From What I Saw
Chapter 3:
"Hey Seif, you want to paint the living room today?" Quistis asked during breakfast. I hadn't seen anyone yet so I guess that we would be painting alone today.
"Yeah, I don't have anything planned, so we can paint." I said as I stuffed a large piece of pancake into my mouth.
"Ok I'll see you at the house once you are done eating." Quistis said as she got up and left. I stuffed another huge piece of pancake in my mouth. I was filled up, so I got up and headed out towards the house.
As I pulled into the driveway, I see Quistis starting to prepare for the painting that we must get done today. She waved and smiled. I love the smiles she gives me. It makes me feel like I'm not some worthless piece of junk that was used for pure evil! Whoa okay, sorry I got carried away there. Well anyway, she just makes me feel so good.
"Hey Quisty!" I said as Quistis handed me a paint can, and a roll brush. Without a word, she started painting.
"No one could make it, so we have to get started early so we can finish before I have to meet with Rinoa so she can help me theme for my party." She said as she crouched down low to get the bottom of the wall.
"Do you want me to do the top part of the wall?" I asked as she nodded and handed me the wooden attachment for the roller.
I began painting and I was standing right under my roll brush. Bad idea. I was totally covered with paint that had dripped from the brush onto me. I was a mess. Quistis thought it was funny, and so she took a picture of me. I'm going to find that picture and burn it.
"Hey baby what else are you doing tonight besides shopping with Rinoa?" I asked. "Maybe we can go out for ice cream as a sort of celebration for getting the living room done?" I said as she thought out the rest of her night.
"Well, no I don't have anything else to do. So yeah, I'll call you when I get back from shopping." She said as she flicked some paint at me. I don't like painting anymore. But yet again, I want to move into our house as soon as possible. So I'm just going to have to live through the next week or so.
"I'm going to take a shower just to make sure the plumbing works." I said as she giggled.
"What?" What could possible be so funny about me taking a shower? I mean everyone else does it too! I'm not the only one.
"Well, don't you need a towel and clean clothes?" She does have a very good point. I guess I'll have to go back to Garden to take a shower. Which means I have to get paint on my car! No I'd rather drive around in my underwear than rather get my car dirty. Yes I'm that desperate.
"Well, do we have a plastic bag?"
"No, but you can use my painting sheet." So resourceful, and it's not totally covered in paint. That will do.
"Okay, well I'm going to use it to take my clothes home." I started to take off my shirt, and threw it on the plastic cover up.
"And now for my pants." I said as Quistis ran upstairs. It was quite funny. She wants to keep me a secret for the wedding. So traditional. I mean I know were destined to be together so why should we wait?
I grabbed my clothes and wrapped the plastic cover up in a ball so no paint would get on my car. Luckily, I got home without seeing a single police officer. I would have been in trouble then, because they would have made me put on my clothes, and ruin my spotless interior.
As soon as I pulled into garden, I grabbed my dirty clothes, and ran for my room. Everyone was in class, and just as I was outside the main hall of classrooms, which you need to pass to get to the dorms, the bell rang. I ran for it and just barely made it before the bell rang for the next class.
I was so lucky. If I would have run any slower, a whole bunch of girls would have seen me in my underwear.
Well anyway, I got to my room, and took a shower as soon as I got in the door. It felt so good to be not covered in paint. That was one of the longest shower's I have taken in a while. Well anyway I sat around the rest of the day waiting for Quistis to call. Finally, she called and we went out for Ice Cream.
"Hey Seifer, I have something for you back at my room. Do you want it when we get back to garden or do you want me to give it to you later?" Quistis asked as she took a small spoonful of Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream and put it in her mouth.
"Well, I'll just walk you back to your room and you can give it t me then. Okay?" I said as she wiped some of the ice cream off the corner of her mouth.
"Okay babe." She said as she leaned in and I kissed her on the cheek.
