Strange Girl
“Please, don't tell me you have a 7 Miku…” The redhead held their breath.
The corners of the bluenette’s mouth tugged upwards as she revealed a 7 of hearts, holding it out to the UTAU with a snicker.
“NO!!” The UTAU in question cried, hanging their head in dejection. Despite their sadness, they took the card bitterly and completed three 7s, making a book, leaving them with no cards left and 2 pathetic books. They gawked in disbelief as they — only now — noticed the Vocaloid's 39 books.
“I win! Sorry, Teto-chan. Better luck next time.” Miku shrugged lightheartedly and smiled, gathering all the scattered cards, straightening them with care and putting them back in their box. Games may not have meant a lot to her — but to Teto? They meant war.
Teto sulked a bit; they were never really that good at Go Fish.
The two of them sat together on the floor in comfortable silence for a bit, Teto rested against the side of the bed on the soft carpet floor and sighed, their eyes drooping.
Slowly…
blinking…
shut…
Teto smacked themself; they can't just fall asleep like that while they have a friend in! Maybe they shouldn't have watched that movie the night before… or finished that series…
Their eyes felt extremely heavy.
They were like weights on their eyes.
They couldn't fight it anymore.
Teto gave in, allowing their eyes to… flutter… shut..
Suddenly, a ping came from Miku's phone, causing the UTAU to jolt. Miku glanced over at the source and picked up the phone, a small smile appearing on her lips once she looked at it.
The sleepiness was immediately forgotten; curiosity had overtook Teto.
Teto raised an eyebrow. “Gumi?” They asked, earning a shake from Miku's head. “Those twins?” They interrogated again, even more prying than before, receiving yet another disapproving shake of ‘no' from the latter. “Who, then?”
“Oh, just another friend. We're hanging out on Thursday so she's just asking about it.”
“What?! You have more friends?!!?”
“Excuse me?” Miku frowned.
“Oh! Sorry, I guess should've worded that better.” Teto chuckled awkwardly, holding their hands up in defence. “I meant — I just thought I knew of all your friends.”
“Of course not!”
There was short silence before Teto spoke up again.
“So who is this friend of yours?” Teto pondered, still nosy. They shuffled a bit closer to Miku.
“Well – you won't know her. She's from a different school.”
“Oh. So that's why I've never heard of her!” Teto muttered.
“Her name is Akita Neru.”
Teto knitted their brows in thought. “Akita Neru…?” They echoed. “Nope, doesn't ring a bell.”
“I thought so. Nobody really knows her much anyway, not even those in her own school…” Miku’s voice sort of faded out in the end until her words were barely audible, like she was questioning her own speech or as if she was so observed in texting that she wasn't aware of her own words. Nevertheless, Teto heard her.
Their interest was peaked.
After she was done texting, Miku realised that she had let her thoughts slip out of her mouth once she saw Teto's wide-eyed expression.
She quickly changed the topic before the UTAU with drills could ask a million-and-one questions. “Anyway, want to play something else? I know how good you are at UNO!”
Teto shook their head in dismissal. “No, you can't go back now, Miku! You've said it and I heard you! Who is this ”Akita“ girl? Why is she not known in her own school?! How come you know her????!!” Teto demanded for answers.
Miku sighed. She should've seen this coming as soon as Teto began asking about her friends.
She knew once Teto found out the something, they would only get more and more prying. Thus, realising she was at a dead-end, Miku surrendered. “Oh, well… I know you won't give up so I'm just going to tell you anyway…”
Teto nodded and did a fist-pump in their mind: what a good persuader they were! Eagerly, the redhead waited for their friend to explain with anticipation.
“My old friend… Yowane Haku,” Miku started, breathing in shakily.
“Yes… She knew a girl. That girl was none other than Akita Neru. They went to the same school together, and Ha– Yowane-san… introduced me to her.”
“And?” Teto nudged her.
“”And?“” What do you mean by “And?”“
“What is Akita like? All dark and mysterious? Is she dangerous?” Teto asked in a whisper.
“What? No! Of course not! Why would you think that?!”
