AW, GROW UP ALREADY!
Chapter Fourteen
Happy Anniversary!
June 21st was like Christmas to Nagisa. For once, she had risen before Tamao and couldn't wait to get the day started.
The redhead got up and paced about, as restless as a tiger at the zoo. She quietly opened her closet and took one last peek inside. Tamao's present was still there, beautifully wrapped, just as it had been the last time she checked.
Nagisa took deep breaths to slow her racing heart. This was exciting. She'd never celebrated a one-year anniversary with somebody. Shizuma had been the kind of person to honor month anniversaries, a concept Nagisa found ridiculous. And before Shizuma…Well, there was nobody…except for that neighbor boy when she was six, but that didn't last more than a week.
I hope she likes the present. Nagisa's heart kick-started again. What if she hates it? Oh God, she's going to hate it! I've made a big mistake!
A deep dread was slowly overtaking her. Like a panicked version of ALS, it started at her ankles and worked up until Nagisa's entire body was slumped against the closet door frame. She couldn't breathe. Her heart was beating so hard, she was sure people could hear it all the way in Scotland. So dizzy…Head hurts…
"Good morning."
Nagisa cried out in alarm. She jumped up quickly, whacking her head on the door. Sharp pain throbbed and lanced through her head down her neck. The shock combined with the nausea caused her to vomit on the floor.
Tamao swiftly got up. She didn't mean to scare Nagisa, and she certainly wasn't expecting her to throw up. Coughing, Nagisa sat down, her head swimming and throat burning. Tamao was at her side in a flash, her arm around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" the poet asked. What a stupid question. Of course she's not okay, she responded inwardly. She just barfed her guts out.
"I'm sorry," Nagisa moaned. "I'll clean it up…" She attempted to stand, but it hurt to stand up straight. Her rib cage was almost crying with agony. She leaned against the wall, but her legs buckled underneath her. She sank down to the floor, almost slipping and falling in her own puke.
Tamao helped Nagisa up. "It's okay, Nagisa-chan. I'll clean it." Supporting her girlfriend, the poet guided her to their bed. "Poor baby. You probably have a fever."
Her chest heaving, Nagisa tried to stand up again. "No," she gasped. "I made the mess. I'm going to clean it." Tamao tried to get her to lay down, but she resisted. "I'm not sick. Just a little queasy. It'll pass."
"Nagisa-chan, it's alright. I don't mind."
The redhead huffed, but sat down. "Ugh. Why are you arguing for cleaning up my vomit?"
"It's not that I want to. It's that I don't want you to."
"You spoil me," Nagisa argued.
Tamao sighed. "It would be cruel of me to make you clean after you threw up."
"But you're always taking care of me, and I just wanted to give you something in return!" Nagisa's scarlet eyes drifted dully to the present in the closet. She had been so confident when she first bought the books, but now they didn't seem like enough to repay Tamao's favors. "I never want to make trouble…I just…" And, out of nowhere, tears sprang from her eyes. Clinging to Tamao by her waist, Nagisa sobbed, "I just want to be a good girlfriend…"
A bit surprised by the sudden glomp, though not nearly as surprised as Nagisa had been two minutes ago when Tamao innocently greeted her, the poet reciprocated her girlfriend's gesture. Gently running her fingers through Nagisa's auburn hair, Tamao assured softly, "Nagisa-chan, you ARE a good girlfriend. You're the best girlfriend ever."
"I am?" the redhead inquired into Tamao's nightshirt.
"You are. You really are." The poet knelt a little so she could look Nagisa in the eye. "Believe me, you know better than anyone else that I love to take care of people." Tamao squeezed Nagisa's hands and smiled ruefully. "The reason nobody wanted to room with me before you transferred here was probably because I came on too strong. When I tried to take care of my friends, I scared them away."
Nagisa dimly recalled the day when she met Tamao; the poet taking measurements to jot down in her notebook. The redhead wondered what became of that notebook.
Tamao's smile took on a more affectionate radiance. She cupped one of Nagisa's soft, round cheeks in her hand. "I love to take care of people, and sometimes my Nagisa-chan needs taking care of. That's why we're a compatible couple."
Her list of reasons why she loved Nagisa completed (but subject to revision at a moment's notice), Tamao had moved on to listing out why she and Nagisa were a compatible pair. For the first item, the poet had taken Chikaru's zodiac approach: noting that hers and Nagisa's sun signs were compatible. Respectively, Tamao was a Libra and Nagisa was a Sagittarius.
