Categories > Anime/Manga > Gravitation > Euphoria III
Notes:
“Text”= Japanese talking
“/Text/”= English talking
“+Text+”= American talking
“#Text#”= Australian talking
Misplaced. Lucas looked around him. Women as far as the eye could see. None of them interested in him. He didn’t know these women. These were Brandi’s friends. But, Luke couldn’t complain. Better than being on the street, he thought.
“+Hey honey, can you help out?+” a voice asked him. Lucas looked up to see Tina standing over him. She had a basket of laundry in her hands. The man shrugged.
“+Where’s Lexie?+” he asked. Tina blinked at him.
“+Who?+” she asked. Lucas blinked for a moment. Then, it donned on him that Lexie wasn’t Lexie here.
“+I mean, where’s Brandi?+” he asked.
“+Oh, she’s at work already,+” Tina said. “+Just like everyone else.+” Lucas nodded. No wonder the apartment was quiet.
“+Ah,+” he said.
“+Help me with laundry?+” she asked. The man shrugged.
“+Sure,+” he said. Lucas stood up and followed Tina. At least it wasn’t one of the other girls.
Subject: Lucas
This wasn’t home. Home was the old apartment they were evicted from eight weeks ago. He still didn’t know the reason. The landlady refused to return his calls. Lucas and Lexie weren’t the only ones. Some of their neighbors were evicted as well. They didn’t know why even. The neighbors tried to call the landlady, but she wasn’t picking up with them either. Lucas began to get suspicious.
Wonder why she’s just throwing out random people?, he thought in the apartment laundry mat.
“+Hello?+” a girl asked him. The man returned back to earth. Tina stood in front of him, smiling.
“+Something wrong?+” she asked. Lucas shook his head.
“+No, I’m fine,+” he said. “+Where’s the detergent?+”
“+On the shelf,+” she said.
“+Okay,+” the man replied. They both got right to work. As Lucas did the laundry, he began to reflex back on the past eight weeks. It was rough and that itself was an understatement.
Lexie hadn’t been Lexie for a long while. Her other personalities had taken over for eight weeks straight. When they left their apartment, she was Brandi. Her friends has some clue about her problems. Oh that first night was awkward.
The girls gave him a straight look at first.
“A man?” Yoko asked.
“+It’s cool, it’s cool,+” Brandi insisted. “+He’s a good friend of mine.+” Yoko certainly didn’t enjoy this.
“When you said a friend was coming with you, you didn’t say it was a man!” she shouted. Sweat drop on Lucas’ head
“+Yoko, calm down,+” Kate said as she patted her girlfriend on the shoulder.
“How can I?” the Japanese woman asked. “Don’t you remember the rules? No men here!”
“+This will just be for a short time,+” Brandi said. “+Please.+” The other six women stared at the head of the house. Yoko snorted.
“Whatever,” she grumbled. Then, she headed to her room. Lucas just sighed. And that was the first night.
From there, Lucas felt like a tuna fish in a sailor’s boat. A sailor’s boat of lesbians. With Yoko being their male-hating captain. Lexie’s personalities didn’t help much either. Ever since the eviction, Lexie went MIA. Her personalities had taken over. Every day was something else. Lucas was used to playing this game, but it was gradually getting out of hand.
I just want my girlfriend back, Lucas thought many a night. Just one problem: the usual tricks to get Lexie back were not working. Instead, another personality would take over. It was at that point, Lucas realized that he was out of options. Time to call for back-up.
In came Dr. Taka. Over the course of eight weeks, Lucas sat in her office talking about his girlfriend. Just the usual questioning.
“What triggered this?”
“+She saw the eviction notice.+”
“When else has this happened?”
“+Well, two years ago, one of our friends tried to commit suicide because her crush rejected her. Then, it that same year another one of our friends got hit by a bus and ended up in a coma. He’s awake and still recovering now.+”
“So how did they trigger these shifts in personally?”
Lucas pressed his lips together. “+I’m not too comfortable about talking about her past for her.+”
“Would it be better if you both talked to me together?”
He shook his head. Dr. Taka gave him an odd look.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Lucas breathed out. “+ I can’t get Lexie back at the moment. The others keep coming back. I don’t know how to get my girlfriend back.+”
The good doctor took a moment to think about it. She turned her eyes to Luke.
