Vanilla! CH4
For the love of JC himself, how long has it been since I updated this fucker?
I am DEAD sorry! I hope all the people who read it are still alive and kickin'. The thing is, I left it for about a month because I sadly was not in a very 'Kingdom Hearts' place (aka angry at Square for taking so bloody long to release it in the UK), and then when I decided to do some more I went and broke my computer. (The fam thinks it was my little brother though, so shh XD). So you see, I have only myself to blame, and all I can do is hope that this chapter makes up for the wait!
If there still are people waiting? chibi eyes
Props to Zimm for sticking the metaphorical rocket up my ass that got me going, and as always, lunarkitty14 for reviewing the last chapter!
Well, here's chapter 4. (And boy is it a monster!)
Thursday passed relatively incident free – this probably owing heavily to Cloud being absent due to the 'strain' of the detention on Wednesday; being ridiculously transparent however, the world and his wife knew that he was just getting ready for Friday night. Me and Kai went to visit him in his pretend bed of pain with some marshmallows, to find him painting his toenails and listening to Peaches. I told him to be a man, and was quickly eschewed from the premises.
Kairi stayed behind in the hope of finding out what his plan was for the party tomorrow; I haven't the foggiest why she's so bothered about it, my interest only stretches as far as concern about the physical and/or emotional trauma that may be caused to innocent party-goers. Let's face it, when Cloud and his tangerine-like brain decide to work together (a rare occurrence), disaster is sure to follow.
I walked home alone, having been ostracised from the madhouse that is the Strife residence, to find Leon sitting on the couch watching television in nought but his underwear. He has no respect for those as sensitive as moi.
"Leon, what are you doing? Why are you clad only in your undergarments? What if I had a girl with me?"
"Is Kairi here?" he asked, turning and looking round with mild interest; I noticed he had some kind of cheesy crisp around his mouth – I swear he saves this kind of stuff for me.
"No, I was just saying–"
"Well what's your problem?" he cut in before returning to his program, which on closer inspection appeared to be Fairly Odd Parents. He was being unusually abrupt this evening. I was about to turn and escape to my boudoir, when I realised that Leon hadn't actually said he was going to the dance at all, which would be most disastrous – the last thing anyone wants is Cloud on an angsty, sex-deprived rampage. I considered asking stealthily so as not to arouse suspicion, before realising of course who it was I was speaking to, and that Leon was by no means one to put two and two together unless it was crucial.
"You going the dance tomorrow?"
"Thought I might look into it," he replied, scratching his stubbly chin and not bothering to look at me.
"Oh," I sighed in relief, about to leave the room when he spoke again.
"Only 'cause everyone's getting their panties in a twist about it," trying in vain to keep a cool that had long since been lost. He grabbed another fistful of cheesy crisps from a bowl lying next to him on the couch and shoved them all in his mouth at once, commencing his munching; I gave him the most disdainful look I could muster before escaping to my room and belly-flopping onto my bed, giving myself in to the thoughts I had been trying my hardest to fend off since I'd woken up. I'll put them in chronological order:
RikuRikuRikuRikuRikuRikuTurkishDelightRikuRikuRikuRiku.
I can't get the silvery bastard out of my head – I walked into a door in college, and didn't even notice until Kairi asked about the big green lump on my forehead, and even Mr. Highwind commented on my lack of productivity in Design Technology, which brought things into harsh perspective: since when had I been considered productive in any sense of the word?
I've never thought about anyone this much since me and Kai dated, and that's positively medieval.
I wonder who he's going to the dance with, tomorrow? Probably some ho, like Aeris or Elena. I wonder if he'll take them back to his place later? I'd have no choice but to unleash The Beast (aka Kairi) on them, which is not something I like to do, as she does get rather carried away and there is a tendency for a loss of teeth/hair.
Ergh, I need something to take my mind off it all; if I were Kai (i.e. insane) I would have started to get ready for the dance. But no, I am not Cloud. I have not booked a pedicure. I wended my way across to the mirror in my room, accidentally stepping in an elderly plate of mashed potato, to assess the damage vis a vis the great green duck-egg my forehead was currently fashioning.
