CHAPTER 24
The rest of the night Eri and I watched movies, late night TV shows, played games, and talked to each other. It felt nice to get to know her better. It still bothered me that her mother was going to die. She was dying such a slow death. That has to be the worse for anyone to know or go through, but Eri holds her will strong. She still is able to live through all that pain. That’s something I will always admire about her. It will be such a hard time for her when her mother does pass away though and I made a promise to myself to be there for her when that happens. It’s the least I can do. I don’t want to think about that anymore though. I can never imagine how it must feel to lose someone you love so much. If my mom died I…wouldn’t know what to do or how to deal with it. It made me feel good though knowing that I helped her cheer up after her heart-breaking story. When she told me about her personal life it gave me this idea. Something I would have never thought of if I didn’t met her. I got this idea that I want to be with her—forever. We’ve only been together not for one month yet and already she means so much to me. I don’t know where such a thought came from, but it didn’t scare me. I felt…right. I couldn’t stop smiling either.
***
We didn’t wake up until late afternoon the next day. We were alone again too. My uncle left a note in the kitchen though saying he had somewhere important to be. He didn’t give much detail on where or when he’ll be back, but I’m not worried. He’ll come back. In the meantime, I get to spend some alone time with Eri again. I always enjoy that. We cleaned up and then went to make some food. It was too late for breakfast so having lunch will do. I tell Eri to wait in the living so that I can cook her something. I want to try and make her something this time. She’s been cooking for me a lot so I can give her a break from working over the stove. The only thing is that I can only make one dish and my uncle told me I needed to work on it more. I can always serve her cereal? I shake my head. I’m trying to be romantic and loving, I need to think of what to cook and make it decently. Think Reina, think.
“Do you need help?” Eri says from the living room
I stare at the pots in front of me. “No, I’m fine.”
That’s a big lie. I have NO idea what I’m doing, but I won’t tell her that. I won’t admit defeat! I will cook and do this right. Yuka jumps up on the counter curious to see what I’m doing. Her large round eyes look from the pots to me constantly. I smile at her and stroke her back. She purrs.
“Let’s hope I make a good meal this time Yuka.” I tell her
I turn on the stove to warm up the pots. I scratch my head. Ok, what do I do next? This is horrible! The only dish I know how to make I suddenly forgot how to start it! Damn it! I should have really paid attention to my uncle. All right, relax, I’ll try and think about what he said goes first. Hmm…I place a hand under my chin as I think carefully, trying to recall his exact words. I have nothing. I give up! As I stare at the pots in defeat I feel two pair of arms go around my waist and then someone giggle. I feel myself relax as Eri holds me. I’m really getting angry over nothing.
“Are you sure you don’t need any help? You seem lost standing here.”
She presses her head against the back of my neck and I sigh. I slide my hands down her arms and settle them to her hands that are on my stomach. I look down embarrassed. I hate to admit I need help in things. I always like to do them myself. Just like I always hate losing when I play games with anyone.
“Uh…I kind of forgot what to do.” I whisper
She laughs and hugs me tighter. She pulls away from my neck and moves a little and then kisses me on the cheek. She lets me go and faces the stove.
“Let me cook.” She insists
“You’ve cooked too much for me. Let me cook for you instead.” I explain
“I don’t mind. You can try next time. I promise.” She smiles at me
I can’t keep a stern face with her smile at me. So I give in. “Ok.” I agree
“You can wait in the living room. I’ll be done soon.” She focuses on the stove, leaving me no choice, but to go to the living room.
I really want to make her something. I want to surprise her. I’ll have to ask my uncle to give me another cooking lesson then. I sit down watching whatever channel she left on. I wonder what we can do today? We should go somewhere nice. I don’t want to stay inside all day with her. Not that I don’t like it. It’s just that I want to do something fun with her. Maybe I should call everyone and we can all hang out together somewhere nice.
***
“What are we going to do today?” Eri asks, as she takes our dishes to the sink
“I’m not sure. I was thinking we could hang out with everyone today.”
I lean back into my chair and let out a deep sigh. The food is good as always. I think we should hang out with everyone today. It will be fun. Eri finishes washing our dishes and joins me to the table.
