all-american :: jotaro x reader

piece 8 :: to the end

Her eyes were still puffy from the previous night, delicate to the gentle wind blowing amongst the two of them, and looking at the sand under her feet as she sat on the swings was almost a chore.

She was fighting an inner battle with herself - does she tell him, or does she just disappear without a trace in a week's worth of time?

"Y/N?"

She looks up, startled almost, to her friend and his overly soft eyes and his ruffled black hair, the one that always struck a chord in her heart because for some reason, he never seemed to brush it.

He let go of the rusted chains on the swing and crossed his arms. "Are you mad because our test was hard?"

"No, Jotaro, I am not mad," she says, "first grade is not hard."

"Alright, well, what's so bad?" He seemed to be brought down by the weight of her own guilt and it only added to it more. She couldn't feel any more awful.

She had to make the decision now.

"I'm...um...just really upset because of my family right now," she began, choosing to slowly introduce the topic. She decided it was either now or never, she knew she wouldn't be able to carry the weight all the way to California if she left without a trace.

"Why?" He asked, completely naive, "did your mom not give you dessert or something?" He was almost teasing her, and while she might have felt mad a week ago she felt saddened now.

"No, it's...it's worse than that." She drew circles in the sand with her feet.

He gasped. "No TV?!"

"No!" She cried, already on the verge of tears. She was struggling to breathe, gasping for air in between hiccups of sorrow, unable to bear the fact that she'd beep to make the jump now. She held her face in her hands.

"Jotaro, I'm moving."

There was a silence, and she couldn't see his face - she didn't want to, and she could only imagine the horror on his face as he processes the information-

"Moving? Okay, wanna move to the slide?"

She looked up at his perplexed expression, eyes already overflowing. "No, no, that means..."

She choked on her words. "That means..."

"That means out of my house."

He looked a little more confused. "Okay, where are you moving to? Like, down the street-"

"I'M NOT GONNA TO LIVE IN JAPAN ANYMORE!"

She broke down in sobs, collapsing into her own hands, almost enough to be wailing but not enough to want to during the middle of recess.

He finally got it across, and soon that same look of sadness communicated across his own face. "W-what?"

"I know!" She sobbed, "my daddy told me and I already know what my house looks like and I hate it!"

"Where are you going?" He asked her frantically, and it only punctured another hole in her pail full of water. "All t-the w-w-way to Ameri-rica..."

"America?" She gel his hand on her back. "That's so far away..." and she only cried more and more, her poor eyes already weary. "I d-don't w-wanna..."

"Come on," he said, standing up, "look at the bright side."

She looked at him, part mad and part confused. Their eyes met, his softer than hers. "What bright side?"

"You get to do all this cool stuff in America!" He claimed, "they have a bunch of cool toys and TV shows and you speak English all the time, which is the coolest language!"

"Can't you speak English?" She asked, knowing his American mother, and he put his hands on his hips before letting out a confident "hello, how are you~?"

To be honest, it made her laugh.

"Let's go," said the boy, taking her hand. "I can't let you live with me because mom won't let me, but..."

"I'm gonna, miss Japan," she whispered, standing up. She looked at him. "I'm gonna miss you, Jotaro."

"Well, come on, what are you waiting for?" He asked already staring to walk away. "Let's go make your last days your best ones!"

As they ran hand in hand, she wondered what she had done to receive such a best friend. All she wanted to do was give him a hug and tell him "thank you, thank you. I'm sorry."

She had lucked out and she didn't know how, or why.