So here's chapter three..
"Can I ask you something"
"Uh.. Yeah"
"Come on, Anju. That's not a real answer"
"Okay. Yeah, ask me."
He was wearing a face I'd only seen a couple times before. Real concentration. Not the kind you use for a mathematics test, the kind you use to say something really hard. Like when he told Mayor Dotour it was he who broke the window with the rock or when he had to break the news to Gorman about the accident with his dog.
We were sitting at the laundry pool; no one was around. We did that a lot during our time off lessons and chores. I would say we were nearing 10 or 11.. Maybe 12. His hands were in his lap, his eyes puckered in the difficulty he so obviously had asking whatever it was he was readying himself to ask.
"Kafei…?" I leaned forward when he didn't say anything for a while. Why was he acting so weird?
"Why do you stay with me? Don't you hear all the other people call me.. Odd?" He looked away from me.
I could have laughed. "Kafei… Since when have I cared what the other people say about anything?" I'm sure my mother would tell me today that that was a very "mature" statement for my age.
"But Gorman.. He says that you shouldn't be my friend. Because I'm different." Now I frowned. Since when did /he/ listen to /Gorman/? We both knew that boy was nothing more than a bully.
"Don't be silly. I don't care." My eyes strayed to a frog that I had caught hopping in the corner of my eye. Strange.. I'd never seen it there before. I'd never seen a blue frog before with such big eyes, either.
"But you don't know. I'm /really/ different Anju.. Really." It was like he was pleading with me. Wanting me to say 'Okay, I'll run afraid and never look at you again.'
I didn't say anything. I took his hand and stood up, pulling him off the bench. He raised his eyebrows and asked where we were going or something. I knew my way around by now, even though Clock Town could be a little confusing at times. I had been here four years, after all. (1)
I made my way away from the pool back into South Clock Town, pulling him by the wrist a foot behind me, ignoring the stream of questions coming from him. I stopped at the Tower, looking up at it. The festival was tonight, and they had opened the door for repairs. Something about misleading of fireworks last year or something. We were little, we could sneak by.
And that's just what we did. Not only did we sneak past the carpenters, we got all the way up the stairs.
"Anju!" He cried in hushed tones, looking about with wide eyes. "You're going to get us in trouble"
"Hush.. You're the one that'll get us caught. Calm down." I sat him down in the corner of the huge roof of the tower, round wall holding us in and offering needed security for my weak-stomached friend.
"We're fine!" I shouted as I jumped on the low edge of the wall, balancing with my arms out and tiptoeing along the ridge.
"Anju! Get down!" I would have laughed had he not looked so scared. But he was terrified… It was chilling. So I got down and sat next to him.
His nervous glancing stopped after awhile, when the sun started melting into the sea and purple blanketed the light blue. Surely people would start coming up here when the clock struck midnight, but how mad could they get? It was festival night.. Of course they wouldn't dare scold two children on festival night! So we stayed up there, looking at the sky, my head on his shoulder.
- - - - -
"Again? Anju, you'll be the death of me"
"Oh but you know you like it." I didn't notice the furtive glance he gave me as I said that, I didn't see the little blush… I was too excited. "It'll be like old times. We don't spend time together anymore"
"You're always with…" He trailed off. "Where is Gorman"
My head tilted to one side as I bit my lip. "He said something about needing to take a visit to Milk Road with his big brother. He promised he'd be back by tonight, though. So we won't be able to stay like we did before."
Again I didn't notice the way his gaze became hooded when I spoke of Gorman. Gorman had been a bully, but he was nice. In a way.
I don't know how it happened. I think I was thirteen, and it was my birthday. That was when I still spent every waking moment with Kafei. Gorman handed me a wooden horse. He told me that he had liked me since before he could remember and that it made him jealous to see me always with Kafei.
The word "different" hadn't come up in that situation, but he'd repeated it more than a couple times during our relationship. I kind of brushed it off, wondering what it was he was talking about. He acted really powerful because he knew, but wouldn't tell me. It was like a dark secret that just loomed over my memory of Kafei and ultimately made me forget the boy he was. Distorting him into someone that really was.. "Different".
Slowly I stopped visiting Kafei at the laundry pool. Or anywhere else, for that matter. And the first time Gorman kissed me, I stopped talking to Kafei whenever I chanced him around town. It was weird, but kind of natural, too. Gorman didn't like me talking to him, so I didn't. I should have felt bad, but I didn't really.. He had his other friends. Those twins, and the carpenter's sons were always around him. He didn't need me.
"You're sure this is okay?" He asked, raising his eyebrows as I threw him a blanket.
"No.. But we'll do it anyway." He was looking at the blanket I had torn off the bed and tried to roll up, failing. He unrolled it and folded it neatly. I smirked as he set it on the naked bed and ran a hand through his hair. I had always admired his hair. It was such a nice shade of blue… "Are we leaving?" I asked. It wasn't really a question. He slung the blanket over one shoulder and smiled, nodding.
But he just stood there for a couple moments. Didn't move towards the door or anything. So I grabbed his wrist and led him out. Small acknowledgement to my grandmother as I left the Inn and we set off for South Clock Town again. When his hand closed around mine, I didn't even look back. It didn't really matter.
There was a secret back way that I'd heard about a while ago from that old man in the observatory. Whenever Gorman was on one of his trips to Milk Road I went there. It was often… So often I grew into the habit of calling him grandpa. I think he liked that.
