A/N. Hi guys, thanks for the reviews! I definitely should be studying right now… but, like always, plot bunnies pop up at the most inappropriate times. This chapter is probably going to be the choppiest chapter I have written so far and I apologize for bringing a chapter like this even after the review about the grammar. Same disclaimer as previous chapters and also to all the movies I list in this chapter. Please RR, I really appreciate it. Thanks, and hope you enjoy!
The weeks passed by and so did the finals that I didn't study for. My GPA was definitely not going to look like rainbows and unicorns after this. But what's done is done and I couldn't go back to study for it no matter how much I regret and cry over it. After the last of my finals were done I slept like the dead for approximately 14 hours. It was finally Christmas break and I didn't have school, work or volunteering for 10 days straight. Tadase and I still don't talk much even if we have plenty of time to talk and hangout. I spent day after day holed up in my room until I realized that I probably wanted to get out of the house when my relatives came to celebrate Christmas Eve. My family has this weird tradition of spending Christmas Eve together and I wouldn't have minded much if it was just my immediate family but when I say family, I literally mean the whole damn family. You know, uncles, aunts, cousins and all. So in my defense I have plenty of reasons to refuse "family time" and want to get out of the house when the army came in. I have zero desire to spend my Christmas Eve babysitting. So when I was planning my escape route and figuring out what I was going to do all day and all night tomorrow my phone buzzed.
"Hello?" I answered groggily while putting my phone on speaker so I wouldn't have to physically attach myself to the phone.
"Well someone's been doing nothing all day." Came the reply in a voice that vaguely seemed familiar. That's when I checked the caller ID and what do you know it's mister stranger catching me when I'm stuck in a rock and a hard place again.
"Uh huh" I answered absent mindedly wondering how he timed things so well.
"Well someone sounds happy to get a call from me." Ikuto replied sarcastically.
"Nope, just got nothing in my head and you called me when I was planning my escape route." I said.
"Escape route? What do you need that for?" He asked.
"Christmas Eve. Family gathering. Not participating. Gotta escape. Any more questions?" I replied.
"Actually yes, since you seemed to be stuck planning your escape route, I'll plan for you. Do you remember where my apartment is?" He asked.
"I know approximately, I can find it if you send me the address." I answered.
"Good, come over whenever and dress comfy but bring another outfit for dinner. I'm taking you to a semi formal looking bar that has amazing food." He said.
"Okay, I'll be there whenever I wake up. Can I shower at your place?" I asked.
"Mhm. Just bring your stuff if you don't want to use two in one shampoo conditioner thing." He replied.
"Kay, sounds good, I'll see you, bye!" I said as I hung up.
As soon as I hung up, Ikuto texted me the address to his apartment. Since I finally knew what I was doing when I escaped from hell hole called family gathering, I had to find a good enough excuse to get out of the house tomorrow. After digging through my brain, I decided to go with 'my friend is living in a dorm and she isn't going back home for Christmas and doesn't have anyone to spend Christmas with' excuse. I had enough friends that live in dorms and some really weren't going back home for Christmas but just in case, I decided text one of my high-school friends that was going to a different university in the city to see if she was willing to cover for me if needed.
When everything was set up as needed, I called my mom, explained the situation and she let me go without much questions. After that was done and out of my way, I packed what I needed to stay at Ikuto's for the whole day. I packed a black body-con dress that ended around mid thigh and a pair of thigh high boots that gave me an extra inch or two with a bomber jacket so it didn't make me look too dressed up. Then came the make up and the curling wand with travel pack toiletries. I was going to walk out of this house tomorrow with sweats, hoodies and runners so I needed to bring everything with me if I didn't want to look like… well look like I just rolled out of bed. With the packing done, I showered and buried myself in blankets and pillows. For a minute or two I debated if I should text Tadase and tell him what's up but decided against it just before I sent it. For the rest of the night I browsed my gallery looking at old pictures of Tadase and I. I fell asleep wondering where this relationship was heading.
When I woke up the next day, it was 10:30 a.m. I decided to ditch the breakfast and changed into what I laid out last night. Grabbing my keys, wallet and bag I walked out and started my car. While the car was warming up, I texted Ikuto to let him know that I was on my way. The drive wasn't very long but the snowy roads made driving a little more stressful than it normally was. When I got to the apartment, I parked in the closest visitor parking to Ikuto's placed and checked my phone to see if Ikuto answered. He let me know that he left the door open so that I could just come in and that's exactly what I did.
When I first entered the apartment, it was completely obvious that a guy was living in it. It wasn't messy or dirty but it lacked the personal touches that a woman would have put in to a place she was living in. The fact that the colors that decorated the apartment was black, blue, gray and white other than the hardwood floor didn't help with the obviousness. The second thing I noticed was the amazing smell of breakfast drifting out of the kitchen. While I never usually ate breakfast in the morning, I loved the classic pancake, eggs and bacon combo. I loved it to the point where I would go find restaurants that offered breakfast 24/7 just so I could eat breakfast when it wasn't breakfast. So, me being me, and knowing that what I smelled was definitely bacon and eggs – if I was lucky maybe even pancake – I followed the smell to the kitchen.
