Chapter Twenty-Six

Gabby's POV

Have you ever just woken up in one of those moods where you are dead set on the feeling that nothing could possibly go wrong that day? It was odd; I simply opened my eyes, let the fuzzy world come into focus, and suddenly my heart leapt. Every part of me felt like it was smiling, while each heartbeat seemed to be saying "Today will be great." So I stretched, any trace of usual morning sluggishness absent, plucked my glasses off of my side table, and practically skipped off to the bathroom. If my life was a movie, the lights would be turned up on me and a happy song from the 90's would be playing full volume.

A combination of tired and laziness had led me to neglecting to blow-drying my hair the night prior. As a result of this, after splashing my face with water, I saw that the blonde locks were an absolute nightmare. The best way to describe it was I'd woken up looking like a blonde Little Orphan Annie that had stuck her hand in an outlet. Under most circumstances, I would draw in a sharp breath, groan in disappointment, wish everyone was just bald, and wallow in the dampness of an invisible rain cloud over my head. Today, however, although I did gasp, I didn't moan… I laughed at my reflection, gladly called myself a poodle, and proceeded to run a wet hairbrush through the mess.

I found myself humming when I returned to the dorm to get dressed. "Morning, sissy dearums," I crooned as Caliegh gathered up her things into her book bag. She paused her shuffling of papers to cast me a sideways glance- one Mr. Edelstein often gave me when he caught me singing Blood on the Dance Floor songs when we were supposed to be practicing applying Music Theory. Even the way my sister gave a slight shake to her head and continued to pack up her bag held an uncanny resemblance to the music teacher. This made me giggle as I sifted through my underwear drawer (out of context, that could seem very odd).

"Who slept with you," she asked, monotone. Guess some of that apathy rubbed off on her when she dated Lukas. …Ugh. Lukas. The man that stole my man.

No, no. I was not going to jeopardize my perfect mood.

"Hey, this," I ran two hands down my front, "is off-limits. I don't need no man to feel glorious." I heard Caliegh sigh at my horrid grammar, but when I turned toward her so I could lay my uniform out on my bed, I swear I caught the slightest grin on her lips. Ha, she loves me.

My unexplainable happy-la-la mood was threatened when I sat down in the cafeteria. I had pretty much danced through the buffet, tossing a bowl of fruit, glass of milk, and 3 granola bars onto my tray, telling the lunch lady to have a wonderful day after I paid. When I got to the table, however, I saw that Arthur was upholding my offer and still sitting with us. My airy smile began to falter; what if another scene arose with him and Francis?

To my relief, however, the meal carried on normal as ever, just with the addition of Arthur's contributions. Alfred slurped at the milk in his massive bowl of Lucky Charms, while his British roommate criticized him about table manners; Gilbert tossed bits of granola at Caliegh, sometimes reaching teasingly for her whenever a piece went down her shirt; Antonio gazed longingly at the table where Lovino Vargas sat with his brother; Caliegh and Francis took turns conversing with Matthew, and when it was my sister's turn, Francis would talk with me or one of his trio members. The fortunate part was, the one person he completely avoided talking to was Arthur. In fact, he acted as if the Englishman was not even there; Arthur returned the favor. They didn't look at each other, didn't comment on anything the other had to say, didn't chime into any conversations involving them… They were perfectly avoiding confrontation, and although I felt a bit guilty at first, the two seemed to be casually enjoying themselves nonetheless.

My mood was back in full swing.

"Hey, Alfred?" I said later that day simultaneous to the American in question exclaiming "Yo, Gabby!" The school day had ended, and I was heading up to my dorm to change into something more comfy (not pajamas, though; I was still gonna roam around the school, probably) while Alfred was walking toward me from the opposite direction.

"You first," we insisted in unison, resulting in laughter from the both of us. "Ladies first," I decided with a toothy grin that Alfred returned tenfold.

"Well thanks, now where do I start?" He let out this hilarious snort-laugh and lightly smacked my upper arm. "Kidding, kidding, go ahead."

I swear, it's impossible to frown in the presence of this bozo. "Alrighty. So, I was wondering if you'd wanna play Xbox tonight…?" I hadn't realized until then that the Xbox was in Alfred's dorm, thus meaning I had just invited myself to his room. How rude… "Or, like, just chill somewhere else, or-"

"Actually, I already have plans for tonight," Alfred interrupted. I felt my shoulders drop in disappointment; I didn't even know that I had lifted them to begin with. Well, it looked like another night of curling up under my blanket, scrolling through my Tumblr dashboard until I fell asleep with my laptop burning a hole in my lap… "And I want you to come with."

