Lyre (8 page)

‘Er…’

‘I hate you, Yuri Tateno!’ Cam’s voice called up from downstairs.  ‘I’m leaving now before I scratch your eyes out in jealousy!’

Yuri looked blankly at her housemate.  ‘What?’

Sibyl shrugged uncomfortably.  ‘You should come and see.’

Puzzled, she followed her out.  Standing in their small doorway was a dark suited man, holding a brimmed cap under one arm.  When he caught sight of Yuri, he gave her a tiny bow.

‘Oz sends his apologies, but he needs to get ready for the show,’ the man said.  ‘However, I will drive you to Nemesis so you can get there safely on time.’

Sibyl and Yuri exchanged looks.  ‘How did you know where I lived?’ Yuri asked suspiciously.

The chauffeur was confused.  ‘I was given this address by Oz.’

Irritation uncoiled inside her.  ‘Fine.  But how did he know where I lived?’

‘Miss, I’m sorry, I’m just doing what I’m told.’

Sibyl nudged her.  ‘He’s cute,’ she whispered in an undertone.  ‘You should get his number.’

Yuri scowled at her.  Her friend just grinned back innocently.

‘I’ll be two minutes,’ she told him, before running back upstairs to check her appearance and pick up her bag.

‘He probably just asked
Yell,’
Sibyl murmured, coming up behind her.  ‘Or got his people to ask
Yell
and arrange it.’

‘Sure,’ Yuri murmured, unconvincingly.  ‘That makes more sense than him knowing where I live all along.’

‘Because that would be weird and stalker-ish.’

‘And he doesn’t even remember who I am.’

They stared at each other for a moment or two, then burst out laughing.  ‘He’s trying to intimidate me,’ Yuri said.  ‘Because I wouldn’t kowtow like the rest of his vast entourage.  Suddenly I’m a challenge.  What he doesn’t remember is that I’ve been there and done that.  I don’t need to go there again.’

Sibyl patted her on the shoulder.  ‘Definitely not,’ she agreed.  She smiled at her.  ‘Just in case, I won’t wait up though.’

‘As if,’ Yuri scoffed, then wandered out. 

Sibyl watched her go, waiting until the front door closed behind her before she pulled out her mobile phone and jabbed in a number.  It rang a couple of times, then a familiar voice answered.

‘Hi Medusa,’ Sibyl said.  ‘I think we might have a problem.’

The next Monday at school, Yuri traversed the dingy corridors on her way to Maths with her head down and her books clutched firmly to her chest.  In her time at various different educational  institutions around the country, she’d discovered that if she didn’t look anyone in the eye, and didn’t encourage any kind of social interaction, then she was generally left alone.  Naturally, there were those around her who still hissed insults, usually of the ‘look, there goes the slitty eyed weirdo’ type, but she found she was able to shrug those off with ease.  She imagined a bubble surrounding her, one that sealed her off from the rest of the world and kept her safe.  Most of the time it worked.

‘Hey!’ Ozzy bounced up behind her and slung an easy arm round her shoulder.  ‘My saviour!  How’s life in the land of superheroes?’

Yuri extricated herself from his grasp.  ‘Go away,’ she muttered.

‘Hmm,’ he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, stepping in front of her so she couldn’t simply just continue on her way.  ‘I would do that, except…’

‘Except what?’ she snapped.

‘Except now that you’ve saved my life, you’re responsible for me.  I’m just making your life easier by staying in your vicinity.’

She gave him a baleful glance.  ‘Then maybe I shouldn’t have bothered.’

‘Aw, now, don’t say that.  If you’d not done what you did, then I wouldn’t be able to stand here now and invite you to the party this weekend.’

‘I don’t want to go to a party,’ she told him firmly, sidestepping to her left and almost getting bowled over by a Year 7 kid with a deathwish in the process.

Ozzy reached out a hand to steady her.  ‘It’s not just any party.’  His eyes glinted and he leaned in.  ‘It’s THE party,’ he whispered in her ear.

‘Is that supposed to make a difference?’

He grinned.  ‘It makes all the difference.’

The bell rang, signalling the depressing start to yet another round of mind-numbing lessons.  Yuri tightened her grip on her books.  ‘I have to go.’

‘You’ve got Jones, don’t you?’

‘So?’

‘So I passed him about two minutes ago bawling out some girls for caking on too much make-up.  He’ll march them to the office so they can wipe it off.  You’ve got plenty of time before he’s in his room and starting to impart the joy of algebraic equations to you.’

‘All the same,’ she said, ‘I don’t want to be late.’

‘He’ll never know.’

‘I will.’ She pushed past him.

‘Why does it matter?’ he called after her, sounding baffled.

Yuri sighed and half turned.  ‘If a tree falls down in a forest but no-one is around to hear it, then does it still make a noise?’

