11: Blue Toenails

CHAPTER 11: Blue Toenails

I'm awake not in my depressing pod, but in an unfamiliar bedroom. My mind is saturated in a drunken haze… Yet I don't remember drinking any alcohol? What did I…?!!

I remember everything. I leap out of Mitsuko's guest bed. Her pink Zenith headset falls from my chest onto the floor. I feel intoxicated and hungover from… Mitsuko's feet?!

My brain is sprinting in place, like wallowing in indecision for too long. I need to do something, any action to replace my thoughts. The bathroom? I would, but I don't want to leave this room. What if she's out there? I'm too embarrassed to face her. Escape? Yes I need to find a way out…

The sun is rising, leaking rays of gray light into the room. It's now or never.

I hear a door click open from down the hall. Footsteps. Three loud booms at the door. My bowels turn to melted ice cream. I accept my fate and grab the doorknob.

"Hey…" Mitsuko says, awkwardly looking down the hall. I'm so nervous I feel I'm going to perish any second.

"You have ten seconds to leave my house. Goodbye." Mitsuko briskly walks away. I turn around, checking if I forgot anything. I remember that I came with nothing because the government collected all my belongings when I didn't pay my rent.

No time for that. I follow Mitsuko. She's waiting for me at the stairs.

"Your face! Ha!" Mitsuko flashes her fangs with a giggle, clearly amused at my shame. I keep my head down as I rush down the stairs and reach for the door. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"

I turn around and take in the sight of her. Mitsuko's sunflower hair covers one of her diamond dust eyes that pierce me from the top of the staircase. She's wearing a white dress that stops at her hips. Her ripped legs are bare and I can almost see her…

I turn around. I cannot expose my red cheeks to her, not now. I can't do this. Run! I take a single, timid step.

"Stop," Mitsuko commands quietly. I freeze in place, like she casted a paralysis incantation with her lips. Her bare feet patter against the wooden steps and across the tatami mats. She circles in front of me, blocking the door with knuckles on her hips.

Even her scowl is cute, yet always intimidating. I'm beginning to learn Mitsuko's cues and take this silent judgment as an invitation to speak.

"I was just—"

"Shh."

I zip my voice. I guess I haven't learned anything. Her thoughts are indiscernible to me, as usual. The faint scent of her peach perfume and lotion sends dopamine coursing through me, making my neurons tingle. My heart speeds up like I took ten espresso shots.

"Did you get a new pod yet?" Mitsuko asks, just above a whisper.

"No, I didn't get the chance to convert—"

"Then why the fuck are you leaving? Where were you going to go?"

Somehow she is even more frightening when speaking like this, so quiet and deliberate. The harshness in her eyes never ceases, the disappointed scowl, the aggressive body language… I sweat nervously.

"B-but you said—"

"B-but you said!" Mitsuko mocks, impersonating my voice pitifully. In my fluster I look to the ground. I see the tops of her bare feet, those blue toenails I tasted the night before. Did all that really happen? Surely just a dream… Maybe I did drink something?

Mitsuko gasps, her mouth opening wide. "The fuck?! You're doing it again! You fucking pervert!"

It was real and I'm about to die. "No! It-it-it was an accident, I swear!" I turn my head in all directions, trying to look at anything else.

Mitsuko's laugh rattles my core, but it's almost calming in a twisted way, like I'm proud to have pleased her enough to mutter that delightful soundtrack of her amusement.

"I'm just fucking with you. I couldn't resist. Come on, let's go break our fast. I'm starving to death."

Mitsuko slips on a pair of black leather heels that cover her feet and ankles. She didn't put on any socks or pantyhose. My mind automatically ponders; the scent must be so unbelievably…

I blink twice and shake my head. What is happening to me? Too lewd! Focus. I have a bigger problem at hand. "Um… Mitsuko…"

She turns toward me with annoyance.

"I don't have any credits yet."

"Did I ask? You're such an idiot. Hurry up."

She exits the house. I quickly slip on my sneakers, running to catch up with my shoelaces still untied. She's already on the sidewalk path toward the city. With each stride her muscular calves flex with each step. I have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is I need to follow her. Even if I wanted to resist, it's like Mitsuko has a gravitational pull and I keep dropping deeper, deeper, deeper…