a/n: All right. I think I need a few disclaimers here...
I don't own Crystal's Cafe'. I actually know a restaurant called that. And I don't own the movie, The Golden Years. That's Stephen King's. Who ROCKS!!! ^_^ I have two of his books and seen most of his movies. Obsessed? Me? Never.
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*Ring*
The telephone woke Kai up the next morning. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but the phone rang again. She groaned and sat up.
*Ring*
- That is actually ringing, right? - she thought, looking at Tea, who was fast asleep.
*Ring*
- All right, I'm coming, don't blow a fuse. - Kai got out of bed and went into the living room.
"Hello?" she asked, putting the receiver to her ear.
"Hey, Kai," Carlos replied.
"Carlos? Why aren't you at Randy's?" she asked, looking at her watch.
"I got the day off," he replied. "Why don't we go bowling or something. It's been a while since we just hung out."
"Um... well, the gang is still asleep..." she started, but was cut off.
"Ever since they came you haven't wanted to hang out with me anymore! I'm your best friend, remember?" he said, making Kai stare at the phone in surprise.
"Of course! But... they're staying with me... don't you think that would be sort of rude?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "You have a life too. One that doesn't revolve around them. All I want you to do is spend the day with me. Without them."
"Um..." she started. - What if I start having those weird things happening again? Carlos doesn't know! - "Yeah, okay. When?" she said finally.
She could hear him smile on the other end of the phone. "How about an hour? Meet me at the bowling ally, okay?"
"All right. See you then." She hung up and stared at the phone a minute. - What if I do something? What if I hurt him? -
Then another thought came to her. Carlos was acting so weird. It was almost as if he was jealous of her new friends. He would always be her best friend, no matter how many other people she met. What was wrong with him?
Pushing that out of her mind, she went to get ready to meet him.
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A half hour later, Kai was ready to go. Before she headed out the door, she wrote a note to the gang and left it on the kitchen table. She hesitated once before leaving.
She closed the door behind her, her purse on her arm. The air was warm and there was a nice breeze blowing. She wore shorts and a lime green tank top that Carlos had once said he liked. She laughed, remembering the way he blushed when she had raised her eyebrow at him. He had always been a bit weird.
She walked down the road, humming softly to herself. She realized it was the song her grandmother used to sing to her and she stopped for a moment. Remembering her grandmother always made her feel down.
But, she quickly shook it off as she continued towards the bowling ally. She was going to see Carlos and he always made her feel better. He was the one that had been there for her when Gran didn't come back. He had taken care of her and that seemed to strengthen their friendship. They were as close as if they were related and Kai was glad.
Kai looked up at the sky to see a flock of birds fly over. She laughed, remembering back a few years. It had been the same situation with the birds, only Carlos had been with her. They had been talking when suddenly something splatted on his head. He just stood there a second, disgusted, while Kai started laughing uncontrollably. He had to go home and take a shower after that and he wasn't altogether happy about it. But it had been really funny.
After that, Carlos had always raised an arm over his head when birds flew over. He seemed to think that would protect him if a pigeon ever decided to do a little target practice.
A few minutes later, Kai entered the bowling ally. She looked around and wasn't surprised when she didn't see Carlos. He was never on time. He seemed to /try/ to be late. She shook her head and laughed. He had many flaws, but he was still her best friend. She didn't mind waiting for him and it was a good thing too.
Carlos strolled in a little while later, his hands in his pockets. "Hello," he said to her.
"I see you're upholding your reputation as the King of being late," Kai said dryly.
"That's me," he replied, grinning.
Kai rolled her eyes. "Are we going to stand here all day or are we going to get a lane?"
"All right, all right, keep your hair on," Carlos said, walking past her to the counter. He paid for a game and for the shoes and they were soon assigned a lane.
"So, who's going first?" Kai asked, sitting down by the score pad.
"You want to go? You'll need all the help you can get," Carlos said.
"Oh, shut up. You're no better at this than I am," she said, punching in their names. "But, if you want me to go first, that's fine with me."
They chose their bowling balls and Kai took her position in front of the lane. Her first roll was a definite gutter. She came back to wait for her ball while Carlos laughed.
"Shut up," she said, grinning.
"What happened to you? You used to be pretty good!" he said.
