A/N: It's been to long. I've been super busy with life and school, I've just finished year 11 and I have an exam in a week or so. So, have fun reading. :)
Vanitas vs. Society, Day one part two.
The streets of Destiny Islands got quite busier as time went by. It
only took ten minutes to get to the arcade from Huey's, but at around this time every Friday, the streets became full of multiple groups of kids and teenagers. These are people that I try my best to avoid. Especially Riku right now, what a jerk. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I sighed and pulled out the HTC. Oh, mum was calling. Better answer it or she'll go of her head.
"Hey mum. What's up?"
"What time are you going to be home?" Yup, that's the usual greeting I get. It's not so bad I guess, better than "when the fuck will you be back boy?" like my dad used to ask me.
"Before midnight. I'm going to the arcade." I replied as I walked down the brightly lit street. Ah, such a wonderful place. It makes me wonder why people move away from the island life.
"You better be, or no food for a week!" the line went dead. Bitch
please; I can buy my own food. It pays to have a lot of money for no reason. I sighed as I placed my phone back into my pocket. Five minutes until I
reach the arcade, but who knows how long until this girl shows up?
Speaking of which... What's the time? I pulled out my phone. 4:23 pm, then my phone vibrates. An unknown number huh? Let's check it.
"HAI THERE! IT'S YUFFIE! :D x"
Ah, that explains the capitals. She really was energetic. I wonder if
what Xion said was true. Well, coming from Xion... It usually is true... I think of how I should reply, so I narrow it down to three options; jerk, seedy or normal. Or I could do this...
"Hey there! So, what are you up to tonight? :)"
I waited for a reply after I sent my message. I got one pretty soon. It
read; "I'm going to hang out with my friend, Tifa. We go waaaaaay back! :D x" I chuckled, god damn it Xion, you've got it right this time. I sent
a reply; "Awesome as, oh did I forget to tell you earlier today that you are beautiful? ;)"
I waited once again. Ah, buzzing phone! Let's check the reply; "AWWWW VANI THAT'S SO CUTE! WHY DON'T WE GO OUT SOME TIME, LIKE A COFFEE OR
SOMETHING!? XXXXX 3"
Wow, talk about over reaction. Still, she was refreshing, a welcome distraction to me. I decided to reply, because it would be mean if I didn't. I pondered the energetic ebony haired girls reply. Go out with her, should I say yes, no or maybe? If I'm going to see this girl at the arcade, I should just lead Yuffie on. If this chick at the arcade is better, looks like I'll have to run. I know, I know, I'm an asshole. I can't help it though; I'm instantly attracted to attractive females. I just contain copious amounts of sexiness and they just can't resist me. It's them latching on to me...
I reply to Yuffie with; "Of course! How about, Sunday? At lunch time?"
It's sounded good to me; let's hope she goes with it. I chuck my phone back into my pocket. I look up, I've reached the arcade. It was housed in an old building, with a blue neon sign at the top reading "Flynn's; Star Seeker Arcade"
The owner of the arcade was Sam Flynn, who owned a huge multimedia company who created operating systems and all that jazz. On the rare occasion, you'd see him and his girl at the arcade. I was hoping that today would be that day. I may be a douchebag sometimes, but I do actually enjoy
meeting new people. I usually just have a stick up my ass when I'm talking to people though. It's become a habit these days; years of abuse will do that to you.
I take a breath and compose myself before I go into the arcade. I'm taking a huge risk here, what if this girl is butt ugly, or she is the biggest slut going around... No, Kairi isn't this smart, wait what? Anyways, as I was saying, I have no idea who this person is! What if it's my English teacher, Aqua Keep? Well, I guess there only one way to find out. I open the doors to the arcade. Eight bit chimes fill my ears and the smell of sweaty teenagers fills my nose. Ah, the smell of the gamer, I myself create this smell constantly. The good thing about this arcade is that both males and females play games here. One of my favourite memories here was when Xion beat me in Guitar Hero. I still think that she got lucky that day; I don't accept defeat so easily. Xion and I have had some really good times here, in fact, this is the second time I saw her after encountering her and Sir Douche in that alleyway. We'll talk about that later though; I'm keen on finding this girl. Hey, there's an original Tekken arcade machine here now! Oh, I love Tekken! Because it's the original machine, I'll have to play as Kazuya in place of Jin. I love Jin, he is amazing, I mean, he's just a
beast. Well, might as well insert my coins and start playing, the girl
can wait, this Tekken we're talking about. I didn't really feel the time
slip by, after all, it had only been twenty minutes since I started playing, on the HARDEST difficulty, and I was finally up to devil!