As we finished our ice cream, Quistis began to talk about what she wanted to do tomorrow for the painting, and the Selphie and Ellone would be there to help. We finished our ice cream, and headed back to Balamb.
"Okay hold on let me go to the bathroom really fast. And I will go get your present." Quistis said as she headed into the bathroom. The first thing that came to my mind was, check to see if she has written in her diary. I looked in her bedside table drawer and there it was in all of it's beautiful secret telling glory. I flipped to the most recent page and I was in luck. She had written in it today so I quickly hid the book in my jacket pocket where it wouldn't be seen, and closed the drawer again.
I almost didn't get the drawer closed in time, because as soon as it closed Quistis came out of the bathroom. She smiled as she went to her closet and pulled out a bag. She came over and sat down on the bed, and I joined her.
"Here you go." She said as she pushed the bag over to me. I really did wonder what was in it, but I would soon find out.
"What is this for anyway?" I asked as I began to pull the tissue paper out of the bag.
"Well when I was at the store today with Rinoa, there was this stand for personalized signs that you hang above your door and so I decided it would be cool if we had one of those signs."
I pulled it out of the bag, and sure enough it said 'Seifer and Quistis Almasy'. It was weird reading the name Quistis Almasy. It almost didn't sound natural.
"It's very nice." I said not trying to sound disappointed. I mean it was nice, but not something that I would be overjoyed about.
I gave Quistis a hug and gave her a kiss goodnight. I left the sign with her because knowing me, I would loose it between now, and the time we move in.
As I walked down the hallway I got a sudden surge of excitement. I'm not sure what from though. It could have been either from me thinking about Quistis, or me thinking about having her diary. I couldn't believe I had snuck it out without her noticing.
Quistis' entry this time was really good she was looking on the positive side of things, and I knew that she was pouring her heart out into this diary. I felt like I was intruding on her privacy, but I just had to know what she knew.
She talked about things that happened today and she began to talk about something that made me a little nervous.
I talked to Irvine and we planned out this whole thing out when he shows up. It's going to be really cute. I'm not going to tell what it is just in case someone finds my diary and reads it, but yeah.
When I read that I almost dropped dead. What if she knew? What if she was just joking. I don't know, but the only thing I could do was panic. I began to really think about what I could be doing to our relationship. I mean you know, she could be planning to get a divorce right now. I need to tell her, but I don't know how.
Hopefully she'll be able to trust me after I tell her.
When I got in bed I was still really nervous about the whole thing. Between me moving in with Quistis, us getting married, and reading that little part in her diary I was a total wreck. I couldn't sleep even if you gave me sleeping pills. Well maybe that would work, but I didn't have any so I was out of luck.
It was just like when I was a little kid. Whenever I would get nervous about something, I wouldn't be able to sleep. I was up all night thinking about what would happen. I thought about all kinds of things. Things like her beating me up, finishing the house, packing, and the wedding.
When I started thinking about the house I began to panic because I hadn't exactly started packing yet. I knew that in the morning I would have to begin packing. Then I thought, 'heck why do I have to start in the morning if I can't sleep anyway.' So I got up out of bed and began packing my things in boxes I had been collecting for a while. I knew they would come in handy sooner or later.
I got quite a bit done when the sun came up. I had about eight boxes packed and only had about three our four more boxes worth to pack. I was almost done and I was ready to move in. The only thing I had left out were some changes of clothes, and my weapon of course.
I headed over to the house to find Selphie's car outside on the curb. I pulled into the driveway and went inside the house.
"Quistis?" I yelled since there was no one in my sight. I heard something faint coming from upstairs. So I followed the voice.
"Hey Seifer!" Selphie yelled as she came out of one of the rooms. I suspected that Quistis was in that one.
"Hey Selphie. Where's Quistis?" I asked trying to sound polite.
"She's in that room with Ellone." Selphie pointed to the room that she had just come out of. Selphie then headed into another room, which was bright colors. I assumed that it was the guest bedroom.
"Hey Quistis." I said as I pushed open the door and gave Quistis a peck on the lips.