“Should we go to the movies today with everyone? What do you have in mind?”
I place a finger on my chin thinking about it for a few seconds. We’ll need somewhere fun and not far from here for us to all get to. We can’t do karaoke. I REFUSE to do that! I don’t need to sing with Ai again drunk. Eri starts to think about it too seeing that I’m having a hard time figuring out where to go today. As we think, Eri’s cell phone starts to rings. She leaves the kitchen and gets it from the coffee table in the living room. She just flips the phone open without looking at the screen.
“Hello?”
It goes quiet for a little while after that. Eri nods and says yes a few times, but that’s about it. So I can’t hear what she’s talking about or whom she’s talking to. I look at her inquisitively. She just ignores me. So I pout seeing that’s she’s not paying me any attention.
“We’ll be right there.”
Eri hangs up and puts the phone on the table. Now will she tell who it was and what the hell is going on?! She sees me and laughs.
“You don’t have to pout you know. I’ll tell you who it was.” She says
She comes over to me and gives me a small kiss on my lips. I think I deserve more than just a little kiss. I smile and pull her back to me as she moves away. I pull her hard enough so that she falls onto my lap and I hold her down firmly. I stroke her cheek softly as I stare into her sparkling eyes. I cup her face with my right hand and smirk.
“You know, now that I think about it. I haven’t gotten my good morning kiss.”
We might as well make out a little since my uncle’s out of the house. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of that sooner! Probably because I was too hungry to think about that, Eri blushes and shakes her head.
“We can’t.”
“And why not?”
“Because Ai called me and told me she needs help cleaning out her garage. Everyone’s going to be there and I told her we’ll be there too in an hour.”
She just what?! I know I want to hang out with everyone, but cleaning and lifting heavy things weren’t what I had in mind! I scowl at her. She laughs and leans in so her forehead is touching mine. She puts both her hands on my neck to get me to look at her.
“Don’t be so down. We’ll have time to kiss later.”
“I can’t have just ONE kiss?” I beg
“Ok, but only one.” Eri agrees
I smile at her and she dips down pressing her lips to mine. Of course I lied about the one kiss thing. But I don’t tell her that. I pull her closer in and kiss her passionately, turning our one kiss into several kisses. She doesn’t seem to be against it either. My hand starts to move on their own going down her body and up her thighs. She moans when my hand touches her stomach. She grabs my hand before I can touch something else. She pulls away and looks at me. She frowns at me or tries to look like she’s mad at me. I smile at her. There’s no way she’s going to say that this is wrong and deny she didn’t enjoy that. I know she did. I can see it in her eyes.
“We have to get ready to leave.” She reminds me
I start kissing her neck to try and distract her. She sighs and puts a hand on the back of my head to bring me closer. She lets out a low moan.
“I’m sure Ai can wait.” I whisper
I kiss her collarbone and bite firmly at her shoulder. Her breath hitches in her throat when I bite her. See…she’s enjoying this all right.
“No, I…um…I promised we would…be there.” She pants
My hands find the end of her shirt again and go inside her clothing to touch bare skin. I don’t want to go out anymore. I want to stay here with Eri inside, doing this. This is SO much better. She pushes me back and gets off my lap. I look at her upset. Just when we were getting to the good part, she puts on a much more stern face.
“I’ll…I’m going to get ready.”
She rushes out the kitchen and to the bathroom. I groan out and place a hand on my face annoyed. I hope I didn’t scare her off. Is she mad at me? I lost control. It’s my entire fault. Now she won’t talk to me! I get up and go to my room to change. I hope she’s not really mad at me. Suddenly, going to help Ai clean out the garage isn’t so much of a bad thing.
***
We didn’t have to walk to Ai’s place out in the cold. She agreed to pick us up since we’re the farthest away from her house. It was nice of her to pick us up. I didn’t talk much during the ride. I was still worried over if Eri’s mad at me or not. She was ok talking with Ai. I could just be taking this whole thing the wrong way. I decided to stay quiet while they talked though. It was probably the best thing to do. The ride to Ai’s house wasn’t that long being that we were going by car. I’m sure by foot it would take us nearly an hour to get there. When we reached Ai’s house everyone else was already there working in the garage. We got out of the car and joined everyone. Everyone was there except Sayu.
