Until my phone vibrates against my palm and the sides of my lips tilt up at the text. It has me rushing downstairs.
In the living room, I see Taylor, Edward and Damien. Edward is being reprimanded by Chu Hua, probably for promising to bake cookies for us all those months ago and then not keeping to his promise. He makes sure to wear a sheepish look on his face as if to sate her. When Taylor's eyes flicker up to meet mine, I mouth to her that I need to go outside and I'm guessing she becomes as curious as the cat because she gets up and follows after me.
"What's up? Why're you in such a rush to go outside?" she muses. "Is Dominic here already?"
"No, it's uh... Kai and his friends."
"Ooh," she sings excitedly and then she skips beside me which causes me to furrow my eyebrows at her in perplex. She's so weird sometimes.
Once stood outside, we both stop on the lawn when we spot the black sportscar that I remember Fleance dropping me off in at the diner.
The man of the moment is first to step out of the car and instantly my gaze zeroes in on him. It's been so long since I have seen him.
His dark hair has grown out a bit and I notice the way it falls effortlessly over his shoulders, tousled just right to give him a casual yet sophisticated look. It reminds me of the boy who sobered me up on the night of the Halloween party. When his heterochromatic eyes meet mine, a faint hint of a smile plays at the corners of his lips, adding an air of mystery to his already striking presence.
His arm rises so he can wave at us. As always, deep dimples appear on his cheeks and the corners of his eyes crinkle. I feel warm. Heedlessly, I wave back.
"Okay, he is actually much hotter in person. If you don't want him, I'll take him," Taylor whispers to me loudly.
Averting my gaze to look at her, I wryly say, "Don't be weird."
As he moves with such confidence and grace, it's as if the world around him fades into the background, leaving only him in sharp focus. The grass softly crunches beneath his trainers once he's standing before us and innocently, we plaster smiles on our faces to pretend as though we weren't just whispering about how attractive he may or may not be.
"Ready for us to hang out and chat the day away?" are his first words to me and the awkward smile on my face falls as I stare at him dryly.
He chuckles at my reaction and to convey how unfunny he is, I shake my head disapprovingly.
I guess he wasn't lying when he said that he wasn't going to let me live that down. I still don't know why I said that to him; I've never said that to anyone ever. Except him. When his eyes flicker over to Taylor, I snap out of it and quickly introduce them. She immediately makes this comment about having heard a lot about him from me when they shake hands.
"All good things, I hope," he muses slowly.
"He said something about you being allergic to tulips," she mentions with a playful grin.
Kai glances over at me with a questioning look. "You told her I'm allergic to tulips?"
To move away from that, I exclaim excitedly at the sight of Sabina walking towards us with Richard following closely behind her and introduce Taylor to her.
"Oh, my God. I love your coat," Taylor exclaims and then she fortunately rushes over to Sabina to ask her where she got said coat from, forgetting her ploy to embarrass me in front of Kai.
Looking back at him, he wears the same soft smile that for some reason always gets my heart fluttering and I stupidly murmur, "I like your jacket."
"Yeah? I just recently bought it."
I reach up to fix the collar of it and he responds with a thanks. "The quality of the fabric feels good too."
"I don't know anything about none of that. I just thought it was a cool looking jacket and I bought it."
"No, it's really nice. You look good."
"Are you trying to make me blush," he muses and then he playfully ends his statement with, "because it's working."
A laughter splutters out of me and unconsciously I lean my head into his shoulder blade just like I did before when we were at the skatepark. In my amusement, my shoulders shake.
When I glance up at him with a large smile on my face, he too grins down at me softly. His hand slowly comes up and he reaches up to my hair. I watch him intensely and curiously. Before I can ask myself what he's doing, he carefully pinches a strand of hair away from my forehead and then safely tucks it behind my ear.
My breath escapes me, and I can quite literally hear my heart beating in my face.
A car bell honking breaks us apart and after awkwardly breaking eye contact with him, I glance over my shoulder to see Dominic's car pulling up. For some reason, my feet shuffle backwards to increase the distance between Kai and me.
