Night Rain: Chapter Nine "Miki's Meltdown"

“Want a drink? I keep my personal stash fully stocked, if you know what I mean.”
Oh Miki, you want to get me drunk? How deviant of you.
“Just a soda for now, thanks.”
I’m not that easy.
“Alright, suit yourself, you pussy. Catch!”
For a one handed girl, she is a great tosser.
I, however, am a terrible catcher.
Hell, that picture was a better catcher than I am, until it hit the floor.
“Oops.”
What I expected her to say next was something to the effect of it’s no big deal.
Instead, shit got real.
She just
Started crying.
And crying.
And crying.
It’s like her cat just died or something.
[Play Painful History here. IDGAF IT’S HANAKO’S THEME, IT WORKS ALL THE SAME]
“Um…are you ok?”
Smooth, baka. Of course she’s not ok.
“That was a gift from my father for my birthday when I was 9.”
Ok? Aren’t you like 18 now?
“He died the next day.”
Fuck. That’d do it.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Miki.”
“Nine years ago today…”
Oh double fuck.
Brain, help me get out of this.
“How did he…?”
DAMMIT BRAIN!
“I’d rather not say.”
Good. Good. Now just take that as your cue to leave.
“Are you sure?”
Brain, you and I are going to have a serious talk after this.
“N-no…”
I can’t leave her like this. Sobbing next to a stocked liquor cabinet. That’s a recipe for disaster.
A very delicious one, at that.
“I’m here for you, Miki. That’s what friends do.”
“Mind if I have a few to loosen up? I’ve kept this story inside for a long time and something tells me it doesn’t want to come out.”
“Go ahead.”
“Danke.”
She grabs a bottle of rum and starts glugging it.
What a fucking champ.
“It was raining. Hard. I remember because I was soaked to the bone.
He was supposed to pick me up from football practice.”
Oh god I know where this is going.
“He showed up late and drunk.”
Oh.
“He acted strangely. He seemed to be more focused on me than usual.
We got to a busy intersection when he turned to me.
I will never forget the look that still haunts me at night.
A wild depravity. Unrestrained desire.”
She takes another swig, but the tone still seems dry and shaky.
“He unbuckled my seatbelt. I had taken off my football shirt because it was so wet.
He reached for me and touched me, touched my chest. I didn’t know what was going on. He touched me before, when we hugged, but not like this. He was intentionally touching me that way.
I told him to stop because it felt funny, but he wouldn’t listen. He for-“
She takes a bigger gulp than before.
“He forced his hand into my pants. I didn’t like it, so I screamed.
He hit me.”
She takes some chocolate milk for a chaser. Her throat must be on fire from all the straight rum.
“I opened the car door and just ran. Ran in the rain. I was scared. My dad wasn’t my dad anymore.
He revved the engine and almost took off after me.
Almost.”
The bottle’s now halfway empty and was sizeable to begin with, but her slurring does little to mince the meaning behind her words.
“He didn’t have the right of way so he drove right into the intersection and was t-boned by an oncoming SUV. The two cars collided and hit me from behind, knocking me to the cold ground out cold.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital. It was eight days later.”
She then stares me down as if to deliver a finishing blow.
“That is how I lost my hand and my father. The steel frame of his car sliced it off while I was unconscious.
He was never like that. Sure, he drank. Who doesn’t drink? But I still love him. Because he’s my dad, the only one I’ll ever have. And he’ll never know how much I miss him.”
The rest becomes drunken sobbing.
“I-I…”
I’m speechless. For once in my life, I do not know what to do.
Miki, however, has some ideas as she drunkenly throws herself onto me.
“Comfort me, Aiko? Please? It hurts too much to be alone.”

[COMFORT DRUNKEN MIKI]

[REFUSE]