He blinked.  ‘Deep.’

She smirked, and kept going.  She was almost at the end of the corridor when the urge to glance back behind her was overwhelming.  Before she could think about it, she flicked one quick look over her shoulder.  Ozzy was still standing there, watching her.  When he saw that she was looking, he blew her a kiss.  Yuri quickly turned away again.  She scowled to herself.  That had been stupid.

He caught up with her again at break.  Even though she left Mr. Jones’ room faster than anyone else, he was already outside the door and leaning nonchalantly against the wall.  As soon as he caught sight of her, he straightened up and gave her a disarming smile.

‘I’ve been thinking about your problem,’ he said.

She rolled her eyes.  ‘I don’t have a problem.’

‘I mean the tree thing.’  He ran a hand through his hair and Yuri was abruptly assailed by his scent, a deep green muskiness that was all male.  ‘The thing is, that if no-one is in the forest to see the tree fall, then you can’t be sure that it has.  It’s in a state of being neither up nor down.  A bit like the Grand Old Duke of York’s men.’

‘Huh?’

‘The nursery rhyme.  The Grand Ol’ Duke of York,’ he suddenly sang, ‘he had ten thousand men…’

‘Hi Ozzy,’ giggled out a couple of passing girls from Yuri’s Maths class.

He gave both of them a flashing grin and a wave.  They looked delighted.

‘You’ve got half the school falling at your feet,’ Yuri said to him, exasperated.  ‘Why do you have to bother me?’

‘Because I like you.  Let me walk you to Art.’

‘How in the hell do you know what lessons I have?’

He waggled his eyebrows at her.  ‘It’s this season’s must-have accessory.’

‘What?’

His cheek dimpled.  ‘A stalker.  So will you come?’

‘To Art?  I have to go.  It doesn’t mean you do though.’

He laughed.  ‘No, to the party.’

Yuri scowled.  ‘No.’

‘I’m going to keep asking until you say yes.’

‘You’ll be asking for a long time then.’ 

She stepped round him, doing whatever she could to avoid touching him in any way, and then continued along her path.  Yuri couldn’t think what she’d done to merit such close attention.  She could only presume he felt some kind of obligation towards her because she dived into the sea after him. She reckoned if she continued to make life difficult enough for him, he’d give up sooner or later.  When she told Medusa about it later, however, the woman just laughed.

‘I keep forgetting how young you really are.’

‘What?’ Yuri asked, stung.

‘By playing hard to get, you’re just making yourself more desirable.’

‘I’m not playing hard to get,’ she protested.  ‘I’m not playing anything.  I just want him to leave me alone.’

‘Is there a reason?’  Medusa’s voice was openly curious.  Several of the snakes in the hissing halo around her skull raised themselves up in curving question marks as if to mimic her thoughts.  ‘He’s a good looking lad.  He seems nice enough.  You could do worse, you know.’

Yuri sighed.  She’d thought that Medusa, who seemed just as alone in the world as she did, would understand.  The only way to protect herself and her fragile emotions was to avoid getting too close again to anyone.  It turned out, however, that the snake woman wasn’t the only person who thought she was acting strangely.

‘So,’ Brittani said, as they were setting up a row of test-tubes for an experiment the following day, ‘Ozzy seems to rather like you.’  There was just the slightest note of bitterness in the other girl’s voice.

Yuri shrugged.  ‘I didn’t ask him to.  I just wish he’d leave me alone.’

Brittani stared at her as if she was nuts.  ‘Why?’

Unable to think of an answer that would make any sense to someone whose biggest concern appeared to be her chipped nail polish, Yuri muttered something under her breath and turned away to busy herself with measuring out the different coloured chemicals.  All this energy she was expending in keeping away from Ozzy was starting to seem ridiculous even to her.  Maybe things would be better if she caved in and became a little bit friendlier.  However, the next time she saw him – in the cafeteria when she was waiting in line to pick up a snack – he was sprawled against one of the tables with a petite blonde girl draped all over him.  Yuri couldn’t be sure because of the angle she was viewing him from, but it appeared as if the girl was actually licking his neck.  She let out a delicate shudder and turned away.  Apparently he didn’t like her as much as everyone seemed to think after all.  She told herself she was relieved, but she couldn’t quite prevent herself from feeling just a tiny bit hurt.

Unable to face the boisterous bus crowd on the way home, Yuri decided to forego clambering on board with the others and walk instead.  It’d take her at least an hour and a half to meander her way back to their little terraced house, but at least it meant that by the time she returned her mother would have already left to meet her latest cronies in the local club and she’d be able to avoid any stilted chats about how her day had gone.  She waited patiently until the bus pulled out of the bay and then crossed the road.  It chugged away down the street then abruptly halted.  Curious, Yuri turned to see what the problem was.  The great rusting doors huffed open as with a vast sigh at the effort and Ozzy jumped off in one elegant sweep.  Yuri’s nose wrinkled.  Idiot.  She shouldered her bag and continued walking.

