by Laine Watson
Haruki
春樹
Haruki
First edition. October 17, 2019.
Book One of the Haruki Arima Duet
Laine Watson Books
Published By
Mir.Mad Works
A Division of Mir.Mad, LLC
Atlanta, Georgia
Copyright © 2019 Laine Watson. All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Laine Watson
Visit my website at www.LaineWatson.com
Laine Watson Books and Mir.Mad Works are registered trademarks of
Mir.Mad, LLC.
Cover Design and Editing by Touch Creations
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter One: Young Goddess
Chapter Two: Stupid Name
Chapter Three: Comparing
Chapter Four: Disappointment
Chapter Five: The Bus
Chapter Six: Max
Chapter Seven: Haruki Arima
Chapter Eight: A Job
Chapter Nine: Woman
Chapter Ten: Sitting
Chapter Eleven: After Dinner
Chapter Twelve: Flashbacks
Chapter Thirteen: Wish
Chapter Fourteen: Friday Night
Chapter Fifteen: I’m not that Guy
Chapter Sixteen: Finals
Chapter Seventeen: Max’s Girlfriend
Chapter Eighteen: The Haru We Don’t Know
Chapter Nineteen: Essential Oils
Chapter Twenty: Mommy
Chapter Twenty-One: Family Meeting
Chapter Twenty-Two: Brain Freeze
Chapter Twenty-Three: Hidden Agenda
Sneak Peek
Chapter One: Missouri
About the Author
Prologue
I’m a freshman in high school with recently divorced parents and no social skills. My mother focuses on her career and I am focusing on connecting with someone, even if I don’t have the slightest idea how.
At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself.
I somehow ended up standing here in the middle of my study hall, watching my supposed friend kiss my supposed boyfriend.
I gasp. That’s weird. We’ve never even kissed. How do you even get to that part?
There’s a hollowness in my chest I can’t identify and tears slowly fall down my face as I watch Jacob. Bowing my head, I grasp the end of my sleeves just to have something to hold.
I flee to the bathroom. When I get there, I stare into the mirror above the sink, wiping my tears away.
I’ll just ask him what happened. There’s got to be a good reason he was kissing her, right? Maybe he’ll kiss me too since I’m bringing it up. He’s like the only person who I can talk to, I convince myself.
“Where’d everybody go?” I ask myself while looking around the classroom from the doorway. I walk in and sit at the desk where I had been sitting before and gather my papers.
I guess our study session is over. From the corner of my eyes I see someone peeping around the door.
“Hey,” Jacob says.
“Hey!” I jump, a little startled.
“It’s just me.” Jacob laughs. “I guess you’re talking to me at school today because nobody’s around, right?” he says, condescendingly.
“Oh, um…” I turn around to him as he walks inside. “It’s not on purpose. I never have anything to say at school.”
“You could…”
I should just ask him, I decide, not really listening to what he’s saying. My palms are sweaty, and I keep cracking my knuckles.
“Why were you with Sidney?” I blurt out.
“What?”
“You’re my boyfriend, right? Why are you—”
“Wait! We’re not going out, Summer. We don’t even hang out.” The mockery in his voice shrinks me, even more so than his impactful words.
What does he mean? Why does he have to say it like I’m nothing to him?
“We talk on the phone all the time.”
“Yeah, we talk on the phone. That’s it.”
“That’s enough,” I say ignorant of his idea of a relationship. My idea is sufficient in my own eyes.
“You’re being way weird,” he sneers.
My nose twitches, and the sides of my mouth tease a frown. I struggle to keep my tears behind my eyes and my expression unreadable.
I was the only one who thought we were going out. Pathetic.
“You like Sid?” I ask in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, I do,” he says arrogantly.
“You like me?”
He smiles. “Yeah.”
“You’ve never kissed me.”
“We don’t have that kind of relationship.”
“What does that mean?” I ask hopelessly.
He laughs contemptuously. “You’re like a kid. We’re in high school, and you can’t even look at me, forget talking to me. It’s like you ignore me all day and think it’s okay to chitchat later on. You thought we were going out because we have random conversations on the phone?” he patronizes.
“Oh…” He seems disgusted.
“You’re not really the type of girl I’m looking for right now.”
“What?” My voice is barely able to come out.
“I mean, would you even let me kiss you?” he asks, walking over to me.
I back into the desk, hop over two, and stumble over one more.
He keeps coming. “What would you let me do?”
“What?” I say breathily, my lips slightly quivering. A rush of fear passes through me, making my ears wiggle involuntarily and my fingertips tingle.
He is finally close to me, hoovering. His fingers push my pants against my middle.
“Ah!” I cry, moving away from him and scooting desks over the room messily as I try to catch my heavy breaths.
