The Affair

CH 8: Can’t Hide the Lies

Ever since Sora could remember she had always hated hospitals. They were cold, sterile, and constantly reeked of the promise of unforeseen death. And oddly enough, in spite of all this there she was, a grim smile on her face as she stood outside of Tai’s assigned room and inwardly cursed herself for being a terrible wife.

Matt had completely forbidden her to ever visit Tai at the hospital under any circumstances, but how could she just ignore the blatant fact that she was the sole reason why he was there in the first place? She could never just leave him there while she got to run free on God’s creation, so she soon realized that the only guaranteed remedy for her guilt was to check in on him, if only for a moment.

“Mrs. Ishida? Mr. Kamiya is able to see you now.”

Sora looked up with a start, only to find herself face-to-face with a plump nurse in about her early forties. Shakily re-adjusting the strap to her purse the redhead gave a meek “thank you” in return, her posture becoming extremely rigid the moment she found herself crossing the forbidden threshold over into her best friend’s room.

“Tai?” Sora ventured, immediately cringing at what she saw.

There, lying helpless with tubes and IVs snaking into his arms was her best friend, the veins of each of his appendages appearing to be swollen and visible due to the medicinal effects of the night before.

When Sora called to him again Tai finally opened his eyes, a large grin splitting his face as he wearily reached out a shaking hand to her blurry form. “Y-you came…the others said you wouldn’t, but…you did.”

“Of course I came, Tai” the designer insisted, suddenly overcome with a vast amount of hurt due to her friends’ rather offensive assumption. “You should know by now that nothing can ever keep me from being with my best friend…we’re like family.”

Tai looked as if he wanted to grin, yet the expression of happiness immediately died upon his lips the moment he noticed the bluish-gray bruise beneath Sora’s left eye. “He hit you” he whispered, his eyes flashing dangerously amidst his sudden accusation.

Sora jumped as her hand immediately flew in front of the offending area, the tremors of her voice quaking and soft as she weakly assured him, “No, Tai…I-I was really clumsy this morning and I ran into a door.”

“With your cheek? Sora, why are you lying to me?” Tai demanded, clearly angry that she thought him that ignorant. “I saw how Matt was behaving yesterday, and for that I think you should press charges!”

Now it was Sora’s turn to be angry, her voice steadily rising as she hissed, “Matt is my husband, Tai! I can’t just do that to him when my beating was justifiable!”

“And when the fuck is hitting a woman ever justifiable!?” Tai snarled, the rate of his heart rapidly ascending on his monitor as he struck the bed with his fist. “I mean, my God, will you listen to yourself? You’re defending the creep that not only cheated on you without a care, but also beat you into submission! That is not love, Sora! When will you realize that I love you with no strings attached? I don’t care about your money or even your celebrity status…I just want you and only you.”

Sora’s eyes filled up with tears after he said this, her heart heavy as she hissed, “You know you’re no better than Matt, Tai, so I really wish you’d stop acting like your heaven sent! You claim my husband’s an adulterer, yet you’re trying to get me to do the same thing and you know I can’t! If you really had any respect for me at all you’d leave Matt and I the hell alone!”

Silence suddenly filled the room like a suffocating blanket, Tai’s gaze hard and his jaw firmly set as he finally demanded, “And why, exactly, did you come if you were just going to attack me for caring, Sora? Why in God’s name are you here when you clearly don’t even give two shits about my thoughts and my feelings? Did it ever even occur to you that maybe I was actually worried?”

Sora snorted. “There was nothing to worry about and you know it, Tai.”

“Bull crap! I tossed and turned last night since all I could think about was what that creep was doing to you!”

Biting her lip, the redhead resentfully looked away from her friend as memories of herself and Matt resurfaced within her mind like a vicious slap to the face, the tears she could no longer fend off now streaming down her cheeks as she regarded Tai with large, fearful eyes. “You may be right about Matt” she agreed, “but whether you like it or not, Tai, I need him. He and I are the perfect balance for one another since he’s the yin to my yang...without each other we’re incomplete. Don’t you see that Matt’s just worried that he’s going to lose me, Tai? Can you really blame him for reacting in the way he did when you completely betrayed his trust?”

Tai peevishly folded his arms. “You mean just like the time he completely betrayed my trust when he stole you?”

Sora groaned, yet she purposely ignored his comment. Needless to say, she had had it up to here with his ‘poor me’ sentiments and negative remarks, so she knew that the only right thing to do at the present moment was leave.

Haughtily rising from her perch, the designer hurriedly stalked over to the door and prepared to leave when Tai suddenly called out to her. Frustrated, she gave a fierce “what?”, only to feel her malice die upon her tongue the moment she noticed his dejected disposition.

Smiling wearily in response, Tai gently assured her, “I just wanted you to know that I love you enough to let go, Sora…all I want is for you to be happy.”

Wincing, the redhead hurriedly ducked out of the room and shut the door, for she knew that if she had stayed a moment longer she would’ve changed her mind.

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“Wow, this place is beautiful! I can’t wait to see what kind of malls you guys have here!”

Damien laughed at Mimi’s joyful expression, only to immediately apologize, “I’m very sorry, but here at the base we don’t have any unnecessary luxuries. I’m afraid that the only things we are aloud to have here are those that are essential to survival.”

