<a class="postlink" href="http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/1dc77cf94c9cb7dd72e1475a78884fb01317043635_full.png">[ img ]</a><br/>Mai<br/><br/><br/>Three bags down, one to go.<br/>Mai hitched up the well chewed sleeves of her hoodie. All but ready to haul the sole surviving heap of luggage down the umpteen flights of apartment stairs to the boot of her father’s car, waiting like a taxi out front, only with half the patience, when an … an ‘odd’ thought struck her…<br/><br/>This hoodie had once belonged to someone else. A very old friend from her childhood.<br/><br/>She froze for a moment in time, dark eyes still stuck on the way the worn material hung from her tiny arms, eyebrows almost kissing in the middle in an intense frown. Although his smell had long since faded from it and if they did meet it probably wouldn’t fit him any more, she could still see him wearing it. The mental image was crisp, clear as daylight in her head. Wasn’t it bizarre how a kids memory could cling onto things like that!<br/>Stranger still how it picked now to regurgitate that particular picture… what with her moving to the town that he’d left for…<br/>What if she saw him again? Mai’s stomach tried to strangle itself at the thought. Her throat went dryer than death valley on a hot day, she crossed her arms over herself gingerly, suddenly feeling all too aware of the guilt she’d associated him with.<br/><br/>Art had been… well, he’d been her best friend! They did everything together, climbed trees, chased about town, giggled, ate Halloween candy and at the end of every hard day they’d sneak over to one another’s house and clambered in bed together like too squirrels in a tree. At the time she hadn’t really given it a moments thought, when he left she’d sulked, feeling betrayed and brushed him off dirt from a boot style. In that moment she’d never hated anyone more or felt so intensely hurt, somehow it had been HIS fault the gruesome twosome was crumbling apart and in her pain she’d decided to make him suffer.<br/><br/>Calling him or writing after would have damaged her ego too much.<br/><br/>But then she’d thought about it…<br/><br/>Art HAD to move, it wasn’t like he had a choice… and after everything he’d gone through he DESERVED to chase his dreams. Really!<br/><br/>And she’d STARTED trying to call him, she really had! Even got half way through punching the number in the dial before guilt crippled her and she slammed the receiver down so hard that the desk wobbled…<br/><br/>The more time passed the worse the guilt grew, then she started to hesitate even more wondering if he’d changed number. How stupid she’d feel calling a complete stranger and then crying her eyes out to them! Eventually she shunted Art to the back of her mind, locked all association with him away in some dusty corner of her mind and got on with life…. And there he’d stayed…<br/>Until now…<br/>Until the dreaded hoodie brought it all back…<br/><br/>Right on cue a loud beep from outside let her know dad was getting ratty. She jumped so hard she visibly flinched, then fumbled with her bags and shuffled awkwardly in reverse out the door, dragging them in front of her guiltily like a corpse in a gangster movie. So much for fresh starts!<br/><br/>It was an easy, quick drive. Both father and daughter too anxious to speak and this social etiquette followed suite right into the unpacking, the take-out dinner (on account of the oven being lost in the massive Tetris puzzle of cardboard boxes) and all the way up until bed, where her father finally admitted the place seemed empty, Mai agreed and both went their separate ways feeling distinctly unsatisfied with their new surroundings.<br/>She would have loved a bit more, but he came from an older district of Japan before they upped sticks to the U.S. Over the years she’d picked up that emotional conversation wasn’t really the done thing over there and you couldn’t teach this old dog many new tricks. She’d pulled the covers up to her chin, staring down a lonely and uncomfortable crack in the ceiling until eventually sleep took her.<br/><br/>Her first day at the new college hadn’t been too bad. Or at least so far!<br/>The sports coach seemed bossy, but fair, five minutes into the lesson she’d been pulled aside, handed a hair tie and earned a five minute lecture entitled ‘the dangers of anyone snagging hair as long as your backside’, but the rest of the lesson had been fun, if not mildly humiliating.<br/>Still in her shorts, Mai scuttled off to find a grassy bank or somewhere to eat. The lunch hall was an intimidating prospect; no doubt full of little cliquey crowds… there was no way in hell she’d feel comfortable just slotting in among them, sometimes she could be unbearably shy…<br/><br/>She sighed, exhausted already and re-adjusted her back on her shoulder, staring at the ground, terrified of accidental eye contact with any students, trying to look like she was walking with purpose, but in reality Mai was hopelessly lost.