"Hey Ellone." I said as I noticed Ellone in the corner painting the top of the wall. She was doing a lot better job than I was. I had paint all over me. I guess I had too much on my roller or something because it was so drippy.
"Hey Seif, do you want to get started on OUR bedroom?" Quistis said seductively. I think she said it on purpose just to make me happy, and boy did it work!
"Yes I would." I said quickly as I went back down stairs and looked at our large bedroom. I sighed and went outside to get my stereo. I was guess that I would be doing a room by myself, so I decided to bring my stereo so I could listen to music while I painted.
I opened the can and poured it into the roller tray. I decided it would be best to start at the top of the wall so that if it dripped, I would be able to fix it later. I turned on the radio as it began to play some music from the eighties. I couldn't help but dance to the music. It was just so catchy.
After a while I heard laughing behind me so I turned around to see Quistis and Ellone laughing their brains out while holding a video camera. They had caught my little jig on film. I was furious. I tried not to get mad, but I couldn't help it. I slammed down the roller brush and went outside. I got in my car and just sat there for the longest time.
After about 15 minutes, Quistis came out and got in the passenger's seat. We sat in silence for a while, and then I decided that I should break the silence with an apology.
"Quistis I'm sorry for my temper back there, it's just that I'm so fed up of people cracking jokes about me all the time." I tried to say as seriously as possible. The way I said it though, it sounded really cheesy and I felt embarrassed for getting mad that easily.
"It's okay Seifer, we all have our moments. Have you cooled off enough to come back inside?" She asked as I nodded my head and leaned in and kissed her lips tenderly. I could taste the sweet honey she must have had for breakfast. I didn't want to stop but Quistis pulled away after a while to catch her breath. She got enough air to realize that we had gone far enough.
How can Quistis hold herself back? I mean when it comes to lust I have no self-control at all! Maybe I can learn some tips. But oh well. When we get married, I wont have to control myself. Of course if she doesn't want to then I wont force her but she would owe me for the time she missed.
Well anyway, we went back inside and I finished painting our room, and you know what, it looked really really good! I was surprised at how well it turned out. I was so glad that I called Quistis down to take a look at it. She absolutely loved it and gave me a tight hug and kissed me for the great job. I was lucky this time too because I didn't have as much paint on me as the first time.
Quistis and Ellone had finished the computer room, which was a silvery-grey. I liked it. It almost had this shiny feel to it. Then we all went in and helped Selphie finish the guest bedroom. There were stencils of flowers and she was doing a border of the flowers at the top with pink, yellow, green, and blue. It looked really good considering they were flowers. We finished with a little time to spare before dinner, so Quistis just ordered some Chinese food. We all ate on the floor in the living room on a painting tarp so we wouldn't stain the carpet.
I left the house feeling rather happy, and realized that that was the most fun I'd had in a long time. And I was sort of glad that I would get to do it again tomorrow. When I got back to my dorm I had a message on my answering machine.
"Hey Seifer it's Zell, I'm just calling because I will be helping paint tomorrow, and I don't know how to get there. So yeah call me back, I'll be up late so yeah, just give me a ring and yeah. See ya tomorrow."
I picked up the phone and dialed Zell's number.
"Hey Zell. It's Seifer. I got your message." I said as Zell finally caught on to the phone call.
"Yo Seifer. What up my home dog? Oh yeah I need direction's to your house so I can get there tomorrow." He said with no pauses. Man how does he talk like that?
"Well, from Garden, you go down Balamb Ave. and make a left onto 15 th street, then you go for a while and turn right onto ….."
"Whoa hold it man! I don't have a pencil or paper." He said as I could hear him rushing trying to find either a pen or paper.
"Okay dude can you start over again?" He asked as I retraced my thought's back to where I started.
"Okay, from Garden, you go down Balamb Ave. and make a left onto 15 th street, then you go for a while and turn right onto Golden Rose Dr. and it's house number 1508."
