Kai's History

19 Years Old (Part 3)

Olivia, one of Nova's friends, called Nova the next day. I woke up to the muffled, but audible, ringing of her phone and so did Nova. I remember we woke up quite late so we had to wake up sooner or later anyway. 

A few minutes later, Nova got out of her bedroom and walked over to the living room. I recall we locked eyes and shared another awkward silence together. She possibly had remembered what happened last night. It sure is weird for a random, homeless guy to tuck you into bed before you go to sleep after only meeting him for a couple of days.

She was the one to break the silence first and say that her friend is coming over in a few hours or so. I nodded and said okay. Yet another uncomfortable silence which only ended when she went to make breakfast.

All of those 'silences' got me frightened. Frightened at the possibility that I had fucked up and that I would be put back into the streets once more. Like I did with Cody, I didn't let my fear show but I was still dealing with it.

What truly scared me was myself. What would happen if I did go back into the streets? Would I finally break? Would I lose it and never see the sunlight again? There would be, quite literally, nothing to lose.

Nevertheless, now being in the future and looking back on all of this, I see that what we all have to lose is our future and the heartwarming and important moments we're going to miss out on. I would have missed out on my love life with Nova. But we're not there yet.

Going back to the 'present', I recall trying to help Nova in the kitchen this time. Like giving her anything she needed to make the... Pancakes? I don't remember what she actually made that day. This was a few years ago. I'm surprised I remember half of this stuff.

Nonetheless, when Olivia came over to her house, it turned out that she came to practise her lines for a Romeo and Juliet play that was coming up. Olivia gave me dirty looks when she saw me and I only understood why a few days later. Regardless of these judging looks, I still helped her revisit her lines of character Juliet while I was Romeo. I made jokes along the way and Nova laughed but Olivia stayed silent with a stern face.

Before she left, Nova and Olivia talked in 'private' (to the maximum level of privacy that an apartment could give). I don't know what they talked about but I had a feeling it was about me.

During this top-secret conversation between them, I was reading that book I was reading before; Nova let me read it and keep it if I wanted to. They then said their goodbyes and closed the door; Nova immediately takes a deep breath and sighs.

Nova turned around to face me and we stayed in a muddy pool of silence again. This time it was followed up with a question asking if I wanted to go to Olivia's play with her the next day. I was slightly taken aback that the play was just the next day and that she would ask me to come. She said she got an extra ticket because she was a friend of someone on stage. I agreed to go but said that I didn't really have any clothes to wear to a play. I had 'indoor' clothes but didn't really have 'outdoor' clothes.

Her face was priceless and all she did was say: "You right." All that occurred for the rest of that day was shopping. I went with her and bought an outfit that fitted me. It was pretty easy to find the outfit since I was skinny.

I profusely thanked her over and over again because she was spending her own money on me, spending money on a homeless guy she 'never' met before. Consequently, she got slightly fed up with me saying thanks all the time. Then I started to apologise a bunch.

I didn't really know how else to behave back then. I hardly had any normal human interaction after college and the last time I ever had someone do this for me, it turned out worse for them (Mavi), I didn't want history to repeat itself. I was trying to be careful...

The outfit she ended up buying was a plain blue shirt and black jeans. Of course, we also bought a few pairs of black underwear but she just motioned me towards them while she went to look for shoes for me to wear. I truly felt guilty for making her buy me all of this stuff.

When we both got back and I tried out all of the new clothes, it almost made me tear up. It seems stupid now for crying over something so simple but I was living the dream back then. It took me back to when I was 14 and wished I had new clothes like everyone else. Sure, I had bought clothes for myself when I was in college but this was given to me. A simple thank you just isn't enough to tell her how much I truly appreciated it.

She must have seen me tear up because all she said was that she'll leave me to it before she went into her bedroom. I used those clothes for the rest of the day so when we went to Star Lucks, no one judged me or gave me weird looks. No walk of shame.

We decided to go to Star Lucks, not only to get something to eat and for me to try out my clothes, but also for me to meet Lyra, Nova's best friend. She thought, since I've met Olivia, I might as well meet Lyra. I was going to meet her anyway at the theatre but I guess the sooner the better. It also helped me find her at the theatre too.

During our conversation, she said that I looked familiar to her and, yet again, Nova agreed. I was in dangerous territory once more, especially when she started guessing my name. However, it became worse when she remembered me. She said nothing and kept quiet. All that was said was that she gave up trying to find my name but we both knew she knew who I was. And she knew that I knew that she knew.

When we left, said our goodbyes and walked back to Nova's apartment, Nova began asking questions about me. Questions like 'Where did you grow up?" and "What made you go homeless?" appeared. I knew I would have to tell her someday about my true identity but I didn't want to. Not yet. I continued giving half-answers and after a few questions she gave up. I understood she wanted to decipher me and know me but would it be better or worse for us both right now? Would she freak out? Or would she be happy to realise it's me? I didn't know.

We ate dinner together in an uneasy fashion and went to sleep after saying goodnight to each other. Yet another emotional and wild day. And the next day was about to be even worse.