It's always amazed me how dramatically feelings could change and grow.
I would have never even thought to picture myself in this condition because of this particular person. Infatuated. Head over heels. Staring at him as he walked down the corridor with large, puppy eyes and wondering when our next conversation would take place and how he would flirt with me; how he would sweep me off my feet once again. I never thought he would be the one to make me lose my composure. Never would I have guessed that he would be the one to make me, Mimi Tachikawa, single-handedly break down the walls I had built to prevent emotional attachment to anyone outside of them.
It all happened so quickly. He was just my friend. My goofy, arrogant, reckless, idiotic friend whom I always placed, in my mind, as my brother and nothing more.
But then he kissed me.
And I felt it.
Purpose. The purpose one feels when they are finally tangled up with the right person to be tangled up with. The sense of this is exactly what I should have been doing this entire time. No regret. No second guesses. Just our lips, doing their dance. His hands, exploring the curves of my body he's never dared to touch before. His eyes, memorizing my every move and every little freckle on my skin. And his words. The words that escape his mouth naturally, as if they had been waiting all along on the sidelines of every conversation we've ever had for a chance to finally be released. The words that nourish me in a way I never knew possible, the words that could convince me to do anything.
I never expected to fall in love with him.
But alas, here I am. Completely, utterly, crazy in love with Taichi Yagami.
"Earth to Mimi?" Sora said, waving her hand infront of my face. "Come on, answer the question!"
"Huh?" I blinked twice, looking at my red-headed best friend. Had I been lost in thought again? No. I shifted my gaze over to the back of the classroom where I had been staring while Sora was telling me about something that had happened to her yesterday. Tall and dark, he stood amongst his friends. With a side smirk, he stepped backwards to his desk and pulled himself upwards to sit on it's surface before saying something that caused the group around him to burst out in laughter. His every move seemed so natural and uncalculated, I had always been envious of his easy demeanor.
"Sorry, Sor. I kind of spaced out there. What were you saying?" I asked, deciding it wise to focus my attention on my best friend rather than end up distracted for the rest of the day by the one thing my mind actually wanted to think of.
She sighed and pursed her lips. "You've been so easily distracted lately. Don't think I haven't noticed. What's going on? Are you having trouble with your mom again?"
I shook my head. It was true - ever since what happened had happened, my mother and I's frequent fights have been put to rest as I found myself not as easily pissed off by every little thing as I had been before. "No. I was just thinking of how badly I'm going to screw up on my biology re-test."
"Don't worry. We studied last night, remember?" We did. Not that I had focused on anything she had attempted to explain to me. Sora gave me a reassuring smile. "You'll do great, I promise. Now, answer the question."
"What question?"
She groaned and rolled her eyes. I really had been spaced out when she was telling me what had happened to her and asking for my advice. "About Matt. Last night at his concert, he was getting a little too flirty with fucking June when she went up to him after the show. I confronted him and we had a big fight. He said I had to be more confident and trust him more and I said that I was perfectly confident and that he just had to control himself more. Then I stormed out and went home and he's been texting me apologies ever since. Should I just let up and forgive him or should I hold on to this a while longer?"
Sora and Matt had a kind of relationship where they would be absolutely and enviously in love one day and the next, they'd be yelling at each other in the middle of class. "You let too much get to you. So what? He was flirting with a girl that's had a crush on him since god knows how long. You know that Matt doesn't like to be rude to her. Give him a break. Flirting with June means nothing and it certainly shouldn't be the catalyst for a fight. Don't give her that satisfaction, you know word spreads through this school like the fucking plague."
Sora sighed and grabbed a strand of her straight, short hair and began to curl it around her finger, as she always did when she was nervous. "I know. You're right. If I keep picking fights left and right with him he's going to get really sick of me very soon."
"Matt would never get sick of you. Just try to be a little more lenient."
She laughed and grabbed my shoulder. "Well, that's a big word. What? Did you accidentally study Vocabulary rather than Bio?"
"Fuck off" I laughed, turning in my seat and rearranging my text books just in time for , our world history teacher, to walk into class.
"Good morning, class!" He exclaimed, ever the cheery educator. "Great, great. I can see that you're all here. No need to take attendance. Let's start right away with our oral pop quiz!"
"I'm so fucking pissed right now!" Hikari exclaimed, slamming her tray on our lunch table. Hikari, Sora and I shared the same lunch period which was miraculous, considering that Hikari was a junior while Sora and I were seniors. For three years we've sat at the same lunch table in the center of the cafeteria - a strategic spot for our many gossip sessions.
"Really, Hika? Just an apple and some french fries? What gives?" I asked, taking note of how little she had on her tray. "Also, since when did you become such a trouty mouth? Have we just begun to badly influence you?"
"Sorry. I'm just really angry." She huffed, crossing her arms and leaning back on the bench.
"What happened?"
"She's grounded", Sora informed me through a mouthful of cheese burger. "She's been sulking all morning, I'm surprised you didn't notice."
My face reddened. I had actually been eyeing the cafeteria like a fox watching for it's prey. "Um, yeah. Sorry, Hika. I've been distracted. Why are you grounded?"
