Summer Blues
Chapter Seven: Charms of Our Own
The days before Saturday was pretty much a blur of girl time and hanging out at the smoothie place, because—even if I was unwilling to admit it to Kairi or Xion and Olette, who I had surprisingly grown close to—I was excited. Kairi kept laughing whenever I glanced at my calendar, which was embarassingly often, and my other two friends found out about my little crush the day they came over for no apparent reason, and were now teasing me relentlessy with Kairi.
She and I were finishing eating breakfast the morning after Beach Day, and I was asking her why we almost never saw her parents at home, when the doorbell rang.
Standing up, Kairi answered my question. "They're busy for the Star Festival; I think I've told you about that before? Or haven't I?" She tapped her chin. "C'mon, though, I think it's Xion at the door, she said she'd hang out with us today, seeing as she also said she has no runs for the XIII."
"But I thought Axel was out because of XIII business?" I pointed out, confused.
"I think it'd be best if you asked Xion that yourself. She has no qualms on talking about it, anyway," she told me, opening the door and letting a pleasant breeze blow in. Her cousin was standing outside, fist raised, as if about to ring the bell again. Upon seeing them, she grinned, dropping her hand. I noticed she was wearing a black hoodie, white shorts with small zipper details and Converse—but I couldn't tell what exactly what color because of the many markings and doodles that covered the surface.
"Ask me what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kairi laughed. "Come on in first, cuz," she said, returning the black-haired girl's grin. "Nami just wants to ask you something."
Xion stepped in, and started for the kitchen. "Sure, but before that... You got any food? Breakfast would be really good right now; I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday."
"Lemme guess. Another run?" When Xion nodded, Kai laughed and caught up to her. "You're lucky. We just finished eating, so there's still a bit left. You can tell us all about last night over your breakfast. Is that okay, Nam?" They both turned to me and I shrugged, chuckling. Besides, I thought I could hear something about Roxas during the story, so I followed them to the dining table willingly enough.
LINE BREAK
I turned out that Xion was kind of an honorary memeber of the gang at the moment. When I asked, she told that Vexen had caught her fighting with a group of island boys who were giving her a pretty hard time, but she was holding her own. He was impressed so he took her over to the "Superior" or something and told him all about her little encounter. Likewise the boss was impressed, so recruited her as a kind of trainee. So she didn't necessarily have to go on runs with them all the time.
In the middle of our conversation, Kairi's pink cellphone rang. She answered the call, and held up a finger signalling for us to give her a minute as she exited the kitchen.
"So... Naminé," Xion began conversationally. I almost jumped out of my skin when she said my name, because I'd expected some kind of awkward silence to occur once Kairi wasn't with us. Guess her cousin was as much a conversationalist as she was.
"Mm?" I mumbled unintelligably. She laughed.
"All excited for the big date on Saturday?" she inuired with a knowing smile. I was surprised and wondering how she knew that I almost sisn't catch the next words. "I know Roxas is."
"W-what?" I stammered. "How do you know that?" I probably sounded pretty rude, but there really was no other way to voice that question.
"Well... He only talks about it five times every time we hang out, so it's not like I notice," she joked. "I only really told him to shut up about a hundred times before he actually had the sense to slow down talking about how nice you were and everything; it even took a few Axel threats to actually get him to stop."
I blinked, seriosuly doubting what I just heard. In a way, it was adorable, but seriously? Roxas? ...Hm. Xion probably saw my incredulous expression because she laughed. "Believe it or not," she told me.
Before I could respond—or even pull organized thoughts from the jumble that was my thoughts running amok, Kairi sailed back into the kitchen.
"That was Olette," she informed us happily. "She said to meet her over at the Usual Spot because she's bored and she knows we're all here and she's over there and she wants company. She said we could do whatever we wanted."
At this, Xion pouted, seeming to recognize Kairi's blissful and plan-filled expression. "No fair! We shopped last time! Can't we do what I want for a change?" But she didn't really say it with a seriously upset expression. I laughed. They both turned to me, and Xion put a hand under her chin, looking thoughtful. "Or we could do what you want, Naminé," she said. "What would you want to do?"
I raised my hands in a don't-look-at-me gesture and shook my head. "I'm fine with whatever!" I protested. "You guys pick."
Kairi laughed, shaking her head helplessly. She started for the front door, motioning for us to follow. "We'll decide when we get there, okay? Let's just go meet up with 'Lette."
LINE BREAK
"Kairi! Xion! Hey, Naminé!" Olette greeted us enthusiastically, shooting up from her relaxed, but obviously bored position on the couch of the cozy room-place-whatever. We all murmured respective 'hello's' and 'hey's', before Kairi and Xion sat down on the couch beside Olette and the table, respectively, which left me standing there awkwardly. I fiddled with the hem of my denim shirt-dress, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Oh, don't be a stranger," the brunette who had reclaimed her place on the couch told me. "You can sit anywhere you like."
"Thanks," I replied gratefully, sinking down onto the granite floor. Above me, Kairi and Olette seemed to be conferring in whispers, and Xion had nodded at them everytime they looked at her with a question in their eyes. I wonder why...
"Nami," Kairi called, stopping my train of thought in its tracks. "We have something for you."
