Chapter 1. Unfamiliar Grounds
I leaned my head on Keo's (a/n: pronounced Kay-oh) shoulder, not in an intimate way or anything, just like siblings. I laughed inwardly at the thought. You see, we had been like siblings. Lately, things had gotten awkward between us. Not like we were drifting apart, but like…you know.
Sometime in the past year or so, Keo began to look good. I mean, like really, really good. Sometimes I even caught myself wondering about the hundreds of couples I see each day, except, replacing those faces with two other very, very familiar ones. These thoughts would always result in me giving myself a mental scolding and a futile attempt to get my mind off of that subject—it was plain impossible. I was pretty sure he didn't like me that way, after all, we had been friends forever, why would he want to ruin that…right?
Annoyed with my emotions and confusion, I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment—as if it would make things clearer. Wasn't it supposed to be easy for ADHD kids—like Keo and myself—to lose track of what they were thinking? Jeez. To my dismay, Keo had heard my sigh and flashed me a concerned look.
Carefully, he slid his arm around my shoulders, trying not to jostle my head. I wondered what had brought on this reaction until I focused my eyes on the movie screen for he first time in half an hour.
Blushing, I realized what the situation must have seemed like. The screen showed the aftermath of a huge battle. Headless corpses lay strewn on blood-soaked gravel, a few even gurgling for breath through slit throats. Unnaturally red blood poured from wounds. Every few seconds a spray of blood went up as the only soldier left standing beheaded any others that had been left alive.
Embarrassment pulsed through me, only deepening my blush, which was probably nearly invisible anyway due to my tanned skin. But it was surprising how well Keo could read my emotions. Hoping Keo wasn't watching me, I forced myself to stare at the screen, trying to cover my blush with a mask of indifference, to prove that the gore had no effect on me—it was something entirely different that had me flustered.
I absolutely hated looking weak! Especially in front of Keo. It wasn't another of those 'awkward' moments, but more like sibling competition.
Shaking my head, I glanced back at Keo. To my surprise, he took that moment to glance at me too.
"Wanna ditch the movie?" he suggested, boredom evident in his features. At my glare he added quickly, "Only 'cuz it sucks, no other reason." He grinned sheepishly.
I sighed, frowning at the waste of a good fifteen bucks. I shrugged and got up, following him towards the theater's exit.
Outside, I was lost. Cars drove by, casting overly bright lights on everything and releasing noxious fumes. I wrinkled up my nose at the smell. The whole city smelled bad, like smoke, chemicals, and a hint of gas. It disgusted me.
Shaking my head, I clutched Keo's arm. If I somehow got separated from him— which wouldn't be that hard, as the streets were surprisingly crowded for it being somewhere around 9 at night—I would probably never find my way back home.
New York City was a nightmare.
In truth, I had never wanted to come here. I loved where I lived before. I still love it. Now, I would have to call my home this cold, city-afied, mainland nightmare my home.
Shivering, I pulled my Rainbow Warriors hoodie closer to myself. Keo noticed this action and hung his warm—oddly so considering that all he had on was a t-shirt and jeans—arm around my shoulders. I was grateful for the action.
Before I noticed where we were going, Keo held open a door and warm air rushed out to meet me. I didn't even pause to read the sign above the door. It was warm, and that's all I cared about.
I took in my surroundings. The room was dimly lit, sofas and comfortable-looking chairs littering the floor. A faint smell of coffee beans drifted from a classily decorated counter. I immediately recognized the décor as that of a Starbucks.
Shooting a grateful look at Keo, who was still only inches away from me, the weirdo clinging to his arm, we briskly walked up to the counter to order. Well, it was more like I—pretty much—jogged and he got dragged behind me. But who cares about the details?
Five minutes later we were sitting at a small table with two chairs, sipping at hot chocolate.
We had barely talked, there was really not much need for words here. Or it could've been that I was so absorbed gulping down hot—very hot—chocolate that any conversation would've been pointless.
Finally, the silence got too uncomfortable.
