Chapter 9

30 DAYS

-ERIOL-

I couldn't stop thinking about what happened that afternoon, during the whole next month. It was the typical scene of any teen rom-com, and there I was, unable to kiss my best friend because…

Why?

Because she had a boyfriend? Because I didn't want to ruin our friendship? Because I was afraid to had misunderstood our situation and she actually didn't have feelings for me? For starters, even I wasn't that sure about what were my feeling for her.

Maybe it was just the timing, the opportunity seemed right, but actually, it was the best for me not to fall for it. Maybe it was nothing but a test to prove I'm more than just hormones, and I respect Tomoyo as a friend, as a person, and I don't see her as a girl I can date and break up a month later.

But the memory of that afternoon kept on coming back almost daily. I remembered it every time I left or came back from home, since I had to stand in front of my own gate to open it. I remembered how that afternoon mom was still at the shoe shop, and I had to look for a change of clothes for her, among my own stuff.

The hardest part was when we walked inside my bedroom, the one that now will always carry the memory of us waiting for over an hour before Tomoyo's chauffeur came to pick her up, and how she promised to give me back my clothes (wash and dried) the next day at school. Trying to avoid an awkward silence, I asked:

"You didn't plan anything with Yue today?" She looked at me as if i had mentioned someone she didn't know, and for a second I feared I had messed up the names of the two White hair guys. "I mean, Valentine's?" I insisted. "Sakura and Syaoran are surely having a date, so why you…?"

"Ah." She finally said, as she sat in my bed and I asked myself if I could do the same, and I mentally scolded myself, because oh my God Eriol, this is your bed, your room, your house, you can sit wherever you want.

I ended up seating in my desk's chair.

"Yue and I broke up last week." I looked at her, visibly surprised. She just shrugged her shoulders. "It wasn't going to work."

Exactly. It wasn't going to work. Neither would whatever "we" had. That's why I had to take out of my head this idea of getting up, sitting next to her, and maybe telling her, her hair had moved slightly, and I would fix it with my fingers, and then, maybe being that close, the idea of kissing each other wouldn't sound so crazy…

Nakuru arrived when Tomoyo had already left. There was no trace of her presence, so I didn't have to listen to my mom asking me why I was alone with a girl, and I could avoid the uncomfortable talk about the bees and the flowers.

Yet, at my bedroom, where I locked myself that night, saying I wasn't hungry, everything said Daidouji Tomoyo.

March came and I was still torturing myself with that memory. I was running out of days to buy that White Day present, and I still had no idea what to buy for her. Asking my mom was definitely not going to happen. She would ask a hundred questions: who she was, what type of relationship I had with her, which werte my intentions with the girl. And knowing the way my mom's brain works, everything would end in an awkward conversation about us using protection, and her blessing for getting married and having kids, of course, in twenty years or more.

So, I did what I never thought I would do. I asked Sakura for help.

"A White Day gift?" She asked me, when I stopped her at a school hallway, before leaving for home.

"It's for a friend." I hurried to clarify.

"Have you thought of gifting her with an accessory she can wear daily?"

"I already gifted her a diadem." I replied, but soon regretted it. Sakura looked at me. A look that told me she was already suspicious of who we were talking, and worse, that it wasn't just a friend.

Pretending I didn't say anything weird, I left her think about it a bit more.

"Well… Then your second best option is something she can only wear on special occasions. A necklace, maybe a purse…"

"That sounds expensive." I whispered, but Sakura heard me perfectly.

"Well, when you have the best intentions, even a ribbon would suffice."

"Thanks." I said. Sakura said 'you're welcome', and before Li Syaoran saw me talking with his girlfriend, I rushed out of school.

I was running out of days, and with these new fresh ideas in my head, I thought my best option was to look around the mall, trying to find something that could adjust to what Sakura had just told me.

When I arrived at school that morning, one of the few empty desks was right behind Tomoyo. I guessed they had already become our fixed places, and without saying hi to anyone else (as usual), I walked towards the desk, where I hurried to place my backpack in the desk behind her.

"Morning." I said to Tomoyo.

I wanted to give her my gift at that exact moment, and I wanted her to open it right away. But knowing the rest of the class could see us, made me nervous, and embarrassed. So, instead of that, I decided it was best to pretend I had totally forgotten about it, and give her my present until we were done with the classes of the day.

"Morning." Tomoyo replied, unaware of my plan.