"Yo Van! What's up man?" A hand clapped onto my shoulder and made it slip off the joystick. My mouth hung open in shock as I watched Devil kick the shit out of Kazuya. I turned to the offender with rage. A tall man,
sandy brown hair, holding a motorcycle helmet in his hand greeted me with a grin.
"Dude... You just made me fail!" I exclaimed loudly. Sam just grinned at me again and ruffled my hair.
"Sorry kiddo, you know no one has beaten your streak on that machine right? In fact, hardly anyone has beaten your score on most of these machines." Sam gestured at the buzzing and beeping machines that were occupied by countless teenagers stressing over losing a life.
I grunted in reply. Sam was a good guy, but he just stuffed up my game. Besides him, Xion and Riku... I held some of the highest scores in the arcade, some of the longest streaks as well.
"So, Vanitas." I snapped my head back around to face Sam. "I had a
pretty little lady approach me a while ago looking for you."
A pretty little lady? Who could it be… the note dropper? My mind went straight to the mental lists of females that I knew wanted me. Oh wow, I just realized that note dropping is so cliché...
"Where is she?" I asked.
"She's over by the Tron machines man; I think she may be trying to beat your high score." Sam said over his shoulder as he walked off. I stood there, thinking that there was no way in hell that anyone; anyone could beat my high score.
I quickly made my way over to the Tron machines and looked for this
pretty blonde lady. To be honest, I think I heard her before I saw her.
"FUCK YEAH! BEAT VANITAS'S HIGH SCORE!"
I stopped in my tracks. My high score had been beaten. No way, no way. No, no no way! I turned the corner quickly to see a blonde female
surrounded by a bunch of drooling males. She was beautiful. Her blonde hair fell
to her shoulders in a wavy fashion, her blue eyes were as rich as the
ocean, her- wait a minute... It's her! She's the one I ran into back at
Huey's!
"You!" I exclaimed loudly pointing my finger at her. Her ears twitched, and she looked at me curiously. Damn she looked so cute. Then she gasped and her vibrancy disappeared.
Murmurs broke out as I strode towards her with a determined scowl, she'd beaten my score and I was about to beat her back.
I got to the machine and leaned against it and crossed my arms.
"Hey there, you're that girl I ran into at Huey's." I stated obviously.
She blushed instantly; her cheeks had become the colour of a ripe
tomato.
"Oh... H-h-hi..." she replied quietly. Most of the people had cleared away from our exchange.
"So, you wanted to see me?" I asked shooting her a curious glance. She had tucked some of her hair behind her ears. I noticed the pair of
turtlebeach's around her neck and the "A Day to Remember shirt." Oh, those red skinny jeans were definitely eye catching. It was her, I finally properly met her.
Blonde Hair shuffled towards the machine a little more, holding the
middle of her arm with her right hand.
"Yeah... I wanted to meet you properly..." Aw, she was so cute when she was shy... GOD DAMMIT WOMAN STOPS MAKING MY HEART RACE.
"So, you dropped this near my feet before the end of Ancient Civ's?" I asked as I waved the note. Her eyes widened and she nodded vigorously.
"Well, let me introduce myself. I'm Vanitas Jason Chase, the guy with
a huge ego and an awesome voice that makes the girls swoon."
She laughed. Oh wow, she laughed at what I had said. Hash tag butterflies.
Wait, what?