"I can't believe you can walk around in that," I gestured to his t-shirt and slightly, okay very, ripped jeans, "and not freeze your butt off." I scrunched my face up to emphasize my point.
He chuckled. "Yeah, well, some of us can actually function in the cold," a sarcastic smile spread across his face.
I sighed and changed the subject, just after taking another sip of my chocolate. "Mmmmm… I just wish we could've stayed on Oahu. Why'd we even have to move anyway?" I meant for the question to be rhetorical. But, as usual, Keo ignored that fact and answered anyway.
"No reason that I know. The only reasoning I heard was 'because, Keola, we have to. Okay?'" we both laughed at the imitation of his mom.
After a few seconds, our laughter died down as the meaning of his words set in. Neither of us had been given any reason that we were moving here. One day our mothers just began packing up and told us that we were all going to the great 'NYC.'
Everyday, I wondered—and I'm sure Keo did too—why we had come here. Both our mothers (our fathers were both MIA. Although, neither my mom or Auntie Kalea, Keo's mom, ever complained. It was like both of their absences were totally understood, even though neither were dead. Weird much?) knew full well that neither Keo or I wanted to leave Hawaii. We both thought it was the best place in the world. On Oahu, we had everything a kid could ask for—friends, school, beaches, parks, everything. Every free day we had was spent together. Our parents usually referred to us as 'joined at the hip.' Sometimes, that was true.
I immediately saddened at the thought of Hawaii. I pictured the beaches, parks, trees, and mountains. I relived the first time I jumped off of Waimea Rock, I tasted shave ice from Waiola's, I heard the mynah birds chirping—annoying but familiar—outside my window in the morning.
Hundreds of thousands of other experiences rushed through my mind—all of my birthplace—Oahu. And, in all of these memories, was Keo. Standing beside me, helping me up after I tripped, reminding me that I needed to study, playing video games with me after we decided to forget the studying. Everywhere. No matter what memory I recalled, he was there. Of course, sleeping, getting ready in the morning, going to bed and all that didn't count. But any other time— walking to school, during classes, lunch, after school, weekends, summer, breaks—he was there. I was amazed at the vast majority of my life was spent with him.
I began to imagine, as I stared out into the bustling unfamiliar streets of New York, what would I have done if Keo wasn't here with me? If his mom had not decided to move here with mine? If I had left without him?
The truth about that was, I couldn't possibly imagine my life without him. He was my best friend, many people mistook him for my brother. Heck, sometimes I mistook him for my brother. Although, lately, I had begun to think of him as something very different from a sibling…
Shaking my head, as if it would clear my mind of trivial thoughts and memories, I turned back towards the table, wishing I could forget where I was.
For the first time of the night, I looked up at Keo. Like, seriously looked, with decent lighting anyway—the theater didn't count. He couldn't help the slight smile that continuously tugged up the corners of his lips. I vaguely wondered what he was thinking before I refocused on his face. His skin was tan—bronzed would be a better adjective. It was the kind of tan that a lot of haoles (mainlanders, basically white people in general) wanted, but could never quite achieve. And I knew my skin was nearly the same shade as his was. His hair was the next thing I noticed, slightly wavy, just barely. It had enough curl in it to complete his haircut, something that I could only explain as a (messy)skater boy cut. Keo almost never bothered to do much to his hair other than brush it out of his face. His hair was medium in length, it was enough that it fell into his face, occasionally getting in his eyes. Even so, he refused to cut it, which I was thankful for. The look suited him.
My eyes drifted downward, taking in all his features at once. It was easy to tell that he was part Asian, duh with his last name being Oshiro, due to how his eyes got all squinty when he smiled. I had never really tried to classify what ethnicities he was, all I ever cared to know was that he was hapa, and so was I.
I laughed inwardly. Hapa. We were mutts, part White, Asian, Hawaiian, and whatever else made it into out genetics.
After a few moments, I convinced myself to look at his eyes. Beautiful was the word I had always used to describe them, from the day I learned that word on. His whole face was that of a local to Hawaii. Most of us locals had dark brown, almost black, eyes. He was one of the exceptions. His eyes were a startling electric blue, contrasting with his bronze skin and dark hair in a way that I thought would be impossible. Somehow his features were arranged so that no matter what he wore, his eyes always stood out, always looked amazing. Exaggerating his eye color even more were his eyelashes, long, dark, and curved, a perfect frame for the perfect eyes.