"Hey" Ikuto greeted me when I got to the kitchen.
"Hi," I greeted back and answered with, "can I have coffee with whatever you're having for breakfast?"
At that question, Ikuto simply laughed and told me that coffee is self served and breakfast will be done in five. It wasn't that I relied on coffee to wake me up or anything, it's just a habit I developed over the years of school. I drank one too many energy drinks and took one too many caffeine pills during the school years that coffee really didn't do much for me in terms of what caffeine was supposed to do. But nevertheless, I poured myself a cup of coffee and as if this wasn't my first time visiting Ikuto's place, I got him a cup too.
"I dunno how you drink your coffee so it's just black." I said as I handed the cup over. I personally loved black coffee and was too used to it to try coffee with cream or sugar. Both my parents drank coffee black so I just got into a habit of drinking mine black as well.
"Black is fine, thanks." He answered as he took the cup. "Let's go sit at the table, I'll bring the plates over."
It was a quiet breakfast. It was also one of the most relaxing meals I had in a while. It was also a meal where I found out that Ikuto doesn't eat his eggs with ketchup but with salt and pepper. It was also the reason why I had to eat my eggs with salt and pepper. Ikuto didn't own ketchup. Other than the missing ketchup incident, it was the best breakfast I have had in years.
After breakfast and three more cups of coffee later, Ikuto asked me what I wanted to do.
"We could watch movies, you know, do a marathon on a series." I suggested.
"We could do that. What series though?" He asked.
"Fast and Furious, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Dead Pool, How to Train Your Dragon, Frozen, Minions…" I listed while I looked up at the ceiling. When I looked back at him, I could tell that he was holding his laugh in.
"You are so laughing at my choice in movies." I stated while staring accusingly at him.
"It's hard not to. I mean, you started fine with the first series and then I could see your obsession with superheroes, then you started listing animation movies that I know are made for kids." He answered while laughing at me.
"I will so make you watch at least two of the movies you just laughed at. And that, is a promise." I stated as I stuck my tongue out at him childishly.
After stating my declaration, I ran to the living room and grabbed the TV remote and went straight to Netflix. Then I proceeded to playing How to Train Your Dragon. In reality, Ikuto didn't have to watch it at all. He could have just grabbed his laptop or his phone and put on his headphones to do whatever he wanted. Despite this fact, he still sat beside and watched both the first and the second movie with me. He also stared at me like I was crazy when I started saying the lines with the characters. It was totally not my fault that I watched those movies like seven times. It just happened, but it helped that I really liked those movies too.
We watched one or two more movies after that but they didn't really stick in my head. I got up a couple times to grab food or drinks or to go to the bathroom and other times I just straight up fell asleep. In my defence, Ikuto's couch is really comfy, I had a soft blanket and Ikuto made a great pillow. I mean, who wouldn't fall asleep right? Yeah, right.
The truth is, when I'm with Ikuto, the rest of the world just falls silent. It doesn't bother me or worry me, I can just be myself and feel comfortable. He gives me a chance to relax and have fun. He gives me a moment to be free.
We spent the rest of the day like that. Just hanging around each other whether we were watching something together or just browsing separately. We laughed at stupid videos on Facebook and shared music through taking turns on playing random songs on our playlists. Then when it was close to 7 p.m. we decided to start getting ready to go out. I hopped in the shower first and switched with Ikuto afterwards. While he was in the shower, I dried my hair, curled it and did my make up after I got dressed. Of course, him being a guy got out of the shower when I was just starting to curl my hair.
The dress I had on was showy. While it didn't expose any cleavage, and wasn't inappropriately short, it was very, very tight. I didn't have the greatest figure in the world but I did have enough to fill out the dress pretty nicely which is the reason I bought the stupidly expensive piece of cloth in the first place. I also curled my waist length hair in to lose waves. For the make up, I just put on winged eyeliner and some mascara and called it a day.
By the time I was done, Ikuto's hair was done and he was dressed in a black v- neck sweater and black jeans and he had time to stare at me while I was drawing my eyes on. I just rolled my eyes at him and continued through the rest of my make up routine.
"Aren't you going to be cold in that dress?" Ikuto asked when we were on our way to go out.
With out saying anything, I just simply pulled out my thigh high boots and held it out to him.
"Ah, got it." He nodded.
After putting the shoes on, I asked him, "How do I look?" and turned in a circle for the full effect.
"You look beautiful, common, lets get going." He said as he grabbed me by my hand.
Even when I knew that I shouldn't have, I felt myself blush at his words. Feeling guilty and happy along with too many other emotions, I just followed Ikuto out the door.