"I'm Naminé, I'm in all of your classes and I hold the title of best
young artist in destiny islands. Nice to meet you Vanitas."
I grinned back at her, and I saw her blush again. Ah, the lady killing
smile. Sora's not the only one who can do that readers, I can to,
despite being slightly OOC and uncharacteristic.
"So, I heard you beat my high score on single player?" I pointed to the machine. "Tell me, would you be able to beat me on two player?" I shot her a challenging look, with a killer grin of course.
"Is that a challenge? Because I'm sure I can. In fact, I beat your high
score on Pacman and Space invaders." She grinned evilly at me.
"Oh it's on now bitch, you're going down." I said as inserted the coins
into the slot.
The melodious sounds of the Tron machine came to life as the coins
slipped into the slot and clattered against the change inside the machine. I pressed start. It's time to get my game on.
We spent ages playing these arcade games, I was in bad form that day. She beat all of my high scores! Except... She couldn't beat Devil on Tekken. I was pretty happy with that.
It was 9:30pm; we were now sitting in a booth at the arcades shop. I was munching on my cheese burger; Naminé was eating a Caesar salad. As I ate my burger, I examined her more. She was freaking sexy. Her body was great. Oh my god, this burger... Her... So good.
"What are you staring at?" Naminé asked.
I blinked out of my trance, then retorted. "Something ugly."
Oh shit. She went quiet. Fuck. Dammit. Bad Vanitas, bad!
"Oh, shit... I'm sorry... I, uh, sometimes I just always have a
comeback, I didn't mean it." I looked down in shame.
"Oh?" Naminé raised an eyebrow at me. "Why is that?"
I sighed. "Just go out and check out chapter one, you'll find out why."
"Wouldn't more back story be good?" Naminé gave me a questioning glance as she played with her food.
I laughed. She smiled. "Aren't you noticing that we're going through
character development Naminé?"
"No... No I didn't." Naminé smiled at me again. Oh my god, that was it.
I couldn't take it anymore.
"Let's go for a walk shall we? I'll pay." I sent her the lady killer
grin. She seemed surprise then nodded her head and said ok. I went up to the counter and paid the cash.
We headed outside. The air was cool, the stars were out and there was no breeze. A calm night on DI, thank god it was.
"So, how come I've never noticed you before?" I queried as we walked past an open late night restaurant, which produce several wolf whistles from the drunkards inhabiting it. Naminé giggled at that.
"I stay quiet most of the time. I don't have a lot of friends. Except
for Kairi, she's-"
"You're friends with Kairi?" I laughed. "Seriously? Y'know she wants my dick right?"
"Oh yes, I know that, sisters tell each other everything." Naminé
replied with a smirk.
I did a double take. "Wait, what? She's your sister... Oh, now I know
why... You guys do look alike. Does that mean you're a Strife to?"
"Yep, that's us. Kairi is the only one of us children that doesn't play games all of the time. Cloud plays mainly MMO's."
"I know." I replied. "We're on the same team on LoL and the same guild on WoW. We're the best Arena pairing on Destiny Islands."
I said this as if we were the best in the world instead of the best in
DI. You see, the thing is, we kind of are. We're currently ranked 8th in the top ten Arena teams worldwide.
"So I've heard. He said you were a good guy, Vanitas. You know, despite your reputation, you actually aren't a bad person. I like that." She smiled at me warmly. There was some form of recognition in her eyes; I couldn't really describe it... It was a look of knowing, understanding.
"Ha, what makes you say that?" I replied in an undertone.
"You paid for my food, you didn't bad mouth me, you're getting along with me, and you're being really nice. Nicer to any other people I know. I think it's the same level of niceness you have with Xion." Naminé explained
as she crossed the street from Flynn's and started heading down Destiny Drive. I'm not sure why she was heading there, but she seemed to know where she was going. For your information, Destiny Drive was the main location for the popular in DI. Large two story houses lined either side of the street; lawns were expertly cut and watered, staying lush and green.
The road was smooth and perfect. Several houses were alive with sounds of a raving party, and end of year one no doubt.
