Catalyst of Dreams

11. A Prisoner for Life

Dad returned back to his normal schedule with work and I, to my normal routine of avoiding Kenta. I’m not really sure how long I can keep this going but I decided until Lilia’s birthday in less than a week, I didn’t have a choice. I spent most of the day outside the gates and only returned home when I needed to help mother with dinner.

The streets were busy today with summer sale signs up in every shop. Normally I would be scouring screened tees and music CDs with Lilia but we haven’t talked since the day she came back. I chose to settle on a couch in an old arcade shop I usually claimed with my best friend while sipping on Ramune sodas. 

I sit down with my glass bottle and realize Lilia usually pops the glass ball in for me. I sigh.

I really miss her.

I leave the bottle on the table and look around at all the young teens hanging about. The arcade has a lot of familiar games like Mortal Kombat and PacMan and some new photo booths on the side walls decorated with every anime poster imaginable. 

I hear a familiar laugh where some kids are playing DDR in the corner, another favorite of mine and…

Lilia?? 

My heart sinks when I see her playing the dance machine with none other than Cherry Harrington. She is a gorgeous Latina-mix girl with long, shiny black hair that sways with every dance step.  They look like they’re having a lot of fun and in a way I feel completely betrayed. Of all people, Lilia chose Cherry to hang with? With her perfect tan skin and cute flowing top and bell-bottom jeans that just accentuate her perfect hips and perky boobs. 

Ugh.

I exit as quickly as I can so I wouldn’t be seen. My vision begins to blur with the tears fighting to pour out. I really don’t want to be a kid crying in the middle of the street so I try my hardest to make it back to the complex, to Maberly.

I’m so preoccupied and upset I didn’t notice three guys getting their IDs checked at the gate ahead of me. 

I try to catch my breath as I fidget in my bag for my military ID. I’m next in line and as I locate my ID, I hear commotion and a burst of laughter and I look up. Just a few feet from me is Kenta and the other two students my dad teaches, Ryo and Soshi. They are a couple of  years older than Kenta but they all play on the team together.

Ryo, who is taller but of a smaller build than Kenta, has his arm around his neck in a teasing way. I don’t understand what he’s saying in Japanese to Kenta but Soshi, a shorter and stockier guy,  is rolling with laughter and they are all looking at me. 

I can’t deny the joke is about me and I feel extremely queasy.

“Miss, your ID?” asks the MP from his stall.

“Oh. Um… Yes! right here.” I hand him my ID as I see from the corner of my eye that they haven’t left.

I receive my ID back and the MP lets me through the gate. I try to walk past the obnoxious laughing from the guys when one of them clears his throat.

“Ahem… Brianna-chan!” Ryo calls out to me.

I hesitate but I turn around, annoyed at how he always seems like he’s looking down his nose at me.

“Yes?” I say. 

He’s still got Kenta in a head-lock and he seems like he would rather be anywhere else.

“Forgive me, Miss,” he mockingly says as he puts his other hand over his chest, “I do not wish to bother you.”

“Aren’t you going to be late for your lesson?” I say rudely. 

They have never tried talking to me in years so I don’t even want to know what prompted this now.

“Yes. Ob-course,” he says with a creepy smile in his thick accent, “I just hab one question.”

I look at the lot of them impatiently. Soshi is beside himself chuckling and covering half his face with his hand like he’s got an inside joke he’s dying to share.

“Well?” I ask.

At this point I’ve almost forgotten about running into Lilia and Cherry, or maybe it’s fueling the temper that is building up inside.

“You like my friend here, Kenta?” he asks with a grin.

I should have known but I make a point to stare him down and then give Kenta the dirtiest look I can muster despite the feeling of mixed emotions daring to erupt.

“Leave me alone.” I say before turning around and running.

I can hear more laughter and Ryo calling after me to stay. I don’t know what they know but I feel embarrassed at the thought that they do know and probably laugh at my pitiful state. 

I keep running towards my secret hiding place, located past my building.

“Bree!” I stop abruptly and turn around at the familiar voice coming from the parking lot.

It’s dad and he’s carrying a package. 

“Hey… dad” I say in between breaths.

“Look what came in today!” he says as he hands the package to me.

“It’s already here!?” I forget about everything that has happened in the last hour.

I grab the box that has been express-shipped from the UK and rip the tape off impatiently. I grasp the flaps open and find two books with identical purple titles with illustrations of a strange birdlike creature being ridden by two characters, one with the familiar glasses I have come to know.

“Oh my gosh! It’s really here!” I exclaim, surprised.

“Yes, you’re lucky I have friends stationed over there that owe me big time,” dad boasts. “They waited in line forever just so you can have two copies. They say ‘happy belated’ to you and ‘happy birthday’ to Lilia”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I say as I hug him. “And thank your friends for me, this is the best birthday present ever!”

“The best, huh?” dad says with a raised eyebrow.

“Well my rollerblades are the best, and this is a close second!” I say laughing.

“Sure, okay,” dad says unconvinced. “Oh hey, there’s the guys, guess we’re all a little late for today’s lesson.”

I look in the direction those obnoxious guys are coming from. 

“Okay dad, see you later!”

“Okay hun! Don’t forget-”

I was already around the corner of the building heading to Maberly with my package tucked under my arm. I somehow manage to get up the tree with the pretty hefty package under tow.

I settle into my favorite spot in the tree and open up the box again. I examine one of the books more closely and read the title of the book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” I sigh.

Realization sits in that I have a second copy for Lilia’s birthday and I don’t even know if we are friends anymore. I feel sadness creep in as I begin to reflect on the events just hours earlier.

I can’t help but start to cry at my new reality. No matter what I did, I felt like I was trapped in this darkness I didn’t ask for without a friend, without any hope of getting away from the jeering and taunting. I stare at one word on the cover…

Prisoner. That’s what I feel like in this nightmare that is my life…. A prisoner for life.

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