VIVI

Chasing Yesterday

By: Lucas McDrake

Chapter 7-Exchange

I quietly shut the front door behind me, exhaling as I leaned on it.

Today was just one of those days. Except it wasn't, if you know what I mean. After all, who else has living dolls to come home to?

"Vivi?"

Speak of the devil… I glanced down from the ceiling to see that the new doll-the one that had appeared last night about an hour after Dave left-was peeking around the corner of the living room threshold. His large, childish eyes shown noticeably silver, even from all the way across the room.

I take back the devil comment; Kuin looked too childishly innocent.

"Yeah, Kuin?" I sighed, giving him a slight smile.

His eyes warmed to a liquid cyan as he admitted himself into the room. He gazed bashfully at his feet. "Hi."

"Hi," I laughed, smiling wider.

"Hi…"

It seemed like there was something that he wanted to say, so I inquired, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah…"

"Is there something you wanted?" I asked.

"… No," he stated.

It was pretty obvious that something was on his mind, but I didn't try to delve further. "If you say so..." I took a light breath. "You guys will need to hide in my room tonight."

"Why?" he asked, eyes flushing orange. It was quite unsettling. After a moment of recollection, I resumed, "People will be over here. People that don't know about you."

"You want to keep me a secret?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah," I answered him, brushing some of my hair out of my face. "It keeps everything much simpler. " Not that it's simple as is, I don't add for Kuin's sake. However, things could be much worse...

"How could everything become more complicated?" he pressed.

"Um... Seriously, I don't know." I gave him a smile. "It would help, though, if there weren't an angry mob crushing this house to bits under their feet in an attempt to see living dolls."

"Oh..." His perplexed expression and citrine eyes lit up, his irises flushing green. A natural color, I thought with relief. "Okay." Smiling, he walked off down the hall.

Letting out a deep breath, I plopped onto the couch. Looking up at the clock, I saw that it was already four o'clock. Another hour.

Sighing, I inspected my rings again. One, embedded with an emerald rose-Kuin's-and another with the gold interlaced across a citrine sword-Yuan's. Again, I tried to pull them off, but quickly gave up as the excruciating pain returned tenfold.

Deciding to do my homework, I finished the last Physics circuit diagram as the doorbell rang.

"Come in," I yelled, glancing at the Rube Goldberg project piled in the middle of the floor.

Jen opened the door and trailed in, followed by Dave and Nori. As Nori wordlessly observed the project, I glanced at Jen to see that she seemed rather uncomfortable. Either that, or just on edge. Maybe she didn't entirely believe the lies Dave and I had given to her.

"Let's start," Dave urged, glancing over at me. It seemed that he wanted to ask me a question. No, questions. Maybe he was wondering what happened to give me another ring similar to the one I received from Yuan. I can't answer those questions until we're alone...

And then, abruptly, my mind backtracked at the last word I used in coherent thought. Of course, not that way!

Preoccupied, I helped with the project, accidentally bumping into Dave a few times as we worked on our masterpiece, perfectly planned and mapped out by Jen.

After a few hours, Jen glanced at the clock. "Look how late it is! We should probably stop here, and come back to it tomorrow."

"Wait out in the car, Jen," Dave suggested. "I'll be out there in a few minutes; there's something I'm finishing up." I silently let out my pent-up breath as I realized his reason for staying behind for a few more minutes was perfectly viable; he was still working on securing a blow dryer to the top, which would be starting the chain reactions we were going to set up.

However, Jen still seemed suspicious. For a moment, I was scared that Jen wouldn't take it.

"Okay," she stated, walking through the door and closing it behind her.

I was about to start talking again when I realized that Nori was still in the room.

Dave seemed to have that covered, though, so I let him talk to her.

"So... Got a mood ring?"

Nori glanced hesitantly up into Dave's eyes, then immediately looked away. "Yeah..."

"That's cool." He turned back toward the project, glancing at me suggestively. And no, not in that way! Not that train of thought again!

Forcing myself to focus, I thought through what the gesture could mean. Was he giving me a cue?

"Do you have any dolls?" Ugh! So obvious! Why can't I be smooth like Dave? "I-I mean, I got some dolls the other day..."

"... Yes." She started shuddering. "Why...do you ask?"

"Did the ring come with it? Or them?" Hating myself more each moment... Why is she shivering, though? It's May. Or maybe she...

"Yeah." Suddenly, her hand whipped upward, hitting Dave in her rush to show off her ring. "Doesn't it look nice? I mean...I like ruby..." Just as abruptly, her hand shot back to her side. "I-I have to go." Almost as if she were a mechanism, she stiffly stepped out the door.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Dave and I shared a glance. "What was up with that?" I queried.

"No idea." He looked back at the door, shrugging. "I guess we might never know." Turning back to me, he inquired, "Did an extra doll come last night?"

I was slightly taken aback. "Yeah... How did you guess?"

"He...came to my house first." He looked away, seeming slightly abashed.

"Really?" I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Then why don't you have his ring instead of me?"

"I... The opportunity sort of left too fast, I guess." I could tell he was hiding something.

"There's more to it."

"What?" He looked up at me peculiarly.

"You're hiding something." Might as well hit the point directly; time was running out.

"Like what?"

"Something about Kuin... Or something about what you did. There's more to it than just 'an opportunity that sort of left too fast'," I pointed out, providing air quotes with my fingers.

"Vivi..." He seemed extremely reluctant, suddenly tense.

My heart trilled for a moment at the sound of my name falling off of his lips- Oh, look how sappy I've become! I'm describing everything like an author of romance novels would! What's wrong with me? "Y-yes?" I stuttered stupidly, my hands dropping uselessly to my sides. Ugh! Now it's too obvious! Will he read into that far enough to-

Even my train of thought came abruptly to a halt as he looked at me. In that way. I took a moment to pinch myself, making sure it was real. The only two people that existed were him and me. And I couldn't even take back that last sappy, coherent thought.

"Vivi..." he whispered softly, coming closer.

Not able to utter any words, I simply watched, my eyes shifting from his eyes to his mouth every second. No matter how much I anticipated it, I couldn't be prepared for what happened next.

His lips touched mine.

Before I could make sense of anything, a horn blared outside, startling us away from each other.

"Y-y-you sh-should go," I managed, staring into his eyes, and wondering why he had just did that. Something I'd secretly desired ever since I had the sense to crush a person in my life... It couldn't seem to register.

After a moment of returning my gaze, he looked away, and breathed, "Okay."

Without any other words exchanged, he left.

Placing a hand on my lips, my mind was still in complete hibernation. He kissed me...

"Vivi?"

I jumped, startled by the childish voice that sounded behind me. "Ah!" Realizing it was just Kuin, and wondering how long he had been standing there, I asked, "Kuin... Did you want something?" I could feel heat rushing into my cheeks.

I noticed the hue of his eyes-mostly brown, with a few specks of white sprinkled in. Despite how it matched his hair, it still didn't seem to fit. Something was wrong about that color...

After a moment of silence, Kuin stated, "No." Quickly hiding his face from my view, he walked down the hall.

A pang of guilt hit me. Dave never told me what happened last night between Kuin and him. Worse, I totally forgot to ask after he kissed me!

Was it really that bad for both of them?

~*~