A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Twenty - Under My Umbrella

Rose had gone to bed with extreme determination the night before, but when she had finally dressed and packed her bag to attend class on Friday morning, she had a nagging urge to turn back to her bed and cry into her pillow. As she opened her dorm door, she could see it in her head: dropping her bag on the floor, slamming the door and running dramatically to her real, true love, arms outstretched. Oh bed, she would exclaim, you're the only one who has never hurt me! Let's be together forever.

A smile crossed her face at the thought, but she shook it away as she closed the door behind her and faced the day the best she could. The day of classes was only half of the battle she was going to face that day. She still had to find a way to finagle her way out of dinner.

Maybe, if she just ignored their text message all day, then she wouldn't have to go. She never actually opened the message - merely looked at the notification on her phone - so as far as they knew she hadn't even read it. Right? Right...

Rose wasn't sure how she had gotten into the habit of thinking that ignoring her problems would make them go away. It was like she was treating her inner self as an infant and she was playing a never ending game of peek-a-boo. If she put her hands up in front of her eyes, the world disappeared.

The problem with that, though, was that eventually the hands had to come back down and the world was hiding behind, ready to surprise her into a stupor.

And really, she knew there wasn't such a thing as ignoring the Hitachiins. She knew what the outcome would be without even having to think about it. Predicting the chaos of those two was already second nature.

She immediately attacked her closet when she returned from classes and quickly turned her dorm room into a disaster zone. Rose wasn't entirely aware of the world those crazy twins came from and she couldn't even begin to fathom what those two would consider "nice."

Frustration would be an understatement for the way she felt at that moment. How dare they try to dictate to her. How dare they! She had half a mind to throw on her worst pair of jeans, a band t-shirt and her vans and leave for dinner without her hair brushed. It would serve them right!

A knock at the door broke her out of her scheming, however. She shot a panicked look at her clock in fear that it was already 7 pm, but quickly chided herself for being so foolish. Classes had just ended. There was no way she had spent four hours tearing through her wardrobe.

With a hint of irritation she opened the door, not quite sure what she was expecting. Whatever the range of possibilities her brain could conjure up for what could be waiting on the other side of the door, the reality was entirely different.

In front of her stood a very short blonde wearing a smile that could melt away icebergs. His eyes lit up the moment Rose opened the door and he swayed with excitement, his hands behind his back, as she recognized him.

"Hello Honey," she said, exasperated.

"Hi Ro-Chan! I bet you're surprised to see me," he said excitedly. "I hope you liked our note. Takashi said you were at class today and ... I'm really proud of you Ro-Chan."

Rose's face softened. She definitely wasn't expecting Mori's roommate to show up at her door, but after the note they had sent yesterday, she felt friendship with the small college freshman wasn't unwarranted.

Truthfully, she wasn't sure how to react. After everything that had happened it just felt so good to hear that someone was proud of her for getting up today. Her body movements were beyond her control as she dropped to her knees and pulled Honey into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered before warm tears streamed down her cheeks.