Wait, huh? I barely caught that last part. My entire stance snapped into a different demeanor, my eyebrows lifted. "Really?" I sputtered. Alfred nodded, his grin sparkling brightly.

"Yup! You know Kiku, right?"

I pursed my lips in thought. "I think so… He hangs out with Ludwig and Feliciano, right?"

Alfred nodded twice. "Yeah, those three are real tight. But Kiku seems to think there's somethin' goin' on between Feli and Luddy, so to give them some 'alone time,' he's bringing this really badass Japanese horror movie over to my dorm so we can watch it! And I want you to be there, because I'm pretty sure Kiku won't let me cling to him when I get- …uh, caught off guard."

It never ceased to humor me how Alfred refused to show any sign of weakness, like admitting he was scared. Precious. I placed both hands over my heart. "Well, I sincerely assure you that I will not judge you one bit as you compose yourself after your guard is lost," I promised with so much emphasis it sounded sarcastic. Alfred let out a short version of his signature laugh.

"Thatta girl. So, meet me in my room tonight, 'kay? You know where it is."

I regret to say that the sound that then escaped my throat was an unattractive combination of a snort, cough, squeal, and giggle. If Alfred wasn't, well, Alfred, I would have covered my mouth and melted in embarrassment on the spot. "Think about what you just said, out of context." There was a pause as Alfred repeated "Meet me in my room tonight, 'kay? You know where it is" in his head and I held my breath to keep from cracking up. A combination of a little bit of shock and disgust with a lot of amusement suddenly lit up Alfred's face, and we both let our laughter loose.

"Dude, you're just as dirty as I am!" Alfred chortled, gripping his side and closing his eyes tight. I crossed my right arm over my chest and bowed, almost keeling over with my own laughter.

"Guilty as charged, my friend. But I do believe I am even dirtier than you."

At this point, Alfred had removed his glasses and was wiping tears out of the corners of his eyes. "You wanna prove it?"

I managed to reduce my mirth to mere giggles. "How does one judge someone's dirtiness level?"

"Beats me." Alfred shrugged. "Anyway, anyway… You gonna meet us there?"

A smirk immediately twitched onto my face. "Ooh, a three-way… Sorry, I couldn't help myself," I apologized as Alfred snorted, shaking his head fondly. "But, yeah, I'll be there."

Now Alfred smiled brightly- not in humor, but in friendliness. "Sweet! See ya then." And before I could comment, he was swaggering down the hall. And I admit: I caught myself staring after him for a while.

Is watching movies with Alfred fun? Hell yeah. Is watching foreign movies with Alfred fun? …Well, that's a word for it. See, apparently Kiku (who was a no-show; he dropped the movie in Alfred's dorm but didn't even stay) neglected to tell Alfred that his Japanese horror film was in Japanese. Thank God for subtitles… Then again, Alfred isn't the brightest banana in the bunch, so after nearly every line he'd complain about how he hadn't finished reading it. Eventually, fed up with his whining, I resorted to reading them out loud for him. It was a hassle at first, until I assigned ridiculous voices to all the characters. When I got around to narrating the inevitable sex scene, Alfred and I were cracking up so hard that we didn't even notice the serial killer knife the main couples' throats.

Of course, this was a horror film, so we couldn't have conveniently laughed at every scary part. I'm the type of person to overreact at things like these; screaming when something jumps out even if it doesn't actually scare me, making pathetic sounds of disgust at any bit of gore… Well, it seemed Kiku made sure to lend a movie chock full of jumping-out and gore. There was a real obvious pattern of quiet, walking… quiet, walking… quiet, walking… quiet, walking… peeking around a corner…. SOMETHING JUMPING OUT, MURDER. I screeched every time, even though it was to be expected. Still, I was more of a man about the whole thing than Alfred. He wouldn't shriek; no, he would scream like hell, start blabbering rapid-fire nonsense, and either hide his face in a pillow, dive under the covers, or, on occasion, cling to me so tightly that I couldn't breathe. …I'll be honest, I liked it when that happened.

2 hours and 15 minutes later, the bloody and contorted face of the deceased main character popped up briefly onscreen, accompanied by a god-awful screeching noise, and the credits blissfully began to roll. Alfred and I let out breaths we didn't know we'd been holding in unison, shaking and rubbing at our eyes behind our glasses. I grinned meekly at him. "That was lame."

Alfred made a "psh" sort of sound out the corner of his mouth. "Totally. I've dealt with way worse."

Now it was my turn to make an incredulous noise. "And how did that go? You almost pissed yourself just now."

