People Watching [Open]

Erika punched in the numbers and then gave Sierra her own number. She was about to say something when her phone went off. It was Jun-kun, not a good sign. He rarely called her unless there was a problem.

"Sorry! Give me a second!" she apologized, answering the phone. "Jun-kun!" she said cheerfully, putting him at ease. A pause. She switched to Japanese hoping the woman wouldn't understand.

"It's okay, Jun-kun. Everything's going to be okay. Yes...I expected that. Yes...I took care of it. Well...Nothing can be done about that at the moment. I'll deal with him later. Everything's fine. Just relax and go study for your S.A.T.s."

She hung up the phone still smiling, though she really wanted to punch something. She didn't need this. Not now. This was one more problem she really didn't want to deal with. She quickly extracted her notebook and hurriedly scrawled something, adding it to her check list. She turned back to Sierra. "Sorry about that!"

"Well I can't do anything about it now," she said lazily. She didn't feel lazy. She felt angry and frustrated. She was trying so hard to hold the family together. What right did her father have to go and spend the money that had been set aside for Jun's S.A.T. prep course?!

She had gotten a scholarship to Pitt through her swimming. And she worked part time jobs when she could to save a little money up for Jun in case he wasn't able to get one. She hoped he would. Otherwise they'd have to take out loans.

She stirred her coffee with the straw again. At first the motion was slow and steady but it quickly became violent. The liquid was dangerously close to spilling over. Her smile was still fixed in place. "Oh you know...Families!" And then some did spill over but she just kept stirring. Stupid father. She loved him; but, he needed to get his act together. Stop god damn drinking! That wouldn't bring Mom back. Wouldn't help pay the bills. Wouldn't get Jun into college. Jun needed a firm father figure! Erika did too! But no, she had to play at both parents on top of everything.

Was there anything she could do to help? She was close to breaking down. She knew it. She was fighting an angry retort, fighting tears, fighting to keep that damned cheerful smile fixed firmly in place.

But what could she say? Even if she could talk about her visions, talk about being a Magiranger this girl would just think she was nuts. And if she talked about her home life...Well that would just be depressing, something a stranger didn't need.

But she'd been repressing everything for so long and she was working on no sleep. Without realizing what she was doing she violently slammed her fist against the table, rattling her cup of coffee.

It wasn't enough. She'd bottled up everything for too long. She was past the point of smiling and apologizing. She slammed her fist against the table several more times. When she pulled it back she was surprised to see it was bleeding. But it still wasn't enough. She continued to slam her fist against the table. She couldn't answer. She wasn't sure what to say. Something was wrong. So many things were wrong. Conceivably everything was wrong.

Erika resisted the urge to pull away but she was early explosion stage. She didn't want to hurt Sierra-chan. She wasn't the cause of her anger and frustration or more importantly her despair.

She buried her head in Sierra's shoulder and cried.

She hadn't cried in a long while so it was a good couple of minutes before she was finished. She hastily pulled herself away and dried her eyes.

Okay. She'd let it out. She could smile again. Besides the redness Erika looked cheerful. "I'm so sorry! I...I lost it there for a second! And um...I didn't help with the tip." She fiddled with her purse, searching for her wallet.