you are ..."
"Takara." I uttered quietly. “Is Liss at home?” The man first looked up, then back to me and hesitated a little.
"Yes, she is at home. You can come in." He held the door open for me and I came into the beautifully decorated, blue hallway. On the left wall was a gold mirror with a chest of drawers underneath, and on the right was a staircase leading upwards. To my left was a door that seemed to lead into the living room, straight ahead through a door I saw a bright room with a glass wall with a garden behind it.
"Alessandra, come down.", The man called. I heard someone running down the stairs.
"What is it?" Said Liss. When she saw me, her eyes widened. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see if you were better," I said quietly. Liss smiled tightly.
"We're going upstairs Dad. Come on." She took my hand and I went up the slightly rounded stairs. Then we went around and went up another flight of stairs. Then we came to a dark room. I stopped and looked at the walls, which was very difficult in the dark. Liss went to a window in the room and raised the shutters. The room was filled with light and I saw the walls covered with various posters. In the room there was a table with a computer, a bookcase and a bed. There was no wardrobe because her clothes were all over the floor. In the meantime, Liss had already lit the second window and sat down on her bed. She looked at me with aching eyes.
"Has anyone told you yet? About my mom." I nodded. She looked at the floor. "Cornelius told me during the lunch break.Also that with Ayumi. "I struggled through the mountains of clothes for a moment and sat down next to her.
"Did he see her die?"
"Yes. On TV this morning. It's topic # 1 now."
"Why?"
"Because it was a murder, Takara! They were brutally stabbed to death."
"Who does something like that?"
“Would I sit here if I knew?” I looked at her. You could see the pain in her. She was about to collapse. It was a sight that worried me too. I heard footsteps on the stairs and turned my head. Liss's father was standing on the steps.
"Alessandra, are you hungry?"
"No, Dad," she replied, slightly snappy.
"And your girlfriend."
"Neither."
"Maybe thirsty?"
"We don't need anything!" She almost yelled. Without a flinch, the father went downstairs with loud steps. In contrast to Liss, he looked completely normal. Not sad, not offended, just normal. I looked again to compare to Liss. She stared numbly at the floor and I knew she would start crying anytime.
I opened my arms and wanted to take her in my arms, as it should be for a good friend, but she shook me away with a light push.
"You'd better go, Takara. It wouldn't be good for you to stay here, honestly not.", She said and looked at me again with her big eyes shining with tears.
I got up slowly, fought my way through the mountain of her clothes and went down the stairs as quietly as possible, which was very difficult because the stairs creaked terribly. I didn't know what to expect from this visit, but I was still disappointed. Not from Liss, but more from myself, because I was hoping to cheer her up again.
When I got downstairs, Mr. MeRone was just coming out of the kitchen, leaning against the door frame, and handing me some sort of ticket.
"There is a bus stop just down the street. Take the bus that is written on the ticket, it will take you home." MeRone and looked again at the ticket, on the large "Bus No. 701" was written. I pretended to examine the ticket, but my thoughts were elsewhere as I was wondering how to ask Mr. MeRone my question. I don't know if I stared at the ticket for 20 seconds or 10 minutes, but it still felt like an eternity. Finally I composed myself, turned my head to Liss' dad and asked him:
"How can you endure it so easily. So the death of your wife."
Mr. MeRone looked thoughtfully at the floor. I realized that I was making him wonder because there was no answer. Instead of answering, he opened the door without looking at me and showed me with a wave of his hand that I should go.
Without hesitation I stepped out into the cold freshness, went down the stairs and then to the right to the stop, which I could already see from there.It had gotten cold. The street children probably also noticed this, because there was not a soul on the street. Even the cars seemed to be standing still. If I were new in town, I would think I would have arrived in a ghost town. The wind tried to take off my jacket, in which I snuggled myself up as well as possible. So this little way seemed like a struggle for freedom. When I got to the bus stop, I looked at the timetable and the big clock that hung over it. So my bus would come in about three minutes.
I sat down on the waiting bench and looked around. Next to me sat a figure that I have seen before. She wore exactly the same as she was this morning when I met her before. She turned her head to me and looked at me with her gray eyes. A smile spread across her face.
"Hello, Takara.", Ayumi said in her angelic voice. “How's it going, Liss?” She didn't sound really worried and I don't see any reason to answer her, but I did anyway.
"She's not doing so well," I said softly and looked at the floor.
“So she found out about her mother. From Holmes, didn't she?” She did not expect my answer. "Poor girl, I can understand her very well, I don't know whether my parents are alive or not." She sounded very honest. But I was still very surprised that she talked to me. I looked at her and saw that she was staring sadly at the floor, although I shouldn't care, as mean as she was to Liss and the others. Either she was serious, which I doubted easily, or she was a very good actress. I couldn't think twice about it because my bus came.
I quickly stormed into the bus, gave my ticket to the fat bus driver and sat down on an empty seat in the completely empty bus. I looked out the window and was looking at the empty street when I heard it again.
"May I sit down?" Asked Ayumi and pointed to the empty seat. I didn't know why, but I nodded and she smiled all over her face. When I tried to turn away again, I heard her again.
"I'm sorry," she said.
“What?” I was more confused than ever and she seemed to understand my confusion.
"I'm sorry that I threatened Liss. I'm not such a bad person as I portray myself. I just don't want to be ostracized by my sisters." I looked her in the face and felt the hope in her. It wasn't usually my way of saying that, but it had to be:
"If you had just a little self-respect, you wouldn't be doing what your sisters tell you, you would do your own thing." She looked thoughtfully at the floor and then back at me.
“I don't do anything like that, but I want to prove to you that I can be different.” She digged a bit in her huge bag and took out a business card, which she then handed to me."Call me when you have time. I have to go now. Have fun with the ride." She smiled again as she said goodbye and got off the bus.
I thought again about what happened. It was strange because I had never seen Ayumi like this before. The big, wild tiger suddenly became a tame kitty. And why should I interest you too? More questions, but none of them provided the answers! I looked out the window and realized that I had arrived. I got off the bus quickly and saw Kyle at the bus stop with Strike on a leash. Mr. MeRone must have called them. I ran to him and hugged him in greeting.
"I'm happy to see you too," he said, taking my hand before I could pull it away. His reaction was understandable: “You talked to Ayumi on the bus?” I yanked my hand away from him and rubbed it so that the pain caused by being torn away would go away.
"Yes, I met her at the bus stop."
"And she wasn't mean to you? You know ..."
“No, she was actually quite nice.” Kyle touched his head.
"I just can't believe it."
"Yes! She even asked how Liss was doing."
“Why should you care about Liss?” He sounded a little annoyed.
"Maybe we should give it a chance. It might not be that bad."
"Takara, I really don't want to hear about it anymore. I don't want to and won't give her a chance, finished, the story." He should know that I really thought it was unfair of him, but I could understand it a little, because according to his stories, Ayumi didn't really make himself popular with him or his friends.
When we got home, I was happy to see my bed because I was just overtired. I hadn't even had dinner, even though Ann had called me four times. When I lay down and closed my eyes, I heard two people come into the room. One lay down next to my feet and curled up, the other leaned over me and whispered:
"Sleep well."