“Try to get things back to normal as possible,” the good doctor said. Lucas blinked at her.
“+How?+” he asked.
“Have you found why you were evicted?”
“+No.+”
“Why is that?”
Lucas shrugged. “+Every time I call her, she doesn’t pick up.+”
“And you still don’t know why you evicted?”
Lucas nodded. “+Yes.+”
“Sounds like something shady is going on.” Dr. Taka looked at Lucas. “If I was you I would get myself a lawyer.”
Lucas stared at her. “+Why?+”
Dr. Taka closed up her notes. “This sounds rather fishy to me. I would try to look at all of the facts first.”
Lucas nodded. He had so much to think about on the way home that first night. There is a scam at my apartment?, he thought. That would explain why the landlady wasn’t returning his calls. Maybe he should talk to the other neighbors that got thrown out. Lucas shook his head.
No, he thought. I should focus on getting Lexie back first. That was going to be a climb. Lucas made it back to the apartment, unnoticed. Dark inside.
“+Anybody here?+” he asked. No answer. Lucas breathed out. Coast was clear. The man crept into the apartment and down the hall. He was almost home free when he heard sobbing. Lucas paused. Hm?, he thought. Curious, the man followed the sound to his bedroom. The sound came from his room. Lucas peeked into the crack. Lexie as Jane sat on their low bed, crying. Her boyfriend opened the door and watched inside. Jane looked up at him with red eyes. Luke stood still.
“+What’s the matter?+” he asked. Jane shook her head.
“+I miss home!+” she whimpered. Lucas sat over her and patted her on the head.
“+Shhh, I miss the apartment too,+” he whispered. “+We’ll get back to it as soon as possible.+” Jane looked up at him.
“+You sure?+” she asked. “+What if someone else bought our apartment? Then what will we do?+” Lucas frowned. She did have a point. Their apartment could be sold off by now. They might never get it back again. But, he couldn’t give up hope yet. Lexie needed him. Lucas held her tighter to his chest.
+Don’t worry, Jane!+” he said. “+We’ll get our apartment back! I swear it!+” Jane only cried against his chest. Lucas looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Easier said than done.
At a later date, Lucas woke up alone early on a Saturday morning. He looked around through his half-asleep eyes.
“+Sam?+” he asked. “+Sam, where did you go?+” The man sat up in bed and looked around the room again. His stomach sank further down. Luke leapt out of bed and ran down the hall.
“+Sam!+” he called. “+Sam, where are you?+” Lucas came into the kitchen and found all of the lesbians eating breakfast. He paused to catch his breath before talking. The women looked up at him.
“+Hey,+” he said. “+Have you seen Sam?+” Silence.
“+The girl I was with last night,+” he added on. Nothing. Cindy shoveled a mouthful of cereal in her mouth.
“Out,” Momo replied.
“+Out where?+” Lucas asked.
“+Don’t know,+” Kate said. Luke’s face dropped. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get any help from these ladies. He frowned and nodded.
“+Thanks ladies,+” the man said. Lucas headed back to his room. Moments later, he was out looking for his chameleon girlfriend. Asking around didn’t help as per usual. Everyone kept giving him conflicting stories. The man couldn’t make heads or tells of anything. This wasn’t working alone. I need some back-up again, he thought. Lucas was about to call Shuichi for help when his cell phone rang in his pocket.
Hm?, Lucas thought. He pressed the button and held the phone to his ear.
“+Hello?+” he asked.
“Is this Reed-san?” a man’s voice asked on the other line.
“+Yes,+” Lucas replied. “+What’s wrong?+”
“Your girlfriend is causing trouble in my bar!” the other man complained. Lucas blinked.
“+Huh?+” he asked. Then, it suddenly clicked in his head. Lexie!, he thought.
“+I’ll be right there!+” Lucas replied. “+Where is she?+”
“The Silver Bull!” the man yelled. “Get down from there, you crazy bitch!”
“+I’m on the way!+” Luke yelled. He hung up and ran down the street.
