Senior Year

2/18

Xion was on her way to Garnet's house; a friend she had made during her freshmen year. She was turning 18 today and she felt rather bad by not being able to buy her anything but, hey, at least she showed up to her party…right? She jumped in her seat as she felt her phone vibrate inside her pocket. She smiled, it was one of her greatest friends; Namine.

Namine was a shy quiet girl that Xion had known since she was in 6th grade but started to talk to her in 8th grade. Xion honestly does not remember how the hell they both started to talk to one another but they just somehow did.

Namine: Are you there yet? I really don't know most of the people here and Marluxia won't leave me alone!

Marluxia was there…? Just who the hell invited him anyway? Well, then again Garnet was somewhat decent friends with him. Xion texted Namine back telling her that she was about to get there. As Xion got off the car and said bye to her parents she noticed that there was a huge jumper right in front of the house and a whole flock of people who she had no idea who they were.

'Well, I hope this year's party is as fun as last year's.'

Out of all the people who were huddled together she only recognized four people; Rikku, Wakka, Marluxia and Tidus. They all welcomed her with a warming hug as she smiled and greeted them. After being greeted by them she tried finding the only girl who would be dressed in white, but sadly didn't find her. Instead she found Garnet and wished her a happy birthday and apologized for not bringing a gift.

Garnet simply shrugged it off. "It's ok Xion, as long as you guys are here and having fun a present isn't really worth much." Oh this girl was so nice to her. She made a mental note to herself to try and save up money to buy her something extra nice for next year.

Her eyes then found a blonde dressed in lace shorts and a sea-salt ice cream colored blouse. (It was the only way she was able to describe the color.) Along with her signature blue strapped sandals. She was chilling next to the karaoke machine and Xion decided to go sneak up on her. Sadly, it didn't work for the blonde must've felt someone approaching her, but even so, she still jumped. "Xion! You finally came I was wondering where you were." And before Xion had even the slightest chance to say anything back the blonde quickly grabbed a hold of her and took her behind the jumper.

"I can finally talk about Demyx to you." Xion could only roll her eyes. Namine had been going out with this Demyx guy for about 10 months or so and Xion honestly did not like the guy one bit. For one thing, the guy was about 4 years older than her and acted like a 15-year-old. Or at least to her it sounded like it. Demyx lived in Hallow Bastion which was about a 4 or 5 hour drive from Twilight Town. They actually hooked up on the internet thanks to a friend of theirs named Aeirth.

"Y'know, you should just tell Garnet that you two are dating." Namine stared at her. She was staring at her as if Slenderman was right behind her ready to kill her off. "But, what if she doesn't want to be my friend anymore? What if she decides to no longer speak to me?" Apparently Demyx and Garnet were somehow related and Namine thought that if she told Garnet that she would never ever speak to Namine again. Xion thought she was exaggerating, seeing how she couldn't really imagine Garnet acting that way to Namine. And also because it was Namine. Just who could hate her? With the exception of her ex's mom of course.

In freshman year Namine went out with a guy named Rasler. He was a cheery, quiet boy and Xion thought they were going to last for a while despite the fact that he lived in the outskirts of Twilight Town. For some unknown reason things between them just shattered and before Xion knew it Namine was dating the college idiot as she called him.

"Time to cut the cake!" Xion heard Rikku shout from the other side. Namine had just finished texting the college idiot and Xion just took Namine from the wrist and rushed into the house. After singing 'Happy Birthday' and avoided getting cake smeared both girls went out to the back since the karaoke machine was being moved there. Namine kept texting the college idiot and Xion couldn't really do much about it.

It had barely been a year since Xion had completely lost all her feelings for what she felt for Vanitas and honestly had forgotten what it felt for a guy to make you feel completely happy, but she was in no rush whatsoever. She had plenty of time to find a guy and there was no need to rush like other girls her age were doing.

She decided to go out in the front and see what was taking long with everyone else and as she went out she walked up to Rikku and Axel. They were talking with each other about a…son? Xion then turned to Axel's right and noticed a kid who had blonde hair spiked in a rather unfamiliar manner (but it was cool non-the-less) fair skin, and these deep blue ocean eyes. He was amused at the conversation between the other two. "So he'll be our son…correct?" Axel nodded at Rikku and looking down at the kid beside him. "That's right."

'Did they just add a new member?'

