School Girls' Stories - New Generation

Chapter 56 – Little Tremors

“Ashe?” Fuji stepped through the door of his bedroom to see him sulking on the bed, as he often did lately. There was not much else to do. Fuji and Amatsu’s money and influence had kept him from jail, but they could not keep the world from saying he had to be put under house arrest. Now he was trying to receive his high school diploma from home and instead of studying he sat on his bed staring at the ceiling, which pleased his mother very little, but she kept her mouth shut on the issue.

“Yeah?” he asked without glancing towards her.

Fuji shifted and hesitated, a little too long. Ashe’s cold blue eyes fell from the ceiling to his mother and he stared her down. She felt uncomfortable under his gaze. Something had happened to him in the months that he had been away, something darker than she could imagine. It had changed him. It had made him something that she did not recognize.

“Why don’t you come down and join us for dinner?” she asked hesitantly.

“No thanks,” he said calmly.

Fuji had to grip tightly onto her raging temper. She was trying, but he was swatting her away like he would swat a fly. “Why not?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“You sound like a child,” he laughed. “Why, why, why? Do you really care why or are you asking because your husband made you?”

No, I’m asking because Rhapsody asked where you were, why you never ate with us. Even she has grown weary of the uncomfortable silence. “I’m asking because we want you to join us.”

“Who is ‘we’?” Fuji could not help the knot that formed in her stomach and began to make her sick. He was a child still, in so many ways, despite what he had gone through. He was a teenager in love and he was no expecting the answer to be ‘me’ or ‘Dad’, he wanted the answer to be ‘Rhapsody’ but Fuji did not have the strength of will to give him the answer he wanted.
“Your father and I,” Fuji explained.

She could see Ashe’s disappointment written across his face like paint on a canvas. He had no interest in that answer. He had little interest in his family themselves. Amatsu had punched his son, and his son had yet to forgive that infringement, despite the fact that the son had stolen the daughter. Did that mean the daughter was loved more? Yes, and it was a sad statement, for Ashe had been a good son besides the two incidents.

“I’m not hungry,” Ashe lied.

“Ashe, please come down,” Fuji began to plead, she knew no other way. “I want you to join us, to sit with us, to talk to us. I want to be a family again.”

“We never were a family,” Ashe grumbled.

Fuji could hardly contain her anger any longer. She felt her nerves prickling to the surface and she could hardly deny them now. “Whose fault is that?” she wanted to scream, but she kept her voice calm and even. “I tried, I did not know, Ashe, that you were not my real son. I did not arrange that deal, Devilin did. I know Rhapsody told you the truth,” she ignored the look on his face at the mention of the young girl. “I loved you, I still love you, but you took advantage of that when you began taking advantage of a girl who thought of you as her big brother. Blood related or not, you raped her, and then faked your own death. I’ve tried by you. I may not be the perfect mother, God knows I will never win any awards, but I tried.”

Ashe was now definitely uncomfortable watching his mother look, for the first time, like she was going to cry. He had seen her go through much but she usually held up very strongly. Even when her father had died she had stood strong while Shai broke down and cried for days. Fuji was supposed to be the strong one, her mother had tried to beat that into her, in many ways, and it had worked. In many ways he saw Waza’s personality within his mother, or vice versa. They were Noriko’s children, though Waza was the more conniving of the two.

“I know,” he finally muttered. He did not know what else to say now. He was feeling utterly beaten down very easily. She was right, of course, and it pissed him off, but it also made him feel guilty. He had never expected to come back but… but there was something here he could not leave behind. It was not his mother, or his father, but the girl in the room right next to his. He could not stay away from her, even when he pushed all thoughts of his old life aside. Then he re-entered their lives and realized that it might not have just been Rhapsody. Could he admit that, even if only to himself?

Fuji felt herself calming, her body less tense for a moment. She sighed and said, “Will you come down?”

What could he say? “Yes,” he said, finally sliding off of the bed and going over to his mom. “Tonight, I’ll come down, but it doesn’t mean I will tomorrow.”

“I can handle that,” Fuji admitted, and the two walked down to the already set table.

Ashe followed his mother down the stairs and into the extravagant dining room that was made more for the service of guests than the small four person family. Amatsu was already seated at his normal place at the head of the table; Fuji would take one side of him and Ashe the other. It was up to Rhapsody where she would sit. If she were in a tiff with Ashe she usually sat by their mother, but if she had been having a good day with her brother she would sit by him and smile, but that was a long time ago. That was before he knew the truth and before she had become a plaything to him. He was almost glad she had yet to join them in the kitchen.