I heard loud scribbling over the phone and then I heard Zell start mumbling the directions to himself.
"Okay thanks man. I'll see you guys bright and early tomorrow morning." Zell said as I thanked him for being able to come, and hung up with him.
I was so tired because I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. It hadn't really effected me until I hung up with Zell. All of a sudden I just wanted to fall right onto my bed and just fall asleep. But first I had to take a shower to get the paint off me. So I took a very quick shower, and fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed
"Hey Seifer!" Irvine said as I came up to the door of the house.
"Where's Quistis? She needs to give me my job for today." I said as Irvine directed me to the upstairs bedrooms.
I walked up the stairs, and went into one of the bedrooms. Selphie was there painting the room bright yellow, and Irvine slipped in to help.
"Seifer. I'm in this room." I heard Quistis' voice and saw her hand wave outside of the door. So I went in. Quistis was painting the bedroom a dark blue. I thought that it looked very good.
"So what's my assignment today boss?" I asked Quistis as I saluted her, grinning ear to ear.
She pulled my salute down and gave me an unexpected kiss. I was so surprised I didn't notice that she had stopped the kiss and pulled away.
"You're going to work on your room down there. The one by the kitchen okay?" She said as I nodded.
"Does everyone know about the secret room?" I asked quietly.
"Well, I'm about to take care of that." Quistis said as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a random number. My beeper started to beep and it had Quistis' cell phone number on it.
"That's Cid, you need to call him back use my cell phone, and pretend to call him. Then go down into the secret room." She whispered into my ear.
Luckily, she pulled away just long enough to situate herself. Irvine and Selphie came in wondering what was going on. I remembered what Quistis told me so I started my little charade.
"Man! Cids beeping me, let me go ask him what it is." I said as I started to walk out of the room.
"Seifer wait! The house phone doesn't work yet, because we haven't gotten the electrical checked out yet. So yeah use my cell phone." She said as she handed me her cell phone.
I took the cell phone downstairs, and outside and began to dial Cid's number. I didn't push call though. I just made it look like I did. I began to talk to myself, and after about 2 minutes, I hung up.
I went back inside and told everyone that I had to go because Cid needed me to help him with some paperwork. So I decided to actually leave, but just park my car down the street.
I walked back down the street, but hid behind the bushes just to make sure that no one saw me. I jumped the fence into the backyard, and checked to see if anyone was in the living room.
I was in luck.
Nobody was in there, and now was my chance to get into the secret room.
I slowly opened the sliding glass door, and closed it behind me. I ran into the kitchen and opened the pantry door. I closed it and opened the hidden door to my secret room. I went downstairs, and got my brushes ready and started painting my room.
It was about noon when I finished just one wall. I was in for a long time by myself. I wanted my Quisty with me.
Just after I had started the second wall, I heard a very girlyish scream and a lot of laughing. I wondered what was going on up there, but I was down here, all by myself. I felt so lonely, then a song started to play inside my head. Mr. Lonely by Akon. I just about screamed. I absolutely hated that song because it was so annoying.
I was about halfway through the second wall, when I heard the doorknob jiggle. My first reaction was that somebody was snooping around. But then the door opened just a little bit further and I saw Quistis.
"Hey Seifer do you need any help?" She asked quietly.
"Yes I do. I need so much help it's not even funny." I said in a sarcastic tone.
"well, let me say goodbye to Selphie and Irvine, then we'll be home alone so yeah I'll come down and help you then." She said as she closed the door and went back to our guests.
What I basically did to pass the time was hum while I was painting, and I just kept rolling that brush. I don't know how I got through what seemed like an eternity of waiting for her to come.
It reminded me of how I felt when I was around her any time of the day, before I proposed to her. I just wanted her so bad. Sometimes when I would be in my room by myself, I would literally cry it hurt so bad for us to be apart. I know it's not like me to do that, but love can change people. It's changed Squall, he's beginning to become more open. Irvine has accepted the fact that he can't have every lady in the world, and has stuck to just one, Selphie.
