Chapter Four: Wandering:

I should be sleeping now. Yet, here I am, wide awake staring at the ceiling. Asato-kun already went to sleep. Nothing can wake that man. I rolled my eyes. Lucky! I rolled over on my side and my eyes caught that tree outside our window. Its pink petals made my stomach churn. I narrowed my eyes at it. This tree looks bigger than all of the others here in Meifu, but I'm not sure. I blinked, tilting my head. The more I think about it, the more that I can't stop asking about this damn tree. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't here when I first moved in. I sat up, starting at the pink blossoms.

For some reason, they reminded me of the Eda clan legend. Sen made a pact with the mother to save his dying fianc�e. Desperation drives people to do rash things. That mixed with love is just messy. I closed my eyes at that thought. That's what happened with my Asato-kun and with Henry. Wait a minute, why has my ex been on my mind today? I shook my head. Weird� I had his memories of me erased for both our sakes. No, I don't regret it at all. So why has he been on my mind today?

I glanced over at the clock on the wall. It's one in the morning already? No way, it couldn't have been that long. Oh man, I really need to sleep. However, I didn't understand why I did this next thing. I got out of bed and went over to my bag. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the first number in my head. I glanced over at the futon as the other line rang. Yeah, he's not getting up until he has to. All of Meifu could be in flames right now and Asato-kun would sleep right through it.

"Hello?" a hard Jersey accent asked. I leaned my back against the wall.

"Angie," I whispered. "It's me."

"Anna?" my friend asked. "What's the matter? Why are you whispering like that?"

"Shhh!" I said. "It's one in the morning here."

"Okay�"

"Anyway, I have to ask you something."

"What?"

I swallowed before I spoke. Oh crap, why am I doing this? I could just hang up. Hang up and forget this whole thing. It's so easy. I could do it. Really I could� "Uh� how's Henry?"

"Why?"

I pressed my lips together. The impulse felt good at the time. "We got into a fight last year when he found me," I lied. "He went back to California after he couldn't get me to leave Japan and now he pretends that he doesn't know who I am."

"So that's it," Angie mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing, we wondered why he didn't remember you."

"Yes, how is he?"

"You can ask yourself; he's over here with us right now."

"Wait� us?"

"Yeah, Clare is getting married and we're celebrating right at Applebee's right now."

"Oh."

"Would you like to speak to him now?"

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I just wanted to know how he was."

"He's fine, anything else?"

I shook my head. "No, it's fine."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and went back to bed. Sadly by two in the morning, I still couldn't sleep. I turned my attention back to that tree outside. The glowing is giving me the creeps. Nearly jumped at that sound again. The demonic crickets were a bit louder than last night. I winced as I rubbed my ears.

What the hell? The buzzing didn't stop until about three in the morning. Again, I didn't get any sleep at all.