I wondered how long I had been staring at his eyes. Mostly because, when I finally began paying attention to the real world, not my little daydreams and explanations of how gorgeous Keo was, I noticed that the object of all my errant thoughts was staring at me. Oops?
As if reading my mind, Keo spoke, "Discreet much?" he fought back a smile. "I know I'm just so handsome to you, but you could at least try to be sneaky with your ogling." Sarcasm filled his voice, but the comment still earned him a nice kick in the shin from under the table. "Ouch…" he mumbled, "No need to hurt the model."
"Model?" I scoffed, "I didn't know that's where you had your sights set. Personally I think you could've gone with 'super model.'" My eyes widened. I realized what I had said a moment too late, I had never been one to think before I talked. I guess that's what I got for contemplating how good Keo was look-wise then joking about the same subject. Something was bound to be blurted out.
I groaned, making a mock act of slouching in my chair with my arm over my face as if I had been defeated. To my surprise, no sound came from Keo. No victorious laugh or 'try again next time, Adri' escaped his lips. This concerned me.
Quickly removing my arm and opening my eyes, I found his face. Even more surprising then the lack of victory cry was his expression. He had suddenly gotten serious, and looked like he was contemplating, thoughts about to explode from him—judging from the emotion swirling in his beautiful—there that adjective was again—eyes.
I was about to say something, worried as I had rarely seen him so serious. The only time he was ever serious was when something was wrong.
Though, before I could utter a word, he blurted out, "Can we go outside?"
Going outside was the last thing I wanted to do, due to the cold, smelly air. But I was in concerned friend mode, and did as he asked.
About a minute later, we stood in the center of some deserted alley. I would have been scared, as only one flickering lamp lit the place, even though New Yorkers filed past each end of the narrow passage, as if it or we—two teenagers alone at night in a dark alley—didn't exist.
Steam erupted from a vent about 15 feet ahead of Keo and I, causing me to jump, but Keo remained perfectly still, back facing to me.
"Keo…" I began tentatively, scared of the reasoning he had for bringing me into such a private, as private as you could get in this city anyway (not counting our apartments), place. "Are you—"
He cut me off, "Adri, can I ask you something?" the words came out rushed, as if he had a hard time saying them.
"Yeah, sure…" I replied, even though I was about scared to death of what he was about to say. I had no idea what it would be, of course, but I had an odd feeling that something was about to change, forever. That scared me.
"Look…Adri…uh…" he paused for a long moment, trying to put words together, my fear increased. Finally, he started talking again, the words coming out so fast I couldn't understand them. It was something like "Adriwillyougtwitme" I stared at him, confused. He obviously understood that I had no idea what he just said, so he took a deep breath and repeated it, slower. "Adri," he said, staring me straight in the eyes. I didn't know whether to be scared or reassured, "will you…" he took another breath, "go out with me?"
I was dumbstruck. That was what he was so serious about? That was why he had me worrying that he had some incurable disease about? For Christ's sake! His earlier expression had me thinking that he single-handedly murdered half the people in the country or something, but it was all just nerves over asking me out?
Before I knew what I was doing, I stepped forward and hugged him, burying my face into his shoulder. I sighed, the exhalation full of pure relief.
Normally, I would have made some witty comment in this situation. Maybe something like 'geez, I thought you were going to tell me you were gonna kill my mom or something. You need to learn to relax' or something like that, but all I could bring myself to say was, "Of course ya big idiot. I've been waiting for you to ask me that forever!"
His face immediately brightened, eyes shining with what I thought, just maybe, might've been tears. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off.
A huge crash resounded through the alleyway, causing both of us to jump and turn towards the sound.
Fifteen feet in front of Keo and me was the biggest freaking dog I'd ever seen.
A/N: Okay! so there was my first chapter, please review and tell me if its decent, thanks =)