CHAPTER 28
Something fuzzy and soft wakes me up the next morning and it feels like little feet are walking all over my face, pawing at me. Something else is also tickling my nose constantly. I smack whatever it is that’s rubbing my nose, but it doesn’t stop so I open my eyes to see what it is. Yuka’s large cat eyes come into my view and stare down at me. It nearly causes me a heart attack. I roll all the way to the edge of my bed quickly and Yuka goes scattering across the other side and falls off the bed. I scoot over to see if she’s ok. She rolls back on to her paws and looks at me scornfully. I frown. I didn’t mean for her to fall like that.
“I’m sorry are you ok, Yuka?”
She walks away towards the door. I guess she isn’t talking to me for a while. Not that she can, but she’ll give me angry looks and that’s enough. I glance at my clock and see that it’s almost noon. I better get ready if I want to pick up Eri. I head towards the bathroom first. I think Eri will like what I have planned for us. It’s just the two of us spending time together for once. I look forward to that. I finish brushing my teeth and fix up my hair into the same hairstyle I do all the time. When that’s over with I go to the kitchen. I’ll have to settle for something light and quick.
“Reina, you’re up earlier than usual.” My uncle notes, “Are you going somewhere?”
I get out a bowl from the cupboards and put it on to the counter.
“Yeah, I’m going out with Eri.”
He goes quiet after that. I’m guessing he’s ok with it since he isn’t telling me to not go. I pull out a box of cereal and go to pour it into my bowl.
***
“Uncle, I’ll be home late today.”
“Don’t get into trouble.” He says back
“I won’t. I’ll see you later.” I go out my room and he stands up from the couch stopping me.
“It isn’t much, but get what you can with it.” He says and hands me some money.
I take it and I feel a little guilty. I always seem to be asking him for money lately. I don’t want him to go poor because of me. I’m asking for too much. He doesn’t say it though, but I know it. I should get a job. I’ll add that to my list of things to do.
“Have fun.” He smiles at me
I hug him and walk out the door. I can’t keep Eri waiting any longer. She seems too happy to go somewhere with me today and to be honest I am too.
When I get there Eri’s brother is nice enough to give us a ride. I think he offered it in the first place because he wants to step out from the problems going on at home and who wouldn’t? They aren’t going through a very easy situation right now. Everything in here is awkwardly silent and sad too. I don’t think I could stay there for just one minute. You can tell everyone is hurting. They wouldn’t tell you that, but anyone can easily see by the look on their faces and the dark atmosphere they give off is highly visible. I don’t get how Eri can be so happy and positive when she lives in a house that is this despair full. She’s stronger than she thinks. It didn’t take long for Eri to finish getting ready and we were on the road. She sat close to me in the back and held my hand. I don’t think I’ve seen her this happy to go somewhere with me. I held her hand back and rested my head on her should as we sat there. Our cuddling didn’t last that long though because the ride to the place wasn’t that far. I’m a little nervous to show her my surprise now that we’re here. I was nervous because she might not like it but also because I might mess things up. But I think I’m getting ahead of myself so I shouldn’t worry. Everything will go fine or at least I intend it to be fine. We’ll have to see how it really turns out. We head towards the entrance door.
“Come on, let’s go inside.”
Eri jumps in excitement and loops her arm with mine. She has on this big smile as I lead her into the building. She turns around real quick to say goodbye to her brother and to thank her for the ride. Then we go through the doors and inside. I go up to the lady at the front desk. I pay her the money needed to spend the day here and we get our skates and sit on one of the benches in the lobby to put them on. Eri seems overjoyed to get on the ice already. I just hope she can skate well, because I can’t! I’m going to be looking like a big fool in a couple of minutes. I just hope not a lot of people are around to see me fall. When I’m done Eri grabs my hand and pulls me towards the double doors that lead to the ice rink. There aren’t many people around and that’s a good thing. We can act more like a couple with less people around. I wish we were completely alone instead.
“Hey not so fast Eri. It’s hard running in skates.” I whine
“I’m sorry it’s just…I never went skating before.” She explains
“You’re kidding right?”
How could she have never gone skating? Ok I shouldn’t say much either. I never made pottery before until she brought me to that shop to make Ai’s present. She scratches the back of her head.
“I always wanted to, but I never got around to doing it.”
So that means this is her first time skating. I’ll be sure to make it fun and memorable then. I’m really worried on making a fool of myself too. She gives me a curious look.
“Did you ever go skating?”
“A few times when I was eight. It’s been a while though.” I chuckle bashfully. “I wonder if I still remember how to do it.”
“We’ll go slow.”
Together we carefully step on to the ice and I wobble around for a second. I quickly cling to the wall and I gain my balance again. My other hand grabs on to Eri’s shoulder. Since when was ice this slippery?!
“Are you ready?”
I stare at my skates as I fight to stay balanced. Maybe this was a bad idea. It’s too late now. I squeeze Eri’s hand and take a quick breath. I can do this. I can do this.
“I-I think so.”
She gives me a sweet smile.