“Werent you the one who said: ”Nobody knows her, not even people in her school“ or something? I should be the one questioning you!”
“Well…!” Miku found herself at a loss for words. She shook her head.
“What if I show you a picture of her?”
Teto gladly assented to the suggestion. They wanted to know what this strange girl actually looked like.
Miku held up her phone to Teto's face.
“This is a picture of her. See? Not so ”dark and mysterious“ now, right?”
Teto squinted a bit.
The phone displayed a (blurry) picture of Miku and the Neru girl, seemingly taken in the evening. Miku, ever so cheery, had a huge grin plastered on her face, whereas the other girl was smiling very lukewarmly without teeth.
She was also — shockingly to Teto — a blonde.
She had scruffy yellow hair in a side-ponytail that looked as if it hadn't been washed in days.
She also appeared to be wearing a worn-out black hoodie with some random band Teto didn't know on it.
And her complexion…
Her skin was extremely pale with contrasting dark eye-bags, making her appear ill.
Teto remained silent. They didn't know what to say.
It was Miku's turn to nudge them, attempting to get some words out of them.
“Y-Yeah! So that's her, right?” Asita– what was her name again?“
“Akita Neru.” Miku responded, watching Teto's face intensively, making the latter feel cornered.
“Akita Neru… Yeah.” After that, there was silence.
A long, unbearingly uncomfortable silence hung between them. The quietness was, ironically, deafening.
Fortunately, Teto broke it.
“So…! You're hanging out with her on… Thursday?”
A smile returned to the vocaloid's face. “That's right. At a nice cafe down the street, for lunch.”
“Alright, guess that means I'm alone on Thursday then.” They smiled back.
“Wait a minute!” Miku gasped, louder than they anticipated, making Teto jump. “I have an idea!”
Teto raised an eyebrow, unsure what Miku was up to. “I'm listening…”
“You're curious about Neru-chan, right?” Miku questioned, Teto hesitantly nodded in response.
Miku beamed, “Why don't you come with me then? To the cafe? With us! You can meet Neru-chan! I'm sure they won't mind if I bring a friend along…” She said, all at once.
Teto's own words were, once again, knocked out of them.
“So, do you want to come along, Teto-chan? Who knows, you two may get along really well!”
Teto blinked. This Akita person looked and seemed really peculiar… especially in that photo. But, Teto did want to know more about her.
“R-Really? Would that be alright? I-I mean… with Akita?” Miku grinned at Teto's agreement and picked up her phone again, rapidly tapping across her phone screen with her thumbs.
“I ju-" a ping from her phone interrupted the bluenette and she picked it up again, glancing at the text and smiling again when she looked back up at Teto.
“She says sure. I think I told her about you before, so she's alright with you coming along as long as you don't annoy her, probably.”
“Did she really type all of that that fast? That's crazy…” Teto whisled
“No, she just texted ”sure.“”
“Oh.”
.
When Teto and Miku got ready for bed, they both slept on the huge mattress on the ground since Miku was having a sleepover over at Teto's. They usually have week long sleepovers, but this time it was two weeks because Miku's family was in Britain for two weeks so she needed a place to stay while they were gone.
Miku was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow, however, not Teto. They lay wide awake; it was hard to believe they were the one that almost fell asleep earlier that day.
They were thinking hard about Thursday, which was in the next week, aka five days as they were on Saturday at that moment.
They weren't quite sure what to think about Akita as they didn't know much about her. They only saw one photo and that's not enough to judge, but they still felt lingering anxiety.
What if Akita hates them? What if Teto being there makes her retch? What if they somehow ruin Akita's friendship with Miku?
Their mind whirled with ridiculous questions, endless “what if”'s and things that weren't even possible.
They didn't have this issue when they had to meet any other of Miku's friends, heck, they didn't even need all five fingers on one hand to count the amount of times they were stressed over meeting a new person in general! But, for some unspeakable reason, this didn't apply to meeting Akita. And Teto doesn't know why.
They rested their head and deeply breathed in and out.
Despite their worries, Teto knew that their questions wouldn't have an answer unless they get some sleep.
They closed their eyes.