I tilted my head, curious, as Olette tossed me something that glinted and it landed on my lap. I picked it up, holding it up to examine it more closely. It was an intricately woven bracelet, colored white, with a few silver charms dangling off of it. I raised my eyebrows, looking back up at them. "Is this... for me?"
"Yeah," Olette replied, smiling. "I made it yesterday. It's kind of like a friendship bracelet, see? I-I mean—" she stammered, "—I can totally understand if you don't like it or want it, I just wanted you to have some kind of keepsake to remind you that we—meaning me, Xion, and, of course, Kai—are your friends, you know?"
I was speechless for several measly seconds. When I found my voice and started talking, it still sounded kind of choked up. "I-I love it!" I exclaimed. "Wow. Thank you! I mean—seriously, I'm really happy that you consider me your friend and..." Okay, Naminé. Blabbering now. Shut up.
Xion waved it off, grinning. "Don't mention it, Nami—I can call you that, right?" I nodded at this, and she continued. "Look," she said, holding up her hand, where a similar bracelet dangled of her wrist. "We all match." Kairi and Olette, wearing their own grins, held up their own wrists, where similar accesories dangled off of. Blue for Xion, pink for Kairi, and orange for Olette. I wonder why I never noticed that before, but I was too thrilled to dwell on it. I grinned back, pretty sure that this was one of those days that I would always remember, as I clasped my own bracelet on.
"Thank you," I told them, again.
Kairi smiled at me happily, and I could finally understand her excitement from earlier. "Like Xion said—don't mention it. Now, what do we do?"
"Oh, that's easy," Xion told us. "We'll go off and show Nami the rest of the island! I mean, we should show her the view of the other islands, especially since Sora"—here she aimed a smug smirk in Kairi's direction and the latter, of course, blushed—"is taking us there next week. Right?"
"Right." Olette answered for Kairi, looking amused; the redhead seemed to have swallowed her words for a moment.
"Just shut up, guys!" she exclaimed when it looked like she had regained her voice and words, looking mortified, but not really mad. "Sora doesn't like me in that way, thank you very much!"
"Oh, I beg to differ!" Xion crowed. "Remember when we were at the Side, and he seemed to talk to you so much than he talked to Riku or anyone else!"
"Aha!" Kairi looked triumphant. "Why mention just Riku specifically as a person Sora was talking to? You like him about as much as I like Sora, or how much 'Lette likes Hayner, and that's saying something. Admit it! At least," she added, when the black-haired girl opened her mouth to say something—probably call it out as a fib, "I don't deny it!"
"And how did I get dragged into this?" Olette said indignantly, her cheeks flaming.
I couldn't help it—I finally laughed. It was so funny, their light banter concerning boys. They all stared at me like I was crazy, but after a couple more seconds, Kairi cracked up and the others started laughing too. We sat there, all four of us, laughing hysterically, holding our stomachs and trying to gasp for air. We made quite a picture, I admit, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed that whole day, which was spent with my newfound friends, doing random things and finally getting around to showing me around another part of the main island. Before I knew it, the day had ended, and we were heading back to the Usual Spot.
"Thanks for the really... interesting day, guys," I told them sincerely, my arms still linked with Kairi and Olette. We were joking and laughing as we went our way, nearing our destination.
"We had fun, too," Olette told me, grinning. "We should do that again some time."
"We totally should," Kairi interjected, mirroring the grin.
"Have to head home," Xion said, laughing. "But let's meet up again, okay? Good luck with Saturday, Nam!" she called, waving, as she headed off in another direction. I blushed, shouting a goodbye at her retreating back.
Kairi shrugged. "We probably should, too, Nam. Gotta go, 'Lette. Thanks for the awesome day!"
"Anytime." Olette broke off from us, and headed off too, on her own, waving. "Oh, and Nam," she added before she was out of earshot. "Xion's right—Saturday's going to be fun! Good luck with Roxas!" Well, there, they knew I liked him, which would've been pretty embarassing, but for some reason I felt a little more at ease. That didn't stop the furious blush that spread across my cheeks indignantly. I waved goodbye to Olette and turned back to Kairi.
"Let's go home," she told me, grin still in place. I followed her back to her house, still feeling happy all the way.
A/N: So, what do you think? I kind of lost touch for a couple of weeks, sorry! See, I couldn't think of exaactly how to interpret this chapter, so it took a while, pluuus; I was finishing a promised requested fanfic. So, boohoo, I only got to finish now. I'm pretty happy about this one, though, and those bracelets that the girls have—I know how to make those. I have a black one, but its complement is red, so it's not like Xion's. :D But I got the idea from there.
Anyway, thanks for all the continued support! I didn't think I'd be able to go this far without giving up prematurely. So a big thank you to all my reviewers so far: Agent S7, Misfortune XIII, NightFalcon26, mameido13, kcbq30, iVanillelay, .06, IcyDeathSky, and Ari's Grace. Thank you! I wouldn't have tried to continue this if it weren't for you!
Okay, enough, hee. Review, PM, alert, favorite, pleeeaaase? :3 Thanks, over and out!
-Hikari
P.S. Chapter's background music was "Gift of a Friend" by Demi Lovato.