“Where’s Sayu?” I question
“She couldn’t make it. She had something important to do with her mom.” Koharu replies
Of COURSE she would know. That reminds me! I have to ask her how are things with her and Sayu. Hopefully, she finally got Sayu to be her girl. I’ll have to confront her later. Ai stands in front of us and calls for our attention.
“Ok, I need everything to be thrown out. We need to make room in here and make it look neater. My parents finally see how crowded this place looks.” Ai instructs to us
“We can do it Ai. Don’t worry.” Eri says
Ai smiles. “Ok let’s start then.”
Everyone breaks up into different directions and starts cleaning whatever they can get their hands on. At least this will help me get my mind off of Eri. But no one better ask me to help lift up something heavy!
***
Since there were five of us cleaning at once we were able to clean this whole place in almost an hour. I’m glad that this is over. My clothes are covered in dirt and dust and all I want is to go home and take a bath. Right after I take my break. All this cleaning tires me out. I wipe away the sheet of sweat on my forehead and take a deep breath. Normally I don’t work hard so that I don’t sweat because I hate sweating and I hate doing all the physical stuff. But this took a lot out of me. With all the heavy lifting we had to do. I spot an empty seat next to Koharu and go next to her. I let out a tired sigh. I’m never doing this again!
“Water?” Koharu asks
And takes out a cold bottle of water from the cooler Ai brought us from her house. I take it and twist the cap off. I take a large gulp from it and put it down. I’m going to take one LONG bath when I get back home. This is just gross.
“Thanks.” I say, and take a smaller sip this time.
“You’re welcome.”
Then everything goes quiet between us. And she’s back to her quiet self like at Ai’s party. I know she must have something’s on her mind. I’ll just make it easy for her and be blunt once again.
“What’s bothering you?”
“Nothing.” She tells me quickly, that isn’t very convincing.
“How are things with you and Sayu?”
I see her go tense. Yep, I found me the reason of her quietness. And it looks like I hit a nerve too. Don’t tell me things went wrong again with her! I swear if I have to lock those two in a room alone to get them together I will!
“It’s…good.”
She sounds happy when she says that. She even has on this dreamy smile. Wait…is she with Sayu and she’s trying to cover it up? I have to know now!
“Wait a minute…so you and Sayu are,”
Her cell phone rings suddenly. Stupid phone! I need to know what’s going on between them damn it! That way I know I don’t have to stick them into a room alone. Koharu looks at her phone and she has on this goofy smile. I know that smile anywhere. It’s one of those lovesick smiles. Kind of the ones I give Eri when I see her. So they ARE together! Oh yeah! I’m good. I smirk. I just need her to confirm it.
“Hello?”
I look at Koharu trying to hear what they’re saying. I need to make sure that I’m correct. Koharu’s face goes pink and she looks down at her feet bashfully.
“Michishige-san, right now isn’t a good time. Can we try another day?”
This is getting good! I lean in to try and hear more. I wonder what’s going on. From the way Koharu’s acting it must be good. Maybe Sayu’s is asking for her to come over her place to get some “Alone Time.” I laugh out loud at that thought. Koharu looks at me and looks way embarrassed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Her face turns pink again. “Do I have to?” she sighs and slumps down, covers her mouth with her hand before she speaks again. It makes it a little harder to hear what she’s saying when she does that. But somehow I manage.
“I love you too…Usa-chan.”
They even have nicknames for each other?! This is funny. Koharu closes her phone and looks at me. She smiles shyly. She doesn’t have to be all embarrassed. I mean there’s nothing wrong being with Sayu. Sure she’s a little scary to be around and I’m pretty sure she’ll try and jump Koharu’s bones everyday now that they’re together, but other than that I think she’ll be great for her.
“You’re with Sayu and you never told me?” I ask
“I was gonna tell you. Just not today.” She admits
“What did she say?”
She rubs the back of her neck and laughs nervously.