The entrance wasn't hard to find, and we found the stairs. He stood watching me as I took the blanket from his shoulder and set it out. "See?" I cocked one eyebrow as that dumb (2) smile stayed plastered to his face.
He looked so young but so grown up at the same time. "Kafei?" I remember my short giggle becoming contagious as I sat down on the blanket. He was chuckling when he sat down next to me. We were laughing about nothing. Like back then. I liked that.
As it does every night, the sun bid it's slow farewell to the sky, and we were laying back now. His hands were under his head, mine lazily on my chest. "Kafei?" He had been awfully quiet, but it was okay. We were comfortable.
"Yeah?" He said after a moment, his eyes dropping to meet mine.
We stayed like that for a moment, nothing touching save our gazes, breath starting to be visible on the air -for neither of us found it all possible to breath with our noses for that moment.. Though why that was I couldn't tell you.
I turned away from him, unsettling feeling in my stomach. "Do you think Gorman's back yet?" That wasn't what I was going to ask him, and I knew it was the wrong question by the way the atmosphere shattered when tension sprang into his body. But maybe that being the wrong question was actually right. That didn't make sense.
"I don't know." He said after sighing heavily, sitting up. "I think we should go back. He'll be worried if you're not there to greet him." I /did/ notice the hint of sarcasm in his words and frowned.
"Yes, he will." I said shortly, frowning.
I also saw the way his eyes narrowed slightly as he then stood up.
"Why are you so upset?" I asked, standing up, confused.
"I'm not upset, Anju. What ever gave you that idea?" He wouldn't look at me anymore, but stooped to pick up the blanket and shake it out.
It was then a wind took it and ripped it out of his hands. It dangled in the air for a moment, as if wondering which way to go. I cried out as it was sent dangerously to the edge.. But Kafei was there. He caught it, he caught it by jumping on the ridge of the wall and reaching for it.
The ridge. The same ridge he'd been horrified of just 4 years ago. (3) He didn't say anything as he jumped down and folded the blanket again, but I was shocked.
He shot me a glance and frowned. "Aren't you coming? Gorman will be suspicious if I'm the only one that returns, won't he?" There was that coldness again. What was the matter with him?
He didn't wait for me, but started walking. "He doesn't know I'm here with you!" I called after him, following down the stairs.
He had stopped a couple stairs below me, looking back. "Why not? Embarrassed?" I stopped, squinting to see him in the dark.
"No… He'd be mad." I bit my lip. What, was I supposed to lie?
"Oh. I see." He started walking again, his whole person closed to me.
"Kafei, wait." I skipped down the couple of stairs to meet and stop him.
He looked up, sighing again. "What? I thought you were in a hurry to get back." He /sneered/, at /me/.. I could hardly believe it.
I couldn't even remember what it was I had planned to say. "You're so different.." He was being bitter and cold towards me. "Do you.. You don't.. Aren't we friends anymore?" I think I was blinking back tears by then, my voice nearly caught in my throat at times.
"Anju.. We've grown apart. This was a bad idea." He looked down and started walking again. /Again/ without me.
"What? Why? Kafei!" I was crying by then. I don't know why. This was so bad.. It was so.. Horrible. It was like a nightmare. The things I had done were crashing down on me. I left him and he forgot our friendship. It was like he had forgotten who he was when he was with me.
"What?! What do you want from me? Haven't you taken enough?" He glanced back and I'm sure he saw the tears streaming down my cheeks. This only made him want to get away from me more, I could tell, but he didn't move any longer.
"Well what does that mean?" I sobbed, my voice in pieces. This was hardly fair. He was making me a mess right before I saw my boyfriend.. And I couldn't even figure out why this was hurting me so much.
He looked back at me again, and I could feel regret. I could feel it coming from him. It wasn't only regret. It was hurt, too. His eyes were telling me he wished he could tell me. "You don't want to know." Was his voice breaking as mine, or was that a trick of the echo in this spiral of bricks?
"Kafei.." It was like a whisper. It was barely a whisper. I wanted to reach out, to touch him. To have him hold me. Gorman never held me… Not really. He hugged me, but he didn't hold me. I never felt precious, I never felt /loved/. He kissed me but he never entrapped me or enthralled me with his lips. It wasn't passionate, it was rough. It was meaningless and… Nothing more than possession.
And here was Kafei.. Looking at the ground. And I was crying, pleading inside my head that he'd reach for me and take me in his arms and let me know that everything I thought I saw was real. That he had changed for the better, and that he still loved me.
"Don't cry, Anju. Not for me. Don't cry for me." He cleared his throat carefully as he started walking again. "I'll give you the blanket later." He mumbled, disappearing from my view.
The tears didn't stop. They doubled.. And they vocalized and my knees gave in and I crumpled on the stairs.
Aw.. Poor Anju. -pats Anju- And poor Kafei. -pats Kafei- xP
This makes me want to write a story from his POV.. Fill in all the blanks.. Ah.. Yes, I may do that when I'm done with this. -nods-
(1) I think I said she was seven when she got there.. So four years later would make them eleven. Uh huh.
(2) When I say dumb.. I don't mean like /me/ dumb.. I mean silent. Sure, I could have said silent, but dumb had a better effect. Yeah.
(3) Another four years... Which makes them 15. -nods-
R&R.. I like this story so you should too! -fumes- x.x