Chapter Ten

So Lately I’ve Been Meaning To Say A Few Things To You
(She Gets All The Good Attention and I Get Honored With The Mention)

“I need you to get out of my head, now.”

Oh wait, introduction first. Right…right…well, how about this for an introduction?

Wise men say only fools rush in; wiser men say red-headed girls better run pretty damn fast.

“What?”

“No seriously, I need you and your voice out of my head before I do something else completely stupid,” I elaborated while (melodramatically) falling on top of lavender sheets. As you should have expected by now, I went straight over to Kairi’s after leaving Axel and Demyx’s place.

“You know, I don’t think it’s very fair that you’re blaming all of your stupid things on me.” Kairi sat on the bed next to me and raised an eyebrow. “Besides, whatever you’re talking about can’t be that bad. I mean you’re still breathing and all of your hair’s intact.”

It’s logic like that that reminds me why we’re friends really.

“I’m talking about how I pretty much just surrendered to being the girl in the relationship.”

“…yeah, still not following babe.”

“I wanted to get him something simple like a DVD but no, ‘don’t buy him something generic’ she said. ‘That’s not allowed’ she said. Do you know what I ended up doing instead?”

“No but you’re going to tell me anyway so I’ll know soon enough. What did you end up doing instead?”

“I made him cookies.”

Silence. That’s all it was, absolute pure silence between Kairi and I as she absorbed what I had just said and I waited for her to respond. It was almost like a staring contest between the two of us, that’s how intense things were. Kairi’s eyes narrowed a bit and her lips pursed in thought as she continued staring me down.

And then…she started giggling. A lot.

“Roxas! That’s so cute!” she practically gushed. “Like, no you have no idea how adorable that is.”

“Yes. Yes I do and that’s the problem. I wasn’t trying to be adorable, I was just trying to be semi-decent!” I argued my point but I could already tell it didn’t matter anyway.

“Oh whatever you can be both that way. So what’d he say, did he at least like them?”

“He said they tasted pretty good and then he went to grab my present. Which, by the way, is why I feel completely stupid.” Producing the CD from my pocket and dropping it on Kairi’s lap I finally sat up to my full height. “How come he was allowed to give me something generic? Oh I don’t know, maybe because his conscience isn’t a 17-year-old girl?” Picking up the CD and turning it around in her hands, Kairi opened it and allowed her gaze to wander over the album art.

“This is the band that you guys went to see for your birthday right?”

“Yeah. He thought I might as well have the whole CD to listen to their other songs and add to my disc collection. Or something like that.”

“…okay seriously, how clueless are you?”

“What?”

“No really, how do you not get it?”

“Get what?”

“He gave you this specific CD for a reason, bonehead. He’s hoping that every time you listen to it now you’ll think of him,” Kairi explained as she handed me the CD and got off of her bed, wandering out of the room.

“You don’t really expect me to believe that do you?” I quickly followed her down the stairs, shoving the CD back into my pocket.

“Even if you don’t, you should. That’s just common knowledge, Roxas.”

“…yeah speaking of common knowledge, guess what? Sora knows something’s going on.”

“What do you mean Sora knows?”

“I don’t know, he was all ‘I’m not dumb, I know you’ve been seeing someone.’ Funny thing is, he thinks it’s a girl.” Heading into the kitchen and swiping a candy cane from the counter I re-entered the living room and sat next to Kairi on the couch.

“Doesn’t surprise me. You’ve kind of led him on to believe that you’re straight.”

“Either way. What do I do? I can’t keep lying to him about seeing somebody since he’s already suspicious. And I didn’t exactly deny it either so that just makes it worse. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”

“I have an idea.”

“Oh? Shoot,” I said, unwrapping the candy cane and proceeding to, as Demyx puts it, orally fuck it with my tongue.

“Why don’t you just tell him about Axel?”

“…now see, that would be the easy thing to do. That would also be the dumb thing to do. Are you kidding me, Kai? It’s not Sora’s business anyway.”

“I don’t get you. You have no problem with telling me. You have no problem with telling Hayner, of all people. But you can’t tell your own cousin? Roxas Sora’s not going to care! The worst that can happen is he’ll offer you anal sex advice.”

“…gross.”

“I’m just saying,” Kairi rolled her eyes and removed the candy cane from my mouth, breaking it in half. “I don’t understand what you have against telling anybody else but especially Sora.” Sticking half of the candy cane in her own mouth she leaned back and looked at me.

Honestly, Kairi and I could go in circles arguing about this. We have gone in circles arguing about this same subject, ever since I first told her in fact. I wasn’t dumb; I knew what she was saying made sense and I knew that she was right. Sora wouldn’t care, Sora would be happy for me. Sora, Sora, Sora.

There was just something about the idea of telling Sora that struck me as uncomfortable.

“I know what you’re saying. And I don’t know, what do you really want me to do Kairi?”

“I want you to tell him. Talk to Sora over break and I bet you haven’t asked Axel about going out officially have you?”

“I am seriously going to stab you in the eye with this candy cane. Do you want me to stab you in the eye?”

“You stab me, I’ll stab you right back.” Smiling sweetly, Kairi got up and grabbed a package from under the Christmas tree. “But you haven’t have you?”

“Of course not, I kind of-”

“Had other priorities. Right.” Dropping the package in my lap she sat down again. “I’m done bugging you about it for now, you’re a big boy.”

“Thank you.”

“But you better do it soon before…I don’t know, he might think you just want it to be a casual thing. Do you want it to be a casual thing?”

“Of course not.”

“Then talk to him, dummy. Anyway Merry Christmas, I want you to open your present now.”

“…how did you just go from insulting me to giving me a present?” Raising an eyebrow I started tearing away the wrapping paper.

“Probably because I’m a girl.” Kairi shrugged and watched me intently. Ripping away the last of the snowflake-covered paper what I found myself holding appeared to be a leather-bound journal complete with lock and key.

“…you got me a diary?” I have to admit, out of all the weird presents Kairi has ever given me in my life, this was probably the strangest (and yes I’m counting the pink My Little Pony she gave me for my 10th birthday. Her name’s Buttercup and she lives on my windowsill. Shut up, she’s awesome.). I’m thinking it was only strange though because it was very simplistic and not pink and sparkly like most of her other random presents. Like the princess tiara she bought for my 16th birthday.

Again, shut up, it’s awesome.

“Well…sort of.”

“Sort of?” Unlocking the di-…journal, it was a journal, I flipped through the blank pages before closing it again. “Sure looks like a journal to me.”

“Well it is.”

“Then how is it sort of one?”

“Because, Roxas…you write so much music and you write so many lyrics and you write so many beautiful things that I want you to keep it all in one place. I want you to write something amazing and I want you to use this as an opportunity to discover yourself. You’re an artist, that’s what you people are supposed to do. I want you to write something that will show the world that you’re as talented and fascinating as I think you are.”

