01.
I entered the room and sped over to the copy machine in a frazzled, yet graceful motion. I had my many years of dance to thank for this. As clumsy as I was, I could always negate it with my gracefulness and fluidity, or so I was told. I stared at the machine with great skepticism as it began to scan; I had had my fair share of bad luck with technology. I tried desperately to be invisible, but this was impossible seeing as how I was the only female in a room full of young, unmarried investigators working precariously alongside my dictator of a friend.
The stares became impossible to ignore. As I went to turn, a hand wrapped its long, delicate, pale fingers around my wrist pulling me to his side. His fingers intertwined with mine and his face portrayed a somewhat cocky expression.
"Gentlemen, I would like to present my biggest fan, and obsessed admirer, my dear sweet Sairen."
I rolled my eyes and tore myself away from his grip, in which he put up no protest. I was used to him cracking jokes like that with me. We often teased each other with fake declaration of love and mindless dirty and or inappropriate jokes. Underneath our cool and cocky façade, we secretly wanted the other to take the words seriously, almost like an indirect confession.
We made these jokes only in public. My logic was: if we cannot tell each other how we really feel, we could at least tell the world (that would satisfy us for now). This new crowd, however, did not get the joke but would soon realize the relationship between us in time. They stared on in shock, as most people would when they witness such vulgar and uncharacteristic words escape this man's mouth. And so I added some sarcasm to drop them a hint.
"HaHa. Very funny, but I'm in a rush. I have better things to do than hang around playing 'who done it' all day."
The truth was I wasn't in a rush, and I didn't have better things to do. I already new the answers to all the questions they were asking themselves. I knew the answers to the all the headlines in the newspapers. "WHO IS KIRA?" I wanted all these answers to go away, I wanted someone else to figure it out so I could stop holding my breath. If I had a conscious, I bet I would feel pretty guilty. But that's a human thing.
"You have better things to do than be with me?"
His eyes were wide as if to portray shock, but I couldn't help but giggle at his expression which looked more like a fly than shocked. His posture was playful, well…playful for him.
"Is it…someone…ELSE?"
His voice was dripping with sarcasm but strangely alluring. He was so confident in himself it was almost annoying. Almost.
"No L, there's no one else…"
I turned away to hide my expression. There had never been any truer words than those.
I managed to escape with my dignity in tact. There were only so many dirty jokes we could make toward one another before things got awkward. And what I find funny is that we're so used to our little tirades that we know the exact stopping point before things do get awkward.
I walked at an irregularly fast pace down the sidewalk with my head tucked into my collar and scarf like a turtle. A frozen October was a common occurrence in this part of the country. And that's when I saw him.