The poet leaned in to kiss her girlfriend, but reconsidered and kissed her forehead instead. "Whether or not you're sick, you should get some rest."
"Okay," Nagisa sighed. "I didn't sleep very well last night anyway."
She settled back in bed. As Tamao pulled the duvet up to her chin, Nagisa said, "Happy one year anniversary, Tamao-chan."
"Happy anniversary, Nagisa-chan," the poet smiled.
Tamao departed briefly to get a bucket of soap water and a mop from the custodial room. By the time she got back, Nagisa had fallen into a deep sleep.
---
One thing Nagisa learned the hard way: Don't go to sleep after you've thrown up. The redhead woke up to the foulest, most disgusting taste in her mouth. It was gross enough to make her throw up a second time.
Nagisa jumped up and ran to the nearest restroom. She was still in her pajamas, and some girls' heads turned as she darted down the hall, but whatever. When she got to the bathroom she spent ten minutes brushing her teeth and five minutes swishing Listerine mouthwash. After that she popped in two pieces of gum for good measure.
---
"Shion-chan's apartment is a trash attack," said Chikaru.
"Really?" asked Kizuna.
The former Lulim President nodded. "It has so many plumbing issues."
It was the middle of rehearsal. Nagisa and Tamao were on stage, acting out the scene where Bella and Edward first meet in biology class. (Nagisa wasn't much for glaring, but she gave it an honest shot.) Meanwhile, in the front rows of the auditorium, the Astraea Hill graduates chatted with the Étoile couple.
"I'm not about to argue this." Shion cringed. "The shower is the worst. There's something wrong with the drain --- I think it's clogged or something. But when you shower, the water level rises to your calves. So you're basically wading in your own filth. It's disgusting."
"I think the toilet's the worst," said Chikaru. "It can't even flush pee!"
"How can a toilet not flush pee?" Setsuko asked.
"I don't know, but Shion-chan's finds a way."
Shion laughed. "The general rule in my apartment where that disaster of a toilet is concerned is: if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown use someone else's goddamn bathroom!"
After the laughter died down, Shion said, "But what about that 'job hunt,' Chikaru-chan!"
"Oh boy," Chikaru laughed. "That job hunt was a hot mess!"
"Tell us about it," Remon pleaded.
"Well," said Chikaru. "All throughout this semester I've had a hard time getting a job. I really thought I had everything going for me, job-wise --- a good work history, I've attained plenty of leadership positions, etcetera. Also, I was really working hard to get a job. But nobody would set aside time for an interview.
"Finally, one day, I got a second callback from Macy's, and they were ready to hire me on the spot. But then I had to go open my big mouth and say that I'd be unavailable over the summer." Chikaru sighed. "I was kicking myself for weeks over that."
Miyuki smiled. "Tell them about Wendy's, Chikaru-chan!"
"Oh! Wendy's!" The former Lulim President laughed. "After the Macy's incident, I managed to get a job at Wendy's, which I didn't like because, you know, it's Wendy's. It was maybe a Monday when I started working there. That very same Monday I received a callback from Timpone's in the middle of my shift. I scheduled an interview, then up and quit Wendy's."
Remon laughed, feeling both amused and outraged. "How long did you work there??"
Giggling, Chikaru shrugged. "I don't know --- four hours?"
Kizuna leaned on the chair in front of her, helpless with mirth. Spending time with her one true oneesama always left her in stitches. Once she managed to stop laughing she took a moment to catch her breath, then sighed, "Ohhh!…But this reminds me --- I need a summer job next month."
"Me, too," Remon nodded.
While Kizuna and Remon talked about jobs, Chikaru conversed with her old friends and classmates.
"I got myself a show," she announced.
Miyuki blinked. "So you started a band now?"
"She means an art show, Miyuki-senpai," Setsuko corrected.
"In January at the Suzuki Youmi Gallery! Check it out!"
Chikaru's major at St. Ninnian University was Liberal Arts. Her portfolio of sketches had earned her quite the scholarship. But sketching was all the art major was familiar with doing. Her classes in the Arts Hall had challenged her to work with other mediums: oils, watercolors, acrylics…Chikaru had always loved experimenting and expanding her abilities, and now she discovered new things she was good at. Her show at the Suzuki Youmi Gallery would feature her latest and greatest attempts at the early modernism style through acrylics.
Their humorous banter was interrupted by the scrape of a throat on stage. They looked up to see Tamao gazing at them from where she stood behind the false lab table.
"Nagisa-chan and I just finished the scene. How were we?"
"And was the lighting okay?" Yaya called from the projector room.