Xion's friends…well, most of them had this strange thing going on where they had this family tree and everyone would declare that they were brother or sister or mother of so and so and Xion was very curious to see a family tree of this, but then again the whole point of this 'Family' thing between her friends wasn't supposed to make sense whatsoever…So the kid that they had just declared as their son was now her 'nephew'. (Seeing how Xion was Rikku's 'sister')

The kid as well was amused by this and Xion for some reason couldn't really stop staring at him. He looked about 15 but hey, he could most likely be 17 or 18. Before she kept on staring at the boy she decided to go back with Namine. She didn't want to look like some sort of stalker.

It was around 7 or 8p.m. and Namine wanted Xion to accompany her to the restroom. Xion had no problem with that and walked her over to the bathroom. Namine quickly told Xion to look after her phone so Xion just waited for her outside the bathroom. She decided to sit down in front of Garnet's room and stayed there.

She was just minding her own business as song from her chorus class started playing inside her head until she noticed a certain blonde appearing at the corner of her eye. They stared at one another, the boy slowly smiled down at her as she gave him a quick smile as well, sadly, the moment hardly lasted at all…The door to Garnet's room instantly opened revealing Axel, Paine, and a guy named Reno who happened to be related to Axel. "Oh you're the ticklish girl, am I right?" well, Xion was ticklish but wh- Reno then started to tickle at her side and she quickly got up before he really started to attack her.

Xion was amazed by the fact that she was able to get up and run into the 'little den' as she called it, but Reno went back into the room as soon as he heard Axel shout out his name. The little den was basically like a little office like area and the only room that seemed completely dark considering the fact that it was right in between the hallway and the living room. Xion not wanting to just go straight back into the hallway (who knows maybe Reno was hiding there ready to attack her any second) she slowly walked up to the corner of the room and poked her head out.

The moment she poked her head out she saw the blonde poke his head out too. He but as he noticed it was her he slowly revealed himself...He gave her a genuine smile whilst Xion gave him a shy smile in return. She felt as if she was playing peek-a-boo with this guy. He kept smiling at her as she just kept looking at him, blushing, but decided to go back into hiding.

'What am I doing?'

She took a hold of herself. Just what on earth was she doing? Why was she just playing that little staring game just now? She let out a sigh as she headed back outside. Honestly though, what was going on through her head?

Around 9p.m. Xion started getting pretty bored seeing how people out in the front were mainly playing jump rope games or just talking amongst each other and Namine wasn't feeling quite well so Xion decided to stay with her out in the back with the blonde kid and Marluxia. Both boys were messing with the karaoke while Xion and Namine were talking about their classes and grades. (For once it had nothing to do with the college idiot.)

Xion started to lose interest in the conversation and decided to look over at the other two and noticed that the lights were off and it seemed like the blonde boy was about to get ready to…sing? Well, this should be very entertaining. She stood up and made her way towards the boys and tried looking over at the karaoke but couldn't see due to Marluxia's height. But then the beat started and within an instant Xion looked over at the blonde and really just really had to see this.

He wasn't singing…no he was rapping and she wasn't sure whether the mic had given out or not so she decided to walk up to him…Not too much but decided to try and get as close up to him as best as she can. She could hear his voice and from what she was able to hear he was good. He had the lyrics pinned down. He knew the song by heart as did she. Then somewhere along the line she found out that he had the mic off. She was disappointed by that and wished he left it on for to her to hear him…He probably sounded great.

Then, before the song started to end he stopped. She tilted her head in confusion. Just why would he stop there? He suddenly seemed rather bashful and looked over at her, "Sorry but it's kinda hard for me to rap when someone keeps staring at me…" Xion's face flushed. "Ah! I'm sorry, I really am!" she said looking down at the floor. Even though she had just realized how embarrassing her actions were the blonde couldn't help but just smile at her.

Afterwards, Xion stayed near the Karaoke machine and didn't move at all. She kept staring at the blonde beside her and kept on admiring his love for music as well as his blue eyes. He would talk to her about certain songs and kept playing them for her to listen. He would also play the Beatles and tell her about how much his grandmother loved them. The night slowly became chilly as Xion wrapped herself and hoped that that would somehow help.

The blonde looked over at her," You cold? If I had a sweater I probably would have given it to you." Xion couldn't help but blush. "Oh don't worry about me, I'll be fine. It's just a little chilly that's all." The blonde nodded at her and continued playing random songs. Xion's feet started to ache a little and she was getting a little sleepy but it wasn't until Garnet came out and asked the blonde to change the song. Garnet started to dance with her little cousins or nephews or whatever they were and it wasn't until Xion felt a pair of hands grab a hold of her and started pulling her to the 'dance floor' "C'mon Xion! Dance with us!"

