Struck a Chord

Chapter 2

"You can wait if you want, I'm not gonna take long." I replied, shrugging a bit "it's up to you."

Rei paused for a second, thinking before finally replying. "I'll wait for you, I know how your dad is." She spoke each word with some form of sympathy, which I knew was unintentional on her end. I ended up giving her some forced half smile as I began silently walking towards the direction of my house, I heard her footsteps quicken as she tried to quickly join back by my side.

Overall the walk was rather quiet between the two of us, it was more of a comfortable silence than that awkward, uncomfortable silence most people have between themselves and someone else. Well, it would've been totally silent if Rei hadn't made a comment or noticed something every 3 steps we took. Her brain was like a hamster on drugs trying to figure out where to go next. "Oh yeah, I'm thinking of trying to talk to him, get his number or something!" She chimed, all giddy at the idea of it.
She's gone boy crazy.
"Oh?" I questioned "and how do you plan on doing that?" This got her thinking. She hadn't thought that far yet.
"I... well-" she paused "I didn't think about that." She finished, a little defeated.
I chuckled a bit and rolled my eyes. "I'll help you figure something out. It can't be that hard." I said, as we walked up the driveway of my house. "I'll be right back." I said, she nodded in response and waited outside the front door as I walked inside.
"Hey Mom, Rei is kidnapping me this weekend." I told her, causing her to laugh a bit at my greeting to her.
"Alright sweetheart, tell her dad I said hello!" She called from the kitchen. I smiked a bit, quickly walking upstairs to my room and going inside, I grabbed the usual things I always brought, clothes, phone charger, earbuds, laptop, laptop charger, and usual hygiene things, but I planned on bringing a hair brush too, not that I actually used the thing. I grabbed the bag the usually sat in the corner of my room, shoving these things into it as well as I could, before quickly flinging it over my shoulder and practically running out of my room and down the stairs. I bid my goodbye to my mother before meeting with Rei outside my house. She looked up from her phone, which I'm assuming she had been on to pass the time. She grinned and without a word, walked down the driveway, me following right behind. This was our usual routine, she would essentially lead the way to her house, despite me knowing the way by heart at this point.
The phone, that she was previously so entranced in while waiting for me, made a small chime. Rei practically squealed at the noise and quickly checked her phone with a wide grin on her face.
"Oh. My. God." She said, stopping dead in her tracks. I raised an eyebrow at this, this was usually something that happened when something she didn't think would happen, does. Thinking back to the last time we had a conversation along the lines of this type of situation, I looked at her.
"Which celebrities got married? Or had a kid? Or divorced? Or died?" I asked her, adjusting the strap of my bag as I stopped next to her.
"Not celebrity related, that Volleyball guy I like, just followed me! How did he find my account?!" She said quickly, staring at her phone which at this point was mere centimeters from her face. I gently grabbed her wrist and pulled it lower from her face, and thus, her phone away from her face. She looked at me and narrowed her eyes a bit. I stared at her.
"What?" I asked, genuinely confused on her sudden change in demeanor.
"Did you have something to do with this, Kota?" She asked, almost like she was trying to interrogate me for a crime I committed or something.
"Rei. I've been with you all day, how would I have done it?" I asked, dumbfounded at how... I don't wanna say stupid, but that's literally the only way I could even describe it. My counter question seemed to put her demeanor back to normal.
"Oh, yeah." She said, awkwardly laughing a bit at her own words. I rolled my eyes as she began walking again, I followed right beside her, so we were shoulder-to-shoulder.
"Oh, so my dad and I got you somethings, and i think you'll like them." She said, grinning. I looked at her in confusion.
"What? What do you mean?" I asked after almost a minute, I was suprised, did I miss my own birthday or something? Some sort of gift-giving holiday? I'm sure I would've known if I had. We finally reached her house, it was small, just big enough for her, her dad, and their 2 pets. A cat, an orange tabby, named Koi, and a Dog, a Golden Retriever, named Suchi. Why she decided to name her cat Koi, like the fish, is a mystery to everyone who knows her, and Rei herself. Rei practically ran to her house, bounding up the 3 porch steps, onto the covered porch, and waiting for me by the front door. I slowly followed, not wanting to run. It will forever be a mystery how this girl had so much energy... Constantly.