Naminé stopped outside the front of a large white house, with locked
gates and a doubled door garage. The windows at the top of the house were arched, while the lower floor windows were large and squared. Two large oak doors were the entrance to the home. Gardens full of richly coloured flowers were adorned along the pathway leading up to the impressive doors. A chimney rested at the top left of the house, churning smoke through its funnel. The body of a black bike was visible through the bars of the gate. A blonde spiky haired middled aged man was crouching next to the bike tinkering with the engine.
"Is this your place?" I queried as I walked up to the gates. The blonde haired man looked up as he heard my footsteps. He seemed surprised at first, but he nodded his head as soon as he recognized me. "Hey Cloud." I said, holding up my hand in a small salute. Cloud nodded again and got back to fixing his bike.
"Yeah, this is it." Naminé sighed. "I'd like to move somewhere else... Somewhere more quiet and less commercialized and bitchy."
"Twilight Town is a good place. My cousin Sora lived there for a while, before he moved here." I explained.
"Yeah, he told me that a while ago. He has a crush on me, did you know?"
"That bastard." I laughed. "No, he didn't tell me that. He doesn't tell
me much at all really."
"And Kairi has a massive crush on you. Actually, I just think she only
wants you for your dick. Oh, maybe your money to." Naminé winked and laughed.
I roared with laughter. There was a clattering sound in the background and a loud expletive. Naminé cracked up laughing at that. Her laugh was
so... Normal, rich, full of life. If she met a demon, he'd feed of her
forever.
I heard the crunching of heavy boots against the asphalt driveway. I turned my head, stifling my laughter.
"You guys should quiet down, I'm working." Cloud stated. He turned back around and walked away.
"What's his problem?" I asked.
"He's always like that." Naminé said absently.
"Hey, I uh... Had a good time tonight." I said and rubbed the back of my head with my hand. Naminé was giving me a soft expression; her blue eyes were tender, soft with kindness.
"I did to, Van-"
"VAAAAAAAANNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIII II!" A shrill scream pierced the air and
interrupted Naminé's words as a car door slammed and I was tackled to the ground by a crazy red head. I could hear giggling as I tried to get up, but the crazy redhead was sitting on my chest, lacing her fingers
through my PERFECTLY spiked hair. Fuck.
"Hey Vani, how'd your date with Nami go?" Kairi giggled as she winked at her sister.
"Get off me." I muttered. Kairi did so, and I dusted myself off as I
got back up. As soon as I did she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Love you to Vani!" Kairi winked and giggled as the gate opened. She
walked over to Cloud and gave him a hug, who didn't return it. "Meanie!"
She yelled as she walked up to the amazing oak doors.
"Is that her way of making you jealous?" I asked the now silently
fuming Naminé.
"Oh? No, not at all Van." Naminé replied, brushing her blonde hair
behind her ear.
"Naminé..."
"Yeah?"
"You suck."
"Vanitas Jason Chase!" She said mockingly. "How dare you talk to me like that."
"Just because you're a Strife doesn't mean you can go all uptight on me." I poked my tongue out at her. I was enjoying this way too much. I think I really like this girl... Then there's Yuffie... I like her too... But, I think I like Naminé more. Gah, what the hell. It's too late to think about this shit.
"Earth to Van, you in there?" Naminé rapped her fist against my head. I swiped it away. I noticed that Naminé had moved closer to me, well she had to, obviously.
"Knock it off." I replied, smirking. I looked at Naminé. She was giving me a weird look, it was all... Wait, uh-oh... I know that look. Don't do it Van, don't do it...
Too late.
Naminé leaned in and kissed me slowly, her lips connected with mine... Ok, I'm just going to spare you guys the torture of this description.
Naminé broke away from me. She was blushing.
"W-wow..." She stammered.
I laughed. "Just who the hell do you think I am?" I gave Naminé a hug and a spontaneous kiss on the forehead. "Bye Naminé, sweet dreams." I turned around and started walking away.
"Vanitas!" She called out from behind me. I stopped and turned to look at her. She smiled.