Huh, it's not that bad actually. Nothing really, compared to the atrocity that is my eyebrows; I can't believe they have gone unnoticed for so long, hiding under my giant hair. I poked them for a bit, to make sure they weren't actually a pair of caterpillars masquerading as facial hair before making my way to the bathroom. Their silent reign of terror is over!
What the fuck am I talking about?
I rummaged around the cabinet, knocking all kinds of crap into the sink before I found Leon's pair of tweezers. Goodness knows what that hairy beast uses them for, but they look clean enough, so I lifted them to the fuzzy monsters taking over my forehead and picked a hair out –
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGHHHHHHHH!
My eyes started streaming as I fell to the floor, the tweezers flung asunder in rage – bastards!
Good God… why do girls do that to themselves? I rubbed my eyebrow tenderly, thinking of a Plan B. I gazed around the bathroom, still rather teary eyed, wondering vaguely why Leon hadn't immediately rushed to my aid upon hearing my cry of pain. He has most probably fallen asleep, being the lazy tosser that he is.
My blurry gaze eventually fell upon the electric shaver by the side of the bath (how unsafe), which again belonged to Leon who uses it when his facefuzz gets out of hand. I actually managed to persuade him to grow a handlebar moustache once, claiming they were all the rage. It was the single most hilarious thing I have ever seen in my life – I of course told him he looked positively dashing, and he grew quite attached to it; it was only when the college told him to shave it off as it was distracting the other students that he said goodbye to it.
I picked up the device, flicking a few buttons to see how it worked. Perhaps you are wondering why a seventeen-year-old does not know how to work a razor, but I have the physical incapacity to grow any sort of masculine facial hair. I am perpetually baby-faced. Even Cloud grew a goatee once, but I still couldn't manage a bit of bumfluff.
The razor hummed a little bit, but I couldn't see where the actual shaving commenced – was it the little round things, or the jaggedy-edged bit? I looked at it more closely, careful not to accidentally shave my eyelashes off, which would not be very attractive.
I conclude it is the jaggedy-edged bit, (your honour).
I brought my face up to the mirror, held my hair out of the way and brought the razor to my right eyebrow. Right… slowwwly… easy does it…
"Ohhh what a beautiful MOOOOOOOOOOOORNING!"
"Yeaargh!"
"Ohhh what a beautiful – oh hey Sora, what are you doing?"
MY EYEBROW, OH MY GOODNESS… WHERE'S IT GONE?
"You're… shaving? Aw, my little man's growing up."
"LEON! YOU BUFFOON, YOU MADE ME SHAVE IT OFF!"
"You what?"
I couldn't bring my face away from the mirror. This is the worst thing to have ever happened, in the history of everything. Leon's reflection popped up behind me in the mirror; there was a moment of complete silence as I stood in shock, two pairs of eyes ogling at the bald patch above my right eye. Then, it came –
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Leon burst into laughter, grabbing onto the edge of the bath to keep himself upright, still trying to watch my face in the mirror amid tears rolling down his cheeks. I have no idea how long it went on for, all I could think about was the endless, hairless plane stretching from my eye to my hair, which I was still holding back with a shaking hand.
"Ow… ow… my stomach…" Leon managed after finally getting a hold of himself and coming up again behind me, his eyes red and puffy. "It's… not that… bad you…"
He had to stop at that point to take a deep breath. I took my eyes off myself for a moment to look at his face – he was trying his very hardest not to start laughing again, looking very much like one who has just been made to swallow a lemon. I saved him the effort and left the room, letting go of my hair and returning to my bedroom, hearing him once again break into torrents of hysterical mirth.
My life is officially over.
I woke up early on Friday morning. I don't even remember falling asleep last night – I don't remember doing much actually, apart from collapsing on my bed of woe and thinking of what I could do about… the razor incident.
I decided that Kairi would know best. Now that is drastic thinking.
Stumbling over the debris that makes up the floor of my room I reached the mirror, to make sure it hadn't just all been a terrible nightmare, and I was still avec eyebrow. But of course, this is my life we're talking about, and I didn't even need to hold my hair back to see the shiny bald patch occupying the whole right side of my forehead.