I smirked at the offended-mixed-with-embarrassed expression that shot across Alfred's face at this. He opened his mouth to retort- probably something along the lines of "heroes don't piss themselves!"- but was cut off by a soft voice from his doorway saying, "I'm sorry to interrupt…"

Peeking in the door was an Asian boy, about my sister's height, looking very nervous and just as sorry as he sounded. Ah, I recognized him… Yes, he was always hanging around Ludwig and Feliciano. Alfred flapped his hand dismissively. "Nah, it's fine, bro! But where the sweet Jesus were you?"

Kiku bowed apologetically, so low that his forehead almost touched his knees. "Gomen… Please don't take it personally, Alfred," I had to cover my mouth to hide my amused arising giggles at the sound of his Engrish, "I did intend to watch the movie with you… But when you said your girlfriend was going to watch with us, I didn't want to intrude. Gomen."

Every trace of my grin vanished in a heartbeat. Girlfriend. He said… girlfriend. Maybe in Japan, they used that term lightly…? I mean, he just bowed in apology, he obviously has different customs… I glanced at Alfred, searching for a reaction, but as usual was met with nothing but oblivion. "Aw, man, I wasn't plannin' on making you feel like a third wheel or nothing! Tell ya what, you 'n me can get together next week, and do something just the two of us," Alfred offered, speaking while he ejected the disc from the DVD player. Kiku nodded, stealing the slightest of glances at me.

"Hai… That sounds nice." He held his hand out a bit until Alfred popped the DVD back into its case and handed it to the Asian. Kiku bowed his head once, then again in my direction with a hushed "Pleased to meet you," and hurried out. Even if he had lingered, I don't think I would have brought myself to say anything in response.

"Wha… What did he mean by, girlfriend?" I eventually managed to choke out, gazing up at Alfred but not really seeing him. I did register, however, that for once, intelligence was seeping into his expression. Devious intelligence, judging by the smirk on his face.

"Well you're a girl… And you're my friend…"

My hammering heart fluttered over a beat. There was nothing to worry about, I was over thinking things again… Alfred was my best friend, a brother to me; why the hell would he tell someone I'm his girlfriend? Surely that's not what he saw me as… I mean, you kind of need the other person's consent to be in a relationship with them. …Not that Alfred would want to be in that type of relationship with me anyway.

"But…" Alfred dragged out the one-syllable word. Hearing his voice sent an icy-hot tingling sensation throughout my body, dwelling at the base of my spine and resulting in a shiver. But why was his voice suddenly having this effect on me? We talked all the time, he was my best friend… Was it… Was it because being referred to as his girlfriend broke some barrier I had subconsciously put up? Had I realized that I… wanted that? To be more than friends? "There is another definition of 'girlfriend.'" I felt the breath leave me. Before I could replace it with more air, Alfred's hand was around my waist, his eyes peering into mine over the rims of his glasses. My heart was pounding in my ears.

I saw his lips move. I heard sound come out. But I had no idea what he'd said. "…What?" I murmured stupidly. Alfred flashed a toothy grin; not his usual cocky one, but one of pleasant amusement.

"Be my girlfriend, Gabby. Go out with me."

Thousands of excuses were unleashed inside my mind, swirling around in a whirlwind. We were too good of friends. I still wasn't quite over my breakup with Mathias. I was so much of a tomboy, he'd be labeled as gay if he dated me. I didn't usually go for stupid guys. He was like a brother to me, incest was disgusting. Still, desire overpowered reason… "Well okay," I squeaked.

Alfred's grin broadened and he slid his hand off of me; I felt my very being melt. "Sweet! So I'll see you in the morning?"

My jaw fell slightly agape. Seriously? He just asked me out, and he was dismissing me to bed without saying another word on it? Typical Alfred… Nonetheless, an inevitable smile twitched onto my lips. "Uh huh… See ya." Every nerve in my body went numb as Alfred ushered me out into the hall, wishing me a good night and kissing me on the cheek.

I practically floated back to my dorm; I was in such a daze, I don't even remember if I'd changed into pajamas- the t-shirt and yoga pants I'd worn to see the movie were comfy enough. Alfred F. Jones asked me out… Alfred F. Jones was my boyfriend…. I replayed the already-blurry scene of him asking me to be his girlfriend over and over in my head, until I gradually drifted off to sleep. I dreamt that Alfred and I were the couple in that movie, except we didn't die; we kissed and cuddled and laughed until the villain actually smiled and decided to leave us be. When I woke up the next morning, my good mood had returned… Increased by tenfold.