‘Hey!’

She pretended not to hear.

‘Sailor Moon!  Wait up!’ He jogged up to her side.  ‘What gives?  Why weren’t you on the bus?’

‘My name is Yuri,’ she said through gritted teeth, speeding up to make it clear that she wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in talking to him.

‘Yeah, but you know.  Sailor Moon are Japanese, you’re Japanese.  They’re sailors and you have command over the waves…’

Yuri felt something hot and tight rise up in her chest.  ‘Please,’ she said.  ‘Don’t call me that.’

He shot her a curious glance, apparently registering that she was serious.  Then he grinned.  ‘Sure.  How about ‘babe’ instead?’

She flicked him a withering look without slowing her step in the slightest.

  ‘It didn’t work, did it?’ Ozzy said, with somewhat of a mournful note.

Yuri reached the pavement and hopped up, narrowly avoiding tripping over an uneven slab of cement.  Ozzy kept pace with her.  Eventually she sighed.

‘Fine, I give in.  What didn’t work?’

He brightened considerably.  ‘My plan.  To make you jealous.’

‘You mean the girl in the cafeteria.’

‘You did notice!’ he crowed.

She rolled her eyes.  ‘It was impossible not to.  You have yourself quite a little entourage.’ She sniffed.  ‘And she appeared to be eating you.’

He laughed and rubbed his neck self-consciously.  ‘Yeah, that was a bit weird.’

Yuri stopped and turned to face him.  ‘Aren’t you concerned that she’ll think you’ve been leading her on?’ she asked curiously.

‘Nah.  I told her what was what.’

She stared into his green eyes.  ‘And what’s that?’

He stopped smiling, his dimples vanishing.  A mixture of earnestness and sobriety came into his eyes and he balled up his fists as if in nervous anticipation.  ‘That someone else seems to have captured my heart.’

Yuri’s mouth went dry.  The line was beyond cheesy, but something about the seriousness of his expression added weight to his throwaway Hallmark blitheness.  She started walking again.

‘You should get that seen to,’ she muttered.  ‘Hearts can be fragile things.’

‘Tell me about it.’

They paused at the edge of the road while the lights turned red.  On the other side, a young mother appeared to be battling with a recalcitrant pram that had wheels which seemed akin to those of the worst shopping trolleys.  As she attempted to straighten it up, the handle of her crumpled plastic shopping bag broke and tins and fruit scattered in all directions.  Ignoring the traffic, Ozzy dashed across, weaving in and out of the path of several cars whose horns blared at him in angry dismay.  He ran after a rolling apple while Yuri watched.  He’d just about reached it when, bowling across the pavement out of nowhere, a small dog of indeterminate breeding appeared and scooped up the fruit in its jaws before sprinting off as fast as its legs would carry it.  The look on Ozzy’s face was so comical that she started to laugh then, when the lights changed, she jogged over after him and helped pick up the rest of the fallen groceries.

‘Thank you,’ the woman said gratefully.

Ozzy swept out a bow and took Yuri’s arm, tucking it under his.  Unwilling to make a spectacle of herself in front of a stranger, she let him, and they continued along the pavement.  As soon as they were out of earshot, she half turned in his direction.

‘That was nice of you.  You didn’t have to help her.’

He stared at her, baffled.  ‘What else would I have done?’

Her eyes scanned his face. He seemed completely genuine.  Gazing into his guileless green eyes, Yuri suddenly realised she was tired of acting like the loneliest girl on the planet. ‘Fine,’ she said, relenting.  ‘I’ll come to your party.’

His mouth broke out into a massive beam.  ‘Great!’

‘It’s under duress though,’ she added, unable to quite stop herself.

‘I don’t need to get under your dress straight away,’ he grinned.  ‘We can leave that to the second date.’

Yuri hissed out an exasperated breath through her teeth.  Before she could stop him, he leaned in towards her and gave her a brief peck on the cheek.  She drew back, surprised.

‘What in the hell did you do that for?’

He shrugged.  ‘I just couldn’t help myself.  You’re too damned cute for your own good.  Even when you’re being all scowly.’

‘That’s not even a word.’  She pulled her arm away from him.  Then, when he wasn’t looking, she permitted herself just the tiniest little smile.

*

It was early evening when the doorbell rang.  Imagining it was for her mother, who wasn’t even in, Yuri ignored it and curled up further on her bed, battered anime book in hand.  The ringing, however, became more insistent.  Irritated into answering, she pulled herself to her feet and thumped down the stairs.  The stupid friends that her mum had made with seemingly no effort whatsoever should have known better than to come round at this hour on a Friday evening.  When Yuri flung the door open, there was no mistaking the expression on her face.