Chasing Destiny

Budding Friendship

"Like the Demon?"

Finn chuckled. "Yeah, like the Demon."

There was a silence that fell over us at that moment. Neither one of us made any notion to speak, we just looked at one another. I could feel myself slowly getting lost in his blue eyes when his hands moved to scratch at his jaw. He looked away shyly as he did that, breaking the trance we both were in.

"So, uh... got anyting else today?"

I shook my head. "No, nothing else."

Finn made eye contact with me again, a slightly more confident look in his eyes. "Well then, how 'bout you join me for dinner? I'll pay."

I looked at the watch sitting on my right wrist and saw it was just after five p.m. I wasn't super hungry, but how could I say no? Free food? Always say yes.

"Why not?" I said as I shrugged. We walked out of the building and I noticed Finn walking to his red Mini Cooper. My black 2013 Veloster was a few cars in the opposite direction.

"Uh, Finn?"

"Yeah?" He turned around, almost at his car.

"We didn't talk about where we were going to eat."

"Oh..." Finn rubbed at his neck. "Well.. uh... I kinda figured dat you would join me in my car and we would figure it out once we got in..."

I felt my cheeks slightly heat up.

"Oh... ok."

I started walking to his car and got in the passenger side. Finn started the car and pulled out his phone. "So, whatchya in the mood for today?"

I sat and thought for a moment.

"I haven't had good ramen in a bit."

"I know the perfect place."

...

Thirty minutes later, we were sitting at JINYA Ramen Bar. Both of us were silent as we looked at the menu and ordered. I'm not sure if it was a good idea or not for me to have ordered us a bottle of their sake, but I'm sure an Irishman can hold his alcohol.

After the waiter brought us the sake, I poured a cup for each of us and raised mine.

"Kampai," I said.

Finn smiled and raised his cup. "Kampai."

We finished at the same time and made eye contact, catching us both off guard. For some reason, I found this funny and started laughing. Finn chuckled as he poured us both another cup.

"So, Ivy," Finn said as he finished pouring my cup, "Sami and I were lookin' at your Wikipedia page a few weeks ago, and I've been wonderin'. Why'd you choose ta go black? I mean, it looks great on ya, but the red did too."

I looked at my cup for a moment. "I needed a change in appearance. That red hair I grew up with was something I never really liked about me. So when I decided to rebrand myself, I decided to go black. Plus I was going through a few things and listening to some really emotionally heavy music at the time. Got some piercings and really just embraced the whole look, ya know."

Finn nodded. "Meetin' ya a few days ago, I wouldn't of pegged ya as a gothic type."

"Emo," I corrected him. "I was heavily into that genre and just that whole world at the time. I mean my entrance music was I Don't Care from Folie à Deux. Being closed off worked at the time, plus my attitude wasn't really the best, so being this bitchy character who could care less what everyone thought about her was a sort of release for me. I probably came off more punk than anything else, but it worked."