I sighed, picking up the phone lying on the table under the mirror and dialling Kairi's number.
After a rushed conversation, I hung up and began to get ready to head over to her house. I didn't tell her about what had happened, only that I had a cosmetic emergency; it was hard to tell whether she was listening to me at all as I couldn't understand very well what she was saying, what with the enormity of her excitement for the dance this evening.
I dragged on yesterday's pair of jeans, a plain t-shirt and some shoes before heading to the bathroom to try and plaster my hair to my forehead with hairspray. It wasn't working for me, and I was about descend into a bout of self-pity before I remembered the beanie hat I had under my bed.
I look quite handsome in it, to be honest. I should wear it more often.
At any rate, it kept my hair covering my stupid bald spot.
I left without breakfast and salutations to Leon, not wanting to cause him the strain of attempting to keep a straight face, and headed post-haste over the beach to Kai's house whilst trying to keep a low profile – I did a spectacular commando-roll into a nearby bush to avoid Axel and Yuffie, getting covered in nettle stings and almost squishing a poor little squirrel. I wish someone saw it actually. I felt like G.I. Joe.
Eventually, I arrived at Kairi's abode and knocked at the door. There was a sound very much like someone falling down the stairs before the door flew open, and I was face to face with the red-headed imbecile herself.
"Kai, you knew I was coming over. You could have at least put some pants on."
"I'M TOO EXCITED FOR PANTS!" she squealed, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me forcefully up the stairs that she had presumably just tumbled down and into her bedroom. Now normally, it is quite a tidy, model example of a bedroom; today however, it could have given mine a run for it's money. Her bed was an unrecognizable heap of what looked like the entire contents of her wardrobe and chest of drawers, the floor was littered with eye-shadows and packets of face masks and her bedside table overflowed with hair styling products.
"Wow…" was all I could manage. Her smile widened impossibly as she replied,
"Getting ready is the best part of going out!" and she fell to the floor in front of her mirror that leaned against her radiator, picking up a pot of sparkly green eye-shadow and applying it to the back of her hand. I will never understand girls. "You as excited as I am about tonight?"
"I don't think that's humanly possible," I replied, my mind jumping suddenly to my hairy crisis, "but Kai, the reason I came over was 'cause… I need your help with something."
"What is it darling?" she asked, continuing to apply various shades of powder to the back of her hand, evidently trying to see which colours went best together. I felt shock tactics would be best used in such a situation, so I whipped off my beanie and scraped my hair away from my face.
"This."
She turned finally to look at me, and her eyes seemed to swell to epic proportions. Seemingly beyond laughter, her mouth opened and closed wordlessly several times before she found her voice.
"SORA! What the hell did you do that for?! You're meant to be taking me to the dance! Is this your way of saying you don't want to?!"
Only Kairi could have interpreted it that way, that I shaved it off on purpose for some ridiculous reason.
"No, no! I was trying to trim it a bit with Leon's razor, but he bust in and my hand slipped and… and…" I trailed off lamely. Her sudden anger seemed to subside, as she put her face in her hands and groaned, as though overwhelmed by my stupidity. Oh, how I love irony.
"Right! Don't worry Sora, we'll fix it! I've got it here somewhere…" she chirped, apparently struck with inspiration as she began to scrabble through various make-up bags and drawers. "Ah hah!"
She turned towards me and produced a small, red-brown pencil with a flourish.
"And… what might that be?" I asked, eyeing it warily.
"This, doofus, is an eyebrow pencil," she explained, "girls use them to draw over their eyebrows if they have plucked them too thinly, or wish to give them more body. Or of course, if they have accidentally shaved them off with their housemate's electric razor."
"Low blow."
"But… this isn't really your hair colour, and it's the only one I have…" she said slowly, almost pensively, if I thought Kairi was capable of being pensive.
"Well can't you do anything else?! Do you have any… I don't know, false eyebrows or something?" I asked desperately. Hey, I don't know do I? She smiled sadly, walking over to me and leading me over to her bed, where we both sat ourselves down on her gargantuan pile of clothes.
