nii! Don't you have to go to school for festival stuff today?" Yuriko stood in the door of my room, her fists punched into her hips like a miniature version of Mom.

I moaned and pulled the covers up over my head. "I'm not going. I don't feel good."

"You sick?" She came bounding over to the bed, yanking the comforter down. I tried to keep my face turned away, but she still grunted in disgust. "Ew, you didn't even wash the gel out of your hair. I bet you didn't wash your face either. You wanna get pimples?"

"Leave me alone, Yuriko." My mouth tasted like sour milk and my head was pounding. My legs hurt from all the running I'd done last night. I must have run halfway across Yokohama and back, trying to escape the mental image of Seryou holding that girl in his arms... Shit, I had to stop thinking about it. I threw an arm over my face, both to block out the light and because I didn't want my thirteen year old sister to see me crying like a fucking preschooler.

"What's wrong? If you're really sick I can have Mom call the doctor—"

"No." The last thing Mom needed was an expensive medical bill. No medicine on earth could help with this, anyway.

"Then get up. You stink. You need to take a shower and get to school. You have cram school exams this afternoon, remember?" She stood up and went to the door. "Don't forget to brush your teeth," she called as she slammed it closed behind her.

I sat up in bed, feeling like I'd been run over by a bullet train. The last thing I wanted was to go to school, where more than likely I'd have to face Seryou at some point. He was sure to be there, he had class dance rehearsal and festival set-up just like I did. I didn't want to see him. I couldn't.

But I also couldn't stay here, not with Yuriko hovering around. I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. I took a look at myself in the mirror before getting into the shower, eyes red-rimmed and sunken, face streaked with dirt and old sweat. I looked kind of like a freaky scarecrow from an American slasher movie.

Why did I have to go to Sakuragichou last night? It was such a dumb thing to do. When I'd gotten Seryou's message canceling our date, I should have gone home and done my homework. Instead, I ended up hopping the train to where we had planned to go together. Not sure what made me do it, I only knew that I wanted to stand someplace where I could see the Landmark Tower—Sky Garden was at the top—and think about him. I was walking to the intersection where the tower would be visible from the street, and happened to spot him through the window of a Happy World Coffee Café. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt that looked incredible with his black hair and pale skin. I'd never seen him wearing so much color before. My favorite color, at that, though I don't think I'd ever told him so.

At first I was just confused, but then I saw her standing with him and it all fell into place. Shino. He was on a date with Shino.

She saw me, too. She looked right at me and then said something to him, and he held his arms out so she could step into them. I should have walked away then. Maybe, if I'd walked away, I could have pretended I hadn't seen anything. I could have pretended today that nothing had changed. But I'd never been that smart. I'd gone charging in there for what? To yell at him? To make sure he knew that I knew?

I was so stupid.

I got into the shower and stood under the scalding spray, letting it punish my back until my skin went numb. Crying didn't count if it was in the shower, right? Because your face was wet already.

Seryou had lied to me. I couldn't get past how much that hurt. It wasn't just that he was with Shino again—I could almost forgive him that, I knew how much she meant to him. But he could have at least been man enough to tell me the truth. To say 'hey, my ex wants to make up so I don't think I can date you after all.' He could have said something, but instead he came to see me between every class period and gave me his lunch and made plans to go to Sky Garden with me and made me think that maybe he actually felt some of the same things I did. All the while he was waiting for her to come back, and the second she did he skipped out on me to be with her. Family emergency, my ass.