A crowd had gathered around outside of the Silver Bull Lucas stood on the other side of the street and swallowed hard. That bad?, he thought. Too late to turn back now. He drew in a deep breath and rushed across the street.
“+Excuse me. Coming through! I need to get inside! Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!” he said as he battled his way through the crowd. Lucas grabbed onto the doorframe and swung inside.
“+WHAT THE F**K DO YOU MEAN I’M BEING UNRULY!!!+” a familiar woman’s voice yelled out loud enough to make half of Tokyo deaf. “+I JUST WANT TO DANCE!!! TURN THAT MUSIC BACK ON NOW!!!+” Lucas winced. Oh great, it’s Megan, he thought. Better deal with this quickly. He rushed over to bar. And sure enough, Lexie’s skankiest personally was yelling at the bar tenders and throwing glasses at them.
“You need to get out!” the female bar tender yelled.
“+MAKE ME, BITCH!!!+” Megan shouted. She smacked her in the face with her cell phone.
“Ow!” the bar tender cried. “I’m calling the cops!”
“+DO IT, BABY!+” Megan challenged. Time to step in and end this before it gets worse. Lucas raced over to them. He gave off a loud whistle.
“+Hey!+” he shouted. All three went quiet and looked up at him. Lucas took in a breath.
“+What’s the problem here?+” he asked. Megan leapt into his arms.
“That bitch just turned on the jukebox really loud and started dancing,” the male bar tender complained. “My wife went to turn it off and this crazy woman started a fight with us.”
“+I just wanted to dance!+” Megan wailed. Lucas lightly shushed her.
“+That’s enough Meg,+” he whispered. “+Let’s just go home.+” Suddenly, she froze up and looked deep into his eyes. Lucas’s face dropped.
“+Meg?+” he asked. “+What’s wrong? Meg? Meg?+” The woman pushed him aside and ran away with no soul within her. The bar tender and his wife looked confused.
“What was that all about?” the man asked. Lucas turned back to the couple.
“+You have to forgive her,+” he said. “+We lost our apartment and it’s taking a toll on her. Excuse us.+” Lucas bowed and ran after her.
“I wonder why,” the female bar tender mumbled.
Lexie ran while lost in her another transition. The world blackened around her. Sounds in her ears sank underwater as the voices in her head began to rise. She could feel her heart pounding up to her ears. Everything looked the same around her. The personalities clashed harder for control this time. Only one could be the main one and push Lexie out forever. A car nearly ran the woman over.
“Hey watch where you’re going, lady!” the driver shouted. The woman ran further into the street. Many cars tried to not hit her. Everything blurred together in her mind.
Help me!
Help me.
Help me…
It all slipped into black.
Hours later, the woman awoke in the room she was sharing with Lucas. Her eyes darted around the dimly-lit room.
“+Where am I?+” she mumbled.
“+Our room,+” a man’s voice whispered. Her eyes shot over to her left. Lucas sat on the bed reading a psychology magazine. The woman sat up some and blinked.
“+Who are you?+” she asked.
“+A friend,+” Luke said. “+Just a friend.+”
“+What happened to me?+”
“+You just had a nasty accident. But you’re fine now.+”
The woman blinked. She opened her mouth to speak, Lucas shushed her.
“+Don’t talk,+” he whispered. “+Just go to sleep. I’ll be right here with you all night.+” The woman went silent and lied back down. Lucas kept reading as she let her eyes sink shut. Lucas sighed to himself. I have to fix this soon. If I don’t, Lexie will disappear.
Fast forward to today. Lucas and Tina were doing the laundry when the phone rang.
“+I got it,+” Lucas said. He walked over to the laundry mat phone and answered it. Tina listened on intently.
“+Hello?+” he asked. “+Chang-chan! What’s going on? You too? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Really? This is great! You have just made my day! Thank you!+” The man quickly hung up. He turned to the lesbian roomie with a grin. Tina blinked at him.
“+Something good happen?+” she asked.
“+Hell yeah!+” he cheered. “+We just got our apartment back!+”
“+That’s great!+” Tina cheered. “+How?+” Luke smirked.