Quistis has shown me a more carefree side of her that I would have never known. I remember when I was in her class, that I always used to think that she was strict all the time, and absolutely hated me. But the more she yelled at me, the more I was attracted to her, well up until the whole ultimecia thing, I think she actually liked me too.
After everything had happened, I think she just hurt too much to accept me after all that I had done. She just couldn't deal with it. But you know, she ended up loving me anyway, so yeah. I guess it's all good. Wait, no it IS all good!
I've got the girl of my dreams, I've got great friends, and I've got a great job to support us.
I was tossed from my thoughts as Quistis opened the door once more and came down.
"Hey Seifer. What do you want me to start with?" She asked as I pointed at the wall across from me. She grabbed a brush and roller her brush in the paint and started to paint the wall.
About an hour after Quistis came in to join me, we were practically back-to-back.
We had finished in no time flat, so we decided that it would be best to go and get our of the room. It was still daylight outside. I thought that that I would never see it again. Well maybe that was a little exaggeration, but seriously, I was getting pretty scared down there in that room all by myself.
We went out and got ourselves some food, which I had been deprived of all day, and scarfed it down like I hadn't eaten in weeks. Quistis talked about things like, we were going to go meet the priest on Sunday to talk about the program for the wedding. Also she talked about getting some of the furniture for the house by next week, and then she started talking about things I didn't understand. So I just tried to listen but I was more interested in my food.
Then I remembered about the scream earlier.
"Quistis? What happened today with a shrill scream." I asked as Quistis stopped in the middle of her sentence and just started laughing uncontrollably. I gave her a weird look, but she calmed down and told me.
"Okay do you know how Selphie and Irvine were painting the baby's room?" She asked as I nodded.
"Well, Selphie was doing the stencils at the top of the room of little baby chocobo's, and Irvine was painting the walls yellow, and painted right over Selphie's butt." She said as she started to giggle again but calmed herself down quickly.
"Okay well, then Irvine said he had to take his afternoon nap, and layed down, and Selphie, who wanted sweet revenge, painted Irvine's face while he was sleeping." She laughed a little more and went on with her story.
"He finally woke up and obviously didn't notice all the paint on his face, and when he saw Selphie, she was smiling so evil, he knew something had happened. He ran into the bathroom, and Selphie counted '3, 2, 1' and then Irvine screamed like a little girl." Quistis said as she laughed a lot more, and I laughed a little. I guess you would have had to be there to understand.
After that whole little story, I finished my food and we left. I walked Quistis to her room, and I said to her, "this may be the last time we ever have to step foot in these halls for our own purposes." She looked a little bit surprised, but she knew that we would move in sooner or later, and the way it looked, it would be sooner than we both thought. The only thing we had to do was paint the two bathrooms, and the kitchen and dining room and we would be done. That would only take us about a day if we really worked hard enough. I knew that from experience.
I told Quistis that I was going to have a painting party with the guys so we could finish the house while she was having her bachelorette party. But what my real plan to do is, we're going to rig Irvine up with a camera earring, and watch the bachelorette party on the tv. I know it's naughty, but I want to know everything. Of course Irvine wont be staying the entire time, but will leave his earring purposely so we can tape the entire party. This is going to be so great.
I headed to my dorm where I was met by Zell, who was leaning against the wall. He looked happy, maybe a little bit too happy.
"Hey Seifer, can't wait till tomorrow! We get to see girls, girls, and more girls! What more could a guy want huh? Oh yeah! Ok the real reason I stopped by is because I wanted to know if there were going to be hotdogs there tomorrow." Zell said as he pushed himself off the wall.
"Yes Zell there will be hotdogs there, but there wont be that many." I said as I put the key into my door.
"Well, if it's any consideration, I'll run by the store tomorrow and get hotdogs just for me if you can cook them!" Zell said as I opened my door and took my key out.
