Chapter 3- Awkward Situations
Namine, Selphie, and I were sitting at a small lunch table out in the play ground waiting for the bell to ring. Only one week left until school was out for summer and we'd be in the sixth grade and in middle school. The sun was shining bright but I hardly felt it knowing I was going to be moving in two weeks. Nothing seemed as good as it should have been with summer so near.
"It'll be okay, Kairi. We'll keep in touch!" Selphie assured me as she patted my back. I sat still and stiff with the same expression on my face. Without moving any other part of my body, my eyes wandered to look at her with doubt.
"You say it'll be okay, but no one has really been to Star City before. It might be horrible." I sighed finally breaking my stiff posture and leaned forward onto the table just as dully.
"I looked up things online. It's just a lot bigger than Destiny City with a lot of tall buildings. You'll be okay there. I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends." Namine smiled from across the table. I stared at her and just sighed again.
"But I won't have you two." I said slightly annoyed. "I'm going to miss everything here. This is all I've ever known."
"I know, but we'll still be the best of friends!" Namine promised. Her eyes suddenly stopped looking at me with glee and looked up behind me with surprise. Selphie, who was sitting sideways on the same side of the table with me, looked up too.
"Um, Kairi?" I turned around not quite sure what to expect. Right behind me stood two boys. One was shorter than the other with spiked brown hair and big blue eyes. The other, taller, one had somewhat long silver hair and light blue eyes. I was stunned that Sora and Riku were there. I mean, yeah, we were friends and we talked and hung out a couple times, but something about this shocked me. Maybe the fact that Sora was holding a small present in his hand is what made me wonder about this.
"Hey, Sora. Hi, Riku." I smiled nervously. He smiled back and so did Riku.
"Hey," Sora said looking at the present then back at me. "I heard you were moving. I just wanted to give you a little going away present." He quickly lifted his hand up and held the bright orange wrapped gift to me.
"You didn't need to do that." I blushed looking down at it. My hand ran over the smooth paper. "Thank you, Sora."
"Well, I hope you enjoy living in Star City." Sora said waving.
"Bye, Kairi." Riku said as the two boys walked away toward the basketball courts. I watched them a little before I turned back around to the table.
"What did he get you?" Selphie asked curiously as she scooted closer to me. Namine leaned forward as I slowly unwrapped the orange paper. Soon a light blue covered book was laid out inside of it. At the top right hand corner in Old English, it had the word "Diary".
"Aw, that's nice of him." Namine said leaning in more to see the diary I had just received.
"Yeah," I said looking down at it before looking to see Sora and Riku playing basketball. "It really was." The bell finally rang and everyone was in an uproar to soak up the last bit of sun before going back inside. I was in a trans watching the other side of the playground and that's when I saw Sora look up and smile.
"Kairi, honey, wake up." Sora's voice wasn't as soft as it was in my dream but it was still soothing.
"What time is it?" I asked rolling over to face Sora. He was getting up out bed with his hair even more wild than normal and just his blue boxers on. I latched onto the pillow and snuggled into it.
"Eight." He said glancing at his clock and then facing me. "You need to get ready for work too missy."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I yawned rolling onto my back. "I had a dream about you."
"I could tell." Sora said leaning onto the bed to look at me better. My eyes wandered to him with a questioning look. "You were smiling." He smirked.
"I could have been smiling about something else, you know." I sat up smiling.
"Nah, not with that kind of smile." Sora got up and headed into our bathroom and closed the door behind him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I called back not getting a reply. I stretched and climbed out of bed before making it. The television was turned on in the livingroom and from what I could hear, it was sports. I put on my robe to cover my night gown and walked out of my room to see Riku shirtless with pajama bottoms on the couch. He turned and looked at me with a nod.
"Morning." He said sleepily.
"What are you doing up?" I asked looking at the clock on the wall. "You don't have to go to work until eleven."
"Yeah," Riku yawned. "Just woke up." He had been living with us for two weeks already and has yet to actually talk to Amanda; taking Cloud and Namine's advice. It seemed to be working but Riku swore not to see anyone quite yet and Amanda told me she wasn't ready to date yet either.
"What time do you get off tonight?" I decided to ask.
