Individual

Chapter 18

Kay went to an arcade.

Julian's confession had messed with her brain so much that she wasn't able to think properly the rest of the day and the next. And the answer she still owed him—she didn't know what it was herself.

She'd always liked going to arcades, but she rarely had any money to. But today, after many hours of pleading and telling her pity story to Andrew, her brother had finally given her a few notes to spend, claiming that it was under her 'birthday money'.

She hadn't ever extorted money from her brothers, she was testing out her acting skills for fun, and didn't actually expect him to give in. And now that she'd gotten the money, she decided to reward herself for her great acting and distract her mind from the whole Julian issue.

Maybe she'd figure out her answer after playing.

As she entered the arcade, she slowly got used to the loud music inside, wondering how such a place was still open late at night. It was noisy and full of loud teenagers. She was a teenager, too, but she was alone with no one to talk to, thus no reason to add to the chaos.

Kay wove in and out of the crowd, finally managing to get an empty space to herself and leaned against the wall for a breather. She glanced around to see if there were any games that was interesting, and a bunch of people next to a basketball game caught her eye.

She inched closer to the game, hoping that the group of teenagers would leave that area soon. She didn't have to wait long, for almost all the guys in the group walked off, leaving a fuming girl on her own.

The girl was about to punch the wall in her anger, but Kay reached there in time to grab onto her arm, pulling out her dollar bills with her free hand. She beckoned to the basketball game and the girl agreed to play after staring blankly at Kay for ten seconds.

When the game ended, the girl looked at Kay and remarked, "You're good at this."

Kay could barely hear her over the noise in the arcade, and resorted to yelling a "thanks" as loud as she could. She saluted to the girl as a way of saying goodbye, and headed for the exit, realising that she shouldn't have come to such a chaotic place by herself.

Kay stepped out of the arcade, breathing in the cool night air in the street. She was just about to proclaim her appreciation for the peace and quiet of the deserted roads when someone tapped on her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her skin.

She whipped her head around in shock, coming face to face with the girl from inside the arcade. Kay placed a hand over her heart dramatically. "You scared the shite out of me."

"Sorry," the girl answered casually. "Thanks for playing that round with me. My friends—"

"Ditched you, right? I saw that," Kay blurted out. She slapped a hand over her mouth, a pained look crossing her features. "Ah, wait... I didn't mean it that—"

"It's all right," the girl said, a smile breaking onto her face. She paused for a moment. "I like you."

Kay choked on her spit. "Sorry, what?"

"Not that kind of like! What I meant was that I like your straightforwardness," the girl said. "I didn't know you'd react that badly, or I'd have rephrased it."

"Ah, no, that wasn't your fault," Kay hurriedly said. "I just had someone confess to me a few days ago, and I'm not over it yet..."

"Oh... well, it takes time to fully accept that you're dating someone. I felt like that for a week when I started going out with my first boyfriend," the girl said thoughtfully.

"First? How many boyfriends have you had?" Kay asked.

"I don't exactly keep count, maybe twenty or so? I got my first boyfriend in year eight."

"What the bloody hell..." Kay murmured. "How old are you now?"

"Seventeen," the girl replied immediately, "year twelve."

"Seriously?!" Kay said, her eyes bulging out of their sockets. "I'm in year twelve, too, but I haven't had a single boyfriend yet..."

"It's cool," the girl told her, slinging her arm around Kay's shoulder. She was a good maybe twenty centimetres taller than Kay, but her shoes added about ten more centimetres to her height. "My brother's nineteen and he's still a virgin."

"You have a brother?" Kay asked, as the two of them began to walk in the direction of a nearby fast food place.

"Yeah." The girl stopped at the side of the road and turned back to look at Kay. "Come to think of it, I don't even know your name."

"Right..." Kay said. "I don't know yours either."

"Great! Let's do a self-introduction." The girl wasn't looking at Kay as she said, "I'm Olivia."

"Oh," Kay said, new to such an laid-back introduction. "I'm Kay."

"'K'? Like the alphabet?" Olivia asked.

"K-a-y. Short for 'Kaydence'."

"Cool. So, what are you? I don't mean it in an offensive way, like what is your..."

"Ethnicity?" Kay supplied.

Olivia snapped her fingers. "Yes! That's the word, thanks. I suck at long words."

"Japanese."

"Cool," Olivia said, dragging the vowel.

They entered the fast food place and sat at a table. Olivia took Kay's order and went ahead to buy the food, claiming that she was paying Kay back for that one game they played in the arcade.

"And for accompanying my lonely arse," she added with a smile.

Even though Olivia's face was obviously made up, Kay felt as if she'd seen that face before, or a similar face. And it wasn't a once-off kind of thing; she thought that she was familiar with that face. But Olivia... that name didn't ring a bell. She brushed it off.

"It's cool."

~

Kay had exchanged numbers with Olivia, wondering how in just a month she'd gotten three more contacts, when she'd been stuck with merely six contacts for the last five years.

But as she checked Olivia's incoming message about their next meet up, she was hit by the reality that she still hadn't given Julian her answer to his confession. She plucked up her courage and clicked on his number in her messaging app, and her fingers hovered above the keypad as she attempted to formulate a nice, but true answer.

Me: Hey, Julian. I'm sorry but I don't feel the same way.

"No!" she exclaimed, hastily backspacing the message. "It's too brutal!"

She repeated the typing and deleting multiple times, until she got a slightly feasible answer. She didn't like it anymore than she did the rest, but it was the best she could come up with. And she had to give him an answer fast.

Me: Hey, Julian. You're a great friend and all, but I'm not ready for a relationship right now. [21:45]

She finally sent it, and exhaled deeply as she fell backwards against her pillow. Julian's reply was instant, as usual, but it still didn't fail to surprise Kay out of her bed.

Julian: It's all right. I'll wait until you're ready. [21:45]

"... What the bloody hell does that mean?" Kay muttered.

***

Author's note:

Thanks for 300+ reads and for voting! ❤❤