Author's Note: It feels spiffy to be writing video game fiction again. :D Just beat KH2 (depending on when you read this… but it was early April 06 WOOT!), had a sudden burst of inspiration, and I figured I should probably write this before I lost my idea… so here goes. :D This story is loosely very loosely based on old Shakespearean plays and… Panic! At The Disco songs. Hence the weird titles and such… so. :D Review if you like… t'will make me feel fantabulous. :D
Disclaimer: I can't even afford chocolate, so… I don't see how I could own anything from Disney or Squenix. ;o;
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Midsummer Panic
Chapter 11
Testosterone Boys
and Harlequin Girls
She was feeling horribly giddy that afternoon.
It was safe to say the last day of Autumn Break did a serious toll on everyone, and almost everyone who got seriously wasted didn't show up for the first day back to school. The administration let it slide, because Destiny Islands was "such a free spirit that to contain it in endless working days would be unacceptable".
She was feeling incredibly giddy that afternoon.
So much so that Selphie, who splurged her soul the night before and magically woke up in time to be shooed off to school, grew irritated with her random giggle bursts. She rolled her eyes and massaged her head slowly. "I don't get it," she groaned. "You were piss drunk—and I mean piss drunk last night, so how is it that you're the giddy one, and she's—" at this, she pointed to Kairi, who was sipping on a large cup of iced tea quite peacefully. "—completely neutral?" Selphie finished off, leering over the cafeteria table at Namine, who, true to Selphie's word, was beaming as brightly as her hair shone. Altogether she was nothing short of a glowing orb of light.
"I took meds before bed." Namine told her, happily. "And when I woke up—and… " at this, she squealed and burst into a fit of giggles again. Selphie and Kairi exchanged confused yet disturbed looks. Namine simply gave a careless wave and rose from her seat, probably to get a drink from the caf. They watched her leave, still giggling like a madwoman.
Kairi took a deep breath and set down her drink, slowly. Needless to say, she was still somewhat racked up about last night. She ran home, screaming the whole way and completely freaking out. A thousand tiny, annoying voices battered against the walls of her head—what if—but why—and how—WHAT THE HELL? She couldn't think. She sat on her porch for a while, trying to recompose herself and attempting to find out what just happened…and she came to no conclusion. She came to the conclusion that there simply was no conclusion. That alone gave her the worst unsettling feeling possible.
What could she say to herself? No, no, I was just worried about him, that's all. I felt horrible and—and I don't even know… how that happened. Another sigh. How the hell is this even explainable by normal terms? I don't think 'it just happened' is a regular response anymore. Another sigh.
So what… the hell? …it's not like I like him or whatever. He's Sora—my God—how wrong is that? Since when do you go around making out with people named Sora? Even when we were supposedly not really even going out, I never ever… almost kind of never thought of… or maybe—
Kairi winced a moment and massaged her temples slowly. "No, no, that's not true."
Selphie blinked at her. "What?"
Kairi shook her head. "It's nothing."
"I think you're going crazy."
"I don't like him that way."
"I think it's the iced tea."
"I didn't actually make out with him, that never happened."
"Maybe you should've—hey, WHAT?" Selphie, probably from the intense alcohol binge from yesterday, jumped to her feet, almost falling over backwards. After regaining her posture and assuring the random girl beside her that she was okay, Selphie turned to glare at Kairi with narrow, slit eyes seething with anger. "Made out with who? And why wasn't I told?"
Kairi held a finger to her mouth and shook her head fiercely. "It's nothing, really. You're—it's the alcohol."
"No, no, it was the alcohol this morning, but I'm pretty sure that I heard something about you making out with someone, which is odd because I'm pretty sure I was the one who was drunk last night, not you." She said, quickly. "Kairi—" she sat down instantly. "—made out with who, when, where, why and how was it."
"Selphie, shut up." Kairi whined, leaning forward to rest her head on the table. She glanced up at Namine, wandering around the caf, networking with random people and giggling so loud, they could still hear her over the volume of the caf. Kairi sighed. "I don't want to think of him that way."
"Well, by the sounds… of it." Selphie paused, and then continued to speak. "It seems like you like him already—"
"Ugh, but no—" Kairi shuddered and sat up instantly. "—you don't understand! This—this is Sora we're talking about, okay?" Kairi ignored Selphie's eyes blow open in an unearthly fashion. She continued, "Yes, I made out with him. Yes, I'm aware he's the one who was drunk, not me. So don't even try to bring that up. It's just really weird, because—"
"OH MY GOD!" In true Selphie fashion, she had to scream it as loud as she could. She was squealing and hyperventilating and freaking out as usual. Kairi ignored her for the time being, until she heard her say—"OH MY GOD—YOU—AND—AND SORA? REALLY? MY GOD—" It was like something out of a movie. Everything slowed down, the volume of the caf died down and all Kairi could hear… was Selphie. She panicked and instantly put a hand over her mouth, trying to calm her down before anyone else heard. Selphie was giggling and laughing and having a seizure all at the same time. When she finally stopped yelling like Kairi knew she would, she resorted to her big, toothy 'I-knew-it!' smile. Kairi said nothing. Selphie beamed. "I. Knew. It," was all she said.
