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30: Boys Over Flowers

When I got off at my stop, Yuma was still on. He was waved to me as I stepped off, and I nodded slowly in response. We hadn't talked much during the ride; he was just listening to music and casually reading the ads lining the train car.

I headed aboveground and grabbed the bus, riding it home and then heading in.

"I'm home!" I hollered, kicking my shoes off.

"Early today, aren't you?" I couldn't tell if my mom's holler back was sarcastic. I hoped she wasn't genuinely upset. It wasn't like her, but you never know.

I walked into the kitchen. She had her elbows propped on the counter, her face in her hands. A cookbook lay open in front of her.

"I was with Len and Miku," I said. "Time kinda got out of hand, I guess?"

She shrugged. I started walking towards her. "As long as you're not lying dead in the woods, cut into a bunch of pieces or in a bag, or both."

I stopped. "What?"

"I'm kidding!" She smacked me upside the head, gently, but hard enough to make me squeak. "Text me next time, kiddo."

"Right, right," I huffed. "That was disturbing."

"What was?"

"The thing you said," I didn't even want to repeat it. "The thing about me in the woods."

"Yeah, I guess it was kind of harsh, huh?" She stroked my hair. "Anyways, come here. Look. Help me decide."

She ushered my gaze towards the open cookbook.

"I can't decide what to bake," she said. "Choose one."

"Well, brownies are always good," I looked at the recipes. "Unless you really want to make a fancy cake...and there's only the two of us, so..."

"So..." She flipped the page suddenly, "I was thinking we could make cake pops and have a party!"

"It'd be just us," I said.

"Yeah, just the two of us," she smiled.

And so we spent the evening making cake pops, and brownies, too.

"School's just started, so the workload isn't so bad," my mom had said. "It'll be a lot more in a few weeks, and then you and I won't be able to spend as much time together anymore."

There was some loneliness in her eyes as she said that, I felt. Dad was never really around anyways, so I guess I was all she had, most of the time.

Len: thanks for helping today.

I got that text later in the evening, as I was getting ready for bed.

Gumi: it's nothing. We're friends, right?

Len: yeah...see you tomorrow, then?

Gumi: yeah. :) night.

"Here comes the cold, and with it comes fall! Fall's followed by winter! Cold and pretty, and I love bread!" Teto sang her improv, makeshift song as she marched towards the schoolyard. We had run into each other a few steps from my stop, and our conversation had led into the topic of colder winds and falling leaves. And bread, I guess, but that's always on her mind.

"It's still only September," I said. 

It had been a little over a week since school had started, and things weren't so bad. Pretty dull, in fact, though I was not exactly looking forward to my first tutoring session later today.

"Yeah, sure, it's still Septmeber, but while winter's still far away, fall's right here!" She spun around in a circle. I watched her, my eyes widening as her arm swung and hit a bypassing by, Oliver, I recognized, in the face. He stumbled back and I grabbed Teto, stopping her as his bag fell to the floor.