I didn’t say anything for a while, looking down at the journal again. Write something amazing…that’s all she wanted from me? Write something amazing.

“…you’re incredible, you know that?” Laying my head against hers and giving her a one-armed hug, I set the journal on the table in front of us.

“Incredible huh? I’ve heard, but why mention it now?” she asked.

“Having that much faith in me and my writing. I don’t think I’d have that much faith in me if I were you.”

“Good thing you’re not me, huh?”

“Extremely good thing.” Nodding in agreement, Kairi curled up against my side and both of us kept our eyes trained on the journal. We sat in silence again, pretty much just enjoying each other’s company and thinking about what had just happened. It was…comfortable and I think it was at that point that I really realized how lucky I was to have her. Even if she did occasionally screw me over, I wouldn’t trade her.

Good thing I didn’t have to actually verbalize that though, I think I’d die of humiliation.

“So…now that we’ve made things sufficiently awkward did you want to open your present or not?” I sat up a bit and shifted next to her.

“We’re not awkward, you know you love me. But yes, I do.” Getting up from the couch and looking under her tree, Kairi pulled out the gift bag I had set under her tree earlier that week.

“I’m surprised you haven’t opened it already.”

“Oh give me some credit, Rox. We always open presents Christmas Eve, never earlier.” She rolled her eyes and tore the tissue paper out of the bag only to practically squeal right into my ear. “Roxas! So many colors!”

…I probably was asking for it when I bought her a MAC makeup eye shadow set. I mean really.

…and I was probably asking for it for even knowing the difference between MAC and the stuff they sell at the grocery store.

“Yeah, you’re welcome. I kind of figured you’d like something girly this time around.”

“So many colors,” she repeated, opening the make-up container and looking at the different patches of eye shadow. “Best thing ever.”

“I try.”

“You succeed.” Leaning over, she kissed my cheek and ruffled my hair a bit. “Merry Christmas babe.”

“Same.” Reaching into my pocket and pulling out my phone, I checked the time and pulled away from her. “Sorry to just run out on you like this, I gotta get going though. Mom and Aunt Seiya are dragging me and Sora to church tonight for Christmas service before the Masakis come over for dinner.”

“You mean dragging you. Sora kind of just goes willingly.”

“Point being, I gotta go.” Getting off of the couch, the two of us headed out of the living room and toward the front door.

“Will I see you over break or are you over in Twilight Town the rest of it?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t even know when we’re heading over there, I’ll let you know. I also told Axel I’d hang out with him over break.”

“Ooh, busy man. Just remember what you promised me.”

“About talking to them?”

“Yes.” Staring me in the eyes, she placed her hands on my shoulders. “You’re going to talk to Sora and you’re going to talk to Axel. Soon. Got it?”

“Got it. I’ll let you know how it all goes.” Pulling her hands off of me and opening the front door, I waved and stepped outside of the house. “If I don’t see you over break I’ll call you while we’re in Twilight Town.”

“Sounds good. See you later!” Waving back, she shut the front door and I got back in my car, heading back to my house and not looking forward to fulfilling those promises.

“Hello?” Walking into my house I stuffed my keys into my pocket and checked to see if anyone else was home.

“Hey!” Walking toward the living room I found Sora sitting on the couch dressed in black slacks and a dark red dress shirt, busy fiddling with his neck tie.

“You’re ready early,” I commented, flopping down on the couch next to him. He finished up with his tie and shrugged.

“Not really, we’re leaving in like an hour.”

“Where’d the adults go?”

“Last minute shopping for dinner with the Masakis. Oh hey, you got something in the mail today by the way.” Sora picked up a red envelope from the coffee table and dropped it into my lap. I didn’t even have to look at the return address to see whom it was from. Tearing open the envelope, I sat back against the couch and cleared my throat.

“Merry Christmas, Roxas. I wasn’t sure what you’d like. From, your father, Michael.” Finishing my dramatic reading, I pocketed the $20 that came from inside and tossed the card on the table. “Seriously, he always signs cards like he needs to remind me he’s my father.”

“At least he sent it on time this year?” Sora added, plucking the card up from the table again and reading it himself.

“I guess that’s one way to look at it. Oh well. Now I have lunch money for when we get back.”

“Or for when we go to Twilight Town. Which, by the way, I advise you start packing for. Mom said we’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

“What?”

“Yeah, change in plans. Staying for the whole week, coming home New Year’s Day.”

“Isn’t that almost our entire break?”

“Yes.”

“…damn. I mean not that I don’t love Twilight Town but really, the rest of break?”

“The rest of break. It’ll be fun.” Sora threw the card back onto the table and yawned slightly. “Being dressed up makes me sleepy.”

“That doesn’t make any sense you know.”

“No. No it does not. But go get dressed and go pack, Mom and Aunt Kia are going to be home soon and we have to be at church after that.” Sora waved me off and grabbed the remote for the TV, laying his head on the arm of the couch and stretching out, kicking me out of my spot in the process.

“All right, I’m going.” I got up from my spot and headed upstairs, ignoring the loud sounds of Rudolph playing from the TV.

I’ll spare you the details and sum up the rest of my Christmas Eve in one sentence. Church was boring and dinner with the Masakis was okay but nothing new. Same thing every year; Mom, Aunt Seiya, Ayumi, and Seto (Riku’s dad, in case you didn’t figure that part out) sat in the living room catching up on everything and Sora, Riku, and I were upstairs in Sora’s room playing the Playstation and well, those two were having fun being all couple-y and I had to sit through it.

It was kind of gross.

The next morning, the four of us (as in Mom, Aunt Seiya, Sora, and me) got up early and started packing Aunt Seiya’s SUV to head out to Twilight Town, including all of our presents. We never opened our presents before we saw our family.

The drive there was pretty uneventful. I’m pretty sure Sora and I both slept the entire way there; I mean come on we were driving at eight in the morning to a town four hours away. By the time we got there though we were more than ready to get out of the SUV. Sora and I jumped out of the backseat and grabbed our bags before racing to the front door and wrenching it open…

…and promptly crashing into the blond who was just about to step out of the house.

“…hey Uncle Cloud,” Sora and I said simultaneously, each flashing our most charming grins up at him. He merely raised an eyebrow at the both of us before nodding in acknowledgment and heading outside to help our moms unload the rest of the car.

Cloud’s our moms’ baby brother. He’s only a couple of years older than Sora and I, like 23 or 24 or something like that. We usually get away with just calling him Cloud. He doesn’t see the point in us calling him uncle.

“I hear fun-people voices!” A different male voice announced from inside the house.

“Uncle Zack!” Sora and I ran inside and were instantly tackled by a dark-haired man.

