Why All The Choices That I Make Leave Me With Scars?

I Need A New Fixation, Open the Conversations

"I'm genuinely sorry about last night. I didn't mean to come on too strong , and my friends have continuously told me that I have a problem with coming on too strong, and I guess it's just an annoying quirk of mine. I can stop trying to make dinner for you if you want, and there is no need for you to apologize, as your reaction was completely justified! I'm really sorry again! "

- Harumi

Harumi left the note on the counter next to the door since he was likely to see it when he came in from whatever he did during the day. She then locked herself in her room out of dread. No, not worry of Lloyd himself, but the anxiety of what he would say or do. No, not that. Fear that he wouldn't do anything or say anything. He might ignore or burn the paper; maybe Harumi using his own strategy, would offend him into leaving and not coming back.

She started to think that maybe what they were like a few weeks ago was better than anything and hoped they could return to that. Much better than the looming dread of what would happen when he read the note. She began pacing around her room, or what was left of her little room, since most of its space was taken up by her desk and bed and other things she had brought from home that she didn't really need. (A small statue of gold of her that took up a corner.) She could hear the front door open and close at the usual time, which stopped her pacing and made her listen carefully to the footsteps outside in the hall. Another creak of a door opening and the slam after was enough for Harumi to know Lloyd was home and made her calm down.

"I wonder if he even saw it?" She shrugged and went to her computer, remembering that she told her coworkers to email her if they didn't know if the designs looked good and if she could fix them. It was nice to have a distraction as she was waiting, so she spent the rest of the evening working and sending help to her coworkers, full attention to the screen as she listened to Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane scream at each other about a game while she was on a call with Skylor, Nya, and Pixal. Well, it was mostly the other three yelling; Zane was relatively quiet as usual with the occasional "SHOOT HIM, JAY."

Before she knew it, it was nine-twenty, and she felt really hungry. Realizing that she'd have to leave her room to get food, she creaked open her door. Typically she would have eaten by now, as she liked to do it before Lloyd came back from whatever he was doing, most likely working, so she never left her room past at least seven unless she needed the bathroom or decided that she wanted a late-night shower. Luckily, Lloyd never seemed to leave his room at night either, so it appeared that she was in the clear. She tried creeping into the kitchen, not wanting to turn on any lights and have the chance of waking Lloyd up before his precious six am. She took out the Sushi from last night and noticed the amount was noticeably smaller than yesterday.

" At least I know he likes it ." She thought to herself. It wasn't that big of a win to an average person, but it was definitely a big win for her.

Harumi took one of the two glass plates that they owned and put the pizza in it from another night before sticking it in the microwave and leaning against the counter, waiting for the timer to go off.

She hadn't thought of turning on the light, so the little bulb inside the microwave was her only light source in the dark kitchen.

Harumi opened the microwave door a second before the timer went off to not make so much noise, fearing that she'd disturb Lloyd, who would probably not be in an excellent mood by being woken up (if he even slept real early) at nine-thirty pm.

Unfortunately, Harumi's lousy attempt at keeping quiet proved useless, seeing as in the next five seconds, her life would flash before her eyes: the light flicked on, followed by Lloyd's voice saying, "What are you doing in the dark?" and scaring her so bad that she jumped, and dropped the plate against the counter, causing pieces of glass to break off as she descended to the ground. A risky attempt to save herself from falling proved useless as she scratched her arm on the glass and hit the ground, dropping the plate entirely and grabbing her arm. She could notice that Lloyd was kneeling on the floor next to her, looking with a worried expression.