"I'm just warming up," she replied, taking her ball when it came back. She ran down to the lane and rolled the ball down it. Her eyes widened as it went straight down the center. She crossed her fingers as it hit the pins in the center. When all the pins that were going to fall had, only two remained standing.
"A /split/?" she cried.
Carlos cracked up. "It's a good thing that was your last go. I'd hate to see how you'd go about knocking /those/ down!"
"Oh, shut up. I hit pins, didn't I?" she said.
"Amateur," Carlos said, picking up his ball. "Watch this." He ran up to the lane and rolled the ball dead down the center. When it struck the pins, they all fell. "Oh, yeah!"
Kai rolled her eyes. "Big deal. Don't worry, I'll beat you yet," she said, taking her turn.
As the game progressed, nearly every ball the friends bowled was a strike or spare. It had been a while since Carlos had taken her bowling and she had thought she would have forgotten how by now. But, it seemed that it had stuck with her.
When the game came to an end, Carlos had won, but not by much. They changed their shoes and set them on the counter as they passed by to leave.
- I bet she doesn't have this much fun when she's with Yugi, - Carlos thought as they left the ally.
"So, what do you want to do now?" Kai asked, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.
Carlos checked his watch. "It's about noon, why don't we grab lunch. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
"So nice of you to treat me," she said with a sly grin.
"Who said /that/?" he asked.
"Well, it was your idea, wasn't it?" she asked.
Carlos rolled his eyes.
"So, where are we going?" she asked.
"I don't know. How about Crystal's Cafe'?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me," she replied.
They started down the street, talking about random things that didn't matter. Neither of them would remember what it was they had said by the next day.
They arrived at Crystal's Cafe' a few minutes later. Carlos opened the door and held it for Kai with an exaggerated bow. She laughed and curtsied.
"Thank you sir," she said, grinning.
The two of them earned many odd looks from customers as they entered. A hostess greeted them shortly.
"Two?" she asked and they nodded. "Smoking or non?"
"Non," Carlos replied.
She nodded and grabbed two menus on the way to their table. Carlos and Kai sat down and the hostess put the menus in front of them.
"Someone will be with you in a minute," she said, walking away.
Kai picked up her menu and studied it. She saw Carlos do the same over the top of her menu. A few minutes later, a waitress came over.
"Hi, my name is Rina and I'll be your server today. Do you know what you want to drink?" she asked with a smile.
"Water, no lemon for me thanks," Kai said, smiling back at her.
"Pepsi here," Carlos said.
"All right, I'll be back in a minute," Rina said, leaving the table.
"You know what you want?" Carlos asked Kai as she picked up her menu again.
"Carlos, I barely looked at what's available! Give me a minute," she said, laughing.
"I'm getting a Ruben," he said.
Kai gave him a thumbs up. "Good for you," she said. "I think I'll get a BLT." She set her menu down and folded her arms on top of it, looking at Carlos.
He leaned forward and rested his own arms on the table. "It must be fun for you, staying in a house with four guys," he said, looking her directly in the eye.
Despite the fact that he was grinning, she could feel something wasn't quite right. Her head throbbed for a moment, as if it wanted to make her do something, but it stopped shortly. She was left with a sense that something would happen by the end of the day, and she was pretty sure it wasn't going to be good.
Snapping back into reality, she realized Carlos must want an answer. "Um... well, I guess so... I mean, they're my friends..." she said, trying to concentrate on what she was saying.
- Why is she stammering? - Carlos thought furiously. "Oh, I see," he said, forcing the grin to stay on his face.
"What?" she asked, genuinely confused. She caught on as he raised an eyebrow. "Oh! Carlos, get your mind out of the gutters. There's nothing going /on/ between any of us."
- Not yet anyway, - he thought. "/Really/?" he asked, keeping his eyebrow up.
Kai reached across the table and smacked him in the head. "No, there's nothing going /on/." Then, she grinned. "I /may/ like Yugi, but I'm not sure yet."
The news hit Carlos like a ton of bricks. "You're not sure? How can you not be sure?" he asked.
Kai laughed. She didn't notice that Carlos' eyes had darkened. "I don't know, I'm just... not sure. But, you can't say anything to him, got it? If you do, I'll never speak to you again."
"And that would be a bad thing?" he asked, trying to keep his composure.
"Oh, shut up," she said, grinning. Carlos was known to bug her about her crushes. He'd tease her long after she had gotten over the guy, but always seemed to know just when to stop.