"Well, just—" Kairi spotted Namine waving to a group of people and skipping over, quite fast, back to their table. "Okay, but do me a favour, don't mention it to Namine, okay?" she asked, quickly. "Because—really Selphie—I know she really likes him and everything, so just—please don't say anything, or I'll kill you, I swear—"
"Fine, fine, fine, but promise to tell me everything that happened, okay, okay?"
"Okay, okay, just shush—"
Namine wandered over, still in her state of euphoria, but that didn't hide the fact that Kairi and Selphie were whispering back and forth to each other frantically. It sounded like some foreign language; it was so incomprehensible. She ignored them and sat down anyway. "Well, since we're talking about Sora and all," she smiled, coyly. They assumed she heard his name from across the caf. "I'm gonna go see him after school today." The last part she said in somewhat of a sing-song voice, clasping her hands together and looking up in a melodramatic kind of way.
Kairi raised an eyebrow at her. "How… h-how come?" she asked. It wasn't supposed to come out nervously, but it just happened—and Selphie's eyes were aglow when she noticed. She tried to contain her excitement.
Namine shrugged. "Because he asked me to."
Kairi's raised eyebrow seemed to twitch; subtly, but surely. Selphie kept her mouth shut, but smiled, very sweetly, at Namine. Neither of them said anything.
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For some odd reason or another, Namine's giddy behaviour only annoyed Kairi as the hours passed. After lunch, it was History—with Namine. She kept telling Kairi that maybe he realized that they were meant for each other—blah, blah, blah, and a whole bunch of other BS. After History, it was the drive home—with Namine. Why? Because Sora wasn't there. Why? No idea.
Halfway out the door after school, Kairi tried calling him, but he wasn't picking up. "My God, why's he being so weird?" she grumbled to herself, bitterly. She stuffed her phone back into her bag and followed the giddy Namine towards her car. She was twirling the whole way there. Kairi was afraid.
Namine hummed the whole way to Kairi's house, which only provoked nausea and a slight headache. "He's purposely not picking up, isn't he?" Kairi mumbled to herself. As much as she didn't wanna talk to him, she still tried calling him every few minutes.
Namine peered over at the caller ID and shrugged. "Maybe he's sleeping."
"Tch, okay," Kairi rolled her eyes, annoyed. "This is exactly what happened last time, too. When I fell asleep with him on his sofa, he ditched me the next morning and he wouldn't talk to me for a week—and I really don't know why either." She spotted Namine flinch a little as she said that, but it was nothing major, and soon she was back to being giddy again.
"Well what happened this time?" Namine asked, glancing over at her. "You said 'this is what happened last time', and I know what happened 'last time', so what happened 'this time'?"
Oh shit. Kairi shook her head, quickly. "Nothing."
"You sure?" she asked, raising an eyebrow towards her. "Hmm?"
"Absolutely." Kairi nodded, just as quickly. "Uh—" before Namine could say anything, she tapped the window beside her delicately and pointed down a road to the right. "—turn down here, okay? I wanna go visit Riku and see if he's okay."
"How about paying your loyal driver, hmm?" Namine mumbled, with a roll of her eyes. She turned down the road anyway.
Needless to say, the second Kairi got out of the car, Namine gave a quick wave and sped off down the road towards Sora's house. Kairi stood and watched for a moment as Namine's car turned the corner and vanished. She scoffed, "I bet he's not home." Stop being so bitter. "… whatever." She sighed again and headed towards the front step, her bag clutched tightly in her hand. She knocked a few times and dropped her head back. She really hoped her dear silver-haired friend wasn't busy; he was always good to talk to about guys.
The door swung open quickly. She looked up for a brief moment and saw nothing but a swish of red hair… and then her eyes came into focus. Staring back at her was the teal-eyed, red-haired, eye-makeup-wearing Axel… and not Riku… clearly.
… this is awkward. Kairi thought, briefly. He didn't look like he was going to say anything. Instead, he just stared at her, very calmly—which is new—and nothing more. She sighed, cursing herself for not calling first. Time either seemed to be slowing down or refusing to move at all. She just wanted to close her eyes, open them again and be in her house, by her TV, or in front of a large bowl of ice cream.
"He's not here." He said, quite suddenly. Kairi looked at him inquisitively, and he only smiled. "Riku. He's not here."
