Marmalade Boy Fan Fiction ❯ Lonely Hearts ❯ Distraction ( Chapter 8 )

The next morning I was woken by a tapping on my door. Calling out a groggy "Come in" I glanced at the clock. It was ten o'clock in the morning! I hadn't slept this late in years. While I castigated myself the door opened and Meiko and Miki stepped inside.

"We were just checking to see if you wanted to go with us." Meiko said, smiling a bit, "Looks like you weren't planning on it."

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I haven't slept past 7 in a very long time, wonder why my alarm clock didn't go off. I thought I told everyone last night that I couldn't come along, but it might have slipped my mind. I have some things to look over that I really need to do before classes start on Monday." They had told me about their sightseeing plans for the day last night, during several sequential commercial breaks.

"Why don't you come down and say hi?" Miki ventured. "Yuu was hoping you'd come, he loves Staten Island."

"Okay, but it'll have to be in my pajamas." Miki and Meiko exchanged a glance, said a few words in Japanese and grinned. Meiko explained:

"I'm sure no one will mind. Miwa-san might even stop worrying about you then. He's been distracted all morning because you hadn't been heard from." Grinning back at them, I got out of bed. As I dug my robe and slippers out of my preternaturally tidy closet my body betrayed me. I coughed nearly the entire time, trying vainly to clear my lungs and throat of the accumulated phlegm that had crept up on me in my sleep. Miki looked concerned.

"Maybe it's good that we leave you here." I couldn't fault her for that, I sounded dreadful. Brushing my teeth and hair, and putting on my robe I presented myself for their inspection.

"Do I look like an invalid?" I asked, only half joking.

"Well, maybe," Meiko replied, "but after all, you did just get out of bed. I don't think anything will mind. You certainly look more awake than Miki did this morning." With Miki mock glaring at Meiko we all left the room and headed downstairs.

Nearly every student that I knew from St. Andrew's was standing in the foyer, ready or almost ready to go out. Jinny and Doris were joining this expedition and everyone looked happy.

"You're not coming with us?" Doris asked, a bit disappointedly? "Yuu loves to show off his New York."

"Satoshi will be heart-broken." Jinny chimed in. Before I could ask her where her certainly came from, Yuu continued.

"She's sick, remember?" He gently reminded the women.

"It looks like she's just gotten out of bed. Did you two wake her?" Brian asked Miki and Meiko.

As Miki tried to reply to Brian in Japanese I felt warm breath in my ear.

"She's explaining that they just knocked on your door, that it must have been just enough to wake you up, but that you must have had plenty of sleep already because otherwise you would still be upstairs." Satoshi had walked up behind me and was translating Miki's quick speech. I was grateful, even when Yuu began to translate for his friend. Satoshi's nearness made me feel safe, for a reason I chose not to analyze. I turned around to face him.

"Do you always sneak up on young women?"

"Only when I've left my suit jacket in their room."

"Oh dear, I'd forgotten you loaned it to me on Friday. Let me just run upstairs and,"

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it tonight, I'd like to talk to you for a moment. It's a shame you aren't coming."

"I've got some work to go over today, but don't worry, I'll take it easy."

"I'd expect nothing less from you."

"Expectations already, I thought this was just a harmless flirtation." He had no reply for that. I was more than a little confused. From what Meiko and Miki had told me I knew he was playful. He'd proven it to me by teasing me in the kitchen yesterday, or so I thought. Had I interpreted him incorrectly? Oh dear.

"Miwa-san! We're leaving. Don't worry, we'll be home in time for you to tuck her in again!" Miki called through the door. Everyone else had already left.

Satoshi bowed slightly to me and walked off without a second glance. What did I say wrong?

"I can't dwell on this right now." I said to the world in general. Turning firmly I walked back up the stairs to my bedroom, intending to work out my chemistry lectures and then turn to contemplating the enigmatic Satoshi. It had been a long time since I had needed to worry about a man's feelings, and even longer since I'd had to deal with my own.

Once upstairs I sat down and pulled out my copy of the assigned chemistry book, which I still loathed. As I did so another text caught my eye, the same one that had fallen on me the day I'd been so weak as to faint. The work that had so engrossed me yesterday failed to capture me, and I struggled with it. Even switching to my own reviews of analytical techniques did nothing to improve my concentration. Nothing came easy, not the concepts, not the examples. It all seemed oddly foreign. Foreign! I'd done nothing but eat and sleep these formulae and chemicals for years now, and nothing seemed to be the way it should.

"Some instructor you'll make in this state. You'd best get your thoughts in order before they ship you back to Texas."

I couldn't stop thinking about Satoshi, and the look on his face. Friday night Meiko had told me about her own experience with him, how he'd gone after her for her beauty and because she was vulnerable, because of her rejected love for Namura.

"He's a good man Elizabeth, but he can appear to be very superficial at the wrong times. Joking and teasing come naturally to him, and sometimes girls make too much of it. I don't want to see him hurt."

At the time I thought she was warning me off, because he just thought of me as a wounded bird, so to speak, and would lose interest as soon as I was no longer in imminent need of his immediate aid. I couldn't really blame her; she'd told me herself that Satoshi was attracted to beautiful women. She was a prime example of that. I didn't compare, even slightly.

Hell, even taking into account different racial phenotypes and preferences I couldn't compare to Meiko in any way but in an inferior fashion. I was right to take his actions the way I did. I've gone this long without being hurt, without being affected in matters of the heart, I can damn well continue in that vein. My work allows for no distraction. I have too much at stake.

I slammed my fist down on the desk. I don't have time for this. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was noon. If I ignored everything but my work for two hours I would be able to go out for a run then, to sort things out and make sense of everything.

Pushing all the mental gibberish about Satoshi aside, I set to my work with renewed vigor. My forced attention to my books served me well, I was productive, if not exactly brilliant, and when I looked up it was already after four.

With a sigh I stood up and stretched. Now that my preparations were largely in order it was time to organize everything else, and the best way I knew to do that would be to go out running. I'd always found it relaxing, and the mindless monotony of my body freed my mind and my heart to ponder and arrive at conclusions. It had worked in the past, and, though I had no idea of where I should go, even getting lost would afford some relief.

Changing clothes quickly I chose my warmer track suit, the navy blue one. I wasn't really worried about visibility, even in the mild rain that had been falling off and on all day; it was the middle of the afternoon. I wasn't planning on staying out until dusk, let alone full dark. I jotted a quick note on a piece of paper explaining that I was out running, that I needed time to think, and not to worry, then taped it on my door. As late as yesterday I wouldn't have even thought about leaving any indication as to where I was or where I was going, but I didn't want anyone to worry, especially not Satoshi.

Once I was outside my muscles fell into their old familiar stretching routine, and as I headed down the road I felt my mind loosen. It felt good. Everything would be worked out today, I'd just have to give it time, and sweat.