Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Maxie ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters of Beyblade are © of Aoki Takao.

 

- - - - - - -

Maxie

- - - - - - -

 

An advantage to being half is you can get the best of both worlds.

 

As a child, I was constantly flying back and forth between Japan and America. I lived with my Japanese father and occasionally traveled with my American mother on some of her business trips to different states of the US. I got to see so many places, eat lots of different food, and learned the dissimilarities between the two cultures. I felt like such a lucky kid. My peers at school couldn't have the same experience as me and all my Japanese friends would be in awe whenever I spoke English. Wow that boy is so cool! But that boy is so different.

 

I stood out in elementary school with my lanky form and attractive pale skin speckled with a few freckles. I was a natural dirty blond, dyed lighter to match the shade of my mother's. Everyone said I looked just like my mother, right down to my unnatural aqua-blue eyes. Always seemingly happy and carefree, rarely ever angry. He is clear headed, eager to help his friends and family, and shows great respect to his elders. Born into a loving family with a mother and father. Born to grasp the advantages of both his national backgrounds. People only allow themselves to see what's on the surface and they only care about their own fantasies.

 

It reminded me of what Miriam said the last time we walked the riverbed together.

 

 

Her laugh echoed like the ripples in the water.

“What is it?

“It's just your face.”

I smiled. “Is there something on my face?”

“No. It's just the opposite.”

“Hmm.”

“When I first met you, I thought that your face looked pure. But now I see that I was blinded. There's nothing there.”

I tilted my head to the side and surreptitiously smiled. “You thought I looked innocent?”

She laughed some more.

“You think can fool the world, but you don't fool me. I know you're not innocent.”

 

 

Girls can be so complicated and annoying. They always say things in a vague way and try to incite a reaction from you in their search for a proclamation of love. That was why we didn't make it. My being biracial, bilingual, bipolar and bisexual hadn't helped either. But she was right.

 

The happy wholesome family is a lie. And the innocent smile is only a shield to hide the darkness underneath. If anyone cared to see past their own assumptions, they would have easily figured out that our family was just as messed up as their own, if not more so.

 

I mean, how can two people from two completely different backgrounds, from opposite sides of the world truly unite and completely understand each other? We would all love to believe that love can conquer all, but it just doesn't work out that way. It was too easy for them to fall apart. With my mother abroad three quarters of the year, it was simple for my father to find a different lady to warm his bed each night. Their different cultures and attitudes towards life clashed every time they reunited for consolation. Arguments arise and feelings hurt. If it weren't for me, they would have been two separate worlds by now. But the struggle to gain custody of me caused a rip through both of them and neither of them can ever dispossess the cause of their pain.

 

It was all so pointless, those sleepless nights, the frustrating papers and numerous court appearances. After my mother won the fight, we moved to America and I was completely forgotten. She wallowed herself deep into her work and I never had a chance to see her. All I got were slips of paper stuck on the fridge. Dad never wrote or sent an email. Mom won't let me try contacting him. On a note she wrote to me left on the kitchen counter, she said, `… even if you try, you won't be able to reach him. He's moved.'

 

People thought I was always clear headed. Haha. They never thought I could be rash. That I would take all my pent up anger, sorrow, frustrations that had been building up over the nineteen years of my life into drugs, alcohol, and sex. Mom was horrified when she caught me kissing a boy in the hallway of the apartment. Of the rare occasion we actually see each other, all she can do is scream and scream at me.

 

What's wrong with you?

Oh come on Mom, it's just a harmless kiss.

It's wrong. It's... DISGUSTING.

You are wrong and disgusting and a WHORE.

 

This woman is sleeping with her superior, the head honcho of the PPB Research Facility, a man who is twenty years older than her.

 

You are just like your father, so careless and inconsiderate! She knocks the bottle of beer out of my hand and it smashes all over the floor. I step over the glass pieces on my way to the veranda and slip out a cigarette.