"I think nine or ten." He said flipping through the channels as Precious jumped onto the couch. She curled herself on the armrest. My eyes watched her settle down comfortably and drift to sleep.
"Oh," I replied and turned on my heel toward the bedroom again.
"Why?" I heard Riku ask curiously behind me as I put my hand on the doorhandle. I turned to face him with a small smile.
"Just a family get together tonight at my parents house. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go... your parents will be there too." I knew I probably shouldn't have brought up Riku's parents but maybe it could work for them to see each other, after all, it had been about a year.
Right after high school, Riku and his parents had a huge blow out about Riku not wanting to go to college. Of course almost all parents want the best for their kids and to continue their education but Riku didn't want the trouble of attending college when he had other plans. Riku had met the manager of the Paradise Bar and Grill about a month after we graduated. When the manager offered him a job as a waiter, Riku gladly accepted which really upset his parents when he told them he'd rather work then learn. The manager explained he would get great benefits and would be getting paid $14 an hour plus tips.
Most high school graduates would take the job up in a heartbeat and Riku tried to explain that to his mom and dad. Mr. and Mrs. Koru said that their son would make twice that if he would get a college degree which is pretty much true. The Koru's continued to fight and by the end of last summer, Riku moved out and they all stopped talking.
Riku looked at me with an indifferent look and turned to the television again.
"Well, um, I guess I'll talk to you later." I frowned and turned into the bedroom. I sat on the bed and waited for the shower to be free so I could get ready. The water turned off in the bathroom and not too long after, Sora emerged with a towel wrapped around his waist.
After getting ready, Sora went off to school and met up with me at work a few hours later. The day seemed long and over done and I was excited to get off by five. Sora and I drove over to my parents house after work.
"Kairi! Sora!" My mother was always energetic whenever we dropped by. She quickly pulled us into a tight hug.
"Hi mom." I smiled once she let go.
"Hello." Sora waved as he walked by into the kitchen.
"Everyone is in the backyard!" My mom called after him. She turned to face me and put her hand on my cheek. "Oh, honey, I'm so glad you're here."
"Mom," I laughed. "I love coming home. It's nice seeing you and dad."
"Speaking of your father, let's go outside so you two can see each other." I followed her out into the backyard to see Mr. and Mrs. Strife, Mr. and Mrs. Koru, my uncle John, my aunt Julie, Blake Strife, my cousin Alexa, Sora and my dad. I walked up and hugged my family.
"How's college going?" My uncle asked Sora as we sat down on some lawn chairs.
"It's good for me." Sora smiled. "It's just hard to do all the homework and then I also have work too." I looked over at Blake and Alexa right next to me.
"Hey, how's your senior year going so far?" I asked examining them closely. Blake looked practically identical to Cloud when Cloud was a senior and Alexa had grown out her pink streaked hair to just have dark brown hair.
"It's going good so far." Blake answered putting his hand on Alexa's.
"I think it'll be a great year for us." Alexa grinned happily. I smiled back at them before they went into their own conversation again. I looked over at Riku's parents who were talking with my mom. I got up and walked toward them.
"Hello, Kairi." Mrs. Koru said. Her once long blonde hair was now shorter and lighter. Her light blue eyes looked sad which unusual for her and her face was aging quicker then what should have been.
"Hi, Mrs. Koru." I leaned over and hugged her.
"How's Riku? I heard he was living with you." She asked putting her hand to her chest. Mr. Koru put his arm around his wife. He, too, was looking older for his age and it made me really sad.
"He's doing fine." I assured them. "I'm trying my best to have him at least talk to you. I'll keep trying. I know how much it means to you."
"Thank you, Kairi. You're sweet." Mr. Koru said as Mrs. Koru wiped a tear from her eye. I didn't want to be put in any more of an awkward situation, so I walked over to where my dad was.
"Hi daddy." I said hugging him again.
"Hey darling." My dad said kissing the top of my head. My mom came up from behind us and put my hand in hers.
"So have you decided a date for the wedding yet?" She asked. Sora walked up with his hands in his pockets.
"Not yet. We're thinking June though." He said with a nod.
