Jodie, after the silence has droned on for far too long between us all, decides to also take a seat on one of the stools, the one beside Kai. As she places a gift bag on the counter and turns around to introduce herself to him, I cannot help but feel curious. Their conversation is drowned out by the sound of my thoughts as my gaze is drawn towards the gift bag. Did she buy me a present for my birthday?
I slowly glance over at her through my lashes and notice that her smile widens on her face. She encouragingly pushes the gift bag towards me.
It's wrapped in shiny paper with a purple bow on top. I take the gift bag in my hands and feel its weight; it's light but I can't guess what's inside. I look up at her with a look of bemusement. I did not expect her to bring me a gift. I didn't even think she remembered my birthday.
"I know I'm late to the surprise party, but I had practice and I couldn't make it on time, but I bought you something and… uh, happy eighteenth birthday," she stammers out awkwardly.
As I peer into the gift bag my eyes widen with anticipation. For some reason, I cannot wait to see what surprise she has in store for me. As I dig through the bag, my fingers brush against something soft and fluffy.
My heart leaps with joy as I pull out a plushy goat. I hold it up to eye level and admire the intricate details of the toy. The goat has a cute, friendly smile on its face, and its fur is incredibly soft and cuddly. Without hesitation, I bring the plushy to my chest and give it a warm, loving hug. I am going to cherish this forever. Name a better gift than a goat plushy?
To obscure the bigger smile that wants to escape me, I purse my lips and then I meet her gaze again. I can't believe that she remembers that I was… or still am, whichever way you want to word it, in love with goats… or rather the symbolism that comes with loving goats, whichever way you want to word it.
"Thank you," I say to her gratefully.
"I wasn't sure if you were still obsessed with goats or not, so I took a gamble," she tells me.
"You're obsessed with goats?" Kai muses, watching me with amusement glowing in his eyes.
"No," I reply quickly with a slight heat staining my cheeks, putting the plushy back in the gift bag and faintly, I hear her whispering to Kai that I am totally obsessed with goats.
While putting the plushy away, I happen to see a small box resting in the gift bag through the corner of my eye and gently, I pull it out, furrowing my eyebrows. When Jodie sees what I'm holding, realisation shines on her expression.
"Oh," she exclaims, "that's from Dominic. He told me to give it to you since I was already coming here."
"Is that Jodie I'm hearing?" my dad questions loudly from the cooking area.
"Hi, Mr Denver."
The pleasantries and conversation that ensue afterwards become white noise as I zero in on the small box held carefully in my palms and the only thing I begin to hear is the beating of my heart drumming loudly against my tympanic membrane.
Slowly, I open the box and imagine my surprise when inside I find a silver bracelet lying comfortably on the velvet material. It doesn't really seem to click that Dominic bought me a bracelet until I feel Kai's curious gaze piercing through me intensely.
Glancing up at him, he tilts his head to the side curiously and I lower the box to show him the gift. When I see his reaction, I chuckle lightly. He merely blinks blankly and lifts up his shoulder questioningly. The longer I look at the bracelet, the more I can feel the sides of my eyes crinkling at the bemusement bubbling within me.
My bottom lip gets gripped between my teeth as I pull it out carefully, almost like it is the most priceless heirloom. I flip it around, observing the silver item. It's beautiful. Attached to the bracelet are a few trinkets. A silver car. Next to it, is a camera. A cap. Fan Tuan. SpongeBob. And finally, a toilet.
Breaking from my daze, I close the box and fumble inside the bag for a card. And when I find it, I pull it out of the bag so I can read the message under the blinding light of the diner.
"What does it say?" Kai asks, interest shining in his eyes and I hand him the card so that he can read it for himself while I go back to observing the bracelet. "Happy birthday, Starr," he reads aloud.
My lips twitch into a tiny grin and my heart does a small somersault inside my chest.
Once Kai has received his order, we both walk outside as I escort him back to his scooter in the car park. The whole time I can feel my mother's curious glower burning into my back from the car as she picks up my little brother and seats him in the backseat.
"I have a feeling your mum might not like me very much," he states as if to voice his worries out loud and I look over at him to see him nervously glancing back and forth between my mum and me.
