Chapter Fourteen: One Night at the Bar:

The sun started to set by the time we left the beach. I turned to Kiku as we walked up the pier.

“Where to now?” I asked. She took a moment to think about that. My friend turned to me, grinning.

“I know a little bar on the other side of town,” she said. I couldn’t help but to smile at her.

“You always love to party,” I pointed out. Kiku giggled at my comment. Then, more came to her idea.

“Hey, maybe we can stay the night in the town,” she added. “I know a seaside hotel that is just as good as a five-star hotel.”

“Maybe,” I said. Kiku grabbed me by the hands.

“Pleaseee?” she pleaded. I dropped my shoulders at her.

“Fine,” I said. “We can go.” Kiku clapped her hands together and leapt around.

“Yay!” she cheered. “You won’t regret it!” I force myself to smile.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Kiku cheered. I only shook my head, smiling.

“Alright,” I replied. “Whatever you say.” I hadn’t even finished that sentence before I felt myself being dragged back to the car.

“Whoa!” I cried. “You’re hurting my arm!” Kiku stopped listening after I told her “alright.” I kept on smiling. That’s my friend for ya. She grew up a party animal in her high school and college years and will continue to be one until she dies. I have asked her if she ever had any plans to settle down.

“Never!” she loudly declared.

“Why not?” I asked.

“I don’t want kids and a husband to weigh me down,” she told me. “That’s not fun.”

“But you will get old soon,” I pointed out.

“So what?” she asked. “I’ll get old and still party.” I remembered that conversation as she drove us into another party night.

Gimme Shelter. Odd name for a bar in my book. The appearance didn’t look so impressive either. Old, tipsy shack first popped up in my head when I saw the blackened wooden walls, swaying structure, foggy windows, and overly bright yellow door. I had many blinks at this place. I glanced over at my excited friend.

“How did you find this place?” I whispered. Kiku held back a chuckle.

“I get around,” she remarked.

“I can see that…” I mumbled. Kiku walked towards the swaying shack. I shrugged and followed after her. Might as well. She drove me here and has the keys. So… yeah…

Inside reminded me of Kiku through her college days. Men as far as the eye could see. Not a single woman in sight. I found my feet slowly backing away to the door.

“Uh… Kiku,” I whispered.

“Yes?” she asked. What a way to subtle. What was with the outdoor voice? I tried to ignore her to try and talk her out of leaving.

“Where are the other women?” I asked.

“What other women?” Kiku asked. She walked forward to the bar and dragged me with her. The unsettled feeling went up from my stomach to my chest. As soon as we approached the bar, all eyes fell on us. Their eyes undressing me reminded me of Kaoru. I shook the thoughts from my head and faced forward. Kiku, on the other hand, took it all in and drank up the attention. Along with partying, she loved the men. Another reason why she would never settle down and marry.

“Marriage?” she asked on many occasions. “Oh please! There are too many men for me to try up to be tied down to just one!” I only smiled and nodded at her. I felt a light nudge in my arm. My eyes shifted over to my left. Kiku gave me a jackal-like grin.

“Relax,” she whispered. “You need it after you lost Akio. Come on, live a little. This is our night.” I nodded at her with a brave face. We took our seats over at the bar. The bar tender smiled at us.

“Hey there, Kiku-chan,” he said. My friend gave him a little wave.

“Dragon!” she cheered. She gave the thirty-something man one of her famous flirty smiles. He peeked over at me.

“And who’s your friend?” he asked. I looked down at my hands while fighting the uneasiness.

“Setsuna,” I answered him.

“Nice to meet you!” the bar tender boomed. We exchanged a quickly bow. He turned to both of us now.

“What you like today?” he asked.

“The usual for me!” Kiku bragged. I took a moment to look at the blackboard menu behind Dragon. These drinks all look the same to me. Let’s see, what looks like the least lethal to me? My eyes trailed up and down the list until they rested on the name in the middle.

“I’ll have the Blue Flyin’ Hawaiian,” I said. Dragon gave me a little smile.

“Brave choice for such a high-class beauty,” he said. “Coming right up!” He turned away to get to work. I glanced over at Kiku.

“How bad is it?” I asked. She tried to choke back another giggle.

“Oh, you’ll be seeing three of everything,” she said. I bit my lip as I hoped that she was just kidding. I have my doubts…

I nearly jumped as I felt a heavy hand resting on shoulder. I whipped my head around and saw two deep golden brown eyes staring deep into mine. I could feel the fire in my blood starting up again.

“What the hell do you want?” I hissed loud enough for only him and me to hear. He gave me that sickeningly, seductive smile of his.

“I was in town and thought that I would just stop into this bar,” Kaoru whispered back at me. I sneered at him.

“Liar,” I whispered back at him. “You stalked us here.”

“What if I did?” he whispered. “What are you going to do about it?” I prepared to argue back when a loud snorting laughing distracted us. We looked up and saw Kiku smiling at us in a goofy way.

“Ooo!” she cooed. “Who’s your hot friend, Setsuna-chan?” Kaoru stepped forward before I could open my mouth to speak.

“My name is Kaoru,” he said in a gentleman-manner that made me want to spit on him. “Please to meet you.” Kiku giggled like a little high school girl.

“Ooo!” she said again. “I’m Kiku. Setsuna never said that she had a new man on the side.”

With good reason, I thought as I clenched my teeth together to keep myself from screaming out and causing some sort of harm to anyone around me. Kaoru gave her another elegant smile.

“Well, she wanted to see where things would go before she told anybody,” he said as he put his arms around my shoulders again. “Isn’t that right, babe?” I forced myself to smile once again for the day. So this is how you want to play it, huh? Asshole!

“Yes,” I lied along with him. “I just wanted to make sure he was right for me before I broke the news.” Kiku’s smile widened at us and clapped her hands together.

“I am so happy for you!” she cheered. Then, an idea came into her head. She turned to Kaoru.

“Hey why don’t you hang out with us tonight?” she asked. “A girl’s party is much better with a good-looking man hanging out with her.” I sneered at her. Really?, I thought. Kaoru smiled at her.

“I would love to,” he said. Kaoru and Kiku both looked over at me. I threw up my hands in the air and breathed out.

“Whatever,” I mumbled. Kiku gave off a little giggle as Kaoru sat down between us. I forced myself to be civil enough to take another night with this creep. My perfect idea of Hell to be frank.

We all, and when I say we, I mean mostly Kiku and Kaoru, spent the whole night drinking and talking. Me? I skulled at the bar while I had visions of murdering that sick son-of-a-bitch in my head. He has to go and pretty soon. I can’t have him hitting anybody else close to me. Then, it broke into worse when Kiku turned her head to Kaoru and began rubbing on his chest.

“Say,” she said. “Setsuna and I are heading out to a seaside hotel that is a couple of miles from here. You’re welcome to stop by later on tonight.” I just about threw up there. No, you idiot!, I so badly wanted to scream at her. She just had to keeping hitting wasp’s nest with a stick, didn’t she? Kaoru took in every moment of my contempt. He licked his lips at her.

“Sure, I’d love to,” he answered. Sure? Sure? I couldn’t take it anymore. I stood from my stool.

“I’m going out for some air,” I mumbled to no one in particular. They didn’t seem to hear me because were too busy being all flirty with each other. I rolled my eyes and walked off. It’s her funeral.