"Ow!"

 

When Toshi woke up, he reached up to feel his forehead. Because he was still clutching the broken roof handle, he smacked himself quite soundly in the forehead. He had been lying on a tarp with his head on a rolled up jacket. Examining both offered no clues as to what was going on. He squinted as he looked around, discovering he was in the back of a delivery van. The grooved metal floor was worn and scuffed as if it had been used to deliver cargo for months, if not years. He pressed a finger into a depression and pulled out a pine needle. Rolling it between his fingers, he figured that it was a completely useless clue and flicked it away.

 

By the vibrations through the floor of the van, Toshi determined the van was going somewhere at a fairly decent clip. He laid there for a while and didn't feel any sharp turns. The motion felt smooth as if they were on a highway. He sat up and looked to the front. Someone was driving the van. From what little profile he could see, there was a hint of familiarity, but it was too difficult to tell who it was at this distance. He crawled closer as quietly as possible, just in case this situation was far worse than he thought it was. As he got closer, he could hear the driver muttering to herself, "It's going to be okay. It'll all be okay. It'll all be okay. It's going to be okay. Please let this be okay. Please God. I need this to be-" She held onto the steering wheel with the whitest of knuckles.

 

It was Meiko.

 

"What the...?" Toshi found himself muttering while he stared at her from just behind her left shoulder. She looked over her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her skin, causing the van to swerve. She refocused on the road and managed to straightened out, avoiding colliding with a car that was passing them. She was a bundle of nerves, worn and frayed to her limit. Whatever happened while Toshi was out, Mieko somehow got involved, and she was a nervous wreck.

 

"You're awake! Oh thank God." Her tone and response seemed to indicate she was happy he was awake, but her body language didn't relax for a second. She bit her lower lip and kept muttering to herself, "So Toshi is awake." She nodded to herself, "Yes. Awake. Indeed. No longer asleep." She kept nodding, "Conscious, even. He is awake and that is good."

 

Toshi stared at her. His heart started to sink as it became increasingly clear something was very, very wrong, "Meiko... how did you get- No. How did WE get here? And where is HERE?"

 

Mieko burst out laughing and kept laughing in a high pitched nervous fashion that was the sort of laughter of those who are doomed or insane. It slowly trailed off as beads of sweat started to form on her brow. Her hand shot out to turn up the air conditioner, "What am we doing here? Oh, Toshi! What indeed! What... in... DEED." She somehow managed to grip the wheel tighter causing her arms to tremble, or maybe she was so upset her whole body was shaking. It was hard to tell.

 

He cleared his throat and tried to sound calm, "Would it be safe to pull over somewhere? You know, stop the van?" She looked up at the rearview mirror, then nodded in the same way one might when they had to confess to a parent they had really done something wrong.

 

She took the next exit and turned off the road into a gas station parking lot. It was late, the sun had already set and the gibbous moon had risen over the horizon. The van pulled into the back of the parking lot. They were right up against the tree line in the most isolated spot in the lot. Soft moonlight shined through the trees and was the only illumination on her face after she put the van in park and turned off the engine.

 

Toshi leaned forward between the two front seats to look at her from the side, "Can you tell me what happened?"

 

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She just squeaked. She clasped her hands together, took a deep breath, "Well... That's..." She abruptly bowed her head forward, "Oh God, please help me. I don't know what to do. What's the right answer? I don't know. Please." She slowly rocked as she was bent forward, muttering prayers into her folded hands.

 

Toshi watched Mieko heading towards some sort of complete mental breakdown. It was like her mind had been pushed to some sort of breaking point. It was like she was stuck in a logic loop she couldn't get out of. Toshi reached out to touch her shoulder. She jumped and looked back abruptly on the verge of tears. Toshi just smiled calmly, which was the exact opposite of how he actual felt.

"It'll be okay."

He squeezed slightly, "No matter what happens. No matter what happened. We'll work it out." he gestured to her and himself and back again several times with his other hand, "I'm alive. You're alive. My-" He glanced over his shoulder to see that nobody else was in the van. He frowned, "It... seems we're alone." He turned back to her and resumed delivering his very best phony grin of steel, "So, I'm thinking we just relax and-"

"I'm supposed to lie to you."

"What?"

 

Mieko swallowed, "My mother called me to go meet her. She told me I had to drive her car out to her. I took the keys and drove out to where she told me to. I pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere to wait." She paused to take a deep breath and closed her eyes before continuing.