“+Chang-san is one of our neighbors,+” he explained. “+Our landlady evicted her and her father five days ago. Like the rest of the neighbors, she dodging Chang-san calls and e-mails. However, Chang-san is a lawyer looked into the matter. Turns out our landlady was evicting tenants with mental illness because she didn’t want to deal with them anymore.+”
“+Isn’t that illegal?+” Tina asked.
“+It is,+” he replied. “+Which is why Chang-san called the cops. In short, landlady is arrested and her career is now retarded.+”
“+So, whose running the apartment now?+” his roomie asked.
“+Chang-san and she is calling all of the evicted neighbors back and getting their apartments back!+” Tina began to smile.
“+That’s great!+” she said. “+So when are you moving back?+”
“+Today!+” he said.
“+Today? So sudden?+” she asked. Lucas nodded.
“+Yeah!+” he said. “+I have to tell Brandi!+” He raced upstairs to get his cell phone to spread the news.
By evening, the couple had packed up and moved out. They stood in front of their old door. Lucas turned to his girlfriend.
“+Ready?+” he asked. The woman didn’t respond. She didn’t even seem completely there in fact. Lucas only smiled and unlocked the door.
POP! A noise maker blew up right in his face. Lucas nearly leapt backwards with a yelp.
“+Whoa!+” he cried. The man looked up and saw a big black and red banner with the words, “Welcome Home!” in Kanji. Lucas looked and saw all of his friends crowded around him, smiling.
“Welcome back!” Shuichi cheered.
“/You’re home!/” Cassie said.
“Missed ya man!” Ando told him.
“/Drink up, Luke!/” Shawn said as he handed him some sake.
“/Welcome home, babes!/” Nicole greeted him.
“So good to see you again,” Fujisaki told him.
“/The landlady bitch is finally gone,/” Nick said.
“/Welcome home,/” Simon murmured.
“/It was boring without you,/” Casper told him.
“We all missed you,” Hiro said.
“Wow, you’re back,” Arisu said. Lucas couldn’t help but to smile at all of his friends.
“+Yeah, I guess I am,+” he said. He turned to his girlfriend.
“+You hear that, Lexie?+” he asked. “+We’re finally home.+” As if by magic, Lexie finally came back after eight whole weeks of being lost in her head.
“+Yeah!+” she cheered.
“Text”= Japanese talking
“/Text/”= English talking
“+Text+”= American talking
“#Text#”= Australian talking
Misplaced. Lucas looked around him. Women as far as the eye could see. None of them interested in him. He didn’t know these women. These were Brandi’s friends. But, Luke couldn’t complain. Better than being on the street, he thought.
“+Hey honey, can you help out?+” a voice asked him. Lucas looked up to see Tina standing over him. She had a basket of laundry in her hands. The man shrugged.
“+Where’s Lexie?+” he asked. Tina blinked at him.
“+Who?+” she asked. Lucas blinked for a moment. Then, it donned on him that Lexie wasn’t Lexie here.
“+I mean, where’s Brandi?+” he asked.
“+Oh, she’s at work already,+” Tina said. “+Just like everyone else.+” Lucas nodded. No wonder the apartment was quiet.
“+Ah,+” he said.
“+Help me with laundry?+” she asked. The man shrugged.
“+Sure,+” he said. Lucas stood up and followed Tina. At least it wasn’t one of the other girls.
Subject: Lucas
This wasn’t home. Home was the old apartment they were evicted from eight weeks ago. He still didn’t know the reason. The landlady refused to return his calls. Lucas and Lexie weren’t the only ones. Some of their neighbors were evicted as well. They didn’t know why even. The neighbors tried to call the landlady, but she wasn’t picking up with them either. Lucas began to get suspicious.
Wonder why she’s just throwing out random people?, he thought in the apartment laundry mat.
“+Hello?+” a girl asked him. The man returned back to earth. Tina stood in front of him, smiling.
“+Something wrong?+” she asked. Lucas shook his head.
“+No, I’m fine,+” he said. “+Where’s the detergent?+”
“+On the shelf,+” she said.
“+Okay,+” the man replied. They both got right to work. As Lucas did the laundry, he began to reflex back on the past eight weeks. It was rough and that itself was an understatement.
Lexie hadn’t been Lexie for a long while. Her other personalities had taken over for eight weeks straight. When they left their apartment, she was Brandi. Her friends has some clue about her problems. Oh that first night was awkward.