"No, Sora, I don't have any 'false eyebrows'. But this might not be that bad." She pushed my hair back and began scratching my forehead with her pencil; I watched her face as she did it, deep in concentration. It would have been comical had the situation not been dire.
"There!" she proclaimed some time later. "All done."
I walked tentatively over to the mirror and crouched down to assess her handiwork. Well, the shape is fine. The colour was not.
"Kai, they're completely different colours! I can't go out like this!"
"Hey, it looks a damn sight better than what it was before," she replied, affronted.
"Hmph."
She sat there for a while staring at me, obviously thinking about how to make me look less ridiculous. Several times her face lit up as she thought of something undoubtedly hair-brained, before deciding it wouldn't work. Finally it seemed, she came to some sort of conclusion, and dashed out of the room – oh God, what's coming?
Bursting back into the room, clutching something in her fist, she bounced back over to me and landed on her heap of a bed.
"This will definitely work," she said, taking something from her palm and pushing my hair out of my face again. I felt her rubbing something against where she drew on my eyebrow, though I couldn't tell what it was until… wait, what's that smell?
"Kai, are you rubbing coffee beans on my eyebrow?"
My only response was a maniacal grin.
Six hours later I found myself knocking again on Kairi's door, having been sent home to get ready for the dance and to allow her time to get dressed. I myself had opted for jeans (unsurprisingly), but had taken things out of realm of the norm with a shirt, tie and jumper combo. I look rather flash, if I do say so myself. Leon had left slightly before me, muttering something about a pint of milk as he walked out.
Kairi scrubs up well, I decided as she finally answered the door after no doubt applying a seventh layer of mascara or something stupid; she was wearing a short, green cocktail dress with glittery silver high heels, and had her hair up. I was about to greet her when she burst,
"Is it still there?!"
"Yeah, don't worry," I assured her, as she had said she wasn't going to go to the dance with me if I was sans eyebrow. It was still carefully in place however, as I had taken utmost care not to knock it while getting dressed to avoid getting coffee all down my face. Without much further ado, the pair of us set off towards our college, Kairi emitting a strange humming sound in excitement and unable to say anything sensible.
We finally reached the P.E. building, which had been decked out for the dance. There were a few people milling around outside, clutching small cups of punch, laughing and talking. We could already hear the music coming from inside the hall, and see colourful lights dancing against the wall and escaping out of the windows. I felt like now was the time for The Talk. I stopped walking, Kairi asking what was wrong.
"Kai, you know I say this every time we go out, and I'm hoping that tonight will be the time you actually take notice of it."
"Uh huh…"
"Please, for the love of God, don't get too drunk."
"Ohh Sora, ladies never get 'too drunk'!" she replied, attempting a petite, feminine laugh.
"I'm sure they don't. You on the other hand–"
"You have my word Mr. Connolly, I will not get too drunk," she cut across sarcastically. I gave up, hoping that she'd at least try and stick to it; Kairi should seriously be classed as a natural disaster when she's drunk. It's outrageous. We continued on our way up the path in silence, Kai trying vainly to hold onto haughty airs, but succumbing to her excitement the closer we got.
The hall looks surprisingly good - props to Barret for pulling his finger out and getting rid of the sweaty-sock smell. There was a long table down the left hand side, heavily laden with club sandwiches, mini pizzas and a whole assortment of snack foods, as well as a bowl of brightly coloured punch every few feet. Kai hurriedly dashed over to the bowl with the most peculiarly coloured contents and ladled herself out a cup before knocking it back. I followed suit, opting for a less violent shade a little further along the table; as I suspected, it was weak as kittens.
"The fuck is this meant to be?" came Kairi's voice as she homed in on me, looking outraged. I couldn't help feeling a little relieved – the only way she'd get drunk off this stuff was if she downed every bowl in the room, and I doubt even she'd be that desperate.
"Hey babe, thought I'd come over and say hi," came a terribly familiar voice from over Kai's shoulder. We simultaneously placed our cups down in immense exasperation as we turned to face Tidus in his suited-and-booted glory. I use the term glory lightly, as he looked quite hilarious to be honest – he was wearing, for reasons best known to himself, a little red bow tie and had the most enormous flower protruding from his lapel.