“Um…I don’t think you want to know.” She laughs
I think she’s right. So I’ll move on to the next question to prevent me from mentally scaring myself.
“When did you two get together?”
“Yesterday. I went to her house to straighten everything out. I was tired of her playing games.”
“Then what happened?” I ask
I doubt it went wrong because they’re together now. But I am curious to how it happened. Koharu was for once being the mature and dominating one huh? I laugh out loud at that thought. Koharu raised a brow looking at me like I’m crazy.
“It’s nothing, go ahead.” I encourage; she continues.
“Well when I was talking to her very seriously and telling her how I felt she just kissed me and told me she likes me too. And that was it.” Koharu laughs
“And you two made out all day didn’t you?” I joke
Koharu looks down turning a bright red. I look at her in shock and point at her.
“You did!?” I scream
Koharu looks away. God, Sayu going to corrupt poor Koharu quickly at this rate! Unless…Koharu is hiding the perverted side of her she wants no one to see. Then those two will get along just fine. I notice that everyone is still looking at me from my outburst. Great I just embarrassed her more.
“It’s nothing! Now go mind your own business!” I yell
They turn back around talking to one another. See staring crowd fixed. I turn back to Koharu.
“Sorry I didn’t mean for everyone to find out that you two are together.” I apologize.
“Well actually I want to tell everyone, but I don’t know how. I was hoping that you can help me with that.”
“Sure no problem.” I agree. “Hey everyone! Sayu and Koharu are dating! You got a problem with that?!”
Everyone looks at me again in shock. It’s quiet for a moment. I glare at them to say something. Ai looks lost, Risa’s kind of surprised, and Eri well…she seems a little bit calmer than the others. I’m guessing they’re taking this well?
“Nope no problem at all.” Risa says. Then a string of agreements from Ai and Eri come after.
“There you go. They now know.” I smile
“I didn’t have it in mind like THAT but…thanks?” Koharu says
I laugh and get up from my seat. She’ll recover soon. Though I didn’t mean to make her that embarrassed. I go over to Eri. I have to try and fix up whatever is going on between us. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I keep having these assumptions that I did something wrong to get her angry with me. I’ll have to talk to her to see. She sees my slump down posture and turns to me. I feel a little more nervous now that she’s looking at me.
“Uh…are you ok?” I ask
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She ask
“Really?”
She nods
“Yep, everything’s fine. Why you thought that I wasn’t? I’m ok about what happen in your house. I was just uh…” She blushes
I see. I got it all wrong it! I was worried over nothing. She enjoyed what we did, but she ended up really turned on. I feel much better knowing that. I laugh and hug her. I step back and pinch her cheeks with both hands.
“You’re so cute.” I coo
She pushes my hands away and rubs her cheeks. She is really cute. I put my arm around her waist and bring her close to me.
“Are you ready to go home?”
“Nope. If I go home that means I’ll have to be away from you and I won’t like that. I’ll miss you.” She says honestly
I feel myself nearly jump for joy at those words. I’m such a dork. I smile and kiss her on the cheek.
“Don’t worry. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I remind her
She shakes her head. “It’s not the same.” She pouts
I lean in and kiss her on the lips. I can’t resist. When she pouts like that I have to kiss her. She blushes and puts her head down. I hear snickering and turn in front of me. Everyone is looking at us and grinning.
“If any of you say a word you’re dead.” I growl. They laugh and go quiet after. I thought so.
“I’ll drive you both home.” Ai offers
“And I’ll walk Koharu home.” Risa cuts in
“Thanks.” I say
We all go our own ways again. This day wasn’t so bad. I got to spend sometime with my friends and Eri at the same time. Koharu and Sayu finally ended up together after all the hell they went through. I’m looking forward to school tomorrow and that kind of scares me. I wish it were the weekend already though. But I can wait. It’ll be worth it once I have Eri by my side again. I open the back seat to Ai’s car and sit with Eri in the back. On the ride home I had our hands into a tight lock the whole time. She makes me so happy.
Topic: This Thing Called Love(UPDATED 11/26/14) [COMPLETE] (Read 177942 times)