"Naminé!"
A shrill, crisp, familiar voice sliced uninvitingly through Naminé's silence, causing her to jump up and drop a box full of colorful pencils. She gazed down solemnly at her poor, unsuspecting red charcoal as it careened out of her window and onto the dark concrete below.
"Naminé!" Kairi screamed again. Naminé heard her slam the door of their apartment with an unsettling crash as she pompously flounced into the room.
"Yes, Kairi." Naminé patiently hissed through her teeth, still peering over the edge to catch a glimpse of her fallen pencil.
Kairi threw her pink and silver clutch onto Naminé's favorite gray couch, then promptly continued her parade around the room, humming happily until Naminé acknowledged her presence.
Naminé dreaded what she was about to say. However after twenty five dresses, three hours of hair and makeup, and now one less red pencil, she couldn't see how it could possible get much worse. "How was your date?" She cringed as she spoke, regretting it immidietly.
Kairi's green eyes lit up and sparkled. They did this whenever she thought about Riku, her boyfriend of about two years, ever since junior year of high school. She ran over to Naminé's love seat by the window and sat on the other side. Her rose tulle dress fanned out in one too many places, covering Naminé in an over-perfumed cloud of pink material.
"Naminé you should have seen what Riku did! It was the most beautiful, most wonderful thing I've ever seen. After the walk on the beach he took me to this amazing restaurant where he..."
Ugh. She knew asking was a bad idea. She silently cursed her inability to ignore people. Especially Kairi, for that matter. Naminé picked up a violet pencil and started drawing random circles, periodically looking up and nodding to Kairi, who didn't show any signs of stopping the harangue on her date with Riku. Riku... He brought up so many problems. She didn't need to hear this. She wasn't the one who needed boy help. Only once had she truly liked someone, and that had ended less than favorable. And now, going to college in less than two months, Naminé would almost be rid of all boy drama. Unless of course Kairi decided to stay in Twilight Town. That would mean they would both go to the same school, Twilight Academy. Instead, Kairi was planning on moving back to Destiny Islands to attend school where she had old friends and family. But if things kept going the way they were going with Riku, the chance of events planning out in Namine's favor were looking awfully grim...
"Hello?" Kairi waved a silver bangled wrist in front of Naminé's face.
"Hm?" Naminé was broken from her thoughts. Her eyes traveled slowly to Kairi's face, her expression caught between excited out of her mind and really... mad.
"Were you even listening?" Kairi spat. "I'm pouring my soul here."
"'Course." Naminé said, not sounding all too convincing. "Listen, Kairi." Naminé shifted in her seat, deciding whether or not to continue with what she was going to say.
Kairi looked at her with big, happy, bright green eyes. Her auburn hair whipped around her dainty face, long since fallen out of the sterling silver clips that previously held it up. Her perfectly shaped mouth bore the happiest smile Naminé had ever seen on her. She looked happy. Really, truly happy.
Naminé coughed uncomfortably and turned away, mumbling, "Never mind." She decided it could wait. She didn't know how much longer, but at least for now... it could wait.
Kairi got up once again and twirled around the apartment dreamily, all but forgetting that Naminé could talk; let alone say something remotely important to stay and listen to. Naminé barely noticed Kairi leave the living room until the sound of her voice settled into the corners and there was nothing to hear but the breeze outside on the panes.
There was a beautiful sunset on the verge of disappearance over the horizon, slowly drifting off and blending into the rest of the night sky. Naminé stared at it for a long time, then finally decided to draw it, and reached into her pencil box. She groped inside excitedly, intrigued at the thought of releasing all the happenings of the day through a picture.
"Where is my red-" Then it hit her. It was down on the ground. Instantly she had to fight an overwhelming urge to start crying. She sat her head on the windowsill and stared at the ground, as if willing it to somehow swallow her up. Then she wouldn't mind people stepping all over her as much, as long as she could look up at the sky as it was happening.
"Looooooking for this?" A voice whispered in her ear next to her.
