Bright Burning

Boom Boom

I could barely see the house we came up to, the rain was pouring and we could hardly see two feet in front of ourselves, luckily Akira knew exactly where to go. She held my hand through all the rocks and turns until there was wood underneath my wet shoes. We went up a few wooden steps and caught our breathes as the overhang of the old wooden house shaded us from the storm. I watched the way the water hit the road with such force and wondered how we were even running in that.

"Follow me." Akira whispered opening her screen door slowly, there was a creek but she seemed to have it down as she held it open for me to enter. We took off our shoes at the genkan and she put her finger to her lips to remind me off how delicate we needed to be.

She then took my hand and led me to the back, even though I didn't have slippers, to the place I guessed to be her room. She closed her bedroom door softly and smiled at me. "Very cold." Her back leaned on the locked door as she watched me, waiting for me to react.

I let my tongue rest on the roof of my mouth as I looked her body up and down before moving my attention to her room, it had no personality on the outside, I imagined most of who she was was hidden away behind the doors that stretched across the whole room. I didn't think it was right of me to go through her personal items so I moved to the window and peeked out to see the rain was nowhere close to subsiding.

Turning to see the girl undoing her sleeping mat and rolling it onto the floor I tried to think of what to say. "You live here with just your grandfather?"

She nodded. "My mother is in Tokyo."

I didn't press any further but I suddenly became guilty as she undid a blanket and laid it on top. Subconsciously I put my hand on my back knowing It would ache in the morning and wondered why I was there in my students bedroom in the first place. I knew I needed to leave but the rain came down harder and I had no way of getting home. I held my cold forehead and closed my eyes trying to think of the right thing to do. I was afraid I dug myself to deep and there was no way to get out of it without looking like a jerk.

I was being a jerk though, I was supposed to be teaching her and guiding her through her last year of high school. Helping her succeed and not medaling in her affairs because she batted her pretty eyelashes. Sadly I was always one to fall to fast and hard, even if it felt good to me I needed to consider the other party. A young girl that had been writing me flirtatious quotes in a book was putting two pillows down side by side like she had done it for me a million times before. She hadn't though and our kisses were nothing compared to what could happen if we were to sleep too close.

"This is my fish."

Shaking out of my thoughts I found her in the corner of her room dropping some flakes into the water. I hadn't even noticed the rectangular aquarium at first look, but as she smiled from the other side I couldn't help but bend down to smile back at her. Her eyes watched the fish swim around to eat and I watched her.

Akira's face widened as the water distorted her face, the glowing of the bright white light showing off how dark her hair was compared to the white sand at the bottom. "Ojisan always says he will eat my fish so I named him Sushi."

I bit my lip to stop a loud laugh from coming out. "That's very clever." Her brown eyes finally left the bright colored fish to look at me. Bubbles went between us from Sushi's fast swimming. "What are you thinking Akira?"

She blinked a few times before standing up. "Nothing." She went over to a drawer and pulled out a fan, I hadn't noticed her take the book that had been passed between us before then but I watched as she sat down on the hardwood floor and examined the pages, some clearly being wet as she used her fan to dry what she could.