𝙰𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚈𝚘𝚞 ➳ [𝙻𝚎𝚘𝚗 𝙺𝚞𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙵𝚘𝚞𝚛: 𝙼𝚢 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐

"So," I began, "I blamed that all on Leon for nothing?" Kyoko wasn't able to say anything. I felt numb. We just sat in silence for a minute. The thing was, I wasn't angry. It took me until now to realize that I was letting all my anger out on Leon because I wasn't ready to lose him. It was all him. He was my good thing. "Fuck."

"I'm really sorry," Kyoko said. I could see how remorseful she felt in her eyes. "I just...I know how you feel."

"What?" I asked.

"Makoto is...the only one I can love," she said. She was beginning to tear up. "All my life I've had everything taken from me. My dad, my emotions, my control. Makoto is the thing in my life that's stable. My good thing. I've never had that. I'm able to open up to him instead of putting my emotions aside. I'm able to talk to him when everything goes wrong. I love him.

"But when you said what you said the other day, it just, I don't know, made me feel threatened, I guess. I couldn't lose him. I can't lose him. I don't know why I felt like you saying that would break us up for some reason, but it did feel like that. So while I was venting about a bunch of stuff to Makoto, Toko was in one of her weird moods and heard that Makoto and I were on a date. So, to try to save myself, I threw you under the bus. I really can't describe how sorry I am, but just know that I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you."

She was almost sobbing now. I had never seen Kyoko this way. She was emotional, raw. She was genuine, she felt just like me. I hugged her to comfort her, but I started crying too as I thought about what I'd said to Leon. I got up from her shoulder, and as soon as we looked at each other, we started laughing because of how ridiculous we looked crying.

"I forgive you," I said. Kyoko looked shocked.

"Really?" she replied.

"Yeah," I said. "But I know how you're going to make it up to me."

~—~

I ended up skipping school that day. So did Kyoko. We went straight to Donut Land and started cooking. We cooked wings, burgers, hotdogs, everything that Leon loves. We made cakes, macarons, and lots of cheesecake. We were making it up to Leon.

As we made everything, I thought about everything that happened. The way I screamed to his face about something I misinterpreted and blew out of proportion. I wouldn't do this with just anyone. I did it because I really, truly loved him. I knew that already. But recognizing this, how could I be sure he could forgive me? He could I be sure he still loved me? I couldn't think about it. Even if he didn't love me, I still had to do this. No matter how much it hurt.

We ran out of appliances, so we had to start making things with our bare hands. I was tired. Kyoko was tired. I didn't feel it. I felt like he couldn't love me after that. I felt hopeless. The roles had been reversed. I wanted to take the chef's knife and plunge it into my heart. You can do that after the party, I reminded myself.

We ended up with three cheesecakes, two vanilla cakes, god knows how many macarons, two-hundred chicken wings, fifty burgers, fifty hotdogs, ten pizzas, twenty huge pretzels, and still had enough ingredients to make whatever the hell he wanted. Everyone in the restaurant's eating free today, I thought.

"Heya!" said Aoi as she walked in with Sakura. "What's up?"

"We just finished cooking a dinner big enough to feed a small country," I said. I was partly serious. "Did you text Leon like I asked?"

"Yep!" replied Aoi. "He'll be here at four thirty, he said he's gotta do something before he comes."

"And you made sure to keep the party a surprise this time, right?" I asked.