Something I can never have
--
"She… she had no right."
"Neither did we, really."
(-) (-) (-)
Sora lazily awoke the next morning. He sat up in his bed by the window and rubbed his eyes. He screamed and fell out of the bed after looking in to the burning morning sun.
"Sora, you ok?" his mother shouted upstairs.
"Yeah… fine." Sora managed to mumble with his face embedded into the floor. He pushed himself up, dodging the sunbeam, and walked into the bathroom. He brushed his teeth, and his hair, and put on his clothes. Sora was just running out of the door as his mom stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Sora, school starts in just over a week. Do you have all of your supplies?" she asked in a motherly tone.
"Yeah mom," he said mockingly, "I'm fine, don't worry!"
"But did you finish all your summer homework?"
"Uh, ya… hehe mostly?"
"SORA!!"
"I've got it handled mom, I'll finish it. I swear!" He was out the door before the interrogation became any worse. Sora ran down his street, turned left and slowed to a walk. He figured he'd be long out of his mother's shouting range, so he was safe; for now. He walked past the ice cream parlor and down Riku and Kairi's road.
Kairi was sitting on her stoop when someone approached her.
"Kairi… about last night…" Riku paused.
"What about last night?" Sora asked interjectionally.
Kairi's face turned 400 shades of red, and she bit her lower lip. What would Sora think? Would he be angry that she likes Riku more than him? Cause that isn't true! They are both same in her book… Riku just happened to have been there at that right moment. What if he hated her for it? What if he…
"Oh, I was just about to apologize for tripping her." Riku said smoothly. "We were walking and I thought it'd be funny but she didn't agree." He chuckled.
Kairi blinked a few times. "Yeah," she gulped out, "he was a total jerk." She giggled.
Riku smiled and winked to Kairi. He still wondered if she was offset by last night; he hoped not. The ruse had worked, but for how long? What if Kairi discovered that he and Sora also had…
"So what are we gunna do?" Sora said sitting down. Riku walked over to a nearby tree and leaned against it.
"Knowing that summer's almost over really ruins the fun you have in the last few days." Kairi sighed with discontent. She wanted to see her class-mates badly, but waking up so early was dreadful.
"It's all a mindset. Just think about something more distracting." Riku said with the same experienced tone he said everything with.
"What's more distracting than school? Said Sora cluelessly.
"Something you enjoy, some event coming up on your calendar… someone you love?" he smirked. Kairi blushed and looked down at her shoes. Meanwhile Sora looked at Riku and grinned.
(-) (-) (-)
Later that afternoon on the island, the three of them found themselves on the beach again. Sora and Riku were throwing a small ball back and forth while Kairi watched.
"So if we know that our physical heart doesn't actually feel anything, then how come we still talk about 'going with our heart' and how 'your broke his heart'?" asked Sora inquisitively to Riku.
"Well it's more of a concept really than a definitive human organ." He said with the utmost confidence. "It's partly that, and also an allusion to several literary works where the terms are used, and also it's just a commonly used term… a phrase."
"So we only use it, cause people in the past used it?"
"Yeah, essentially." Riku tossed the ball at Sora's chest.
"But why don't we just change and come up with a more anato-mat-arcle term?" Sora questioned in a vain attempt to sound intelligent. He threw the ball hard at Riku's hand.
Catch. "The word is anatomical, and because "follow your pituitary gland," and "you broke his cerebellum" don't work as well." He tossed the ball forcefully and underhand at Sora. Kairi giggled at Riku's mocking tone.
"I guess you're right, as usual." Sora said grudgingly. He walked over and sat next to Kairi. Riku stepped closer to the water and looked out into the sea. "What cha thinkin Riku?"
"Just how lucky I am to have you guys to hang with for another year." He turned around and smiled at them. Kairi stood and ran at him.
"Oh you big goof!" She tackled him into the sand and then Sora joined the dog pile. They wrestled for a bit, but eventually just ended up tired and lying in the sand.
"Well, I've still got some summer reading to do, so I'm taking off. Don't leave on my account." Riku strode off up the beach.
"Well… Fine, Captain Procrastination." shouted Kairi sticking out her tongue as Riku disappeared into the trees. Kairi and Sora talked for a while about classes and teachers until it finally got dark. Sora stood up and started to walk home when he was interrupted.
"Sora?" said Kairi meekly still gazing out at the ocean.
"Yeah Kairi?"
"Do you… you know…. like me?"
"Of course! You're fun to hang out with and when we…"
"No… I mean do you LIKE me?"
"Oh… well, yeah. I guess I do." Sora said blushing.
"Me too!" Kairi said with ill-placed hope. "Would you like to… you know, go out or something?" she gleaming spoke.
"I… I can't," said Sora grinding the ball of his foot into the sand, "it's just that Riku,"
"Oh did he talk to you about," Kairi started, while thinking about last night. The thought of her trying to kiss Riku must have been very off-setting for Sora.
"Yeah," said Sora while he recalled the night they had kissed. Riku and he weren't officially dating, but he still felt he had a commitment to Riku right now.
"So that really changes things for you?" Now she wished he hadn't been so rash with Riku.
"Yeah, it'd just be too weird, like I was cheating Riku out of something."
"Ok…"
"Bye," Sora started to walking off, "sorry Kairi."
"It's ok, my fault for not asking sooner." She listened to his footsteps in the sand until they were out of earshot. Kairi thought about what had transgressed in the last two days until it made her head hurt with self-pity. She resigned herself to a thoughtless state. The waves made a gentle swishing noise as they danced along the sand. The wind whistled against the leaves in the trees. The sand ground as she walked across it. Her shoes pattered while hitting the pavement. The door clicked against its frame. Her sheets rustled against her soft, flawless skin. Yet her tears were silent as they soaked into her pillow.