“What!?” Mimi shrieked, the color rapidly draining from her pallid cheeks. “I need malls to survive…surely a fellow woman in this Godforsaken place can feel my pain!”

Damien forced a weak smile. “I’m very sorry, Miss Tachikawa, but the women and men here all share the exact same sentiment when it comes to frivolous desires.”

“Frivolous!?” Mimi reiterated, clearly astounded, “Since when are designer shoes and accessories frivolous!? I live and breathe Gucci and Vera Wang, Damien, so surely you can understand how these items are dire to my very survival!”

Chuckling, the dark-haired young man took her by the arm and led her over a few yards toward a large clearing, its lush expanse filled with bountiful verdant blooms and colorful assortments of blossoms that stretched to as far as the eye could see. Upon witnessing Mimi’s awed expression Damien explained, “You must understand that if we were to have malls and grocery stores here, we would need to build over top of all this glorious beauty. Our purpose here on base is to prove that the human race can survive most definitely without the technology we’ve spoiled ourselves with over the years. My father and I are only a small fraction of the inhabitants that hope to make a difference for the environment…if you’d like, you can join us.”

Mimi wrinkled her nose in disgust, never being one to adore stuffy environmentalists nor angry protestors. For this reason it was truly no surprise when she airily returned, “I’m sorry, Damien, but nature isn’t exactly my thing. I mean, if I really wanted to go hug a tree, I’d rather do so on the streets of New York.”

“We’re not tree huggers, you know” the young man hotly shot back, his voice clearly reflecting his vast amount of hurt. “All we’re really trying to do is help preserve the beauty that’s fading so fast here on this planet. Haven’t you ever seen something so beautiful that it made your heart ache? That you just wanted to experience it forever?”

Mimi was about to deny ever having such a feeling, but before she could even open her mouth Matt’s handsome visage stubbornly nudged its way within the recesses of her mind. Matt, she realized, was her beautiful something, and it was he that she wanted to experience everlastingly.

Looking up at Damien with a small smile she finally relented, “Well yes, I guess you’re right…some things are painfully beautiful in this world.” Glancing about her she quickly added, “And I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but the only ‘beautiful pain’ that I’m really having right now is the one in my stomach. Do you have anything to eat?”

Laughing, Damien warmly took her by the hand and nodded, the sun brightly shining upon them as the two began the breath-taking journey back to camp.

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Kari Kamiya anxiously wrapped her arms about herself with the hopes of keeping warm, her brown eyes darting about nervously as she took in the sterility of the completely unfriendly hospital. It wasn’t that she was entirely unwilling to be there – it was quite the opposite, in fact – but it was just that ever since she was a child she had had a close brush with death after being rushed to the ER with a high fever. For this very reason even the sight of doctors unnerved the poor girl, so now that her older brother was knocking on heaven’s door she was feeling very unwelcome and very familiar emotions.

Just as Kari moved to round the bend of the hallway, she froze, her large eyes widening once she took in the sight of an unfamiliar nurse and Sora Ishida.

‘What’s she doing with those pills?’ Kari wondered, her brows drawing inward as she strained to listen.

“And you promise to take all your pills this time, Mrs. Ishida?”

“Yes, yes, of course…I’m really sorry about all of this, Nurse Jayne. Dr. Himoto acted as if I’d be fine without them, so I got rid of the remainder of the bottle earlier this week.”

There came a light tsk, then, “Mrs. Ishida, you know how important taking those pills is for your health! If I have to page Dr. Himoto to come down here and discuss the direness of your situation, he’ll flip a lid!”

Kari overheard Sora give a condescending “I won’t”, then the familiar sound of high heels followed immediately after and appeared to be clip-clopping off in the direction of the OR.

Realizing her chance, Kari hurriedly rushed out from behind her hiding spot just as Sora turned in order to make her leave.

Gasping, the older woman leapt back as if shocked beyond all belief, her face paler than death as she shrieked, “K-Kari! I-I mean…how are you?”

Kari’s eyes immediately narrowed. “Don’t play innocent with me, Sora, because I know what’s going on. In fact, maybe I should just go ahead and tell my big brother. He deserves to know, don’t you think?”

“No, Kari, please don’t tell him! I’d die if he knew!” Sora wailed, now taking the younger adult by the arms before giving her a frantic shake. “If you promise to keep quiet I swear that I’ll give you anything you want!”

Kari gave her a miserable look before returning, “Well unless you can mend my big brother’s heart, I’m afraid that I can’t keep your promise, Sora.”

The designer released the girl as if she’d been burned, her heart heavy within her bosom as she sorrowfully whispered, “You know I can’t, Kari.”

“Then good-bye…I really need to visit him now” the brunette solemnly mumbled, her eyes hollow and dark as she turned in order to make her leave.

As Sora watched after her she felt as if all the walls were suddenly caving in, her world spinning madly about her the moment she found herself hazily toppling over and painting out in a tremendous sea of black.


A/N: Whew, sorry for taking so much longer than I thought, but for some reason I couldn’t get past the first scene. :-/ I’m also not really sure why I chose to have Mimi end up on an island with a bunch of scientists, but I figured that it was much more original than waking up with a tribe, right? :) lol Anywhos, Kari finally knows about Sora’s secret – not the whole truth, mind you, but she’s discovered something that can potentially ruin her relationships with all of her loved ones. I’m not exactly sure when the end of this will be, but I guess maybe five more chapters at the most. Please review! ;0P