Peach Girl Fan Fiction ❯ The Beating of Sae ❯ The Hatching of a Plan... ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11 - The Hatching of a Plan…

 

“I'm so sorry Mr. Kiley. I didn't know who it was in the bathroom, and being the dodo that I've always been, I ended up saying your and Ms. Momo's names aloud.” Mrs. Kidiochi put a hand up to her head as if to stop her brains from spilling out. “I had no idea that it wouldn't be you two… oh dear, oh dear. You've gone and done it now Ritsuka, you've gotten these poor children in trouble. That's what I thought to myself as I finished cleaning the bathroom… I had to finish my job before I found you Mr. Kiley. This job is all I have an-“

Kiley cut her off before she could ramble again. He waved his hand in the air as if to clear the words. “It's okay, Mrs. Kidiochi. It's not that.” This is just gonna be a hellova lot more difficult than I thought. “What did the girl look like by the way?” Please don't let it be one of Sae's friends… please God.

“She had short dark hair… but that's all I can remember. She rushed out of here so fast I couldn't get a good look, so she may have not had short hair, but it was definitely dark.”

Great, Kiley thought, that describes 95% of the girls in this school. He wondered briefly if Momo had heard the rumors yet. He shook his head, thanked the janitor for her help, assured her again that everything would be okay and rushed out of the school toward Momo's house.

I hope she's home. I really need to talk to her about this.

 

* * *

 

Momo waved goodbye to Rinshai and Miraki and closed the door. The girls had decided to walk to their apartment since it wasn't far off and had declined politely when Momo's mother had offered to take them.

“They're such nice girls,” her mother said as she passed her on her way upstairs. “And such hard workers too. You did tell me they had jobs at the hospital right?”

Momo nodded. “Yeah, but that's just volunteer work. They work at the Mc Donald's down the road so they can have some cash. The people think they're seventeen not sixteen so they let them work there. “

“Oh my. Is it okay for them to be on their own? We have space here. They could come live with us if they want to.”

She considered this a moment and nodded with a smile. “I'll ask them tomorrow at school. I think their parents pay for their apartment here so they must know what's going on.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I'll ask them anyway. I'm going to go study now okay, mom?”

“Of course honey. I'll be taking a shower if you need me.” Her mother walked the rest of the way up the stairs and Momo heard her door close after a moment.

She turned to walk to the kitchen but a knock on the door startled her. Thinking that it was the cousins, she opened the door without thinking and something wet and sticky was suddenly thrown at her. She scrambled to wipe the gunk off her face and see who had thrown it when she heard cruel laughter and some girls shouting, “What a slut!” “Yeah, it's a slut pie for a slut girl!”

All Momo could do was stand at the door, one hand by her face and the other clenched at her side, while the gooey substance on her dripped onto the floor and her slippers. Tears fell from her eyes and tried to slide down her cheeks but couldn't get passed the gunk. Just as she was about to shut the door so she could clean up, a shadow appeared on the step. She wiped a bit more away from her eyes so she could see who it was this time.

Kiley's confused and concerned face suddenly appeared in front of her and she fell to her knees covering her face. This was too much! She couldn't see Kiley now. This was not the time and she was a mess. “Please… go home, Kiley,” she moaned.

He didn't go home, he knelt down on the floor, gathered up Momo in his arms and took her into her first floor bathroom to clean her up. After setting her on the toilet, he ran to close the door and then ran back. Momo was already standing and wiping her face with some tissue. He helped her in silence, neither wanting to say anything and when they were finished, he helped her clean the floor of the entrance hall. She showed him to her room, thinking the whole way that it wasn't really proper but who the hell cared?

As she plopped down on the floor, he sat down in front of her and looked at her a moment before opening his mouth. “Momo, are you okay?”

She didn't speak for a long time. The silence dragged by like sand in the hourglass from Hell (which meant it took forever), and when it became a roaring sound of nothing, she finally said something. “No.”

Since she had whispered the word, Kiley asked her to repeat it because he hadn't heard it.

“No. That's what I said. No, I'm not okay. I'll never be okay… this is too much Kiley. I can't take it anymore. Everyone hates me!” Her head was hung low and tears began to fall on her legs before she buried her face in her hands.

Kiley moved forward and in one swift motion had her head against his chest and his arms around her shoulders. “Not everyone hates you, Momo. Shhh. Don't think like that. Come on. Hey, listen. Do you want me to get you anything? Would you like some ice cream? Cookies? Some other fatty food?”

She sniff-laughed and shook her head, not taking her face out of his shirt, which was now soaked with tears. “I'm sorry about your shirt, Kiley. It's completely soaked now. Man, I can't do anything right.”

Kiley's anger flared. He gripped Momo by the shoulders gently and pulled her away from him so he could look at her tear-stained face. “Don't say that, Momo. You are not worthless, not everyone hates you, and you can do things right. Looking at a bad situation and thinking it worse is only doing you harm, can't you see that? God Momo, if I thought that you would never love m-“ his eyes widened as he almost told her innermost feelings and he crushed her to him again, face turning redder than a tomato. “Uh, but anyway…” Shit! What do I say now!? “Like I was saying, not everything is bad. I mean, uh, you got your friends back, right? Friends that you thought had moved away. And they're on your side. I'm on your side too. Lots of people see your side of it…” Here goes nothing. “Even Toji.” He felt her stiffen at the name and then she relaxed and pushed away from him.

“Thanks, Kiley. I appreciate all your help.” She wiped her face and put on a smile for his benefit but it didn't reach her eyes. “Well, you didn't come over here to see me cry. What did you need?”

He scratched his face, leaned back against her counter and proceeded to tell her what he had overheard and what Mrs. Kidiochi had told him. When he was done, he regretted being so blunt especially after what had just happened to her. She didn't need this at the moment… but then again, he couldn't tell her at school because it would be worse for them to be seen together. It was then that he got an idea.

Her face darkened and her eyes dulled. “You know, I'm thinking about getting my mom to transfer me out of school. Maybe I'll go to a private school or something. Somewhere where they don't know me.”

That statement scared the idea right out of Kiley's head. He moved forward a bit and lifted a hand palm toward the sky as if he was asking for something. “No way! Hey, don't even joke around like that Momo!”

“I'm not joking, Kiley. It's just gotten worse since I was a kid. Do you know what it's like to be teased your whole life? To be an eyesore? To have no friends…?” She looked up at him then, as if seeing him in a new light. His face, full of pain at her last statement, and the love and tenderness in his eyes made her feel like a fool. Had she herself been that blind? Was she not seeing what was right in front of her, staring her in the face with such beautiful eyes… woah… where had that last thought come from? She shook her head and mumbled an apology. “I'm sorry Kiley… I didn't mean it like that. I mean i-“

“Momo!” her mother called from her room.

“Oh crap! I almost forgot my mom was here. She was in the shower. Coming Mom!” she called out to her. “Stay here a minute, I'll go see what she wants.” She scrambled up from the floor, wiped her eyes again just in case and checked herself in the mirror before rushing out of the room.

Kiley sat in the middle of the floor and waited. He stretched a bit and cracked his neck before laying down right where he had been sitting. He looked about Momo's room from his position on the floor and sighed. Here he was, in the room of the girl he loved… and nothing was happening. He smiled. Well, can't get the male out of me… no matter what the situation. The idea came back to him then, and he sat up. When Momo came back in, he told her his plan.

All she had to say was, “I hope this works.”