"…hi," Kairi replied unenthusiastically. Tidus took this as encouragement, as only Tidus could, ducking round and standing directly between me and Kairi, giving me a nice shot of his derriere.
How. Rude.
I didn't hear much of their conversation, only the occasional 'babe' and 'dance' followed by Kairi's deadpan replies. Soon after however, he had turned round to commence storming off in a rage after Kairi had no doubt shot him down once again to be met by the most smug expression I could manage. He wound his way round me with a feeble 'what you looking at Connolly?' before buggering off back to his group of idiots.
After regaling me with the gist of their conversation, we grabbed another cup of punch (aka coloured water) and headed outside where we met Yuffie and Axel sitting on a bench together. Axel looked very dapper, whereas Yuffie was wearing a sports top and baggy jeans, looking very strange next to the impeccably made-up Kairi chatting to her. I made manly small talk with Axel while they rabbited on about who was wearing what, and who had come with who. Well, Kairi rabbited. Yuffie listened politely.
There was a sudden commotion around the gate leading into the college; several people gasped and I heard a very distinct 'squee!' from someone whom I could only see the back of the head, before a splutter of excited babble broke out as whatever it was continued towards us. I squinted at the silhouette, and only realised with a great big smack across the head of realisation when they were a few feet away from where we were.
"Cl…oud?"
Oh. My. God.
It was actually him. It was actually Cloud.
"HI GUYS!"
None of us could speak, only gape at him – he was wearing the tightest pair of black leather pants I'd ever seen, a figure-hugging black tee-shirt and black knee-high boots. His hair was different too, he had more of a fringe and it was less heavily styled as usual, and there was something that looked suspiciously like a dog collar round his neck.
I couldn't believe the evidence of my beadies. This was Cloud, King of All Things Pink and Fluffy, looking like he'd just come off a job at a ladies' strip club.
Unsurprisingly, it was Kairi who was freed from her stupor first as she burst forward and flung her arms round his neck. He looked relieved – how long had we been staring?
"Ohh CLOUD! YOU LOOK AWESOME!" she squealed as he hugged her back, lifting her up and twirling her round. Evidently the damage received from our detention was long forgotten. "Was this your plan all along?!"
"Yeah, this is it! What do you think Sora?" he asked turning to me, sticking out his tightly clad bum and pouting.
"Yeah um… you look really… real…"
There are no words.
Cloud grinned anyway, saying that was exactly the reaction he'd been hoping for; not from me obviously, but from the lesser-spotted angsty bastard that hasn't been sighted this evening so far. Perhaps he has been delayed in his quest for milk? Cloud was soon hailed by a group of random people from his other classes, spewing out compliment after compliment if they weren't one of the ones who couldn't quite find the words, like me. Heck, he even had girls hitting on him – Aeris strutted over and tugged on his dog collar, while Tifa was quite obviously peeling off his leather with her eyes.
"Hey, hey Sora…" came Kairi's voice.
"What is it?"
"Tifa…"
"Er… what about her?"
"She's… she's purty…"
"Kai, I don't want to know about your big lesbo crushes. You could at least pretend to be normal for tonight seeing as you're my date."
"Normal? You're right, you're right. Say, where's you're fancy man? You know, the one with the silvery hair? What's his name, RIKU is it?" she snapped, before standing up and storming off into the gym. Axel and Yuffie both turned and stared at me as though I'd grown a third eye, at which I turned very red and hurried off to follow her.
The atmosphere was much livelier when I re-entered; people were actually dancing and laughing even though the DJ the college had hired was quite possibly the lamest I'd ever witnessed – he was about fifty and trying to get his groove on in his little booth to 'Milkshake' by Kelis.
I soon sussed why the atmosphere was so much 'happier': Reno and Rude were holed up in the furthest corner of the hall, doing a roaring trade in providing people with vodka to top up their punch with. As I feared, Kairi was at the front of the queue holding out her cup expectantly. Well… I guess just one won't hurt her. I went over to Baldy and Redhead when she was out of sight and tried to persuade them not to give her any more, but they shook their heads and chatted some rubbish about 'the customer is always right'. Resisting the urge to smack their heads together, I stalked off.
