"You sure I look okay?" I was standing in front of Rin's mirror, nervously spinning around to see my reflection.
"God for the last time, yes!" Rin yelled, after having put up with me for nearly an hour. "You look fine. Now go so I can watch Dexter." Rin was in her post-finals sweats, having taken them the other day. I never really wear skinny jeans, but I didn't want to wear a skirt or dress, thinking of Kaito's motorcycle.
"Sorry, I'll go now." Rin sighed in relief as she curled up on her bed with her laptop. "I'll be back at about eleven."
"Don't care," Rin said, barely paying attention. But I didn't notice, because at that point the doorbell rung.
"Who is it?" I said into the speaker after walking over to it.
"It's Kaito." I smiled, just because he sounded genuinely happy. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'll be right down." I ran out the door and down the staircase until I got to the main door where I saw Kaito smiling through the glass.
"Hey, this is for you," Kaito blushed slightly, giving me a single white rose. "I would've gotten you red, but they were out."
"No, this is perfect, thank you." Kaito grinned broadly, and handed me the motorcycle helmet I wore before. "So where are we going?"
"Just this little Italian place by my apartment." As we were walking out the door, a gust of cool wind blew across my face. I wouldn't exactly call it unpleasant, which was slightly odd because normally I would've been bitching about it nonstop. "It's not much, but they have really good cordon bleu."
"That sounds nice." Kaito's motorcycle was parked right outside, the blue paint shining in the moonlight.
"Hold on tight." We were on the bike now, and my arms leapt around Kaito's waist as reflex, as Kaito revved up the engine. Riding it at night was much different than day. The lights of Manhattan whizzed by as we speed along down 5th Ave passing the blurs of ads and car lights that all just seemed to mesh together. Even though I was still terrified about the motorcycle, Kaito sure wasn't and seemed to know what he was doing.
"Here we are." Kaito parked on the curb of a little run-down restaurant with a peeling, painted sign reading 'Antonio's Bistro'. "I know it just looks like a hole in the wall place, but I swear it's good." The little bell on the door rang as we walked into a dimly-lit dining room with lots of worn tables and chairs. Surprisingly, most of them were occupied.
"I'll take your word for it. So what's good here?" I asked as the hostess sat us at a small table by the window.
"Like I said, the cordon bleu's good. But basically everything here is." The waiter came by with our drink orders, and a basket of breadsticks. "So what sounds good to you?" Kaito asked after the waiter walked away with our drink orders (sweet tea and a diet coke).
"Hey, they have carrot cake here?" I exclaimed, pointing at the menu.
"Yeah," Kaito was slightly confused, but he went with it. "You a fan?"
"It's basically my favorite thing in the world." I giggled a little bit, which made Kaito smile. "I could probably eat a whole one without blinking." I ordered something off the menu, but it wasn't really something I really loved. I think it was something like chicken parm.
"I'm the same with ice cream, especially chocolate." We small-talked a bit about friends, work and other things until our food came. Then for some reason, the conversation veered towards our exs.
"So how are you doing with your engagement break-off?" Kaito asked, twirling his linguini around his fork. "Gakupo really was a real asshole to you."
"To be honest, I'm really not doing that great." My food, though quite good wasn't really enough to keep my attention throughout the whole plateful, and I was picking at it before long. "I usually tell everyone that I am, but in reality I'm falling apart. I had to even stop going to Starbucks so that I could avoid Gakupo's new girlfriend. I thought that I could be strong, but I'm still the scaredy-cat who's too afraid to step out of her comfort zone for even a second." Without even me noticing, a few stray tears escaped from my eyes staining the corner of my napkin.
"Please don't cry," Kaito said sweetly, taking my hand in his. "If anyone should be upset it's that idiot ex-boyfriend of yours for letting such a sweet girl like you go." I tried to smile, but I'm pretty sure it came out looking like some serial killer.
"Don't say things you know aren't true," I said softly, looking down at my plate.
"Gumi, you're beautiful!" Kaito made me lift up my head so that he could look me in the eye. "Don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise."
The bill came after Kaito ordered me a slice of carrot cake. It was delicious, but I didn't really process it as I normally would've. I tried reaching for the check, but Kaito wouldn't hear of it.
"Don't worry about it," He smiled waving his hand away. "It's my treat." Kaito threw some crumpled bills on top of the table, and we left the restaurant. It was even colder outside now, and Kaito must've noticed as he took off his coat and held it out for me.
"No, you'll be freezing," I tried to argue, but Kaito's leather jacket was so warm that I found my arms just inching into the armholes.
