I came to your house

Despite the cold weather, I had decided to wear shorts a crop top. The reason is that I wanted to get used to showing skin, and since there usually aren't many warm days at Heaven's Gate anyway, I thought I should get started sooner rather than later. Besides, since we are cycling today, shorts aren't such a bad idea, but maybe I should have also worn some knee-length stockings.

"Ouch." Suddenly, one of the girls in the group that I am cycling with pinched the bare skin of my waist. She quickly got away before I could grab her. I sped up to catch up with her, but then a different girl pinched me from my left side. "Hey, stop that!"

Soon most of the girl joined in. Pinching me and retreating before I could grab them. My cycling ability isn't that good, and I had a lot less stamina than everyone else in the group, excluding Fifi, but the little cheat had borrowed her brother's motorbike. Everyone had a lot of fun at my expense. A few laughed so hard they almost fell off their bikes. I also had fun, but I pretended to be annoyed, and tried to grab at the girls, causing them to squeal and scatter.

From time to time, I would cast a side-long look at Isabel. She kept a distance from me and hid behind a few girls. I hoped to use this little weekend cycling date to clear the bad blood between us. Charlotte had been telling me how Isabel had been acting distant with her friends, and not preforming so well at her club. I didn't see how any of that is my problem.

Sure, I may have embarrassed her in front of her friends, but that's something they are capable of sorting out between themselves. If they wanted to gang up on me and get revenge, that's also fair game, but didn't think I did anything that warranted that. But since I wanted Charlotte of my case, I asked a few girls to have Isabel invited on this trip. Of course, Isabel had no idea that I am involved in her getting invited. And, guessing by her expression when she saw me at the meeting point, she didn't even realise I would be coming along.

Isabel didn't use the pinching game to get back at me. I guess that is kind of to be expected; she probably still didn't understand why I was really annoyed at her then, and maybe had the idea that I am just out to get her.

* * *

I lay down at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the temple at the top of the mountain. Of course, I really am exhausted, but I had to exaggerate a little for this performance to work.

"I can't-" I said, gasping for breath. "Just leave me here."

"Well, you heard her. Girls, let's go." Fifi said.

I couldn't really blame Fifi's decisiveness. Somebody needed to look after the bikes anyway, and it's cold at the top of the mountain, and much warmer inside the temple. They even served hot drinks there.

As I expected, nobody chose to stay with me. This wasn't something I had worked out in advance, but the group just acted as it normally did. I wanted Isabel to see that. We were all friends, but, at the same time, most of us were not that close. The confusion is clear on Isabel's face. She had some kind of illusion about me. That I was somehow powerful and feared by the other girls. But this isn't true. In fact, if I made one wrong move, I could easily be the one getting bullied.

My body started shaking violently in the cold. I should have brought a jumper or something, if only just to wear while I wait for the group to come back. I started to think about how depressing my plan is. Would it even work? Even if it did, I doubted things would be that much better for Isabel. The rain started coming down at the same time as I started to cry, and stung like icy needles on my bare arms and thighs. I tilted my head up to let the droplets fall on my face. But instead of the grey sky that I expected, I saw bright pink polka-dots on a white background.

"W-what are you doing?!" The high-pitched scream was in Isabel's voice. I took my face out of her skirt and quickly wiped my eyes. Isabel sat down next to me and passed me the top of a thermal flask filled with some brown liquid. "Here drink this."

"This has laxatives in it, right?" I was half joking, but I put on a serious face and inspected the drink. I am pretty sure that she didn't plan for me to be here, so there wasn't any time for her to put something in the drink. The liquid had a really nice, sweet smell. I poured a bit into my mouth.

"Ah, you are going to drink it anyway?!"

I spat the drink out in surprise. "What! You mean you really put laxatives in it?"

Isabel burst out laughing, she laughed until tears come out of her eyes. I also couldn't keep up my act and started to laugh too.

"You know, I thought you were scary." Isabel said calming down. "But you are actually really nice."

The rain started to clear up as quickly as it came. It is often like this during autumn; rain would fall little and often, and there wasn't much point using an umbrella.

How am I supposed to respond to her? I hadn't done anything that I thought is particularly 'nice'. Luckily, she continued to talk without waiting for a reply.

"It's just herbal tea. My parents work at a café in the town centre, and they're both crazy about tea. We have like a hundred different kinds." She stood up and pointed out the place to me. I couldn't tell exactly which building she is pointing to, but, luckily, she also gave me the directions. The large variety of tea explained why this one smelled so exotic. I finally took a gulp of it. "What you think?"

"It's not bad."

It had an interesting flavour, but I couldn't imagine drinking it very day. Maybe if it is a little sweeter.

"Hey," Isabel said, suddenly becoming serious. I paused drinking and met eyes with her. "I'm sorry about what I said about you and… that guy."

That was the wrong choice of words. I wanted to hear that she is sorry for bad-mouthing Terrance and that she wouldn't do it again. What she said right now would be equivalent to me saying that I'm sorry for the mud that I pushed her face into.

* * *

After the cycling trip, I feel like really need to vent with Terrance for a bit. He didn't have a phone, and his mother rarely let him out of the house. So, when I wanted to talk to him on the weekend, I would have to go to his house.

Terrance lived in one room at the top of a rickety looking flat. These flats are only for people that worked at the fish factory. From what I have heard about it, the fish factory is the most disgusting place to work in Heaven's Gate. It's the kind of place that parents tell their children to get them to study hard: If you don't do your homework, you'll end up having to work in the fish factory. It is only after seeing Terrance's mother that I realise just how sickening real these rumours were.

Don't get me wrong, when we met before, she treated me just fine. She invited me into their room, and we ate the remains of Terrance's birthday cake together. She isn't a bad person, but the stress from her work had made her an alcoholic, had made her shrivelled and sullen eyed, and thinned her hair. Most of all, I disliked her because she is violent to Terrance.

I knocked on the door of their room. The whole building is messy and stained, and there were empty cans and bottles of alcohol in the corridors.

Terrance opens the door and his mouth dropped when he saw me. His eyes down to my waist and legs.

"W-what are you looking at?" My voice was a little loud and Terrance shushed me in panic. He got out of the room and quietly shut the door.

"She's sleeping."

"Hmph," I said, indignant. I understood why he wanted me to be quiet, but I acted like I am annoyed with him. Really what am annoyed with Isabel, but that would take too long to explain. I took out a note from my pocket and handed it out to Terrence. At the same time, Terrance produced his own note, and we exchanged them.

"Did you get caught in the rain?"

I looked at the note I had just given to Terrance. One side of it had been sticking out of my pocket when it rained and is now wet and mushy.

"Oh." I reached out to take my note back, but Terrance took my hands. Apparently, with something else in mind. "Hey, what are you doing?"

We went into a dark room just past the showers. Inside the room, it is really warm like a sauna. Terrance switched on a light.

"This is the boiler room." Terrance said. "If you stay here, your clothes should dry up in a little bit."

There were hundreds of clothes hung up with lines of string spanning from wall to wall around the large cylinder at the centre of the room. The cylinder seemed to be the source of the heat, so I went closer to it. "Is it alright to touch it?"

"Yeah." Terrance came up beside me and put his hand against the metal without any hesitation. I almost went to stop him but resisted at the last moment. Terrance knew what he was doing. He isn't careless enough to burn himself.