“Are you ok?” mom asked. “Maybe you’re still weak from the fall down the stairs. Here give it to me.”

“I can carry it, I’m alright,” I said moving away from her. “Lets go home first.”

As we walked on it became really silent. Jiro didn’t speak or laugh his laugh and Mom was beside me kept rubbing her arms with her hands continously to keep warm. I walked up ahead unsure if I should turn around to take a look at Jiro. I wondered what he was thinking about.

It hadn’t been that long since Fluke had taken his revenge. It still hurt and it wasn’t easy to give up on someone who was your first. He’d appeared and I wanted to get rid of him, however it was easier said than done.

When we reached my house mom took the grill from Jiro and invited him in but he refused politely and stood outside while I went inside to put the fishes away. After doing so I rubbed my hands together and opened the door stepping outside.

“You sure you don’t want to come in for a bit?” I asked. “It’s really warm in there.”

Jiro gave a soft smile, “No it’s fine.”

We became silent and listened to the wind whistling.

“You…” Jiro began. “You still think about him? I mean…I’m not hurrying you to do anything…”

I opened my mouth in a struggle and managed to say, “Sorry. I never thought about him until mom brought him up.”

“Have a good night then,” he said giving me a light hug and as he did I should have heard something I didn’t. Silently he was begging, he was pleading, “Don’t waver. Please don’t waver.”

I went to sleep easily that night and the sun came up too fast the next day that I struggled to get up. I was almost late to school and to my surprise I found Jiro was waiting outside. As I reached the doors he quickly grabbed me and we ran into class just a second before we were late.

“You two,” the teacher grumbled then said, “take a seat class is going to start.”

I glanced at Jiro and he smiled back. We took our seats turning our attention to the board. After school we met by the same tree that stood alone by itself.

“Have work tonight?” asked Jiro as he tried to jump up to grab a leaf.

“Nuh-uh,” I replied.

“Lets go out,” he said, “I want to do something together.”

“We did that yesterday,” I pointed out.

“That wasn’t a date,” Jiro said, “I just wanted to annoy you yesterday. It seemed to half work right?”

“You idiot,” I said. “What do you want to do?”

Jiro turned to me with that smirk of his. A moment later he had grabbed my hand and the next moment I remember we were chasing birds. We chased each other around the playground and a few minutes later we were sitting back to back heaving for air. I gave a small laugh and threw my head back so it was leaning on his shoulder.

“That was what you had in mind?” I questioned. “That’s what little kids do.”

“It’s not like you’d do anything else,” he told. “It’s going to get dark soon. Lets walk around a bit.”

“Ok,” I said getting up.

We’d gone walking around window shopping just except we didn’t buy anything. We glanced at the decorations they had at the windows and gone inside the shops to take a look around. We repeated what we were doing until I saw something that interested me. It was a restaurant set. Tables, plates of food, the dining line, everything was there. They were all modeled up inside a wooden box with a glass frame in front. It looked so pretty I imagined I would have one sometime in the future.

****************************************

Jiro smiled as he took a glance at the model, but something else had caught his mind. As he had leaned slightly forward there was a faint smell coming off of Selina’s hair. Jiro leaned forward to smell it better and a happy smile spread across his lips.

“Hey Jiro….” Selina began as she turned around with a smile on.

Jiro became surprised as Selina stared at him her gaze locking onto his. Turning around her face had met with his since he’d had himself lowered to smell her hair. It was as if an invisible force had stopped everything allowing them to move forward. Something was pulling Jiro forward until he had completely pressed his lips onto hers.

******************************************

It felt good, I felt lost, and all at the same time it was soothing. My heart felt calm as I felt heat flowing into me. I was half thinking that I was in a fantasy, that I was just thinking about this, it wasn’t true. The other half of me couldn’t deny this. This feeling…should I call it bliss?

I felt a warm hand on my cheeks and snapped awake. I opened my eyes and pulled away. What was I doing? Now my heart was beating fast. Jiro opened his eyes seeming a little surprised and lost.

“Lets go see that movie we were talking about…” I said then quickly walked away.

As I passed the next window it occurred to me we hadn’t spoken about a movie at all. We weren’t even planning to go to the theatres. I was crazy. My brain was all twisted up. I didn’t speak nor did he try to. We just kept walking till we wounded up at my house. I paused outside and shifted from feet to feet.

“Selina?” came Jiro’s voice.

I didn’t turn around until a while later with a huge smile on and laughed as if nothing was wrong, but he didn’t deny it and played along with me. He could tell that I didn’t feel right.

“Sorry. I was a little quick,” he aplogized.

He was actually apologizing. I felt bad, a bit guilty, but it wasn't my fault that things were the way they were. Before I when I had wanted him to apologize he’d said that that word did not exist for him. But here right in front of me he was saying sorry. My idiot smile came off and I was able to look at him calmly.

“I…I was just surprised. Nothing’s wrong,” I assured. “Really.” I added to assure him and as I did so I felt a tug inside me. I had to do something to show him it was alright, that I wasn't angry, that I didn't blame him for making me uncomfortable. I walked towards him and quickly hugged him by putting my arms around his neck then placed a peck on his cheek. “Goodnight.” I quickly ran inside the house breathing hard.

“This isn’t normal Selina,” I told myself as I dropped my head back to lean against the wall.