I think about her a lot. Especially on that warm afternoon in September, she stopped at the little outlet store first, and then proceeded to the boutique. Maybe she went to the pizza place first, because she was coming from that direction when I saw her walk into the restaurant. She looked around- caring a couple bags with the stores decals on the sides. She had on rolled up jeans and a loose t-shirt. Sunglasses on her head- she must have been walking around as the sun was setting. I was almost finished with my shift when I saw her walk in.

"Hey, you got time for one more?" Miroku asked me

"Yeah"

"Okay- don't drool, man" He snickered as he walked up to greet her and led her to my section.

She had the menu out in front of her and had her phone illuminated next to her.

"Hello, would you like to hear our specials?" I greeted her as she looked up at me and smiled. I'd never seen anything brighter. I set a glass of water down in front of her.

"Actually, the other guy did, I didn't really hear anything I liked so, what's your favorite thing here? I'll try that." She continued to stare at me and then closed the menu and handed it to me.

"Uh- I- Um" I stammered "I like it all"

"Well I can't really order all of it. Don't have that much money" She squinted a bit and I realized she was reading my name tag. "Inuyasha" She asked- still kind of squinting.

"Huh? Oh yeah- yes that's me." I hate my name.

"Cool name! So what is there to do around here?" She leaned forward a little in her seat, she had a necklace with a little heart on it and it slid forward with her movement. She clasped her hands together and set them in her lap. Her legs were crossed and her foot was shaking.

"Um not much, are you not around from here?"

"I guess you could say that." She reached for her water and took a sip.

"Well where are you from?" She scrunched her nose up a little and leaned away from me. "I'd rather not say…"

"Oh"

"Not trying to be rude- um anyways- how about we do something simple and I'll pick the pasta."

"Pasta- yes, would you like something to drink."

"No thanks- waters good" She picked up her glass again and tilted it toward me slightly "Cheers" and then she winked at me.

I smiled back and walked towards to the kitchen. Once her order was up I went back to her table and placed the dish down in front of her.

"Looks great" she said with sincere excitement.

"Okay so I know it's getting dark but if you'd like there's going to be a little get together tomorrow night. Ton of people will be there and you can just come- see if you like it- if not then I can think of a few other places you might want to check out."I watched her twirl some pasta on her fork. She blew on it and steam went up in the air. She took a bite and closed her eyes.

"Inuyasha- this pasta is delicious." She opened her eyes and smiled up at me. I smiled back at her. Her hair stopped around her shoulders and her eyes were brown but so incredibly vibrant every time she looked at me. She took another sip of water before speaking again. "I will go- but tomorrow you will show me around. I'll feel a little better being around your people after being around you first."

"Great- ok- um… yes- well" I stammered again.

"Where should we meet?"

"Uh- Jazzy Bagel, if you go back out to Main Street and take a left it's the little restaurant at the end. We can have breakfast there, around 9."

"Perfect"

Once she was finished and I ran her card I spoke to her some more.

"I'm sorry; I never got your name"

She grimaced and then blushed. She slowly shook her head back and forth. "Sorry- I can't do that, call me whatever you want though."

"Okay" I thought for a minute. Why couldn't she just tell me her name?

"I'll call you Kay" I smiled

"Okay Inuyasha, I'm Kay, It's nice to meet you- I'll see you tomorrow." She picked up her bags and held out her hand to shake mine. We shook. She smiled again and left.


I walked into the Jazzy Bagel at 8:45. My friend Rin was working and greeted me. I said hello and then sat down at a table towards the front, facing the door so I could catch Kay walking in. The sun was shining and it was another warm day at Main Street. I had a couple things planned for the day but I hadn't planned on Kay walking into Jazzy Bagel at 9:05 wearing a summer dress that cut off right above the knee. I realized I wasn't breathing when she was finally standing in front of me smiling again.

"Hi Inuyasha- What should I order here? What's your favorite thing?"

"Uhm" I couldn't breathe. I watched her take a few steps back so I could stand up. I did. I led her over to the menu and pointed at the specials. I heard her giggle. "What?" I kind of snapped and immediately regretted it. She turned away from me and looked at Rin. I saw her face squint again as she read her name tag.

"Rin" She asked "What should I order- what's your favorite thing here?"

"Well, I'm pretty simple- I usually go with the sesame seed bagel with egg, cheese and turkey. It's delicious. Sometimes I get a little crazy and add mustard." Rin replied.

"I think I'd like that- let's go a little crazy and even add the mustard." Kay giggled and then turned to me. I ordered the same because I couldn't think of anything else besides the way I had just snapped at her. "Inuyasha, when I ask you to tell me what you like please stop pointing me to the specials." Kay said as she walked over to a booth and sat down. I watched her pull out her phone.

"Who is that girl?" Rin asked me

"I don't know actually- just met her, showing her around today."