"Zell, yes you can bring your own hotdogs, but have them cooked already because the electrical guy is coming to check the electricity tomorrow. And the plumbing guy, and then we should be set to watch the party, but first we'll paint most of the rooms okay?" I said as I walked inside not really wanting to hear what Zell had to say. I wanted sleep and I wanted it now.
"Well okay Seifer, but then they'll get…" Zell said as I shut the door in his face. I could still hear him talking through the door, but I couldn't exactly make out what he was saying.
I plopped down on my very comfortable bed and fell asleep after a few minutes.
The next thing I knew I was at the house pulling my 45 inch tv out of my car. I carried it inside until I gently put it down on the floor infront of a plug in the living room.
I headed back to Garden to tell Irvine something.
"Hey Irvine, when you go tonight, wear this earing and then leave it on purpose." I said as I handed him the camera earring.
"Dude you totally shouldn't be doing this." He said as he put the earring in his pocket.
"Yeah but I must know, and make sure you don't break it. It's very fragile." I said as Irvine pulled it out of his pocket and put it in.
"I'll make sure the connection works when I get back to the house. I'm supposed to be there for the electric guy, and the plumbing guy so yeah I can't be out and around." I said as Irvine nodded.
"Are you going to tape it?" He asked as I replied, "well obviously! It's something that I wouldn't…." I stopped as I felt two arms wrap around my waist.
"Miss Trepe, and soon to be Almasy" Irvine said as he tilted his hat and walked away.
"Hey baby." Quistis said as she turned me around to face her.
"Make sure you're there for the electric guy, and the plumber. Don't go running off for paint or brushes or something." Quistis said as I nodded.
"I will definitely be there, and you can count on me. Make sure you have fun at your party." I said as a gave her a quick kiss. I started to walk away while explaining why I was walking away.
"Zell said he'd meet me at the house in ten minutes, so I have to be there to let him in so I better get going." I said as I headed out and went to the house.
As I got to the house, sure enough, Zell's car was parked outside and Zell was sitting on our doorstep with two full grocery bags of cooked hotdogs with buns.
I got out of the car and let Zell in. We went to the master bathroom, and started painting in there. Zell wanted to eat some hotdogs, but I told him not to until we finished the bathroom.
Then the Electric man came and he checked out our electricity. I went back to painting with Zell, and let the man know where I was. About a half an hour later, he came in telling me that the electricity was safe to use, and so I plugged in the tv to see if it worked.
Then I went out to my car and got the camera antenna and attatched it to a vcr. I called Irvine on his cell and told him to turn on the earring camera. He did and we made sure that the video was clear.
I made sure and hung up with him. Then Squall showed up and went in to help Zell with the bathroom.
"Hey Seifer, we just finished the bathroom. Can we take a lunch break and eat some hotdogs?" Zell asked in more of a whining tone than just asking.
"Well Zell, I don't know about Squall, but I would rather eat pizza than hotdogs. What do you say Squall?" I looked over at Squall who looked at me and said, "Pizza would be fine."
I grinned and found a phonebook. I called the pizza place and ordered a pizza, and it was there in about a half an hour.
Squall, Zell, and I sat in the living room eating our food and we watched some tv. Then we decided that it would be best if we painted the kitchen and dining room, so we began to paint it.
About halfway through getting the dining room done, the plumber came. He checked our pipes, and tested our water and made sure that our meter was correct.
"Sir, everything looks okay, so I'm going to leave you to your house. It's a very lovely one at that." The plumber said as he walked outside. We finished the kitchen and dining room, and then it was time for the party to start.
So I got my blank vhs and put it in the vcr. I called Irvine and told him to call us when he was about to go in.
"Okay, I'll go back there once I finish my job okay?" Irvine said as I nodded, realizing he couldn't hear my nods on the phone, I voiced my yes.
About an hour from the phone call, Irvine called us back.
"I'm in the hallway so you better get ready!" Irvine said as he hung up. I turned on the tv and there was her door. The suspense was killing me. I decided that I better push record, and I pushed it just in time.