CHAPTER 16
For the past two days I hadn’t talked to Eri. I wanted to, but I didn’t think it was the right time to talk to her yet. With her I can never be sure if I’m too close or too distant. She was definitely distant to me. She didn’t talk to me when we hung out with everyone else. She would wave hello to me each time she saw me, but after that there was no real conversation. Risa and Ai seemed to notice and asked if I was ok. Of course I lied and told them everything was fine. I didn’t need them to get involved on this. Though I could use their help. I mean they’re dating and they could help me with my feelings with Eri. I’ll have to ask them later for advice. The weekend went so fast after that. It was Monday again before I knew it and we were back in school. The only thing I look forward to was Ai’s party tomorrow, not because we were celebrating it, but because Eri said she would see me there. I really wanted to talk to her again. I entered the school building heading straight for my locker as usual.
“Reina!”
It was Risa. She seemed worried. It must be about the party she’s throwing. She’s having a last minute freak out I guess.
“What’s up?”
She gripped my arm tightly. That kind of hurts, ouch.
“Tell me you got what I asked you to?!” She exclaimed
I pull my arm from her death grip. Yep, she’s freaking out all right.
“Relax, I got it. Why are you so worked up?”
“Ai-chan’s birthday is tomorrow and I haven’t even gotten the cake yet! I need to get that cake before tonight!”
“Ok, first off…breath! And secondly, you don’t have to worry. If the cake isn’t done in time I’ll make a cake myself.”
She cheers up. Then pulls me into a strong hug. I can’t breath now.
“Thank you! I’m normally not like this, but I just need everything to go perfect for her. It means so much to me.”
I weakly pat her back. I really need the breath.
“You’re…welcome, now…can you let go so that I can breath?” I manage to let out
She backs off.
“Sorry.”
“It’s cool. Just…not too hard next time ok?” I chuckle. She laughs too.
“There you guys are.”
Damn it’s Ai again! She really has some timing huh? If she came a second earlier she would know about the party we’re throwing her. Risa jolts and turns around to her.
“You know, I keep finding you two like this. I’m starting to think you’re planning something behind my back.” Ai chuckles
She looks at me then to Risa. She looks nervous. If she does that she’ll look obvious to what we’re doing. Looks like I’ll have to save her again.
“Can’t we just talk and enjoy each other’s company Ai?” I reply
She places an arm around Risa’s shoulder and smiles.
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” She agrees
“Ai-chan!! You’re birthday is tomorrow! Aren’t you excited?!” Koharu yells from across the hall.
Ai flinches at the mention of her up coming birthday. She’ll a little early with the birthday wishes. Not far behind her, Sayu and Eri come along too. And my heat races when I see Eri make her way to us.
“Don’t remind me.” Ai complains. Risa nudges her.
“Come on it’s going to be your birthday. Can you at least try to sound a little happy about it?” She asks
Ai frowns and mumbles under her breath. I hope she’ll be a little happier when she sees her surprise birthday party. We’re all working hard on it. The bells sounds and we all say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. I’m a little nervous about tomorrow. I’ll be around Eri and I’m not sure if she’s ok being around me again after the last stunt I pulled. I’ll just have to wait and see.
***
I had a free day when school was over. I had no homework so that meant I could spend some time looking for a decent gift for Ai. I completely forgot to ask Risa on what to get her and it was too late to ask now. She had left with Ai and the others. And I had decided to walk home instead of getting a ride. As I walked I then realized I have no idea where to start to look for a gift. I don’t want to show up with no gift at the party tomorrow. I wouldn’t be much of a good friend if I didn’t. I stand on the sidewalk thinking where to look. This is hard.
“Reina?”
“Wahhh!” I scream and turn around.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Eri apologizes
I place a hand to my beating heart and try to calm down.
“Uh…it’s ok. What’s wrong?”
“Well…I’m going to make Ai’s present today and I wanted to know if you would want to come with me to help. Maybe you can make one too since you don’t have one yet.”
That could work. I’m in a desperate need of gift right about now. I might as well give it a try. So I agree.
“Yeah sure, let’s go.”
She smiles and starts leading me down the street to where ever she’s going to make her gift. I wonder where we’re going or what it is. We walk down a couple of blocks and then she stops in front of this small store. From looking outside I can’t tell what it is, but I’ll just trust her on this. We go inside and she talks to the owner for a few seconds. He nods take the money Eri paid him and then leads us to the back. Where ARE we? We get to the back and I notice this type of wheel and chair that’s next to it. Ok I’m lost.
“We have to put aprons on first.” Eri tells me
She grabs two aprons from the hooks and hands me one. Now I’m even more curious. What are we doing making meat? That wouldn’t really be a great birthday gift for Ai and I don’t even know her well to say if that’s a bad gift. I tie the apron around my waist and wait to be told what to do next. The storeowner hands us this wet orange blob and I stare at it like it’s some type of creature from the sea. Eri laughs.
“It’s clay Reina. You can touch it.”
I take the wet clay and look to her on what to do next. I’ve never done this before. I’m completely clueless. She laughs again and puts her clay on one of those wheel tables. She goes over to help me.
“You’ve never done this before have you?”
“Nope, not at all.”
Normally I would say yes to keep my pride, but with her I feel that it’s ok to admit defeat. She won’t go making fun of me or tell others about it. Unlike some people back at Fukuoka did. She takes the clay and puts it down on the wheel looking table.