Zack, unlike Cloud, really wasn’t our uncle. He’s actually Cloud’s best friend from childhood, so we’ve known him for just as long as we’ve known Cloud. They’re living together now, along with “Aunt” Tifa and “Aunt” Aerith. So really, coming to visit wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Hey kiddos!” Zack ruffled our hair and sat up from his seat on the ground. “We were beginning to wonder if you guys got lost, Tifa and Aerith are just finishing up lunch and your grandparents are already here. Plus like, we couldn’t open presents until you guys got here.”

“Well we’re here now. Let’s open presents!” Sora bounced up from the ground, pulling Zack and I with him.

“Screw that, let’s eat. I’m starving,” I interrupted, already heading further into the house.

“Or,” my mom cut me off, coming up behind us carrying her suitcase and a big bag of presents. “You can help us carrying everything else inside.”

“That’s an option t-ow! Mom!” Sora yelped as Aunt Seiya tossed another bag of presents at him, smashing him in the stomach.

“Guess we don’t get a choice, huh Sora?” Grabbing the bag my mom was carrying and brushing past Zack we all headed inside to say hello to our grandparents, along with Tifa and Aerith.

Those two are also childhood friends of Cloud and Zack. We’ve never bothered asking why all four of them live together (or who’s dating who for that matter), it’s always just been an acceptable thing ever since Cloud moved out of Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Besides, they’ve been a part of our lives for about as long as Cloud and Zack have been. I mean really, I remember one summer when Sora and I were like nine, we had to go up to Grandma and ask her why Uncle Cloud was wearing a pink dress and why Aerith was chasing him with a pair of high heels while Tifa was trying to attack him with a purse and Zack was taking photos. Grandma just patted our heads and explained that one day we’d probably be that crazy too before tossing Tifa a pair of gloves to go with Cloud’s new purse.

Welcome to my patch-work and slightly dysfunctional family.

Meals with my mom’s side of the family were always…well, chaotic. You have Zack and Sora who’re too busy talking to each other and eating that you couldn’t tell who was telling what stupid story and whose mouth that piece of bread just came flying out of. You also have Tifa, Aerith, Aunt Seiya, and my mom racing in and out of the kitchen with food and plates and refills and lots of female chatter I didn’t care about.

Lots of loud female chatter.

Add into that Grandpa reprimanding Cloud for not having a better job than being a delivery boy, Cloud just staring at him wordlessly while Grandpa waved his fork around, causing people around him to duck so they didn’t get stabbed. Oh and to top it off, Grandma was busy piling food onto our plates because apparently, Sora and I are “far too skinny for boys our age”. In the meantime she was giving us the same spiel she did every holiday (“Oh Sora, I knew you’d do well in school this semester! I can’t wait to hear what the universities think!” and my personal favorite, “Roxas honey, I wish you would do something different with your hair.” I’m completely serious). But then she’d make up for it by asking us about our band and what kind of new music we were working on.

My Grandma’s pretty cool I guess. She came to one of our shows last year.

Even more chaotic than the meals were the gift exchanges at Christmas. Just…so much wrapping paper and all of the boxes and bags and the ribbon and bows. It gets thrown everywhere and somehow every year I end up with a purple bow somewhere in my hair where I can’t reach it.

No really, who uses purple on a Christmas present?

I guess on the bright side we clean up pretty good at Christmas. We get presents from our moms, but we also get them from our grandparents, Cloud, Zack, Aerith, and Tifa too. And on top of that, Sora and I usually get cards with money or gift cards in them from our respective father figures’ parents.

But, they’re not very important to this story, because it’s my story about the people that are important in my life (Sora would beg to differ because he actually gets along really well with his dad’s parents, but this isn’t Sora’s story now is it?).

Anyway, that year seemed to be the year of college-appropriate gifts. All the stuff like clothes and well you know, boring stuff. Someone actually gave me a package of socks (I have a feeling it was my mom). Sora even got a blender from one of the girls for his dorm next year and he also got a toaster from whichever one didn’t give him the blender which was actually pretty cool but my favorite present?

Grandma and Grandpa loved me enough to buy me GarageBand 2 and the Voice Jam Pack that went with it. I could finally make music on my computer and I could mix it and sync it and…

…and you don’t care, I know.

And of course, as a joint present to me and Sora from Zack, we ended up with some video game called “Guitar Hero”. It had only been out for about a month but Zack swore up and down that we’d like it. I mean, it wasn’t like we couldn’t trust Zack’s judgment and besides we didn’t have very many multi-player video games anyway.

Naturally we were told if we wanted to live to see our 18th birthdays we had to go upstairs and try it out. That being said, Sora and I unplugged the PS2 that Cloud kept downstairs and hauled it (along with the rest of our loot) upstairs and into the bedroom we always shared when we stayed at the Strife house.

“I hate this game,” I announced and threw off my guitar controller, sinking down onto my bed.

“You’re just mad because you keep losing.” Sora grinned and switched the game to single career mode.

“Dude, it’s hard because there’s so much more to actually playing the guitar instead of hitting five stupid little buttons.”

“So what you’re saying is that you’re failing because it’s stupidly easy?”

“Yes!”

“…wow, Roxas. Nice excuse for the fact you suck,” Sora snickered and chose “Killer Queen” to play.

“Whatever. Speaking of sucking, what’d Riku get you for Christmas?”

“Hey, be nice. Unless you meant that as an innuendo, in which case, ew.”

“Yeah well either way. What’d he get you?”

“Hmm… new speakers for my computer sincemy old ones broke. And for our anniversary a paopu fruit charm for my phone and a doughnut maker.”

“…a doughnut maker?” I repeated, raising an eyebrow. Sora just nodded, focused on the flying notes on the screen.

“Yep. Something about now I don’t have to wake him up in the middle of the night for junk food.”

“That…is possibly the most random gift ever.”

“Yeah but I like it a lot anyway, even if I don’t get it until we get home.”

“Guess he didn’t get the memo about the fifth anniversary being the anniversary for wood huh?”

“…well actually he also gave me a very good fuck before we left.”

“God, Sora shut up!” I groaned, picking up a pillow and smashing it against his ass. He just laughed and shook his head.

“You should have been expecting that one by now actually.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I should have been expecting that,” I agreed, laying on my stomach and watching Sora play Guitar Hero.

“Besides, it’s kind of an obligation. As my cousin, I have to gross you out with details when you walk into it just like that. Besides, we’ve always shared everything with each other anyway, you know? I can’t imagine it any other way.” Sora continued pressing the fret buttons on the toy guitar.

I swear sometimes that boy could read my mind. It’s almost scary. Either that or he can pick up on Kairi-vibes as well as I can. No matter how he picked up on it, the fact remained that I had to talk to Sora and come clean to him before I drove myself insane.

