Tightrope

Chapter 11

Tuesday
Himeko's POV
Sunday has passed and so has Monday. It's Tuesday now.

On Sunday, I had called the school and told them what happened to Neon. They agreed to let Kira, Kori, and Yuki stay home on Monday, but they had to be in school on Tuesday.

Well, it's Tuesday like I said, so you can already guess that they're in school.

I don't know about Kori or Yuki, but Kira hasn't taken Neon's situation well at all. The poor girl looks like she can barely even function.

She hasn't been smiling, she won't tell me what's wrong, and I sometimes catch her staring at multiple pictures of her and Neon when the two of them were kids, or just pictures of them in general.

I've tried to get her to talk to me. I've tried to get her to tell me what's on her mind, but she'll say nothing's wrong and trudge off.

But as you can probably already tell, that's not true.

Well, with that said, I guess I should admit that I'm not taking this entire situation too well either.

I haven't exactly been telling Kira what's been on my mind.

Instead, I....

Well, I....

I just try to forget about the situation by drinking.

Now I'm not a heavy drinker. I do occasionally drink, but lately I've done more than have a little drink here and there.

Kira has said she's seen me when I'm drunk. According to her, I'm not an abusive drunk, which is good. She's said that I slur my words instead and that I can hardly stand. She's said she has to carry me to my bed.

Yes, my own daughter has to carry me to bed.....even though that's something parents would do to their children when they're younger.

If I tried to walk to my bed while drunk, I might just end up passing out on the floor, so it's good I have a very strong daughter.

It was currently noon time and I was in my office, but it was hard for me to concentrate on my work. Neon's Mother was my best friend, and so was her Father. What would they think? They made me Neon's Godmother. Did I let them down?

If I did, I'm sorry, you guys. I tried my best to be a good parental figure for her. I promise you that.

But with all the time I spend at my work place, I only have so little time to see them, and when I do, it's never early enough.

Well, maybe now I can fix that. I've made plans-approved plans-to get less hours in, and so far, it's working.

Unfortunately, I usually end up drinking some time after I get home now.

Speaking of which, I was currently cleaning up my office and getting ready to go home. I straightened up some papers on my desk and checked the time on my computer.

It read 5:10 PM. I normally go home around five O'clock, but today I was behind on my work.

"Time to go..." I muttered as I walked out of my office, locked my door behind me, and walked out of my work building.

On the way home, I started walking past the cemetery, but standing before the middle of the open gate, I turned my head towards the open gate.

I stared at the gate for at least a minute, wondering if I should walk in and pay Mei and Tachi a visit, and before I knew it, I had already began walking towards their graves. Wind began to blow through the cemetery as I looked at their graves, gray and beginning to finally look slightly cracked with age.