Next morning at school was a half day. I hurried to school, not late. OH MY GREATNESS. I completely forgot about detention. Damn!
I laughed, embarrassed at myself. I guess I'd have to serve it tomorrow.
The school day passed quickly for me. At lunch, Hikaru just held my gaze for a second and went back to laughing with his loud, obnoxious friends. I sighed and sat at the table with my backpack. For half days, we ended it with lunch so it was very loud as people were impatient for school to end.
Minori and Yumi and Renee were both looking at dresses for the school dance coming up. Kai was the center of attention for entertainment so he was dancing. Suke was quietly sitting next to Renee, leaving me with no one to talk to except Daichi. Of course, he wasn't even counted as a person to even talk to.
"So… Daichi..?" I began, as usual.
"Yeah?" he looked at me and I felt the aching I always felt. How I liked him and how I hated him.
"Uhh…" I usually asked him how things were every once in awhile so we didn't become complete strangers. "How have you been?"
"Good. And you?"
"Fine."
I thought of the next line. "How's life?"
Daichi sighed. "Tiring."
"Mhm, I see," is all I said. Then it was quiet between the two of us. Since he broke up with me, there were so many questions I wanted to ask him. But I couldn't because time had passed and it no longer mattered to him, I'm guessing.
The bell rang and people rushed out quickly. My friends and I were hanging out on the stairs, our usual spot. We talked, laughed, messed around until I was the only one left. With Daichi. Just my luck.
It was quiet and calm. I'm not sure why he doesn't ever talk to me. We could still be friends right? And yet it seems like he avoids me…
"Hello friends!" Hikaru called cheerfully. He walked over to us with this big ass grin on his face. I have no clue why. But his friends and the girls were probably at the mall, waiting for him. His phone vibrated and he checked it, texting something back.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the mall?" I asked him.
"Nope! I'm supposed to be with you," he smiled. I rolled my eyes at him. Another part of my mind was aware of Daichi, standing there, listening to us. "Hi Daichi," Hikaru greeted him. "Hi," Daichi said back and nodded.
"Well, let's get going then, shall we Akemi?" Hikaru held his hand out to me. I ignored it, walking past him and asked "Where are we going?"
"Bye Daichi!" Hikaru said. Then to me, "My house. Gotta change clothes."
I walked silently beside him as we walked along the sidewalk. We made it to this big house. Looked like a mansion. I stood there, looking up at it, amazed. I heard him laugh and then he took my hand led me past the gate, inside the doors of this… House.
He made me sit down in the living room where the maid served me some cookies and tea. Wow. He had servants. Then I rolled my eyes. Tch, typical.
Hikaru came downstairs in expensive clothing. It looked nice on him. Ugh, I shook my head, ridding myself of the thought.
"Ready?" he asked me. I nodded. "You can just leave your bag here," he told me. "We're coming back anyways."
"I'd rather take it with me," I answered a bit coldly. He shrugged and wandered out.
So much for grabbing the bracelet and then ditching. I sighed. Then I followed him out. Turns out he had his own car but decided to walk to school as "exercise". I didn't even know how to drive yet. In the car, we didn't talk but listened to music. Hikaru was humming along to the song and I just stared out of my window. I wondered where we were going.
As the song came to an end, I asked just to make sure, "You have the bracelet right?"
"Yup," he replied. "I'm not that type, you know."
I shrugged.
I saw that we were suddenly at an amusement park. He parked the car and we both got out, going to the entrance. It was colorful and not that much people were here because it was in the middle of the week. Wednesday.
We got in and then it was just fun and games. I won myself a stuffed animal turtle and was so happy I hugged him. This then resulted in me hitting his face and pushing him away once I realized what I was doing. He bought candy every once in awhile to restore our energy. Or something to eat. We competed in games and I have to admit, he had skills.
A while later, we were on the Ferris wheel. It was dark and the sky was a light purple to dark purple color. Almost completely nighttime. We could see the stars faintly twinkling. I was relieved from all the walking and our seat thing was almost at the top. I turned my head to look out below at all the lights. Hikaru was silently gazing below too. I looked at him once the Ferris wheel stopped at the top. He smiled.
"Here." He held up the bracelet and it glimmered softly from the lights below. I scooted closer to him to reach for it. As I was reaching though, it looked like it got farther away. I reached further; unaware of how close I was getting to him. I was sure he was pulling it farther away from me to mess with me, so I narrowed my eyes at him and tried grabbing it as fast as I could.
His arms were suddenly around me, holding me close. He held me there so I couldn't escape. I couldn't believe he was hugging me. I was going to pull away from him and hit him until I couldn't concentrate. I kind of lost focus because of the warmth coming from him. I never realized I was so cold…
I was suddenly aware that I was just lying there in his arms. He had loosened his hold and I was just there, doing nothing. Too caught off guard. Irritation sparked through me and I backed as far away as I could from him. I was on the defensive side now. He tricked me.
He looked at me with curiosity in his eyes and laughed. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Here, here." Then he held out the bracelet to me. I took it cautiously and stayed my distance from him. After the ride ended, he drove me to the park we first talked at.
By this time, I could really see the stars. They were pretty and I was stargazing up at the sky. It was a peaceful kind of quietness. I wondered what Hikaru was thinking. He was also looking up at the sky with this… Lonely look on his face. But what would he have to be lonely about? He had lots of friends, servants… Oh, I didn't see his parents at his house today. I wonder where-
"Sorry."
"What?" I asked him, not understanding. He looked at me with an apologetic expression.
"For hugging you."
"Oh." I didn't know what to say now. I mean, I was pretty irritated and felt violated because of that. But now it didn't seem to matter. I actually had fun today.
"You seemed to have gotten pretty defensive," he joked. "I thought you were about to push me off the Ferris wheel. It was just a hug too."
I laughed. "Yeah, it was. Caught me off guard though."
"Trying to hide your interest in me?"
I rolled my eyes. "I'm so not interested in someone like you. Don't forget. You made me do this."
"I didn't make you do anything." He looked at me with innocent eyes.
"You're the one who threatened me to go out with you only for a bracelet that I bought myself."
He pondered thought for a moment. "At least I'm not the one who lost it."
"But," I began. "You were the one keeping it hostage."
He rolled his eyes and I couldn't deny that he looked cute when he did that. We both turned to look up at the sky again. I let my mind drift.
A few minutes later, Hikaru asked me something.
"Do you still hate me?"
I stared at him. What was he going on about now? "Is that why you wanted to go somewhere with me? To show how wonderful you are?"
He half-smiled. "That's part of the reason."
"Then yes," I told him. "I still hate you." And I smiled. He sighed. "Time to get you home." He said to me.
He dropped me off and then said goodnight. I walked into my room, worn out and left with a feeling of peace. I fell asleep, having a dreamless night for once.