The thunder could be heard ripping through the heavy clouds that noon, and I just watched it amazed from the window of my new home.
But not 'permanent home' Sasha had reminded me a couple of times now, though I think she was only joking about that.
Still, I watched the sky get dark and gray from the very heavy clouds and I felt worry in my heart and core for my Barbie.
She had been gone now for an hour, and my heart was thudding as fast as a butterfly from fear and anxiety that she had not come back yet.
"I have to go find her," I finally told the woman and girl, Gloria creasing her eyebrows in concern whereas Sasha just gave a mean smirk.
"She probably wants to be alone-" Gloria began to say but I cut her off as I said.
"I know my Barbie, she loves company all the time!"
"Then you don't really know your Barbie very well," Sasha said coldly to me and I frowned.
"I do," I said back simply with truth and strength in my words that the tween girl wavered back from, surprised by the authority I had just prohibited.
I went to the door and turned the knob, stepping back out to the now dull gloomy suburb.
"I'll look for her too," Gloria proclaimed, picking up her car keys, throwing them up and down in her tanned hand before grasping them tightly and following me out, "You take uptown and I'll do downtown."
"Right," I agreed, nodding my head instantly and the two of us started our searches, going opposite directions to one another.
I walked in quiet slow steps as I passed through the suburb back into the city. There were tropical palm trees every few feet, planted into big stone boxes, giving shade from the worrying heavy clouds ahead.
I knew I was meant to be searching for Barbie, but this city really was something. It was amazing.
I tensed up when I heard another rumble of thunder all around the city and I bit my lip in fear till I saw a bus stop just up ahead with only one other person waiting there.
I ran it with all my speed to get undercover, the memory of the last thunderstorm I had been in, running quickly through my memory.
I ducked for cover under the bus stop's seated area and sat down on the bench, giving out a big relieved sigh.
I turned my eyes to the girl at my side and froze up in surprise when I saw who it was.
Barbie!
My Barbie waiting there and I hadn't even known.
She was just staring straight ahead into the gray dull ground and I gulped a little worried as I uttered to her.
"Barbie?"
She seemed to stiffen at my voice, her blue eyes glancing at me quickly before back at the ground.
"How did you find me?"
"Er…?" I said to her, not knowing what to say, "I don't know. Fate, I guess?"
Her lips tightened as I said this, the smallest and weakest of smiles going barely up her lips.
"Fate, hmm?" She murmured to me, looking my way again with that twinkle in her big blue eyes, "Maybe it is…"
That second, the clouds tore about with fierce power and within moments later, rain began to lash down heavily all around us, but it was okay because we were protected from the plastic roof of the bus stop.
I looked at Barbie again then, before seeing her just gaze onward to the heavy rain. I frowned sadly that second, before also turning my eyes up ahead and watching the downpour in silence with her.
"Y'know," Barbie said then, but her voice was so quiet and empty at that moment, "I was going to wait here and see what bus would come, and just get on whichever I could."
I blinked my eyes hard, stunned by what she had admitted.
"Why?" I asked in a hushed voice and she turned her head slightly back in my direction as she said.
"Because it hurts,"
"What does?"
"Being human, how I now feel… it hurts,"
"What's hurting you?" I asked on fast, placing my hand suddenly on her forehead, looking to feel a temperature, but felt no worrying heat so I was even more concerned, "Do you have a belly bug or something?"
She looked at me silently for that minute, before bursting into a sore laugh and shook her head quickly.
"YOU are what is hurting me,"
I pulled away from her when she said these words, touching my chest as my heart hurt deep down from what she had just said.
"How..?" I whispered, my eyebrows creasing in my brow, and she gave me such a warm gentle smile, I was even more perplexed.
"Because, before in Barbie World, I felt nothing for you… but being a human," She swallowed a sad gulp as she told me the truth, "Humans are more complicated than dolls… and my heart, it's finally feeling something…"
"For me, right?" I added on fast and she chuckled gently as she nodded her head.
"Yes, for you… WHY for you? I honestly just don't know,"
I wanted to scream at her then, fate, destiny! That she was a Barbie and I was her Ken.
Why couldn't she open her eyes and realize this?
"It's only natural," I said on nervously, clearing my throat to try not come on too keen, "You see, humans have feelings, like attractions," I coughed awkwardly when I said this, "At least, that's what the internet told me."
She laughed again, her hand being placed on mine and I think that was done by accident as when we touched we both winced and pulled our hands away quickly.
"You're so warm," Barbie uttered to me, smiling shyly up one side of her lips.
"You mean, I'm so hot." I said back to her instantly and she smirked at my words, "Just like you are so hot? Like me, right?"
"Right," She laughed now, falling a little bit more into hysterics and I laughed goofily with her.
That second the sound of a heavy vehicle could be heard approaching us in the distance.
We both leaned forward to see what it was and both our eyes widened when it turned out to be a bus.
I looked at Barbie, and she looked quietly back at me as the bus pulled up next to us, splashing some water on us from the puddle that had gathered at the curb.
Barbie looked then silently at it, and slowly began to get up but turned to look back at me, and she saw the clear devastation in my face.
The bus door slid open and she pressed her hand to the wall of the bus, about to step in, but didn't.