"It's stupid. Takeru and I were, um, messing around in my room." She whispered the last bit. Hikari had always been very touch and go when it came to her practically non existent sex life with her boyfriend, Takeru. "We weren't even on the bed, we were on my couch! But of course, my mom deliberately storms in and finds us in what she referred to as a compromising situation and proceeds to kick out Takeru, give me a two hour long lecture about how I needed to be more lady like and ground me for a whole week."
"Damn, it! That means you can't come to Kenji's party with me!"
She shook her head, a disappointed frown present on her face. "Nope. I can't go anywhere. Sorry."
Sora threw the last bit of her cheese burger into her mouth and turned to me. "Hey, why don't you go with Tai? He mentioned that he would be there."
My body froze at the mention of his name, of course. My eyes drifted with a mind of their own, still searching for him amongst the students seated in the cafeteria. Where was he? I turned back towards Sora and tried to give her a smooth, non suspicious answer. "Oh, good idea. I'll text him. We haven't hung out in a while."
She smiled, proud of herself. "I'm going to go get a milkshake", she exclaimed, getting up and marching towards the counter.
Hikari and I stared at Sora as she walked. She was in the best shape of her life. She'd grown a few inches taller than me and her body was lean and athletic without taking away from her curves, curtsy of all the Tennis she had been recently playing.
"She eats like a fiend but she never gains a pound..." Sighed Hikari before turning back to her tray and taking a small bite out of her red, shiny apple.
"Do you need a ride?" Sora asked, shaking the keys to her red Toyota as we walked out of school at the end of the day.
"No, I could use a good walk." I quickly said, shooing her off.
"Alright. I might show up at your house tonight, kay?"
"Kay. Bye babe!" I said, playfully pushing her towards her car.
I stalled around the school building, pretending to dig something from the deep ends of my large purse as I waited to see Sora drive away from campus. When she was gone, I trekked across the parking lot over towards the soccer field at the far right of the school building. Practice should have just begun, I was only a few minutes later than my usual timing.
I carefully climbed the bleachers, careful not to humiliate myself and trip in my heeled boots. When I reached the very top, I pulled out a napkin from my bag and wiped off the seat, not wanting to dirty my brand new navy leggings. I turned and sat, crossing my legs and placing my hands on my knees before taking a proper look down at the field.
There he was. Doing laps around the field with his teammates, running in the front as he was the team captain, shouting at those behind him to hurry up. After two more reps, they came to a halt and the coach ordered them to do pushups center field. Then, he looked up, resting his eyes on the spot he knew I sat in everyday to watch him train. He smiled and ran a hand through his sweaty, big hair before sending me a playful wink and flashing those god-gifted dimples in a smirk.
There my heart went, in all it's cliche glory, skipping a beat. I let out a silent giggle and winked back before shooing him towards the center of the field to do his pushups. My favorite set to watch, lucky me.
Practice was over in about a half an hour and I sat there in my seat, waiting for him to finish his shower and come get me, as per our daily routine. I pulled out my phone as I waited and scrolled through instagram. I really wanted to post a selfie we had taken last night, but due to our agreement that would have to wait.
Tai and I were walking on eggshells, we both knew that. We were so different, every single part of each of our personalities contrasted with the other's and yet, we fit perfectly together, complementing each other in a way I've never seen before. Yet, we were so easily breakable. One wrong move could cause us to explode and begin to contrast negatively rather than positively.
The first night we spent together, we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning just talking. Me in his button up shirt, crossed legged on his bed with a sheet wrapped around me. Him, leaning his back against his bed frame resting his arm overhead, covered by his blanket and trying hard not to laugh too loud and wake his parents in the next room - they had no idea he had snuck in so late, nevertheless with a girl.
When the sun was coming up, we layed on his bed and watched it as we came to a decision. We would have to keep us, whatever we were at the time, a secret. We didn't want anyone to spoil it with stares, gossip and interference. I promised not to tell Sora, he promised not to tell Matt, no matter how hard that would be for the both of us. At least for a while, we agreed. It wouldn't be forever. We had been friends since we were a pair of ten year olds, we knew each other as friends but we wanted to get to know each other on the new level that we had found ourselves on. Until we felt completely comfortable in our new relationship, we would only discuss it amongst ourselves. I felt okay with that, so far.
"Hey there, little lady." I looked up to find him standing tall before me, crossing his arms and smirking. "Mind giving me some of the attention you're devoting to your phone?"
I giggled and shoved his leg with mine. "I promise all of this attention was yours a few minutes ago."
He raised a chestnut eyebrow and flexed his arms. "Ah, you like my manly man muscles, do you?"
"Oh yes. They give you the manly manliness that you've always been missing."
"Oh really?" He laughed and grabbed my phone and my bag. "Come on, get up, princess. We're going for sushi."
"I thought we were having Chinese today!" I frowned as I caught up to him and grabbed my bag and wrestled him for my phone.
"Same difference."
"Oh my god, do you ever pay attention in World History?"
He grinned and wrapped his arm around my back, pulling me closer to him. "Nah, I'm way too distracted by this pretty girl in the front row that I'm pretty sure dresses with the goal to make me drool and think very un-world history thoughts in mind."
"Is that so?" I laughed. "Well, then mission accomplished."