Cress, of course, got to the next Saturday dinner twenty minutes early. Cinder was practically all she had talked about the whole week. By the time Liam arrived she was almost bouncing off her cushion. Kai was already there too, not that Liam was surprised.
"You two are going to scare this girl away if you both keep smiling like that," he said, sliding into the booth.
"Cinder is going to be here any minute now, she just texted me." Cress looked longingly at his phone.
"I wish I had her number, you guys talk all the time!" Kai slipped his smart phone into his pocket.
"No we don't - she has a limit to the number of texts she can send each month. And plus, she's really sweet, if you asked for her number she'd probably give it to you," he said flipping open the menu. It took him a very long second to realize that Cress was grinning at him devilishly.
"You called her sweet." Kai rolled his eyes.
"How many times do I have to tell you, it's not like that. I just think she is really cool, that is all. Nothing has happened or will happen." Kai ignored Liam's pointed snort. It was two more minutes before Cinder walked through the door, spotted them and sank down in the seat next to Liam.
"Hey," her voice was low and she seemed a little reserved as her gaze shot around the table.
"Cinder, this is Liam and Cress," Kai gestured to both of them as he introduced them politely. Liam nodded and Cress smiled nervously although her eyes were warm.
"You look really good tonight! I've never seen you out of work clothes," Cress said. Cinder looked down slightly embarrassed.
"My best friend, Iko, found out about this and insisted I 'dress up'. She thinks I don't get out enough. Luckily I was able to talk her down from her more extravagant choices." She was wearing light blue slim jeans with only a few dark grease stains and a thick bulky sweater that was several sizes too big. It suited her.
"You do work a lot. And you have to get school work done too. You probably don't have a lot of spare time."
"That's what I said, but when Iko gets an idea in her head…" she turned to Kai. "He knows - he met her."
"When?" asked Kai, baffled.
"The first time you came in? Bright blue hair?"
"That's your best friend?" Kai tried to think of anything the two of them might have in common but they looked like exact opposites.
"Yeah, she can be a bit much, but she means well." Cinder had a slight smile on her face as she spoke of Iko. It made Kai smile too.
"How long have you know each other?"
"For about a decade now, most of my life it seems."
"You should invite her out," Cress interjected, "I want to meet her!"
"She would probably love to, but she works dinner and evenings."
"What does she do?"
"She's a live in maid for a elderly couple that is ridiculously rich here in the city."
"Woah, that probably pays well."
"Not as well as you'd think, but she gets free room and board and that was a huge part of why she was able to come live here."
"Are you from the same hometown?" Cress asked. Cinder nodded.
"Stop grilling the girl and let her look at the menu," Liam mumbled. Cinder turned to look at him for a long minute.
"Oh don't mind him," said Cress, "He might be a bit abrasive but Liam is actually a really good guy." Liam glanced up to meet Cinders evaluative stare.
"I have no intentions of proving myself to you." There was a brief moment and then Cinder smiled at him and turned to Kai.
"I like him." Liam grunted. Their waiter, who had been impatiently waiting for their whole party to arrive, swooped down on them and rushed their orders away.
"So how did you guys get to be so close?" asked Cinder, trying to pick up the conversation. Cress was eager to give her the full story.
"We met freshman year because we all had this one class together and we ended up working on a project together. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that we made a good team."
"It helped that all of the rest of the people in that class were glaringly stupid," added Liam. Cress frowned at him.
"I don't think they were stupid. I just think they were more interested in their extracurricular activities freshman year then schoolwork."
"It was an eight am class three times a week. On Mondays, half the class wouldn't even show up."
"Anyways," interrupted Cress, "we bonded over our mutual intelligence and dedication to our studies. After that class, we would never see each other, so we started having dinner every Saturday. This semester we were able to schedule one of our gen eds together, but we still like this tradition."
"Ahh," by this time their food had arrived and Cinder blew on her pad thai before shoving it into her mouth. "What's your guys' majors anyways?"
