chapter one
It was summer. We sat on the benches eating apples. Kenya and I had this thing
where we'd meet every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and play tennis together
during the afternoon on breaks. I loved it.
Sometimes, we'd run into random classmates and friends. Other times, Yuushi would
tag along on the occasions he came for a visit. I didn't like those times as much.
Kenya's my best friend. He's also my personal life counselor, advisor, fitness
coach, and tutor. Overall, he's the best person in my life. I would say he's the
only 'outsider' on par with my family. I wouldn't say this to
, my older
brother, because I'd definitely get hit by him somehow, but Kenya definitely
passed him in ranking. Not that he'd ever know, either.
I glanced at Kenya. He glanced back and smiled. "You know what would be fun right
now?"
"What?"
"A gag involving umbrellas."
"You know what would be even more fun?"
"What?"
"Singing in the rain." Or having you to myself.
"We could do a gag involving umbrellas while singing in the rain."
I smiled. "Or we could make that the gag instead."
Kenya laughed. "You'd be the straight man,
."
"Does that make you the gay man?"
"Idiot! I'm the funny man! Get your facts straight!"
We stood smiling like idiots at each other. "Kenya, we come up with really
bad jokes."
"Maybe we should just go home and watch movies?" Kenya suggested.
"Let's go to your place.
brought home his girlfriend and I don't really like her."
Kenya nodded and we quickly packed up and threw away our apple cores. Kenya's
house was only about two blocks away, so we took our time. Summer goes by slowly
for us at the moment, but it flies right by when we think about it in all.
I smiled when I felt Kenya's arm brush against mine; his accidental touches were
comforting. I know he didn't care or think about it all, but it made me feel happy.
I remember we met when I dropped a fountain pen. We were in kindergarten and he
asked me, "What is that?"
I told him it was a fountain pen and he thought it was weird I carried one around
when we couldn't even really write. But he thought I was interesting like that.
I'm glad he thought I was interesting. A life without Kenya would be boring and
lonely, or so I thought, anyways. I liked to think Kenya was what made life so
great.
Kenya cleared his throat. "So,
, did you get anything for Zaizen on his birthday?"
I looked at Kenya oddly. "Yeah, I did. You were there when I got it. Why are you
even bringing this up now?"
Kenya chose to ignore my question and counterattack with a question of his own.
"What did you get for him?"
"A stuffed animal. Remember? We asked Zaizen what he didn't want and one of them
was a stuffed animal, so we decided to get him one."
"I don't remember this. Are you sure it was with me?"
"Yeah. You even bought gum for your speed-chewing contest."
"That might have been me."
"That was
definitely you, Kenya. Are you trying to deny hanging out and
associating with me?"
"Of course not! In fact, we should buy a scrapbook and bookmark every chapter in
our life together!" Kenya's eyes and smile grew wide with what I thought was
excitement.
"That's stupid." In all honesty, I thought it was kind of cute. But I guess I'm
partial tsundere.
"How about we buy a music box and stick our pictures inside so when we grow old
we can reflect on our friendship?"
"You'll have to write me a script to recite when that happens." Or else I might
say something wrong.
"I'll make sure it has a small piano model. I'll inscribe your speech on the
music sheets."
"Why don't you just buy me a singing birthday card?"
"I'll stick the birthday card to your mirror
and give you a locked music
box; you'll have to spend a huge portion of your life trying to get the key."
"How much is a huge portion of my life?"
Kenya smiled and unlocked his door, letting me in first. "Just until spring."
"That's awfully kind of you, but how short of a life do you think I'll have
if a huge portion is just two-three seasons away?"
"I'd like to make a correction then: a huge portion of your third year in middle
school. What do you want for lunch?"
"Your mom's not home, so I don't want anything. Why don't you feed your iguana?
Then maybe we could eat somewhere?"
"What time is it right now?" Kenya whipped his head around to look for a clock.
He settled on looking at my wristwatch. I smirked since he always laughed at
the thought of someone using a wristwatch, since we all had cellphones. I always
knew my wristwatch would serve for more than just me one day; I just never thought
it would be Kenya. He squinted, carefully counting the tick marks. "I'll finish
my shower in...two minutes!"
"If you want to be fast you'll do it one!" Naturally, I was messing with him. I
couldn't say I didn't expect him to actually do it, but I could say I
really didn't want him to.
Kenya gave me a serious face. "Challenge accepted,
."
"I'm just kidding Kenya, please wash yourself properly."
"But..no speed, no life!"
"I'll roll you onto the street and get you
filthy so you'll
have
to take a long shower."
"Fine, but you should go first so I can at least beat your time."
"If you were truly fast, you'd beat my time no matter what! But fine, I'll go
along with it because I want to hurry and go to a café."
Kenya gave me a smile. "Let's go to the one where we can eat on the rooftop."
I laughed. "The one with the gaudy, useless vase at the corner!"
"And the painting of people in old clothes!" Kenya laughed. He always did when he
thought about or saw the painting.
"I say we take a picture of it and keep it forever." I smiled at the thought. I'd
never tell Kenya, but I was really attached to that painting.
Kenya flashed me a grin. "A picture within a picture?"
I rolled my eyes. "Kenya, let's not go there. Anyways, I'll be right back."
Kenya nodded at me. "I'll draw you a picture of an airplane model booth on somebody's
window with a giant bird's shadow giving it shade while there's a drawer next to it
full of USB's on the middle of a field. Then I'll tape it to your door so everyone
can see my drawing and compare it to Picasso. And I'll do it all in less than
a minute."
I ran up the stairs and yelled 'no' in response to Kenya's ridiculous idea. He always
came up with ridiculous ideas. Maybe that's what I liked about him so much. He was
one crazy guy. Maybe I was into crazy.
- x -
From, Princo
December 1, 2012.
Leading up to Bo's birthday...♥
Well so yeah, I started this September 2 (in
my time LOL) because I knew
I would bring myself grief. LOL. Or I would wanna keep changing it. idejkelk.
Oh, and Ribbon is banned from writing commentary here. :p
Oh, and directly to Bo, thanks for the name Kousuke. Do you know how tempted I
was to make their last names Izumi because of that? LOLOLOLOLOL.
Sorry this is so dialogue oriented! I tend to either make it all text or dialogue.
;~;
IF ANY OF THIS SOUNDS KIND OF RANDOM AND JUST THROWN IN, THANK THE LIST OF WORDS
I REQUESTED FROM RIBBON HAHAHA.