"Well, I like her, are you bringing her tonight?"

"That's the plan. Can I get a couple orange juices?"


I was taking a picture of her with her camera. She was brushing her hair out her face and Multnomah Falls was her background. So far I'd taken her to Troutdale and then Crown Point. She loved each place and took an unreasonable amount of pictures. All I heard was a click-click-click between her giggles and questions. At the Vista House she had smiled so big looking down the gorge at the river.

"This place is breath taking. I've never seen so much… nature."

I just watched her dance around in the sun. She'd also ask people to take pictures of us together- which I considered a little strange.

"You better tag me in these photos." I sneered at her- she would just brightly smile back at me. I bought her a smoothie at the Falls and we walked back to my car.

"Where to next" Kay asked anxiously.

"Where would you like to go?" I wasn't sure if she knew anything about Oregon.

"Voodoo…" She whispered. Now it was my turn to laugh.

We got to Portland and it the sun was starting to set. First I took her to the Saturday market where she looked at everything and bought a hand painted picture of the vista house. A place I'd taken for granted was now a favorite keepsake. I took her to voodoo afterwards. We stood in line waiting and talked about random things. Nothing personal, she would ignore all my questions that dealt with anything like that. We ordered the voodoo dozen and then walked along the water front. I held the box and was completely enthralled by her.

"So now where too?" She asked as she ate a doughnut with Oreos on it.

"I was thinking we could go back to town and hang out with my friends. If you'd like to go home I can definitely drop you off or- uh- we could do something else- anything you want really."

"So many choices" she teased me.


We rode back towards town and made a stop on the way at a little restaurant called Bumpers. It was cozy and quiet.

"Goodness Inuyasha, this place is kind of romantic." She whispered as she peered over the menu. I looked around and tried to imagine the restaurant as someone who had never been here. It was in a dark setting. The booths were made of big comfy benches that were similar to old fashioned cars. The colors were either a dark red or dark purple. A huge fish tank separated the bar from the rest of the room and the only lights were lamps that painted the room with calmness.

"I guess you're right. I've always really liked this place though- I use to work here actually. Oh and I like the burgers here. Very delicious" I looked up from the menu and she was smiling at me.

She took a sip of her water and I noticed a silver bracelet with hearts all around it. She saw me eyeing it and then rolled her eyes.

"This was my graduation present from my mother. I graduated high school a year ago" I wasn't sure what to say to that. It was one of the most personal things she had said to me the entire time we'd spent together.

"It's nice" I replied and then our waiter came and took our orders. After he left she continued.

"I was really bored the other day while in class. I was looking out the window a lot and I thought to myself, 'you know, I should do something crazy' so I got online. Found some cheap tickets to a little place called Portland Oregon, I guess I shouldn't say little but I digress, and now here I am." She smiled at me.

"You just hopped on a plane and took off. Does anyone know where you are?"

She glared at me a little and then smiled "Maybe… maybe not"

"How do you know that I'm not some crazy serial killer" Now I was beginning to ponder this girl's sanity. "I mean do you do this often- just pick some random place and go"

She giggled "No, like I said" she was whispering now "I was just bored, this is my first time even out of my town." Her voice picked up to a normal sound "I wanted to see somewhere different and something about the name of this place just got my attention." She shrugged and then our food was brought over. I kept looking at her; slightly captivated by her nonchalance about the whole ridiculous thing but mostly because she was so beautiful in her own way. I think it was probably the initial mystery of her that surprised me but then I watched her explore and wonder about everything and her childlike personality attracted me to her.

"Do you have class on Monday" I asked her.

"Yes- so I actually have to leave tomorrow afternoon." She picked up her phone and looked at the time. "We still have plenty of time though" I wanted to agree with her but I realized that I didn't have that much time with her left. Was I ever going to see this girl again?

We finished our dinner and walked outside. It was a little chilly but still fairly warm for September. I opened the car door for her and shut her in. Then I walked to my side and slid in as well. I drove out of wood village towards Gresham. I stopped when we arrived at Miroku's house. He lived in a large house at persimmons. Her eyes widened as she took in the vastness of his house. I too felt that way sometimes when I would stand back and look at his parent's house. She slowly opened the car door- still staring up at the house. I wandered over and grabbed her hand to pull her along.

Once inside I was greeted by my large group of friends and Rin came over and took Kay away as soon as we walked in. I followed them with my eyes until they turned the corner. I was offered a beer and took it gladly.

"Is that the same girl from the other night" Miroku asked, he was sitting off to the side as a few of our other friends were playing with the Xbox in the living room.

"Yeah"

"Huh, what's her name?"