Sure, he had teased her about other guys, but they had never posed a real threat. He wasn't quite sure why, but somehow he sensed that Yami was different from the rest. If she went with him, Carlos felt as though his only chance would go out the window.
"Nah, I won't say anything," he said as Rina came back.
She set Carlos' Pepsi down and did the same with Kai's water. "Do you know what you're having?" she asked cheerfully.
"Ruben," Carlos said simply.
"All right, and you?" she asked Kai.
"A BLT will be fine," Kai said, handing Rina her menu.
"You got it," the waitress said, taking Carlos' menu. "I'll be back in a few minutes with your orders."
Carlos stared at Kai. "But why /Yugi/?" he asked, confused.
Kai smiled and looked down at her hands. "I don't know," she said. "He's... kinda' cute I guess. And he's most definitely nicer than you, that's for sure," she laughed.
- Time to change the subject, - he thought furiously. "So, after this, where do you want to go? How about a movie?" he asked.
"But... it's not movie night," she said, looking at him.
"So? Who cares," Carlos replied.
Kai shrugged. "Do you have something in mind?"
"Not a clue."
She laughed. "All right. So we are making plans to go to a movie that we haven't got the foggiest idea of what it's about."
"That's about the size of it," Carlos said, grinning despite himself.
"Sounds good to me," Kai said, laughing.
The rest of lunch went well and soon Kai had forgotten the feeling she had about the end of the day. They went on to watch the movie, The Golden Years. At first Carlos had wanted to pick the movie, but since it wasn't movie night, they compromised.
The Golden Years turned out to be a good movie. It was about a man who all of a sudden was absorbing lots of knowledge and couldn't stop. It turned out in the end that aliens had forced him to absorb all that and one night rid him of it all. They had picked one man to teach them about Earth.
When they got out of the movie theater, it was about three p.m.
"I probably should get back," Kai said once they were standing on the sidewalk.
Carlos nodded, reluctant to let her go back to Yami without him. "Yeah, okay. I'll walk you," he said.
Kai smiled. "Thanks. I had fun today. It was good to spend some time with you again," she said.
He smiled back and put his arm around her as they headed home.
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a/n: All right. What's gonna' happen when they get back? You gotta' review to find out! ^_^
I don't own Crystal's Cafe'. I actually know a restaurant called that. And I don't own the movie, The Golden Years. That's Stephen King's. Who ROCKS!!! ^_^ I have two of his books and seen most of his movies. Obsessed? Me? Never.
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*Ring*
The telephone woke Kai up the next morning. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but the phone rang again. She groaned and sat up.
*Ring*
- That is actually ringing, right? - she thought, looking at Tea, who was fast asleep.
*Ring*
- All right, I'm coming, don't blow a fuse. - Kai got out of bed and went into the living room.
"Hello?" she asked, putting the receiver to her ear.
"Hey, Kai," Carlos replied.
"Carlos? Why aren't you at Randy's?" she asked, looking at her watch.
"I got the day off," he replied. "Why don't we go bowling or something. It's been a while since we just hung out."
"Um... well, the gang is still asleep..." she started, but was cut off.
"Ever since they came you haven't wanted to hang out with me anymore! I'm your best friend, remember?" he said, making Kai stare at the phone in surprise.
"Of course! But... they're staying with me... don't you think that would be sort of rude?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "You have a life too. One that doesn't revolve around them. All I want you to do is spend the day with me. Without them."
"Um..." she started. - What if I start having those weird things happening again? Carlos doesn't know! - "Yeah, okay. When?" she said finally.
She could hear him smile on the other end of the phone. "How about an hour? Meet me at the bowling ally, okay?"
"All right. See you then." She hung up and stared at the phone a minute. - What if I do something? What if I hurt him? -
Then another thought came to her. Carlos was acting so weird. It was almost as if he was jealous of her new friends. He would always be her best friend, no matter how many other people she met. What was wrong with him?
Pushing that out of her mind, she went to get ready to meet him.
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A half hour later, Kai was ready to go. Before she headed out the door, she wrote a note to the gang and left it on the kitchen table. She hesitated once before leaving.
She closed the door behind her, her purse on her arm. The air was warm and there was a nice breeze blowing. She wore shorts and a lime green tank top that Carlos had once said he liked. She laughed, remembering the way he blushed when she had raised her eyebrow at him. He had always been a bit weird.