"I'll be fine, but you look absolutely frigid." He tried to look nonchalant about, but a gust of wind caused him to violently shiver. The motorcycle ride back went by pretty quickly, almost too quickly. My arms were grasped around his chest tighter than I remembered, and I heard his pulse speed up considerably.
"We're here." Kaito pulled up to the curb next to Rin and Miku's apartment. "Oh no." This time, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Hey Gumi." Damn it, Gakupo. Haven't you messed up my life enough already? "How're you doing?" The pink demon-span was there too, wearing something particularly skanky for the temperature.
"What the hell are you doing here asshole?" I spat into his face as soon as I could clumsily get off of the motorcycle. "I thought you had enough sense to stay the hell away from me." Ignoring that statement, Gakupo simply continued. And he was growing out his stupid purple hair.
"Well the other day at the club, you seemed really depressed and we just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay." The slut held out her freshly manicured hand.
"Hi, I'm Luka. It's so nice to finally meet you." I ignored the hand, and instead smirked while trying not to explode.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I have this policy where I don't come in physical contact with filthy whores." Luka looked offended, but it was hard to figure with her thick layer of make-up on.
"Excuse me?" She gasped. "What did you just call me?"
"A whore," I said as though talking to a toddler. "I called you that because some of the things you have decided to do, like sleeping with someone else's fiancé with knowledge of the relationship is what I consider to be whorish."
"Alright Gumi," Gakupo was starting to sound angry now. But I sure as hell didn't care. "I know that I hurt you, but you can't just go talking to my girlfriend like that."
"Hey, I think that we should all calm down now." Kaito had come hurdling off his bike, and stood between the two sides. "No good can ever come out of getting in a fight."
"You stay out of this!" Gakupo yelled at Kaito. "I didn't ask for you to get involved in this."
"Well you know what I think?" Luka interrupted. "I think that you're just a stupid, talentless, bitch who can't let go of what happened. Both Luka and Gakupo knew that Luka had taken it too far. I walked up slowly to Gakupo, close enough to whisper in his ear.
"If this is the person that you've become, then I 'm sorry that I ever agreed to spend the rest of my life with you." Gakupo look relieved at first, but soon after that was gone after I slapped him across the face. After that, my legs sort of collapsed and I would've fallen over if Kaito hadn't been able to catch me.
"Why don't I take you back to my place?" Kaito said to me. "I've got lots of space, and I think you could use a change of scenery."
"Yeah, that would be great." Once again, we were on his motorcycle. This time, the lights seemed blurry but it was probably because I was crying so much.
"So are you sure you don't want to sleep in a bed?" I was sitting on Kaito's sofa, wearing the pajamas I wore before. "I don't mind crashing on the couch."
"No, I don't want to impose anymore than I have already have." I just felt so guilty for having put him through so much, wearing borrowed clothes, and sleeping on a lent sofa.
"Well, just call me if you need anything. Goodnight." And then Kaito was gone. Over the next maybe ten minutes, I just couldn't get to sleep no matter so much I tossed and turned. And just when I thought I was about to doze off, there was a crash of rippling thunder.
My eyes flew open in terror, and before I knew it I was throwing my blanket over my head praying that it would stop soon. Of course it didn't, only getting worse. I just had to swallow what little pride I had left in order to keep calm. I had to crawl over to Kaito's room because I was too scared to try and stand up.
"Kaito?" I opened his door, to find Kaito sort of in the midst of waking up."Can I come in?"
"Yeah, what is it?" He said sleepily. But before I could answer, the thunder crashed again causing me to collapse to the ground in fear. "You're afraid of thunder?"
"Yeah," I said embarrassed. "I don't really like to tell many people just because they make fun of me. I've just always had to deal with this, well everything on my own."
"You can still sleep in my bed if you want." Kaito was getting up, when the loudest crash came. I tried to stop, but I couldn't help but clutch on to his as tight as I could.
"Don't go," I whispered. "Please. I can't handle it anymore." Kaito looked down at me with his sapphire eyes, and he embraced me back.
"I never would." Kaito's face inched closer to mine. "I really like you. You know that Gumi, right?"
"Yeah," I whispered. "I really like you too." The distance was closed between us, by who I don't know but I really didn't care. All that matter was that his lips were on mine, and I felt better than I have in what seemed like forever.
Author's note
I know that this is my first author's note for four chapters, but better late than never. If you do happen to come across my fanfic, then I'd greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to review this or any of the other chapters. Even if you hate it, I'd still like to hear your criticism. This is my first fanfic, so I'd like all the feedback I can get so I can improve my writing as much as I can.
-ameil159