Beautiful Blood

Grey

‘’Go, go. Get it.’’

‘’Pass it, pass it to me. Yes.’’

‘’You better not miss this time.’’

‘’Go go...’’

An outburst of cheering. I watched the four boys play football with my elbows leaned against my knees, hands supporting my head. Meiko, a girl I considered to be my best friend, was sitting next to me, in a more comfortable position, stretching her legs and looking at the sky. If I remembered correctly (I looked at the sky about half an hour before this moment) the sky was not cloudy; a few light grey clouds were dispersed on the middle of it and on the horizon; the rest was pale blue, a reminiscence of the silently departed summer. Autumn was knocking on our doors, which we could clearly feel by the morning and evening colds that crept all the way into your skin, lingering there enough for you to shiver as if you were being electrified. We sat on the ground of the open-air basketball playground in the suburbs of Tokyo.

‘’We should do our nails.’’ Meiko said, breaking the silence around us.

‘’Why?’’ I asked.

‘’Hm...’’ She thought about it, tapping her lower lip with the index finger like a child ‘’Oh! Aiko’s party!’’

‘’What’s the point? We’re not going anyways.’’

‘’What? We could go. We went last year and it was still fun.’’ She commented.

Aiko threw parties every year and last year, we were ‘lucky’ enough to be invited. Meiko and I spent the whole time together, eating and drinking some punch whilst others were having fun in many different ways.

I shrugged.

‘’Come on. It could be fun... Though it would have been more fun if someone actually invited us.’’ she mumbled ‘’Why doesn’t anyone ever invite me....’’

It was a real question of the decade. I glanced at Meiko, for the first time after I began watching the boys’ game (not so carefully, may I add. I had no idea what was the score and who played in which team). She was a pretty girl: long black hair, small nose, slightly pursed pale pink lips, large hazel eyes, a cute smile... Maybe she did not fit the standard for beauty of today’s society. But then again, the abovementioned standard is so distorted that it would be an offence for a girl like her to be said to fit there. She was pretty in her own unique way. It was a real shame the boys in our high school failed to notice that.

‘’People are stupid.’’ I said. And I really meant it; I did not say it just to make her feel better.

I looked back at the game, after seeing a faint smile forming on her lips.

‘’May be so. But then again, you are far prettier than me and no one invites you either. It’s probably because you’re my best friend.’’ She laughed shortly but I could see in her tone she felt sorry.

Why was she sorry? There was no need for that. I was not in need of any boy from school to invite me on any kind of party whatsoever.

I shrugged again ‘’You know I care little for such things.’’

‘’Yes, but still!’’  She tried to protest but said nothing more.

I got up. If I wanted to get back home in time for dinner, I had to leave now. No words were needed; she knew why I made such movement.

I waved to her saying bye and started walking away from her, thinking if I would get to the bus station on time when she called for my name again.

‘’MyAnna? ‘’