She walked down the road, humming softly to herself. She realized it was the song her grandmother used to sing to her and she stopped for a moment. Remembering her grandmother always made her feel down.
But, she quickly shook it off as she continued towards the bowling ally. She was going to see Carlos and he always made her feel better. He was the one that had been there for her when Gran didn't come back. He had taken care of her and that seemed to strengthen their friendship. They were as close as if they were related and Kai was glad.
Kai looked up at the sky to see a flock of birds fly over. She laughed, remembering back a few years. It had been the same situation with the birds, only Carlos had been with her. They had been talking when suddenly something splatted on his head. He just stood there a second, disgusted, while Kai started laughing uncontrollably. He had to go home and take a shower after that and he wasn't altogether happy about it. But it had been really funny.
After that, Carlos had always raised an arm over his head when birds flew over. He seemed to think that would protect him if a pigeon ever decided to do a little target practice.
A few minutes later, Kai entered the bowling ally. She looked around and wasn't surprised when she didn't see Carlos. He was never on time. He seemed to /try/ to be late. She shook her head and laughed. He had many flaws, but he was still her best friend. She didn't mind waiting for him and it was a good thing too.
Carlos strolled in a little while later, his hands in his pockets. "Hello," he said to her.
"I see you're upholding your reputation as the King of being late," Kai said dryly.
"That's me," he replied, grinning.
Kai rolled her eyes. "Are we going to stand here all day or are we going to get a lane?"
"All right, all right, keep your hair on," Carlos said, walking past her to the counter. He paid for a game and for the shoes and they were soon assigned a lane.
"So, who's going first?" Kai asked, sitting down by the score pad.
"You want to go? You'll need all the help you can get," Carlos said.
"Oh, shut up. You're no better at this than I am," she said, punching in their names. "But, if you want me to go first, that's fine with me."
They chose their bowling balls and Kai took her position in front of the lane. Her first roll was a definite gutter. She came back to wait for her ball while Carlos laughed.
"Shut up," she said, grinning.
"What happened to you? You used to be pretty good!" he said.
"I'm just warming up," she replied, taking her ball when it came back. She ran down to the lane and rolled the ball down it. Her eyes widened as it went straight down the center. She crossed her fingers as it hit the pins in the center. When all the pins that were going to fall had, only two remained standing.
"A /split/?" she cried.
Carlos cracked up. "It's a good thing that was your last go. I'd hate to see how you'd go about knocking /those/ down!"
"Oh, shut up. I hit pins, didn't I?" she said.
"Amateur," Carlos said, picking up his ball. "Watch this." He ran up to the lane and rolled the ball dead down the center. When it struck the pins, they all fell. "Oh, yeah!"
Kai rolled her eyes. "Big deal. Don't worry, I'll beat you yet," she said, taking her turn.
As the game progressed, nearly every ball the friends bowled was a strike or spare. It had been a while since Carlos had taken her bowling and she had thought she would have forgotten how by now. But, it seemed that it had stuck with her.
When the game came to an end, Carlos had won, but not by much. They changed their shoes and set them on the counter as they passed by to leave.
- I bet she doesn't have this much fun when she's with Yugi, - Carlos thought as they left the ally.
"So, what do you want to do now?" Kai asked, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.
Carlos checked his watch. "It's about noon, why don't we grab lunch. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
"So nice of you to treat me," she said with a sly grin.
"Who said /that/?" he asked.
"Well, it was your idea, wasn't it?" she asked.
Carlos rolled his eyes.
"So, where are we going?" she asked.
"I don't know. How about Crystal's Cafe'?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me," she replied.
They started down the street, talking about random things that didn't matter. Neither of them would remember what it was they had said by the next day.
They arrived at Crystal's Cafe' a few minutes later. Carlos opened the door and held it for Kai with an exaggerated bow. She laughed and curtsied.
"Thank you sir," she said, grinning.
The two of them earned many odd looks from customers as they entered. A hostess greeted them shortly.
"Two?" she asked and they nodded. "Smoking or non?"
"Non," Carlos replied.
She nodded and grabbed two menus on the way to their table. Carlos and Kai sat down and the hostess put the menus in front of them.
"Someone will be with you in a minute," she said, walking away.
Kai picked up her menu and studied it. She saw Carlos do the same over the top of her menu. A few minutes later, a waitress came over.