Do you hear me? I want you to clean up this mess! You-You disgusting faggot!

 

And so you can get the best of both worlds, but you can also get the worst.

 

I checked my inbox and to my surprise, I received an email from my old childhood beyblading team mate, Rei. I laugh to myself for the first time in a long time. Rei who was from a tiny rural village, who used to always write letters by snail mail, actually sent an E-mail?

 

 

Hey Maxie!

 

How are you? It's been a while since we talked. A lot of things have happened with me and the White Tigers.

For one, we've all moved away from the village and are either attending a college or working. Lee is still keeping secrets. Gary's got a girlfriend now and Kevin is betrothed, can you believe it?!

The village has changed too. We now have electricity and internet!

Mariah keeps asking me how you're doing but I keep having to tell her I have no idea.

I heard that you're living in Seattle right now. Me too!

I'm currently attending South Seattle Community College so I have a place nearby.

Whenever you're free, you should drop a line.

 

-Rei

 

6400 13 Avenue S.W.
Seattle, WA    78120-1598

206-738-6624

 

 

My heart is touched. In this cruel, ugly world, somebody still remembers me.

And Rei was on my mind all night. I wondered how he had changed. The things we would talk about, and the things we would do. What kind of changes would he see in me? How would I look in his eyes now?

 

I still think these things as I roll a joint, but it's hard to concentrate on my fingers with all the pounding and moaning from the room next door.

 

One day I came home in a rush in search of my phone book. I've been helping a guy out with selling opium to both safe and dangerous clients and the one day when I needed a number, I'd left it out in the open on the coffee table. Instead of finding my phone book, I found a torn up letter from my dad.

 

Dad who apparently didn't care had written me a letter, lots of them. They were all torn up. Some of them littered on the ground. And there was an empty shoebox beside the garbage can. Letters of hope, letters of love. She lied to me.

 

I freak out. I kick the armchair. I pull at my hair (and some comes out). And I break down and cry. Sometimes this happens to me. I can be completely nonchalant one moment, and completely depressed the next. These occasionally episodes of mania can sometimes be triggered by the smallest events and taken incredibly hard.

 

That's why I punched her in the face when she came into the room. She screamed but I screamed. I was cursing her in Japanese, not caring if blood was endlessly running from her nose. How could they do this to me?

 

I think she cried out my name but I ran out of there too fast to hear properly. I was walking for a long time, to god knows where, sobbing the whole time. I must have looked ridiculous to passersby but I didn't care. It was getting late, so I seated myself onto a park bench and rocked back and forth in a ball. I hit my mom. Mom… Mommy…

 

I imagined when I was small and we, Mom, Dad, and myself, were still living in our house in Bay City. I would have a birthday party and all my classmates and friends would attend. My beyblading team mates would be there too! There was Tyson stuffing his face with my cake, `Hey Tyson! Save some for me!' And Kai, being cool by staring out the window, ignoring the party. And Rei. He would have a wrapped present in his arms, waiting to give it to me.

 

I opened my eyes. “Rei…”

I remembered I had scribbled down his phone number and address. The place was somewhere near here.

 

The apartment is made of brick and is old and shabby. It's the kind where a panhandler can escape out the window, climb down the ladder and be shot in the back alley. I tried knocking on his door whilst attempting to settle my pounding heart, but no one answered. I guess he wasn't home. And he wasn't answering his phone either. What did I expect? I was coming over unannounced.

 

I don't know what time it is or how long I've been outside, but I'm too tired to go anywhere else. So I settle down beside his door and rest my eyes.

 

A moment later, or maybe hours later, I felt myself being enveloped in warmth. All of a sudden my body felt light as a feather, as if I were leaving this heavy-burdened world behind. There's a lot of movement and shuffling noises in the background. Light streaks flicker across the lids of my eyes and now I know I'm still in my sinful body.

 

I must have made a funny sound in my attempt to fully wake because a voice was chuckling.