I found Leon outside, perched on a bench on his bill-tod, most probably due to the fact he was chugging down on a milk bottle rather than the little punch glasses everyone else had. He'd decided on his pinstripe suit with a blue shirt, but had mercifully left his bowler hat at home. I promptly sat my sweet ass down next to him.
"Yo Leo. Haha, I rhymed."
"Hey Sora. What's up?"
"Nothing. Just managed to offend Kairi and embarrass myself. The usual."
"Mhm."
"What you doing out here on your own?"
"I've no idea. I don't even know why I came."
Uh oh. Dangerous territory. Where the fuck is Cloud? He's always there when I don't need him.
"You wait here a sec, I've got a surprise for yoooou," I said, surprised at how creepy I sounded, before rushing off to find the bondage babe himself. The hall was the picture of insanity, people falling over mid-dance and slopping 'punch' all over each other; I soon spotted Cloud at the front of a conga line, quite out of place amidst the Westlife blaring out of the speakers and hastily grabbed him and yanked him to one side.
"Sora! You should NEVER stop a man mid-conga."
"It'll be worth it, dear," I sighed, feeling rather tired all of a sudden as I led him by the arm outside to the seating area. "Just walk round that corner," I instructed, giving him a little push and pointing right. He was off on his merry way with little more than an inquisitive glance; I jumped hastily into a nearby pile of bushes and made my way in what I had hoped would be a very silent manner until I was behind a tree from which I could watch the action.
Cloud rounded the corner, and began to walk down the path looking in every direction (even up, for some reason) until his eyes fell upon Leon slouched on the bench. Apparently he was prepared for the situation, most probably having practised it with his pillow or something equally stupid as he didn't turn into an absolute boob in leather pants on the spot. Instead, he took a deep breath and approached Leon, who hadn't yet looked up.
"It's Leon, right?" he asked, his voice a little higher than usual. Leon finally took his eyes off his shoes, which he evidently found extremely interesting, and his eyes fell on Cloud. Even from my spot behind the tree and in the dim moonlight it wasn't hard to miss Leon's eyes turning into saucers as he looked him up and down. I heard him swallow heavily, his hand rising shakily to scratch the back of his ear. Aw, young love.
"Y… yeah, I er… and you're um…"
"I'm Cloud," the other chipped in helpfully, noticing Leon's loss for words.
"Yeah… Cloud."
Cloud couldn't keep the grin off his face, as he steeled himself for what to say next. "You don't… want to come and get a drink with me do you?"
Leon swallowed again. "Uhh… sure."
And they were off. Together. And it is all MY doing! I refrained from laughing in a most evil fashion for fear of scaring random passers-by into thinking that the tree was somewhat possessed, before turning to go back into the hall and drink to my success, when I was met face to face with –
"Vincent!"
He looked as startled as I felt, jumping a little and raising a hand to his chest. Goodness, he looks flash. Flasher even, than myself! He was wearing a simple black shirt and a pair of tight, dark grey jeans tucked into a pair of boots. He's like Kairi – one of the lucky ones that can look effortlessly good no matter what they wear. I am envious.
"Oh hey… Sora," he stuttered, shifting uncomfortably between legs. There was a moment of awkward silence.
"So how come you're out here and not inside… dancing?" I said, having a hard time imagining Vincent dancing, but unable to think of anything remotely interesting and/or intelligent to say.
"As much as I was enjoying the music, I felt like a little fresh air," he replied with a small smile. I smiled too, for some reason.
"Yeah it is pretty dire. Plus everyone's drunk off their arses," I said, hating myself. Why am I so incurably crap at talking to people I don't know? My hand snapped up to my forehead and started playing with a chunk of my hair, until I remembered that I might draw attention to The Eyebrow and stopped myself. Vincent however, continued to smile.
"Shall we… sit down?" he suggested, bringing into light the fact that we were standing in the middle of a clump of bushes for no apparent reason. I agreed, and we both stepped over a little row of shrubberies to sit on the bench Leon had occupied moments before – you could tell, due to the discarded milk carton on the floor.
"So…"
"Sooo…"
Ohh God, think of something good to say, think of something good to say…
"Hey look, a milk carton."