"Hi, my name is Rina and I'll be your server today. Do you know what you want to drink?" she asked with a smile.
"Water, no lemon for me thanks," Kai said, smiling back at her.
"Pepsi here," Carlos said.
"All right, I'll be back in a minute," Rina said, leaving the table.
"You know what you want?" Carlos asked Kai as she picked up her menu again.
"Carlos, I barely looked at what's available! Give me a minute," she said, laughing.
"I'm getting a Ruben," he said.
Kai gave him a thumbs up. "Good for you," she said. "I think I'll get a BLT." She set her menu down and folded her arms on top of it, looking at Carlos.
He leaned forward and rested his own arms on the table. "It must be fun for you, staying in a house with four guys," he said, looking her directly in the eye.
Despite the fact that he was grinning, she could feel something wasn't quite right. Her head throbbed for a moment, as if it wanted to make her do something, but it stopped shortly. She was left with a sense that something would happen by the end of the day, and she was pretty sure it wasn't going to be good.
Snapping back into reality, she realized Carlos must want an answer. "Um... well, I guess so... I mean, they're my friends..." she said, trying to concentrate on what she was saying.
- Why is she stammering? - Carlos thought furiously. "Oh, I see," he said, forcing the grin to stay on his face.
"What?" she asked, genuinely confused. She caught on as he raised an eyebrow. "Oh! Carlos, get your mind out of the gutters. There's nothing going /on/ between any of us."
- Not yet anyway, - he thought. "/Really/?" he asked, keeping his eyebrow up.
Kai reached across the table and smacked him in the head. "No, there's nothing going /on/." Then, she grinned. "I /may/ like Yugi, but I'm not sure yet."
The news hit Carlos like a ton of bricks. "You're not sure? How can you not be sure?" he asked.
Kai laughed. She didn't notice that Carlos' eyes had darkened. "I don't know, I'm just... not sure. But, you can't say anything to him, got it? If you do, I'll never speak to you again."
"And that would be a bad thing?" he asked, trying to keep his composure.
"Oh, shut up," she said, grinning. Carlos was known to bug her about her crushes. He'd tease her long after she had gotten over the guy, but always seemed to know just when to stop.
Sure, he had teased her about other guys, but they had never posed a real threat. He wasn't quite sure why, but somehow he sensed that Yami was different from the rest. If she went with him, Carlos felt as though his only chance would go out the window.
"Nah, I won't say anything," he said as Rina came back.
She set Carlos' Pepsi down and did the same with Kai's water. "Do you know what you're having?" she asked cheerfully.
"Ruben," Carlos said simply.
"All right, and you?" she asked Kai.
"A BLT will be fine," Kai said, handing Rina her menu.
"You got it," the waitress said, taking Carlos' menu. "I'll be back in a few minutes with your orders."
Carlos stared at Kai. "But why /Yugi/?" he asked, confused.
Kai smiled and looked down at her hands. "I don't know," she said. "He's... kinda' cute I guess. And he's most definitely nicer than you, that's for sure," she laughed.
- Time to change the subject, - he thought furiously. "So, after this, where do you want to go? How about a movie?" he asked.
"But... it's not movie night," she said, looking at him.
"So? Who cares," Carlos replied.
Kai shrugged. "Do you have something in mind?"
"Not a clue."
She laughed. "All right. So we are making plans to go to a movie that we haven't got the foggiest idea of what it's about."
"That's about the size of it," Carlos said, grinning despite himself.
"Sounds good to me," Kai said, laughing.
The rest of lunch went well and soon Kai had forgotten the feeling she had about the end of the day. They went on to watch the movie, The Golden Years. At first Carlos had wanted to pick the movie, but since it wasn't movie night, they compromised.
The Golden Years turned out to be a good movie. It was about a man who all of a sudden was absorbing lots of knowledge and couldn't stop. It turned out in the end that aliens had forced him to absorb all that and one night rid him of it all. They had picked one man to teach them about Earth.
When they got out of the movie theater, it was about three p.m.
"I probably should get back," Kai said once they were standing on the sidewalk.
Carlos nodded, reluctant to let her go back to Yami without him. "Yeah, okay. I'll walk you," he said.
Kai smiled. "Thanks. I had fun today. It was good to spend some time with you again," she said.
He smiled back and put his arm around her as they headed home.
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a/n: All right. What's gonna' happen when they get back? You gotta' review to find out! ^_^