To Dispose of Roses

Chapter 5

  I'm not an idiot, I knew the flower would wilt if I left it in the disgraceful mess that was my bedroom, so when I had the time, I took it outside and planted it against the red roses my mother had planted in the rosebed at the side of our house.   It stood out really badly, but really, I had nowhere else to put it. I wasn't going to throw it away. I wanted to keep it as a reminder to see from my bedroom window never to pick up strange girls from the restaurant again.

Aww that sounds kind of sentimental. 

Anyway, I met up with the guys the next day in an alleyway near the back of a nearby high school that we all used to attend. It brought back some pretty bad memories being near the place, but this used to be where we went to ditch class together where the teachers would have no chance of finding us since we weren't on school ground. I didn't say a word about my strange encounter with the girl we witnessed Daiki harass, but that was fine as there was many other things that they preferred to talk about.

Such as the news Zoe told us.

The news that her cousin and girlfriend of Daiki, Chantel, was going to be hosting an exchange student for the next six months from France. This girl was apparently related to them, which I could have guessed if I tried hard enough considering both Zoe and Chantel were French.  

"She's like the..." Zoe paused to light her cigarette. "Daughter of both our mother's high school friend back in France."

My friends had an occasional habit of smoking, but Zoe only ever pulled out a cigarette when she was feeling a lot of stress and no doubt having to put up with a stranger is one of those things that has set her off. Me? No, I never smoke. Never tried, never will. I don't have a death wish or anything believe it or not.

"Why would she be coming here of all places? There is nothing here that is interesting and it's not like we're really known for much..." Daiki complained as if the issue of the exchange student really deeply affected him. But I assume that it would to an extent, since she is supposed to be staying with his girlfriend.

Zoe sighed while she exhaled her cigarette. "I have to apparently share the responsibility of her as well. I don't get why, she would fit in much better with Chantel, but my mother wants us to...." She paused for a moment to express her disgust. "...get along."

Argh, now I understand the issue Daiki has with this exchange student. This girl, from what I heard of her from Zoe as the conversation furthered, was nothing like us and from what we could guess, she would object to everything about us. Most of all, one particular thing.

"Are you saying she's a human?!!" cried Daiki, throwing his cigarette to the ground and stomping on it. "That's ridiculous!"

To my surprise, Takumi was rather calm. "It's not like we're not used to humans. We went to school with a lot of them, and that was fine."

Of course Takumi was fine with humans. He did nothing to provoke them. His dark brown hair and eyes worked to his favour in that his appearance was more mysterious than dangerous, and didn't deter people away from him despite looking exactly like us. He was also typically slow to anger and generally forgiving, which were traits almost none of us possessed. His opinion had no weight to us.

Sighing, I turned to look at our man of few words Yuuji. "What do you think of this shit?"

Yuuji continued to smoke for a few moments before taking the time to reply. "As long as she isn't a pain."

"I guarantee she will be." Zoe stated, almost sounding like she intended to make sure of that to our expenses. But that would have been too much to handle, even for her, to keep that unwanted human girl happy.

"But why?!" Daiki cried once more out of frustration giving me headache-like symptoms. 

Zoe thought about it for a moment, as if trying to remember. "I'm not entirely sure so don't quote me on this, but I think something is going on with family issues so her mother wants her to spend time away from them or some shit..."

"That doesn't make her a student." I told her.

"She speaks French, she'll be trying to practice her English, god Hiroto you're such a pain." Zoe groaned, rolling her eyes at me.

I was certain I wasn't the only one who thought that was strange, sending your daughter to an old high school friend in another country that you hardly speak to anymore. I don't know, it just didn't make any sense.

I sat on the cold concrete ground in attempt to avoid the smoke from my friends. "I'm telling you now, there is absolutely no way she will last a day with us."

Finally disposing of her cigarette, Zoe sat down on the ground to accompany me. "Well if you're so interested Hiroto, we could drop down to the bar tomorrow to meet her." She said with a grin, knowing how painful it is for me to meet new people. It's not like I'm socially awkward, people just don't like me.

I laughed at her suggestion. "As if this sweet little girl is gonna wanna meet there! We'll definitely scare her away."

What I failed to realise, was that this was the ice queen was thinking. "Exactly. Just one look at us and what we like to do will be enough to keep her with Chantel for sure." 

Yuuji was the last to finish his cigarette before forcing Zoe and I up to move along from the alleyway to something more productive and said before laughing, "Shame that. I was looking forward to befriending her." 

I rolled my eyes and headed back to the main street. "Yeah as if any one of us want foreign girl around."

Hello Readers,

First 'To Dispose of Roses' update for the year. Sorry about the delay but I actually lost the story plan (last time I do it on paper I swear) but I found it finally after months so hopefully this can give me confidence in updating again. I promise the next one will be longer.

Miyako.