There were way too many syllables in that word, which meant only one thing. Roxas.
Naminé looked up slowly to a beaming blonde boy holding her red pencil happily, his dark blue eyes twinkling.
Naminé looked suspiciously at Roxas... then the door, trying to deduce how he possibly got in her house.
Roxas jumped in front of her and blocked her vision, waving the pencil in front of her face. "How did this end up on the ground?" he asked.
Naminé rolled her eyes. "Well I, uh, went down there and put it there. So you'd have an excuse to come up here and see me." She batted her eyelashes playfully and stood up. She put her hand on Roxas' chest and slowly leaned forward until she was right next to his face, whispering in his ear. She felt his heart flutter with either excitement or fright. He started breathing heavily.
"Get out... of my house." she whispered then snatched her pencil from his unsuspecting palm. Quickly she left him, wide-eyed and stationary, to sit down and draw.
Roxas didn't move for several seconds. When he did, he appeared on the other side of Naminé and looked over her shoulder. "Naminé." he said quietly.
Naminé looked up slowly and met her bright blue eyes with his. They were full of a sympathy that she really didn't want right now.
"Have you told her yet?" he said.
Naminé's looked straight outside yet again, her mouth hardly opening as she spoke. "I can't. She's too happy."
"Who's happy?" Kairi appeared in the doorway of the main room of the apartment, a towel on her head and a toothbrush in her mouth.
"Nobody, Kairi." Naminé said. Usually Kairi would have gone crazy if someone aside from Naminé saw her après-bath attire, but it was only Roxas, so Kairi could easily have cared less.
"Thai uam!" Kairi tried to speak while brushing her teeth.
Naminé smiled. "I know you are, Kairi."
Kairi returned to her bedroom, but not before flashing a suspicious look at the tall, lean figure of Roxas kneeling so close to Naminé. She giggled and left.
Naminé tried to think of what she could possibly be laughing at but came up with nothing.
Roxas was still staring at where Kairi had left. "I can see how that might be hard..." he sighed.
Naminé nodded. Then she thought of something. "Roxas! Just tell him! You're his friend. He'll listen to you." Naminé knew this was neither accurate nor appropriate to bring up, but she was slowly entering into such a state of desperation that Roxas' amelioration was no longer a very significant consideration to her.
Roxas jumped backwards defensively. "Whoa ho ho! Riku is not my friend!"
Naminé looked at him as if to say, "And?"
Roxas ran his hand through his golden spikes. "It makes more sense if you tell Kairi." he said, leaning against the wall.
"In what reality?" she exclaimed. "Listen. Do you want me to tell that-" she motioned to Kairi's bedroom, "That the guy she possibly loves is deeply not in love with her?" she got up and leaned against the wall beside Roxas. "Her heart will break."
Roxas sighed loudly and shimmied down the wall. Naminé sat beside him.
"Fine." he said after a while. "I'll try. For you, I guess."
"Thank you." Naminé exhaled in relief and set her tired head on Roxas' shoulder. She left it there for a brief second, then in realization quickly took it off and sat back in her chair.
Roxas sighed and got up too. He leaned down towards her. "Don't lose my pencils again." he murmured. Then she heard him walk across the apartment, grab his keys, and leave.
Naminé reclined in her chair and closed her eyes. She waited like that until she heard Roxas get into his car, start it, and drive off.
She sifted through her pencil box, attempting to finish her picture.
But the sunset was gone.
She heard Kairi scream, "Naminé, where's my face mask?" from the bathroom. She didn't answer but instead looked closely at her red pencil. The particular brand had been a present from Roxas after the... fight. Naminé had thrown the whole package away in anger.
Naminé inspected the pencil. She found the writing Roxas had carefully carved into the side, and remembered reading it so long ago. She'd made a move to throw it away there and then, but hesitated, and instead tucked it carefully away in her box of pencils. It was a beautiful red, after all.
She re-read his message a hundred times before setting it down to leave.
"I need to try again," it said. "I love you... Roxas."