"We really need to get some plans down." Just by listening to my mom talk about my wedding, made it seem that she was more excited about it then Sora and myself. "Let's go inside and see what we can do." My mom took both Sora and me by the hand and dragged us inside where we began to plan for the wedding. The three of us sat down together at the dinner table with a notepad in front of my mom and a pen in her hand.
"So..." Sora said looking around.
"Okay, how many people do you want at the wedding?" She stared down the blank notepad in front of her. Her long brown hair was tied up in a bun so it wouldn't fall in her face.
"Everyone close to us." I said.
"Okay," She wrote down what I had said. "Any ideas of where you want to have it?"
"We were thinking of having it at the beach house." Sora said looking at me. I nodded in agreement and so did my mom as she jotted it down.
"Who do you want as your bridesmaids, Kairi?"
"Uh," I had to really think about this. "Namine, Amanda, Selphie and Alexa."
"Sora? What about your groomsmen?"
"Well obviously, Riku. Then Cloud, Tidus, and Wakka." Sora declared. My mom, Sora, and I continued to go on about wedding plans and by the time we were done, it was all too overwhelming. We said our goodbyes to everyone and left around eight. The ride home was a quiet one and once we got in the house, Sora went straight to the room while I sat in the livingroom to play with Princess.
About a week had passed since the dinner get together at my parents house. Sora was kind of distant since we got back but I figured he was just tired, plus the idea of putting the whole wedding together was overwhelming. I was sitting at my desk at work putting some documents into the computer log when a coworker of mine appeared in front of me.
I looked up at her with a blank expression. Her dark red hair was longer then it was back in high school. She still had those intense gray-green eyes that annoyed me. Her hand reached up and tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear as she handed me a newspaper and a few folders.
"Kairi." She said dully; her lips thin and eyes narrowed.
"Amber." I said in the same tone. She quickly turned on her heal and walked away toward the elevators. I knew she hated having to come up to the 58th floor from the 57th knowing she worked under me which caused me to smile. My eyes wandered to what she had handed me.
I placed the manilla folders into the box which goes directly to Sora. Since I finished the work I needed to get done for the time being, I opened up the newspaper to find something interesting. A few school updates, the weather, what movies were playing, and then the small little article on the fourth page caught my eye.
September 21 through September 25, Speak publishing company will be looking for new talent. If you are a writer and are looking to be found, send a short story to the address below in between the dates listed above. Only 100 participants will be contacted by Speak and be asked to write another story which the company will seek the top 50 from. They will keep contacting the top stories until 25, then ten, five, and finally one winner will be picked by June 2010 and their story will be published by Speak. They're looking forward to see something new.
My heart began pounding with excitement. I couldn't believe it! This was the perfect opportunity for me to break out and become what I've always wanted to be. I could not wait to tell everyone about this. The only problem now was deciding what to enter into the contest.
---
"Should it be something fictional or something true?" I decided to ask Amanda, who I was on the phone with. I was at home looking through all my story notebooks and files on my computer.
"Fictional." She said instantly. "It'll make it more interesting to the publishers. Plus, if you make it to the second round, you can always write something true then."
"Good logic." I said looking through the notebooks I've had since high school.
"Thank you." Amanda laughed. I laughed back in reply.
"Hey, so I'm making dinner tonight, you wanna come?"
"What time?"
"Around eight." I looked at the clock to see that it was almost five so I still had some time to get ready and pick out a story.
"Sure." She replied. "I'll be there a little before. I got to get going though, promised my parents I'd help around the house."
"Okay, see you then." We both hung up the phone at the same time. I sat down in my computer chair and stared at the screen. Writing this fictional story I wrote in my notebook seemed a lot more complex than it did when I first wrote it.
Just as I placed my fingers on the keyboard, Princess started barking. Sora walked inside with a yawn. I watched him enter the house, close the door behind him, and walk into the bedroom where he closed the door. Princess stood staring where the bedroom door had closed in her face. It obviously didn't effect her since she kept wagging her tail excitedly.
I got up from the chair and walked to my bedroom door. As soon as I opened the door, Princess bolted onto the bed and started to lick Sora. He sat up and lightly pushed her back. She was still very hyper.
"Hey." I said quietly as I leaned against the doorframe. Sora looked from the television up at me.