“See?” He smugly smirks as he steps back from me. “Why would I want a girl I can’t even touch, when I have a girl who does everything to me and lets me do anything to her?”
“I…”
“Look, it’s cool. Don’t call me anymore. It’s getting weird. Stop telling everybody were going out, especially Sid. She tells me everything you say.” He laughs with ridicule in his tone, as if I were pathetic. “It’s never going to happen between us. Maybe if you could fucking talk to me without being weird or something, it might, but no … just no.”
He waves his hand at me and walks out of the classroom.
After a few moments, Sid appears and leans against the door.
Her scornful smirk is too much. I’m barely dealing with what just happened between me and Jacob.
“You told him everything we talked about?” I ask, hurt.
“It was kind of funny. You thought you were going out. How?” She laughs. “Actually, it’s more like you were trying to steal my boyfriend, but I let him play with you for a little while. You’re so stupid. He doesn’t want you.”
I can’t stand to look at her arrogant smirk. My eyes blink as I stare
at the floor trying to process, my ears hot.
“That’s okay. I can’t wait until everyone sees how much of a lying, man-stealing slut you are.” She cackles evilly. “Did you really think he liked you? You’re a fucking loser. An ugly, bitch-face, loser.”
My ears pop and tingles warm my head as if some type of chemical reaction had taken place within it.
“What?” I grimace at her.
The school bell rings.
She inhales deeply. “Summer’s a slut-bag, man-stealer, better keep your man away from her.” She smiles in my face as people pass in the hall.
Her words are lost to me.
I can’t hear anything as people crowd in the door, taunting me and laughing at me. Everything about the next moments fade—everything goes blank.
Chapter One: Young Goddess
The first Tuesday of my junior year in high school, I ride the bus to the college campus at Lincoln University—my home for three days a week.
This year is going to be different. There’s no way I’m going to spend my junior year depressed and sad, I tell myself and sigh as I think back to what started it all.
As I walk the campus, trying to find the right building for my classes, I’m still convincing myself of my change. I’m not going to be bullied this year. They want to call me a man stealer and a slut—I’ll show them. I hate guys. I hate girls. They can both kiss my ass.
I’m not that little frail, socially awkward, weirdo anymore. I won’t be bullied.
I glance up into the sky, “This year is going to be different. I’m going to be different.” I announce to myself quietly.
I look over my schedule and ask myself, “What the hell is Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives? Is this the college’s attempt to seem diverse? Is this a black thing?”
“You’re black?” The voice comes from the other side of the sidewalk.
I look over, and a beautiful girl is standing near me. “Oh, hi. Yeah.” I pause. “Is that supposed to be a joke or something?”
“What?” she asks.
“Asking if I’m black. I mean, you can pretty much tell a black person when you see one.”
“What race do I look to you?” the girl asks, walking even closer to me as I observe her peachy skin.
“Um, is this a trick question?”
“No, answer it.”
“White … I guess.”
“So far from the truth. I’m actually a quarter Chinese, a quarter Native American, a quarter Hungarian, and a quarter Greek.”
“Oh, yeah?” Who cares? I could be a bitch and say she’s still white, but I won’t. In these last couple years, if I’ve learned anything, it’s how to be a bitch. I’m not used to girls actually having regular conversations with me—really anyone for that matter.
The last time I tried to be friends with someone, it didn’t go well. I tense up as a repressed memory shoves itself back into my psyche.
Sid’s words still torment my mind. “Did you really think he liked you? You’re a fucking loser. An ugly, bitch-face, loser.”
“See! Looks can be deceiving.” She smiles, breaking me out of my memories. “I’m Darby, and racially ambiguous, like you.”
“Like me?”
“Yeah, you have a pretty unique look and features.”
“It’s because black people look all sorts of ways. It’s our charm.” I smirk confidently.
She giggles. “That explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“Why you’re so fucking hot!”
“Are you gay?”
Everything pauses.
“Are you a homophobe?” she retorts.
“Uh, no.”
She sighs sharply. “Defensive much? That was bitchy … and no, I’m not gay.”
“Sorry, not a lot of people just come up and talk to me, pleasantly. I don’t know your angle. You just can’t trust people, especially guys—they’re like Satan, or what’s worse than Satan?”
“Uh … I think he’s the worst,” she says with a confused expression on her face.
“Girls.”
“Agreed.”
Darby’s facial expression softens, and a small smile appears on her lips. “Well, first off, you’re paranoid, and secondly, my angle is: I’m going to be your tag along when all the guys start swarming you.”
“There won’t be any guys swarming me. I don’t talk to guys.”
“Oh, so you’re the one who’s gay?”
“No. At least I don’t think.”
“What?”
“Never mind. No, I’m not gay. I’d never date girls—they’re also Satan—with boobs.”