It wasn't because Xion was shy of dancing in front of others or anything like that. She loved to dance but seeing how little people there were she decided to decline. "Some other time…ok Garnet?" Luckily the blonde boy was right beside her and she quickly took a hold of one of his hands. He was cold but Xion didn't mind, Garnet decided to let go and Xion was still holding onto the blonde. "Don't like to dance?"

Xion nodded a no, "If there a lot more people than her then maybe I would start dancing." A few minutes passed by as the blonde randomly mentioned about wanting to go into the jumper. Xion being Xion just blurted out, "I think it's still inflated…wanna go?" she asked with a faint blush creeping upon her cheeks. The blonde looked uncertain for a moment. "You sure it's still up?"

"I think it is…should be. Let's go?"

The blonde smiled and followed Xion into the kitchen but as they made their way into the living room Rikku had just happened to be there and needed a partner to play Just Dance with her. Xion trying to hide the fact that she was upset and almost close to being able to have some alone time with the blonde just smiled and responded with: 'Yeah sure.' She was way too nice to some of her friends.

The blonde was kind enough to wait up on her and decided to sit on the sofa right behind her. As the song started to play Xion slowly started to swing her hips back and forth and she knew that the blonde couldn't help but look. Besides, he was a male so of course he wouldn't mind having an ass right up in front of him swaying to and fro.

Though, his seating changed quickly as Rikku told him to get up and find another seat before he got the chance of being hit by one of them. So he did. The girls were dancing to 'Numa Numa' and Xion was doing rather poorly. She never really played this game or even the Wii that much. (But she really didn't want to make a fool out of herself, but she kept thinking to herself as to why that even mattered.) Luckily, a girl named Fang decided to take her place. As Xion made her way to the couch on her left she saw the blonde smiling nonstop at her.

Her blushing was getting worse.

"Let's go?" she asked without her knowing that she tilted her head.

He nodded and followed her outside to only find that sadly, the jumper wasn't inflated. "I knew it…" muttered the blonde, but he looked over at Xion and asked,"Wanna switch it on?" Xion was happy to know that he really wanted to be out here with her. As the blonde found the switch to turn the jumper on, both Xion and he stood there not really much saying a thing to one another. Xion was always awkward towards meeting new people wasn't really good at making conversations.

Which sometimes made her wonder on how on earth did she befriend so many people? Once the jumper had been up both of them quickly took off their shoes and entered wasting no time whatsoever. Xion, not knowing what to do decided to jump towards the slide that the jumper had. Sadly, she made a fool out of herself for not being able to climb to the top, but thankfully made it. She wasn't sure what she was expecting once she got on top but just sat there and slid down noticing that people were still out in the front.

(Since she saw 3 people hanging out by the corner and she almost jumped thinking they were somebody or something else.) So she went around and climbed inside again. 'Honest to god, the fuck am I doing?' she asked herself. As she came inside the blonde jumped into the air and let himself fall onto the floor and stared up at the sky. Xion decided to follow his actions as well. It took her eyes to adjust to the night sky for she didn't really see any stars at first but after a few seconds she was amazed by how beautiful the stars were tonight.

They looked how one would see in animated movies; Glittering and sparkling about. They were quite beautiful. But then, silence came. Awkward silence…and that started to make Xion a little nervous. She started to ask the blonde simple things like what school he went to or when his birthday was and he in return would ask her the same thing.

Apparently from what she got from the blonde was that he was about 2 years younger than her, but thankfully he was going to turn 17 this coming April. She also found out that he was attending Twilight High. (There were two high schools in Twilight Town; Twilight High and Sunflower High.) The cold night air was getting to Xion and she started to wrap herself up again as she commented by how cold she was getting.

The moment that was said, the blonde extended his arm over her and held onto her. Xion blushed, but she was rather thankful that it was dark and that he couldn't really see her face. At least…that's what she thought. But just like that he stopped holding her and put his arm back. His warmth went away and she wanted it back…but decided to keep her mouth shut. Besides, that would sound too weird…Right?

So they went back to the silence until Xion saw a certain blonde-haired girl walking beside the jumper. "Namine! Over here!" Xion called out. The girl nodded in agreement and entered the jumper. And once she did Xion couldn't shut her mouth. Maybe it was because she just wanted to get rid of the awkward silence? Yeah, that sounded just about right to her. Xion became a lot colder and (She really did not know how she found the courage to do this.) started to press her right side of her body next to the blonde to keep herself warm.