“…hey Sora?”

“Yeah?”

“I need you to look at me.” He paused the game and turned around to face me, letting the guitar just hang from his shoulder.

“What’s up?”

“…I have something I need to tell you,” I started out slowly. It was Sora’s turn to raise an eyebrow and he sat on the bed next to my head, looking down at me.

“Oh? What is it?”

This was it.

“…this is hard for me to say. You can’t be mad at me, and you can’t tell anybody else okay?”

“O…kay? What’s going on, Rox?”

The moment of truth.

“I’ve been keeping this a secret for a while now…”

“…yeah...?”

“I….” This really shouldn’t have been as hard as it was.

“C’mon Roxas, what is it?”

But it was hard, very hard.

“…I’m the one who broke your speakers. Sorry, I should have told you when I actually did it instead of just stalling but I thought you’d probably get pissed off,” I quickly finished, barely looking up at him. The dark eyebrow rose higher and Sora blinked in confusion.

“…that’s it? Come on, you should know that that’s not a big deal. Hah, I thought this was going to be something serious. I mean yeah I’m kind of pissed that you broke them without telling me but Riku just bought me new ones so it’s cool, all is well and other stuff like that,” he said with a large grin, ruffling my hair and getting off of the bed.

“I guess so…” I trailed off, feeling even more like a failure than I started.

“Don’t sweat it, they’re speakers. I should have known better than to think you were keeping some huge secret from me.” Sora turned off the PS2 and took off the guitar controller. “C’mon, let’s go see if Uncle Zack will let us bury him in the snow.”

“…sure. Let’s go,” I agreed and got off the bed. Sora flashed another bright grin in my direction and bounded out of the room and down the stairs, already yelling for Zack.

And me? Well…what choice did I have but to follow him and pretend that I wasn’t a complete stalling chicken?

There was always another day, after all.

The funny thing about there always being another day is the fact that there’s also always another day after that…and after that…and even after that. Eventually, I ended up thinking about there always being another day all the way up until Monday morning first period after Christmas break on the second day of January. Generally I don’t procrastinate but with something as important as this? You can bet I procrastinated for as long as I possibly could. The problem with my procrastinating though was, of course, the disapproval I got from Kairi once she found out I hadn’t told Sora about Axel yet.

“Roxas! You had like, all week to tell him!” Was her exact phrasing actually.

“I know Kairi. But hey you have to give me some credit for trying all week. I just couldn’t do it okay?” I didn’t bother looking away from my layout page while this particular conversation was going on. I have a feeling I might have exploded upon eye contact, via Kairi’s glare.

“Why not though? I don’t get you Roxas, how is it that you can write all of these songs describing emotions and feelings and all of these words that hold significant meaning but you can’t even tell your own cousin that you’re…different?”

“I don’t know. It’s just…weird. And songs are different, those I have enough time to word and reword unlike life where if I say something stupid, I’m fucked. Besides what if Axel says no to the idea of dating officially? Then I’ll have told him for basically nothing.” As soon as the words left my mouth I immediately regretted it.

“…and you haven’t asked Axel yet? Roxas, what am I going to do with you, honestly!”

“Don’t yell at me! I don’t know okay? I’ll work something out, I promise. Just…give me a little more time.”

“You realize you’re running out of time right? You can’t keep doing this.”

“Kairi, just trust me okay? I promise you everything will turn out how I want it to, and on my own clock.” Lucky for me, I was saved by the bell before Kairi could continue to rant about the whole subject. Saving my work on the computer and grabbing my bag, I stood up from my chair and finally looked her in the eye. “Everything will be fine. Trust me.”

“…I just don’t want this turning out badly. I love you, you know that.”

“I know. It’ll work. I gotta go to class, I’ll see you third period okay?”

“Okay…” She sighed and walked away to grab her own things and I was out the door by the time she turned back to face me.

I mean yeah I felt bad that I was acting like this when Kairi was only trying to help but you’ve gotta admit, there’s only so much a guy can take before it starts to get overbearing and ridiculous. I already felt like I was going in circles as it was, I didn’t need Kairi to be the one dragging me in them. She didn’t mention it again during third period and things were relatively quiet among the group of us in that class.

And then…lunch time came.

“Okay so whatever plans you already had for this weekend need to be canceled!” Demyx announced, slamming both hands down on the table to get our attention.

“Everything?” Selphie barely looked up from her cell phone, punching in keys at a rapid pace to send a text to Tidus.

“Everything. Guys, my 19th’s this weekend and obviously you’re all invited.” Demyx was practically bouncing in his place, two rows of bright white teeth nearly blinding all of us.

“Oh, right!” Kairi cut in. “I didn’t realize it was this weekend.”

“Yeah, we’re holding it at our house, Friday night all the way through to Saturday morning,” Axel added as he sat down next to me and helped himself to my bag of Doritos.

“Unless your neighbors call the cops on us again for noise violations,” Riku snorted, but it was pretty clear that he was just as interested as the rest of us.

“Yeah whatever, the point is it’s going to be an awesome party and I kind of want to keep this one a little more low-key than the Halloween party, meaning only people we actually know this time. That’s still going to amount to a lot of people but it’s more like a private party kind of? Point is! Axel and I are going to need a little extra help throwing this all together,” Demyx explained, finally sitting down on the other side of Kairi and presenting her with a bag of Skittles.

“Thanks love.” She ended up rewarding him with a quick kiss. On the mouth.

It was still pretty weird seeing the two of them together as in, together-together. But hey whatever distracted her from me was fine by me.

“Well Kairi and I can take care of a cake for ya, Demy-kins!” Selphie decided to join the conversation and tucked her phone into her pocket, giving Demyx her full attention.

“And we can provide the live music and DJ the rest of the music,” Sora volunteered.

“Roxas and I can handle handing out invitations, right Rox?” Axel draped an arm around my shoulder and looked at me with a quirked eyebrow, a smug little grin on his face.

“Uh, yeah! Yeah we can do that as long as we already have them all ready to hand out and stuff.” I nodded in agreement, trying to focus on what I was saying and not on Axel’s fingers resting oh-so-casually on my clavicle.

Bastard.

“Cool I can give those to you tomorrow. Anyway, I think besides that Axel and I can handle the rest of it. Oh unless you want to bring some of your amazing punch for me to spike, Sora.”

“I’m all over that.” Sora pulled a pen out of his bag and wrote the word “punch” on the back of his hand, turning and drawing a heart on Riku’s hand as well.

“…you’re really weird babe.” Riku shook his head and took the pen from Sora’s hand, drawing a heart on his cheek.

