Twenty For A Dozen

11 || Love At First Date

11 || Love At First Date

         "And I kid you not, he was extremely heavy for a skinny guy," West said and made animated gestures with his hands. "So me and my friends are holding each leg of his bed out to his backyard, when he wakes up all of a sudden and the three other guys drop their hold and scram. I got a month's detention washing all the blackboards that the entire school owned every day for that stunt!"

         Kira held her stomach and attempted to breath. She blinked tears out of her eyes and gasped for air. "Oh my gosh, I can just imagine your principal waking up and wondering why his bed was moving under the open sky," she mused.

         West just shook his head and tapped a tune out on the steering wheel. "There's a lot more I could tell you, but I believe you only have three hours to get ready. Eva let me know how much time was acceptable to give you," he finished with a chuckle.

         She felt quite bummed out at the thought of going home after two days out. But she did need a shower - there were only three hours left until their date, after all. "Okay," Kira relented and unbuckled herself. "But I do want to hear the goat story."

         He saluted her with his dimpled smile and began reversing the car once she got out. "I'll be here at eight."

         "Good something," Kira said in goodbye.

         Lee had driven her truck home sometime earlier during the day as it was in its spot in the Joy's driveway.

         The first thing Kira smelled when she entered the house was the smell of cherry blossoms and her heart constricted. The scent brought back memories of back home, and more importantly, her mother's embrace. Her father would only light the incense if he was feeling particularly down.

         The living room sofa was occupied by her father's heavy form, and he was fast asleep. Kira noticed the bottle of alcohol in his lap and gave a worried frown.

         She took the bottle and set it in it's place before bringing a comforter and putting it over him. Kira kissed his forehead softly and crept up the stairs to check on Lee before she went to go get ready.

         He was on his bed with his laptop in his lap. Lee took out an earbud when she entered the room and mouthed "What's up?"

         Kira sat down at the edge of his bed and scowled at the neat room her brother kept. Apart from the basketball posters and trophies along with the musty 'guy' smell, there wasn't even a single pair of clothing on the floor.

         "Dad's asleep, I didn't get to talk to him. Did you smell the cherry blossoms?" She tried to keep any accusatory tones out of her voice.

         Lee nodded and sighed. "I'm going to apologize tomorrow... In some way." The siblings were silent for a moment. "Oh, Trevor was saying that Eva is waiting eagerly for a phone call from you. She doesn't want your fashion incompetence to ruin your date with West," he added in a normal tone.

         Kira's jaw dropped. She was more shocked by his indifference than the fact that he knew, but she questioned him anyhow. "How did you know?"

         "He did ask otosan for permission before asking to 'court you'." Now her brother was snickering under his breath. Kira wanted to go to her backyard and bury herself in it.

         Lee held up his phone. "And we do text, so he told me why he wasn't going to be watching the game with us tonight. Women," he snorted, "they ruin everything."

         His last comment took some of the burning from her ears and she got up with a flick of her hair. "Whatever. I'm going to go take a shower."