The girls gave him a straight look at first.
“A man?” Yoko asked.
“+It’s cool, it’s cool,+” Brandi insisted. “+He’s a good friend of mine.+” Yoko certainly didn’t enjoy this.
“When you said a friend was coming with you, you didn’t say it was a man!” she shouted. Sweat drop on Lucas’ head
“+Yoko, calm down,+” Kate said as she patted her girlfriend on the shoulder.
“How can I?” the Japanese woman asked. “Don’t you remember the rules? No men here!”
“+This will just be for a short time,+” Brandi said. “+Please.+” The other six women stared at the head of the house. Yoko snorted.
“Whatever,” she grumbled. Then, she headed to her room. Lucas just sighed. And that was the first night.
From there, Lucas felt like a tuna fish in a sailor’s boat. A sailor’s boat of lesbians. With Yoko being their male-hating captain. Lexie’s personalities didn’t help much either. Ever since the eviction, Lexie went MIA. Her personalities had taken over. Every day was something else. Lucas was used to playing this game, but it was gradually getting out of hand.
I just want my girlfriend back, Lucas thought many a night. Just one problem: the usual tricks to get Lexie back were not working. Instead, another personality would take over. It was at that point, Lucas realized that he was out of options. Time to call for back-up.
In came Dr. Taka. Over the course of eight weeks, Lucas sat in her office talking about his girlfriend. Just the usual questioning.
“What triggered this?”
“+She saw the eviction notice.+”
“When else has this happened?”
“+Well, two years ago, one of our friends tried to commit suicide because her crush rejected her. Then, it that same year another one of our friends got hit by a bus and ended up in a coma. He’s awake and still recovering now.+”
“So how did they trigger these shifts in personally?”
Lucas pressed his lips together. “+I’m not too comfortable about talking about her past for her.+”
“Would it be better if you both talked to me together?”
He shook his head. Dr. Taka gave him an odd look.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Lucas breathed out. “+ I can’t get Lexie back at the moment. The others keep coming back. I don’t know how to get my girlfriend back.+”
The good doctor took a moment to think about it. She turned her eyes to Luke.
“Try to get things back to normal as possible,” the good doctor said. Lucas blinked at her.
“+How?+” he asked.
“Have you found why you were evicted?”
“+No.+”
“Why is that?”
Lucas shrugged. “+Every time I call her, she doesn’t pick up.+”
“And you still don’t know why you evicted?”
Lucas nodded. “+Yes.+”
“Sounds like something shady is going on.” Dr. Taka looked at Lucas. “If I was you I would get myself a lawyer.”
Lucas stared at her. “+Why?+”
Dr. Taka closed up her notes. “This sounds rather fishy to me. I would try to look at all of the facts first.”
Lucas nodded. He had so much to think about on the way home that first night. There is a scam at my apartment?, he thought. That would explain why the landlady wasn’t returning his calls. Maybe he should talk to the other neighbors that got thrown out. Lucas shook his head.
No, he thought. I should focus on getting Lexie back first. That was going to be a climb. Lucas made it back to the apartment, unnoticed. Dark inside.
“+Anybody here?+” he asked. No answer. Lucas breathed out. Coast was clear. The man crept into the apartment and down the hall. He was almost home free when he heard sobbing. Lucas paused. Hm?, he thought. Curious, the man followed the sound to his bedroom. The sound came from his room. Lucas peeked into the crack. Lexie as Jane sat on their low bed, crying. Her boyfriend opened the door and watched inside. Jane looked up at him with red eyes. Luke stood still.
“+What’s the matter?+” he asked. Jane shook her head.
“+I miss home!+” she whimpered. Lucas sat over her and patted her on the head.
“+Shhh, I miss the apartment too,+” he whispered. “+We’ll get back to it as soon as possible.+” Jane looked up at him.
“+You sure?+” she asked. “+What if someone else bought our apartment? Then what will we do?+” Lucas frowned. She did have a point. Their apartment could be sold off by now. They might never get it back again. But, he couldn’t give up hope yet. Lexie needed him. Lucas held her tighter to his chest.