She stares at me with a blank expression at first, then she giggles. “Wow, most girls have a completely different outlook—”
I cut her off, “I’m not most girls. You should probably take a hike. I suck and I’m weird. I might inadvertently steal your boyfriend or think he’s mine without ever actually going out anywhere or having physical contact with him.”
“I’m guessing your high school time sucked.”
“Balls and ass. And I’m still in high school. I’m just here for the Junior Entrepreneur Program.”
“Can’t be that bad.”
“It is. Well, it was. Nobody really talks to me now. It’s like I’m invisible. At least I’m not being bullied anymore. No more groups of ex-friends calling me names and having the entire school think I’m a slut for not being a slut. Yeah—invisible is good,” I say anxiously. Even if I’m invisible at home, too.
“Wait, start over.”
I sigh, easing out most of my anxiety. “I want to say it’s complicated, but it’s not. Basically, I liked a boy for a really long time. I thought we were going out, but we weren’t.”
“How could you mess that up?”
“Well, I guess I didn’t really know what ‘going out’ was. We were just talking on the phone, and he was actually going out with a girl who I thought was a friend… Anyway, it was torture. Girls tried to fight me by approaching me, like packs of wolves, ready to pounce because I liked a guy.”
“Yeah, we can be harsh.”
Harsh is putting it lightly, I think to myself. As hard as I try not to let the memory of my past crush escape into my mind, I can’t keep it out. It still hurts.
“That was pretty shitty, but guys come a dime a dozen. You can find another one.”
“Nah, no thanks. I don’t want to fall in love or be with a guy. The only real reason I was looking for a guy, or whatever, was because my mom’s self-absorbed. She doesn’t really care about me. I wanted somebody to. But…” I laugh off my awkwardness and hurt. “I’m fine now. So, I’m not looking to fall in love with anyone or be friends.” I pause and glance at Darby. “I’m just … I’m here to get my credits, go to college, and become a boring, bitchy person like my mom.”
“You calling your mom boring? And bitchy?”
“Yes! She only cares about her job and money and the things she buys with her money—that she worked for.” I laugh a little. “So, yeah.”
“Wow, you’re really messed up.”
“No, I’m not. I just want to get through this as painlessly as possible.”
There is a short pause from the both of us.
“Well, tough luck. We’re in the same class, so we have to be friends.” She smiles. “As far as falling in love, who said anything about that? Guys suck—I’m with you. Your job, young goddess, is to make them drool over you and stumble all over themselves to get a look at you. You give them nothing in return, except empty smiles and the slight chance that you might be interested in them to string them along.”
Whoa, my ears twitch, warmth building in them as I step back and stare at her. Young goddess?
“Don’t worry about females; they’re catty, but you don’t have to fight. Just rub your popularity with the guys in their faces. Let them know you can have any guy you want. They won’t bother you, I promise. They’ll be too busy trying to make sure their man isn’t lo
oking at you.”
Something clicks in my head. My heart beats fast. She just gave me the cure for my pain. “You’re right. This isn’t about love. Love is stupid.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Why should I be afraid of guys or girls?”
“Yeah, why should you?”
“Well, I don’t want to get hurt again.”
“Nobody’s going to bully you in college.”
“You say it like it doesn’t happen.”
“I’m saying, we’re just having fun. We’re not going out with these guys. If you say nothing to the girls, even if they say something to you, you’ve won. That will burn them up inside. Think of yourself as letting everyone get a taste without even offering a morsel.” She smiles.
“Wow, that’s way twisted.”
“See, you’re not the only weird one. It takes a special type of guy to put up with the shit I’ve got in store, so he’d better be prepared.”
“So basically, we’re going to go out and be the very stereotype that put women in a place of lesser value to men?”
“Not at all, we’re not going to be gold diggers, or teases, or vindictive … or anything like that.”
“It sounds like that’s exactly what we’re going to be: manipulative little bitches with black hearts that can’t be pierced.”
“Oh. Well, then yeah, we’re definitely going to do that.”
“Awesome…” I smile.
“Let the disgusting scum fall at our feet.”
“Um… I think you might be going a little too far.”
“We’ll see,” she says, wrapping her arm around mine and leading the way toward class.
I haven’t had any friends since I lost the ones back in freshman year, but they weren’t real friends. It seems like forever ago, but it’s only been a few years. My heart is so tainted—the past still hurts. I long for Darby’s friendship, though I plan to keep her at arm’s length in case one day she also betrays me.
Chapter Two: Stupid Name
A month into second semester and all my suspicions of Darby are gone. I keep the time she said she would be my tag along in the back of my mind. Often times, I feel like our friendship is conditional, which is fine as long as I remember not to trust too much.
