1The door opens and the receptionist finally calls me over.
"Sugawara-san?" she says, "The principal is waiting in his office with your sister."
I give her a strained smile and try and think of an excuse that would bail her out of this one. By the time I get to the office, I can already hear her muffled shrieks through the door.
"-got nothing on me-fucking—"
There's some more muffled yelling, and I hear her curse wildly.
"Get your—hands—"
"I'm sorry I'm late!" There's no time to think, right now I just need to separate her from the principal and start some damage control.
It's worse than I thought — she's being restrained on the couch by several male teachers — her uniform is ragged and torn — eyes bloodshot, tears and snot running down her face.
"Shun, they started it, don't listen to them!" she sees me and immediately starts struggling again. "I'm fucking innocent!"
"Sugawara-kun, this is the last straw for your sister." The principal sits calmly at his desk, his attention fully upon me. "I've made concessions for you in the past due to her — circumstances, but her behaviour can no longer be tolerated."
She spits on one of the teachers.
"Son of a—"
"Take your sister off of our premises. She is no longer a student here."
"I—" he cuts me off.
"There is nothing you can do. Just — leave, and be thankful we haven't filed a police report." His eyes tell me everything I need to know. "Consider it my last favour to you."
"I — understand. I'm very sorry it's come to this. Thank you very much for your restraint." I bow as deeply as I can, before turning to her.
"Fuck you all! I fucking hate this place anyway!" she manages to get her leg free and flails wildly. "Fucking die, all of you!"
I bow my head to the teachers - the biggest one looks about an inch away from snapping and simply breaking her neck — and grab hold of her arm.
"Reiko, we're going."
"Fuck you, you can't just tell me what to do, you can't force me to do anything!" she tries to spit in my face, but her mouth is too dry — she settles for swearing instead. "Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!"
Ignoring her, I pull her off the couch and walk as fast as I can to my car — ignoring the curious looks of her former schoolmates as we head to the nearby carpark.
"You're hurting me, Shun," she whines sullenly as we leave the school, "Let go of me, I'm innocent, she hit me first — I was defending myself —"
"Be quiet."
I could leave her at my apartment for the time being — though I'd probably come home to a trashed house. And Ako had said last time was to be the last time.
I don't think I can take her back to mother's house — the fact that the school rang me probably means that she isn't welcome home with mother anytime soon.
"Gawd," she says, "you're all pricks, you know that? It wasn't my fucking fault. I was just taking a break up on the roof — some uptight girl from third year saw me up there and — I might've had some cigarettes up there, okay? Sue me. She tells me that she's gonna tell a teacher and get me suspended — so I —"
"Just — stop talking. Get in the car. And give me the cigarettes." I open her door and nudge her in.
"Fuck! Whatever, fine, they were yours anyway." She throws the pack of cigarettes into the back of my car. "Fucking hypocrite."
On the way back to my apartment, I ring someone at work.
"Nanami-san?"
"Sugawara-san?" she immediately starts talking, all of her problems at once. "You just up and left! You know that Tanaka-san came looking for you with the quarterlies in hand — something went wrong and we're all working overtime to fix it! Then there's the—"
"I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it for another few hours." I cut her off, trying to drown out the sound of Reiko hitting her feet into the dashboard.
"Sugawara-san! Not again..." she sounds tired — too tired for a twenty year old, and it's mostly my fault. "Is it your sister again?"
"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry. I'll be there as fast as I can, just — try and make it work until I get there."
"...alright. Please come as quick as you can — I'm trying to cover for you, but people are starting to wonder why you keep disappearing." She hangs up, and I drop my phone into the cupholder.
I realise my error a split-second after I put my phone down — Reiko pounces on it and immediately starts playing with the buttons.
"Put it back."
"It's just a phone, Shun, don't be so uptight." she plays with the volume. "Look at this piece of shit, you know that Apple products are just overpriced pieces of plastic, right? You're paying a fifty percent mark-up for a fashion item."
"Put it back, now." I feel my hands tighten on the wheel.
"I bet you thought you were so cool when you bought it — 'Oh, look at me, with my shitty phone that matches my man-purse—'"
I bat the phone out of her hands — the car actually swerves as I do it — the phone bounces around until it's resting somewhere near my feet.
"What a baby — can't stand people playing with his stuff." She snorts, pulls her knees up to her body. "Gawd, you're such a loser."
I'd have to ring mother — tell her what happened. Then I'd have to work on getting her into a new school. There were still a few private schools she could be sent to — if I could just get an interview and explain—
Suddenly a thought hits me like a freight truck.
"What time is it?"
"What?" she looks at me like I've grown a third arm. "I dunno, like — one thirty?"
"You were supposed to have taken your medication at midday."
I have a bottle of water in the glovebox between the seats — there's my lunch in my backpack too.
"I took it already."
"No you didn't." I pull over to the side of the road.
"Fuck you! How the fuck would you know?" she rolls the window down and leans against the sill, "You always do that — pretending like you know everything."
I grab my backpack from the back seat.
"Here's something to eat." I hand her a sandwich and take out the bottle of water. "Take your medicine."
"No." She doesn't even turn to look at me.
"Take. Your medicine."
"Fuck you," she replies flatly, wrapping her cardigan around herself, " do you even know what Xanax or Seroquel do? It's going to give me fucking cancer one day! If you want me to take it you're going to have to force me."
"Damnit, Reiko!" I didn't even realise my hands had tightened around the wheel until the knuckles went white. "Take your fucking medicine!"
She turns to me — "Oh, big brother, are you mad? Scary!" she cackles like she's just heard the funniest joke in the world, "You're so fucking ball-less, I'm surprised your girlfriend doesn't get sick of doing you in the ass!"
"...take...your—"
"C'mon, big brother, why don't you force them down your little sister's throat?" she grinds against the seat, squeezing her neck with both hands. "Just grab me by the hair and shove them in—"
"FUCK!"
I know it already — she's won. No matter how many times I try and make peace with it, she'll find some way to push me. I'm supposed to be the mature one here, yet here I am, back to my usual self.
I am garbage.
It's quiet for a while. I focus on my breathing — everything else stops existing.
Eventually, I hear her voice, quiet enough I almost don't hear her.
"...you don't get it," she says, her voice muffled by her cardigan, and her stuffy nose, "you don't know what it's like — and you don't care, anyway."
She sniffs, wiping her nose on her sleeve.
"...no one cares about what I feel."