Now see that? That was stuff I was used to. It didn’t bother me that Sora and Riku were busy with a pen-fight. It was starting to bother me less that Kairi was busy throwing Skittles trying to land them in Demyx’s mouth. And it was bothering me even less that Selphie had gone back to texting Tidus who was…well, who knows where the hell he was?

But no. What bothered me was the fact that Axel’s arm was still around my shoulder and he was drumming out a pattern on my collarbone.

It bothered me even more that we were the only two at our table at the moment who weren’t dating anybody, much less each other. Kind of put a damper on things if you asked me.

“Hey Dem, wouldn’t it just be easier if we had your computer playing music instead of us? Considering like, it’s your birthday and all? You shouldn’t be providing entertainment on your own birthday, save that for when we actually get famous and have no choice.” Demyx looked at me, flinching a bit as a Skittle bounced off of the side of his head.

“Yeah I guess that’d make enough sense. Besides I doubt you want to cart your bass and Sora’s drums over to my place anyway.”

“Exactly my man, exactly.”

“I’ll add it to the list then.” Demyx grinned and waved it off, turning back to Kairi to probably catch more Skittles (he was starting to remind me of a sea lion). Glancing around at the rest of our table, it was pretty evident that everybody was either paying attention to Demyx and planning for the party or they were busy doing their own thing and not even remembering the rest of us existed (as was the case of Sora). And then of course Axel was still busy touching me and really it was starting to be just a little too much.

“Hey Axel, ca-”

“There you are.” I was immediately cut off by a feminine voice. Axel and I both tilted our heads back to see who was behind us and it took all of my willpower not to groan out loud.

Larxene…how can I explain Larxene? Other than my general “Larxene is a bitch” speech, that is. Larxene is this girl who’s actually Marluxia’s best friend, as in Marluxia who’s dating Naminé, as in my friend Naminé who’s an artist and a cheerleader and I’ve known her for a few years.

Following me so far?

In knowing Naminé, I’ve had to deal with Marluxia and in dealing with Marluxia I’ve had to put up with Larxene. The experiences have been less than pleasant, I can tell you that much. The problem with Larxene is that she’s cute so people don’t suspect anything’s wrong until she opens her ugly mouth. She’s kind of…well I tried and I can’t explain it any better so Larxene’s a bitch end of story. I can tolerate her in small doses but she has a knack for interrupting me during crucial moments in my life.

Such as now, for example. Only the thing was, it didn’t seem like Axel minded too much.

“Larxene, hey. What’s up?” Axel sat upright and turned around to face her properly.

“Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Um…sure.” Axel shrugged and removed his arm from my shoulder finally before getting up. “Be right back guys.” Waving over his shoulder he started following Larxene out of the cafeteria and soon disappeared from sight.

What.

Nobody else seemed too fazed about Axel’s sudden abduction though, so I couldn’t really make a big scene without everybody becoming suspicious.

As expected, Axel didn’t come back during lunch at all.

“So,” I started out, carefully focusing on putting my notebook back into my school bag.

“So?” Axel repeated, carefully staring me down.

“I didn’t know you knew Larxene,” I commented as casually as I could, gauging his reaction. He shrugged and picked up his bag from the floor to throw his papers into it.

“Yeah, we kind of go back a little ways. Not as far as me and Dem but y’know, still pretty far. At least two or three years.”

“Oh. What’d she want?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions. Jealous?” he gave me a teasing grin in that same stupid way he does.

“No.” Yes. “I’m just curious.” And apparently a liar.

“Well, I guess I can’t deny your curiosity. She’s in one of my classes and we’re working on some project so she just wanted to ask me about it.” Axel shrugged again, getting up from his desk and looked down at me. “You don’t have to be on the defense Roxy, I’ll understand if you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Sure.”

Thinking back on it now, it wasn’t like Larxene was a random addition to Axel’s life and it wasn’t like I was keeping tabs on his life anyway. She was at Demyx’s Halloween party, I’ve seen him talking to her in between classes and well, how did I know that his group of friends that only he and Demyx shared didn’t include her? I didn’t, that’s my point. I shouldn’t have been jealous because first of all it’s my own fault for not even realizing they were friends and secondly, Axel wasn’t even mine.

Yet.

“ Just…whatever, do you have a list of people to invite to Demyx’s party?”

“Yeah I kind of have a general idea. We’ve got a lot of the same friends. He’ll probably give me a detailed list tonight and the invites tonight too. I’ll call you and let you know.”

Sixth period that day provided us with a substitute teacher. That meant that we actually had to do work and stay on task so I had to wait fifty minutes to ask him about Larxene and everything. School was finally done for the day though so I could ask him all I wanted.

“Sounds okay with me. Do you have to work on…whatever with Larxene today?”

“Yeah. It shouldn’t take me too long though.” He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You sure you’re not just jealous?” he asked again. I think all I did in response was blink and then roll my eyes.

“Heh, you wish. Anyway, go ahead and call me tonight about the invites and anything else Demyx comes up with okay? “

“Sure.” Axel held open the classroom door and allowed me to walk out of the room first. “I’ll make it a point to do that.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll talk to you later.” I waved over my shoulder and headed for the theater for rehearsal, not even giving it a second thought when Axel started heading further into the school instead of to the parking lot.

Three hours of rehearsal meant I wasn’t allowed to go home until around six. By the time I walked through my front door Axel still hadn’t called me.

My mom cooking dinner meant I wasn’t going to eat until at least seven. By the time I headed downstairs and finished eating my share of fish Axel still hadn’t called me.

Three chapters of reading for English, a worksheet for math and a chapter for chemistry meant I wasn’t going to finish my homework until a bit past ten. By the time I shoved my books back into my bag Axel still hadn’t called me.

You can see where this is going.

I was starting to wonder if something happened to him. He should have already been home and settled in by now. But what could I have done about it? He had said he would call me, not the other way around. I wasn’t going to bother him and come off as being obsessive or something similar; that would just blow everything out of proportion and possibly ruin what we had going so far.

Instead, I took a shower and messed around in GarageBand until about 11:30 before I just said fuck it and went to bed. If Axel was going to blow me off, fine. I wasn’t upset, really. Of course I was only asleep for about two hours before my phone went off somewhere near my head. Blindly groping around in the dark I closed my fist around it and answered it without even looking.

“What.”

“Hey sorry, I just now got home.”

“…ngh.”

“Not exactly the answer I was expecting but that works. C’mon wake up for about five minutes,” Axel laughed a bit.

“Dude…it’s early…or late, whatever. What’re you calling me for?”

“I said I would, remember? It would have been earlier but I just now got home from Larxene’s.”

That woke me up.

“What were you doing there so late?”

“Project and just hanging out with a couple of our friends. Anyway hey, Demyx gave me the list of people he wants at his party and the invite flyers. He’s serious this time about it being a private party. Nobody’s getting in without presenting a flyer. So, are you up for coming with me to school early and handing them out before first period? We can stick them in people’s lockers if we don’t see ‘em and if we do we’ll just hand ‘em out.”