I watch as the car slows down to a stop on the pavement and when he climbs out of the driver seat, excitement builds within me. Now that everyone is here, we can finally go camping. Except when two other people step out of his vehicle and my eyes land on both Jodie and Savannah, my stomach instantly drops.
"Hey," Jodie exclaims while waving her hands around jubilantly after we've all just been silently staring over at them in pure shock.
"Jodie," Taylor greets her with a large, surprised grin and then when she sees Savannah, she awkwardly murmurs, "Vannah, you're here too?"
My widened eyes dart over to Dominic who is doing everything in his power to avoid my enquiring gaze. What the hell is this? Why the fuck would he invite Savannah? Jodie, maybe I can understand why he would invite her, but Savannah. Why?
All the commotion must have alerted Damien and Edward because they come out of the house dragging all our suitcases along with them. Damien stops beside me, and I don't miss the way he frowns in confusion at the sight of the two people we all didn't know were coming along.
Leaning into me, he whispers, "What the fuck is Savannah and Jodie doing here?"
"That's what I would like to know as well," I say while pointedly staring at Dominic who has yet to look at me.
"Uh," Taylor cuts into the awkward atmosphere with a loud clap that makes us focus our attention on her, "well since everyone has made it, welcome and... first of all, we have to decide who is driving with whom. Also, Seong Jin is not allowed to drive. He has almost killed one too many people."
Feeling someone's stare on me, I look up at Kai to find him watching me with question shining in his eyes and I nod up at him to confirm my friend's words. "It's true. I don't know if you remember, but the day I was going to meet Tyson for the first time, I nearly ran a guy over."
He pinches his lips as if to prevent himself from laughing.
"Well, that depends," Edward speaks up and then he muses to everyone present, "How many cars are we thinking of taking?"
Damien suggests, "I was thinking two. It's more environmentally friendly."
"There is no way I'm getting cramped in a car with four other people," Savannah argues, scrunching up her face in distaste and I almost want to irritably say that we were not actually planning to accommodate two other people, but yet here we are.
"Uh, no offense but since I don't know the rest of you," Kai interjects, hanging his arm over my shoulder, "I would prefer to go with Seong Jin and my two other friends. I have also just made the decision that we won't be letting him drive." Then he grins down at me with humour shining in his eyes.
"You having fun?" I ask him sarcastically.
"Immensely." Then he taps me on the bud of my nose.
Unwittingly, a smile escapes me.
When I feel a stare on me, I turn around to now see Dominic's interested gaze on me. But not just me, on the guy standing beside me with his arm around my shoulders too. Then his eyes flicker back to meet mine and I don't miss the curiosity in his gaze, demanding an answer to something. Nervously, I avert my gaze.
"Actually, Kai," Sabina starts speaking with a look of disagreement on her face, "I don't want to be around an entire sausage fest, so I think us girls, we're just going to go in one car."
"Okay, who are you? I love your coat," Jodie exclaims, and she hurries over to her to fawn over the coat. I will admit, it is a really good coat, worth fawning over.
"Okay, then since Seong Jin is going with..." Edward drawls out while looking at Kai.
"Keiji," he introduces himself with a slight nod, "and Richard. That's Richard over there."
Richard doesn't look up from his Nintendo Switch, but he acknowledges everyone with a quick wave.
"Alright, so that means Damien and I are gonna go with," he looks over at Dominic who's frowning in an unimpressed expression as Edward walks over to him and puts his arm over his shoulder, steering him back over to his car, "Dominic, buddy. We're gonna have the time of our lives together."
"Get your hands off me," I faintly hear him muttering to Edward who fearfully detaches himself from him.
Before following the two retreating boys, Damien discretely says to Kai, "Seriously, mate, do not let Seong Jin drive. You will die."
"Get out of here," I say threateningly and he laughingly slips away before my hand can make contact with the back of his head. Then glancing up at Kai I add reassuringly, "I am capable of driving by the way."
"Yeah, but I still think it'd be better if I drove."