"Oh, trust me, it's not you. Ever since I came out as gay to her she has just had an issue with every single guy I have hung around if she doesn't have full confirmation that they are just a friend."
"Does she not approve of you being gay?"
"No, she just hates the idea that I might start dating now that I'm much older. I think in her mind I'm still her little boy. Either that or she just doesn't want to see me get hurt. As I've said before, she can be quite over-protective."
"Ah, makes sense." He nods, relaxing a bit from my explanation. Jokingly, he muses, "So you're always around a bunch of guys then?"
"What?" I stutter, having a hard time holding eye contact even with the look of amusement on his face.
Despite my best efforts to hide it, my face heats up even under the sliver of light from the dark blanket above us which has him suddenly bursting out laughing. His laughter only makes me feel more self-conscious, and I try to bury my embarrassment deep within the cavern of my chest. However, it's of no use—the intensity of my blush remains and I can't shake the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable at that moment.
After taking a sip of my coffee heating up the palm of my hand to cover up my red cheeks, I curiously eye him over the rim of the cup. "So when are you heading back to Oxford?"
With a faint smile playing on the corner of his lips, he muses, "Trying to get rid of me already?"
"Honestly, you are a bit of a shit," I say in jest and playfully, he nudges me with his shoulder, knocking me slightly off balance as I grin at him. "No, I was just curious. You said you were in town for the holidays so I'm guessing that is just for a few more days."
"Hmm, well…" He drums his fingers against the package of food in his hands, his expression turning thoughtful. "What if I told you that I may have changed my mind about that?"
Wondering what he's up to, I arch an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "Changed your mind about going back to school?"
"Yeah," his smile widens as he turns around to leisurely walk backwards in front of me. "Turns out there are a few things keeping me here. Things I'm rather fond of."
His words cause a flutter of anticipation in his chest. "Such as?"
All too suddenly, he leans into me with his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Such as a certain someone who has been keeping me company. Someone I have rather enjoyed getting to know."
As our gazes meet, I feel a sudden tightness in my chest, and my breath catches in my throat. For a moment that feels like an eternity, we lock eyes, and I am acutely aware of the pounding of my heart in my chest. The intensity of the moment is almost overwhelming and I can feel a wave of emotions washing over me as I try to maintain my composure.
Then an amused smile breaks out on his face and I roll my eyes, realising that he was just joking. I shove him away from me playfully.
"You're such a little imp, honestly."
He chuckles and turns around to walk beside me again, his fingers brushing against mine. And in my mind, I can't help but wonder if he did that on purpose or if it was a mere accident. I decide it's the latter. "Only cause you're so fun to tease."
I mockingly wrinkle my nose at him.
"To answer your question, I am going back to Oxford. Tomorrow. I'm glad I was able to catch you today before I had to go back though so I could give you your present in person." He loads the bag of food into the back of the scooter and when he pulls his cap off to dust off the snowflakes that have fallen onto it, I suddenly get an idea.
"Can I take a picture of you?" I ask him before I lose the nerve to.
When he looks at me with surprise on his face, I fiddle with the camera in my hand and check if it even has any film. It does.
"I'm thinking of making a portfolio of my photography for the submission of my extracurricular activity to the university," I explain.
When he doesn't answer me, I expectantly glance back up at him and after his mouth opening and shutting like a fish in water, before his head bobs up and down slowly.
"Um… how do you want me to… pose?"
A thoughtful noise leaves my throat and after a quick sweep of the area, I see the lone streetlight which has a large, leafless tree in the background. With a smile, I point over to it and quickly skip over towards it, hearing his shoes shuffling against the gravel as he follows after me. He stands underneath the streetlight with the tree in the background and when I hold the camera up to take a picture of him, he seems to get distracted at just that very moment by a bird tweeting in the tree.
I take the picture then when he's not ready for it.
* * *
"Again, if you guys carry on making out every two seconds, I'm going to go and eat my lunch in the library," Damien threatens Taylor and Edward.
"I second that," I say, nodding vigorously.
It's almost as if our voices are drowned out by them because instead of separating and looking bashful at their shameful public display of affection they carry on looking for each other's tonsils with their tongues. I scrunch my face up in revolt and avert my gaze over to Damien who's wearing the exact same expression that I am. Yeah, they can't hear anything, can they?
