Living With Loss by Pendragon
True Friendship
Written for Skye's Weekly Challenge as well as her "Seven Deadly Sins" Challenge.
Prompts: "Power" & "Envy"
True Friendship
"Envy is destoyed by true friendship..."
François de la Rochefoucauld
“And you miss?” The waiter seemed to loom over her, smiling hugely.
“Huh?” Sango looked over the table at Kagome, silently chastising her for zoning out once again. “What?”
“Your beverage?” His smile showed his teeth now.
“Oh, just water.”
The waiter’s smile faltered at bit as he wrote her order on his pad just below her friends’ two strawberry daiquiris. “Okay then, I’ll be back with those in just a second.” He was smiling just at her again.
“He’s been ogling you since we walked in the door,” Rin laughed at he went away. “Why don’t you talk to him?”
Kagome looked over at her with distaste, “No way.”
“Why not?”
“Rin,” Sango intervened. “Drop it.”
Rin looked over at her, her childish face etched with confusion. “Is this about dad?”
“Drop it, Rin.” Sango warned, looking over at Kagome who seemed to be staring at something far in the distance.
“Is it, or what?”
“I said, drop it!” Sango whispered back harshly. “This really isn’t the time.”
“Sango,” Kagome breathed, making both other girls look at her. “It’s okay.”
Rin smiled, “See?” She motioned to Kagome with her hand, “Kagome’s fine.” Now she turned to Kagome, her arm sill slightly extended. “Hey, didn’t you have a date just last week?”
Kagome nodded slowly. “Hojo,” was all she said.
“Aw, that’s sweet,” said Rin.
“Is it?” Kagome said blandly, looking inbetween her friends at the joined tables behind them. A large gathering of people had just arrived, what she believed to be some kind of family gathering.
A young woman stood next to a tall man in a suit. He was holding her hand and talking to an elderly man that was taking his seat on the opposite side of the table. In the other hand, the woman had a small boy, looking about two-years old. At her feet stood a little girl, holding onto her mother’s clothes with one hand and sucking the thumb of the other.
The woman put the boy into a highchair that had been brought up by a waitress. Once the boy was seated she turned to her daughter. Stepping away from her husband, she pulled out a chair for the little girl next to her brother. Once she was seated, her mother kissed her lightly atop her head. You could just faintly make out the small bulge on the woman’s stomach that betrayed to her third child, slightly hidden under the frilly blue blouse.
She doesn’t know what she’s got, Kagome thought as she watched the woman take her seat, putting a quick kiss on her husband’s cheek. And I envy her for it...
“Miss,” she heard a familiar voice say. “Miss?” She looked up at her waiter and put on a weak facade of a smile. “Here’s your drink, miss. Are you ready to order?”
Kagome looked down at the prim black menu she hadn’t bothered to order. She opened it and picked something at random, and by time she had rattled it off to the waiter and he had taken her menu, she’d forgotten what she’d ordered.
“Kagome, you okay,” asked Rin. “You’ve seemed kind of out of it tonight.”
“Just tired.”
“So, Rin,” Sango piped in, “how’s college going so far?”
Immediately distracted, Rin answered, “Great, there’s a new exchange student, he’s Irish,” she said the word with a breathy whisper.
“Oh, is he cute?” Sango asked.
Rin smiled back at her, “And single.”
Sango laughed and took a sip of her drink. “Anything else going on?”
Rin thought for a moment, then answered, “Well, the orphanage is having some stupid kind of reunion.”
“Are you going to go?” Kagome asked, surprising the other two with the fact that she’s actually been listening.
“Um, I don’t think so,” replied Rin, popping the little strawberry from her glass edge into her mouth.
“Why not?”
“The letter they sent said to bring your adopted parents as well.” She paused for a second. “I can’t do that. And since I was adopted before dad met you, I figured you wouldn’t really want to go.”
Kagome stood up. “I need to go to the restroom.” With that, she left, walking stiffly toward the rear of the restaurant.
“Crap, what did I say?”
“It’s not you. Lets just give her a minute.” Sango replied, twirling her glass.
←←←←←←☼→→→→→→
Kagome went immediately to the stalls when she entered the restroom, locking the stall door behind her. She took a seat on the remarkably clean covered toilet seat, putting her head in her hands. Sango’s right, this really isn’t good for me. But I can’t forget...She couldn’t even bring herself to think his name because she knew if she did, she wouldn’t stop crying and a bathroom stall was not the place to lose herself. I need help, I don’t have the power to do this alone. I can’t move on if I keep trying to go this alone...
Braving the outside, Kagome stepped from the stall and headed to the large mirror that covered most of the opposite wall. Looking at it, she took in herself, the bags under her eyes, the untamed mess that was her hair, the halfheartedly applied mascara and liner. Rin’s wrong, there’s no way that waiter saw something in me. She heard a door open to her left.
“You doing okay?” Sango asked, hopping up onto the white marble counter.
Kagome gave her a weary smile. “Yeah, but how about instead of heading to the theatre we go to your place instead? I’m just not up for it tonight.”
“That’s fine, got a few new DVD’s I’ve been itching to watch.” Sango put her hand on Kagome’s. “You know you can talk to me anytime, right?”
Kagome gave a truly genuine smile then. “Yeah, I know.”
Sango smiled and edged down off the counter. “Okay, well food’s on the table.”
“Great, I’m actually kind of hungry.”
Sango looked at Kagome out of the corner of her eye as she opened the restroom door. “Tell yourself that when you see your food. What in the world did you order?”
“I honestly have no clue,” she answered.
“Eh, I’m not starving. I’ll share.”
“Nah, it’s okay, I’m up for trying something new.”
Sango laughed. “I’ll remind you of that when we’re getting your stomach pumped.”
Kagome looked at her, melodramatically cautious. “Well, I’m not dying of hunger right now.”
“There’s plenty in the pantry at my place.”
“You’re a lifesaver, you know that?” Kagome took her seat when they arrived back at the table.
“Um, are you going to eat that, Kagome?” Rin asked, motioning to the plate set in front of her.
Kagome looked down at it and thought about how it looked remarkably like raw octopus, suction cups and all. “Probably not.”
“Good, because I think I saw it move.”
Kagome nodded slowly, sliding the plate far away from herself. “Exactly what do you have back at home, Sango?”
“Popcorn, peanut butter, some crackers and bread, Little Debbie snacks, you know, the works.” She had a raised finger as if she was marking off a list.
“Fantastic,” Kagome answered, poking at the food with a fork.
“Lots of chocolate.”
“It moved!” Kagome shrieked, tossing her fork into the air. It landed across the room in one waitress’ rather large head of hair. She didn’t seem to notice. The girls busted out laughing. “I should go tell her.”
“Or we could take pictures,” Sango optioned, pulling out her camera phone.
Rin laughed. “I like her idea better,” she said to Kagome, pulling out her own phone.
“You two are terrible.” Kagome said, taking a big sip of her water.
“Yeah, but we’re tons of fun.”
“Fair enough.”
“I’ll text you the pics.” Rin obliged, her words accompanied by her phone's camera shutter sounds.