InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Racing Hearts ❯ Just Another Day ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: Jesachi

Racing Hearts

~Life's a party after high school. Illegal road races seem to be the fad… bets, friends and rivals… but after a metal-crunching accident, your very sanity might become your very worst enemy…

Chapter One~ Just Another Day

Ring, Ring!

“Shut it off!” her roommate groaned, rolling over on the top bunk in the little one bedroom apartment they shared, “It's too freaking early!”

21 year old Kagome Higurashi rolled over in her bottom bunk, grasping her cell phone off her bedside table and staring at the caller ID with bleary eyes. She blinked at the number that greeted her, before angrily chucking the annoying electronic across the room. It hit the wall with a mean thud and fell immediately silent.

“Was that who I think it was?” her roommate, Sango Taijya asked, leaning over the side of her bed. She rubbed her eyes with a balled up fist and stifled a yawn with the other.

Kagome turned over again, huddling deeper under her covers with an irritated sigh, “Yes,” she mumbled, closing her eyes in hopes for sleep.

“I thought you told him to stop calling you?”

“I did,” she replied, “But he won't leave me the hell alone! I broke up with him a week ago. You'd think he would get the idea that I didn't want to talk to him after hanging up the phone on him and not returning his calls,” Damn that creep for thinking that she would crawl back to him. Damn him twice for thinking that she was fool enough to take a cheater back. And damn him three times for cheating on her in the first place.

“Well,” Sango started, leaping lightly off her bed, “Thanks to Koga's 7:30 Saturday morning wake up call, I won't be falling asleep again,” she slipped into her robe and padded barefoot out into the kitchen to start some coffee.

All the drama… well, at least the screaming had stopped. As she filled the coffee filter with grains, Sango reminisced a little. Kagome and her boy troubles. Yuck. She and Koga had dated throughout their sophomore year in college and Kagome thought that she had fallen in love with the stupid wolf youkai. Sure, Koga had had a crush on Kagome during their elementary years, but they had been separated through high school and something about meeting up again in college pulled at Kagome's heartstrings.

But, for their junior year of college, just last year, Koga had transferred to a school out west in Kyoto. And damn that conniving bastard; he thought with the distance he could pull off two girlfriends. Well, not only did he lose Kagome, but he lost his other girlfriend too. And now he was trying to win Kagome over again. Only a week into the break up and Sango was starting to notice Kagome's resolve waning. She was becoming more and more short tempered in her vain attempt to cover up that she missed Koga terribly.

The coffee dinged and Sango sighed, taking down two cups and grabbing the cream out of the fridge. As she did so, a picture on the appliance caught her eye. It was a snapshot of her, Kagome and their other third, their best friend Chi, taken at the Shinto Doll Festival last summer at Kagome's mom's shrine. Back when boy problems were at a minimum. Each one of them is holding a paper doll called a katashiro and standing in front of Kagome's hina doll tier. The festival was supposed to wash away impurities and promote happiness in love. Funny, it didn't seem like it really helped Kagome out much.

Yep, things had definitely been better before, all of Kagome's problems weighing heavily on Sango as well. She made up the coffees—one with cream and sugar and one without cream—and headed into the living room. It was a beautiful summer morning, they should do something fun… like go over to Chi's house and go swimming or ride horses. Yes, that sounded like a good idea…

* * * * *

Sleep was not coming again. She stared at the wall, mind reeling with just about every thought possible. Koga and his scheming ways, how she really was staring to miss him, how she hated herself for her insecurity and why she even cared in the first place. He cheated on her, so why did she feel like it was her fault?

`Snap out of it, girl! It isn't your problem! You got rid of him, now just get over him!'

It sounded a lot easier inside her head.

She sighed as the smell of coffee assailed her nose. Good old Sango… she thought with a small smile, slipping out of bed and trailing the scent into the living room. There was her best friend of old, sitting on the couch, coffee cup in her hands, staring at the floor between her knees.

“Something wrong?” Kagome asked, sinking into the space next to Sango and picking up her own coffee. Cream and sugar… just how she liked it.

Sango looked up, “Nope,” she replied, “Just thinking, you wanna go over to Chi's today? We can go swimming or something…”

Kagome smiled into her cup, “Yeah, sure! The ocean's gonna be freezing though…”

“Please… since when have you cared?”

“Never,” she laughed, letting the good feeling wash over her. Being with her two best friends in the whole world had the power to drive away her problems for the moment. It was summer, no college to worry about, no homework and certainly not an ex-boyfriend. She should be out having fun with her friends, pulling her life back together and moving on. There was no future in worrying about Koga. He would eventually give up trying to call her and then she would be free again and every day would be… just another day.

“Cool, let's finish our coffees, get dressed and head over there,” Sango smiled at her happy friend. Kagome definitely needed the distraction, “It's hardly 8:00. Our American Princess will still be sleeping…”

Kagome gasped in mock surprise, “Sleeping? On a Saturday? Now, what kind of friends would we be to let her do that?”

Both girls giggled mischievously, put their coffees down and went to go get ready.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my first AU fic and something of a different perspective than Ambiguity. I feel it's off to a rather good start and think it's has some promising potential. I hope you feel the same way too!

Shinto Doll Festival: A festival held in Japan to honor Girl's day on March 3rd. However, the festival is often held in the sixth lunar cycle (June). Katashiro are paper dolls said to transfer a girl's bad luck and impurities and wash them away by throwing the doll into the river. A hina doll tier is a collection of elaborate dolls put on display to promote health and happiness for girls, especially in love. It's aimed for younger girls, but can be held for older girls as well.

~Jesachi