Ocean Scars

Explanation | 7

I took deep breaths in and out as I placed my hands on my knees. "Hah.." Kenta panted. He wiped the sweat starting to bead on his forehead. Eventually, I soon composed myself and started breathing normally. "Dang. We're lucky he was just an old man or else we would've been dead meat." I look at him with an 'are you serious?' look.

"Are you out of your mind?!" I hit Kenta on his shoulder. "Ouch!" He flinched. He rubbed his shoulder and pouted at me. "You should be thankful that we're even here!" He said. "Thankful? What if the security guard saw my face and snitched?!" I shouted. Kenta sighed as he shook his head.

"Calm down, Summer. The last thing we need right now is for both of us to be arguing with each other." Kenta tried to reassure me. I rolled my eyes and turned away. A few seconds pass by as I finally give in to talk to Kenta again.

"So what's up with that, 'I don't smoke, my friends do' act?" I asked him. Kenta sighed. "Listen it's..." Kenta paused. I turned to look at him but once again he couldn't even look me in the eyes. "...complicated." He finished. "Complicated? I'm pretty sure what I saw this morning was very not complicated in my eyes." I told him.

"No, you don't get it, Summer." Kenta said. "Then explain it to me." I sternly told him.

Kenta looked a bit uncomfortable but I could tell he really wanted to open up to me. "When I was younger..I had a pretty bad childhood. My mom used to drink and smoke a lot around me and it really influenced me. Ever heard of second-hand smoke? That's pretty much the base of it. But other than that, I got really addicted to it but a year ago I quit..well I tried to. When I came back to Okinawa this summer, all my childhood friends were drinking, smoking, having sex and I felt like i didn't belong. I didn't like feeling like I didn't belong at all I mean, those two guys that you saw this morning who came up to be where the ones who stayed by my side when things got rough. I was in a really dark place when I was younger and those two were the ones who kept me from..." Kenta paused. I could see he was trying to hold back his tears but they eventually slowly trickled down his cheeks. "..I had never done any of the other things my friends had, I swear to you. I only smoke because that's the one thing I know im capable of but..look at where I'm at now. I've been trying to stop but it's really hard. My dad still doesn't know that I smoke and so doesn't my step-mom. But if it makes you happy, I try extra hard." He looked at me with his weary sunken honey eyes and smiled. "Step-mom?" I asked him.

"My biological mom killed herself." Kenta said. "Oh, I'm sorry-" I tried to say but he shook his head. "No, don't be sorry. I never really liked her anyway. But of course, she was my real mother but I really do... fucking hate her guts." In that last sentence, I could really feel the strain in the back of his throat as if he wanted to say that out loud. I sighed.

"Look, Kenta. I'm really sorry. "I was a fool for getting too emotional about it. I just have some bad experiences too and I couldn't just leave the situation unbothered." I admitted. I felt as if a cat had scratched my throat.

I took his hands and held them in mine while I stared up at him. "I accept your apology." I smiled whole heartedly. He smiled back and then suddenly pulled me into a hug. Then there it was again, that same sweet smell of the plant near my room. Very comforting.