Whatsername

Chapter One: It's So You Won't Forget Me (The Memory Box)

He tried laughing it off, like it was just a big joke, but he could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. She had said those words, the three little words that had described how he had felt about her. But she was the one that had finally spoken them and now he was terrified. What if she changed her mind? If she had decided to dump him before, it wouldn't have been so bad. But now that she said she loved him and she ended up breaking up with him. He shook his head as she grabbed his hand and said those three little words again.

She shrugged, a frown creasing her pale little forehead. "Fine, you don't have to say it back. Just promise me one thing?" She said, her head tilting to one side as it often did when she felt unsure or uneasy. But she hadn't tilted her head at all when she told him she loved him!

"What?" He said, looking down at his hand trapped beneath hers. His hands were so much different than hers were. His were large, tanned and covered in scars and calluses from the training as a SeeD candidate that he had endured for the last seven or so summers. Hers were soft, pale and smelled of the lavender soap that she so frequently used. A quick grip from her hand sent his gaze back to her face.

"Promise me that you won't forget me?" The uneasiness had slipped into her voice at the end, making it more of a question than a demand. He blushed again and turned away to hide his reddened cheeks.

"How could I forget you?" He whispered. He was afraid that she wouldn't hear him. Could he say it again? But then again, maybe he wasn't afraid that she wouldn't hear it; maybe he was afraid that she would hear it. He had never cared about someone as much as he did about her. And to be honest, it had been the one thing in his life that had truly scared him. He was also afraid that somehow he would screw it all up and she would be gone out of his life as fast as she had become a part of his life.

"Seifer?" She sounded close to tears and he realized that she was misreading his silence and avoidance. He forced himself to look into her eyes, eyes that were already brimming with tears.

"How could I ever forget you?" The tears vanished and were replaced with a smile. She buried her head in the little hollow where his neck met his shoulder, and her arms wrapped around him. "Rinoa, I love you." He whispered into her raven hair. He hugged her tightly to him, afraid that if he loosened his hold on her, she would be gone.

She pulled away, the tears gone from her chocolate eyes. "I know. but I don't want there to be that chance. And I don't want to forget you either, Seifer. So let's do something." Seifer froze. One thing filled his mind. The same thing that filled most seventeen-year-old guys' minds when a girl suggests that they 'do something'. He gulped and once again felt the blood rush to his cheeks.

"Let's put together a memory box!" She squealed happily. Seifer began to breathe again after she clarified her statement. If they would do it, it wouldn't be a very enjoyable experience for him. It wasn't that he was a virgin or anything; it was the fact that he was absolutely terrified that he would do something wrong and. Well, yeah.

He shook his head at her. "A memory what?"

"A memory box!" She smiled at him but her smile faded as she realized that he couldn't be as excited as she was if he didn't know what it was. "My mom and dad did it before my mom died." She trailed off for a few seconds before going on. "They decorated a box and put everything that was important to them in it. Clips of newspaper articles about my mom singing or my dad being a general. They put little momentos in there, like the ribbon from my mom's hair the day my dad met her and the dress they put on me the day I came home from the hospital. My dad even put in there articles about my mom's car accident..." She shook her head. "But a memory box doesn't have to be sad."

Seifer shrugged at her. "So what do we put in there? I'm no general and you're no singer! And there's no damn way you're gonna be in a car accident!" He said, his eyes wide. The possibility of that seemed impossible to him but he didn't want to jinx it. He knocked on the wooden table, hoping to relieve the jinx.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes. She dug into her purse and dumped a pile of pictures onto the table at which they sat. Pictures of him and Rinoa looked up at him, smiling. There were pictures of them wreaking havoc all over Deling City whenever they managed to escape from the house. Luckily for them, they had discovered her father's secret escape route from his office and managed to have several nights-on-the-town that way. There were photographs of the times they had spent with his friends Raijin and Fujin and there were photographs of them alone. He had been her first real friend, her first real friend and she wanted to keep him close to her heart all of the time, she said.

"Okay, but where's our box?" He said, now just trying to be a pain in the ass. He actually liked the idea of the memory box. Now he'd have a way for her to be near him always. She leaned over the table and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Shut up, Seifer." She said, her eyes sparkling playfully. She climbed to her feet and disappeared into the closet and emerged with a shoebox that she had already painted white and covered with their names and a couple of cut out photographs of the two of them.

"Ooh, now you're looking obsessed!" He teased. He knew that she wasn't obsessed. He cared about her as much as she cared for him. But that lingering doubt still remained in the back of his mind that somehow he'd ruin it for them both. Somehow, someway, someday.

She hit him over the head with the box. "Stop being a meanie and help me."

Two hours later they were still cutting pictures and writing comments on the back of the photos, and reminiscing over the summer's events. Outside of her bedroom window, the leaves on the trees were various shades of orange, yellow and red and every time a breeze stirred, the leaves fluttered from the trees, creating little tornadoes in the yards.

Fall was nearly here and when it began, Seifer would be back at Balamb Garden and her father would force Rinoa back to the private school in Timber. They would be unable to see each other again until spring vacation. This was their last time together.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" He groaned as he flexed his cramped hand. There were red marks on his finger and thumb from the scissors.

She picked up a picture, looked at it quietly for a moment before setting it down in front of him. It was a picture of only herself. She was standing on the beach and had been looking out over the ocean when Seifer had captured the image on film. A few seconds later, she had tackled Seifer and tried to bury him in the sand. It had been that day that they had shared their first kiss.

She smiled at him sadly. "It's so you won't forget me." She then turned and looked out the window as a particularly strong gust of wind blew the remaining leaves from the tree outside her window.