“How early exactly?” I asked, glancing at the clock on my nightstand. It was already 1:45 in the morning, school started roughly in six hours.

“Not very early, maybe just half an hour early. That okay with you?”

“Um…yeah. Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Cool. So I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t be late.”

“Gotcha. Now lemme go back to sleep.”

“Sure. Night.” He hung up without waiting for a response and I threw my phone back on the nightstand, rolling over to go back to sleep.

On the bright side, at least he called me back.

The next morning came far too early for my liking, but I made it to school right as Axel was leaving the parking lot.

“Hey, Axel!” I shouted before he could get very far. Axel looked and stopped walking, waiting for me to catch up.

“Morning, shortstuff.”

“Hey, hi, morning. You have all of the flyers?”

“Yeah Demy printed out the last ones this morning. Ready to help me hand them out?”

“Yeah I guess so. It shouldn’t take long right?”

“No we’ve only got about 40 to hand out.”

“40? What happened to this being a low-key party?”

“That is pretty low-key for Demyx’s parties. Besides they’re all people he knows and that I know and that you guys know so it wouldn’t be that bad.” Handing me half of the stack of flyers in his hand he opened the front doors to the school and allowed me to go in first. “So let’s start by sticking these in people’s lockers.”

“Sounds good.” As we started in on that task, we didn’t talk much other than reading off names of people we were inviting to this party. It wasn’t until the stack in my hands was gone before Axel spoke again.

“Hey so I was thinking,” he started out, stopping near my own locker and leaning against it.

“Am I going to like where this is going?”

“Yes. You better. Anyway I was thinking…Demyx’s party’s on Friday right?”

“Yeah…I’m pretty sure we’re both clear on that thanks to the flyers.”

“So you know where I’m going with this.”

“No not really. Where are you going with this?”

“I have my own room at Demyx’s. If you and me get bored, we can hang out and have our own party see?”

“…what exactly are you saying?” There was no way I was having sex with him with 40 other people outside, he could just forget it.

“Okay I have no idea what you’re thinking but I was just thinking we can watch movies, make out, see where things go. Basically you can be like my date without anybody else knowing. Make sense?”

“…yeah. Yeah sure, I like that idea.”

“I was hoping you would.” Ruffling my hair he pulled away as the warning bell rang, the hallway filling with people suddenly. “I should probably go, I’ll take care of the rest of these. I’ll see you during Civics okay?”

“Yeah. See you then.” Waving him off I turned to open my locker, waiting until he rounded the corner before smiling widely and racing down the hallway to find Kairi.

“Did you ask him out yet?” Glancing back toward my bed I shrugged and continued my music project.

“Did Kairi put you up to this?” I countered. Hayner snorted and rolled onto his stomach to watch me. Not that I wasn't used to it; I've accepted the fact that sometimes I'll just walk into my bedroom after school and Hayner will be chilling on my bed.

“Not necessarily. She’s too busy with Demyx that I decided to take things into my own hands.”

“Your freakishly large hands?”

“Shut up.” Propping his head up with his casted hand, he pulled a piece of gum out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth. “Anyway, did you?”

“No not exactly.”

“Roxas.”

“Are you going to give me a lecture about how I’m wasting time too, because I already heard it from Kairi,” I cut him off, spinning around in my chair to fully face him. Blowing a bubble and popping it, Hayner shrugged and looked up at the Nirvana poster on my ceiling.

“I’m not here to tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing with your life. I’m here mostly because I’m curious about your sudden interest in guys.”

“And here I thought you were just doing it because you cared about me. Way to break my heart, Hayner.”

“You know what I mean. Anyway why haven’t you asked him out yet?” I paused for a minute, trying to think of how to phrase my thoughts. Hayner was used to this by now though; he can tell the difference between my thinking silence and my ignoring silence.

“Because I think he asked me out first.” He suddenly looked at me again, eyes lit up in interest.

“Yeah?” He popped another bubble. “How do you figure?”

“We were handing out invitations this morning for Dem’s party and he pretty much asked me to be his date and said if we got bored we could just hang out in his room. Alone.”

“Sounds like a bootycall if you ask me.”

“Fuck you.” Throwing a pen from my desk at him, I leaned back in my chair and glared a bit. “It’s not a bootycall okay? Axel’s not like that.”

“Sure about that? I’m not trying to tear you down or anything but you don’t really know what kind of intentions Axel has do you? No, you don’t.”

“Maybe not but I know he likes me as more than a piece of ass. Besides some of us don’t give it up that easily,” I snapped before I could even stop myself. Hayner stopped what he was doing and stared me down, eyes hardening and good hand clenching into a fist. “…Hayner that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh really. So what did you mean huh? C’mon Roxas, say it. You know I’m not stupid, I know I’m slutty by society’s standards but fuck society. At least I’m not second-guessing myself.”

“I know okay? I’m sorry, that just slipped out.”

“I thought you’d be the last person to judge me.”

“Hayner I’m not judging you okay? Just…I’m sorry.” He didn’t say anything at first, chewing on his gum angrily while staring out my window (possibly debating on just walking out; it wouldn’t have been the first time).

“…this whole thing between you and Axel’s making you crazy. You’re snapping at Kairi, now you’re snapping at me. Cool it. Either talk to him and get it over with or don’t do anything and go back to normal but stop taking your frustrations out on us.” He looked back at me again, narrowing his eyes further. “I’m not kidding, it’s getting old, Rox.”

“Have I really been snapping?”

“Yep. You’d be surprised, more people notice you’re on edge than you realize. So I suggest you fix this soon before everybody becomes really suspicious and asks you those uncomfortable questions you don’t want to answer.”

It’s pretty rare but Hayner was right; I knew I still had time but it was wearing thin. If this whole situation really was taking a toll on my friendship with my two best friends I really did need to fix it. And after Hayner brought it up I realized even further that he was right. Kairi was just trying to help and I kept yelling at her. Hayner was just bringing up a different point and I called him a whore.

Life-1, Roxas-0.

“…I’ll talk to him Friday at Demyx’s party when we’re alone okay? Promise.”

“Yeah you better or I’m going to kick your ass. You have three days. Do you know how you’re even going to approach it?”

“Probably ask him if we’re going to start dating officially I guess.”

“Good! No point in drawing it out. You need to be blunt otherwise he won’t get it and you’ll be stuck further. Do it Friday or you can completely forget about it.”

“Completely?”

“Completely.” Hayner got off of my bed and pulled me out of my chair. “Come on, talking about this suddenly got too personal. I want to see the demonic guitar game you were talking about.”

It wasn’t until after Hayner left later that night and after I talked to Kairi on the phone that the realism of the situation made itself clear. I was really going to do it; I was finally going to ask Axel out and we were going to start dating and everything I’d been thinking about for the past few months would finally come true and stop being a problem and my life would be perfect. Or as perfect as it could get when you’re 17.

As soon as Axel and I started dating, I would finally be able to see just what was so great about dating. Going out with Olette was great and all but it didn’t really feel like we were going out. This though; I would have somebody of my own that I could spend time with and have inside jokes with and tie up the phone lines and kiss and cuddle and laugh and oh my god I seriously just need to stop talking. No really.

By the time Friday morning rolled around I was even more on edge that I didn’t even look at Sora as we ate breakfast downstairs. Not that he was even paying attention anyway, he was trying to finish up some of his homework he didn’t finish “because he forgot”.

Read that as, “because he was busy with Riku”.

By the time I got to school I refused to talk to anybody until Kairi and I were in first period working on the sports pages for the yearbook.

“You’re kind of twitchy today,” she started off, making sure no one else was within earshot.

“You think so?”

“Know so. Nervous about tonight?”

“Immensely nervous. What if he says no, Kai?”

“He won’t say no. You know as well as I do that he’s into you. Have you seen yourselves lately? Like lunch Monday he was practically draped all over you.”

“You actually saw that?” I blinked and looked away from my computer screen.

“Babe we all saw that one. I don’t think anybody else really picked up on what was going on but I can tell he likes you. You just need to stop stalling and talk to him. Tonight.”

“Yeah I will. It’ll be great. We’ll talk and then we’ll officially be going out right?”

“Right. Just remember that.”

“Right…ugh.”

“Relax…you’re stressing over nothing.” Giving my shoulders a quick squeeze she got up from her chair next to me and smiled. “Don’t freak out. Just be yourself. For some reason he seems to like that.”

“…I don’t know if that’s supposed to flatter or offend me.”

“Maybe a little of both.”

After that I calmed down, a lot. I didn’t need to be freaking out over this whole thing. I practically had it in the bag. The tough part now was waiting until Demyx’s party that night.

The rest of my day was a total blur. I’m sure Sora was trying to talk to me during Chem and I know Demyx was throwing French fries at me during lunch but none of that really registered. I’m guessing it was Kairi who kept poking me with her pencil during Pre-Calc and Hayner practically tripped me in the hallway going to English but I brushed all of it off. Minor details I didn’t need to prepare myself for the big life-altering change that was going to happen that night.

Not even Axel himself could bring me out of my daze. I felt the wad of paper bounce off of my hair but I was too involved in my own daydreams to notice that the real Axel was sitting right next to me trying to get my attention. No, it wasn’t until the final bell rang that I snapped out of it and realized school was over and Axel was hovering over me.

“Man what’s with you today? You’re spacing even worse than usual.” Axel swung his bag over his shoulder and waited for me to pack up my things.

“Guess I’ve just got some things on my mind. It’s nothing really.” Nothing that I was going to tell him yet anyway.

“Whatever man. Just clear your head before Demyx’s party tonight okay? It won’t be as much fun if you’re not even paying attention to me.”

“Oh poor you,” I teased him a bit, shoving the last of my things into my bag and getting up from my desk. “I promise to pay extra attention to you at Demyx’s party okay?” Extra, extra attention in fact.

“You better own up to that promise or I’ll be very upset with you, Roxy.” He winked and led the way out of the classroom.

I had already decided by then that there was no point in trying to stop him from using the nickname. He seemed to like it and well, I was starting to mind it less and less.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. I’ve gotta go to rehearsal though so I guess the next time I’ll see you is at the party?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Axel!” Both of us turned our heads to look to the right where Larxene, Demyx and Marluxia were all standing near the doors of the east wing.

“Annnd that’s my cue. I’ll see you tonight,” he said quickly before grinning and turning to walk away, joining the other three and leaving me to gawk at the other end of the hallway as Demyx opened the door and Larxene grabbed Axel’s arm to pull him outside.

Now what the fuck was that about?

Rehearsal was a blur too, mostly because Mr. Holloway spent a large amount of the time focusing on Velma and Roxie’s parts. I was there because I had to be, not because I was needed. It didn’t help that every break we had consisted of Selphie chattering in my ear about Demyx’s party. But at least with Selphie it was easier to pretend I was listening; just nod every couple of sentences and she’d take that as an answer.

It also didn’t help that now I was starting to wonder about Axel’s other friends, mainly Marluxia and Larxene. The weird part was that when I saw Marluxia that afternoon he wasn’t with Naminé. It was a Friday so I knew she didn’t have cheerleading practice that afternoon so what was up with that? It’s extremely rare to see a Naminé without a Marluxia and vice versa. And then of course there was Larxene who was suddenly starting to show up more and more.

Or maybe I was starting to open my damn eyes and see what was going on around me instead of being in a clouded haze.

As soon as I got home from rehearsal I headed upstairs and straight for the shower mostly just to clear my head and relax (and partially to feel cleaner because I was moving set pieces earlier). I finished my shower and got dressed, looking in the mirror to make sure I looked decent enough before leaving the bathroom and entering Sora’s room, sitting on his bed carefully and looking at the back of his head.

“Hey, Kairi and Riku are picking us up in about half an hour okay?” Sora announced without even looking over his shoulder as he continued to type on AIM.

“Yeah sure.” Even I could tell that my voice sounded a little dazed. Sora turned in his chair and looked at me.

“You okay?”

I didn’t have a good excuse this time.

“Just tired.” It was true at least. I was mentally tired from thinking about how this would all turn out and emotionally tired from having to hide everything for this long and stress over it.

“Well, wake up. We’re going to be leaving soon to go to Demyx’s and do you know where that really big thermos is?”

“For what?”

“The punch Dem’s spiking.”

“No. Just use one of the empty 2-liters and a funnel,” I suggested, laying on my back and staring up at Sora’s ceiling. One of his glow-in-the-dark stars was starting to peel off.

“That’s not a bad idea. I think I’ll just do that.”

“Whatever you want, Sor.” Closing my eyes I folded my hands behind my head. “So hey we’re still doing band practice on Sunday right?”

“As far as I know yeah. We should probably bring it up to Demy again but I’m free for Sunday. Then again, I live here and really don’t have a choice do I?”

“No, not really. I’m glad you understand that.” I smirked a little. Sora snorted and returned to typing again.

“You’re so weird. Sometimes I can’t believe we’re related.”

“At least I didn’t have a Pringles fight with my boyfriend today.”

“It was fun thou-, wait what did you say?” Sora stopped all movement again.

“…what?”

“You’ve got a boyfriend?” he asked, obviously puzzled by this new “revelation”.