I kept on pretending today wasn't special during lunch break. As we walked downstairs to have lunch with Sakura and Syaoran, we could see some other couples exchanging gifts. We even saw how Syaoran gifted Sakura a white gold bracelet (which made me wonder how much money did the Li had) as Tomoyo kept on saying Sakura the bracelet was utterly beautiful and stunning, and I pretended my rice was the most amazing thing in the world.

When the bell rung indicating classes were over, I supposed that, as every other day, Tomoyo and I would take our time, letting the rest of the class to pack their stuff and leave first, before even standing up from our desks.

My mistake.

It seemed my indifference had hurt her feelings, and even before any other classmate had finished closing their backpacks, she had already stood up and left the classroom.

Dammit.

I pushed everything inside my backpack in a rush, I hurried to close it, stood up (my chair fell to the ground, and I had to lose five seconds in picking it up and apologizing for the mess), and started running.

I could see her long hair wave when she turned at the corner, heading downstairs. I ran even faster. Damn, she was fast.

"Tomoyo!" was all I could say when I finally caught her at the locker area. "Why didn't you wait for me?"

She pouted, and thinking about what she was about to say, she finally replied:

"I didn't think you'd mind."

"Of course I do mind!" I said, trying not to get offended, since it seems my prank had hurt her more than I expected. "How am I supposed to gift you my White Day present if you leave without me?"

She looked at me, totally perplexed. Her eyes were wide open, and even her mouth was now shaped in a tiny "o", making her look totally adorable.

"Why didn't you say so!?" She cried, trying to calm down her emotions. I had no idea if she was going to cry for real, or she was going to laugh.

"Ah, well, you see… I didn't want the rest of the class, to, you know… Make the wrong idea of it… That would hint you gave me chocolate, and I…"

"You wouldn't have to deal with any of that if you had just wrote me a note." She said, as she placed her hands on her hips, and looked at me, pretending to scold me. "Paper's white, you know? I would've be satisfied with just a note. Especially considering I recycled my chocolate with you."

I giggled. Yeah, it was recycled chocolate since she had gifted me already gifted chocolate, but, even if she was totally honest with having enough with just a note, I felt she deserved a real gift."

"Anyway, I'm not planning to give it to you right here, right now." I finally said, doing my best not to blush. "So, what do you say if we go grab some coffee first?"

We ended at the usual coffee shop near Penguin Park, each of us with a cup of warm coffee. Since this time we didn't had 4 pounds of chocolate to share, each of us bought a blueberry muffin.

I leaned over my backpack to pick the present. I then left the tiny box (white, of course) on top of the table, and waited. Tomoyo looked at it, but to be honest, she barely payed attention to it. She was actually looking at me, as if she just couldn't believe I had actually bought her something.

I had spent almost all my allowance on it, so I really hoped she liked it.

"Can I open it?" She asked in a whisper. I nodded as I smiled.

She took the box, with both hands, admiring it for a whole minute, until she finally opened it.

"Oh…" was the first thing she could say. She caressed it with a finger, but didn't take it out of the box, and looked at me again. "Eriol, this is gorgeous. Where did you get this?"

"An antique shop." I replied, as i felt the happiness expanding in my chest. "Do you like it?"

"I love it!" She said in a squeaky voice, and caressed it again. "Can I wear it?"

I nodded once again, and she finally took it out of the box.

It was a hair pin. I know I had already gifted her a diadem on Christmas, but after thinking about how her hair was utterly beautiful, I couldn't help but to conclude she really took care of it, and so I thought a hair pin would be a nice addition to her hair accessory collection.

But it wasn't any hair pin. It had the shape of a white dove. A peace dove. Slightly chubby, with both its wings spread, as if the bird was in mid-flight. In its beak, instead of an olive branch, the bird held a single white rose.

Tomoyo had her hair in a pony tail that day. She hurried to let it lose, and after fixing it a bit with her fingers, she placed the hair pin on her left side, letting the rest of her hair to fall down her right shoulder.

"It looks really good on you." Was all I could say. She obviously looked beautiful, adorable, stunning, but I just couldn't say that. So, doing my best to not say something stupid, I hurried and drank a sip of coffee.

"Thanks." She replied. "It's really pretty. This has definitely raised the standard of what I will gift you in your birthday, you know."