And to her surprise he didn't push her away or anything of the sort. Instead he just let her warm up beside him. Namine then decided to leave saying how she was going to go to the back once more. (Xion thought it was because of the position she and the blonde were now in.) As soon as Namine left, Xion still kept close to the blonde. It only took Xion a few seconds to ask him what she wanted from him. She started to blush madly, staring at his shoulder and asked, "Could…could you hold me again?" To her surprise he didn't decline whatsoever.

The blonde immediately took a hold of her and held her tighter than what he had before. Xion's heart started to race as so was her mind.

' What am I doing? I shouldn't be doing this at all. I hardly even know this guy and-' She felt sudden contact at the crook of her neck. He was snuggling himself closer to her. She turned around the other way staring at the entrance of the jumper. Just what was she doing anyway? She hardly knew this boy at all so why was she letting him get so close to her? Was she really that deprived of attention that she needed some stranger to give her some? But, she wasn't doing anything bad though.

She was just being held and snuggled upon…that definitely wasn't bad. So why was her mind going out of it? Maybe because…maybe because she had never been this close to a guy before...She took that as her reason for being in the position she was in. She looked at her phone which read: 10:19. She had about 40 minutes before her parents decided to come pick her up. And her mind still wouldn't leave her alone.

So what if he was just holding her? So what? It's not like they were doing anything bad besides she might never have this experience ever again…'Fuck it.' She turned around and snuggled near the crook of his neck just as he did before. She started to cuddle with him at first she thought maybe it was a bad idea, but then he started to respond back as his face made contact with her neck. His breathe ticking her neck making her giggle. Now she knew how happy heroines in stories felt whenever romantic scenes like this happened. She now understood the happiness, the wanting to stay like this forever moment, the feeling of being safe and loved in return.

Or maybe she was just thinking too far with this. So she let go of her mixed thoughts and feelings of the situation and just simply enjoyed the moment. The more they cuddled the more warmth Xion wanted and she even started to shiver from the coldness. The blond suddenly held a tight grip on her as if something terrible would happen if he were to let go of her any moment. Xion felt has she had just found her euphoria.

Whispers fluttered about outside the jumper and Fang popped out her head inside the entrance but muttered a quick 'sorry' as she shoved her head out. Xion feeling a little embarrassed hid her face within the crook of the blonde's neck. She didn't have to look at him to know that he was smiling down at her and their moment started to get interrupted again seeing how Marluxia need to ask the blonde something.

Xion really didn't pay attention to what Marluxia was saying and before she knew it the blonde was calling out to him to bring out pillows and blankets. That really sounded nice at the moment since she was feeling rather sleepy. A few more minutes passed by as the brunette and the blonde huddled themselves together until Xion felt her phone vibrate.

Her parents had arrived. Oh, if only her parents didn't have the strict rule of not letting her sleep over she might've slept with the blonde inside the jumper. (And when she meant slept she literally meant just sleeping beside him, mind you.) She sighed telling him that she had to leave. She quickly exited out the jumper and ran inside saying farewell to her friends. She couldn't find Namine or Rikku inside the house and noticed that the front door was left open revealing 3 blondes who she had been glad to have met.

As she walked out she went up to Rikku who was talking about some nonsense and Xion could only smile at her. Even though Rikku was sometimes labeled as 'odd' to some she was the most wonderful person Xion had ever met. Namine stood there as well smiling at Rikku's gibberish nonsense. She still looked like she was going to pass out but Xion knew she would be under good care.

(Xion still wondered as to why Namine was feeling the way she was but then again she did have a history of having somewhat severe fatigue.)

She hugged them both goodbye and she looked over at the blonde who smiled at her. For once in her life she didn't have to convince herself that maybe he liked her…No. This time someone did like her, not because she thought so. She immediately hugged the boy and he did not hesitate to huge back. She didn't want to let go of him. Not after that incredible feeling of happiness that he had just given her not so long ago.

But she knew she would have to unwrap her arms and say goodbye to the boy. A boy she wasn't sure if she would ever meet again. She hoped to see him once again in the future but knew there was a slight chance of that happening. She got more than what she had expected tonight and in the end, she was happy with it. Despite the fact that her stupid mind wouldn't leave her alone. As she waved goodbye entering the car her mother couldn't help but ask, "What were you doing inside that jumper?"

Xion blushed a little but quickly responded back with: "Jumping of course, what else would I be doing?" Of course…what else could you possibly do inside a jumper?