Ugh. Failed.
Vincent looked at me strangely, either taking pity or deciding on whether I was an actual retard or not. No, I must save this conversation if it is the death of me! I searched my shit-for-brains frantically, trying not to blurt out something about his hair, which was looking extra shiny this evening.
"How come you're not drinking?" was eventually decided upon.
"You mean that juice they're trying to pass off as punch?"
"Oh no, you mustn't have heard. There's these two goons in the corner of the hall selling vodka to people," I said, mentally cringing as I thought of Kairi and how far gone she must be after all the time I spent hiding in the bushes and so on.
"Oh, I wasn't even onto them. I don't really like drinking any way," he spoke lightly, scratching his chin. He really does have the strangest voice I've ever heard – it's so hoarse, but quite soothing at the same time. I must record him speaking and play it to myself at night.
No, that would be weird.
"I only drink in emergency situations. I'm normally the sad, lonely sober one with their friends draped round their shoulders," I said honestly. He smiled slightly again, and I took the initiative. "There was this one time though, that I got absolutely titwanked…"
And that's how it started. We chatted for what seemed like ages, telling each other stupid stories. Well, my stories were just plain stupid, his were actually interesting. I was surprised at how easy he was to talk to – it wasn't the impression I'd gotten at all on Wednesday in the lunch hall with Kairi, and I could see how the two of them could have become friends, or 'Biology Buddies' as it were. There was something about him that made me want to know everything about him. He'd just finished telling me about his first History lesson, when he asked:
"Yeah, but there's something I've wanted to ask you all night…"
I squirmed a little, for some reason. "…yeah?"
"What's with your eyebrow?"
I couldn't help bursting into laughter, to his bemused expression. I told him what had happened, from razor to coffee beans; he grinned and chuckled a little, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Ohh God, that's bad."
"I know, I felt like a right tit."
"Anyway, I'm quite thirsty. Can I pick you up a drink?" he asked, standing up. I replied with a 'yes', and he was off on his travels towards the hall, currently blaring with Sean Paul. Ha, I remember Kairi dancing to Sean Paul once when she was dr–
Oh Christ, Kairi! How long have I left her unattended?! This is bad. Very, very bad. Ghastly, even. I stood up and began to walk towards the gym, dreading what I was going to find there, when Vincent came back out in somewhat of a hurry, spotting me and making his way up to me. He looked quite terrified – most definitely something Kairi-related has happened. I was okay though, as long as she hadn't started –
"Sora, I think you'd better come… Kairi's robot-dancing."
Sweet, merciful heavens, I have less time than I thought! Vincent must have noticed my exasperation, grabbing me by the hand and leading me through the doors. I wasn't sure whether it was the gym or something else but I felt unreasonably hot for some reason – most probably the anticipation of the impending doom waiting for me in the centre of the dance floor.
Sure enough, there she was surrounded by a large group of people laughing and clapping along as she showed off her 'moves'. I have no-one to blame but myself, I thought as I watched her. I wasted no time in marching straight into the group of people and grabbing her forcefully by the shoulder; I knew she'd break her promise vis a vis alcohol consumption, but she seemed especially bad tonight. I shot evils across to Reno and Rude, still in their corner.
Kairi swung her head round and gave me a very drunken, goofy grin.
"Heeeyy Sora! Watcha me do THIS!" she slurred, trying to drop to the ground, no doubt to try and break dance or something ridiculous. I hoisted her back up.
"Kai, now's not the time for break dancing," I said slowly and clearly, hoping it would permeate.
"But it's AAALWAYS time for break dancing!" she exclaimed, causing the crowd around her to cheer. She waved, and attempted to give a little bow. There was no point in continuing this conversation, and I began to half-drag, half-carry her towards the door. Vincent hovered around for a while, before offering to help. I thanked him and told him I could handle it by myself, tugging her arm tighter over my shoulder. It was that moment that her head snapped up unexpectedly, her eyes falling on something to the left of the room.
"Heeey Sora look! It's that guy you fancy!" she babbled, causing a fair few people to stop what they were doing and turn to watch. I resisted the strong temptation to gag her and tried to desperately to get her out of the building, but she found her feet, removing her arm from round my shoulder and grasping my arm quite painfully.