"Well Cress is studying computer science, but you already know that. Liam is a history major and spends the rest of his time in the gym. And I am a business and international affairs double major with a history minor." Kai leaned across the table with a teasing grin. "The second major is just for fun."
"And in other news," said Liam, "Kai's a masochist. But what else do you do besides, you know, mechanics." Cinder shrugged.
"Sleep? I go from the shop at school to the shop at work. It's kinda what I do."
"But you hang out with Iko," Cress reminded her.
"She comes to my work so we can see each other."
"Don't you have any time to yourself?" Liam asked with some disbelief. Cinder deliberated.
"Right now?"
"Dude. That sucks."
"Do you at least have any plans to get away for fall break next week?" Kai asked.
"Not really, do you?"
"Well, yeah. Cress is going back to her parents house, Liam is going on a road trip and I'm driving back home. And you? Are you just going to stay here and work?" Cinder shrugged.
"What else would I do?" she seemed genuinely curious and they all turned to look at Kai.
"Come home with me." He heard himself say the words more than he really processed thinking them. "I mean, if you want to come back with me, my parents love having guests and we have tons of space. There is always a lot of food at our house this time of year and it would be nice to have a friend over, we could kill time together."
Cress and Cinder's jaws seemed to drop in an almost synchronized motion.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I would have to check with my parents, but the invitation is open." Cress groaned dramatically and let her head fall on the table next to her plate.
"I should have thought of that," she grumbled, "Now Kai gets Cinder for a whole week!" To their surprise, Cinder started laughing. Really hard.
"First you guys get me out of the shop and now you are offering me vacations and free food? Man, you guys are awesome!" They all joined in, even Cress who picked herself up from the table to share in the smiles.
"We like you," said Cress. "...Specifically - hey!" Kai discreetly pinched her underneath the table.
"I like you guys too," Cinder threw the last bit of her food into her mouth. "Also, why don't you just ask Kai if you could come over someday during break?" Cress' whole face lit up, and then she slowly turned to him, knitting her fingers together, pouting her lower lip and making her eyes perfectly round. Kai groaned.
"The puppy dog eyes? You know you get your way with the puppy dog eyes, Cress."
"Then... can I come over?" He sighed.
"Why not." She squealed and reached across the table to grab Cinder's hand.
"We are going to be good friends." Her words were partially statement, partially prediction.
The rest of the night was spent fast in discussion about classes and school drama, of which Cress seemed to have an endless knowledge. Before long the four were separating, promising to keep in touch during the break and heading back home.
Kai was soon back at his apartment and while he lay in bed he ran the night back through his head. It had only taken a minute on the phone with his mother to okay having a friend over for break. He had left out that his friend was a girl because he was a little worried his mom, like everyone else it seemed, would draw conclusions about their relationship.
He didn't understand why Cress and Liam thought that he and Cinder were a thing. They weren't, they definitely were not. But did he want them to be? Kai stilled as that thought dawned on his consciousness. He enjoyed her company sure, and he looked forward to spending a whole week in her company. And, ok, maybe whenever they started texting he would check his phone more times than usual to see if she had responded yet. But that didn't mean anything.
Alright she was pretty too, he couldn't deny that. Her beauty wasn't the kind that would stop people in the street, but it was there when you bothered to look. Kai jolted as he realized how much of their time together he had spent looking. He pulled in a deep breath and for just a moment let his imagination wander the way it only could in the safety of the dark.
Kai fantasized about what it would be like to kiss Cinder. To just lean forward a few inches and press his lips against hers. To let his arms wrap around her waist, tugging her close so he could feel the lines of her body that she always kept hidden. To be able to feel the warmth of her skin as he -
Chastising himself for thinking that way about a friend, he quickly yanked himself out of that line of thought. Cinder was a friend. She was kind and funny and did not deserve to be thought about that way. A friend. He needed to pull himself together. That kind of thing would never happen. But the knot that had started in the pit of his stomach refused to loosen.
Kai let out a resigned sigh and rolled onto his back, realizing it would take him longer than planned to get to sleep.