"Hi." He replied before looking back at the screen. I moved across the room and sat on my side of the bed. Princess moved to the bottom and laid down.
"How was your day?" I said moving in closer to him.
"Fine. Yours?" He didn't even look at me.
"Good." I frowned. "Guess what?"
"Hum?" Sora managed with little interest.
"Speak publishing company is hosting a little contest. They're going to pick 100 of the best entries and continue to hold the contest with the winners until they finally pick one. Whoever wins will have their story published." Just the thought of this made me smile again. Sora looked over at me with a small smile.
"You should do it. It seems like a great opportunity." He nodded patting my leg.
"It is. I'm so excited." I leaned in and kissed him. "Would you read the story I enter before I send it in?"
"Sure." Sora said as I got up. "Where is it?"
"I still have to type it up. It'll be a couple days."
"Okay." He gave one nod and turned to the TV again. I smiled and walked out of my room back to my computer to begin working on the story.
---
"Kairi, Amanda is here!" Sora called from the living room. I was in the kitchen cooking the pasta. I peeked around the corner to see Amanda walking toward me.
"Hiya." She smiled as she leaned against the wall in the kitchen.
"Hey hey." I grinned.
"How are you?"
"I'm doing pretty good." I said stirring the noodles in the boiling water. "What about you?"
"Fine. Just tired from all the house work. I'm so ready to move out already." Amanda laughed. I looked up at her and stuck out my tongue.
"I'm sure it's not all that bad." She shrugged when I heard the front door open. I looked out into the living room to see Riku walk in with Roxas. Sora waved them over to the couch.
"Who is it?" Amanda asked. I turned to face her. It had been three weeks since Riku and Amanda's break up and they still have yet to talk about what happened and what's going to happen to them.
"Um, Riku and Roxas." I said nervously.
"He's still living here?" She whispered. I nodded. Amanda fell silent and took in a deep stuttered breath. Her dark brown eyes became distant as she went into deep thought. The only thing making noise in the kitchen now was the boiling water on the stove. The time seemed to move slower than normal as I watched Amanda intensely. Within a few seconds though, Roxas came into the kitchen. He stopped and looked at Amanda and me.
"Hey, Roxas." I said after a couple seconds in silence.
"Hey, Kai, Amanda." He nodded. His blond hair was a little longer than it was in high school and his eyes were still the same. "Um, does Riku know you're here?"
"No." Amanda replied quietly.
"Oh, dang." Roxas said placing his hand on the counter.
"Riku was supposed to be working late tonight." I said just loud enough for the two in the kitchen to hear me.
"He was but I guess his boss said that the one who called in sick showed up." He said.
"Well, I was going to have to eventually face him." Amanda spoke up.
"Do you want me to tell him that you're here?" Roxas pointed his thumb behind him. She quickly shook her head no. He nodded and went to retrieve a soda from the fridge before walking back into the living room.
"I'm sorry." I said stirring the noodles again. She leaned back against the counter and brushed her brown hair out of her face.
"Don't be. It's not you're fault. Like you said, you thought he was working."
"I know, but still."
"Everything will be okay." I smiled at her but she wasn't looking. Riku never came into the kitchen which I guess was good because I wasn't sure Amanda was as ready as she kept saying she was. Finally, about half an hour later, the food was ready to be served. Amanda helped bring out the plates into the diningroom. Riku wasn't in the living room which was in plain sight from the diningroom table.
"Uh... oh." Sora said as he walked over to see Amanda. "Riku doesn't know you're here."
"We know." I said. "Where is he?"
"Bathroom." Roxas said sitting down next to Amanda. Sora sat at the head of the table and I sat across from Roxas. The bathroom door opened and Riku walked out pulling his hair back. He didn't even look up at the table when he finally sat down. Although, when he looked up to see who was sitting right in front of him, he was in shock. The silence hit us like a power outage.
A/N: sorry it took so long. If any of you read on my freewebs site, you know what was wrong and what couldn't keep me focused. Anyway, for those of you who have myspace, the Dear Diary myspace site is up and the address is on the home page of freewebs. Check it out and add if you want! All updates are noted from both websites. Thank you all for reading!