School Girls' Stories - Year 3

Chapter 8 – Study Sessions

“Why is there always a big test right before summer break?” hissed one lone male to a girl sitting behind him, their books opened to the same pages, though they tried to ignore one another. At another table a group of five huddled together, heads poured over books, all of them staring down and awaiting some type of confirmation of knowledge that was not coming. It seemed no easier to study before summer vacation in college that in was in high school.

Fuji sat in her group of five; Amatsu included by some stroke of ill luck on her part, and stared down at her book, her full attention on the cell phone that had yet to set off another ring. She was waiting for word from Shai, about Kaori, about the baby. Her only word had been that Kaori was in labor, and from there another response had not been given. Yes it was possible for a woman to be in labor for up to thirty-two hours, if not longer, but Fuji could not imagine Kaori going through that many hours of pain before demanding something done to her. That was one woman who was less than close to patient.

“Amatsu, what made you decide to go into business?” the blonde girl sitting next to him asked in a hushed whispered voice, changing the subject from the current studies. Fuji gripped her pen tightly and tried to ignore the gnawing jealousy that ripped through the pit of her stomach. Amatsu did not belong to her, Amatsu was a free agent now, she had Devilin. Who was she to grow jealous because he was leaning towards the girl, that dashing smile on his face, the seductive darkness set in those gem-like eyes?

He leaned closer, his lips dangerously close to the girls ear, and as he whispered the answer he made it loud enough for all to hear, “My fiancée is going into business,” and then he was buried back in his book.

Fuji instinctively brought her left hand down under the table, hiding the glistening ring. She did not want to draw attention to the gem that matched the color of his eyes, and her eyes, or the gems upon the cross he still wore around his neck, looking as seductive as always. Her sudden movement did not go unnoticed, but it was not mentioned either. The blonde kept her eyes on Fuji, wondering if there was something she should know about the man she seemed so intensely interested in, or the girl she was slowly growing to despise. Fuji was used to jealousy of most types, so she ignored the blonde and stood up from the chair, bringing her backpack with her.

“I’m going to try another book,” she announced and dragged her and her backpack through the bookshelves. Truthfully she wanted to escape from that blonde girl’s eyes, and she could not remember her name, it was a trivial piece of information that seemed inconsequential to the importance of studying for this damned test, but she grew wary of people she took little notice of whom took more notice in her.

Hidden in the back of the shelves Fuji checked her phone for messages or missed calls. Nothing at all. It was nearing nine in the evening and Kaori had gone into labor first thing that morning. There must be something from her friends.

Fuji dialed Yuki’s phone, which was turned off. That was not a big surprise, cell phones were prohibited in hospitals. She tried Shai’s phone, which was also turned off. Growing more desperate she actually called Shinji, her real father, but he did not answer. He was most likely off with Gigei and forgot that he had two daughters to worry about, and a grandson. Fuji was quickly running out of options for people to call. She knew her mom and Teiyoku would not know, therefore Devilin would not know.

Devilin. She knew she had not spoken to someone in a while. He had called every day this week, and she had only spoken to him once. She had been too busy to pay attention to him, which made her a horrible girlfriend, but her studies had to remain at their highest point.

Fuji grabbed her phone, ready to dial the number, but something stopped her. Not physical, it was a metaphysical force that grabbed her by the hand and had her putting her phone back in her backpack, on silent. She was supposed to be worrying about studying and about Kaori. It was in inopportune time to be calling Devlin. Or was this the perfect time?

“Sneaking off to call your lover?” Amatsu asked, coming through the bookshelves to meet her.

Fuji flushed and turned her back on him. She could not help but feeling reminiscent of old movies or Solly porn stories, where lovers met in the corners of bookshelves and did things in hopes that no one would find them. “Kaori is having her baby today,” Fuji said, her back still turned to her former fiancé. “I was hoping to have word of how she and the baby were doing.”

“Kaori was pregnant?”

Fuji turned to Amatsu, her mouth agape. “Didn’t Kyoei tell you?”

Amatsu let off his Gallic shrug that meant nothing and everything all at once. “Kyoei and I haven’t really spoken since I moved to Tokyo to go to school.”