+Don’t worry, Jane!+” he said. “+We’ll get our apartment back! I swear it!+” Jane only cried against his chest. Lucas looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Easier said than done.
At a later date, Lucas woke up alone early on a Saturday morning. He looked around through his half-asleep eyes.
“+Sam?+” he asked. “+Sam, where did you go?+” The man sat up in bed and looked around the room again. His stomach sank further down. Luke leapt out of bed and ran down the hall.
“+Sam!+” he called. “+Sam, where are you?+” Lucas came into the kitchen and found all of the lesbians eating breakfast. He paused to catch his breath before talking. The women looked up at him.
“+Hey,+” he said. “+Have you seen Sam?+” Silence.
“+The girl I was with last night,+” he added on. Nothing. Cindy shoveled a mouthful of cereal in her mouth.
“Out,” Momo replied.
“+Out where?+” Lucas asked.
“+Don’t know,+” Kate said. Luke’s face dropped. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get any help from these ladies. He frowned and nodded.
“+Thanks ladies,+” the man said. Lucas headed back to his room. Moments later, he was out looking for his chameleon girlfriend. Asking around didn’t help as per usual. Everyone kept giving him conflicting stories. The man couldn’t make heads or tells of anything. This wasn’t working alone. I need some back-up again, he thought. Lucas was about to call Shuichi for help when his cell phone rang in his pocket.
Hm?, Lucas thought. He pressed the button and held the phone to his ear.
“+Hello?+” he asked.
“Is this Reed-san?” a man’s voice asked on the other line.
“+Yes,+” Lucas replied. “+What’s wrong?+”
“Your girlfriend is causing trouble in my bar!” the other man complained. Lucas blinked.
“+Huh?+” he asked. Then, it suddenly clicked in his head. Lexie!, he thought.
“+I’ll be right there!+” Lucas replied. “+Where is she?+”
“The Silver Bull!” the man yelled. “Get down from there, you crazy bitch!”
“+I’m on the way!+” Luke yelled. He hung up and ran down the street.
A crowd had gathered around outside of the Silver Bull Lucas stood on the other side of the street and swallowed hard. That bad?, he thought. Too late to turn back now. He drew in a deep breath and rushed across the street.
“+Excuse me. Coming through! I need to get inside! Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!” he said as he battled his way through the crowd. Lucas grabbed onto the doorframe and swung inside.
“+WHAT THE F**K DO YOU MEAN I’M BEING UNRULY!!!+” a familiar woman’s voice yelled out loud enough to make half of Tokyo deaf. “+I JUST WANT TO DANCE!!! TURN THAT MUSIC BACK ON NOW!!!+” Lucas winced. Oh great, it’s Megan, he thought. Better deal with this quickly. He rushed over to bar. And sure enough, Lexie’s skankiest personally was yelling at the bar tenders and throwing glasses at them.
“You need to get out!” the female bar tender yelled.
“+MAKE ME, BITCH!!!+” Megan shouted. She smacked her in the face with her cell phone.
“Ow!” the bar tender cried. “I’m calling the cops!”
“+DO IT, BABY!+” Megan challenged. Time to step in and end this before it gets worse. Lucas raced over to them. He gave off a loud whistle.
“+Hey!+” he shouted. All three went quiet and looked up at him. Lucas took in a breath.
“+What’s the problem here?+” he asked. Megan leapt into his arms.
“That bitch just turned on the jukebox really loud and started dancing,” the male bar tender complained. “My wife went to turn it off and this crazy woman started a fight with us.”
“+I just wanted to dance!+” Megan wailed. Lucas lightly shushed her.
“+That’s enough Meg,+” he whispered. “+Let’s just go home.+” Suddenly, she froze up and looked deep into his eyes. Lucas’s face dropped.
“+Meg?+” he asked. “+What’s wrong? Meg? Meg?+” The woman pushed him aside and ran away with no soul within her. The bar tender and his wife looked confused.
“What was that all about?” the man asked. Lucas turned back to the couple.
“+You have to forgive her,+” he said. “+We lost our apartment and it’s taking a toll on her. Excuse us.+” Lucas bowed and ran after her.
“I wonder why,” the female bar tender mumbled.