 

"They came driving down a backroad in this van. They gestured for me to come over. I handed the car keys to her and two of my sisters. They gave me the keys to this van and told me a story I was supposed to tell you." She squeezed her eyes tighter seemingly ashamed to meet his gaze, "She told me to lie to you. To trick you into thinking I saved you. She said this was an opportunity to-." Meiko froze up, unable to continue.

 

Toshi slowly removed his hand from her shoulder, "Your... mother?"

 

Mieko nodded her head very energetically, "She ordered me to lie. I either have to disobey my mother... or I have lie to you. No matter what I do I'm doing something wrong. I don't understand why she is so obsessed with you." She opened her eyes, "She's been so nice to me. She's been so kind these past few days. She's finally been telling me that she's proud of me and now I-" She turned away to stare out the front of the van.

 

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, "Shouldn't I choose my family over you?" She asked in a hollow sounding voice, as if she really didn't expect an answer.

 

Toshi's eyes started to dart from side to side as things started to click into place, "Wait... I-" He froze and squinted at the floor of the van, "Hold it. Yesterday. When you had that bad reaction to the medication... I never asked... What medication did you take?"

Mieko blinked, "Uh..." She blushed a little, "Birth... control pills."

Toshi slowly looked up, "Who gave them to you?"

She sounded puzzled by the question, "Uh... My mother."

 

Toshi stared at her for a good ten seconds before he abruptly turned around, rushed to the back of the van and burst out of the back. Mieko called after him, but he had already jumped out and was running off through the tree line into the dark underbrush beyond. Mieko immediately got out and started chasing after him.

 

Toshi wasn't thinking at this point, he was in complete blind panic. Running blindly through the dark, Toshi careened through the woods, bouncing off trees and stumbling through shrubbery. A light was swaying back and forth in pursuit of him, which only served to make him panic more. When he glanced back to see how close his pursuer was, he tripped over a root, and tumbled down a short incline into a dried out riverbed.

 

He shook his head to try and clear it as he began to pick himself up. His foot was caught on something as he struggled to stand. As he reached down to free it, A bright light illuminated him and he threw up his arm to shield his eyes, "GET AWAY FROM ME!" He held out the roof handle as if he could ward her off with it.

 

An outline of Mieko could be seen behind the light. Her face was twisted in anguish as she saw how utterly terrified he was, "Toshi! Please! I-I-I know I screwed up!" She held out her hands and crouched to try and make herself seem smaller, "I'm most likely the last person you feel you can trust, But you need to let me help you!" She swung her cell phone around to show off the woods around them, "You are going to get hurt out here!"

 

Toshi waved his broken handle at her in an attempt to keep her at bay.

 

She lowered her cell phone to point the light away from his eyes, "I promise you. I won't hurt you. Just..." She let out a long sigh and let her shoulders collapse in defeat, "I don't know what my mother did, but I'm not-" She paused, "Please, just let me take you back to that gas station and I'll leave you there. I promise." She held out a hand like she was trying to approach a wild animal. In the half light of the moon, she looked heartbroken, but also determined, "It's okay to be afraid."

 

She waited patiently for Toshi to make the next move.

 

Toshi just laid there. Neither moved for a long time, just staring at one another. Finally Toshi looked away. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Mieko remained patient, making no moves so as not to spook him. Eventually Toshi turned back to her, "It's not what you think." He sat up on the dry, cracked dirt to kneel before her. As he did, he tossed the door handle away, "Truth is, you're the only one I trust." He abruptly grabbed her by the collar and yanked her in close.

Toshi locked lips with Meiko, causing her eyes to pop out of her head in this most unexpected turn of events. Her arms shot out to the side because she didn't want to touch him and cause him to be spooked. This caused her to launch her phone onto the old riverbank, landing back side down. The light from her phone was snuffed, leaving the only the soft blue light of the moon.

Toshi leaned back, pulling her on top of him. He laid back beneath her, staring up with an expression that caused Mieko's mind to melt. She gazed upon him with the widest of eyes. Her hands were on either side of his shoulders, pinning him in place. He gave her a smile that caused her heart to skip a beat. She shook her head to try and clear it, because at that moment she assumed she was either insane, dreaming, or somehow completely misunderstanding the situation.

This was the first time she had ever seen a boy give her the Come-Fuck-Me look.

"I'm totally helpless against you."

Meiko swallowed very deeply as she tilted her head to look at Toshi out of the corner of her eye, as if a different angle would yield new information.

"I trust you implicitly."

Toshi reached up and pushed a stray hair behind her ear causing Meiko's pulse to skyrocket.

 

 

 

"I trust whatever choice you make."