"… oh." She said, simply with a slow nod. She looked at him, and her eyes locked with his for only a moment. A shiver fluttered down her spine and she looked away. "Well, uh—" she cleared her throat. "—if he's—I can always come back—"
"What's that about?" he asked, confused. "You don't wanna spend time with me?"
Kairi bit her tongue and managed to keep calm… somewhat. Like I would, you manipulative, asshole-istic, conceited—"Well, actually,"—idiotic, egotistical, stubborn—"I actually just wanted to talk to him for like five seconds, so—"
Before she could say anything else, he had grabbed onto her hand and pulled her inside, shutting the door behind her. Kairi kept quiet even though she was thoroughly startled and confused. She glared at him, and he glanced at her for a moment. "What?" he asked, briefly before heading off into the living room.
"You could've just asked me to come in, you know." She said, stubbornly, kicking off her shoes. She wandered into the living room to find a phone glued to his ear. He was babbling away in Spanish or something. All Kairi could hear were shrill screams from the other side of the line. She folded her arms across her chest and turned to sit down across from him.
The phone conversation carried on for a while longer, before Axel said "bye" a thousand times, give or take, and randomly shut off the phone. He looked at her for a moment and then got to his feet, rushing towards the kitchen behind her. "You want anything?" he asked, swinging open the fridge door.
"Sure. Anything's fine." She told him, bluntly. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and disappeared into the kitchen. "Who was that on the phone?" she asked, as he came back with a cherry cooler in his hand for her.
"My grandma." He shrugged, collapsing on the sofa opposite her. "She wants me to get married again."
At this, Kairi smiled. "You're 19."
"I'm almost 20, so technically I'm too old." He told her, with a roll of his eyes. "Well, whatever. She's always like that. She's 87, she's afraid she'll die soon. We tell her since she's lived so long, she probably won't die for a while, but she doesn't believe us."
Before she spoke, something in her head kicked her, heaved a heavy sigh and went 'tsk tsk' all over again. Why in the world are you talking to him like you KNOW him? You spend four hours on the phone with this guy all the time, and—really, Kairi, maybe Selphie's right, you're past the point of being crazy. This is pure insanity. Talking like everything's okay with your bastard ex-boyfriend isn't really considered sane by most people.
"Yeah, and I met your boyfriend the other day." Kairi snapped back to attention at his words and quickly looked at him, raising a confused eyebrow. He shrugged, simply, "The… blond, quiet kid… Roxas, is it?"
"Oh? He's nice and all, but we're… not going out." She said with a nonchalant air.
She half-expected him to say something like 'oh really? That's not what he said!', but he only laughed and clasped his hands together. "I'm sure." He said, quite sardonically. Kairi glared at him, rolled her eyes, and looked away quite menacingly. "It's no big deal, though," he continued. He talked in a way that one would if they adored the sound of their voice. "He can have good qualities. He's… kind of tall… he's blond—" a pause. "—I bet if he didn't seem as if the world itself was freaking the shit out of him, then he'd be pretty okay to talk to—"
"Jesus, Axel, shut up… please." She added, quite bluntly.
"… fair enough." Axel smiled wryly, and pointed towards the front door. "Riku should be back any time soon. He just went across the street for something. So I promise, you don't have to talk to me any longer than necessary."
Thank. Fucking. God. This is worse than sitting in with his grandmother at Christmas. Although she was quite fond of Axel's grandmother because she was short and small and sweet—no, are you kidding me? Forget it, you owe nothing to his short, small, cookie-baking grandmother anymore! She cleared her throat and only gave a slow nod of acknowledgement to what he said.
… I do miss those cookies, though.
In midst of Kairi's heavy, reminiscent sigh, the front door swung open and no sooner had it closed, Riku had his head poked around the corner, lips pursed, eyes scanning the room fervently. His eyes landed upon Kairi, who only returned his weird behavior with a confused look. "Have you called—" He paused for a moment and noticed that she wasn't the only one in the room. Axel stared back at him slightly confused and Kairi retained her puzzled look. Anyone would agree it was a bit strange to see them both in the same room, sober, and not yelling death threats at each other these days. "Is…" Riku began slowly. "Am I… interrupting something…?"
"No." Axel replied, bluntly.
Kairi gave a shrug.
"Anyway," Riku turned back to Kairi. "Have you called Sora at all today?"
"Uh—n-no… yes…" Kairi stuttered, uneasily. "Um—" she cleared her throat, a sign of pure nervousness. "W-why?"
Riku blinked at her. "Why not?"
Good point. Kairi rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Um—well… h-he wasn't picking up." This, of course, was only half true. Once the phone rang three times and it sounded as if someone would pick it up, she hung up, hands shaking, heart racing, thinking over exactly what she would say to him… and then she would remind herself who she was calling. She cursed herself for being such a typical schoolgirl.
