and fell on her knees on the gravel, praying that it was just an awful nightmare.
She jumped and suddenly stood up scared when she felt a light touch on her shoulder.
She feared it might be Darren Scott or her own mother, but luckily, as soon as she turned, she could see Lucas's drawn and sad face.
She looked at him, trying to wipe away those irritating tears which made the real word around her flickering.
Lucas had taken the plaster away, so Kira could see his wound among the hair on his eyebrow. However, she was still more shattered by his swollen and red eyes, since she wasn't used to them any more.
She instinctively looked for a handkerchief in her pocket, so she could wipe away his scared air, but she had forgotten everything when she had run away from home.
“Kira,” the boy whispered. He felt devastated when he saw his friend crying. That was something unexpected and it made him feel very bad again.
“Lucas,” Kira burst out, flinging herself into his arms. She held him tight with all her strength, as if she feared the wind could take him away from her.
She felt Lucas's arms returning her hug and completely embracing her.
“I'm sorry, Kira,” the boy mumbled dejected, smothering his words through her long and silky hair.
“Oh, Lucas! Please, forgive me. I don't want to lose you,” Kira sobbed, holding him still tighter.
“Neither do I,” Lucas was shaken.
Kira could hear his friend's heart beating faster and faster, while his breathing turned irregular.
She knew he was crying and that made her broken down.
She had been looking after him for years and she had got to know him, to love him and support him. So at that moment she couldn't believe what she was going to tell him soon after.
“My father has been transferred back to Tokyo. He wants my mother and I to go back to Japan with him,” she could say without parting from Lucas, but he suddenly took a step back, as soon as he realized what she meant.
Kira shivered because of that sudden separation. Then she saw Lucas looking at her with a shattered look.
“I don't want, but...” Kira tried to explain to him.
“So don't do it! Don't go. Don't leave me alone...you too. I'm begging you,” Lucas stammered terrified and started shaking. He had already lost his mother and he was going to loose his best friend soon.
Why were all the women he loved going to leave him sooner or later?
“I don't want to leave you alone,” Kira stated seriously, trying to recover a bit of clearness.
“So don't go back to Japan!” Lucas begged her in such a painful voice that it sounded like a stab in Kira's heart.
Her answer slipped out of her lips before she could even think about it.
“All right,” she answered, starting brooding over it to find a solution.
The smile which finally spread on Lucas's face was worthier than a thousand Christmas presents.
“Will you promise?”
Elizabeth usually told her daughter to avoid making promises she couldn't keep, but Kira had no doubts about what was going to happen: she was going to stay in Princeton with Lucas, by hook or by crook.
“I promise” she said, making a cross on her heart.
The happiness rising on Lucas's face became immediately infectious; as they hugged each other once more, Kira swore to herself that she would do anything to stay close to her best friend.
Unfortunately, her mother hooted her car, which was parked outside the estate gate, interrupting them, so Kira had to go back home.
“Put on your plaster again, or you'll get a scar” she worried, brushing her forefinger on his wounded eyebrow. See you tomorrow. At home.”
“Let's have a great Super Mario match, shall we?” Lucas suggested feeling more serene, before his friend went out from the secret passage she had used to get in.
“I'm going to hammer you!” Kira challenged him cheerfully before getting into the car, but as soon as Lucas disappeared from her sight, she felt something breaking inside herself, just in the middle of her chest.
Would she be able to keep her promise to Lucas?
ADAM
Tokyo, Japan, November 11th 2015
When he reached the old wing of the building, his heart was beating fast.
He looked around with caution, making sure that he had left behind all the horny girls who were always following him, craving to become his girlfriend.
Being the most handsome boy in the school had turned into a curse for him, especially after what had happened with Arashi.
If he only thought about what had just happened to him, he could feel some more fuel in his legs.
“Is there a place far enough to run away from what I'm feeling?” Adam's mind was shouting, when he got to the broken door leading into a room which was once the school library, before the last earthquake had made that side of the building unfit for use two years before.
The headmaster had finally found cheaper building a new library in the east wing, than reinforcing the north wing and making it safe, so that place was always deserted now.
Still shaken for Youra's kiss and Arashi's hug, Adam started pushing open the door of his secret shelter...almost secret, since he had had to share it with a fresher in the last year.
Only when he got inside, he flopped down on the floor, holding his head between his legs and hoping he could forget what had been whirling in his mind for a long time.
He recollected Youra's image. Gorgeous Youra. Every single boy in his school would go to any lengths in order to go out with her, but every single girl in his school would sell her soul to the devil in order to go out with him.
Youra hadn't taken a long time before looking for him and asking him to be her boyfriend, and he had agreed just because that was what all his friends expected from him.
Even his father had shaken hands with him at that moment, happy and proud of him.
But when she had tried to kiss him, he had felt nervous and had got in a cold sweat, while his head and his heart kept reminding him Arashi's smile.
“Why Arashi? Youra is the right one for me! I love Youra!” he had been telling himself for more than two months, but Arashi's smile, his hugs or his slap on the back were enough to turn Youra into impalpable air if compared to Arashi's sunny brightness.
He had been wondering till he got exhausted about the reasons of his behaviour but with no results, till that day at least.
It was just something silly: someone had tripped Arashi up and he had fallen into Adam's arms, even if just for a few moments.
Just a few moments...but they were enough to make him rush into the toilette to hide the evident erection which was pushing against his school uniform trousers.
“What a shame!”
He had run like a crazy to wipe that blameworthy and out of place instinct away from his mind. Even the memory of Youra's naked body hadn't been able to turn his attention from that.
“Why is all this happening to me? What's wrong with me?” Adam was dejected and tried to hold back those feelings which seemed to choke him.
He was going to break down once more and give vent to frustrated and shameful tears, when he heard someone else moaning painfully in the room.
He had already heard it several times in the last days, but it sounded much more desperate