"Thank you." Her face was fully red now and her head was bowed slightly. She really is a shy girl.
"Let's do something soon, yeah?" I called back.
"Y-yeah..."
"See ya Blondie!" I laughed as I heard her begin to fume at the new nickname. I dug my hands into my pockets and pulled out my HTC. I went straight to a message... No, messages... Fourteen new messages and five missed calls. All of them were from Yuffie. Ok, maybe she had gotten a bit over excited, but come on. This is a bit obsessive don't you think? I won't even go over all the contents of them... However, she had left a voicemail on the fifth call... I'll listen to it later.
I think I'm developing feelings for Naminé. It's weird; one night with someone has left a lasting impression that will never subside. I don't usually succumb to this petty teenage crap, so don't ask me what the hell was going on. Ask the author, I'm sure he'll tell you everything.
I begin to head home. Man, DI is such a creepy place late at night. It's amazing who you can't find crawling these streets at this time. The shit thing is, I live about five blocks away from Naminé… So, it should take me about half an hour to get back home… The busses don't run this late… Maybe I'll just get a cab.
Or…
I pull my phone out of my pocket quickly. I open up my contacts and scroll through until I reach a contact titled; STG. You may be about to ask me, what or who is STG? Well, it's a small favour that was set up for me a couple of years back after I somehow managed to save Sam Flynn's life. He was just walking across the street one day, then a truck came roaring around the corner. I had to crash tackle him to the ground… Under the truck, under the freaking truck guys. After that, he gave me some money and offered me a ride whenever I needed it. He was my, "Sam to go", so to say. I dialled his number. He picked up within seconds.
"Sam here." The epic motorcyclists stated.
"Yo Sam, I need a lift." I said as I looked left before crossing the road. Yeah, I'm a safe kid.
"Where are you at man?" He replied.
"Destiny Drive."
"Be there in five."
"Kthxbye." I laughed as I hung up. I always did that to Sam. He didn't mind of course. I felt my phone vibrate in my hand. I looked at the screen, it was Yuffie's number.
"Hello?"
A huge scream filled my ears. It wasn't a scared scream, it was an excited one.
"VANITAS VANITAS VANITAS! COME OVER TO MY PLACE!?" Yuffie screamed.
"Sorry beautiful, I got to go home. I would, but I can't get there." I replied, lying through my teeth.
"AWW, VANI, COME ON!" Yuffie yelled, whining.
"Stop it, you sound like Kairi."
"Oh… Sorry." She went quiet.
"It's aight, don't worry about it." I said as I looked right, I could see Sam coming down the road. He slowed to a stop in front of me. "Got to go, catch you." I hung up the phone quickly. She kind of got on my nerve there.
"You ok Van?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" I sighed.
"Where you headed?"
"Home."
I was sitting in my room, surrounded by darkness, except for the bright light of the computer screen. I was checking my Facebook. I had a friend request, from Yuffie, a few messages and some notifications. I had been tagged in a status by Kairi.
"Vanitas Jason Chase is a sexy beast."
The strange thing was, fifty people had liked it. Yuffie and Kairi were talking about me on the status.
I ignored them and scrolled through my newsfeed. My cousin, Sora had uploaded a new video to his YouTube channel. I clicked on the link.
YouTube popped up and so did Sora, with his Guitar in hand. I smiled to myself as I watched.
Sora – on the video – started talking.
"This cover is dedicated to a certain someone… they're really awesome and yeah… here goes."
He started playing Summer Paradise, by Simple Plan. He did a great job. I commented; Good job dude!
I sighed and clicked out of the tab. I was about to get out of all of my browsers when a messaged popped up.
Xion: 12:24 am.
I need to talk to you… Meet at my place. Right now… No questions Vanitas. I just need somebody.
Vanitas: 12:24 am.
On my way.
She never used my name like that unless it was important… She seemed a bit upset. I had to go see her, after all she is my best friend.
A/N: So, that is chapter two. R&R, enjoy. Don't flame me, or I'll flame you. X539