audacity // kryoz

twenty-one

"I'm hungry," I say out loud to no one in particular.

"Late lunch on me?" John says to me.

I smile and turn to him, "Who am I to turn down free food?"

***

Spring.

The cold weather was just starting to let up and spring was upon us. Along with spring came my graduation (which was coming up very soon), my birthday and the obligatory spring cleaning I did every year.

That obligatory spring cleaning was exactly what I was doing. Since it was spring break, I had nothing better to do than a deep cleaning of my small apartment.

In my cleaning attire, which was a pair of shorts and a large t-shirt, I was vacuuming the living room rug. I had headphones in my ears and listening to my favorite piano piece, Claire de Lune. It was very calming and I tended to listen to it while cleaning. The music and the loud hum of the vacuum drowned out the noise of the door unlocking and opening behind me.

I was humming away to the tune of the song and turning around with the vacuum in tow when I jumped and nearly screamed. John was standing in my foyer watching me hum and vacuum. With a small smile, I turn the vacuum off and take the earbuds out of my ears.

"Do you enjoy sneaking up on people?" I ask John with my hands on my hips. A month or two back I gave John my spare key. He was coming over so often and he had become my best friend. I had no one else to give it to since Joy stopped answering my texts and phone calls. Ever since then he's been abusing that power and sometimes comes over unannounced. I'm not too keen on it but he's good company so I don't mind too much.

He smiles as he slips off his shoes, "No, just you,"

I nod a bit and answer sarcastically, "Ah, nice to know you enjoy the heart-attack I get every time you do,"

John walks forward, out of my foyer and into my kitchen. He opens my fridge and begins rummaging around.

"So you come to my house unannounced, just to eat my food?" I say in disbelief while abandoning the vacuum in the living room to walk to the kitchen. "I should take my spare key back," I mutter quietly to myself. As I spent more and more time with John over the past 6 months, I noticed that he is one hungry boy. It seemed like he was always eating. I have no idea where he puts it all.

"Well, I was hoping you some leftovers of that ratatouille you made the other day," He says into the fridge.

I laugh a bit to myself, he is truly spoiled. I walk over to him and push him a bit with my hips to get to the fridge he was blocking. I bend to reach one of the lower shelves and pull a large glad ware container that was filled with the food he was looking for. I closed the fridge and handed the cold container to him just before he hugged the life out of me.

"Thank you so much, there's nothing to eat at my house," Due to the uncomfortable position of my arms squeezed to my sides, I lifted my hand up and patted his back.

He loosens his arms around me and smiles sheepishly at me. He swiftly turns around and lifts the container into the microwave.

Lifting myself onto the island I begin to speak, "Speaking of your house, have you finally bought furniture yet?" He moved there a couple of months ago and his apartment is still not fully furnished. It bothers me to no end that he still doesn't have proper furniture. I have been over there a couple of times and each time I try to make the place to look a bit better with flowers and such but without furniture my efforts are futile.

Leaning on the stove below the microwave he answers, "I haven't bought much, just a couple of pieces here and there. I'm still looking for a couch though."

"Does this mean an IKEA trip?!" I answer excitedly as John groans. See the last time we went to IKEA we were in there for a solid 4 hours and both he and I walked out with sore feet and more than what we came for. "Come ooonn, I promise to not drag you through the entire store again, we'll go straight to the couches. Nothing more, nothing less,"

I watch John's eyes flit around the room and land upon my phone and headphones. "Hey, what were you listening to that you didn't notice me coming in?"

I look at him through narrowed eyes, "I know that you're trying to change the subject but I'll bite. I was listening to one of my favorite piano pieces, Claire de Lune."

He nodded sightly, "I don't think I've heard that one before,"

I knew he was lying since I've played it for him before but I didn't object to listening to it again so I disconnected my headphones and lifted my phone off of the counter. The song began to play and I turned the volume all the way up before placing it back onto the counter.

I closed my eyes and began to softly hum the tune. I couldn't get enough of this song. I love this song so much.

After the song was beginning to get into full swing, John begins to speak which makes me open my eyes, "May I have this dance malady?" John asks in a very bad English accent with his hand open for me to take.

I laugh for a moment before answering in an equally bad English accent, "Yes you may my good sir." I put my hand in his and he closes his ring-cladded hand around mine. As gracefully as I can manage, I slide off the countertop and put my bare feet onto the hardwood.

I feel him put one of his hands around my waist and the other stays clasped around my hand while lifted into the air. I lift my other arm to lay atop the arm on my waist. I felt his body hesitate which makes me look up and ask, "Do you even know how to waltz?"

I watch him sheepishly smile down at me, "No but it can't be too hard can it?"

I smile and say, "It's simple, just step in a box while slowly spinning,"

"What about you?" he asks

"You're the man so you lead, I just follow your steps,"

John begins to move, heavily concentrated on his feet and where they were stepping. After a few movements, I felt him get into a rhythm which caused me to smile at him.

My arm was getting tired from being lifted so I let his hand go and wrapped my arms around his neck giving him the silent cue to put the now empty hand around my waist. His hands dig into my lower back a bit pulling me closer to him, which I had no problem doing.

Our bodies were impossibly close while I laid my head on his chest. This somehow felt natural yet unnatural at the same time. I soon closed my eyes as I was enjoying the music and the slow twirling on the cold wood.

It wasn't long before the music ended but we were still slowly spinning.

I hated to ruin this moment but I had to. I was getting too comfortable, "John, the music stopped,"

A/N

didn't i say some cute shit was coming up? but don't worry there's more coming. much more. thx so so so much for 9k reads. ima be home for a couple of days so i wanna put another update out in those days. until next time. love u.