"What?" I said. "You don't even know when's my…"

"Of course I know!" She hurried to interrupt me. "Don't you remember? When we first became friends in middle school, Sakura asked us both, and you replied March 23rd. So, that leaves me with only nine days to plan something…"

I left her keep on talking, thinking out loud, while I couldn't help but think I what she had just said. Yeah, she was right. When we first met, Sakura asked us both. During that time, I replied not expecting much. And to be honest, that was exactly what happened: nothing. At October, when Tomoyo's counter didn't change, and we stopped being friends, I took my chance and went back to my lonely bubble, and that's how I ended up asking Sakura not to celebrate my birthday. Gifts included. She had no other way but to accept my petition, and that's how these past three years I had even forgotten about it.

"I don't need a gift." I said, but Tomoyo pouted.

"I wasn't asking." She replied, pretending to be mad at me. "That's why it's called a gift. Anyway, I'm going to give you something on your birthday, so I think the least you can do is to give me ideas to gift you something you will actually like, or find useful."

We kept on arguing for the next fifteen minutes. I didn't want to cooperate with that plan, and Tomoyo wasn't going to give up, so in the end, I pretended to let her win, and thus we spent another fifteen minutes with her asking me tons of questions about what I would and what I wouldn't like to receive on my seventeenth birthday.

In the end, I gave her some options, and even said some stuff I would definitely dislike; Tomoyo seemed more than satisfied with this, and finally all the questioning came to an end. I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, since it meant it was time to go home. At least I could walk her to her place.

We both hung our backpacks on our shoulders, and walked out of the coffee shop.

The usual route, the usual casual conversation. Nothing new, and yet, I couldn't help but feel different. When we finally reached the enormous black gate, we turned to look at each other, one last time. Usually, this was the time were we would say goodbye, see you tomorrow at school, and that was it. But this time, Tomoyo jumped over me, and hugged me firmly. I wanted to do the same, but I reacted too late, and when I was just about to hold her, she had already moved away.

"Thank you, really, thank you so much for this gift." She insisted. "I'll make sure to make it up to you with your birthday present. I promise."

And with this, we finally said goodbye.

I had an anxiety attack during almost all week. One part of me wanted to really get hyped about anything Tomoyo would gift me, and the other part of me wanted to be chill about it and get prepared for something that would not be that special and would only symbolize our friendship and wouldn't have any deeper meaning.

March 21st came. Mom woke me up with the aroma of my favorite breakfast floating around the house (shrimp and green onion pancakes, and miso soup), and after giving me a hug, I ate it all, and headed towards school.

"Don't run away." Tomoyo said as greeting, that morning, as I sat behind her. "I'll give you your gift after school."

And my anxiety came back.

We walked downstairs together, towards the locker area, and after changing our shoes back, we walked out of school, along downtown, and finally made it to the coffee shop. As soon as we sat, a waitress brought us two coffees and a tiny chocolate cake.

"You had this planned?" I asked, as I saw how the waitress left us a knife to cut the cake, some plates, and walked away, leaving us alone.

Tomoyo shrug her shoulders.

"After these three years I thought it would demand too much from you to actually throw a party, but you at least have to have cake. It's tradition, right? Come on. "And she pointed to the lonely candle that stood on top of the cake. "Make a wish."

A wild, selfish thought crossed my mind.

I wish for Tomoyo to like me as much as I like her. Like? Was that the word I wanted to use? Wouldn't it be better to ask for her to love me? No, that was too much. Especially considering not even I was sure if what I felt for her was actually love. Maybe I just had a crush, a similar crush to Sakura…

"Eriol?"

I blew the candle out. I wished for me to like her gift.

We first ate the cake. It was delicious. It was a chocolate bomb, but even how sickly sweet that might sound (chocolate sponge cake with chocolate syrup and chocolate frosting), it was actually really good, and since we were drinking a strong coffee, it tasted even better.

I was thinking if I could handle another slice, without dying of diabetes, when Tomoyo took the rest of the cake, and pushed it aside, to make room for that tiny box. My birthday gift.

"Can I open it?" I asked, as she offered it to me. She nodded, all smiley, so I took it, and hurried to open it.

It was a keychain. The type to have a tiny hook so you could hang it from your backpack, or your clothes. It also had a long lanyard, so I could hang it from my neck. The lanyard was blue, while the hook was black, and hanging from there, there was a tiny keychain in the shape of a sun.

"So your keys won't fall again." She said, visibly amused. I couldn't help but giggle.

But then, another thought came to my mind. If my keys hadn't fall that afternoon, if I hadn't reach down to grab them… Maybe she would've kissed me.

Hello y'all! Just two more chapters and we're done. Hope you've been enjoying so far ^^

Ribo~