School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 21 – Ladies Night

“No, go right!” Shai screamed, leaning over the couch and pointing at the television rapidly, like she was holding the controller.

“Left!” Fuji countered. “Left!”

“Argh!” Yuki cried, following Shai’s directions and reaching another block in the video game she was playing, and having to fight another super hard villain that tore into Yuki’s characters. “You know, for a brainiac you are sure good at these games, Fuji.”

Fuji came around and sat beside Yuki on the couch, watching her character die miserably as she licked butter from the popcorn off of her fingers. “It is because I am a so-called brainiac that I can figure those things out. Left was the choice by all logistics. Here, let me try.” Fuji reached out her hand for the controller.

Yuki was not quick to relent, mostly just staring at her friend in a dumbfounded sort of way. “You want to play a video game?” Yuki asked slowly. “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

“Where are the doughnuts?” shouted Shai’s voice from deep within the kitchen. “Are you sure Shinwa doesn’t mind that we are using his place for a girl’s night?”

“Shinwa doesn’t mind,” Yuki called back, placing the controller reluctantly into Fuji’s hands. “He said he had some things he wanted to do tonight, so he won’t be back until three, and the three of us will be hogging his bed by that time and he can sleep on the couch.”

“You speak like you live here,” Fuji pointed out, starting the game from Yuki’s last save point. “What is the object of this game?”

“To win,” Yuki said. She looked back towards the kitchen and Shai’s figure. “Shai, how much food are you grabbing? You’re not pregnant again, are you?”

“No!” Shai cried, her mouth full of the doughnuts she finally found. “I’m just hungry, haven’t you ever been… hungry?”

“Every day of my life,” Yuki called, watching Fuji go through the maze with little to no problem at all. She was quite jealous of her best friend and debated sabotaging her damnable luck. “You know, when I create a video game you will not be able to beat it.”

“What would be the fun in playing it if it were unbeatable?” Fuji asked, her eyes glued to the screen as she moved the controller, along with her body, in the direction of her character. She said it without the least hint of haughtiness to that beautiful voice, and yet the remark was meant to say that the people who played the video game would not be able to defeat it if she could not.
“Ow, good burn,” Yuki said, taking a moment to realize what it was.

Fuji just smiled and leaned over, nudging her friend with her elbow. “I’m teasing you,” she said. “You will be a great video game designer one day, if you start designing something now. You have to have some sort of direction.”

“Fuji,” Shai said, a pile of snacks in her arms as she slid to the floor at Yuki and Fuji’s feet, “you are way too serious for a night of snacking and gaming.”

“My apologies little sister,” Fuji said, defeating the villain, on purpose, who had perturbed Yuki. Yuki threw popcorn at her best friend.

“Hey, Yuki, you never answered me, you know,” Fuji pointed out.

“Was there a question I am forgetting about?” Yuki asked, taking the controller back from her friend, determined to show the amateur what a true master could do.

“Why is Shinwa loaning you the use of his apartment?”

“That was not the question, you made an observation,” Yuki pointed out.

“Stop nitpicking.”

“You would.”

“I’m sort of curious myself,” Shai pointed out, handing a bag of chips to Fuji, who took them gratefully. “I mean, are you two, you know, being intimate now?”

“Shush, no,” Yuki grumbled. “I just said we needed some time together. The most time we spent together was during summer break, and that was nearly a month ago. Now autumn is striking, and with all of the activities we are going to be doing for our school fests, and the etc. of lives.”

“So he offered you his apartment?” Fuji asked, as innocently as she could.

“Shush Fuji,” Yuki snapped. “Anyway, what’s going on in your life? You’ve barely spoken to me since school started.”

“Me too,” Shai nodded acknowledging this thought. “I mean, we live in the same house and I had to find out from Kyoei that you and Amatsu broke up. What’s new with you?”

I am actually a senior now. I think I am falling for Teiyoku’s nephew. Danko is pursuing me relentlessly. I have something planned for the Autumn Festival I am afraid to let you all see. I miss Amatsu. “Nothing much, really,” Fuji finally said.

Neither girl believed her. Neither girl knew what to say. They saw Fuji’s aquamarine eyes darken considerably, a sure sign she was hiding secrets.

Click, click, click. Fuji and Yuki looked down at Shai, who was biting on her fake press on nails, which she enjoyed very much as one of her only luxuries lately. It took Shai a moment to realize she was being watched and Yuki’s game was suddenly on pause. She looked up at the other two girls and flushed, bringing her hands down to her side. “Sorry,” she apologized, “I do that when I’m nervous.”

“What are you nervous for, honey?” Fuji asked, scooting closer to her friend.

“I… I miss Teiyoku,” Shai sobbed, suddenly letting her head fall to her knees as she sobbed, curling almost completely in upon herself. Fuji and Yuki slid to the floor beside her, both of them wrapping their arms around the girl. “I love Kyoei, but I love Teiyoku… I want them both in my life, but that is selfish.”

Fuji took a deep sigh and then decided it was time for certain confessions. “I’m a senior this year, not a junior.”

Yuki blinked at the two of them. “You two have been keeping secrets!” she cried.

“And you have not?” Shai asked, tears streaming down her face as she turned to look at Yuki.

“No,” Yuki said honestly. “I mean, my life is pretty dull. I’ve been going to school spending time with Shinwa, on the set of his movie which is taking forever to film, and making his co-star’s life a living Hell. Yeah, there pretty much is nothing else about me. I am an open book. But, Fuji, you’re a senior?”

“Why don’t we focus on Shai being still in love with the father of her child?” Fuji suggested, turning back to Shai.

“See, we did need a girl’s night,” Shai agreed, nodding her head silently, more to herself than to the other two girls. “We don’t even know each other anymore.”

Yuki sighed. How true that was. “Well,” she said, “let’s spend the rest of the night getting to know each other again.”

By the end of the night Fuji had told them most of the truth, omitting anything about the school festival. She did not want Shai to know, Shai would tell Kyoei, who would tell Amatsu, whom would either hate her or want to see it. It still bothered her how much she missed him, but there had to be some rearranging in her life before she could be with him again, and she knew there were a few changes she had to go through. The biggest problem was, she suspected she knew how to do it.

Shai admitted she was still in love with her tennis coach, more than the other two girls had realized. She hated every moment of being away from him, and she spent the rest of the night crying.

Yuki admitted… she had yet to have intercourse with Shinwa. No one was surprised. Yuki laughed and said she was going to though, soon! It was then Shinwa came home and saw a pile of crying girls on his apartment floor, hugging one another in various states of undress, and asked if he could join. He was forced to stay in the living room while they took his bed.