Just Another Fairy Tail (18+) | ✔

{5}

Rebecca

. . .

"Can you teach me how to keep a cactus alive?" Kai asks, running a finger along the petals of one of my orchids.

Cringing at his act, I rush over to grab his hands, leading him away from my flowers, and toward my desk, where a lone cactus sits. "Don't touch. It's a plant, not a person. That's not the kind of love it needs, hammer hands."

"I wasn't gonna hurt it," he defends, picking up my magnifying glass to look at the cactus.

I open my mouth to tell him about the levels of acidity, oils, and general rough texture on human hands but choose not to. It would likely go in one ear and out the other as it did with most people.

As it did with Slate. 

I roll my shoulders as I brush off the memory of him. According to my dad, who had comforted me during Slate suddenly breaking up with me, he was nothing worth thinking about.

So, I don't.

I decide on the best form of distraction from all thoughts Slade and call out to Kai.

"Hmm," he replies. For the first time in our entire day, Kai doesn't give me his attention, instead, he's focused on the cactus, staring intently at it.

"What are you so focused on?"

"There's a teensy weensy flower on it. For some reason, it's like growing right before my eyes and it's really fucking interesting," he murmurs.

Snorting softly, I shake my head. That's not possible, and though he probably needs contacts, I'll let him believe his eyes. 

"I'm gonna go get ready for bed," I announce. 

Since our state has no limit on the hours per school day we get out at 4 p.m., and I am most definitely ready to get out of this blazer.

"Whoa," Kai exclaims, turning around, magnifying glass in hand. "Can I watch?"

"Nope." I grab some sweats and a t-shirt from my drawer and dash to my bathroom.

Kai laughs as I shut the door, and I almost want to open it so that he can watch, but I refrain as he calls out to me. "Hey, Becks. I'm gonna go and get changed too. Should I go and get my laptop so that we can watch a movie?"

"Uh, sure."

I'm changed within a few minutes and wait for him in my bedroom as I take my hair out of its usual style and toss it into a messy bun.

Just as quick a knock comes to the door. Assuming that it's Kai, I open the door with no hesitation, faltering slightly when I see one of the two guys who work at the campus pizza place.

"Three medium pizzas, one meat lover's, one veggie, one half-cheese-half-pepperoni?"

"Um..."

"That's ours," Kai announces, handing the man a fifty-dollar bill.

He looks down at it, obviously bored with his surroundings. "Hey man, I don't have change for this."

"Keep it," Kai instructs, taking the pizzas from his hand with a smile.

I close the door with a sigh. "Kai, we don't need all of that pizza," I tell him, though that doesn't stop me from taking the box labeled as half-cheese and grabbing a slice.

"I know." He places the remaining two boxes at the foot of my bed and slides his laptop from beneath them. "I just realized I had no idea what you liked, so I got us a bit of everything... Should I have gotten an entire cheese pizza," he asks, watching me with eyes brimming with worry.