 

“R-Rei…?”

I groggly open my eyes and just noticed that I'm lying down on a bed with the covers over me. As I was about to get up, a hand reaches out and half pats, half pushes my head back down onto the pillow.

 

“Hey Maxie,” Rei's cool alto voice resonates.

Just relax and rest for tonight. We can talk in the morning.”

“I'm sorry for coming over all of a sudden...” I wonder if he could see my red-rimmed eyes.

“It's no problem. Sleep.” His warm hand brushes through my hair and I feel a wave of calm and drowsiness.

I barely respond with a `Good night' before my consciousness fades completely.

“Good night Max.”

 

- - - - - - - -

part 2

 

A mixture of clattering sounds and white light streaming through the window woke me up.

At first I was surprised to find myself in a different bed than my own, but then I remembered the night before, an encircling warmth and Rei's resonant voice.

 

Rei's apartment is very small. There is only one bedroom, a bathroom with two doors that connects to the bedroom and living room, and a kitchen. And the only furnishings in the whole place are a double sized bed with a side table, a couch, and two stools by the kitchen island. Rei lived alone.

 

It was obvious the kitchen was his favourite spot though. Textbooks, lined paper, and pens were strewn across the counter. Rei himself was in heart of the kitchen, scrambling eggs and baking hash browns in the toaster oven.

 

“Oh hey, you're awake.” Rei turns around with a smile. “How was your sleep?”

“It was great.” Really great. The first night I didn't have to hear my mom crying or moaning.

 

Rei scraped the eggs and potato onto a plate and set the food before me. “Breakfast is served!”

“Wow, thanks Rei!” I was so hungry, I nearly choked. But the food was so good. The eggs had a mixture of chorizo sausage and tomatoes with cheddar. It was the best home cooked meal I've had in ages. Mom is a terrible cook so we always ate frozen food or ordered take-out. I explained this to Rei with an admiration and sadness I never intended.

 

Somehow he understood why I was there even before I told him.

 

“You can stay here as long as you need to.”

“Thanks Rei. Um, about last night…”

“-Oh yeah, you phoned me right? Sorry, I was at work so I couldn't pick up.”

“That's okay. I'M sorry, I took your bed. Where did you sleep?”

Rei's laugh rings around the room much like Miriam's. “On the couch. Don't worry about it, Max. We're friends, there's no need to be formal.”

 

Friends who haven't seen or heard from each other in years. How could Rei be so considerate? That's a redundant question and I already know the answer.

 

“I have school in a couple of hours but I'll be home early today since I have nothing else after. Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?”

“Actually, if it's not too much trouble, can we eat at home? I really like your cooking.”

Rei's eyes glow amber in the light. “No problem. I'm gonna surprise you with the best dinner you've ever tasted.”

 

I was handed a spare key before Rei hurried to catch the bus. This way I could easily enter and leave the apartment whenever I wanted. I felt like a roommate already.

 

I took a long stroll along 13th Avenue, chewing on a cigarette and digging my fingers in imaginary dirt within the folds of my pockets. Going home now was something I did not intend to do. I couldn't conceive facing Mom again after my last break down. But my cell was vibrating and it was my partner calling and I had forgotten the phone book back home. Fuck. I ignore the persistent silent rings, directing my thoughts elsewhere.

 

“Stay as long as I need to huh?”

 

He had said this with such amiability. But Rei was being both generous and strict. He set the lines and wasn't going to let me lay back so easily. That was just so like him. There were plenty of times when I thought that Rei should have been the leader of the Bladebreakers. As the leader of the White Tigers, Rei developed authority and benevolence. He is ruthless with his opponents and very loyal to his friends.

 

Well I'm not going to stay long. Just long enough until I can find a place for myself. There's absolutely no way I'm ever going back to live with my mother.

 

- - - - - - -

a/n: part 2 still in the works. Lots of Rei x Max coming up.