Ashe took his seat by his father and Amatsu gave him a smile, no words, no words were needed between men. One smile said all he needed to know. Amatsu was more accepting that his wife.

Rhapsody walked in a moment later, but not from the halls, from the kitchen. In her hands she carried two platters, perfectly poised to place them on the table. Ashe was surprised his mother did not cringe at her daughter doing menial work. Rhapsody looked like the perfect waitress, or worse, the perfect maid. Rhapsody was unbothered by helping out, but Fuji had usually told them that they did not hire maids so the two of them could do the work.

Fuji smiled at her daughter who placed the two platters on the table. For a moment Rhapsody’s eyes flickered to Ashe and met his, but it was a fleeting moment that Ashe lost as soon as Rhapsody stood up straight again. “I will be right back with the rest,” she smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

“Rhapsody made dinner tonight,” Amatsu was the one to explain when Fuji remained silent. He knew his wife’s awkwardness at regarding both children in the same sentence, much less the same room, but Amatsu had to try. “She thought it best she serve it as well.”

“Where’s Fatima?” Ashe asked with a crook in his eyebrow, the pretense of normal conversation. “She usually loves to make large extravagant dinners.”

“Fatima will only be coming every other day, now,” Amatsu explained. He explained no further, he did not need to worry his children with their troubles, though their troubles were not nearly as severe as Fuji seemed to make them out. Fuji was always an overreacting diva, but he still loved every bit of her and would give her piece of mind by not burdening her with his thoughts on the process.

Rhapsody came out of the kitchen before Ashe could continue to question his parents, much to both of the head of household’s relief. She placed the other two platters down and then seemed to hesitate. Was she debating where to sit? Everyone seemed to be watching her carefully.

“What does everyone want to drink?” she asked lightly. “I’m sorry I forgot to bring the drinks out. Red wine? Pepsi?” They could all read the nerves that were fighting through her, but no one wanted to point out her nervousness. Everyone sat expecting the tension to finally burst and words to start rolling around the room like thunder, but all kept to their pleasant and placating attitudes as best they could.

“Wine.”

“Wine.”

“Wine!”

“Ashe, you may not have wine,” Fuji snapped, but there was a smile on her face, as if she was calmed by the very teenager attitude.

“I’ll bring you a Pepsi,” Rhapsody smiled calmly and then exited the room to fetch the drinks.

“I deserve some wine,” Ashe whined to his mother.

“You deserve a swift kick in the shin,” Fuji joked.

Ashe smiled at his mother from across the table, and Fuji did her best smile back at him, though hers wavered with emotion she would never let truly show. Amatsu just watched it all wishing that wine were here sooner. Rhapsody came back with the wine and two wine glasses of Pepsi, placing them in front of the respective drink holders, and then took her seat next to the last person she served: Ashe. Fuji held her breath, Amatsu eyed them all over his glass of wine, which he was trying not to down, and Ashe held his breath in a different type of anticipation.

“Shall we eat?” Rhapsody asked with a smile tinted with that innocence and naïveté she had perfected over the years.

A rush of breath was released over the table and everyone leaned forward to eat, all too kind to admit to Rhapsody it was a very mediocre meal. She had tried, and that was all they could do not to tell her that they were forcing it down. It was no secret that everyone went through more pop and wine than they usually would consume, including the daughter who was the first one to say, “This is disgusting.”

“I’m ordering pizza,” Amatsu said abruptly, pushing up from his chair and going to the phone.

“Mushroom!” cried Rhapsody as she pushed away her plate and made a face.

“Pepperoni,” Ashe and Fuji both agreed.

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Rhapsody asked, hurrying to clear the food. “This is just… disgusting.”

“We didn’t want to hurt your feelings,” Fuji said delicately.

“I’ll never learn if you are not honest,” Rhapsody admitted. “I’m going to go wash the dishes.” Rhapsody left the room in a hurry, coming in and out for several minutes, clearing everything but the drinks.

When she had taken the last plate, and the last THUD sound of food going into a garbage can was heard, Fuji turned to her son. “It’s not so bad spending an evening with your parents, is it?”

“I’ve had worse evenings,” Ashe admitted readily.

“Thank you,” Fuji finally said after a long drawn out silence. At Ashe’s eyebrow raising she went on. “Just for coming home. Thank you.”

Ashe did not know what else to say. He could only offer the woman who had raised him as son a smile and hope to not be utterly depressed by his actions the last few months. He wanted to be happy again, but could he continue to stay in this woman’s good graces when he still wanted the younger girl in the kitchen, who was happily humming as she cleaned the dishes. Did Rhapsody even realize his feelings for her had not changed? He knew his mother could see it. It would all come another day. Tonight, they were a family.