Fuji’s eyebrow raised and for a moment she felt at a loss. She felt much the same way with her friends. The first time she had talked to Shai or Yuki in over a month was when they mentioned Kaori was going into labor. She had no idea what was going on in their lives, and the few times she traveled home she was stuck going with her mother, Teiyoku, and Devilin to corporate dinners so her mom could brag, “This is my daughter, she skipped a grade in high school and now goes to Tokyo University,” so the other hens could remark, “Oh, how prestigious,” and awe over the girl of just under eighteen.

“I guess I didn’t really think about that,” Fuji admitted. “This is almost an entirely different world out here. Have you ever seen that anime, Voices from a Distant Star? It is about a girl and boy who were lovers, and then she joined the war and went off into space. She would send him text messages that would take longer and longer to get to him. He aged, and it was only days to her. I feel like that.”

Amatsu nodded in agreement, stepping closer to Fuji’s still turned back. He stepped up close enough to feel her body heat omitting around her body in waves, but not close enough to touch her. He was still unsure of how he would feel if he touched her. He wanted to reach out, entwine his fingers in her hair, and teach her how true lovers were supposed to act. He wanted to awaken that heat that Devilin had arose in her and make it his. Then, he wanted to never touch her again because the frigid woman who was reminiscent of her mother became some other man’s sex slave, whether she believed herself to be or not, and he wanted nothing to do with that man and his lustful feelings for the one girl he has ever wanted a future with.

Amatsu reached out, his hand brushing against her arm, and further past her, and to her backpack. It was the only skin to skin contact, but both of them felt the goose bumps rise on their skin at the electricity they were both producing off of each other. Once more Amatsu leaned in to Fuji’s ear, his lips barely whispering the words, but they were not words of seduction, or words of need, they were a simple statement, in a haughty, but husky voice that would have made Fuji’s knees weak if not for the simplicity, “Your phone is vibrating.”

Fuji nearly dropped her backpack in her panic to reach her phone, ripping back into it, pulling out the cell phone, then feeling an immense bubble inside of her burst at the name on the caller ID. DEVILIN. Fuji toyed with the idea of answering it, to just give Amatsu what she believed he deserved, but she could not do it. She slid the phone back in the backpack and sealed it back up.

“You aren’t going to answer it?” Amatsu asked, the smirking smile never leaving his face.

“I can not concentrate on studying if I talk to him,” she admitted. She pushed past Amatsu, her annoyance high, though she still longed to stay close to him, to feel his body heat rising close to her.

“What about the book you came looking for?” he asked in a condescending tone.

Fuji whirled on him, so fast that even his cool façade was broken for a minute as he turned back, suddenly face to face with the girl of his dreams. “Why did you tell that… that woman that you were going into business for your fiancée?”

Amatsu leaned forward, smiling down at Fuji with a darkness that she never thought she would see on his face. He reminded her of the devil now, not Devilin with his red eyes. She never thought of Amatsu as capable of playing games, but here he was, toying with Fuji’s heart, and she continued to let him. “Because it is true.”

“We are not together anymore,” Fuji reminded him, fighting the ache in her heart. “You made that perfectly clear that day.”

“Yet, you wear my ring,” Amatsu pointed out, looking down at her finger that was wrapped around the straps of her backpack. “If you did not have some scrap of feeling for me still you would not be here right now. You would have said all of the mean things to me you have wanted to say and been done with it. You are not that weak Fuji, you will not just let anyone toy with you.

“Yet, you wait here, you talk to me, your feelings for me still grow, but I was not what you needed. I could not bring you out of your shell, I could not make you forget the pain in your arm and leg from being stabbed, and I could not bring that passion out in you that Devilin awakened. However, he has managed to do those things, and for that I’m jealous and grateful, but it is time for you to come back to the one you belong to.”

“I belong to no one,” Fuji hissed. She spun around with every intention of walking away from him. She started to, she took long strides to hurry her steps, but his hand on her arm, pulling her back into the bookshelves, into the corners, under the cover of darkness, had her almost yelping out. He pushed her into those corners and at that moment she could not say who kissed who. All she knew was suddenly their mouths were pressed together and they were kissing with a fervor neither had felt before, not for each other. He had her cornered, and she was willingly accepting this kiss, this seduction.

When the kiss was over, in a mass of hot breath and yet breathlessness, Amatsu leaned closer, licking Fuji’s earlobe, sending shivers down her spine. “You belong to me.”