She turned around and walked back over to me, my eyes widening at this action.
The bus pulled away and continued on its journey as Barbie sat down beside me again and placed her hand on my hand. She smiled gently my way and squeezed mine in hers.
"I can wait,"
I slowly blew up into a big gleam at her words.
"Really?" I asked in a happy beam and she nodded her head, adding.
"I didn't have any money for the bus, anyway,"
"HA!" I only laughed back at her then, "Me neither!"
We both fell into soft chuckles but when the sound of lightning striking through the clouds hit our ears, we clung to each other terrified at the chance of it hitting us too.
We turned to look at each other with our scared eyes before Barbie instantly ripped away from me again, giving a nervous smile as she laughed an awkward giggle.
"The likely hood of us getting hit-"
"Oh no, no, no," I corrected her before she could finish, "I thought that getting hit by lightning too was nearly statistically impossible, but I was wrong before and I don't want to be wrong again."
Barbie crinkled her eyes shut with a sweet amused smile going up her lips.
"Okay, Ken, okay…"
Our hands touched again without us trying and I squeezed hers back as we watched the shower of rain pour down before us.
We waited under there another twenty minutes, waiting for it to stop but it was not relenting at all.
Finally, we heard a beep as Gloria's car pulled up next to us and we glanced at each other quickly, seeming to have the same idea.
We rushed into the car. I took the back seat and Barbie the front next to Gloria behind the wheel.
Gloria's screen shield wipers were working overtime trying to keep the rain off the glass and she pulled back out to the road, driving the direction back to her house.
"So, you found her?" Gloria asked me with a big gleam on her face and I smiled back nervously, catching a glance at Barbie who looked back at me from the passenger seat upper mirror.
She had a happy glimmer in her eyes, showing she was safe and warm in her expression, the smallest of a blush skimming her cheeks.
"Yeah," She said back to Gloria, looking shyly away from me again, "He did,"
"I did?" I added, grinning happily myself, "I mean, of course, I would! It's not that hard finding someone in a city of millions,"
"Yeah," Gloria mused at me, "Like finding a needle in a haystack?"
"Exactly!" I concurred, "Easy peasy!"
The three of us laughed at this but I was still confused as I asked in chuckles, "Why are we laughing?"
Gloria and Barbie only laughed harder at this before Gloria nudged Barbie, saying to her.
"He's a keeper,"
Barbie only laughed back at this, looking at me again from the mirror with happy eyes on her.
"Yeah… he just might be…"
Just MIGHT BE?!
That was better than nothing and I grabbed at the chance as I said back to her with the biggest of gleams.
"I. Am."
The two laughed some more, I did too. But I knew that even though she was hiding it, Barbie was taking me seriously enough.
She knew I didn't do backhanded comments or irony with the words I spoke.
No.
I always spoke from the heart and from the truth that was my own.
"Maybe…" Barbie said with cheeky eyes and after another five minutes, we were back at our new home.
Barbie and Gloria rushed out the very second they could, running through the rain and into the house.
I, however, waited in the car for a few moments, thinking to myself why my body was feeling this weird particular way.
Like there were actual butterflies in my stomach, my heart fluttering as well at the same time.
Being with Barbie in this new world was all so fascinating and different.
Freeing and the feeling of just being alive.
It was wonderful! It was amazing! It was just… magic.
I slowly pushed open my door, looking at the front door of the house as it swayed from side to side, waiting for me to enter it and come back inside and home.
I got out of the car, closing its door first before walking over to the house's own and entering in, creaking the door shut softly as I blocked the sight and noise of the harsh rain outside, now home.
~x~
That night I actually let myself sleep this time but I still woke up at around six in the morning.
I remained so very still in my bed, listening to the creepy silence of a house in slumber.
I chewed my bottom lip a little, thinking a little in my half-awake brain.
How I'd love to be with Barbie right now…
I slowly got up at that thought I'd just had and walked out of my room to the closed door of hers in the hallway.
I gave it a nervous tap, and when there was no answer, I pushed it open just slightly.
There she was… sleeping there in complete peace and I knew I shouldn't intrude, she just looked so peaceful.
I smiled warmly as I shut the door and went back to my own room.
I lay there silently for a few minutes more when I heard a small tap on my own door, and I leaned up, seeing who it was.
"Who's there?" I asked quickly but froze when I saw it was Barbie at the door, creaking it open and peeking her head through.
"Ken…" She whispered softly to me and I nodded my head fast, completely alert now, "Can I…"
I was more than just frozen that minute. I was like solid ice.
"Can I sleep with you tonight..?"
I had no words. I couldn't even form them if I tried. I just instantly nodded my head several times and she smiled amused, coming in and snuggling beside me in the bed.
"I…"
I finally got the strength and courage to speak.
"I love you, Barbie…"
But she never heard, as she had fallen asleep in my arms and I only stared up ahead as I whispered the words she would never say.
"I love you too, Ken,"
Words never back to me.
"I love you too…"
Maybe one day she would… but tonight, she was unconscious and asleep.
So maybe tomorrow she would? Or the next day? I was hopelessly optimistic about it, and I was fine with that.
She would say it to me someday.
And nothing would hopefully get in the way.
But I think I spoke too soon.