Shion and Amane flushed bright red once they realized that they'd missed the entire scene. Amane called, "Maybe you should rehearse that scene one more time."
They all could hear Yaya's exasperated groan up in the projector room. Tamao rolled her eyes, but took her place at the door. Nagisa sighed, "I can only glare for so long before my face gets tired. This role should've gone to Tsubomi-chan!"
---
That evening Nagisa returned to her dorm to find Tamao brewing something. And by the smell of it, it definitely wasn't tea.
"Espresso!" the poet chirped as the special pot plup-plupped away. "Have you ever had it?"
"I've, uh, had coffee," Nagisa responded as she took off her boots by the door.
"Well, espresso's like coffee except it's WAY stronger. That's why you have to drink it out of this tiny cup." She held up the dinkiest coffee cup Nagisa had ever seen. It was so small that Tamao could only hook one finger through the handle.
"I didn't know you had an espresso maker," said Nagisa as she sat down on the floor next to her girlfriend.
Tamao chuckled. "What kind of a writer would I be if I didn't have one? A writer without espresso is like a fish without water." She smiled at her analogy, then said, "Normally I make espresso with regular coffee beans. But tonight is special. Tonight I'm making espresso with Intelligentsia espresso beans!"
"Sounds great," the redhead smiled. Then she absently looked at the door. "Will Hikari-chan and Yaya-chan be joining us?"
"Nope." Tamao edged closer to her girlfriend and put her arms around her. "Tonight it's just us."
The two of them made out for a few minutes, Tamao holding Nagisa by her waist. For the first time today, the redhead felt like she could finally relax. She pulled the poet closer, deepening their kisses. Also, she was beginning to let go of her apprehensions that Tamao would hate her present. Come on. It's Tamao-chan. She'll flip for it.
By then the espresso maker was perking. Tamao broke off the kiss to serve the black liquid. She quietly, almost reflectively, considered her doll-sized cup before saying, "Nagisa-chan…To three hundred and sixty five days of love."
"Of devoted companionship," the redhead smiled.
"Of mind-blowing sex."
"Of --- wait, what…?"
Tamao laughed. They raised their cups to toast themselves and each other and the unbreakable bond that took them a year to forge. Then they emptied their cups of the espresso.
Nagisa coughed and held her throat. Tamao grimaced at her cup. "This must be why I've never made espresso with espresso beans. Yuck!"
"It tastes like poison," the redhead gagged.
"Well, I smeared polonium in your cup. I was hoping you wouldn't notice."
The poet got another good laugh when Nagisa dropped her cup and scooted away from it, staring at it as if it were a rattlesnake. "I'm kidding! This espresso does taste like poison.
"Hey! I have a present for you!"
"After that joke, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an envelope filled with anthrax."
Tamao groaned. "Damn it. I thought I had that envelope well-hidden!"
"Eh?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
"Gotcha!" the poet laughed, poking Nagisa's tummy.
Tamao reached under the bed, and pulled out a large plate covered by a metal bowl. Upon removing the bowl she revealed a giant two-layer cake with chocolate frosting. The cake was decorated with star- and heart-shaped sprinkles as well as some pink frosting roses.
"Cake!" Nagisa squealed, clapping her hands.
The poet smiled as she sliced the cake. "Anyone could go into, say, a jeweler's and buy their girlfriend a diamond cut and fashioned by someone who doesn't know her. But I opted to make you something myself." She passed her girlfriend a slice and a fork.
Nagisa's garnet eyes swam as she accepted the plate. "Tamao…Thank you. Domo arigatou." Then waterfall tears streaked down her face. "But now that makes my present look stupid."
"I'm sure it's not. What did you get me?"
Nagisa got up and headed toward her closet. She opened it, bent over, and retrieved Tamao's present.
Tamao gasped when she opened it. "The Shannara trilogy! I've totally been meaning to get this!" Her violet eyes shining, she smiled at Nagisa. "I love it! Thank you so much!"
"Happy anniversary," the redhead muttered sheepishly, glowing in Tamao's gratitude. She dug into her cake, humming appreciatively to let Tamao know that she liked it. She invited her to have a piece too, and they both enjoyed it. Afterward Tamao kissed Nagisa several times; then she led her to their bed, where they made something sweeter than cake.
Whenever my sisters come home from college, they always have stories --- stories that are equally funny and insane --- that helped me write for Chikaru and the others as college students. The story of Shion's apartment was about my sister's friend; apparently he also found a dead cat in his apartment, but I left that out of Shion's apartment story.