Just Give Me A Reason

Chapter 25: I Doubt that

   I was soooooooo tired, like I'd basically just floated through the day in a haze of hunger and sleep deprived angst. I rubbed my eyes and shuffled to where my car was. My plan was to sleep in my car a couple hours then head back home. 

  However my car was surrounded by my club members. And I knew there was no way out of this without being petty so I sat down around the corner and decided I'd take a nap against this nice brick wall.

    "What are you doing Monika?" I opened my eyes and looked up at Mrs Yazawa's concerned and yet stern expression. 
    "I'm just enjoying the view." I lied and she glanced around the corner before she looked at me dryly.

   "Avoiding your friends are we Monika?" She questioned with a raise of her eyebrow and I shook my head.
   "What are they over there? I had no-" I trailed off at the unimpressed look she was giving me.
 
   "Don't kid yourself, what's up with you anyways? You look like hell." She adds arms crossed.
   "Don't know what you're talking about." I mutter trying to keep from falling asleep mid conversation.

   "Really maybe I should just go get your little friends and ask them then?" She threatens and I groan.
   "Please don't" I beg. When a blonde woman with bright blue eyes approached us.
   "Nico?" She asks and my teacher glares at me.
    "We're not done here." She warns and I nod mutely as she turns and greets the woman.

  "Eli Ayase what are you doing here?"  She demands and the woman, uh Eli I think smirked.
   "Hi to you to Nico.  I'm here to pick up my um surrogate daughter Yuri. " she smiled and I stood.

  "I think Yuri rode her bike to school." I whisper and Eli looks over to me and groans.
   "Damn that death machine." She grumbles bitterly as she shakes her head. 

    "Monika!" Sayori wraps her arms around my middle and rests her chin on my shoulder.
    "You took forever Monika!" Natsuki grumbled and Yuri slowly shuffled after them.

   "Yuri what did I say about you riding that bike?" She grumbled and Yuri avoided eye contact. "Did you even wear a helmet?"

   "Yuri's too cool for a helmet, right Yuri?" Natsuki teased nudging her with a grin. Yuri glared at the shorter girl before she looked to her mom I guess.

  "Yuri, go get in my car. Your brother can come pick up your death on wheels later." She exclaimed hands on her hips. Yuri sighed heavily.
   "W-well aunt Eli I was going to talk with my members." She whispered playing with her hair and Eli sighed.

   "Fine I'll talk to Nico for a bit you have like twenty minutes kid." She reasoned and I was dragged towards my car.
   "She reminds me so much of Nozomi." I heard our teacher whisper soberly and Yuri's Aunt sighed sadly.
   "I know." She murmured softly.

   "She worries too much." Yuri grumbled crossing her arms and glaring at Natsuki the minute we reached my car and climbed in. Natsuki and Yuri were in the backseat and Sayori was in my shotgun and I was in drivers.
   "What? I agree with her, you should wear a helmet you dummy!" She grumped and Yuri rolled her eyes.

  "Okay then you both worry too much!" She exclaimed and I smiled. Even with the threat of becoming homeless, and being super tired and hungry, times like these reminded me of why I was doing this, why I'd given everything up.

     "Okay Monika where were you  last week? You look sad and tired." Sayori leaned forward and her face became really close  to mine. Which sent my already tired brain implode. I was still struggling to come to terms with my feelings and figure out how I saw Sayori, you know whether she was just a friend, or something more, and this was so not helping.

Someone snapped their fingers in front of my face and I recoiled, banging my head against the window.
   "Ow." I mumbled lamely as I rubbed my head absentmindedly. 
   "Monika we've been talking to you the past like four minutes." Natsuki snaps,  but I know that simply means she's concerned. 

    "Monika you're shaking,  when was the last time you've eaten something?" Yuri asked me gently and I shake my head.

  "I'm not very hungry" I mumble resting my head against the steering wheel.  Sayori reaches over and brushes hair behind my ear.
     "Moni, you need to eat something silly." She whispered gently.

    "Sayori's right you can't skip meals because you're reading or writing." Natsuki added, but I knew the undertone of that statement. She was telling me I needed to eat steadily and full meals.

    "Indeed Monika, your body thrives on nutrients and you need food and hydration to  function." Yuri piped up and Natsuki patted her shoulder.
   "Thank you for that science lesson Yuri,  now Monika here I got a bag of carrots in my bag." Natsuki exclaimed digging through her backpack. 

  Sayori beams as the carrots are passed to me, I mean carrots are healthy. Then Sayori takes the bag from me and pulls a carrot out and holds it to my lips.

"Ummm.." slowly I bite the carrot and Sayori smiles as I eat.
   "When you get home,  you gotta eat something like a whole meal." She playfully chides.

  "Okay...I will.." I mumble and she smiled and nodded happily.
   "Good, I mean you gave us your number, please answer next time, we were all really worried." She adds and I nod again feeling incredibly guilty for making my friends worry,  but making Sayori worry made me feel even worse.

   We all jumped at the sound of a knock on the window.
  "Come on kid we got to get home. " Yuri's aunt ordered and Yuri sighed.
   "I'm sorry I can't stay longer, but I am always here if you ever need Monika. " my tall friend promises as she hugs me quickly and climbs from the car. I smile when I hear them arguing about her motorcycle.

  "I should probably get going too, I have to pack, I'm going back to my dad's at the end of this week. " she sighed.

   "Is it already December first?" I asked feeling worried for my friend. She sighed sadly.
   "Yeah, my mom's taking it pretty bad, she's really sad she's gonna miss my eighteenth birthday. " she explained softly and I gave her an apologetic look.

  "Awww that's sad, don't worry though Natsuki we'll have a great party with you and your mom can even come if she wants." Sayori exclaimed excitedly and we both smiled at her antics.

  "I think she'd like that Sayo, thanks." And with a swift goodbye Natsuki quickly exited the car and waved once before she sprinted down the street towards a white car. I caught a glimpse of June in the front seat and my heart went out to the poor woman. Little did she know that her husband had hardly changed at all.

    "Hey Sayori wanna come to my house?"  I ask with a grin and she bounces in place  happily as she clicks her seatbelt into place and smiles over at me.

I start the car and pull out of the parking lot, after shifting gears.

  We pulled into my driveway and I frowned. Who's white SUV was parked in my driveway??

There was only two options and I didn't like those odds...

"Monika!"

Oh.

To Be Continued...

There ya go guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading.