You Learn Something New Every Day
"Listen here Hikaru! You better stay away from my girlfriend or we are gonna have issues! You hear me!" the jock shouted pushing me against the wall.
"Dude I didn't approach her! You need to listen!" I shouted back.
"Just stay away or next time I won't be as nice!" he screamed back, coming inches from my face.
"Okay, okay! You got it! I'll stay away!" I shouted.
He put me down and walked out of the room.
"Gosh this is gonna be a weird day," I thought to myself with a sigh.
At the end of the day, I am outside walking out of the school gates and I hear a voice calling out to me.
"Hikaru! Wait for me!" it said.
I thought to myself and realized it had to be Aiko. I turned to see her running and she was closer than I thought because she caught up and since she didn't realize I had stopped walking, she ran right over me and fell all on top of me. My papers fell every where.
"Ouch.." she said holding her head and she finally realized all the papers and started scrambling saying,
"I am so sorry, Hikaru! I didn't mean to! It was an accident I swear!"
I laid there on the ground staring up at the sky. She had collected my papers together and handed them to me but I still laid there.
"Hikaru! Are you dead?" she shouted, tears growing in her eyes.
"Huh what?" I asked.
"Here," she said handing me my papers.
"Thank you," I said, getting up.
"So why did you leave class so quickly?" she asked as I continued walking.
"Because I knew you would want to talk to me and your boyfriend told me to stay away and I don't want any issues. Aiko, why would you befriend me if you knew your boyfriend wouldn't like it?" I asked.
"Well, I broke up with him. I thought I could have friends but here I am," she said in an irritated tone.
"You only met me yesterday, Aiko. You didn't need to do that," I said stopping.
"Yes, but you were nicer to me in less than 24 hours than he was in the 2 months we dated."
"Aiko... why would you stay with him then?" I asked sympathetically.
"I thought all guys were like that, but when I met you, my thoughts changed," she said as her smile grew cheek to cheek.
I stood there staring at her. She was beautiful, really, but she didn't know me and I didn't know her. There was no way she could make assumptions off less than 24 hours, right... right?
"Well, Aiko, I should be getting home. It was nice talking to you," I said with a smile.
"Okay, Hikaru. Be safe," she said with a smile.
I walked home and dropped my stuff off. I grabbed my book from my bag and went out to the tree. It really was peaceful. It was rare someone would come up to me and do something Aiko did, so this tree was perfect. I stood beside the tree staring down over the city. I realized that this really was the best few of the city you could get. It looked gorgeous. I sat down and started reading. That's when I heard footsteps coming in my direction.
"Who's there," I said without lifting my head from my book.
"It is your dad, Hikaru," my father said.
"Oh okay. Did you want me to come home?" I asked, closing my book.
"No, actually. I came out here so the 3 of us could have some family time," he said appearing around the tree.
"I see. Well, you can come sit with me."
He came and sat down next to me and showed me a bag from the grocery store.
"I got these for us," he said pulling out ice cream cones.
He handed me one.
"Thank you, dad," I said.
"Hikaru, I understand that losing your mother was very difficult. It is okay to miss her and want to see her again."
"I know, but she is my mother. She really was something special, huh?" I said to dad.
"Yeah she was, kiddo. She was my soulmate and she was ripped from my life. Or our lives is what I should say," he said in a teary voice.
"Yeah, but at least we have each other," I said trying to cheer him up.
I had just finished my ice cream. After an awkward moment of silence, he stood up and said,
"I'm gonna go ahead inside. Don't be out here too much longer."
"I won't, dad," I said and he walked off.
Shortly after, I decided I would stop at the next chapter of the story. I went back to the house and stepped inside. As soon as I stepped in, I was greeted with dinner. I went to the table and ate while my dad worked. When I finished, I heard a knocking on the door and answered it. Who stood before me? Aiko, of course, and she held her phone straight out at me showing 10 missed calls and 15 messages.
"Care to explain yourself?!" she shouted.
I stepped outside and closed the door behind me to let my dad focus.
"Aiko, what are you talking about?" I asked puzzled.
"You ignored all of my texts so I called you and you ignored them! I was angry!" she said yelling.
"Well, Aiko, I need you to pipe down. My dad is in there working and needs to focus," I said whispering.
"Okay, but why didn't you respond?"
"I didn't have my bag with me, which holds my phone, so I couldn't have known."
"Oh okay... I'm sorry I freaked out."
"It's okay," I said as I noticed she was shaking, "Are you cold?"
"Y-yes," she said stuttering.
"Here, come inside. It's 40 degrees out and you don't even have a jacket! Are you crazy?" I said.
"A little," she said laughing.
She stepped inside and I directed her to the couch. I realized she must not live too far from me to be able to come all the way here in a skirt and t-shirt. However, I didn't want her to walk home like that. I went to my room and grabbed a pair of pants and one of my jackets. I came out and handed them to her.
"Here, wear these. You will be warmer on your way home," I said with a smile.
"Are you sure? I can walk home in the cold," she said bashfully.
"Of course! You can go change in the bathroom. Its down the hallway, on the right."
She went to the bathroom and I went to the kitchen and apologized to my dad.
"I'm sorry, Aiko was loud and interrupted your work," I said looking down.
"It's okay, Hikaru. You did the right thing, lending your clothes to her," he said with a smile.
"Thanks, dad," I said and walked down the hallway and opened the door to my room where I greeted a half-naked Aiko... and all I did was stand there frozen...