"I think we should leave," I whisper over to Damien and without removing his eyes from the scene happening in front of us, he bobs his head up and down in agreement.
Quickly, I pack my stuff away and I reach over to grab a hold of Damien's hand to pull him up when it seems as though he's stuck in a cringe position. I know the look of mental trauma when I see it. As we stand up, that seems to break our two friends from kissing each other and they both glance over at us, having the nerve to look bemused. I glower down at Taylor whose eyes widen enquiringly as she shrugs unknowingly.
"What? Where are you guys going?" Taylor asks.
"Well, Seong Jin and I want to make out with each other, but we're too decent to do that in front of our friends lest we gross them out completely, you know?" Damien says and I don't miss his sarcasm. A simple, to the library, would've sufficed.
"Wait, you two are a thing now?" Edward asks and I'm shocked at how serious he looks about that. He then looks at Damien and adds, "What about Faith? Did you guys break up? Why didn't you tell me?"
"What?" Damien muses looking perplexed.
"Jesus Christ, Eddie. Sometimes you can be so stupid," Taylor mutters aloud.
"What?" He looks up at us still as clueless as ever.
"Of course, Seong Jin and Damien aren't dating."
"Yeah," I say and cross my arms, looking down at him weirdly. "I'd rather eat a dead rat than date numb nuts over here."
"Numb nuts?" Damien looks at me questionably. "I can assure you, my nuts work very well."
"How assuring is your word?" Taylor looks at him dubiously.
"You want me to pull my balls out and show you how numb they're not?"
"Please do," Taylor and I say in unison and smile at each other humorously.
"You two are perverts," he gasps mockingly, cupping his groin protectively and Taylor and I burst out laughing.
"Are we still leaving?" I ask him.
"No. Why?" Taylor demands and Edward leans into her, resting his head on her shoulder. This causes her to smile down at him warmly.
"That's why," I gesture at their sickly show of affection.
These past few days they have been sponging each other of their very soul. I mean, in the beginning, it was very cute and I would let out the occasional caw when they would kiss each other. At the back of my mind, I still find them cute. They are a beautiful couple. There's no doubt about that. Then it became a daily thing, then a lunch thing, then an hourly thing and now they just can't seem to keep their lips off each other. I think they need each other to breathe now.
"Oh, I get it." Taylor starts, giving me a look of sympathy. "We'll stop. You don't have to go to the library."
"Thank you," Damien sighs out in relief and we're about to take our seats again when Edward says something which stuns me for a few seconds.
"Stop what? Kissing?" he muses, looking at his girlfriend with a clueless look.
She nods at him with a smile of hilarity.
"No way. Come on, guys. Show a little compassion. We're leaving for university in a couple of months. This is only going to last for a few more days or weeks at most. It's like our… honeymoon phase."
"Honeymoon phase?" I exclaim in shock. "You guys have been lipsing for days now. The honeymoon phase is not supposed to last that long."
"Oh, I'm sorry and how many relationships have you been in, Mr James Bond?" He raises a patronising eyebrow.
"Eddie," Taylor chastises him, narrowing her eyes at him in warning.
Ouch much?
"Yeah, what the fuck, Edward?" Damien muses, scrunching up his face in perplex at his seemingly harsh words.
"Guys, calm down. He was just joking," I say calmly.
"Even if he was, it doesn't make it okay for him to say that to you." Damien stands up angrily.
We all watch him in shock. Is he being serious right now? It's not a big deal. I mean, yes it did hurt a little that Edward phrased his comment like that, but that's how we joke with each other. Right? We make fun of each other and our shortcomings. More mine, since I'm the only one here who has never been in a relationship and has been rejected three times in a row. Four times if we want to count the time Dominic kissed me in his music room.
Before turning on his heels and strolling away from us, he adds, "Also, you've only been in two relationships so that doesn't exactly make you the bachelor either."
Once he has walked away, I turn around and my surprised gaze meets Taylor's. She is as shocked as I am, maybe even more. We have a silent communication about what just happened until we both realise that we don't have the answers. The only person who does is the person sitting next to her. So we both train our gaze onto Edward enquiringly, but he makes it a mission to avoid our gaze.
Whatever. I don't care. Boys are stupid.