cats don't always land on their feet (soraru and mafumafu story)

2

after what felt like only a few seconds, i heard my phone ringing. though, this time it wasn't my alarm. i sighed and reached for my phone. it was my best friend calling me. i sighed heavily and answered the phone, "hello..?"
"SORARU????? MY GOODNESS I THOUGHT YOU DIED, IVE BEEN TRYING TO GET AHOLD OF YOU THE PAST HOUR..!" my friend yelled over the phone
"my gosh, mafumafu, do you need to be so loud...?" i complained holding the phone further from my ear.
"um? yes of course i do! i haven't heard from you even after calling you a thousand times! have you forgotten about the unit test today?! what have you been doing all morning?!"
"oh uh," i glanced at my clock which read 6:25am. I raised an eyebrow, "...no..? i haven't forgotten, i just uhh, i guess i overslept a little."
"'a little'? you fool! you promised me we would wake up extra early, at like, 5 o'clock! so we could review before school started! and now we hardly have any time!! you better get your lazy butt over here before i go to your house and drag you here myself!" mafumafu whined.
"yeah yeah, sure, i'll be there soon." i sighed and hung up before he could continue talking.

i got out of bed lazily and put on a baggy long-sleeve sweatshirt and some pants. i brushed my hair quickly, gathered my stuff, and headed out.

the sky was clear. hmm, the weather cleared up. it's turning out to be a nice day for once, but it is quite cold, i thought as i speed-walked over to mafumafu's house which was a couple of blocks away.

as i approached his house i saw him already waiting outside. he looked somewhat off today. i approached hesitantly, assuming he was mad at me for not waking up early. when he noticed that i was close to his house he ran to me. oh no, here it comes, i thought.
"hey! are we ready to head to the bus stop, now?" he arrived in front of me and smiled at me. i stared blankly at him, that was not the reaction i expected from him after that phone call.
"uh..." i didn't process what was asked since his question was not the one i prepared for.
mafu raised an eyebrow in confusion, "what's wrong?"
"hm? oh, nothing! i just thought you were gonna yell at me-" i laughed nervously.
"well, i was gonna, but i'm not actually that mad anyway. it's not like we actually would've gotten anything done," he laughed and put his hands in his jacket pocket, "we would've just been joking around the whole time."
i smiled, "yeah you're right."

the songs of the morning birds rang throughout the neighborhood as we walked towards our bus stop side by side, talking and laughing as we always do. every day seems to go this way, and i wouldn't have it any other way.
however, something felt a little too familiar, as though the exact events of that morning had happened before, or, something similar at least. i shook off the thought quickly though, not wanting to become paranoid.

after an incident that happened, mafumafu didn't like going anywhere alone. he always preferred me to be with him in everything we do, and i didn't entirely mind.

i tended to not like going out and doing things. i really valued having time to myself. however, being with mafumafu was just as valuable to me, if not even more. so even though i didn't like leaving the house, if i was with him, i always felt at home.

he and i had been best friends for as long as i can remember. our families got fairly close to each other as well, and we saw each other nearly every day growing up. we had so much in common growing up too, however, as we grew older we became more and more different. we became opposites in so many ways. we are kind of like a cat and a dog; where he was an adventurous cat who is always out and about, while i was a shy dog who'd rather stay home to sleep all day. although, we did have certain things in common, and since we had been friends for so long, we didn't even have to think twice about starting a conversation. we just understood each other, without even trying. he truly was the bestest friend i've ever known, and he meant the world to me. i always did everything in my power to make sure he's happy, and he always did the same for me. Even before the incident that happened with him, we were always doing things side by side. wherever he went, i went, whatever i did, he did. we were like two peas in a pod. the incident just made the small percentage of times we spent alone, become times we spent together now, except of course when we are at our own houses. every other time we go out, however, we cannot leave without the other person.

i felt pretty bad for sleeping in that day, it didn't feel right.

"h-hey maf-" i started but got cut off.
"if you're going to apologize, don't. like i said i'm not that upset anyway!" he smiled genuinely, "you know i'd tell you if i actually had a problem."

i nodded and looked down as we walked. even though he said it's fine i had a feeling it wasn't. he got up early expecting to get stuff done, and i let him down, again. i felt especially bad since he wasn't able to come to my place to see what was up. i know he probably tried to come to see me, considering he was outside his house already. but actually leaving on his own must have been far too difficult for him to actually do, so he just waited there.

as we walked we joked around and laughed as usual. however, it felt a little different this time. i couldn't tell if it was from me overthinking things, or if there was actually something bothering him. i tried to shake those feelings aside though.

we walked by the same streets as always. comforting and familiar. we passed by a hedge we always walked by. it had a fairly high ledge and the leaves from it stuck outside of the ledge a lot, making the platform of the ledge almost invisible. mafumafu stepped up onto it and balanced himself. the leaves of the bush made it hard for him to stand but he seemed unbothered.

"ah! careful mafu! there's not a lot of room to walk up there," i said to him.

he shrugged and continued walking at a faster pace than before, seemingly not caring if he lost his footing.
i held my hands out with caution so if he were to fall i could catch him.

he eventually stopped walking and jumped off the ledge. i gasped and held out my arms to catch him, but he landed swiftly on his feet with no issue, "sheesh, you gotta loosen up a bit, soraru."
i looked at him with a blank stare.
"hehe you really are a cat, aren't you?" i laughed slightly.
he nodded with a laugh and grabbed my wrist to continue walking. i was confused by what just happened, and it was an unusual thing for him to have done, especially after the incident, but i let it slide.

i had a growing pit in my stomach and i dreaded each step i took, but i couldn't tell why.

Sigh... we seem to have arrived at the bus stop, i thought. i did not want to go to class that day.

***

the city bus was packed with people, so, mafumafu and i had to stand and hold onto the railings at the front of the bus. we talked about our test the whole bus ride to school, or well, we tried to. it was very difficult for our conversations to stay on topic sometimes, for good and for bad.

i don't necessarily have the best balance, and every time the bus would turn or come to a stop, i nearly toppled over. this always gave mafu a good laugh. no matter what we were talking about, he would always put the conversation on pause just to make fun of how i looked while the bus was turning, and how i was holding on for dear life, trying not to fall over. sometimes he'd be laughing so hard he can't even explain the way i looked, so he'd try to recreate it, with very unnecessarily loud sound effects, causing me to start laughing as well. sometimes, even the grumpiest strangers on the bus would crack a smile from how contagious mafu's laugh was. he truly was a ball of sunshine.

***