Lexie ran while lost in her another transition. The world blackened around her. Sounds in her ears sank underwater as the voices in her head began to rise. She could feel her heart pounding up to her ears. Everything looked the same around her. The personalities clashed harder for control this time. Only one could be the main one and push Lexie out forever. A car nearly ran the woman over.
“Hey watch where you’re going, lady!” the driver shouted. The woman ran further into the street. Many cars tried to not hit her. Everything blurred together in her mind.
Help me!
Help me.
Help me…
It all slipped into black.
Hours later, the woman awoke in the room she was sharing with Lucas. Her eyes darted around the dimly-lit room.
“+Where am I?+” she mumbled.
“+Our room,+” a man’s voice whispered. Her eyes shot over to her left. Lucas sat on the bed reading a psychology magazine. The woman sat up some and blinked.
“+Who are you?+” she asked.
“+A friend,+” Luke said. “+Just a friend.+”
“+What happened to me?+”
“+You just had a nasty accident. But you’re fine now.+”
The woman blinked. She opened her mouth to speak, Lucas shushed her.
“+Don’t talk,+” he whispered. “+Just go to sleep. I’ll be right here with you all night.+” The woman went silent and lied back down. Lucas kept reading as she let her eyes sink shut. Lucas sighed to himself. I have to fix this soon. If I don’t, Lexie will disappear.
Fast forward to today. Lucas and Tina were doing the laundry when the phone rang.
“+I got it,+” Lucas said. He walked over to the laundry mat phone and answered it. Tina listened on intently.
“+Hello?+” he asked. “+Chang-chan! What’s going on? You too? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Really? This is great! You have just made my day! Thank you!+” The man quickly hung up. He turned to the lesbian roomie with a grin. Tina blinked at him.
“+Something good happen?+” she asked.
“+Hell yeah!+” he cheered. “+We just got our apartment back!+”
“+That’s great!+” Tina cheered. “+How?+” Luke smirked.
“+Chang-san is one of our neighbors,+” he explained. “+Our landlady evicted her and her father five days ago. Like the rest of the neighbors, she dodging Chang-san calls and e-mails. However, Chang-san is a lawyer looked into the matter. Turns out our landlady was evicting tenants with mental illness because she didn’t want to deal with them anymore.+”
“+Isn’t that illegal?+” Tina asked.
“+It is,+” he replied. “+Which is why Chang-san called the cops. In short, landlady is arrested and her career is now retarded.+”
“+So, whose running the apartment now?+” his roomie asked.
“+Chang-san and she is calling all of the evicted neighbors back and getting their apartments back!+” Tina began to smile.
“+That’s great!+” she said. “+So when are you moving back?+”
“+Today!+” he said.
“+Today? So sudden?+” she asked. Lucas nodded.
“+Yeah!+” he said. “+I have to tell Brandi!+” He raced upstairs to get his cell phone to spread the news.
By evening, the couple had packed up and moved out. They stood in front of their old door. Lucas turned to his girlfriend.
“+Ready?+” he asked. The woman didn’t respond. She didn’t even seem completely there in fact. Lucas only smiled and unlocked the door.
POP! A noise maker blew up right in his face. Lucas nearly leapt backwards with a yelp.
“+Whoa!+” he cried. The man looked up and saw a big black and red banner with the words, “Welcome Home!” in Kanji. Lucas looked and saw all of his friends crowded around him, smiling.
“Welcome back!” Shuichi cheered.
“/You’re home!/” Cassie said.
“Missed ya man!” Ando told him.
“/Drink up, Luke!/” Shawn said as he handed him some sake.
“/Welcome home, babes!/” Nicole greeted him.
“So good to see you again,” Fujisaki told him.
“/The landlady bitch is finally gone,/” Nick said.
“/Welcome home,/” Simon murmured.
“/It was boring without you,/” Casper told him.
“We all missed you,” Hiro said.
“Wow, you’re back,” Arisu said. Lucas couldn’t help but to smile at all of his friends.
“+Yeah, I guess I am,+” he said. He turned to his girlfriend.
“+You hear that, Lexie?+” he asked. “+We’re finally home.+” As if by magic, Lexie finally came back after eight whole weeks of being lost in her head.
“+Yeah!+” she cheered.
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