"Kai, we've got to go!" I pleaded.
"Nooo, we got something to do!" she replied as she began to drag me over to the left side of the room. It was only then that I looked over, and almost died of redness as I saw Riku standing with a group of friends. For the love of all things holy, please no. I tried to free myself from her vicelike grip, but it was no use – her godly strength had increased tenfold in her drunken haze, and we moved slowly but surely closer to where he stood.
We'd attracted quite a bit of attention now, a crowd of raucous bystanders were following us until we reached where Riku was. His friends looked at us interestedly, he himself trying politely to look anywhere but at us. I could have died where I stood. If I had any sort of upper body strength I would have hauled Kairi over my shoulder and raced out of the building, but that of course was out of the question. I just stood, every part of me hoping that all that would come out of her mouth would be incoherent drabble.
"Hey, hey RIKU!" she yelled. He finally looked up. I don't know if it was just me, but he seemed a little embarrassed. Ho, you got nothing on me mate.
"Er… hi," he replied meekly, giving a small wave. I felt an unfamiliar swooping sensation in my stomach as I looked at him, illuminated by the coloured lights still darting around the room. But now was not the time for swooning.
"Yeah, yeah! You see, this is my best friend Sora!" she shouted, having apparently lost all volume control. My eyes fixed themselves on the floor.
"Hi, Sora."
Ohh God, what next?
"Yeah, and you know what!"
"What?"
"…"
"…"
"HE WANTS TO PUT HIS WILLY IN YOUR HAND!"
And with that, Kairi went crashing to the ground in fits of hysteria, bringing my world down with her. There was a ringing silence, ruined only by the boom of the stereo, as people stood in shock at what had just happened.
Then came the laughter.
And oh boy, was it ever loud. People actually fell to the ground, clutching their sides, hanging onto each other for support. I stood for a moment, wondering why I couldn't just die right there, or why the ground couldn't just swallow me up, before gazing down at Kairi's form on the floor – unconscious. For a second, I hated everything about her. I hated her cocktail dress, her sparkly shoes, her red hair, and I hated the way she always let me down.
I bent down and grabbed her beneath the arms and dragged her till she was half-standing before holding her round the waist and walking slowly towards the door through crowds of jeering, laughing people – I didn't care anymore. I felt a weird sense of apathy, even looking up at Riku to see him quite red in the face and staring at the floor. I dragged Kairi's limp form down the path, hearing footsteps coming swiftly up behind me. It was Vincent.
"Hey Sora… you sure you don't want any help with her?" he asked awkwardly, obviously having heard everything that had happened.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks anyway Vincent."
"Call me Vince."
I somehow managed a small smile as I turned and continued to drag Kairi down towards the gate. I noticed two shapes in the bushes to the right, and was vaguely surprised to see it was Cloud and Leon doing… well, let's just say they weren't playing hide-and-seek.
Down the path, out the gate, onto the sand. I was lucky in the way that Kairi's house is so close to the college, I could already see the bedroom light she'd left on blinking in the distance. I walked in a kind of torpor, unable to do anything but replay that scene in my head, wondering if I could ever show my face at the college again.
Finally, we arrived at her house. I fished in her handbag for her house keys and unlocked the door, dragging her unceremoniously up to her bedroom before laying her on her bed. Looking down at her sleeping peacefully, I couldn't hate her anymore.
It was my fault after all, I thought as I made my way back home after locking up her house safely. It was my fault for not watching her more carefully, making sure she didn't drink too much. It's my fault that I can't control her when she gets drunk.
It's all my fault I fail at life.
WELL! Wasn't that a big one?! It's well over three times the length of the other chapters. Kudos for finishing! Haha.
I felt like I should make up for not updating in such a long time, so here you are! I really, really, really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it.
I think that last line sums up Sora's outlook on his life, and I think it's something we all feel sometimes. But don't worry, every cloud has a silver lining, etc.
Reviews would be greatly appreciated, if you've stayed awake long enough to reach this part! Thank ya!
Lots of love, Starlyte x