“…no! No, I meant it as Riku being your boyfriend and it was just a saying, Sora. I think you’d know if I had a boyfriend or not.”

“I think I’d know if you even liked guys period. That’s kind of a big factor in having a boyfriend.” Sora finished typing out a sentence and signed off of his messenger before letting his computer hibernate. “I’m going downstairs to finish the punch. Wanna come with me?”

“Yeah, okay.” Heaving myself off of Sora’s bed I followed him downstairs to the kitchen.

The thing about Sora is he may not be able to actually cook decent food but he makes bomb desserts and drinks for some reason. So really, there was no way I was going to rush him on his punch. He was just about finished when our doorbell rang.

“Rox you wanna grab that? I think it’s Riku and Kairi.” Sora continued to focus on adding just the right amount of…something from an orange bottle and I got up to answer the door.

“Hey guys.”

“Hey Roxas,” Riku said before brushing past me into the house, waiting for Kairi and myself to follow.

“Are you guys almost ready to go?” Kairi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and followed Riku and I back into the kitchen.

“Yeah Sora’s just finishing up his punch or whatever and then we’ll go,” I replied, looking back at her.

Are you still nervous? Her eyes were asking.

Mildly terrified, but I think it’ll be okay.

It will be. It’ll be fine.

God I hope you’re right.

“Hey. Sora’s bottling the punch and I’m illegally parked on your street. Grab whatever you need and go get in the car,” Riku said, breaking Kairi and I from our other conversation. I already had everything I needed and Kairi had just come into the house so she didn’t need anything. The two of us shrugged at each other and turned around heading right back out and getting into the back seat of Riku’s car. It didn’t take long for Sora to jump into the passenger’s seat and Riku to climb into the driver’s seat, starting the car and driving the few miles to Demyx’s house. Considering Demyx didn’t start letting people in until eight and it was only close to eight-thirty there were still a lot of cars surrounding the house and Riku had to park a couple of blocks away before we could even consider getting out of the car. Sora immediately jumped on Riku’s back and the two of them walked ahead of us, Sora’s bottle of punch dangling from his hand dangerously close to Riku’s face.

“So…this is the night huh?” Kairi asked in a low voice once they were far enough ahead.

“This is the night.”

“Excited?”

“Anxious. But I think I’m really ready for this. Axel told me that I was pretty much his date for this party and that he’d be waiting for me.”

“I’m excited for you,” she continued. “I mean this has been ongoing for what, almost four months now? Maybe five if you count your very obvious denial phase when school started.”

“We’ll go with four and a half,” I agreed to compromise.

“Either way. I’m proud of you for doing this. Are you going to talk to him first thing?”

“Very first thing. I’m going to walk into that house, track Axel down, and tell him exactly what I’ve been waiting to tell him all week. The timing’s finally right.”

“Better brace yourself then.”

“Why?”

“We’re already here,” she pointed out. Stopping in my tracks I watched as Sora and Riku opened the front door and the loud music poured out from the house, echoing loudly on the empty street. The two of them disappeared inside and Kairi stood next to me, hand on my shoulder and waiting patiently.

“Ready?” she asked. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, clearing out my head and focusing on my main goal.

“…ready.” I nodded and she gave me what I’ve officially dubbed the “Kairi-sunny-smile-of-encouragement”. She grabbed onto my wrist and proceeded to practically drag me into the house, kicking the front door shut behind her once we were in there.

“I’m going to go find Selphie okay?” Kairi yelled over the music, letting go of my wrist. “Good luck!” And with that she disappeared into the crowd to find her brunette friend, leaving me alone by the front door. I was okay with that though; I had a mission and I didn’t need Kairi to hold my hand all the way through it. This was the right time.

It was easy enough to find Demyx, standing over in a corner where his computer was and adjusting the volume on his speakers. The real problem was trying to worm my way through all of the people standing around in his living room. I swear it took me about 15 minutes to walk ten feet.

“Demyx!” I shouted to get his attention.

“Roxas, about time! I was beginning to wonder where you were. What’s up?” Demyx went back to fiddling with his speakers, still paying attention though.

“Have you seen Axel anywhere?”

“Yeah, I sent him to the kitchen with Sora’s punch to spike it not too long ago. He should still be in there.”

“All right, thanks!” Waving a little I began pushing past more people, this time going in a completely different direction to reach Demyx’s kitchen.

This was it. If Axel was in the kitchen mixing the punch then it would be easier to talk to him alone which would make it easier to get him alone which would make it easier to tell him everything I’ve been wanting to say.

And I needed to, fast. Even my thoughts were starting to sound like a 17-year-old girl.

Pushing through the last throng of people I saw the entryway to the kitchen and stopped, taking another deep breath before nodded and stepping into the kitchen. He had his back to me but it was hard to miss that shock of red hair.

“Axel?” I said, walking a little further into the kitchen. He shifted his body slightly; and revealed another body underneath him pressed against the counter. It really was the perfect time…

…you know, to walk in and see him kissing Larxene.

He didn’t even have the decency to make it look like one of those “I didn’t start it, she kissed me!” kisses. No, this definitely was one of those kisses where both parties involved knew what they were doing.

If this were a perfect world, he would have looked up right then, saw me standing there and ran after me while leaving the blond bitch alone in the kitchen, chasing me outside and down the street before grabbing me and kissing me under the stars while saying how much he loved me.

My world’s never been a perfect world; why should it be now?

Maybe Hayner was right and Axel was just going to use me as a bootycall. Or maybe Kairi was right and somehow Axel still was very much into me (which well, that was kind of hard to believe at this point). But guess what?

I didn’t bother sticking around long enough to find out.

I’m not even going to explain this. Make of this what you will.

I believe I’ve responded to everybody who’s left me a signed review, which by the way thank you for all reviews (signed and unsigned). If I missed you and you sent in a signed review I’m sorry! I’ll do better next time. They make my day. They make my day and make me motivated to write, as do people favoriting this story, recommending it to others, and myself making various playlists with songs that apply to the whole story. Anyway, I finished it before the month was up (by a few days, hah!) so I hope you’ve enjoyed it. 25 pages of material this time, I was hoping to narrow it down a little but apparently I can’t do that. I even tried skimming over the very boring details but oh well.

Keep in mind that things mentioned in this story are almost always used again (Roxas’s rehearsals, his observations about Larxene and Marluxia, etc).

Song used for this chapter’s title is Cannibal Girl by Head Automatica. If you haven’t heard this song I really think you should.

Now…I’m not going to beg for reviews, but I do enjoy seeing them as does every other writer on this site. Make of that what you will. Thanks for reading this guys, see you next update (no promises when, but now that this chapter’s out of the way the rest of the story should flow together faster).

And see, I love you guys so much that I stayed up until 6am finishing, editing, and posting this chapter. Enjoy!

-Ty