"None of your god damn business" I snapped. Miroku held up his hands in surrender and I heard Koga's laugh from behind me. He put his hand on my shoulder and then squeezed and walked around me towards the direction of where the girls went.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked him and he turned around and put his hands up like Miroku and then disappeared around the corner as well. I knew they were going to the basement that had the real party going on. It was pretty soundproof so that the neighbors wouldn't complain. I played a game against Miroku and then switched again. I began to get bored of playing back and forth so I moved away from the living room and found my way down stairs to the basement.

I stopped at the top of the stairs and peered over at all the people. Many of the kids that I had gone to high school with were there- some that still were in high school, and then I spotted Koga with his hands all over Sango. He was whispering something into her ear and had his right hand on her lower back. His left was on her leg and she was laughing. Sitting next to him were Rin and Kay talking to Naraku. They seemed to be interested in each other. I couldn't blame him for having good taste- still hated him though.

I made my way down the stairs and found Kays camera. I picked it up and slid through one of the doors that led to the back yard. The basement wasn't quite a basement as it led to the backyard to a pool. Miroku's family has a lot of money. I sat down in a dry chair and turned on the camera. There weren't any pictures from her hometown. Everything was from her little trip and there were many of me that I hadn't even noticed she'd taken. It was gratifying.

I checked the time and wondered for a minute about how much I had left until she was gone. A complete stranger that had walked into my life and seemed to understand me better than anyone in the house behind me. I leaned back and looked up at the stars. I heard the grass rustling. Someone was approaching but I didn't look until she was next to me.

"What are you doing out here" She tucked her legs under her dress and sat in between my legs on the grass. I smiled as I felt her hand rest on my knee.

"It got a little stuffy in there. I have your camera." She turned and reached for it. She looked at it for a moment.

"This is a really good picture of you, Inuyasha" I didn't say anything in return. "Too bad we don't have time to develop any." I sat up and peered over her and saw a different picture of me that she was zooming in on.

"Maybe Miroku has something in his office that can develop some photos"

"No that's okay, I'll just mail them to your work or something" she sighed. I grabbed the camera from her and started walking back towards the house.

"Inuyasha" she yelled as she got up and wiped off her skirt and started running after me.

She followed me up into the house and up the stairs to the main floor. Then up another set of stairs, once we approached the office I opened the door and she walked ahead of me. There was a fairly large printer and two computers in the room. The wood was all dark but complemented the room well. The windows overlooked the pool in the backyard. It was really nice, a dark room and a bright pool in the background.

I fumbled around on the computer and then the printer. "So I know it can be done but I'm not the best at this kind of stuff" I was clicking around and then she grabbed her camera back from me and pulled out a little chip. She put the chip into the machine below and did some other things on the computer and then the printer came to life and pictures started developing. "You're good at this" I smiled.

She was peering out at the pool and then turned to me and smiled. "Why didn't you hang out with us in the basement?"

"Oh I just saw you were with people and didn't want to interrupt."

"That Naraku guy-"

"Ah yeah, everyone likes him. Please don't go into details, you have no idea how sick I am of hearing about it." I mumbled.

She giggled "I was going to say he's full of himself but apparently you already know."

I blushed but she wouldn't have been able to see it in the dark. She sat back on the desk and placed her hands on my shoulders. Her right hand slowly wrapped around my neck and she began pulling me a little closer. She was looking at me and I got the hint. I let her pull me in and she placed her lips on mine. Soft at first and then she began to add pressure.

I put my hands around her waist and she slowly wrapped her legs around my hips. She made a small sigh of my name "Inuyasha" that sounded like relief as I began to kiss her more. I like my name a little more now. I let her have control of the kiss and she took me in. Her other hand was on my chest and slowly found the bottom of my shirt. She went under it and pressed a hand to my stomach. She was feeling my body now. I know I sound like a total prude but I didn't want to do anything she didn't want me to so I kind of just let her do as she pleased.

The printer notified us that it was finished and she stopped kissing me but still kept her body attached to mine. She kissed me a few more times and then un-wrapped her legs from me and sat up more on the desk. I moved back and she stood up. She grabbed the photos and started going through them. I looked over her shoulder but I didn't stand very close because I was afraid she'd be able to feel me through my pants, a few kisses and I was half way hard.


We went back outside and waited on the sunrise. I pushed two lawn chairs together and we snuggled under a blanket waiting. We kept promising each other we wouldn't fall asleep and somehow I ended up doing just that.

The chilly morning and the chirping of birds woke me up. They sang to me as I realized that I was a lot colder than I had been earlier in the morning. The sun had already made its way into the sky a decent amount. I shrugged the blanket off and walked into the house. I looked around determined to find her and see her one last time but she was gone.

I always want to kick myself for not staying up and saying goodbye, all I have left is a picture of her and I at the vista house and a name that she let me make up. Maybe she was right and she'll come back. I just hope I don't forget about her until then- but how could I? I've fallen in love with a silhouette she painted for me.