Titi Iku: Until Death (Sequel To Irikuri)

8-Until Mitigation

Our flight from LAX departed at ten am, so naturally I was up by six o clock scrambling to get my shit together. Ade had told me before that you didn't need to get ready in advance for private flights, but I thrived on routine and order, unlike his wishy washy ass. There was a dull throbbing in my head from all my drinking and crying the night before as I shoved myself into a pair of sweats. I was sure I looked like I had been hit by a bus, but I didn't really care, so I grabbed my suitcases and made my way out of my room. When I was about to pick up my suitcases to take downstairs, they were snatched from behind me. Ade jogged down the stairs with them in hand before returning to take his own bags.

"Good morning." I said casually.

"Morning nki."

"I see you managed to pack your bags even though you held it off till the last second. Let's hope you didn't forget half of your shit."

"We're really gonna do this?"

"Do what ?"

"Act like nothing happened." he yanked me towards him and for a second I thought he was going to kiss me. He was so fucking confusing and I hated it. I thought he wanted to just be friends so I was moving on and giving him that, but apparently he didn't want that either! There was no way to win with him. I decided to ignore him and put my foot down. I refused to have my feelings played with.

"What happened?" I raised an eyebrow before pulling away from him.

"Wow. Okay, we're doing that. Fine. I did manage to pack my bags. I stayed up all night packing. I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep anyways since you weren't there..." I rolled my eyes so far they almost didn't come back.

"Welp. I bet you're tired. "

"I am. Extremely."

"How unfortunate. You need to get used to having your own room anyways." I tutted and dragged my suitcases to the Uber outside. I accepted the driver's help before sitting in the car, scooting as far away from Ade as I could possibly go. We made it through the airport and boarded his company's private jet with little to no conversation between us. The five hours in the plane were spent mostly in silence until we landed in New York. Because of the time difference, it was already evening by the time we arrived at our apartment. Since I was moving into my dorm the next day, I began checking to make sure all my things for college were packed. Originally I hated the fact that I was required to live on campus for my first year at Columbia, but after the what had happened the night before, I realized the dorms were a blessing in disguise. I decided to spend most of my time on campus and avoid Ade until he got over what happened. I sat back on the bed that I had never slept on before. Ade had insisted on giving me my own room since 'we' had the money, but at the time I was sure I'd never touch it because I always slept in Ade's room. Until today, I only stepped foot in this room to change clothes or listen to music when Ade and I had an argument. This was different from our previous arguments though. I wasn't mad, I was eerily calm, and Ade's fear because of that was palpable. Just as I began to think of him, a knock sounded on my door and he entered the room.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I've been weird today. Do you want takeout?"

"Sure. Can we get thai?" I ignored the first part of his statement.

"Already done. I ordered your usual if that's okay. I know you hate waiting for food once you're hungry. It should be here in five minutes."

"Thank you." We looked at each other for a second in silence before I patted the empty space on the bed next to me. "Do you want to watch anything?"

"Whatever you want is fine with me."

"Stop buttering me up."

"I'm not! I just...I just want you to be happy."