Kairi was relieved to see Riku acknowledged her half-assed answer with a nod. "Yeah, I know." At the very least, she was somewhat shocked to hear that. Sora was usually into being an idiot anyway, but she figured that he was only being an idiot to her. Maybe this had nothing to do with her after all. "Because I still have his car, right," True to his word, he outstretched his hand and revealed a ring of keys, with a bajillion key chains. "And it's kind of weird driving around town in his car since I'm guessing he can't remember that I have it. So I figured I should probably go over right now after—"
"Yes, we should." Kairi quickly got to her feet and headed towards the doorway. "I'll come with you—" she added, slipping her feet into her shoes and checking her bag quickly. "—um, because I need to… talk to you." She looked at Riku, and they both exchanged confused looks, which was of course peculiar. Riku was the confused one; Kairi was just being weird. "…I'm in the car." She said before leaving and shutting the door violently behind her.
A minute or two followed and soon the both of them were driving towards Sora's house, in deafening silence. The sun rays that layered the streets like candy weren't enough to penetrate Kairi's nervousness. She was shaking, and she didn't exactly know why. "If he asks," Riku would say. "Just tell him that… you can't drive—" he paused to look at her. "—which is true. And I was in—a lecture. Yes. And I couldn't leave."
"He better not ask." Kairi mumbled. She sighed, and looked down at her hands. She looked out the window. She looked out the rear view mirror. She looked—can you stop freaking out please? Honestly. She gave another sigh. "Riku, can I ask you something?" she turned to him.
"Go ahead." He replied.
She took a deep breath, and spoke. "Why… why are guys so weird?" she inquired, curiously. He flashed her an odd look and then gave a shrug. "I just don't get why…" she trailed off for a moment, biting down on her bottom lip uncomfortably. "It's like… they don't like you… a-and you know this, right? But then if you're ever with someone else, then it's like they like you, but they don't, and then all of a sudden—they get all weird whenever you hang around other guys—and it's not like I didn't notice that he's being strange on purpose, because he's just… so predictable, it's insane. … you get what I'm saying, right?"
Riku shook his head.
Kairi rolled her eyes. "Jesus—I wish you would stop switching preferences so often! Then, maybe we can actually talk about guys without it just being me… talking about guys."
Riku shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I know who you're talking about. 's enough, at the very least."
Kairi's eyes blew open… and she looked at him, mouth hanging open slightly.
He glanced at her and gave a shrug... and a wink. … a wink and a shrug. Yes. That was definitely a wink.
"Stop the car." Her voice was hoarse.
"Why?" he asked, teasingly.
"I just remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"I owe Roxas something."
"Oh really?"
"Really. So, um—pull over. I can walk."
"Are you sure you don't wanna go see Sora—?"
"Absolutely."
"… really—?"
"Riku, stop the car or I'm jumping out."
"You sure he won't be offended? Since you didn't stop by after the two-AM make-out session and taking advantage of the fact he was drunk?"
Kairi choked.
The world slowed down to a halt. The car was no longer moving. … and she was no longer breathing. He didn't actually say that… … right?
… RIGHT?
"You… you knew?" she mumbled, her voice slow and hoarse as she turned towards him with wide, eerie eyes.
Riku slowed the car to a stop and turned back to look at her. "So it's really true?" His voice had an air of awe about it that Kairi didn't expect to be there. "B-because I was just joking and everything—"
Kairi didn't have time to be shocked. Pure confusion decorated her features as she stared at her silver-haired friend. "Are… are we talking about the same thing here?"
Riku nodded his head up and down fervently. "You see, Sora called me this morning… or, uh, this afternoon… like an hour ago, actually… whatever." He shrugged. "He told me that after he woke up, passed out and woke up again, he had this really weird dream that he was making out with you… twice."
She gawked at him. Twice? What the hell? Horny bastard. … okay, like I'm even one to talk.
"I had no idea that it wasn't really a dream until you mentioned it just now…" he replied, casually. "I figured it was either a weird dream, but in a way it seemed much too coincidental for that to randomly pop up especially after Selphie's—" at this, he paused and narrowed his eyes at the bewildered Kairi. "He mentioned he reckoned he was going crazy, so… I doubt he really thinks—hey, what the hell?" Amidst his speech, Kairi had pushed open the door and stepped out of the car indifferently, as if he wasn't talking to begin with. "Where are you going?"
She swung around to look at her, biting her bottom lip nervously. "For… for a walk." She told him, her voice shaky.
"But—wait—"
Before he could say anything, she spun around and raced down the road. Riku cocked his head to the side, shaking his head in an odd sort of confusion at Kairi's fleeting figure. "… girls are weird…"
Next chapter soon, I hope :x I'm replanning the ending, so... hopefully this chapter at least fit well with chapter 10 ;; Review if you liked it! Review anyway… feedback is fun :D