“Don’t worry, we’re going slow remember?” Eri reminds me
“Right.” I faintly agree
How do I move my feet again? Man, this is hard. Eri moves and pulls my arm with her and I feel myself about to freak out.
“Uwah, wait!” I plead; she turns back to me. “I’m not ready. Oh, this is scary!”
She laughs. “It’ll be ok, come on.” She insists, her voice sounds calm and promising.
I’m the one who got us into this mess. I’ll have to stick to it and hang in there. I don’t want her to have to go home because I was too scared to skate. By the end of the day I will know how to skate! Or I intend to. I take a deep breath. It’s no big deal. It isn’t that hard, right?
“O-okay.”
She pulls my arm again and I try to look at her feet to see how I should move over the ice. I move my legs and Eri pulls me, leading me away from the wall. Slowly, we glide over the ice and I’m able to still keep my balance as we move. This isn’t so bad. As long as I keep going slow that is. We start to circle the large rink and about half way there I’m starting to enjoy myself. This isn’t so bad. I loosen my death grip on Eri’s hand just a little. I thought I was going to be the one to guide her since she’s never skated but it’s the other way around. I look at her feet to see how can she move so smoothly.
“See it isn’t bad is it?” she chuckles
“It’s starting to get fun.” I reply, “I thought you said you never skated before? You’re skating fine.”
She pulls me closer to her so we’re skating side to side. She doesn’t break our joined hands either. I smile at her.
“This is kind of romantic.” She says “Just us skating together with the soft music in the background. I like it.”
I feel happier inside. She does like it and I had everything all wrong or second-guessed myself really bad.
“You really like it?” I ask
She nods. “Yeah it’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.”
“Good because this is meant to be our first date.” I tell her
“Eh?! What?! But…I’m not nicely dressed! I-I didn’t do my hair either!”
She starts panicking and runs her hand frantically through her hair a whole bunch of times and looks down to her clothing. I grab her hand and bring it down to her side. She looks at me, her eyes fill with panic. I stroke her black hair and look at her seriously. She calms down a little, but I can still tell she’s worried about this.
“You’re perfect just how you are now.” I sternly speak
We stop skating; she smiles and looks down bashfully. She takes a deep breath and looks back at me. I smile back at her. I wouldn’t have her looking or acting any other way.
“Really?” She whispers
I nod. She blushes again. I grab her other hand and swing our arms back and forth a little. I don’t know why I feel like I have butterflies in my stomach suddenly. I look around us. There are fewer people on the ice now. I shouldn’t be so hesitant. I’ve done it before with her. Why should this be different? Maybe I should ask her first. My face scrunches up a little as I think about it more.
“Are you ok?”
I snap out of my thoughts and focus back on her. I’m really making a big deal out of nothing. But it’s not nothing, it’s Eri! She always makes me feel all these type of feelings at once when I’m around her. I just want to do everything right for her and in our relationship.
“Yeah I’m fine. Um…” I inhale quickly then let my breath out. “Eri can I um…kiss you?”
She blushes a little and this huge smile goes on her face.
“I’m ok with it as long as you’re the only one that kisses me.” She replies back
I grin and lean down pressing my lips against her soft lips. My whole body feels hot with passion. This almost feels like its’ from some romantic movie. I snake my arms around her waist firmly and her arms go around my neck. I kiss her deeper now that I’m not so nervous. I don’t care who’s looking, she’s all that matters to me. She’s my world. I get a hold of her bottom lip and tug it lightly between my teeth. She lets out a small gasp and leans into me. I can feel her hot breath brushing against my face and it makes me want her more. She takes a step back, separating us only by an inch. I open my eyes.
“We should continue skating.” She mumbles
“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. I’m such an idiot. It won’t…”
She silences me with a quick peck on my lips. Well, that explains everything. I stare at her and blink a little surprised by her bold move to kiss me. She giggles at my expression. I smile and bury my face into her neck. She smells like flowers and she feels so soft. I could stay here with her forever.
“It’s not that I don’t want you to stop kissing me it’s just…I don’t want to end up giving everyone a show.”
Well that makes sense. I lift up my head and nod. We still have a whole day together. We continue to skate after that. We hold hands the whole time. Eri got the hang of skating while I was still struggle. How ironic is that? She’s never skated, but she learns it in a day and I have been skating a few times and I haven’t learned it yet. I was afraid to go fast and I still didn’t know how to stop. That can only lead to trouble. Eri seemed determined to teach me how to skate though. She got me away from the wall and skated with me in the middle of the rink.
“Ah, Eri wait, wait!” I cry
I move my legs quickly as possible to grab on to her hands again. She smiles at me while skating backwards and holds out her hands calling to me. If she’s going to teach me she can’t just leave me like that. I work faster to keep up and manage to grab her hand, but I loose my footing and fall. Eri lets out a scream and falls down too with me since I’m still holding her hand. I fall back hard on my butt and she falls right on top of me. I soften her fall and sit there on the ice with Eri on my lap.
“Are you ok?”
“I think so. My butt hurts like hell though.” I complain
“I’m sorry about that.”