“Sit down.” I don’t complain and listen. “Ok, rest your foot on this pedal.”
So I’m guessing this isn’t a table after all. She stands behind me, takes both my hands and puts it on to the clay. It’s cold and kind of sticky on my fingers.
“Now press the pedal to spin the wheel, but don’t do it too fast or clay will go flying everywhere.”
This is tough. I take a deep breath then start pressing the pedal at a steady pace. The wheel slowly starts spinning around and around. Eri takes my hands and starts to form the clay. She makes it stand up and then she lets go of my hands.
“You can make whatever you want from there. If you need help just tell me.” She goes back to her seat and starts doing the same thing.
Ok, I can do this. No big deal. I think I’ll make a cup. That would be easy. I go back to trying to form the clay only it goes really bad and topples over. I look over to Eri. She makes it seem so easy when she does it. How can she do that?! I look back to my pieces of clay and try again. I think I’ve got it. But then it falls over again. I hate this thing! I let out a growl. Eri giggles.
“Relax. You will get it. Just try again and go a little slower.” Eri instructs.
I nod and start over again. It went better than the last two tries. This isn’t’ so bad. It goes quiet after that and I focus on trying to make my cup. It took us about twenty minutes to finish making our pottery. Mine was fine, but at the opening of the cup it kind of clasped and it was bent all weird at the edges. Eri’s was kind of funky, but she said she wanted the vase to be like that. When we were done it was time to let the clay bake for a while. That was about thirty minutes alone to let it cook. When the time was up the storeowner took the pottery out of the furnace and then we had to wait a while for it to cool down. This is a really slow process. When can we get to decorate it already? So I wait some more.
“Is it done yet?” I mumble, sitting tiredly in my seat
I swear this is like watching paint dry. Eri looks both of our pottery over and touches hers lightly. She nods.
“It cool. Come on let’s decorate it.”
I shot out of my chair as Eri goes to take out the paint and brushes. She’s done this a lot hasn’t she? She seems to know where everything is around here. I’m glad I went with her to do this. I wouldn’t have gone to do it with anyone else. When I get the paint and brushes I start painting away around the cup. I know just what to put on it. I’m careful to paint each letter neatly and in different colors. This actually is really fun and cool to do, I should have done it soon. Decorating it took us a little quicker than baking it, but it was still time consuming.
“I’m done.” I announce.
I look my work over and smile proud. It’s pretty good I think. I hope Ai will like it. In big letters I wrote Happy Birthday then put little designs around it like cakes and balloons. It’s stupid, but it’s all I could think of. I turn to Eri. She looks like she’s having some trouble painting hers. So I go over to see what I can help her on.
“That’s a good cow.” I note
“It’s supposed to be a monkey.” She grumbles
“Really? Those look like horns.”
“Those are its ears.”
“Oh…”
I’m just digging myself a hole here! I feel stupid now. Uh…quick say something else! I grab her hand and grip on to the paintbrush. I think I can fix it just a little so it looks more like a monkey.
“You’ll need to make the ears a little more round and big. Here, let me help.”
I dip the tip of the brush into the pain and carefully begin to round the ears and face of her painting. I move the brush slowly, making sure I don’t lose control of the strokes. I dip my brush back in and give the monkey eyes, a mouth, and a nose. I then give it a hand and put a banana in it. It’s looking better. I add a few more things. I’m so focused on painting; I didn’t notice Eri was looking at me now instead of the vase. Feeling her eyes on me I look down and see how close she is to me. I stop painting and put the brush down on to the table. She has that look in her eyes again. The one she had at my house when we were about to kiss. I nervously gulp. We’re really close. She leans back into me and I feel my heart race nearly out of my chest. This is it? She’s not going to pull away is she? Then I feel it. Her lips touching mine and I kiss her back. Her lips are so soft against mine. They sweet just like the lip-gloss she puts on. I don’t do anything than kiss her. There’s no tongue. I’m afraid if there was, I might scare her again and I don’t want that. Both my hands wrap around her waist, pulling her close to me. She feels so good against me. I want to hold her and kiss her forever. I fight against my strong desire to just do her right here on the table. Ok, that’s a very…hot image. I don’t need that right now. After a few kisses it’s over and I let out a breath I never knew I was holding. I open my eyes and look into hers. A small smile forms on my face. She smiles back. I rest my head on to her shoulder enjoying her pressed against me. I guess this means we’re ok now?
“I have to go soon. My uncle will start to worry about me.”
“Ok.” She sounds sad to see me go. I don’t want to leave her feeling down. Maybe this will help her.
“I’ll give you my cell number. You can call me anytime.” I tell her
She takes out her cell phone from her pocket and flips it open. I pick up my head from her shoulder and tell her my number. I give her a firm hug and sigh. I really don’t want to leave her.
“I’ll…see you at the party.” I whisper next to her ear
She turns around in my arms and gives me a proper hug. I’m happy to hug back. We stay like that for a little. Just holding each other. What does this mean about us? Are we friends? Or are we going out now? I’m not sure. I’m starting to get all confused again. I have to get out of here.
“I’ll see you then.” She agrees
I let her go and take my deformed looking cup. I touch my lips. They tingle and burn from our lips touching. It felt good and the only thing I can think about is kissing her again.
Topic: This Thing Called Love(UPDATED 11/26/14) [COMPLETE] (Read 177712 times)