She moves to get up and I let her go to let her stand. She turns around and helps me up. I wipe the ice around my butt and clean my hands. That fall really hurt. I feel my face burn as I start to blush.
“It’s ok. It was my fault.” I admit
“We should stop. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Eri suggests
“I’ll be ok. I’ve had worse trust me.” I chuckle “I’ really want to learn how to skate.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” I quickly reply
“Ok.”
I place my hands around Eri’s waist and she puts her hands over mine. She starts moving again and I try my best to keep up with her. I move my legs to try and mimic hers and keep the same speed.
“It’s just like that. See you’re getting it. Just keep the pace like that.” She instructs
She goes a little faster and my hands tighten around her hips. She giggles and pushes my hands back.
“That tickles.”
“Sorry.”
I look back to my feet. We do this a few more times until I can skate on my own and we stop after both our stomach growl. I was also starting to get really cold from being in here too long. So we decided to call it a day with skating. Everything worked out fine. Yeah I fell and embarrassed myself, but it’s not so bad. We gave our skates back and walked out to find a nice restaurant to eat at. We didn’t know what to eat at first. I wanted to eat something that had meat in it and Eri wanted to eat something that had cheese. I have no idea why. After looking around for a place that appealed to us the most we made a choice on eating sushi instead. That’s also weird since just minutes ago we wanted something different. I’m just glad we settled on something. It wasn’t crowded today surprisingly and we were easily seated to a nice table in the back.
“I’m glad I spent my day with you.” Eri says
I look up from my menu. She has on a sincere smile. She rests her hands over mine. This day isn’t turning out so bad isn’t it? This is a nice way to end things.
“Even if your first date didn’t turn out to how you pictured it?” I ask timidly
“It was even better than what I imagined.”
I feel so happy inside when she says that. I lace my fingers through her hand. I don’t know what to say, but I think she can understand me even without having to say anything. I look back to the menu to make a choice before the waiter comes over. We ordered eventually and after a few minutes the waiter came back with our food. Things are running smoothly for us, I’m glad. The rest of the night it we sat eating and talking. When we were done eating I offered to walk her home, which she agreed to. We got our coats and walked out the front door and that’s when her cell phone went off.
“Hello?”
There’s a long pause, but Eri’s face tells me this isn’t a good conversation. Something’s up and I’m afraid to know what. I put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her.
“I’ll be right over. Ok I’ll wait for you.”
She hangs up and this big sad frown is on her face.
“Eri what’s wrong?”
“It’s my mom again. She isn’t feeling good. She wasn’t feeling that well yesterday either.” She replies
“Is that why you had to hang up with me yesterday?” I ask
“Yeah.” She picks up her head, turns to me. “I’m sorry. I know you want to walk me home, but my brother’s coming over now to pick me up. I’m really sorry!”
I pull her into a hug and plant a kiss on the top of her head. She doesn’t have to say sorry about anything. I’m not mad at her; I’m only worried for her. She clings on to me. I think she’s about to cry. I stroke the back of her head softly.
“It’s ok. There’s nothing to be sorry about. I know how much your mom means to you.” I tell her
She sniffles. I hold her closer to me. And I know she’s crying for a whole different reason.
“I just…I want to be with you, but I also want to be by my mom’s side and help her. And I don’t understand,” She’s crying more and pauses to take several gulps of fresh air.
“My mom was doing fine this morning and now…she’s feeling so ill. It’s like she gets better and you think she’ll make it through, but then she feels like she’s about to die and all the hope you have just goes away. I can’t stand that.”
“I know, it doesn’t make sense and it makes you angry. It’s just how things are though and there’s only so much you can do for her, Eri. You don’t have to worry about me. You spend all the time you want with your mom, ok?”
She moves back an inch to look me in the face. Her cheeks are wet with her fresh hot tears that silently drip down her face. She shakes her head frantically at me.
“But I don’t want to leave you, I love you.” She faintly says
I look at her speechless. She’s never told me she’s loved me before and I never did tell her I love her either. Yeah, I’ve thought about it in my head, but I never said it verbally. I’ve never said it to her out loud. I smile and kiss her lips quickly.
“I love you too.” I repeat back
Her eyes light up with this bright twinkle. I’m sure I have the same glow in my eyes. I wipe away her tears and look at her taken away by her beauty. Even when she’s crying and full of despair she’s beautiful. She’s still an angel. She’s perfect. I don’t feel so sad anymore, I feel overjoyed. I wish she didn’t have to leave so soon, but I know how much her mother needs her and I’ll get another day or chance to see her again. A familiar small car pulls up the sidewalk and the person inside honks the horn. Eri looks at her brother then back at me.
“Go, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I encourage
She gives me a weak smile then breaks away from our hug. She sits in the front seat and waves at me from behind the window. I smile and wave at her back. Her brother drives away and I look away until I can’t see them anymore then I start walking down the block. I better get home before my uncle worries.
Topic: This Thing Called Love(UPDATED 11/26/14) [COMPLETE] (Read 178055 times)